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paul-mn · Oct 18, 2006, 10:15 AM

Forgive me as this borders on another mini vs. iMac post. Today I have a my wife's PC laptop and an iBook on my desk sharing a monitor via a KVM. I'm keeping my iBook as it's the machine that travels with me to work but I would like to add a more powerful Mac to this setup. I've been leaning towards the mini just because it works well in in my KVM environment. I'm not a gamer but the iMac specs make it worth taking a second look.

My question is, can I somehow share the iMac screen/keyboard with my iBook and PC? I'm looking for a zero cost or low cost solution so Parallel/Boot Camp isn't an option. Would VNC work? Are some of you already doing this?

If you run a second monitor off the iMac, can it be a VGA monitor? If so, can that second monitor be switched with a KVM? Not an ideal solution but just curious if it would work.

Thanks,
-Paul

ibook_steve · Oct 18, 2006, 01:46 PM

I'm not sure I understand the question. You currently switch a monitor between a PC laptop and an iBook. Are you asking about replacing one of these with an iMac or mini? It's not clear. Obviously with the iMac, you would only be able to hook up the external monitor connection to the KVM and share the keyboard and mouse along with the monitor.

Steve

Big Mac · Oct 18, 2006, 02:32 PM

There is no way to get an iMac display to act as an external for other computers, if that's the question. There is no Video In to accomodate such a setup, only Video Out for a second display. That second display could be VGA with the appropriate adapter and then possibly KVMed, but that would be a very awkward setup.

chadseld · Oct 20, 2006, 10:59 AM

VNC or Microsoft Remote Desktop will work, but there is a small amount of lag which could become annoying depending on your type of work.

thebiscuit · Oct 20, 2006, 11:52 AM

Yeah you can have screen spanning doctor on the ibook-and VNC enabled under sharing prefs-get the imac to connect to display 2, have them conected thru ethernet - if that makes sense to you.

Jag · Oct 23, 2006, 03:11 AM

Might not be what you asked for, Paul, but I thought I'd share my latest find: http://www.screenrecycler.com/home.html

Regards
Mathias

Dickster · Jun 5, 2007, 08:36 AM

Are you saying there is no way I can connect a PC machine to my iMac to work as a dual monitor?

C.A.T.S. CEO · Jun 5, 2007, 10:21 AM

It is impossible without buying a bunch of equipment and in the end getting a bad picture or using VNC and getting a bad picture

tiger · Jun 5, 2007, 10:25 AM

There's no way to do that unless you buy some adapters (elgato) and a hack which would give you a slow display image. No point in doing so, that's one of the disadvantages of the iMac.

Bring on the Headless Mac!

Dickster · Jun 5, 2007, 11:37 AM

Anybody used Parallel Desktop? bootcamp seems a long way round the problem.

Oneota · Jun 7, 2007, 12:22 PM

Originally Posted by Dickster

Anybody used Parallel Desktop? bootcamp seems a long way round the problem.

Not only that, it still wouldn't solve the problem. There's a lack of physical connectivity preventing your iMac's monitor from being a display for anything other than the computer built-in to it.

ginoledesma · Jun 8, 2007, 01:37 AM

I've tried ScreenRecycler. It does the job, but after using it (timed demo) for some days, I found that it just wasn't "good enough" -- screen redraws are much too visible for my taste (e.g. dragging windows), and it distracts me when I work (coding mostly).