Owners manual

30.....Avocent® Matrix High Performance KVM Switching System
Peripherals Tab
InordertounderstandthePeripheralsTab,youneedtofirstunderstandwhatanEDID(Extended
DisplayIdentificationData)is.EDIDsarebuiltintovideomonitorssothecomputerthatamonitoris
connectedtocanquerythemonitorforitscharacteristicsandcapabilities.Thecomputer’svideo
hardwarecanthendrivethemonitoraccordingtotheresolutionandtimingthatthemonitorcan
accept.Thiswillaffect,forinstance,theresolutionoftheoperatingsystem’sdesktopdisplay.
WhenaMatrixtransmitterisconnectedtoatargetcomputer,thetransmittertakestheplaceofa
realmonitor,anditmustactlikearealmonitorandpresentanEDIDtothecomputerwhenqueried.
AtransmitterwithfactorydefaultsettingswillpresentagenericEDIDthatrepresentsafictitious
monitorthatsupportsalloftheresolutionsthatcanbehandledbytheMatrixsystem.
YoucanoverridethisdefaultEDID,bycapturinganEDIDfromanactualmonitorconnectedtoa
receiver,andpushthatEDIDdowntothetransmitter.Thenthecomputerattachedtothat
transmitterwillactjustlikeitwouldifthatmonitorweredirectlyconnectedtothecomputer.
Thereareseveralreasonswhyyoumightwanttopushamonitor’sEDIDdowntoatransmitter.If
themonitordoesnotsupportthehighestresolutionreportedbythefactorydefaultEDID,thenyou
couldpushthemonitor’sEDIDtothetransmitterinordertopreventthecomputer’soperating
systemfromdrivingthevideooutputattheunsupportedresolution.Thiswillavoidrequiringthe
receivertoscalethevideodowntotheresolutionrequiredbythemonitor.Thismayresultina
crispervideoimagefortheuserandwillallowaKVMsessiontobeestablishedmorequickly(since
thereceiverdoesnothavetochangeitsvideoresolutionandthemonitordoesnothaveto
resynchronize).Inasystemwhereallormostofthemonitorsarethesame,youmightwishtopush
thatmonitor’sEDIDtoallthetransmittersinordertoeliminatetheneedforanyvideoscalingwhen
usersestablishconnectionstovarioustargets
ThePeripheralstabdisplaystheattributesthatmaybecapturedfromamonitorconnectedtoa
receiver.Whenamonitorisconnectedtoareceiver,themonitor'sEDIDinformationcanbepulled
intotheswitchandstored.TheEDIDinformationcanthenbepushedouttoanyavailable
transmitter.Ifthetransmitterandreceiverarerunningthesameresolution,establishingavideo
connectionwillbefasterbecausethereceiverwillnothavetochangeresolutionandthemonitorwill
nothavetoresynchronizewiththeresolutionchange.
Thenameoftheperipheralsandthedescriptioncanbechangedbyselectingthemonitorand
editingtheAttributestab.ThemanufacturerIDandproductcodearereadonlyfields.
TheMonitorslistispre-populatedwithtworead-onlyentries:theAvocentDefaultVGAEDIDand
AvocentDefaultDVIEDID.Thesearethefactorydefaultmonitorattributes(EDIDs)thatare