Belkin SOHO 4-Port DVI/USB KVM Switch F1DD104L

Belkin SOHO F1DD104L KVM

Belkin offers a wide variety of KVMs, from inexpensive dual-port VGA-PS/2 switches intended for the home to large, expensive 16-port rack-mount switches for server farms that can handle multiple computers and multiple consoles. Some even have built-in monitors! We're looking at the top of Belkin's home-office KVM switch line, the SOHO F1DD104L. This four-port switch allows you to share a single DVI monitor, USB keyboard and mouse, and microphone and speaker among four computers.

Versions of this switch are available in both VGA-PS/2 and DVI-USB versions, but really, who uses VGA any more? The SOHO F1DD104L is a premium switch with extra features to help justify its rather high price.

It's a common scenario for many of us these days: multiple computers, but no desk space for multiple monitors, keyboards, and mice. You might have a work machine and a play machine; or a home media server you access and control over the network, but it would really be nice if you had a monitor and keyboard sometimes, or maybe you just thought it would be fun to try one of those $200 nettop computers to see if it had any actual application. The solution is a KVM (keyboard/video/mouse) switch, and Benchmark Reviews looks at the Belkin SOHO F1DD104L four-port DVI-USB KVM switch to see how well it would work for you. This is a high-end switch with lots of extra features, so let's get started!

About Belkin International, Inc.

Belkin International, Inc., offers an extensive range of innovations designed to give computer and consumer electronics users seamless integration in their homes, cars, and on the go. Belkin, a privately held company founded in California in 1983, is the recognized global leader in connectivity solutions. Since our inception in 1983, Belkin has experienced an amazing 25 consecutive years of dramatic growth and remains committed to making significant strides in the areas of research and design.

Our diverse and far-reaching product mix includes award-winning innovations for easy-to-use networking solutions, accessories for mobile devices, such as iPod, iPhone^TM, laptops, and netbooks, as well as energy conservation products.

Belkin also provides business-class solutions that include KVM switches, LCD rack consoles, racks and enclosures, in addition to a broad USB and cable product mix. Belkin has developed industry-leading innovations, prized by channel partners and end users alike for their dependability, customer service, and comprehensive warranties.

Over the years, Belkin has had a number of KVM products marketed under the "SOHO" label, sometimes with the word "Omniview" in the product name. This review is specifically of the model F1DD104L. The easiest way to tell the various SOHO units apart is visually since they all look quite different. Use the pictures in this review as a guide if you're interested in buying one.

SOHO KVM Switch Features

• OS independent - full compatibility with PC, Mac, and other operating systems
• User-friendly design - front-panel buttons with LED indicator lights provide easy to access switching between multiple computers
• Advanced switching capable - hot-key switching provides instantaneous access
• Independent audio switching - allows the user to switch systems being accessed without switching audio output; great for streaming audio
• Peripheral sharing - built-in USB 2.0 Hub (on select models)
• Multiple video types supported - VGA and DVI available (on select models)
• Multi-platform support - PS/2 and USB compatibility (on select models)
• 3-year warranty -Belkin's assurance

Belkin F1DD104L Specifications

Closer Look: SOHO KVM Switch

The Belkin SOHO F1DD104L packaging is an easy-to-open box with a photo and basic specifications on the front. I'm a big fan of packaging like this, that clearly shows you the product and its specifications, and isn't a clear plastic blister pack:

The back of the box has more technical details and a labeled photo of the rear of the switch:

The Belkin SOHO F1DD104L retail kit contains:

• The switch
• 4 sets of cables
• a small (unlabeled!) power brick
• a quick setup pamphlet (which oddly calls the switch the "OmniviewSOHO", a term that's not used anywhere else on the switch, its manual, or Belkin's web site)
• a detailed 36-page manual with instructions, troubleshooting, and service information.

