I have two Macs, a G4 and a G5. The G5 has a great monitor which I calibrate every 30 days (this is important to my work), but the G4’s monitor is fairly old, and cannot be calibrated. I use both computers, but never at the same time.
Is there any way to connect both computers to the good monitor (and also the G5’s keyboard and mouse), and allow me to switch back and forth without disconnecting and re-connecting the cables? In other words, I need to work right here at the G5, with this monitor and keyboard and mouse, but accessing the G4.
Ok, I totally misread your post. Synergy will let you share the keyboard/mouse from one of the machines with the other, but you’d need monitors for each machine. It’s extremely cool, you can move the mouse from one machine to the other as if they shared a desktop.
If you only want one monitor, then VNC is a good free solution. You’d install the server on the headless machine, and run a client on the other one.
I have had fun playing with synergy , but that was using two monitors. Synergy is pretty cool because it is cross platform and even has a shared clipboard that works between Windows, OS X and Linux. Drag your cursor off the corner of your windows machine and suddenly you’re in the corner of your Mac desktop! Synergy only works over a network and it might not be easy enough of a solution for you to se tup or not secure enough for your needs.
Do you need the G4 display to appear on the G5 monitor as well, or can you use the existing G4 screen?
What inputs are available on the G5 screen, and can it alternate between them? If there is only one input path to the G5 screen then methinks you are stuck with some kind of KVM. They do make DVI KVM switches, but if your G4 has only ADC and/or VGA out, you may not be able to go with a DVI KVM switch. There are adapters that can convert a DVI to a VGA connector so the G5 will probably work with a traditional mechanical KVM, but I woud share the concern expressed by buckgully about compatibility and signal loss by going to a different adapter since this is such detail oriented work.
I’ve used KVM switches with my Macs for years. The ones I have are ancient/obsolete (they assume ADB instead of USB; the three-way even assumes DB-15 monitor cables), but there’s nothing about the Mac per se that makes a KVM switch problematic. In fact nowadays I’d think any good switch would work with Mac or PC. Look for a mechanical, though, not an electronic; the electronic ones do indeed screw up your display. Ideally you want something with an actual physical rocker arm inside that you can feel make a distinct throw when you physically rotate the switch.
Alternatively and addictively easier if you’ve got the site license is Timbuktu.
One thing to keep in mind when using a KVM is that unless they support OS X/apple keyboards, the apple specific keys (volume control, eject) may not function properly. Your best bet (in my opinion) is the Belkin Flip KVM. The slightly older (BELKIN F1DM102U Flip) supported two usb devices + a vga monitor and essentially was a nice white base that the mac mini could sit on. My experiences were great with the device with both a PC + MAC and MAC + MAC. Although Belkin is no longer listing this model on the website, you can probably still find it at other sites. The newer devices look different and require an adapter to use VGA monitors, so I’d recommend searching for the older one, which has native VGA support.
I would say look for a electrical switch and not a mechanical one. I have used both and the mechanical ones don’t work well because of impedances mismatches that cause a light image just to the side of the wanted image. All the electrical switches I have use transmitted the viedo great even at high 1600 by 1200 85 Hz.