HDMI KVM switch ( over IP ) suggestion

[plato79]

Well, I'm using my proxmox as a host to a macOS VM and because it's a big ass server which is also a NAS with around 100 TB storage space so it's staying away from my work room ( because of sound etc.. )

I set it up with PCI-E passthrough so it uses an Nvidia GT 710 as its' GPU ( which was my selection because it had x1 interface and was supported natively under macOS ). I also passed USB controller to macOS VM. The reason for that is I'm actually using a KVM switch over ethernet cable for connecting the GPU+USB to my workroom..

The gadget I use is like this.. The color and model seems different but it looks a lot like that. The problem is while this works with FullHD resolution, there's compression artifacts, and it doesn't look very good.

My question is do you know any KVM switch which doesn't have these compression artifacts? It doesn't have to have a lot of features. I need only one connection on TX and RX side and USB is also required ( for Bluetooth adapter which I use for trackpad/keyboard )

 

[Ramalama]

The only reliable solutions are over a 60ghz band (max 5m range) or over rj45 (but those costs over 500usd).

For usb, you can use virtualhere.
And as the only alternative that probably works reliable but with up to 30hz is pi-kvm, since they made some sort of own mpeg2 codec.

Maybe im wrong and there are some cheap solutions out here, but yeah.

If you would use windows instead of macos, there are a ton of super inexpensive ways, but for macos there is only the external way.

Or buy some cheap 4k hdmi over ethernet solutions, test them with 1080p, if they fit your needs, keep it, if not, send back... Probably some of them do some magic with a proper asic chip... I don't know, but you can try xD

 

[Dunuin]

I'm using the cheapest option with best quality without any compression...just a 10m HDMI cable + 10m active USB extension cable + USB Hub. 15m would also be possible and only costs 45€...but yeah...you are limited to around 15m.
Most TFTs also got a free HDMI port so you can use the FTFs menu keys to toggle between the HDMI and DP inputs. And the software "input redirector" is great if you want to control multiple computers using only one mouse and keyboard over LAN.

 

[plato79]

@Dunuin I'm of course talking about over RJ45.. I recently renovated my house and while renovating, pulled three cables from where my server resides to my workroom to pull this kind of thing. So there is no option to pull an HDMI cable or USB cable under floors anymore ( I live in an apartment not a suburban house or something )

Although as I said while it looks OK from far away, when you look closely you can see the smearings from the compression algorithm.

@Ramalama I'm not sure it'd be much different with Windows, or do you suggest RDP? Even then it is not possible to use RDP if there is no computer to run the client.. Although buying this new Samsung monitors with RDP on it would be a solution but it's out of scope for what we're talking about

When you say pi-kvm and mpeg2 codec, it still is not lossless as far as I understand.

 

[Ramalama]

It's impossible to make it lossless over 1gb/s.

If you had windows, your options would grow.
Since you have an nvidia 710, you can buy an hdmi dummy plug, use on the VM nvidia geforce experience and on the other side (monitor) an raspberry pi3/4 with moonlight that autoboots into moonlight.
Parsec is good either, but doesn't work with the pi4. Moonlight is the best from my experience anyway, especially with geforce cards.
Or instead of nvidia geforce now, you can use open-stream with moonlight, works perfectly too.

And you can use your raspberry as the virtualhere server, so everything that you connect to usb on the pi4, get automatically passthrough to your windows vm.
(Moonlight does keyboard and mouse passthrough anyway, but everything else over usb, like usb sticks, cardreader, camera etc... virtualhere)

Moonlight with geforce now or openstream does 4k with ~5-10ms latency.

But this solution doesn't work with macos, only with windows.

Edit:
Forgot to mention, if you don't have an raspberry, you can use any android device, amazon firetv or whatever else you have, to try it out. But firetv or anything over wifi has a bit more latency. Just to try out before you buy an raspberry is a way.