Connecting console to the BNC outs in PVM’s yay or nay?

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Yardley
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Connecting console to the BNC outs in PVM’s yay or nay?

Post by Yardley »

If only one device is used at a time and never together is it ok? Tried it for myself on my PVM-20L5 and it works great. PC connected to the BNC ins and Wii to the outs, no loss of picture quality on either one.
nmalinoski
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Re: Connecting console to the BNC outs in PVM’s yay or nay?

Post by nmalinoski »

I vote nay. You might not cause immediate or severe damage by having multiple sources connected and on at the same time, but the signals going into the PVM may go out of spec, and, if the PVM can't accommodate those spikes, you risk damage to the PVM. You should probably look into getting some kind of switcher to be safe; perhaps a CrossPoint if you want to stick with BNC, or maybe one of Extron's SW VGA switchers if you want something a little smaller (You're gonna need adapters in any case).
viletim
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Re: Connecting console to the BNC outs in PVM’s yay or nay?

Post by viletim »

Yardley,

You can do it if you like, but you may have some signal reflections or distortion. It's not likely to cause damage because 75 ohm video outputs (as well as line level audio outputs) are consumer proof. It's safe to short them to ground and to one another by design.
RGB0b
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Re: Connecting console to the BNC outs in PVM’s yay or nay?

Post by RGB0b »

Tim's right, but with a monitor as nice as a 20L5, why risk any signal loss? I'd suggest eventually getting a new gscart, but if you're on a budget, the Otaku's switch seems to be okay. I haven't found any issues yet and for that price, I'd forgive a few shortcomings if they're ever found: http://retrorgb.com/scartswitches.html
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Syntax
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Re: Connecting console to the BNC outs in PVM’s yay or nay?

Post by Syntax »

If you tried hooking up an Snes cable with 75R terminations then you'd be screwing with the other consoles video levels even with the Snes off.
Yardley
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Re: Connecting console to the BNC outs in PVM’s yay or nay?

Post by Yardley »

retrorgb wrote:Tim's right, but with a monitor as nice as a 20L5, why risk any signal loss? I'd suggest eventually getting a new gscart, but if you're on a budget, the Otaku's switch seems to be okay. I haven't found any issues yet and for that price, I'd forgive a few shortcomings if they're ever found: http://retrorgb.com/scartswitches.html
I have a gscart going into the built in RGB inputs on the L5. The in/outs I’m sharing are on the 129x input card where I have my GroovyMAME PC on the ins and a Wii on the outs. I don’t see any loss in quality.
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werk91
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Re: Connecting console to the BNC outs in PVM’s yay or nay?

Post by werk91 »

If Gscart is out of budget and you don't care for automatic switching (like me) then the Otaku's RGB switch is a no brainer. I've got two of them, couldn't be happier :)
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