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38 Karma

Review on πŸ–₯️ TESmart 4-Port HDMI KVM Switch with 5ft KVM Cables - Supports 4K UHD, Audio Output, and USB Control by Drew Panah

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Best and Worst HDMI 2.0 KVM. The keyboard emulation skips keystrokes.

This is the only HDMI 2.0 KVM I could find. If you need HDMI 2.0 support, this is for you. Note that DVI monitors are not supported, although DVI computers are fine. Also note that some 4K monitors can only transmit 4K over DisplayPort as their HDMI is limited to 1.0. If you have such a monitor, this KVM will not work for you. This KVM works great with my LG 3440x1440@60Hz monitor. He had no problems with any resolution of the connected computers. Sound works well too. I didn't check the remote as it didn't come with batteries and I didn't have the correct button batteries lying around. It would be nice if the remote control used AA or AAA batteries. I also didn't use the included HDMI/USB cables as they seem like junk to me. I checked the included cables with a multimeter and found that the USB cables are not connected to chassis ground. I do not recommend using such cables as hot-plugging them can damage your devices. Like many KVMs, the emulated keyboard and mouse offer zero-latency switching and allow the use of hotkeys and mouse gestures to switch inputs. However, like other KVMs, the emulated keyboard and mouse supports only basic keyboards and mice. Anything outside of the 104-key vanilla keyboard is ignored. Everything but a simple mouse is ignored (3 buttons + scroll up/down). Unfortunately, if you're using an emulated keyboard, the first keypress will reset after a long idle time! The switched USB port does not have this problem. This annoyed me so much that I moved both the keyboard and mouse to a switched USB port (via a USB hub in my monitor, of course, since there is only one switched USB port on the KVM). Switching with the front panel is a little annoying since you can only switch between four ports with each press, so I bought a four-button X-Keys KVM keyboard. It's tiny and can be programmed to send the correct key sequence to the KVM to switch directly to any input.

Pros
  • Handsfree
Cons
  • Repair