Audio / Video

Yet again, I am in need of a product.

Like many here, I'm sure, I have a few items in my home theater system. Most of it's pretty cheap (my Pronto was more expensive than almost all of it combined...I have a free DVD player for crying out loud ).

Anyway, my receiver has about 4 usable inputs, and I just need more. I have a crappy Radio Shack video selector, but even that doesn't give me enough.

I need a nice video selector with a bevy of inputs. Does anyone make anything like this? Something like a receiver made without the audio processing, etc. Preferably something that can be controlled via remote. I'm not expecting much, but it would be nice.

I could really use something like that too I have 12 videogame consoles and have to use multiple switch boxes. I can't find anything with more than 4 inputs

Exactly! I've got a playstation, N64, Sega Master System , and about 8 other inputs I need. I'd love a simple box with a row of like 20 inputs (S-Video or not), and IR controlled. A nice readout on the front where you could even type in the names of the inputs.

Maybe I'm just dreaming

I'll ask around here at work... i know some people here have to have a good solution... it's a frickin' game company.

Wow, 12 game consoles?! What'cha got?

Aight, the best info they had to offer was to look at prosumer video equipment. There are 12 and 24 port video switchers, but the cheapest one i could find was like $500. Ah well. Looks like daisy chaining some 6 ports would be the cheapest route.

My Kenwood reciever has 6 or so video inputs, and i've hooked a switch up to two of them, giving me 4 ports each on 2 of the six video inputs. Not to shabby, but what you are looking for would rock. There might be some money to be made there...

I have 12 videogame consoles and have to use multiple switch boxes. I can't find anything with more than 4 inputs

Anything more than 4-6 inputs moves away from the "consumer" realm and goes into the "professional" realm. At that point you're talking about a genuine video switcher or video router, as in TV-studio stuff. These cost Money with a capital M.

Why is it such an advanced thing? How hard would it be to create something that simply had a whole lot of inputs to even just one output? I'm not saying it has to have all those features I mentioned, just something that sends the signal straight through.

Yeap.

Here's a few links i was sent just for your browsing pleasure:

http://www.studio1productions.com/vs16.htm (no s-video... blech)
http://www.gohts.com/video/rfswitch.html#VH920 (6 port, IR controlled)
http://www.skyvision.com/store/mi8000058.html (same thing cheaper)

Thanks for those links! That second product looks good. Not as many inputs as I'd hoped, but I may have to go with that. I didn't even need S-Video (again, cheapo products), but oh well. It's basically everything I asked for only with fewer inputs. Thanks again!

The only thing I had been able to find was this:
http://www.jvc.com/product.jsp?modelId=MODL003005

But hey, that's like 7 times as expensive for 2 more inputs. no thanks!

I use a Sima Automatic Component Selector. It's only got four inputs, but it has some very nice features and seems to be of very high quality. First, it can autoselect the input. If you turn a component on, it notices and switches over to that input automatically. If you turn it back off, it switches back to whatever was selected before. If you have only RCA video out on some components, but S-Video out on others, it will allow you to run just an S-Video out to your monitor and do all the composite separation. This is very nice for monitors that don't allow you to have both RCA and S-Video plugged into the same input. It also has an audio compression/expansion module, which I usually leave off, but the times I've used it, it's been pretty nice. It also has a remote control to select inputs. And it's cheap -- a little over $100 street. I've not been happier with any home theater purchase ever.

Why is it such an advanced thing? How hard would it be to create something that simply had a whole lot of inputs to even just one output?

The more inputs you add to a video device, the more the signal could be degraded by the electronics, so the more work that needs to be done to make sure signal degradation doesn't happen.

But the real reason is that there simply aren't a lot of consumers who own 14 video devices and need a switcher that big. So they just don't make devices with that many switches in the "consumer" level of features/quality. Once you start getting into the high numbers, their customers are all running pro setups, so they make them with the pro features and quality because that's what their customers need.

Snes, NES, Genesis (version1 with 32x), N64, Dreamcast, Saturn, PS2, Turbo Duo, Jaguar, Gamecube, Xbox are the ones that are hooked up

I also have a Genesis (version 3), Turbo Grafix 16 (with cd unit) PSX that are redundant and are not hooked up

Good god man! It's called an emulator!

I can't imagine all of the controllers sitting around your TV!!!

Yeah, I think the Dreamcast alone can emulate like half of those systems.

http://www.dcemulation.com

Eh.. The only half-decent emulators I've used on the DC are NesterDC, DColem, and MAMED DC. The others were either too slow, incomplete (and no longer developed), etc.

