When HN users recommended it
4 HN users recommended this between 2020 and 2024, in 5 comments.
20072026
Each tall tick is one HN user's first recommendation. A short tick is the same user again. Click a tick to jump to the comment.
4 HN users recommended this between 2020 and 2024, in 5 comments.
Each tall tick is one HN user's first recommendation. A short tick is the same user again. Click a tick to jump to the comment.
Okay, let's talk about that USB switch [1], because I was looking for one a few days ago and discovered something ghastly about the majority of the ones available on Amazon:
Most of them use a USB Type-A to Type-A cable for the link between the switch and PC.
This cable violates the USB spec, and is the moral equivalent of an electrical cord with prongs on both ends. It should never, ever be made or used, because plugging one of the ends into the wrong receptacle can destroy both USB ports.
The correct cable to use here would be a standard Type-A to Type-B or Type-A to Micro-B cable, but for some reason a very small minority of these switches do that [2].
WTF is going on here?
[1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N6GD9JO/
[2] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083JKDNRJ/
I use a USB host-side switch [0] to quickly move my keyboard and mouse between my desktop and my laptop's docking station, since my 4k monitor already supports multiple inputs, and 4k capable KVMs are expensive and buggy.
In order to make the switch, I push one button on the USB switch, and then select the next input on my monitor (four button presses using the monitor's OSD). There's a great little tool called ddcutil [1] that allows you to send commands to your monitor via the i2c bus embedded in your HDMI/DisplayPort connection, so I tried to write a script to do the monitor input swap on either a key binding or after detecting the appropriate USB event.
It almost worked. My monitor only listens to the i2c bus of the selected input, so I need to run this script on both my desktop and laptop rather than just on the desktop. But apparently there was a bug in the way my (TB3) dock handled forwarding of the DP i2c data to the docking host. And by bug, I mean write forwarding was just not implemented in the kernel driver. So ddcutil would work on my laptop with a direct HDMI connection, but not when it was connected via the dock.
Anyway, long story short:
5.10 fixes this [2], so I'm particularly excited about this release.
[0] https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Sharing-Computers-Perip...
[1] https://github.com/rockowitz/ddcutil
[2] https://lkml.org/lkml/2020/9/1/300
If you aren't switching between your computers too often, you can just get a USB hub like this and switch between display inputs from your monitor: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083JKDNRJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...
I came to this conclusion myself recently. I have the Cable Matters 4 port USB switch and it works just fine for my purposes.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083JKDNRJ
I was hopeful and tried using this Monoprice KVM switch (linked below), but it just wasn't worth it in my experience. Despite supporting Display Port 1.4, I could not use my monitor to its full ability with my PC (3440x1400 @165Hz w/ 10 bit color). Dropping the connection when switching inputs was also incredibly annoying; every time I switched away from my Macbook it would go to sleep.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B093N1DR8Y
I'm happy to switch inputs on both the USB switch and my monitor separately because it's not actually too large of a hassle, and the monitor doesn't "disconnect" when switching video inputs on my monitor so my Macbook doesn't immediately go to sleep.
If anyone is in the market for a KVM switch, consider a USB hub first. You might find yourself satisfied. They're much less of a hassle and cost very little in comparison to a full featured KVM switch.
At least on my LG TV, basic non-"smart" controls are available directly via both RS-232[1] and IR remote without recourse to menus.
The IR remote, in particular, might be a solution for your in-laws' TV, as LG-compatible IR remotes are "plug-and-play" and available for less than $10 (avoid "service" remotes for this application, as they include a button that makes it easy to accidentally factory reset the TV, which is both annoying and, in the case of OLED TVs, maybe even potentially harmful[2].
RS-232 is particularly nice for tinkering with one's own TV, as it allows you to disable the OSD entirely, completely neutering all smart TV functions and pop-ups until the TV is turned off (or OSD is re-enabled via RS-232), and also includes video and audio controls not available on any of the IR remotes I've seen (brightness, contrast, bass, treble, etc.).
Along with a 4-port IR-controllable USB switch[3] and an audio interface with a TOSLINK input[4], I use the RS-232 functionality as a basis for my desktop "KVM", with inputs, brightness, power, and volume controlled with an Apple Siri remote paired to a Mac.
The only times I touch the menus are rare cases where I actually want to use the built-in smart TV apps (viz., for 4K video from services that don't support it on Mac or PC).
[1] https://github.com/jasminetroll/LgTvControl/blob/master/Docu...
[2] Source: unconfirmed Internet claims that the button resets a panel refresh timer that may lead to burn-in and warranty invalidation, which seems crazy for something that could be triggered without confirmation by a simple IR command one might accidentally mis-program into a universal remote by mistyping a single number.
[3] https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Sharing-Computers-Perip...
[4] https://babyface.rme-audio.de
Which is awesome and highly recommended, but for the present application any USB audio interface with low-latency monitoring and TOSLINK should work as well (and if you don't care about mixing the currently active HDMI audio source with other audio like I do, the volume on the TV's built-in speakers and non-digital audio outputs is controllable via RS-232).