Advice On Ambitious Screen Sharing Idea

FlashMac

FlashMac

Registered
Hello

One of my users operates 4 Macs, and I need to look at monitor sharing for him - all well and good, but he wants to share 2 screens over 4 Macs, with the screens split for each Mac.

The machines, for detail are:

G4 350Mhz OS 9.2.2
G4 350Mhz 10.3.8
G4 733Mhz 10.3.8
G4 Dual 533Mhz 10.3.8

Now I know monitor sharing works like a dream on Macs, but in this instance I am wary. At home I have a basic video switcher between my Mac and XP machine, and if the switcher is not set to the Mac when I boot the mac, it doesnt find the display and I have to reboot (similarly if I shut down the PC then switch to the Mac, I'll have to reboot). OK, granted its a pretty cheap video switcher (I bought it because I knew for absolute fact that it worked between Macs and PCs) and at work for this 4-Mac guy we'll be buying Belkin or whatever is necessary.

Currently he has only laughable graphics cards like Rage128s and nVidia 32Mbs, and while they'll only need one output each (with a video or full port switcher) but I expect to be replacing these, as he needs 1680x1050.

So currently I'm looking at 2 x 20" Apple Cinema Displays, with a standard Belkin 4-port switcher, and 4 dual output cards capable of 1680x1050, perhaps Radeon 9000's.
I know this is a bit of a poor question, but can anyone see a problem with this?

Is the OS 9 machine going to be a problem - I don't see why, but I'm a bit worried about getting the wrong thing - the screens alone are £600 each! Add the cards to that and its a sizeable purchase, so I'd like to get it right....

Any advice regarding cards, or any of these topics, would be greatly appreciated.
 
Actually, I've just realised this could be impossible, as to use two screens for each Mac the cards on each mac would have to be connected to each monitor, would'nt they...
 
Yup, and most monitors do not support being connected to two computers at the same time. I think you're thinking of dual-monitor setups being a piece of cake on the Mac, not sharing a monitor between two Macs.

You might wanna look into a KVM solution -- flip a switch, and he can control whatever computer he wants.
 
Thanks Diablo! Sorry, I was actually kind of thinking of KVM but couldnt remember the name of the term, and I still don't think it will work - even if you had an 8-port switcher, one for each video channel - as you could still only select one channel at once, surely? I've never had more than one monitor on a KVM setup.
Sharing a monitor between 2 Macs shouldnt be a problem if they are at the same resolution, even the same calibration profile, no?
 
I'm still thinking that won't work -- with two computers sending video signals to the monitor, you'd be likely to see nothing but garbage on the screen, or two superimposed images (hardly useful).

I'm wondering if there are "special" monitors out there that will allow this kind of configuration, but Googling didn't return anything. I found one site that says that it is possible to connect one monitor to two computers, but the grammar of the sentence lead me to believe that it was not written by someone who really knows.
 
I saw a screenshot printed in a pc magazine a good while back. This guy was running Linux, os x and windows on the same monitor. He was using citrix metaframe. Don't know if that would be any use to you, it's a huge enterprise class server that allows you to run remote applications on one screen.
 
Thanks everyone but it appears that what I'm looking for is a 'dual monitor kvm switch' - google that and you'll see what I mean.

Diablo by the way you can have one screen for two machines - as long as it has two inputs in the back and a signal switch on the front of course!
 
Ah, yes, I actually worked with one of those... it had S-RGB inputs (or something like that) in addition to a VGA connection, and you physically toggled a switch to change the inputs.

It wasn't designed specifically for a two-computer, one-monitor setup, but I can see how it would work that way. Do they really make standard monitors with two inputs specifically for two computer one monitor situations? Are they common?
 
The Lacie electron blue that I used to use with a G4/G3 had two inputs, not that we could get it to work...
 
My dell 20" monitor has 2 inputs, One DVI, One vGA abd can toggle between them. That allows two computers to use it without a KVM,

SO add one KVM and it could work that way
 
Um. ok. first off. buy TWO four port DVI/USB KVMs. one for each monior. Now connect the primary video out from each Mac to the main monitors KVM. repeat for the second. It's very bloody simple. Just switch each one over. you can even compare things between the macs then (screen one on mac one, and screen two set to mac three, for instance)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top