Review on Basicolor HDMI KVM Switch - 4 Port, UHD 4K@60Hz, HDMI & USB Switcher for PC, Share Keyboard Mouse Printer & Monitor, One Button Switch, with 4 KVM & 5 HDMI Cables (HSV581) by Jorge Eckstein

Yes, I like this Basicolor HDMI KVM Switch, but it's not quite perfect. If I could give partial ratings I would give it 4.6 stars and skip the top rating due to some minor issues detailed below. However, I am delighted with this product! With this product, you can synchronously switch your keyboard, mouse and HDMI monitor between four different PCs. Two additional USB-A ports are provided to accommodate other things you might want to move between your PCs. In my case, I connected these ports to my scanner and printer, so now my computers use them too. The photo accompanying this review shows a fully wired Basicolor KVM switch working amidst a rat's nest of cables on my small computer desk. This switch has four large backlit (white) buttons on the front, allowing the user to choose which of the up to four PCs their keyboard and mouse (and in my case my scanner and printer) will be connected to. One very, very nice thing about this switch is that it stays set to any of the four channels you choose. This is in stark contrast to all other HDMI switches I've used, which (inexplicably) follow the paradigm of automatically switching to a previously inactive channel when you turn on the source for that channel. This last paradigm is very annoying when you are on PC-A and decide to boot PC-B, which then causes the display to automatically switch to PC-B and you have to manually reset the HDMI switch. to PC-A to continue working. Luckily, as said, the developers of this basicolor switch ignored this annoying paradigm and instead designed this switch to simply stay locked in a custom channel. Another great feature of this basicolor switch is that you can select a channel using the numeric keypad on your keyboard. (The manufacturers of this switch even include a separate numeric keypad for those who don't have one on their keyboard.) By pressing *-*-[1234] the user can select the switch channel that (depending on the layout of your PC workstation) can be much more convenient than pressing the appropriate button on the front panel. The device will beep to let you know it has received a command and changed channels. I love this feature and use it all the time, but I've noticed that sometimes it just stops working. In this case I have to resort to the dedicated button on the front to change the channel and then the functionality of the number pad seems to be restored. I've also found that this feature doesn't work if you press *-* in quick succession: you need to set a minimum time interval between * for them to register correctly. The manual describes a few other cryptic commands that can be run on the numeric keypad, but I don't find them useful. In my setup, I use all four HDMI ports on this basicolor switch. Three for the PC and a fourth for my Blu-ray player. I noticed that my monitor had problems blocking the HDMI signal from one of the four HDMI inputs when I had all four HDMI sources active. (A sign of bad blocking is no sound and white snow on the picture.) This problem seemed to go away when I only had three or fewer active HDMI sources. I've seen variations of the same issue with the same monitor combined with other HDMI switches, so I don't know if it's an issue with the HDMI switch or an issue where my monitor is overly sensitive to HDMI signal settings . To be clear, I've found that it's possible to have four active HDMI inputs running simultaneously with this switch, but when switching to a specific X channel, the signal doesn't always block on the first try and I have to may switch to another channel temporarily, then return to channel X and try again one or more times. Another issue I've noticed is that it's difficult to plug the USB/B male connectors into the USB/B ports on the back of the device, but that's not the case. the real problem is here. The real problem is getting those plugs out after they're in! My god, after pulling out a few plugs just to change their order, I used the strength of my fingers to the limit. I almost had to reach for my toolbox to remove that second connector. To finish off some positive notes, another thing I love about this product is that it lets you know which PCs are powered on (active) via a row of four green LEDs on the front, one solid LED indicates an active PC the front . Finally, the package comes with a full set of cables that you may need to connect your devices to this switch.