Best Method for Hooking Up Consoles?

[ImMelody]

This is our current setup. While it looks alright, I'm still a little disappointed with our method of connecting everything to the TV. Right now we have 2 A/V switches, a daisy-chain for the Coax consoles, and an HDMI switch. Our TV has 3 HDMI, 1 Composite/Component and 1 Composite. And obviously, we are still missing some systems to be a complete collection of even the mainstream systems.

6052

Anyways, I have looked over the threads here and know there have been several suggestions on how to hook them all up. But the most recent is nearly 3 yrs old at this point, so thought there might be a better way now.


Also, please don't make fun of my Hello Kitty collection.

We are also getting ready to buy another skinny shelf or two for the games to get them off the primary shelves.

[BricatSegaFan]

This is our current setup. While it looks alright, I'm still a little disappointed with our method of connecting everything to the TV. Right now we have 2 A/V switches, a daisy-chain for the Coax consoles, and an HDMI switch. Our TV has 3 HDMI, 1 Composite/Component and 1 Composite. And obviously, we are still missing some systems to be a complete collection of even the mainstream systems.

6052

Anyways, I have looked over the threads here and know there have been several suggestions on how to hook them all up. But the most recent is nearly 3 yrs old at this point, so thought there might be a better way now.


Also, please don't make fun of my Hello Kitty collection.

We are also getting ready to buy another skinny shelf or two for the games to get them off the primary shelves.

Hmm that looks very similar to my setup except I have a CRT tv because the older consoles look fantastic on it. I'll put a pic up soon.

[theclaw]

LCDs are much more sensitive to source video clarity received. They often show fine artifacts that CRTs blur over.

The best thing you can do is keep in mind composite and particularly RF are lossy formats by design. Those lose image detail when first encoded, before even reaching a TV.
I'd plan ahead. Take note which consoles have component / s-video / RGB ability inside, then get cables, mods, and/or converters as needed.

[wiggyx]

Best as in "best way to hook them all up at once with the least amount of fuss", or "how to ge the best picture quality from each"?

[ImMelody]

Best as in "best way to hook them all up at once with the least amount of fuss", or "how to ge the best picture quality from each"?


Ah, yes! That might help quite a bit huh? I mean the best way to hook them all up at once with the least amount of end-use fuss. I don't care if it takes me 2 days to get it all hooked up as long as in the end I have the least amount of buttons to push to play any particular console. However, if there is a way to do this and maximize picture quality (husband has thought about a digital upscaler), even better!


ETA:

This is what NES and SNES look like on our TV. So I suspect that we don't actually need an upscaler and what our TV currently has is fine.

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[Gamereviewgod]

Pelican System Selector Pro or a decent AV receiver with video pass through. Either will do some cleaning up, and the receiver will provide an audio boost, even with cheap speakers. TV speakers are big no-no.

[wiggyx]

Ok, knowing that, how many consoles do you want hooked up? How many different means by which are they to be hooked up? (RF, Composite, S-vid, etc.) How much are you willing to spend?

There's not going to be any specific single best way. But there are good ways, better ways, iffy ways, and sorta everything in between.

[ImMelody]

Ok, knowing that, how many consoles do you want hooked up?

So in the end I believe it's 21 hook ups.


How many different means by which are they to be hooked up? (RF, Composite, S-vid, etc.)

We currently have 5 RF (NES, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, ColecoVision and Sega Master System), 8 composite (SNES, Genesis, PSX, N64, DC, GC, PS2, XBOX), 5 HDMI (cable box, HTPC, WiiU, PS3 and 360). We have 3-4 consoles we haven't gotten for the collection Sega Saturn Atari 5200 and TurboGrafix 16 (Don't plan to do NeoGeo (unless for some unearthly event happens and we find it for chump-change) or any of the less mainstream consoles either.)



How much are you willing to spend?

Honestly, not a lot. We already have 2 working switches and the daisy chain for the RF consoles. But I'm more than happy to create some thing custom built for our collection. However, I understand that there is going to be some cost to making things end-user friendly. But that doesn't necessarily mean we just want a simple "Buy this box and all your dreams will come true." IE, happy to work to make it happen.


BTW, thanks for all the help and advice you guys have given.

[BlastProcessing402]

Our TV has 3 HDMI, 1 Composite/Component and 1 Composite

...

We currently have 5 RF (NES, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, ColecoVision and Sega Master System), 8 composite (SNES, Genesis, PSX, N64, DC, GC, PS2, XBOX), 5 HDMI (cable box, HTPC, WiiU, PS3 and 360). We have 3-4 consoles we haven't gotten for the collection Sega Saturn Atari 5200 and TurboGrafix 16 (Don't plan to do NeoGeo (unless for some unearthly event happens and we find it for chump-change) or any of the less mainstream consoles either.)

At some point I'd move the PS2 and Xbox to component, then move the NES and SMS over to composite, even if it means having to get a seperate component switchbox for the shared c/c input and then daisy chaining composite switchboxes for the other composite only input.

You don't mention VGA, but if you do happen to have one, moving the DC there would be great.

I'd also consider getting rid of the PSX (at least from the "always hooked up" category, you could still keep it on display or in storage) and using the PS2 (or PS3) for those games. Also consider replacing the GC on the composite input with a backwards compatible Wii on the component input (or tracking down a GC component cable, but that might cost more than a Wii).

[The Adventurer]

Does Daisy Chaining RF boxes result in picture or sound quality degradation the more attached boxes? I'm curious.

[needler420]

At some point I'd move the PS2 and Xbox to component, then move the NES and SMS over to composite, even if it means having to get a seperate component switchbox for the shared c/c input and then daisy chaining composite switchboxes for the other composite only input.

You don't mention VGA, but if you do happen to have one, moving the DC there would be great.

I'd also consider getting rid of the PSX (at least from the "always hooked up" category, you could still keep it on display or in storage) and using the PS2 (or PS3) for those games. Also consider replacing the GC on the composite input with a backwards compatible Wii on the component input (or tracking down a GC component cable, but that might cost more than a Wii).

Blastprocessing said it best. I'd come out of RF and to composote on the NES and SMS. There are tons of compostive selector switches out there to choose from. Lastly why bother hooking up a PS1?

I still have my original PS1 and PS2 but I would never hook up my PS1 again unless it was modded to play backups or be region free.

[ImMelody]

You guys are awesome. So what we're looking at is:



Component
Composite
VGA
RF
HDMI


PS2
NES
DC
7800
Wii U


XBox
SMS

ColecoVision
PS3



SNES


360



Gensis


HTPC



N64


Cable




GC






So, yes, we have a VGA port. In addition to removing (but still displaying) the PSX, we also decided to do the same with the 2600. This will mean we only have to use a single switch. And because I didn't check before hand, we discovered we had more ports than originally expected... So this set up will definitely give us room for growth. Thanks for all your help.

To "The Adventurer": We had a series of coax switches and made sure to get good lines for each. So it looked fairly good. If you look above at the Megaman, while the image is slightly blurred from it being nearly midnight when we took the picture, that's how our coax chain looks for NES.

[theclaw]

You need to play a PS1 game on PS2 using component. That's a CRUCIAL step to figuring out how to proceed.

See PS1 games use low-res video mode, which many LCDs refuse to accept from component. Even if they're OK with composite/s-video/RF/etc.