The SOHO F1DD104L is a high-end product and looks like it. Features aside, its appearance exudes a feeling of quality. It's fairly large, but its size is dictated by the space needed for the ports on the back. Belkin's dimensional specifications as shown in the chart in the previous section are wrong: the actual height of the unit is about 1.75", not 5.5". Still, it's gonna take up some desk space. Belkin makes good use of the device's necessary size by providing large 3-way color-coded buttons on the front for switching between the connected computers.

The SOHO comes with all the cables you need: 4 six-foot DVI/USB cable assemblies and 4 separate six-foot audio/microphone cables. I'm not sure why the audio cables are separate: a previous IOGear DVI KVM I used bundled all the cables together into a single assembly, which is neater and more convenient. Retaining screws on the DVI connectors of the cables are color-coded (green, orange, blue, and red) and match the color rings around the buttons on the front of the unit. This is a handy feature if you're crawling around under your desk trying to remember which cable plugs in where...as long as you're not color-blind, of course.

Although 6 foot cable runs seem to be standard for KVM switches, they can be a little short when you're trying to arrange four tower computers within reach of the switch. Belkin offers separate 15-foot cable assemblies, but apparently only for the VGA-PS/2 version of this switch. Of course you can always use separate generic DVI, USB, and audio cables.

A small power adapter provides 9v at 1 amp. Frustratingly, the adapter is a generic part whose appearance and labeling provide no clue as to what it's intended for. Label it so you'll know in the future.

Belkin F1DD104L Detailed Features

Everything plugs into the back of the switch. Your monitor, keyboard, mouse, and audio devices plug into the console area, whose white background makes it stand out from the other connections. The computers you're controlling plug into the color-coded areas that correspond to the color-coded buttons on the front of the switch.

The SOHO offers two switched USB hub ports: one on the back of the unit, in the console area, and another on the front left side. Devices plugged into these ports are switched and will always be connected to the selected computer.

The SOHO offers the following extra features when compared to Belkin's low-end switch, the Flip F1DG102D:

• Switching from your keyboard - no need to press a button on the actual switch
• Separate audio switching with microphone support
• 2-port USB hub
• Keyboard and mouse emulation
• DDC support

The last two features are noteworthy since they prevent the delay that occurs after switching between computers that that you'll experience with lower-end switches. DDC (short for "Display Data Channel") is a VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) specification defining how monitors identify their characteristics to computers and other devices you might plug them into. The Belkin SOHO "learns" the DDC specs of your monitor the first time the monitor is connected to the switch and turned on, and thereafter presents these specs to all computers that are plugged in, all the time. It also emulates a generic keyboard and mouse on the USB ports, and what all this means is that each computer connected to the SOHO thinks it's connected to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse all the time. This is turn means minimal delay when switching between computers: your keyboard and mouse are instantly available, and your monitor re-syncs in just a second or two; it also means that you can boot or restart a connected computer without having to switch to it first.

If you change to a new monitor, you will have to power down the SOHO, connect the new monitor, and turn the SOHO back on so it can "learn" the new monitor's DDC codes. That's OK, since you probably don't switch monitors very often. However, the keyboard and mouse emulation, while it does speed switching, has a significant down side: since your computers only "see" the generic emulated keyboard and mouse presented by the switch, special keyboards and mice lose their special features. That spiffy color LCD on your new Logitech G19 keyboard? Inoperative. Those extra buttons on that fancy gaming mouse that you've programmed with weapon-switching macros? Nope, they don't work either.

Fortunately, there's a simple work-around for this problem: plug the keyboard (and mouse, if required) into one of the two USB hub ports. These ports don't present any emulated devices to the computers, and although you'll be back to the "USB connection delay", you'll have full use of your fancy enthusiast peripherals. You will, however, give up the ability to switch computers from the keyboard (you'll have to use the buttons on the front of the unit) and won't have the two USB ports available for other items, since the keyboard and mouse ports on the back of the unit can only be used for a keyboard and a mouse.

