AV switchers: What do you recommend?

[ApolloBoy]

OK, so I've got two AV switchers for my setup right now. One has 4 switches, which is daisy-chained to one with 3. Hooked up to the 4-switch are my satellite receiver, Genesis/Sega CD, SMS, and the 3-switch has my NES, PC Engine Duo and SNES.

Recently, I've been planning to send my older RF-based systems for AV mods to someone like omnedon, since I've grown tired of crappy RF. I don't have any spare switchers, and I don't really want to daisy chain a whole bunch of switchers and make my setup more complex than it already is. What AV switcher do you guys recommend that can take more than 4 or 5 things at once?

[intvsama]

Once you go over 5 systems you're probably going to want to look into stereo receivers which have a multitude of inputs. You can get older ones for next to nothing at fleas and yard sales and whatnot.

I have a 5 port Pelican switcher from several years ago, AFAIK they still make them. They do AV and s-vid. Think I paid $20 for it, any place that carries a decent selection of game accessories should have them. Still works well after four years of use.

[Trebuken]

There are the plemty of 8 system selectoirs, but they tend to be more expensive.

I use an auto-selector. This is a cheap solution. You hook your manual selectors to it and it makes selecting systems and it will will switch to the sytem that is on.

[Fuzzball24]

Once you go over 5 systems you're probably going to want to look into stereo receivers which have a multitude of inputs. You can get older ones for next to nothing at fleas and yard sales and whatnot.

I have a 5 port Pelican switcher from several years ago, AFAIK they still make them. They do AV and s-vid. Think I paid $20 for it, any place that carries a decent selection of game accessories should have them. Still works well after four years of use.

I have that one too....get it.

[Starwander]

I use the Philips auto-switches that are sold at Wal-mart for $24.97. They work exceptionally well and are very convenient since they are automatic. Plus you can daisy chain the selectors without any problem.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Like it was said, and A/V receiver would help... I personally have quite a few things hooked into my TV... But I use a combination of a 4 input av switcher and my receiver. It works great. I haven't seen many of the 8 input devices that were mentioned, so I can't say if they're worth the price. You could get a low end receiver for 200 or 250, and then not only would you have a good switcher, you could also add some speakers, and you'd get a huge sound improvement too (over your TV speakers). You might also consider upgrading your TV eventually... quite a few TVs have 5 or 6 inputs on the back... And if you are on a budget, I'd sit down and figure up the cost of each alternative... and look at specific models to find out how many av inputs you have to work with vs. how many things you are hooking up to your tv. But most likely a small AV switcher will have to be used in combination with either a TV or receiver, if you have a 5 or 6 systems hooked up like I do.

[Family Computer]

does anyone have any links or information about setting up like 10-15 game systems in an ideal way with no video loss etc.

I am about to move places, and I would like to do some planning on making an insane command center.

[ApolloBoy]

You might also consider upgrading your TV eventually... quite a few TVs have 5 or 6 inputs on the back...

Actually I don't have a TV, I have an LCD monitor hooked up to a TV tuner box.

[blue lander]

I recently bought one of those 20 dollar AV switch boxes from Gamestop. It can do 3 Component and 4 Composite inputs. And it so happens that my TV has three AV inputs, so I just use the Component inputs as Composite ones and hook the output up to the second AV channel on my TV. 7 systems with a 20 dollar switch isn't bad!

[alec006]

does anyone have any links or information about setting up like 10-15 game systems in an ideal way with no video loss etc.

I am about to move places, and I would like to do some planning on making an insane command center.

I dont have any links but i know that if you have a powered input switcher,no not just for the built in RF modulator,but for the whole selector itself,signal loss is minimal, oppose to having a selector with no power which the more inputs you have the more chances for abit of signal loss. I have 10 inputs on 1 powered and 2 unpowered other selectors,the devices on the power one seem to have a much sharper picture than the last device on the line which is on the 2nd unpowered selector,seems it looses brightness or contrast information down the chain. But when i unhook the device and plug it into the powered one the picture shows improvement. Btw im using composite video on the chain,im not sure how S-Video and Component would do.

[Trebuken]

The biggest issues I have had with power loss are over RF. Chaining a couple RF switches together sucks (not always).

Anyone ever fing an RF switcher with more than 3 connections?

10-15 systems isn't that tough if your set has multiple inputs. You can have a switchbox for your RF a switchbox for composite, one for S-video, Component, there is even a cheap HDMI box available now (never seen a DVI switcher, they must have them).

[GarrettCRW]

I use the 8-port Pelican boxes that infest eBay for 20 bucks a pop. They're pretty good, and also have S-Vid and Component ports for when I get an HDTV (also known as the day A-V modders like D-Lite and omnedon start counting ginormous wads of dough).

