Apologies if this type of question isn’t fit for the community, I’ll delete if so.

I’m going to start working from home again soon, and my desk setup is going to get very messy. I’m hoping to find a device that will let me easily manage 3 monitors between my personal laptop, my PS5, and my work computer.

I’d ideally like to set up “scenes”, like a work scene where monitors 2 and 3 are using my work computer and monitor 1 is acting as extended display for my laptop off to the left, or a gaming scene where my work computer isn’t displaying anything and my PS5 uses monitor 3 while monitors 1 and 2 are extending my laptop’s display, etc.

Are there any devices that would allow one to easily manage this sort of setup? I’d really rather not have to rewire all my HDMI cables every time I want to switch from working to gaming.

  • MrQuallzin@lemmy.world
    4·
    8 hours ago

    I’ve been in this situation for a few years now (Working from home, wanting to share screens between devices).

    KVMs and HDMI Switches are what to look for, as others have said. Scenes aren’t something you’re going to get cheaply, but you’ve still got options. For reference, I currently have three 27in 1440p monitors.

    The first one I bought was a cheap 2 HMDI IN->2 HDMI OUT that worked pretty well. It’s straight 1-to-1 matching, you can’t mix and match what goes where without actually moving the cables, but it was great for having my main and right monitor be easily switched between my Desktop and Work computers. My left monitor is just for my desktop so I can multitask.

    It died after a couple years and I upgraded my main monitor to my first 1440p which it couldn’t handle anyways. I wanted to use my main with Display Port so I got a 1 HDMI IN->2 HDMI OUT for just my right monitor. Center monitor has multiple inputs so I just use the screen’s buttons to switch.

    My current monitor setup I literally setup this week. Each has multiple HDMI and DP inputs and it takes just a few seconds to switch each one with its built in switcher, and I honestly think this is the way to go.

    After a few years of doing it, I say if you are able to, prioritize nice monitors with multiple inputs and use their built in systems for switching. A few more button presses, but that’s just a few seconds of time.