Belkin's SOHO Omniview

Belkin's alphabetical advantage has its SOHO OmniView USB/Audio KVM up first. In last year's KVM roundup, Belkin's original OmniView USB was the only KVM switch with any kind of USB support. This time around, Belkin has competition on the USB front, but it also has the advantage of having more of a history in USB KVMs.

As its name implies, the SOHO OmniView USB/Audio KVM switches both USB and audio between computers. That's not revolutionary, but it has the potential to be very useful. Let's take a closer look at what Belkin has to offer.

The switch
It's probably a good thing that we're looking at the SOHO OmniView USB/Audio first, because it's going to take you a moment to wrap your head around the fact that it's actually a KVM switch. Try to keep an open mind before looking at the picture below.

The SOHO OmniView USB/Audio's exterior is certainly outside the box. Were it not for the color scheme, I would have probably mistaken it for one of Apple's creations. Then again, maybe Apple would call this 'Charcoal' or something. The switch almost looks like some sort of futuristic turret, poised to unleash its deadly firepower at a moment's notice.

Ok, maybe I've seen Star Wars too many times.

There's more than just form to the SOHO OmniView USB/Audio's outlandish design. Orienting the KVM vertically allows it to be placed snugly up against a monitor, where is occupies very little desk space. You'll find a cluster of four buttons and lights on the switch's face, each corresponding to one of the four computers you can control with the SOHO OmniView USB/Audio. The lights illuminate depending on which computer is selected, and the buttons have a Braille-like finish which makes fumbling in the dark a little easier.

For more convenient switching, the SOHO OmniView USB/Audio can also use keyboard hotkeys to switch between PCs and invoke an auto-scan feature that automatically cycles through each PC every few seconds.

Belkin has used a removable plastic panel on the KVM's spine to clean up the clutter that inevitably results from having up to four computers plugged into the same switch, but it's not a perfect fix.

The panel does a great job of bundling all the KVM's cables together at the back of the switch and effectively routing them towards the back of the desk. This reduces potential cable clutter on one's desk, but it's next to impossible to identify which plug corresponds to which port once the panel is affixed.

Also, the panel's fit is just a little too tight. There's only so much clearance with the panel in place, and I had to bend my monitor cable almost 90 degrees at the plug just to get it to fit. To Belkin's credit, the cables they suggest accompany the SOHO OmniView USB/Audio are quite flexible, and easily bend to accommodate the switch's cramped cable housing. (Cables are not included in the box with the OminView, however.)

At first, I was a little doubtful of the SOHO OmniView USB/Audio's ability to balance on the desktop, especially given its lightweight plastic body. In my experience, KVMs often tilt up due to the weight of the numerous cables protruding from their port clusters, but that's not the case with Belkin's latest. The upright, angled design spreads the weight of the cables more evenly over the switch's base, and even a fully loaded switch doesn't so much as teeter.

Cracking open the SOHO OmniView USB/Audio reveals a whole lotta ports, and gives us our first look at the switch's audio capabilities. In addition to standard USB and VGA ports for each computer, you can also hook up stereo speakers and a microphone. A stereo and microphone jack really just means there are two available audio ports for each computer. If you're daring, you'll ignore the microphone icon and red color-coded port and use that second audio port for the rear channel of a set of surround speakers. Nobody's going to tell you what you can and can't do with a microphone jack, are they?

An RJ-45 jack makes a curious appearance on the SOHO OmniView USB/Audio. Is this thing is an Ethernet switch, too?

Sadly, no. The RJ-45 jack is there so you can flash the SOHO OmniView USB/Audio's firmware via your parallel port and an included cable from Belkin. Sorry to dash your hopes.

Abit MAX owners looking for a USB KVM should take note here. The MAX lacks the parallel port necessary to update the SOHO OmniView USB/Audio's firmware without a USB-to-parallel adapter.

With USB, VGA, and two audio jacks corresponding to each PC, there's a whole lot of cabling necessary to really get the SOHO OmniView USB/Audio all hooked up. You have to buy cables separately at $24.99 each for a 6' set (you'll need one of these sets for each computer), which is a bit of a drag. The sets include individual VGA, USB, and audio cables, so you have the option of reducing at least audio cable clutter if you're don't need speakers hooked up to your server.

Belkin's VGA cables are particularly beefy, which certainly bodes well for video signal quality. A claimed 400MHz of VGA bandwidth doesn't hurt, either.

Living with the OmniView
I have to admit that the SOHO OmniView USB/Audio's design has grown on me. Having the KVM switch oriented vertically makes a big difference on my desk, where the switch has to share space with a PDA cradle, a number of different speakers, two monitors, two mice, and two keyboards.

Belkin has really come across a good idea with their removable cable panel, too. Though it could use a little refining, it does dramatically reduce the cable clutter compared to other KVM switches. The need for multiple cables makes clutter impossible to eliminate, but Belkin's design at least neatly ports that clutter off my desk to join the tangled mess of cables that lies beneath.

The SOHO OmniView USB/Audio was golden during work and play, and didn't flinch with repeated keyboard mashing in a couple of Jedi Knight II lightsabre matches. Even at 1600x1200x32 at 75Hz (the best my monitor can do), I didn't see any ghosting or degradation in video quality with the SOHO OmniView USB/Audio. I'm using a Matrox G550 in my work machine, and the text was as crisp as ever, even after having to mangle my NEC AccuSync 95F's monitor cable to get it to fit under that pesky back panel.

If your speakers have multiple inputs, the usefulness of audio switching may be lost on you, but you don't need to use it. Personally, I found audio switching extremely useful when going between my work box and a test rig. My work box mostly deals with ICQ and email notification sounds, and occasionally a little music. The test rig, in this case, dealt in 4.1 surround sound gaming. Don't tell anyone, but I used that microphone port for the 4.1 setup's rear channel. Unless you want to listen to music played back on one PC while you game on another, audio switching is definitely the way to go.

The SOHO OmniView USB/Audio switches USB keyboards and mice between computers without having to reinstall them after each switch, but the same can't be said for USB peripherals. Each time you select a new PC, the OS detects new USB peripherals. This isn't a big deal, and it only takes a few second. What's more problematic, however, is switching away from computers in the middle of performing a task using one of those USB peripherals. Forget switching between computers while you wait for files to copy over from your USB digital camera, you'll halt the file transfer. There's even more risk with USB printers, scanners, and CD burners, where you risk creating coasters if you're careless.

In a perfect world, peripherals could be shared by all computers on the switch at the same time. The limitation is annoying, but it wasn't a huge problem as long as I was paying attention before switching PCs.