Good god man! It's called an emulator!

Yeah but it's just not the same :-)

I just like game consoles and the controllers are all rolled up and sitting on their respective console. the back of the shelf is the really messy part

That's nothing. There's a guy here who has 77 consoles at his house. He has every version of almost every console. Not all hooked up at once mind you. He was just talking today about the new original Famicom he picked up yesterday with over 50 games. Nuts.

That gets a little wierd I've only got a representative of each of the 8, 16, and 64 bit generations. I'm still a proud owner of my Sega Master System. All my friends have to blox into every orrafice of their NES's to get it to work 50% of the time. I've never had any trouble. Only bad part of the Master System is that I've never beaten a single game for it! Most of them either go on forever or are too damn hard!! Argh!

Hahah.. He just printed me a list of most of his consoles, but he can't remember a few of them. lol. Here's a short partial list....

Odyssey 200
Odyssey 300
Odyssey 400
Odyssey 500
Odyssey 2000
Odyssey 3000
Odyssey 4000
Pong
Super Pong
Ultra Pong
Atari Video Pinball
Amiga CD 32
Intellivision II
Atari 2600 Jr.
Game Boy Light
Supervision
Monteverdi TV Sports
FM Towns Marty
Super Famicom
NES II
SNES II
Gemini
PSX Debugging Station 1
PSX Debugging Station 2
Game.com Jr.
TI99/4A

...i'll post the whole thing when he types it all up

It would be great if he had a website with pictures I haven't even seen some of those

Yeah, i think i'm gonna talk him into documenting them all... good idea!

I think I'm going to get the RCA input selector. 6 inputs is enough for me I suppose

A friend actually found a review of it for me:
http://www.audio-ideas.com/reviews/video/rca_source_selector.html

Does NesterDC support the VGA box yet? My Dreamcast has been on a normal TV for maybe 3 or 4 hours since I have owned it.

Couldn't tell you, I run it on a TV, and I'm a version or two behind. I think a new author is running the NesterDC show and up to version 5.something now. I'm still on 3.something due to the fact that I've been busy with my MAME cabinet.

I'd love to see any pictures of your progress on the MAME cabinet. I'm thinking of eventually building one myself. In the meantime, one of the companies that makes MAME controls has an adapter to use it with Dreamcast. So, with the MAME emu on Dreamcast coming along, I could use this control and have a "sort of" arcade system.

For a cheaper video switch, there's a Sony one that has 4 sets of connectors, and is only $50. It does have S-Video, but doesn't have the remote control capability like the RCA one.

There's tons of cheapy 4 port switchers with s-video. You can pick them up at game stores for around $15. I used one of those forever and didn't notice any signal degradation compared to hooking it up straight to the TV. $50 is pricey for a 4 port. =]

RadioShack has a 4-port with composite and SVIDEO (all 4) that will learn to use any of your other IR remotes. I bought one for my brother for Christmas. It wasn't that cheap, but then again, I was paying in Canuck Bucks.

Bruno

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-NfKaYN7rNfP/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?i=035SVS4&s=0

This is what I have, I got it a few years ago and it's still going just fine. It adapts composite and S-video both into a single S-video connection to the TV. So I have the VCR, Nintendo, Camera, etc in it. Before, I had to swap cables because when S-video was plugged into the TV it blacked out any composite connections for some reason. This thing auto-switches sources too, which is convenient. Has a remote included too, which I've never needed.

Just one more to think about.

Hmmm. The same one I referenced. Am I invisible these days?

Who said that?

Cool. These look good too. I've already ordered the RCA unit, though. My reasoning is that in addition to having 6 inputs and IR controll, the only downsides to the unit were ones I didn't have to worry about. That review said that it had some S-Video problems. Nothing in my system has S-Video, so no worry there

So all this, and I got the RCA for $84 from that link that Loren posted. As I think he said, I can't see spending twice that for a 4 input device. I've got a cheapo Radio Shack switcher here on my desk that I'm using with my PC for a bunch of stuff. I've also got an even cheaper one on my HT system now with 3 inputs, but I've got to get up to switch it and as I said, it's only got 3. So that's what brought about the post.

Much thanks to Loren for what seems to be the best choice out there at present, and for the cheapest place to buy it. I'll let you know how it does in my system

ROFL

Heh, sorry about that. I do read the whole post, I guess after 12 straight hours of ripping CD's you tend to get a little short-term memory loss.

I should have said "yeah, what he said".