Questions about building your game rooms.

[Leo_A]

BTW, I'm an electrical engineer with quite a bit of RF knowledge/experience... I'd be glad to go into more detail if you'd like, but I lost the OP the first time, and crazy technical details may be a little off topic.

Thanks for the information.

Having three consoles that still use the coaxial jack of my television and nothing else that does, I've just been keeping a F-type connector screwed on to it and switching cables when changing between them.

Nice to know I can dig out a splitter and just have it happen automatically rather than switching cables around everytime I want to play one of the other two systems. I even have a three way splitter stored away and a couple more F type adapters, so I'm all set with what I'd need.

[DogP]

Thanks for the information.

Having three consoles that still use the coaxial jack of my television and nothing else that does, I've just been keeping a F-type connector screwed on to it and switching cables when changing between them.

Nice to know I can dig out a splitter and just have it happen automatically rather than switching cables around everytime I want to play one of the other two systems. I even have a three way splitter stored away and a couple more F type adapters, so I'm all set with what I'd need.

Yep... if possible, I'd make sure it's a non-resistive splitter... especially if it's only a 3-way splitter, since a resistive 3-way splitter would only have around 10dB of isolation (and for a non-resistive splitter, fewer ports should have better isolation).

The easiest way to tell is that a non-resistive splitter will typically show a frequency range like 5-1000MHz... a resistive power splitter should work down to DC. If the loss is labeled at each port, a non-resistive should show around 5dB... resistive should show around 10dB.

DogP

[DogP]

I saw this in an email from MCM today, which IMO is a pretty good deal at $15: http://www.mcmelectronics.com/produc...id=187351&jb=0 .

That looks identical to one that I'm using on my big screen for the Wii, DVD player, etc. It says high def, but IIRC, I wasn't able to get it to run any higher than 720p.

But yeah, compared to the other one from Monoprice, this is nice because it switches S-Video, Component, and Composite all on the same box, without needing any adapter cables or anything. And it auto-selects the last one you turn on, which is pretty nice. Of course it doesn't convert, so you still need to switch your TV to the correct input.

DogP

[camarotuner]

So here's what I've got (for the moment, still hoping to do a 2 tv setup but haven't found the right older tv yet...

I have a 4 way a/v selector an 8 way a/v selector and a 4 way r/f selector. Daisy chained 2 systems per r/f port and then put the cable tv cable on it's own port. Used HDMI for the PS3 and the 360. 2 very big (12 port) surge protectors with rotating ports (to accomodate the "big" ac adapters of older systems). So in all I have 18 systems hooked up and all functional whenever I want. Thank you for your guys suggestions and I will definately be looking to seperate "modern" from "vintage" gaming at some point just not sure when.

[StealthLurker]

I recently hooked up a LOT of systems in my gameroom... I went a little overkill w/ automation and stuff, but automated or not, I think this information should help. Of course I'd be glad to go into as technical of details as you'd like, but here's a quick overview.

All hooked up at the same time are: 7800, Odyssey 2, Intellivision, 5200, Colecovision, NES, Genesis, TI-99/4A, TurboGrafx-16, Master System, N64, Jaguar, Saturn, 3DO, Dreamcast, SNES, PS2, and xbox. I have a remote control to select which system I want to play, and it sets the switchboxes and TV to the correct input.

For component, s-video, and composite, I use a bunch of these switchboxes: http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2 ... You can use those for S-Video by getting S-Video to 2x RCA adapters (like: http://www.amazon.com/Hosa-S-Video-F.../dp/B0037MZAKS , which break S-Video into Y and C), and for composite by using just the Y port. I've found that I can daisychain those switchboxes at least once without noticably losing quality.

For RF, I wouldn't daisychain (the quality loss is pretty bad after a few systems), and I wouldn't use a switchbox, but instead just use an RF splitter/combiner. When you use one of those RF splitters in reverse, it works as a power combiner... so use something like one of these: http://www.av-outlet.com/en-us/dept_507.html , depending how many systems you need plugged in. You just have to make sure you only turn one system on at a time, or the signals interfere (if they're outputting the same channel). You should use a terminator on any unused ports.

For lightguns, any standard definition CRT should work, but a lot of them have comb filters, which will interfere with timing. Mine has a 3-line comb filter, which in simple terms tries to remove artifacts from the lower quality composite and coax signals. On composite, my lightguns shoot down and right of where I'm actually aiming... but comb filters aren't used on S-video, so if possible, you'll want to use S-video or better on any system you're wanting to use a lightgun on (except NES, since that basically detects hit or miss). You can use a composite to S-video adapter, but my experience has been that the picture quality of those is really bad. I converted my Master System and Genesis to S-video, so they work great.

And yeah, I'd recommend a newer TV for the new systems... I keep mine hooked up in my living room, and they look much better in HD widescreen, but the classic systems look much better on my 32" CRT.

DogP

I've actually had excellent results with a particular composite to svideo converter. I forget the make and model, but it's a powered unit. It's a tiny device and all it does is that one conversion. It's a bit pricey at a little over a 100 bucks. I recall picking that one after doing some research on the diff types/quality of svideo.... Something about 2 stage and 3 stage filtering. I use it on a Sony PVM RGB CRT monitor and it looks nearly as good as a true svideo source.


.

[DogP]

I've actually had excellent results with a particular composite to svideo converter. I forget the make and model, but it's a powered unit. It's a tiny device and all it does is that one conversion. It's a bit pricey at a little over a 100 bucks. I recall picking that one after doing some research on the diff types/quality of svideo.... Something about 2 stage and 3 stage filtering. I use it on a Sony PVM RGB CRT monitor and it looks nearly as good as a true svideo source.


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Yeah, a true converter would look good... most likely it has a comb filter, similar to what some TVs have built in. What I was referring to is something like: http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2 . The picture quality w/ those are super crappy... mine had vertical bars across the entire screen and the colors were kinda washed out. But the lightguns worked great, since it bypassed the comb filter of my TV by using S-Video.

If your composite to S-Video converter has a comb filter, the light gun games would still have the mis-aiming problems though. The problem comes from the added time delay of the filter.

DogP