I wanted to upgrade my old Aten CS1794 KVM switch to something that supports 4K and DisplayPort for a long time, but couldn't find something that fits my needs the way the CS1794 did when I bought it about 8 years ago.
My criteria:
- Should have DisplayPort support with 4K. HDMI would be nice but is optional.
- Should be able to switch between at least 2 clients (2-port), 4 would be better.
- Switching more than one display or support for MST would be really nice, but I think that will increase the price a lot. I only have 2 displays at the moment, so the CS1964 is beyond what I need.
- Should have at least USB 3.0. USB Type-C would be nice. USB PD to power the device as well as to power connected devices would be super nice, but I think I'm asking for the impossible.
- Cables longer than 1.5 meter would be good. I'm aware that USB 3.0 suffers from signal degradation beyond 2 meters and certified high quality DisplayPort cables longer than 2 meters were difficult to find and quite thick.
- Price up to 500 €.
Are there other manufacturers besides Aten competing in the market or will there be some note worthy products in the market in the next let's say 6 months?
HMDI was nice because I could also hook up game consoles. I'm looking into HDMI 2.0 capable switches (like this) to switch inputs on the monitor and then to the respective console if necessary. I already have more than 4 devices so I need to look into that to, if you have recommendations and lessons learned from your small home office, please share them. HDMI to DisplayPort converters seem to be limited to 4K at 30 Hz, which may be sufficient for watching movies but not recommendable for interaction like office/desktop usage or playing games.
Edit 2020-04-03:
On second thought, I bought the CS1794 when:
- Displays had one or two inputs out of VGA, DVI and DP. My current displays have 1 to 2 HDMI inputs and 2 DP inputs. 1080p and dual head was state of the art, now it's somewhere between 4K and 8K at demand for data throughput which brings in all kinds of engineering problems.
- I recently upgraded my display mounts to versions with gas springs to increase flexibility working with more laptops. I can now also add a third monitor on top or on the side. I could use a simple USB 3.0 switch or take another look at Symless, even though I initially didn't want to. And I have several keyboards with touchpads or trackpoints.
- Convertibles, MHL and Miracast did not exist or were not as popular and available.
It seems that contrary to the demand for display mounts, there is little demand for KVM switches with support for higher resolutions, which makes it an expensive niche market.
