Connecting to DVI2USB causes source computer to pause periodically

Hello -

We have a client with a 4-port DisplayPort video card on a Windows 7 computer. They natively need two of the outputs to go to their 1920x1200 monitors. We need to capture a clone of one of these outputs and have a couple ways to do so. Unfortunately, neither way is working. I suspect that the client has some video card setting which is adversely affecting the DVI2USB performance, but do not know how to resolve it. The only change I have made to the DVI2USB is to install the 1920x1200 EDID file to match the clients output.

1- Connect port 1 or 2 of the video card output to a DVI splitter. One output of the splitter back to the clients monitor and the other output to the DVI2USB device. The Epiphan utility just shows a black screen at the clients resolution. If the resolution of the clients monitor is changed, then the utility briefly shows the cloned image before reverting again to a black screen. The splitter output to the clients monitor is normal. The strange thing with this set-up is that the utility correct shows the clone when the client computer is restarted. i.e. all of the bios/start-up/windows boot screens show normally. Once Windows loads, the utility screen reverts to black.

2- Connect port 3 or 4 of the video card output directly to the DVI2USB device. This would be the preferred method. When doing this with either port 3 or port 4, the utility correctly shows the clients monitor output and I can clone either the port 1 or port 2 outputs to the device. However, the problem is that this creates a periodic delay in the clients computer. Every one or two seconds the clients computer locks up for about 1 second. This creates obvious problems and make that computer unusable.

3- A third configuration has been set-up as a work around, but doesn’t fully resolve the problem. We have taken the video cards port 2 output and connected that directly to the DVI2USB device. The device computer has an HDMI output and that is connected to the clients second monitor using an extended desktop on the device computer. This allows us to show the client computers port 2 output on the clients monitor using the utility. This works, but there is still a periodic delay on the clients computer. It occurs at a much shorter interval, so doesn’t completely make the computer unusable. However, we still need to find a more permanent solution.

I have also connected the device computer’s HDMI output to the DVI2USB device and confirmed that this works and does not cause any periodic delay on the device computer.

Any suggestions on how to resolve this would be greatly appreciated.

Hello,

A black screen is usually an indication that HDCP (copy protection) is active on the signal. This might also explain why the bios/start up screens are seen, as HDCP would be not active during that time.

When the DVI2USB is connected directly to the signal source, i.e. setups 2 & 3, HDCP is not applied, if the splitter method is preferred, then try to have the DVI2USB be the “master” out of the splitter as a way to avoid HDCP.

With regards to the periodic hanging on the source computer, this sounds like it might be a performance issue when trying to drive multiple displays. There might also be an issue using Windows 7 and graphics cards drivers being out of date/no longer supported. Upgrading to Windows 10 with current drivers might help this potentially.

Hope this helps! If you require further troubleshooting please feel free to send in an email to info@epiphan.com and we can open a support ticket on this issue.