Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

First, this KVM switch is larger than I expected. This is not a bad thing, just a surprise. Somehow I thought it would be about half the size it actually is. The product description says how big it is, but somehow the picture made it look smaller. Not a problem, just a surprise.

This is a great KVM. I have had a few KVM's before and all had problems like crazy port configurations where wires are coming out from all of the device. Or so small and light that they will not lie flat when wires are plugged in. Or came without the wires necessary to hook it up ending up costing too much after buying the wires. This KVM has none of those problems.

Overall this is the best home KVM I have ever seen. I have three computers plugged into it, two mac's and one pc, and it works fine. Further the monitor is generic, the keyboard came from a pc, but the keyboard is a mac keyboard, and it all just works. I work in a home office and have both home and office equipment on my desk and being able to map it all to one big screen is fantastic.

The only think I would change is the "beep" that the KVM makes when you switch between computers. I have no idea why Belkin felt the need to make the device beep, it serves no purpose other than to be annoying. If Belkin could fix that I would say this device is perfect. Even with that problem I still give this product 5 stars.

If you need a KVM swtich, spend the money, get the Belkin. It is awesome.

I've been looking for a DVI KVM that could handle high resolution and supported at least three computers. All of the ones out there were very expensive. The cheapest one was this Belkin and it does a wonderful job.

It's compatible with every computer I own that has a DVI connector. It comes with DVI cable with a USB (which is used for each computer's keyboard, mouse, and USB peripherals), and audio/mic connectors. All of the connectors on the Belkin and the included cables are standard.

One annoyance is that the cabling is for DVI-I which includes the four extra pins to support VGA over DVI connector. What's painful is that none of my laptops support DVI-I and so the included DVI cables won't work (unless I want to somehow snip the four unused pins that prevent the connection).

This Belkin also supports shared USB peripherals and so I hooked up my printer to the switch. This works out better for me than using a computer as a printer server for USB peripherals. Much easier to print from a mac or Windows PC that way.

The nicest thing about this Belkin is the monitor support. I've had lots of problems with other DVI KVM switches, where certain brands of laptops mixed with certain OSs resulted in a blank screen.

The Belkin has big round buttons in front, one for each computer. You can press the edges of the buttons to just switch audio or video/keyboard/mouse, or the center to switch both. It also supports the usual hotkey switching if you are into that. I found the buttons big enough, that I keep the KVM under my desk and use the tip of my shoe or my toe to do the switching.

So in the short, the Belkin works great and at $200 cost the least.

I bought this expecting it to support 2560x1440 Dual-link DVI. It does not. Sometimes it tries... briefly. But it is not at all usable for true Dual-link applications. The cables are dual-link. It passes through correct DDC information, so your computer will think there is a dual-link monitor attached (2560x1440 in my case). But the display will usually be blank. I tried it with a Mac Pro and with a ThinkPad laptop. Both successfully worked reliably with the monitor (a 27" iMac, connected through an Atlona AT-DP400) 'directly', but when connecting through the KVM... not so much. Just ordered a Startech SV431DVIUAHR. Look for my review on that over on that product's web page soon. I thought this one would work, and the 'included' cables pushed me over the edge to choose this one first. Bad choice. Do not buy if you need true Dual-link DVI support.

I spent a lot of time reviewing DVI/USB 4 port KVMs. Most received poor reviews, or are made by companies that I have had issues with some of their other equipment.

I have always favored Belkin products, and this one has proven that Belkin makes quality products. I know that Belkin products are not the cheapest, but they offer quality, durability, and always work as advertised. To me, this justifies the extra cost.

This KVM came with enough cables to support four systems, and everything worked correctly after setup. It is supporting two desktops running Win7 hooked to a 22" monitor running high resolutions and refresh rates, no issues.

I recommend this product and feel that you will be happy with it.

I bought this because of the DVI capability. And that's the feature that suddenly stopped working 3 months in. The USB keyboard and mouse continue to work through the switch, but the monitor stopped receiving signal from all 3 of the computers that were hooked up to it. And when I connected the monitor directly to each computer, it worked, so there is definitely nothing wrong with the monitor itself or the computers. I do not recommend this product at all.

This switch is replacing a much more expensive iogear switch that died a slow and painful death and left the very heart of my multi-computer setup broken and nonfunctional.

So far, this thing works perfectly and, bonus, it uses the same cable connections as the iogear so I didn't even have to swap out the mess of cables snaking around my desk. The only downside is that I don't see a way to switch the USB separately from the keyboard and video. I don't always want to switch the USB because I sometimes have devices like a Wacom tablet or USB drive working in the background. Aside from that, it works exactly as promised with no glitchiness. Works great with my Microsoft wireless keyboard and all of the special keys seem to work just fine.

In the past, I used Aten and D-Link KVM Switches, and I faced many problems with them. After those problems, I decided to choose this high quality brand, and this model was the KVM Switch that I sought. I have never faced any problem with this KVM switch, and it is really the most excellent KVM Switch that I have seen. I strongly recommend this product if you will buy a USB KVM Switch and if you don't want to face any problem.

This KVM switch also contains everything that you need. For example, you will notice that it has 4 DVI and USB cables for computer connections and 4 audio and mic cables for sound card connections.

One other beautiful feature of this KVM switch is that you can switch computers connections and audio connections independently. For example, you can use your 1st computer while you listen to music from your 2nd computer. When you need to hear the sounds of the 3rd computer, you can switch the sound connection to 3rd computer using the hotkey or the button of the KVM switch while you continue to use your 1st computer.