welcome to an unboxing of a product that may not be
glamorous but is certainly useful this is the trendnet TK 204 UK TW Port DVI
USB KVM switch with audio kit slick
bought one because uh he'd never heard
of a KVM kit believe
no I'm just messing with you Slick's pretty technical he'd heard of a KVM kit
before or a KVM switch before I see I called it a KVM kit it's not even what
it is it's really late at night guys um
here we are in the studio bringing you unboxings of kvms uh so slick got this
one because we have one for our Tech tip setup uh which has been working really
well for us so the way it okay okay we're not going to focus too much on this one we'll focus on this one but
slick um in His Infinite Wisdom managed
to find it useful in spite of the fact that he configured it wrong see what
you're supposed to do is plug
this okay no really there's a reason that he didn't plug in the kvm's DVI
cable and plugged in a separate DVI cable and I'll explain that as well so
let's actually get started with the unboxing so you can get kvms in a wide
variety of different configurations including ones that support um two
computers to be controlled with a single set of peripherals ones that support
four computers even rack mount ones that support many computers operating off a
single keyboard and mouse and then you switch between them according to
whichever one you want to control you can get ones that use VGA and PS2 uh you
can get ones that use DVI and USB you can get ones that do support audio and
ones that don't for a consumer who happens to have a couple computers at
their desk whether you've got a PC and a Mac and you don't feel like dual booting
and waiting for os's to load in between uh a lot of our graphic designers here
at work do that or or whether you have
um two desktop computers one that is like a dedicated video rendering box and
one that you act that you use for gaming for example if you have them both at the
same desk this allows you to with the touch of a button switch between which
one you want to control and here at any
given moment so this guy includes everything you need and this is the one
that I'd consider to be most practical for probably
90% of consumers so it comes with a wide
variety of things here including all of these packages that I have to open one
by one in order to bring you this fantastic
unboxing of a KVM all right here we
go ah power okay so the first thing the
things we don't need uh utility install users guide if you really need that get
it off the trendnet website quick installation guide plug the things into
the thing it's that quick all right here
is the TK 204 U so this is your console
this button you press to switch between computer 1 and computer 2 there is a
light that turns on to show you which computer you're operating at the current
moment then you plug the keyboard and mouse that you want to use in this case
we have some Microsoft thing and a Corsair Mouse plugged into the USB
cables at the front all right
speaking of people who don't know how kvms work I actually don't know what this one's
for oh yeah the main monitor well then why isn't ours plugged in oh right cuz
he broke it okay right so moving on uh so this is for the
actual monitor that you're going to use for both computers then you've got your
speakers as well as your microphone that you actually use and have sitting on
your desk on the back you find two more
sets of DVI so these go out to the video cards of each of your computers and then
you use him so here is the combo audio DVI
cable that looks just like that so they've used a couple extra DVI pins
here for audio so you plug that in and then you go like that there you go and
then you use these USB cables to plug in
to the USB port on the back of your computer so by plugging these into to
your computers you got your two computers and then you've got all your
peripherals and all of your speakers and microphone as well as your monitor
plugged in on this side you can effectively control both computers with
one set of peripherals so here is uh the power for the KVM itself it does need
separate power um not only can you switch between the computers here but
you can also set a hotkey on your keyboard to easily switch between the
two computers now I'll explain why I kept sort of uh you know ragging on
slick here about his configuration this is a DVI ey cable now there's a very
good reason that this km has a DVI cable that is because it is compatible not
only with a digital signal but also with an analog signal the problem though is
see those those pins around that centerpiece okay so we were testing A
system that was using Onboard video that has a DVI D out so that is a digital
only DVI connection so what that meant
was that when slick had our monitor plugged into the
KVM and then he had this cable going out to here he actually physically couldn't
plug it in and that is why it is frankensteined right now and not hooked
up correctly so he does know what a KVM is he does know how to cook up a KVM I
was just bugging him because I'm the one on camera and he's not allowed to say
anything so thank you for checking out my unboxing and first look and extremely
convoluted explanation of how kvms work don't forget to subscribe to lonus Tech
tips for more unboxings reviews and
other midnight shenanigans