Video Switchers

[chadtower]

Anyone out there have a really kick ass video switcher for their setup? I mean, something that will take like 20 inputs? Or something else of note?

[Raedon]

naa.. I have 2 4 switch S-Video's daisy chained together lol.. Stupid Trinitron.. only one S-Video in.

[chadtower]

I'm poking around ebay now... I see some serious looking 10 input a/v switchers... for surprisingly little.

[Darth Sensei]

The switchers I was looking for were coax for Atari and such. I had to settle for 3-1 switches from Radio Shack because I couldn't find anything with more inputs. :(

Dave

[chadtower]

I have one that's coax only... I believe it's 6in 3out but I could be slightly off. Anyway, you don't need those for the atari systems. You can route the signal through rca line all the way to the tv and THEN convert it to coax if you want...

[christianscott27]

see thats the trouble, RCA and coax, you wont find that on 1 box. hell if you're like me and try to run 20 systems you'll never find any box that does it all. we've all been thru the various box-to-vcr-to other box methods but when you want something this complex you need to build it! my elctronics friend joe built his own 13 coax system switching dial, as a classic gamer he never ran into the RCA issue. i bet you could do it, and i bet you could make a few bucks selling such beasts to people like us...have a slot for every system ever made and 6 RCA spares for the next gens :)

[Half Japanese]

Christian, I think that Pelican makes a switchbox that has the coax and RCA jacks in one, and in fact I think they have them at Walmart. Or at least they did last time I was there (probably a year ago). I checked Pelican's web site but could find no mention that they made any such product, but I know that they do because all of my stuff was plugged into a Pelican brand box until the lightning fucked up my tv. Check WalMart and Gamestop....Pelican stuff at Gamestop sometimes carries the "Gamestop" brand instead of Pelican though.

[chadtower]

see thats the trouble, RCA and coax, you wont find that on 1 box. hell if you're like me and try to run 20 systems you'll never find any box that does it all. we've all been thru the various box-to-vcr-to other box methods but when you want something this complex you need to build it! my elctronics friend joe built his own 13 coax system switching dial, as a classic gamer he never ran into the RCA issue. i bet you could do it, and i bet you could make a few bucks selling such beasts to people like us...have a slot for every system ever made and 6 RCA spares for the next gens :)

Yeah, but dude, you don't need coax switching for older game systems. Do the switching before it's converted from RCA to coax. That should work just fine. The bonus there is that you only need one RF converter at the output, too, rather than 12 of them before the switchbox.

[nildem]

I'm poking around ebay now... I see some serious looking 10 input a/v switchers... for surprisingly little.


I can't seem to find them. What search terms are you using?

[chadtower]

An example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3046732805&category=21169&rd=1

[The Manimal]

http://www.jvc.com/product.jsp?productId=PRD0600000

I have one.....VERY recommended.

[Darth Sensei]

http://www.jvc.com/product.jsp?productId=PRD0600000

I have one.....VERY recommended.

You bought an $800 switchbox? :o :o

[chadtower]

Dude... $800?

@_@

[The Manimal]

Bah! That's MSRP. You can get it for less at:

www.etronics.com


You can get it for several hundred dollars cheaper. I don't use it for gaming though (video editing).

Want to record from one source to 5 different recorders at once, or record from one source to 3 recorders while at the same time recording from another source to 2 other recorders.....you can :)

[chadtower]

Yeah, not really what I want to do. I want to be able to go from 20 inputs to 1 output... if I have other outputs, fine, but that doesn't help if you can't get 20 inputs. I'm working on doing it without 65 inline 4 input switches.

[The Manimal]

You could purchase one of these 8 input HD switchboxes, and then hook a $30 Recoton switchbox up to each input.


8 X 4 = 32 inputs


Of course, if you are wanting to hook up component video for your systems, you'll need somehting better than a $30 switchbox which only has composite and s-video.. Plus, this JVC switchbox converts all composite signals to s-video signals and backwards...

[chadtower]

Yeah... until I know exactly what type of TV I'm going to put there, there isn't much point in working on that... it's all a long term work in progress.

[lendelin]

Well I use system selectors if I have to, but I also like to use universal cables which gives you three adapters for 3 different systems. The advantage is that you can link DIRECTLY two different systems to the TV, sitting right next to ech other. This way you double your TV connections woithout using a selector which decreases the signal a bit.; but it all depends how many systems you have.

S-video selectors are plenty, but there was never an affordable component vodeo selector, even with an Ethernet adapter...until now. It's here, by Electronic source and Pelican:
http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=801668

For $99 with seven component video inputs it's cheaper than a receiver with three component video for $800 (I think it's smarter to buy a new additional TV for that money :)

Finally I can have not only my PS2, but also the GC and the XBox on component video; and $99 isn't so bad either. I think it's out now (finally) for about three weeks or so. Don't invest in a Monstercable though if you use a selector; only invest in a very good cable if you can directly link it to your TV.

If you're interested (like me) to squeeze the last signal out of your system so every game looks just better...get the thing. :) I waited for about two years for a component video selector.

[Oobgarm]

http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=801668

I just bought this last night, and I am really impressed with it. It has 8 inputs that can handle component video, S-Video, composite, optical audio, and even a few that handle ethernet. There's no drop in picture quality that I can tell. Of course, it'll take 2 inputs to run both component and S-Video/composite on the same TV.

I know that Pelican's track record is spotty at best, but they do come through with kick-ass products every now and then. Since they got away from Interact, they've been putting out much better product.

[chadtower]

Cool, I'll have a look at that, but none of the systems I have or plan to have any time soon have component output. My most modern system is the Dreamcast, so I can hold off on a component video switchbox until later.

[Oobgarm]

In that case:

http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=801178

I had one of these a while back, worked quite well for me. Has S-Video and composite input. And for $20 it's not a bad deal.

[chadtower]

Yeah, I've been eyeing those, holding off hoping to find one with more inputs. The real holdup right now is more electrical than anything else, as I have to have an electrician come in and add more outlets to that area of my house.