[Cinder6]

I use the Philips auto-switches that are sold at Wal-mart for $24.97. They work exceptionally well and are very convenient since they are automatic. Plus you can daisy chain the selectors without any problem.

Just a few questions on this; I was looking into getting one. I see they have two spots for RF, as well; can you use those in conjunction with the other inputs (giving you two RF and 4 RCA inputs)? Also, how well does the S-Video upconversion work (basically, is it lossy)? It would be nice to be able to get the benefits of my S-Video SNES cables (I know the signal upconversion doesn't improve composite sources).

Thanks.

[Zach]

I can also recommend the cheap Pelican switches. I have a "network" of five of them daisy-chained together with one master 4-port switch and another 4-port switch on each of its inputs yielding a total of 16 inputs.

I'm a bit of a videophile, so naturally I was concerned about signal loss. Realistically it's just not an issue, though. I just use the shortest and highest-quality cables possible for each run, and keep video signal cables away from power cables. I've done quite a bit of comparing, swapping back and forth between running the systems through my "rig" versus going straight into the TV and there were very few cases where I could tell any difference in picture or sound quality. And even in those cases it wasn't a matter of one connection being better than the other, but rather slightly different (very slightly).

One thing that really helps is running everything through S-video or better if possible. Most of the classic systems can be modded to output S-video, and it's 100% worth the effort and minimal cost. I've modded my Atari 2600, 600XL, and 5200 for S-video, and added composite outputs to my NES top-loader, TG-16, and others that are certainly slipping my mind. The gains in picture quality from these mods have a far greater impact than the type of switches I'm using along the signal path.

One other tip for those wanting to hook up a kajillion systems at once is to consider some sort of master power switch. If you're playing lots of classic systems, you have an increased risk of electronic failure that could lead to fire or at least melted plastic. And the older power "bricks" are horribly inefficient, sucking far more power than you'd believe even when your systems are turned off. Your master power switching could be done as simply as plugging everything into a power strip that you turn off when you're not playing, or you can go my over-the-top route and build a pretty little light-up power switch into your shelf or cabinet. I just used a cheap red AC switch component from Radio shack and wired it into a heavy duty extension cord. When I'm not playing games I always notice if I've left the power on to all of the systems because the big red light is on.

You can make your setup look great, too, with a little more effort. I built a simple custom shelf that holds the switched along the top and has plenty of paths to run all of the wires out of sight (which really helps when it's time to ask your spouse if it's OK to keep the games in the living room!)

This is an outdated picture, but you get the idea. Have a look:
http://www.zachcollier.com/images/GameShelf.jpg

Notice all of the switches lined up along the top of the shelf.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Just to add to the comment above... there shouldn't be much of a signal loss anyway as this is a video switcher and not a splitter (which is a big difference). It would be possible if you daisy chained a lot of them to notice a signal loss, but I wouldn't worry too much. I do this kinda thing for a living... and the main things that cause signal loss, like others have mentioned, are: splitting the signal (through a passive non-powered splitter), and the long runs. Cables like VGA, HDMI, and DVI that carry high res signals are way more prone to signal loss than a standard RCA or S-Video connector. As long as you keep your cables away from the power strips and they are decently sheilded, you should be OK. Although its not common to get interference from a thinly shielded S-Vid or RCA cable anyway, bad or worn out connectors (the tips of the cable) are often times the culprit of a bad signal or video noise.

By the way Zach, very awesome set-up. It's hard to tell any of those systems are hooked up. I hate seeing the wires too, and you may have given me some inspiration, because my entertainment center is slowly running out of space.

[Zach]

Thanks, Domestic. I'm pleased with my setup overall, and most people who see it can't believe that all of the systems are hooked up and ready to play. And like I said, hiding those cables is key if you want to have your games out in the open in a normal living room!

[Family Computer]

yo zach, that's really clean

I am not sure what I am going to do with my setup, but I will probably have some sort of cabinet with doors to conceal everything. I really want to plan it out nice and maybe have an RGB CRT setup for older stuff along with a flatscreen HDTV for the newer stuff.

Gotta find the best way to setup a Tea4Two Famicom + Disk System, Super Famicom, N64, Cube, Turbo Duo, NeoGeo AES, Sega CDX, Saturn, Dreamcast, PSOne, Slim PS2, Apple ][, Mac Classic, Commodore 64 & MSX Turbo. Not to mention the inevitable PS3/Xbox360/Wii to come with a HDTV setup.

Not to mention the AV stuff: Stüder Cassette Deck, CD Player, DVD Player, Sony MD, JVC VHS, Pioneer LD, and Turntable

I want to make it like a command center with everything being able to feed into my computer for Audio/Video capture, so it is going to take a lot of planning to do it right.