OK my Ben Q Monitor is on its last legs. But I suppose it is time to upgrade the monitor anyway. I found another Ben Q monitor … BUT (You just knew there would be “BUT” ) the problem is that the INput (or is it OUTput ?) connectors on the monitor are HDMI (v2.0) and Display Port (v1.2), but there is NO place to plug in a VGA computer. This would not be a problem except that my KVM switch ( IOGEAR 4 port switch which is a “Cat of 4 tales” … or maybe 16 – Sorry ) which allows me to change from one computer to another with a deft hot key combo, is VGA. I will assume that the HDMI on the Monitor is FEMALE, making one end on the ACTIVE CONVERTER being MALE, and the VGA end of the ACTIVE CONVERTER being FEMALE ( I checked the tale of the 4th cable and it is MALE ). I saw a lot of stuff for converting a NEW COMPUTER to an OLD MONITOR, but not anything about a NEW MONITOR with HDMI to an OLD KVM Switch ( or Computer) with VGA. If this was Bi-Directional no problem, but from what I have read these are essentially Uni-Directional. I’n sure if the HDMI FEMALE end on the Monitor which accepts the MALE HDMI cable end determines directionality; or if is the VGA FEMALE end on the converter that accepts the MALE end of the Video tale from the VGA KVM switch which determins Directionality. If anyone has faced the problem of adding a NEW monitor with HDMI and/or Display Port to an old/older computer with VGA how did you get it to work?
D’Cat – just having a HOT TIME in the OLD PUEBLO tonight… and trying to solve another problem
jlehtone is right vga is analog and while there are converters from HDMI to VGA, its almost impossible to do the other way around.
not related to your problem, but will highlight what you want to do, my 5.1 channel amp for my hifi/surround sound has svideo in and out as well as composite. if I wanted to it to control the inputs on my 4K tv from my kodi box and my BR player etc id have to change the amp for one that supports hdmi switching, and thats what you are going to have to do if you want to continue to use readily available new monitors.
But the alternative is get on ebay, theres probably loads of people selling old monitors with 15 pin VGA connectors, even some TV’s come with them.
regards peter
Cheapest right now is as @wintpe said and maybe not get a new monitor, but one of ebay or whatever - if a new one with VGA/D-SUB cannot be found.
It could be a good time to start modernisation, replacing the graphics cards in the older machines with newer ones using HDMI, get a HDMI KVM switch, and the new monitor with HDMI. Yes, costs a bit more, but sooner or later this will be the only way forward anyway.
Kind of reminds me of a while back, I wanted to play games on my Pentium 133MHz, but the built-in graphics was no good, so I bought a Voodoo 3 graphics card only to find it supported PCI 2.0 and I only had PCI 1.3 in my computer. The cheaper option would have just been to take it back and forget about gaming or attempt to find a PCI 1.3 graphics card to allow me to play. What did I end up doing? Bought AMD K6-2 450MHz, ram, motherboard, ATX case, disks, soundcard, and had the new computer to install the Voodoo card in lol. But at least I was modernised and happy
I bought something like this on amazon last year. I used it to connect an old PC (VGA only) to a modern KVM-Switch (HDMI only). It is mostly ok, but sometimes with specific resolutions it has problems to sync. Drop me a PM and I can send you a Link. (I don’t want to advertise that in public).
You can probably find it by it’s Name using google as well. It’s called “FOINNEX VGA to HDMI”
ok I said almost impossible, thinking you would need to video capture the vga analog frame by frame and convert to digital, never expected anyone would squeeze all that functionality into an adaptor that small.
I’d say you won’t have to replace your KVM… This will be yanky, but I’ve done it once…(and it’ll only work as long as you have the same amount of inputs to your monitor as you have computers…)
Keep your KVM, but remove the video part of it. So you’ll use it as KM-switch. On each computer create a udev rule that executes ddcutil to switch monitor input when keyboard is detcted to the correct input.
But I suppose it is time to upgrade the monitor anyway. I found another Ben Q monitor … BUT (You just knew there would be “BUT” ) the problem is that the INput (or is it OUTput ?) connectors on the monitor are HDMI (v2.0) and Display Port (v1.2), but there is NO place to plug in a VGA computer. This would not be a problem except that my KVM switch ( IOGEAR 4 port switch which is a “Cat of 4 tales” … or maybe 16 – Sorry 
) which allows me to change from one computer to another with a deft hot key combo, is VGA. I will assume that the HDMI on the Monitor is FEMALE, making one end on the ACTIVE CONVERTER being MALE, and the VGA end of the ACTIVE CONVERTER being FEMALE ( I checked the tale of the 4th cable and it is MALE ). I saw a lot of stuff for converting a NEW COMPUTER to an OLD MONITOR, but not anything about a NEW MONITOR with HDMI to an OLD KVM Switch ( or Computer) with VGA. If this was Bi-Directional no problem, but from what I have read these are essentially Uni-Directional. I’n sure if the HDMI FEMALE end on the Monitor which accepts the MALE HDMI cable end determines directionality; or if is the VGA FEMALE end on the converter that accepts the MALE end of the Video tale from the VGA KVM switch which determins Directionality. If anyone has faced the problem of adding a NEW monitor with HDMI and/or Display Port to an old/older computer with VGA how did you get it to work?