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I have a PC monitor which has two ports, one for DVI and one for HDMI.

My PC is currently connected to the monitor through a DVI cable.

I have a Cable Tv Digibox which is also connected to the same monitor through an HDMI cable.

With both the PC and the Digibox turned on and connected to the monitor, I am only able to view the Cable Tv Digibox input on my monitor, if I remove the DVI cable connected to my PC. Or possibly, if my pc sleeps the monitor (not sure though).

Is there a way to control the monitor from my Windows 7 pc so that I can easily switch between the DVI input from my PC and the Cable Tv Digibox input from the HDMI?

It seems possible to connect the Digibox to my PC, instead of directly to the monitor, using the HDMI connector, since the PC also has an HDMI port.

The Sky Cable Digibox does not have a DVI port only HDMI.

Details:

  • ACER P235H monitor (Two ports, DVI and HDMI)
  • ACER Aspire AX5900 desktop pc (Two ports, DVI and HDMI)
  • NVIDIA Geforce 210 graphic card
  • Windows 7 Home Premium
  • SKY Cable Tv Digbox (HDMI port only and VGA I think)

Notes: The PC is connected to the monitor using the DVI cable The Digibox is connected to the same monitor using the HDMI cable.

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3 Answers 3

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Unfortunately your model of monitor (Acer P235H) doesn't implement any control protocol - such as an IR remote or HDMI CEC, so you won't be able to influence it's behavior with both inputs connected. That said, it's sometimes possible to trigger a change of input when a source is disconnected. That is - if you were to disconnect your laptop you may find the monitor will automatically fallback to the other input.

Connecting the Digibox to your PC won't work either. Most graphics cards (including your Geforce 210) are only designed to output images over the ports they provide, rather than take input data. This means if you do connect the Digibox to the Geforce's HDMI port, you'll be connecting two outputs together which won't work the way you expect.

A solution to your problem would be to purchase an HDMI Switcher. You could then connect a single display (your monitor) and each of your inputs (PC and Digibox) and have the ability to switch between them with the push of a button, or with a remote - depending on the switcher you purchased.

Further to this, you could get a USB Infrared Transmitter which you could install on your PC to programmatically send commands to the HDMI switcher, provided it came with an IR remote.

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  • Thanks Justin, this particular statement was useful to me: "That said, it's sometimes possible to trigger a change of input when a source is disconnected. That is - if you were to disconnect your laptop you may find the monitor will automatically fallback to the other input.". I am currently setting Windows Power Settings such that it sleeps (disconnects) the monitor within 1 minute. Once the PC disconnects from the monitor, I am able to see the input from the Digibox.
    – Alexander R. Torrijos
    Jan 17, 2015 at 13:32
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I have similar situation with dual systems (Win/OSX) setup sharing a monitor, and I am lazy to reach out and press the buttons twice on the monitor to switch inputs.

The solution I'm using now is through AutoHotkey (https://autohotkey.com/). As shared by user shimapan in this post, you can customize the hot key that sends DDC/CI (from your operating system, in this case Win7) commands through connecting port (VGA/DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort) to your monitor.

The downside is that you need to have your computer on in order to send the commands.

I also have Synergy (synergy-project.org) set up on both systems, so I can use the same keyboard/mouse to control both systems.

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For others finding this thread: In the link mentioned by @Ken (thank you! thank you! thank you!), the NirSoft tool ControlMyMonitor is mentioned (once again NirSoft to the rescue!). Using this tool, switching the input is possible for certain monitors.
Just run the tool, search for the VCP Code Name Input Select (should be always 60, I guess) and check the column "Possible values". The path for your monitor needed to address the right monitor can be copied in Edit -> Copy monitor strings (or Ctrl-M). Then you can try switching using <path_to_the_executable>ControlMyMonitor.exe /SetValue <monitorstring> <VCP_code> <input_code>, e.g. "C:\Tools\ControlMyMonitor\ControlMyMonitor.exe" /SetValue "\\.\DISPLAY1\Monitor0" 60 17. You can also switch between multiple inputs using the SwitchValue-argument, e.g. "C:\Tools\ControlMyMonitor\ControlMyMonitor.exe" /SwitchValue "\\.\DISPLAY1\Monitor0" 60 16 17 18.
I've created keyboard shortcuts in my AutoHotkey-script, but you could also create normal shortcuts to the executable and add the correct parameters or similar.

Edit: Worth noting that nowadays you can also use Primary or Secondary instead as device name (\\.\DISPLAY1\Monitor0 in the example above) or any other identifying string that you can get using Ctrl-M and pasting the result into an editor. This leverages the usage, e. g. on a desktop the display most probably is Primary, while connected to a laptop it will be Secondary, as well as adressing the correct monitor on multi-monitor environments.

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