Can anyone help me pick a good vga switcher and tell me the difference between one that's powered or not.

I'm using it for court and need to switch between two sources, an elmo and my laptop extended display, out to a projector.

I was reading a review of a switch that wasn't powered and said switching cause the extended display to go away because the interruption in the signal when switching is long enough to make the laptop think the monitor has been disconnected. In my current setup I go out to a distributor before the switch so I think I will be uneffected.

You can find decent powered VGA switchers used on Amazon or ebay usually. Kramer makes good high quality switchers. Being you're looking for VGA, you can probably find them pretty cheap.

Typically the higher end units have shorter switch times and higher resolution. It depends on how high of resolution you need. Powered units usually have a freeze button, a black button, and have a whole menu of different options to dial it in for you. A passive unpowered is just a series of switches.

Get an Extron passive (unpowered) VGA switcher. You will not have to worry about resolution. Passive means it is a mechanical switch, it will always output the same signal you put into it. There is no signal processing taking place other than the routing. Just make sure the Elmo and the lap top are on the same res as the projector for the cleanest switch. They are small, lightweight, and reasonably priced.

The downside is it is an ugly switch on the screen, a hard cut that might even flicker for a second depending on the connected devices.

The electronic switchers mentioned above are very expensive and probably unnecessary for your usage. If there is a menu and variable output selections they have an internal scaler you don't need for an Elmo and a laptop.

Kind Regards,

Steve

The switches I am referring to are called bang boxes. The newer Extrons do have a power supply but all the same rules apply. They are just not 100% mechanical anymore.