StarTech.com 4-Port Dual DVI USB KVM Switch with Audio (SV431DVIDDU)

by StarTech

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 6.4 x 7.6 inches ; 2.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0015DWJM8
• Item model number: SV431DVIDDU
• Average Customer Review: 1.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 4, 2008

Product Description

This 4 Port Dual DVI USB KVM Switch allows four PCs, each with dual DVI displays, to share two monitors, one microphone (and set of speakers), one keyboard and one mouse as well as two other USB peripherals. An ideal solution for graphic designers, CAD/CAM designers or educational and financial institutions, the Dual DVI USB KVM Switch allows you to instantly switch back and forth between PCs at the touch of a button while maintaining professional level video quality on both DVI monitors, in turn saving money by eliminating redundant peripheral purchases.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your money!!!! Doesn't work!!, March 18, 2009

By 

C. Palmer - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: StarTech.com 4-Port Dual DVI USB KVM Switch with Audio (SV431DVIDDU) (Personal Computers)

We purchased two of these units for work and also purchased matching Startech DVI cables to go with them. Upon opening the box, the units looked much better than expected. We have never had any Startech equipment and we weren't sure what to expect. The products looked to be quality built and didn't look cheap at all. My friend and I each started the difficult task of disconnecting all of our computers and connecting them to the new KVM switches.

My friend was the first to get his computers hooked up and powered them on. His primary monitor was displayig colored pixels. They were red, green and blue and scattered all over the screen. I finished hooking up my machines and powered them on. I had the same issue. After going through trying different cable combinations, we discoverd the bad item was the startech DVI/USB combo cables. They couldn't handle the higher monitor resolutions. If we lowered our resolutions, the picture displayed fine, but then we had the grainy looking images because the resolutions were lower than the monitors liked. We replaced the combo cables with separate monitor/usb cables. They were the Samsung cables that came with our monitors. Everything worked fine at the point. The secondary monitor cable by Startech that wasn't a combo cable also seemed to work fine with the setup.

After getting that problem resolved, we thought we were set. We started using the machines and then we ran into another problem. We would be typing and as soon as we stopped typing, the last letter that we had typed would just continue repeating itself. If we hit escape it would stop. We thought it might be an issue with using wireless USB keyboards, so we went ahead and swapped them out for plain hard wired USB keyboards. At first, it worked fine, but it wasn't long before the problem showed up again. There aren't many options for 4 port KVM switches that handle dual DVI monitors, so we decided to try to live with it. After a couple of days though, we are at the point where it's just too annoying. I wasn't able to use CTRL shortcuts because it would just start typing the letter of the CTRL shortcut. I couldn't use underscores without it going crazy. We did find that if you move the keyboard over to the USB hub ports that are on the KVM, it doesn't have the problem. The downsides to that are you completely lose your hot key functionality and each computer has to re-discover the keyboard each time you switch.

I just contacted tech support via their online chat. The response that I got was it's a known issue with the CTRL keys. Their solution was to use the USB hub ports as we had found out for ourselves and to live with losing the hot keys and dealing with the re-discovery issue. I mentioned that I didn't think it was right to be paying $360 for a KVM switch and to lose functionality that is clearly advertised on the box. It also states that there is a 1 year warranty on the box. However, tech support replied that they couldn't guarantee a working unit. I told them that I would return the product if they couldn't come up with a solution for me. I was then instructed that returning the product would probably be my best course of action. Their tech support was polite during the conversation, but it definitely was not a satisfactory resolution. So, now we'll be removing all of our cabling and sending the units back.

I just hope that you read this review before you waste all the time and money that we did trying to get a working unit. I can't believe they are selling a product that they know does not work.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Intermittent Issues with Repeating Characters, December 24, 2009

By 

Dr. Fred S "drfreds" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: StarTech.com 4-Port Dual DVI USB KVM Switch with Audio (SV431DVIDDU) (Personal Computers)

I have had mine for over 6 weeks. I have sometimes the problem with repeating characters described in the other review. I just have a regular PS/2 keyboard that I connect to the console port thru a PS/2-to-USB adapter. I found the product specs were somewhat misleading, too, because on [...] website the specifications listed the device as supporting DUAL-LINK DVI (dvi-d). However each DVI port is really only single-link (dvi-i). [...] I contacted the vendor and support was quick in responding but they admitted the specs are wrong. The specs are still wrong on the vendor website. The only KVM switch that supports Dual-Link resolutions is SV431DVIUAHR, but that is single monitor only. I run both monitors at 1920 x 1080 and at that resolution the displays are crisp and sharp. My cables are 6ft DVI-D (BEI-DVDB-2MM) but as noted above, the dual-link is not really necessary. I can only hope that they eventually come out with a firmware upgrade that fixes the repeating character problem. If I type just a little slower I find it doesn't happen as much. Other than that complaint it seems OK.