DVI Mac to DVI PC KVM Switch

This is a tough one!

[SEOMike]

Ok, I have a problem. One of our MAC guys has to have a PC too. I need a KVM switch that is compatible with both so he can just switch between monitors. Thing is... Mac's DVI is different than normal PC DVI. (They just HAD to be difficult) Is there a KVM switch that will change between the two different formats? If not, is there a MAC style DVI card for a PC?

Not expecting much response here... but I'm happy for any help at all.

Thanks!

[bcolflesh]

[gefen.com...]

[drbrain]

DVI is DVI. The only Mac monitors that use DVI were just released this month. A DVI Mac monitor has a gray aluminum frame and has a cable that branches to DVI, USB and Firewire connectors.

[bcolflesh]

Yeah - I assumed he meant an ADC connector.

[ggrot]

This isn't directly an answer to what you are looking for, but it may bes useful nevertheless. There are a number of pieces of software available designed to give you the same effect as a KVM switch using only the advantage that your two machines are networked. The term is "VNC" or "Virtual Network Computing". They allow you to attach the keyboard, mouse, and video to one machine, and through the network selectively control other machines. The operating system does not need to be homogenous in most cases.

There are a number of other layers available on top of VNC as well. I happen to have 2 monitors, but only one mouse/keyboard set. So, I plug my linux box and my windows box into different monitors and use a little VNC layer called "X2VNC" to basically get the effect of a dual screen display across two operating systems (when I move the mouse off the right side of one monitor, it goes to the left side of the other monitor, and keyboard focus switches too). There is also a Win2VNC if you have two windows computers.

I've never used VNC with a mac, but it should work just fine. Just another option available for you.

[SEOMike]

Cool! good leads. I wasn't aware that the MAC and the PC used the same DVI. (Mac guy didn't know at first either) Good product suggestion. We'll have this thing licked in no time! Thanks!