So I got a new TV with no S-Video or VGA input - Need Help with my Systems!

http://cnet2.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/...t-photos02.jpg

Here's my setup...

4 - HDMI (none with 1/8in or Red/White Input audio inputs)
1 - Component input (That also doubles as a Composite input, really strange)

And that is it for inputs.


I have one of these for my older systems.
http://images.esellerpro.com/2261/I/...icanswitch.jpg

This has composite/s-video/component & Ethernet inputs and outputs. It's just straight in and out, no conversion.

My systems

In the living room I have a Wii U (HDMI) / Xbox 360 (HDMI) / Dreamcast (VGA) / Saturn (S-VIDEO) / 3DO (S-VIDEO) / Regular Xbox (COMPONENT) / (Eventually a PS4 (HDMI) - Also have a Bluray Player & Roku & My PC hooked up already to HDMI.


http://images.esellerpro.com/2242/I/...MI3-1CABLE.jpg

I'm going to use one of these for my Wii U / Xbox 360 / PS4*
Now I can use my switcher for Saturn/3DO/Regular Xbox

But I need to somehow convert the S-Video output to HDMI or Component out of the Switch Box.

OR - I was thinking of Converting the S-Video from Saturn & 3DO to Component BEFORE the Switch Box -

So I could use Component from Switch to Component Input on TV.


Here's a diagram of my idea.

http://i.imgur.com/5XXoJH3.jpg

Anyone see a better way to do this? Will the Svideo to Component & VGA to Component - not look good?

Thanks guys!


Edit: Actually drawing the diagram really helped. I came here 1st just to type it all out and when I started getting too crazy to explain, I drew the diagram. Now looking at it, it might be the only way. But I can flip things around and if you guys think that converting the S-Video & VGA to HDMI instead of Component will be any better. Please let me know!

I have a FrameMeister Mini, which is good but not without some problems, especially with the Saturn. When it works right it looks great, but it struggles with games that change resolutions when transitioning from one screen to another; ie if you open up an options screen / inventory or some such. I am unsure if this is a common feature of HDMI upscaling or not, so really I just now use it for the MD - even then it hates Sonic 2's split screen due to the res change.

I have a SCART RGB to component converter that works beautifully, and looking at your setup above I reckon it should work and give you good results. Another (slightly more ghetto rigged) solution could be to cut out the Pelican unit and buy some phono splitters connected directly into the TV, though I suspect that is unneccesary given that the Pelican box will already achieve this?

Either way, it looks like you're good to go, good luck with the tangle of doom there!

By the way, my 32X sticker you did for me some years back still looks ace!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cleeg

cut out the Pelican unit and buy some phono splitters connected directly into the TV, though I suspect that is unneccesary given that the Pelican box will already achieve this?

---

Yeah, multi input in and one set of component output to the TV. I'm just worried about quality when converting to component. Or if I should convert to HDMI instead.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cleeg

Either way, it looks like you're good to go, good luck with the tangle of doom there!

By the way, my 32X sticker you did for me some years back still looks ace!

---

Great, Thanks for the info!! And great to hear... I wish I still had a way of making those labels. I get asked about them all the time.

If you're gonna convert the Saturn's video to component, eschew the S-video and just go the RGB route. I don't know if the 3DO puts out RGB too, but if it does, that would get more bang of your converter. Your TV might not take 240p through component, though, so you might just want to go RGB SCART to HDMI in that case.

For the DC, VGA to HDMI can be done pretty cheaply without upscaling. I have a box from Monoprice that I believe goes for less than $40 now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Assman

If you're gonna convert the Saturn's video to component, eschew the S-video and just go the RGB route. I don't know if the 3DO puts out RGB too, but if it does, that would get more bang of your converter. Your TV might not take 240p through component, though, so you might just want to go RGB SCART to HDMI in that case.

For the DC, VGA to HDMI can be done pretty cheaply without upscaling. I have a box from Monoprice that I believe goes for less than $40 now.

---

What do I need to "go the RGB" route on the Saturn?

Also DC VGA to HDMI would be great. But how do I get the audio to my TV if my HDMI inputs don't have separate audio. (My old Vizio TV did for one HDMI, which was perfect for this) Also, I'm running out of HDMI inputs, and I don't know how well the 3 to 1 HDMI "splitter" will work for something that isn't actual HDMI. It has an automatic switch to go between the different HDMI inputs. So depending on which console is on, it'll switch to the corresponding one. You can also do it manually, but man, what a pain.


Edit: On the Saturn. If I go Saturn to SCART to Component. Where do I get audio?

Edit 2: Nevermind found a Scart to Component with audio cable. Seems a bit expensive to do. I'll see what this s-video to component looks like. If I'm not happy, I'll try that. THANKS!!


Edit 3: I wonder what would happen if I plug 2 of these together. One into the other to give me 5 instead of 3 HDMI inputs on the same HDMI input on the tv...
http://images.esellerpro.com/2242/I/...MI3-1CABLE.jpg

The VGA to HDMI converter I have also has RCA audio in, so you get the sound along with the picture through HDMI. Here's a link:

http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_i...seq=1&format=2

Good luck getting everything together. This stuff can be tedious.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Assman

The VGA to HDMI converter I have also has RCA audio in, so you get the sound along with the picture through HDMI. Here's a link:

http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_i...seq=1&format=2

Good luck getting everything together. This stuff can be tedious.

