Switchview Dvi 4 Port USB KVM Switch USB 2.0 Hub with Audio

List Price: $249.99 Discount Price: $208.99

Features:

• Manage up to four USB DVI computers
• 1920 x 1200 Video resolution
• Support for high-end applications
• Support for USB PCs, Mac G3/G4, Imac
• Push-button or multiple keyboard hotkeys

Customer Reviews:

Video switching is great. USB (inc keyboard and mouse) is not. [Posted on 2007-10-18]
I am using this on my macbook pro, a imac24 and a PC connecting a 24" Dell FPD. The video switching is great. USB is so bad that I have stopped using the built in USB switch. I have read the forums and tried many different things, but the USB just sometimes disappears. Sometimes they keyboard only registers every other keystroke. All I have plugged into the USB is the keyboard and the mouse. I am not satisfied with the USB switch at all.

It mostly works as advertised [Posted on 2007-11-17]
THis switch was attractive to me because of its price. All I needed was a switch for video, keyboard and mouse. I do not need audio. As a video and keyboard switch, it works as advertised. However, with my PowerMac G5, and a Mac Mini, it cannot handle the Mighty Mouse. Most functions of the mouse do not work. So, I was forced to use two mice. While not too burdensome, it sure limits the functionality of the switch.

Greatest Service Ever from Avocent [Posted on 2008-01-23]
I bought this device since it met all my requirements. When I tried to install it, my monitor was not recognized by the switch. I tried a bunch of connections but no luck. I contacted Avocent tech support and spent some real quality time with one of the techs. He instructed me on how to update the firmware. It did not cure the problem so I called back the next day. They said they would issue an RMA. Now this is where it gets really AMAZING. They sent me a new switch in three days, BEFORE I had returned the old one. What great service!!! Also the further good news is the new box works really well. This is just such an unusual level of service and reflects great credit on Avocent and their employees.

Probably there's not much choice yet, but this is a good DVI KVM switch [Posted on 2008-02-19]
I agree with other reviewers on a few issues, namely the lack of support for the Mighty Mouse on the Mac (no horizontal scrolling, for instance, plus the lack of the specific control panel for the Mighty Mouse) and the problems after PCs fall asleep. I've noticed also that an IBM T43p laptop running XP doesn't recognize the DVI monitor when docked, while a Lenovo T61p running Vista recognizes the monitor automatically. Moreover also keyboard recognition might be impaired on the Mac, as after connecting to the Mac through the switch the Mac thought I had a generic keyboard. On the other hand, every Mac-specific key on my Apple keyboard works as expected.
Notwithstanding all the above I've done some research before getting this DVI KVM switch, and I still don't think there's a real alternative to the Avocent one. Probably, when DVI will hopefully be nearly as common as VGA, better alternatives will be easier to spot.
Using it with an all-Apple set of devices, I expected some minor glitches like the ones I'm seeing, but everything works as much as I need it to work. The T43 can use my Apple display at full resolution if forced to do it, and the Mighty Mouse is still good with the Mac even if not as mighty as it could be. This KVM is also very quick at switching, before I had a Belkin VGA KVM and it was fairly slow at switching keyboard and mouse, and often it would hang requiring me to unplug and plug in again the mouse.
Considering that I haven't seen a single vendor supporting officially a mixed Apple/PC environment, I would imagine that Mac users can easily end up getting some PC KVM that has more problems with Macs and Apple devices than the Avocent one.

Before buying, here's what you should know... [Posted on 2008-05-12]
I purchased this KVM switch to connect a DELL tower with XP SP2 and a Mac Pro running MAC OS X Leopard. My PC 3+ years old, while my Mac Pro is pretty much new. The shared monitor is an Apple 23" Cinema Display. When connected to the monitor directly, the PC and the MAC worked fine. However, once the KVM switch was used, when switched to the PC, the Windows splash screen appeared, but the Windows XP desktop would not appear. The MAC side was fine. A 1+ hour phone call to their technical support could not resolve the issue.

I ended up upgrading my PC's combined DVI/VGA video card to a new one for $75. With the new video card, the KVM switch has worked very well. My beef here is that they obviously did not qualify this thing well because it apparently does not support older DVI video cards AND THEIR DOCUMENTATION SHOULD & MARKETING LITERATURE should reflect this. I offered to sell them my video card (why not after all the trouble I went through) so that they could improve their product but I got no response.

In short, if you have an older DVI video card (3 years or older), this KVM switch may not work. Oh, and yes, before reaching this conclusion, I downloaded and installed the latest video driver for the problematic video card I was using but still no success.

Other points:
This KVM switch does not come with cables. Okay, fine. The problem is you will see they sell a required "Cable Kit". However, this site nor Avocent's site does not explicitly tell you how many cables are in the "kit". Is it all the cables you need or not??? If you decide to buy this KVM switch, each "kit" is just one DVI and USB cable (plus other optional connective cables for a single computer connection). Therefore, if you buy the two port, you will need 2 "kits". For the 4 port, you will need 4 "kits".

All this aside, I do concede that this switch does operate well. I have had no problems between switching between my PC and MAC (remember, I have all new/latest technology video cards) and the video looks good. Maybe I just have too many "out of the box --> turn-key" expectations. You be the judge.

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