STARTECH.COM DS152 2 Way HDDB15 VGA Switch

List Price: $20.25 Discount Price: $10.71

Features:

• Startech.com
• 2 to 1 Manual VGA Video Switch

Customer Reviews:

Complete garbage [Posted on 2007-08-05]
Tried to use this item, and one screen was fuzzy. Yes, I tested it with different cables and monitors and it was definitely because of the switch. Exchanged the item for another, which had a similar problem, tinting the entire display screen blue. Not wanting to waste my time sending it back, I played with it for a while to make sure it was a defective switch. It was. Buyer beware.

Startech VGA switch [Posted on 2007-10-11]
Suits my purpose just fine. (two PCs sharing one monitor) Some times have to wiggle the switch a bit to get a good picture when flipping from one PC to the other but then don't have to touch it again. Had a little bit of ghosting at first but either I got used to it or it went away. Well worth the price. Case is a bit flimsy but not a problem.

Works but not well [Posted on 2008-01-03]
I put two screens off one PC which is what I wanted to do but....Lots of shadows, reflections, double images. Very poor image quality supported by this. What do you want for $20. Expected.

Works great for me. [Posted on 2008-01-26]
I read all the other reviews before I bought this device. They seem to be about 50/50 positive/negative. I decided to take a chance, since it's the very cheapest option. And the next level up in sophistication for this kind of thing was over $70.

What came in the box is indeed slightly different from what's shown on this page. (Hence my rating of 4 stars instead of 5.) The A/B labels printed on the front of the box are in black, not blue. And the back of the box also has inputs for two PS/2 devices to be switched, making this more of a KVM switch than just a vga switch.

But I bought this device just so I could take one output from my computer, and connect it to two different displays. And it works perfectly for that purpose. I haven't had any complaints about ghosting or trouble switching. The switch seems solid to me, and the displays are as clear as they were before I installed the switch.

It does feel like there's mostly empty space inside. I haven't bothered to open it up and see how it's constructed, but it could be more compact, I'm sure.

FYI - no cables are included. All the VGA ports on the back are female, so you'll need to make sure you have the proper VGA cables to connect it.

I'm very pleased with this product. Maybe they're still hit-or-miss, but I found a hit, I suppose.

Works great to switch between XBOX and PC [Posted on 2008-05-05]
I bought this so I could hook both my PC and XBOX up to my LCD monitor, and so far it works great. This particular model has both the VGA and Keyboard / Mouse ports on the back, but it works just fine if you only use it for the VGA switching.

So that you know what to expect, if you plan to use this for PC / XBOX hookup, you'll need the following additional items (or at least, this is what I am using). An Xbox 360 VGA HD AV Cable. 2x VGA extension cables (they might also be called KVM cables). Depending on the cables, you may need up to 2 HD15 gender changers (more on this later). Depending on your speaker system set up, you may need a 3.5mm audio extension cable.

All 3 of the ports on the back of this box are MALE ports. The XBOX VGA cable will plug into this just fine (it has a FEMALE connector at the end of it's cable), but you'll want to look at the ports on your monitor and computer to see what kind of cables and/or gender changers you will need.

First, you need to determine if the ports on your PC and monitor are VGA or DVI. VGA ports are BLUE colored, but some newer components might have a slightly larger DVI port that is WHITE. If this is the case, you will need to get VGA to DVI converters, an example of which is linked below. Be sure to plan it all out making special note of the MALE or FEMALE connections so that you don't end up ordering the wrong items!

Most PCs will have a MALE port for the video, as do most monitors. Unfortunately, most cables will not accomidate this, since most of them are MALE/FEMALE cables. If you end up with 2s VGA cables that are MALE/FEMALE, you will need 2x HD15M/M gender changers to connect them, fortunately Amazon sells these as well.

Setting everything up (for me) meant:
A) Plugging the 1st VGA ext. cable from my PCs video out to the switch box's port "A" using the mentioned gender changer.
B) Plugging the XBOX to the switch box's port "B" using the mentioned VGA HD AV cable.
C) Plugging the switch box up to my LCD monitor using the 2nd VGA ext. cable and one of the gender changers.
D) And finally, connecting the audio cables from the XBOX VGA HD AV cables to the Audio In port on my computer using the mentioned 3.5mm audio extension cable. (This means I have to have my PC on in order to hear any sound, but it was really my only solution due to my speaker setup, you may have better options that this.)

Now, with my PC on, I switch to "A" on the box to use my PC, flip it to "B" to play XBOX, and I can go back and forth to my heart's content!

Here's a link to some of the other items I mentioned for purchase here on Amazon.com:
XBOX VGA HD AV Cable: Xbox 360 VGA HD AV Cable
HD15M/M Gender Changer: Tripp Lite P158-000 Compact Gold Gender Changer HD15M/M
Example of VGA Ext. Cable: Belkin 10' HDDB15M/HDDB15F Premium Gold VGA Monitor Extension Cable
Example of 3.5mm Audio Ext. Cable: Cables To Go CTG 12ft 3.5MM STEREO AUDIO EXTENSION CABLE M/F ( 13788 )
Example of a DVI to VGA Converter: DVI-I Single Link 18+5 Male to VGA Female Adapter Converter for LCD HDTV

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