---

Thanks for the help!

Looks as though the VGA to Component cable won't work without a ($50+) converter box. Crap!

But as it seems the VGA to HDMI like the one Assman suggested is a cheaper ($35) option. They make even cheaper ones ($15)... So I might try that out first.

My poor Dreamcast just sitting there, dying to be played!

Yeah, you need active converters for all this stuff, not just passive cable adapters. It's the same thing for SCART RGB to component (it may look like RGB and component are the same thing, but they aren't); the cheapest option there is a converter box for around $50, and there's no guarantee your TV would accept 240p through component.

Classic gaming on an HDTV certainly isn't a cheap endeavor if you want a decent picture. And if you want a good picture, you're stuck spending hundreds of dollars on 240p-aware upscalers like the Micomsoft XRGB series.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Assman

Yeah, you need active converters for all this stuff, not just passive cable adapters. It's the same thing for SCART RGB to component (it may look like RGB and component are the same thing, but they aren't); the cheapest option there is a converter box for around $50, and there's no guarantee your TV would accept 240p through component.

Classic gaming on an HDTV certainly isn't a cheap endeavor if you want a decent picture. And if you want a good picture, you're stuck spending hundreds of dollars on 240p-aware upscalers like the Micomsoft XRGB series.

---

Didn't realize that passive cables wouldn't work. CRAP! Oh well... Just one at a time then. Looks like I can use my switch box for multiple consoles. Saturn & 3DO Svideo to switch box then to s-video to component or hdmi active converter. Rather than having an active converter for each system. So that's the good news. That's about as good as it gets too. Damn these TV companies!!!

At this point, I'm inclined to say you're pretty much only going to get good results converting analog video to HDMI if you have something like an XRGB-Mini. I've used numerous different conversion solutions not just for analog video to HDMI, but also various analog sources to VGA. Only Micomsoft's products have given near-flawless results with the XRGB-1 working beautifully to line-double Composite, S-Video and RGB for use on a VGA monitor (though it works best with RGB as Composite is very blurry and S-Video has ugly smearing) and the XRGB-Mini working with pretty much everything I throw at it, the only exception being some really old MS-DOS computers that use ISA VGA graphics cards (I have two computers like these and the XRGB-Mini will sync to the signal, but display no video).

The other converters I've tested are the following:

-Lenkeng LKV351 (Component and VGA to HDMI 720p): This converter is hit-or-miss. I went through 5 of these things; 4 of them had broken 640x480 support on the VGA input. This will accept 240p over the Component input, but it's treated as 480i, so you will get deinterlacing. It does seem to work quite well for 480p and higher Component inputs, though. Colors are a problem with this converter as well. They are undersaturated, and depending on the box, will either have excess yellow or excess red in Component (the excess yellow is a Pb/Pr balance issue while excess red is a Luminance mixing flaw as if you simply plug in Luminance, you get a red tint on dark parts of the picture) along with excess blue in VGA. Audio is too loud coming out of the LKV351. There's also no aspect ratio correction, so the output will always be in 16:9.

-Lenkeng LKV362A (Composite and RGB via SCART to HDMI 720p/1080p with HDMI pass-through): Not a bad converter in regards to video quality. It cleans up Composite sources quite nicely although Sega consoles don't look too good on this converter using Composite. RGB looks quite good, but the overall picture is a little dark. 240p signals are recognized, but treated as 480i. Audio is messed up on this thing. I don't remember how volume levels are, but the LKV362A messes up the spectrum by killing some of the bass, making the mid-range louder and applying some low-pass filtering. Bleh. This affects both the HDMI pass-through and the SCART input. Also, the HDMI pass-through has contrast issues with overblown whites and very dark blacks. On the plus side, if you have a PlayStation 3, this will remove HDCP from the HDMI signal. There is no aspect ratio correction with this converter.

-Lenkeng LKV363A (Composite and S-Video to HDMI 720p/1080p with HDMI pass-through): Performs like the LKV362A for Composite signals, and it does a hell of a good job with S-Video inputs, though 240p inputs are still treated as 480i, which means deinterlacing. Audio spectrum weirdness is still present and the HDMI pass-through has the same white/black level problems along with the ability to remove HDCP from an HDMI signal (seems to use a DAC -> ADC chain within a small custom BGA chip in the converter). No aspect ratio correction on this box, either.

-Lenkeng LKV351 Pro (Component and VGA to HDMI 720p/1080p): I hate this converter with a passion. It sounds good on paper with its on-board color adjustments, audio adjustments and geometry adjustments (VGA only) along with aspect ratio correction, but the end result with this converter is so bad, it will make you throw up. Component looks WORSE than directly feeding the input to your TV, more so in 1080p than 720p, and the Component input outright rejects 240p as an invalid format. Component on this thing has good colors but piss-poor sharpness. It's like turning the sharpness of your TV down to zero. VGA doesn't fare much better, though it is *somewhat* acceptable at higher resolutions like 1024x768. Resolutions like 640x480 are blurry. I didn't thoroughly test audio, though. Regardless, avoid this converter, it is a heap of garbage.

