Help & Suggestions regarding KVM-Switches

Jojomatik · March 26, 2020

Hey,

I'm trying to use my laptop with the same set of peripherals and displays as my PC.

For this purpose I bought a Dual-Monitor DisplayPort KVM Switch (https://www.startech.com/Server-Management/KVM-Switches/2-Port-Dual-DisplayPort-USB-KVM-Switch-with-Audio-and-USB-20-Hub~SV231DPDDUA) for around ~240€ on Amazon.

Today i tried it out and noticed that (as before when i manually switched my main monitor from DisplayPort (PC) to HDMI (Laptop)) after switching the PC doesn't recognize the display anymore and moves all windows to one of the other connected displays. I started to search the internet and learned about EDID emulation (after scrolling through endless pages of microsoft employes suggesting to restart the pc).

Heres my setup:

1x 2560*1080 Display with DP and HDMI
1x 1920*1080 Display with HDMI only

My PC has a GTX 1060 with 2x HDMI and 2x DP
And my laptop is docked via thunderbolt and the dock offers 1x HDMI and 2x DP (1x full-size, 1x mini)

My plan was to use above mentioned switch and to route 2x DP from Laptop and PC to the Switch and then 1xDP to the Ultra-Wide and 1xDP to HDMI to the other screen.

I've found multiple possible solutions to the problem:
1. Add some of those EDID emulators: https://www.lindy.de/DisplayPort-1-2-EDID-Emulator.htm?websale8=ld0101&pi=32116 (I believe I'd need 4 of them which would be way to expensive)
2. Buy a new KVM-Switches (with EDID emulation; Happy to hear new suggestions) and return the current one

3. Possibly even adding a DP-Merger (with two inputs and one output) might do the trick, since i use a HDMI-Merger at my TV and this screen gets rendered even with the TV off (which is exactly what i would like to happen for my main screens but not for the TV) [something like this: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00ZK2S71W]
4. A software named Custom Resolution Utility (https://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-Custom-Resolution-Utility-CRU) but I'm not sure if it's trustworthy
5. Fiddeling around in the registry (But it seems like that all potential fixes for my solution, have since been removed by microsoft)

If you suggest new KVM-Switches it should fullfill the following criteria:

1. Link both displays to both systems
2. Support the full resolution of both displays

3. Keyboard (or Mouse)-Hotkey switching
4. At least 2 USB-Ports

I found the following device: https://www.aten.com/global/en/products/kvm/desktop-kvm-switches/cs782dp/

This does only have one DP port per system but allows for Multi-Stream Transport and therefore in theory should support two displays. But information on whether it supports EDID is pretty hard to find. But if it does not i might be able to still buy two of those EDID emulators (point 1) but I'm not sure if they allow for Multi-Stream Transport.

Thank you for helping me.

Jojomatik