4 port DVI-USB KVM Switch with four USB/DVI Cables

by Belkin

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 14.2 x 5.5 x 10.2 inches ; 6.3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001BTWSLI
• California residents: Click here for Proposition 65 warning.
• Item model number: F1DD104L
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #74 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > External Components > KVM Switches
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 22, 2003

Product Description

BELKIN F1DD104L SOHO DVI & USB KVM Switch. Newly redesigned SOHO KVM, share a monitor, keyboard, and mouse with up to four USB computers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great product - Outstanding value!, August 9, 2009

By 

Budbertzerofluff - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 4 port DVI-USB KVM Switch with four USB/DVI Cables (Personal Computers)

Just got one of these to replace an unreliable old IOGear CS1764 that was Single Link, had only USB 1.1 support, like to 'hang' occasionally (usually at the worst possible times), and had no "USB memory".

The Belkin was less than half the price of a comparable new IOGear/ATEN unit and works flawlessly so far. This was really one of those "feel good" purchases where you wonder if the product is going to be any good based on being less than half the price of the cheapest alternative. When you get it and it really works, you get one of those "boy, did I find a good deal" feelings. This really is a steal at the price.

I like the fact that the DVI/USB and the Audio cables are physically separate. I have no use for the audio switching.

My only nit (and I'm extremely picky) is that the User Manual doesn't tell you how to mute the "beep" that the unit makes when you switch between systems using the Hotkey sequence. My old IOGear CS1764 could do this via a hotkey configuration sequence. I'm in a sound-critical environment and I need to do this. I'll change my rating to 5 stars when Belkin Support tells me how to mute the beep (I have a support e-mail in).

One thing to be aware of is that the included cables are Dual Link DVI (duh!). If you have any systems that don't have Dual Link DVI output (I have an old iMac that only has a Single Link DVI out), you're going to need an adapter for those systems. Dual Link cables can't plug into Single Link sockets because the Dual Link cables have extra pins that the Single Link sockets don't have holes for. Fortunately I have the Single Link DVI cables from my old IOGear that I could reuse for this one system.

----- 5 STARS! (why won't Amazon let me update the star rating?)

OK, I figured out how to enable/disable the beep. It's [Hotkey] + [Hotkey] + B

Interestingly enough, this KVM advertises itself on USB as a "Combo Free KVM" with a USB OEM Vendor ID of 0x10d5 (Uni Class Technology Co., Ltd). [...] - This showed some addition configuration key sequences available. The two from this list that I found that work are Enable/Disable Beep and Auto Scan.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Does just what it should, and does it well, November 18, 2009

By 

GadgetDon (West Des Moines, IA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 4 port DVI-USB KVM Switch with four USB/DVI Cables (Personal Computers)

Love this thing. I've got a Mac Mini, a PC, and an iMac second screen all hooked up to the same monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

Nice big buttons make it easy to switch from device to device. (Look at the customer images - no idea why the "official" image is an ethernet cable). You can switch monitor/mouse/keyboard and audio separately, so you can hear alerts or "I'm done" tones. Much prefer buttons to keystrokes to memorize, though it has keystrokes as well.

Warning - cats on desk can switch computers on you. There have been a few times when I thought my computer had just somehow shut off - when it was just the cat switching to the unused device.

I've only used it for connecting DVI video connections on computers to a DVI connection on a monitor.

One note - included cables have the four pins on the vertical bar on the DVI connector (DVI-I Dual Link, which includes the analog RGB connectors). The DVI adapter for my iMac didn't have the pins (making it DVI-D, no analog RGB connectors). I had to get a DVI-D cable to replace the included cable for the iMac, solved all the problems. Search Wikipedia for Digital Visual Interface for pictures that make it nice and clean.

One more thing - it has a couple extra USB connectors that can switch along with the KVM. I've got a Belkin Nostromo N52 gamepad that I use for gaming, and it works like a champ.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't do what it says on the box!, January 5, 2010

By 

A. Parker - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 4 port DVI-USB KVM Switch with four USB/DVI Cables (Personal Computers)

I purchased this KVM to share a new Samsung T260HD 26in HDTV/monitor (Christmas present, and excellent!) between an older Dell desktop and a new HP laptop, driving the monitor at its native resolution of 1920x1200. Both computers work fine with the monitor at this resolution when directly connected. However, put the Belkin SOHO KVM in the middle and the story changes.

For my HP laptop (with Intel GMA graphics) no image is displayed, and the monitor gives a message "mode not supported". For my Dell desktop (Radeon 9550 graphics card), as soon as I changed up to the higher resolution, the image would flicker onto the screen for a fraction of a second, every few seconds. Later on (and I have no idea what changed), the image would at least stay on the screen, but with a number of random pixels constantly flickering on and off. Sometimes there would also be a thin white line right across the middle of the screen. Even at 1600x1200 I had pixels flickering, with 1280x1024 being the highest resolution giving a stable image.

I spoke to Belkin tech support, who at least are always easily available for free, answering the phones quickly (and in the past have happily helped me with Belkin router questions, even with a product several years old).

I suspect Belkin have downrated the capabilities of this product, presumably due to this kind of technical problem. The manual that shipped with my KVM (copyrighted 2008) stated a maximum supported resolution of 2560x1600. At the time of writing, the spec sheet at www.belkin.com/PDF/SOHO_final.pdf says the same (I suggested they fix it!); however the online version of the manual states 1920x1200. Belkin tech support also insisted this lower number was the maximum supported resolution - and even tried to suggest I might be having problems because I was using this device at its maximum capabilities, while denying it ever supported a higher resolution!

After confirming I'd already gone through all the troubleshooting steps, they agreed the product must be defective, and offered to replace it under their warranty replacement terms, which involve me paying to ship the defective unit back to them. Although this is not unreasonable say with a 9-month old, used but under warranty product, I do not expect to be out of pocket when dealing with a defective, dead-on-arrival item. By this point I'm also losing confidence in the product. So it's now on its way back for a refund.

Other things to note about this product? The four supplied 6-foot combined DVI/USB cables seem to be excellent quality, if thickness of cable is anything to go by - although as noted by others, the connectors are DVI-I, so won't fit into DVI-D sockets (search for DVI in Wikipedia if you aren't sure of the difference). Interestingly, there is a note in red on the belkin.com product page stating "cables now come included in the box" and I do WONDER if they started to supply their own high-quality cables to try to minimize the technical problems with this box, which could be exacerbated by lower quality cables. Just a thought...

The box itself is very lightweight, and really needs to be heavier not to be dragged off the back of one's desk by all those heavyweight cables plugged in! Oh and then there are those weird large, black, round switches on the front, to select the input ports. They are rubber! Press one on one side and the monitor and USB switches to that port; press the other side and the audio switches (so you can listen to a CD playing on one computer while working on the other). Press in the middle and everything switches. They feel very cheap. And rather annoyingly, each switch has two VERY BRIGHT white LEDs to indicate the selected ports. If like me your desk is in the corner of your bedroom, this is very irritating at night. Why some manufacturers are using the newer kind of high light output LEDs intended for flashlights in good old-fashioned indicator LED applications beats me.

For me, the best thing about this product is the supplied cables. A pity, as I did want a working KVM as well!