-Gonbes GBS-8220 (RGB and Component to VGA): Out of the box, this converter ranges from decent to unusable. RGB is quite good, but again, it will deinterlace 240p inputs, and a sync stripper plus two 10Kohm resistors are required for consoles to work (the 10Kohm resistors are actually a must even when feeding raw Composite Sync from an arcade PCB because the TrueView 5725 scaler on this board needs 3.3V sync). The Component input is a complete joke: several 240p and 480i sources have white specs all over the screen and the converter seems to have video sync problems with 480p sources. There is, however, a way to make this board better using a Raspberry Pi as described here: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=52172

This allows for customizing the processing performed by the TrueView 5725 to turn the GBS-8220 into a pure line-doubler or a full-on upscaler up to 1920x1080 in both VGA AND Component. This is where a VGA to Component cable would be useful, although I did have issues on my Sony KV-30HS420 CRT HDTV with black levels being way off at 480p (blacks were actually a very bright gray). I didn't test 1080p on this TV because it doesn't support 1080p. My Toshiba 26HL37 LCD TV, on the other hand, does support 1080p over Component, so I'll test on that TV later on and report the results. One thing's for sure, it handles 240p a hell of a lot better than the stock firmware stored in the on-board microcontroller. It doesn't support 240p/480i auto-switching yet, so you'll have to manually load configuration data for the two resolutions.

Thanks ACE.

Got my VGA w/ Audio to HDMI today for my Dreamcast. Looks amazing! And also amazingly, it works with that 3 in 1 switcher. The 3 in 1 switch has manual switching between the 3 signals (if needed) or it auto detects. I figured it would work fine with my Xbox 360 and Wii U. But never thought it would work with my Dreamcast to auto switch. Kick ass!

Next up... 2 more 3 in 1 HDMI switches so I can have my s-video switch box from s-video out to hdmi, then to one of the 3 on the switch. Also leaving room for future hdmi consoles (PS4) and seeing if the the auto select will work with my Bluray/Roku/PC (which I assume it will, but have to test first) I don't want to have to reach around the back of the TV to switch. Also don't want to buy a 10 in 1 HDMI switcher as those all seem to have remotes, and I don't want another damn remote!


Also, off topic a little, I got an Amazon Fire TV (not stick) instead of the newer Roku. This thing is fast!! I love it so far. And now found out about it's ability to use (mostly all) android apps without rooting it. As apparently the Fire TV will destroy itself if there are modifications done to the firmware (a little scary).

But you can go into developer mode and push apps via IP address from either an android phone or PC. XBMC (now known as Kodi) works great! I can stream video from my external hard drive that is directly installed to the router. There are also quite a few emulators that are suppose to run very well on the Amazon Fire TV because of it's decent processor and ram. I'll find out just how well tomorrow. There's even a dreamcast emulator. I'm going to do some test to see just how good it is. Now I can do back to back to back comparisons with real hardware/Fire TV emulator/PC emulator. If anyone is interested, I'll post a video. Let me know.

I already tried hooking up my Wii U Pro Controller (using the wireless PC adapter) works great without ANY configuration. Just plug in / sync / and i can scroll though the menus just as if it was the Amazon Gamepad (saved $40)

Speaking of controllers, I'm going to try out my Wii U Gamecube controller adapter and see if that works. It "might" work, but I really doubt I'll have access to all 4 controllers. Just my theory.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ace

-Gonbes GBS-8220 (RGB and Component to VGA): Out of the box, this converter ranges from decent to unusable. RGB is quite good, but again, it will deinterlace 240p inputs, and a sync stripper plus two 10Kohm resistors are required for consoles to work (the 10Kohm resistors are actually a must even when feeding raw Composite Sync from an arcade PCB because the TrueView 5725 scaler on this board needs 3.3V sync). The Component input is a complete joke: several 240p and 480i sources have white specs all over the screen and the converter seems to have video sync problems with 480p sources. There is, however, a way to make this board better using a Raspberry Pi as described here: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=52172

This allows for customizing the processing performed by the TrueView 5725 to turn the GBS-8220 into a pure line-doubler or a full-on upscaler up to 1920x1080 in both VGA AND Component. This is where a VGA to Component cable would be useful, although I did have issues on my Sony KV-30HS420 CRT HDTV with black levels being way off at 480p (blacks were actually a very bright gray). I didn't test 1080p on this TV because it doesn't support 1080p. My Toshiba 26HL37 LCD TV, on the other hand, does support 1080p over Component, so I'll test on that TV later on and report the results. One thing's for sure, it handles 240p a hell of a lot better than the stock firmware stored in the on-board microcontroller. It doesn't support 240p/480i auto-switching yet, so you'll have to manually load configuration data for the two resolutions.

---

Wow, this is a great find. Thanks for posting this, I might look into it.

What brand and model TV is that mrbigreddog?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by roadkill

What brand and model TV is that mrbigreddog?

---

Vizio 50" E-series