USB Switching Functionality

The front of the Belkin SOHO F1DD104L contains four large buttons used for switching between the connected computers. Actually, each button is a three-way switch: pressing the left side switches the video, keyboard, and mouse to that computer; pressing the right side switches only the speakers and microphone to that computer, and pressing the center of the button switches everything to that computer. Frankly, I'm not sure when I'd ever want to separately switch the audio from another computer, but Belkin touts this as a feature and I've seen it on other switches, so there must be a common use I'm unaware of. (Personally I think the ability to switch the USB hub ports separately would be much more useful.) Indicator lights on the front buttons light up to show what's selected: the left indicator is for video, keyboard, and mouse, and the right indicator is for audio. In this photo the "green computer" has control of the audio, while the "blue computer" has control of the video, keyboard, and mouse:

And by "light up", I mean LIGHT UP. The LEDs are annoyingly bright and the angled front of the unit ensures that they're aimed right at your eyes of you have the switch positioned under your monitor. My solution: put the switch on the floor under my desk and switch computers using the switch's keyboard commands. This photo gives a better impression of what the indicator lights actually look like in the typically dim home office environment:

To switch using the keyboard, press the "Scroll Lock" key twice... you'll hear a beep from the switch, after which you can press the numbers 1-4 (the numbers correspond to the green, orange, blue, and red buttons, respectively) to switch everything to the selected computer, which is confirmed by another beep. Other key sequences select only the audio or video, or the next or previous computer. You can re-assign the initial hot key from the Scroll Lock key to Caps Lock, Escape, F12, Num Lock, or either control key.

Testing & Results

I bought this switch when I had to add a third computer - a small Linux-based server - to the Mac and PC I already had on my desk. I've grown used to the rapid and seamless keyboard switching and really like the switch, which has performed flawlessly for me. I prefer generic-layout mechanical keyboards, and so the keyboard emulation feature doesn't cause any problems for me.

The only problem I've had so far is that I could not get keyboard switching to work at first. I finally noticed that I had the keyboard and mouse cables plugged into the wrong ports on the back of the switch (hey, USB is USB, right?) Obviously the switch only "listens" for the key sequences on the keyboard port. Plugging the cables into the correct ports solved that problem.

SOHO KVM Switch Conclusion

I've been using KVM switches for about 8 years now, starting with a (very) expensive Gefen switch, moving on to a couple of IOGear models, the Belkin Flip, and finally the Belkin SOHO F1DD104L switch I've reviewed here. Aside from making the indicator LEDs on the front panel buttons dimmer, I honestly don't see what else Belkin could do to make the switch any better (the "USB emulation precludes fancy keyboards and mice" problem is a technical issue with USB, and not anything Belkin can address).

If you only have two computers, you might be tempted to go for a less expensive switch such as Belkin's own Flip or one from another manufacturer. As of October 2009 the two-port version of this KVM switch (model F1DD102L) costs $175 online, and I think most people would find the extra features well worth it the extra cost over Belkin's Flip KVM switch. Alternatively, NewEgg offers the Belkin F1DS104J (D-Sub with PS/2) for $160 or the Belkin F1DS104L (D-Sub with USB) for $200.

Pros:

+ DDC and keyboard/mouse emulation speed switching
+ Choice of pressing a button or using keyboard commands to switch
+ Separate switching of audio
+ Handles dual-link DVI
+ LEDs indicators and color-coded cables make keeping track of things easy

Cons:

- Painfully bright indicator LEDs on front buttons
- Emulated keyboard and mouse makes special keyboard and mouse features useless (unless plugged into USB hub ports)
- Two-port version of the switch is the same (large) size as the four-port switch
- 6-foot cable assemblies might not be long enough for your application

Ratings

• Presentation: 9.0
• Appearance: 9.5
• Construction: 9.0
• Functionality: 9.5
• Value: 9.0

Final Score: 9.2 out of 10

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