Sega Genesis Hydra 16 SCART Switcher CSYNC Issue?

[erik343]

I am soon going to buy a stock Sega Genesis console. I am also thinking about buying the Hydra 16 SCART Swticher: https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=149

I read on RGB308, that if you hook up the Sega Genesis with CSYNC, you will have artifacts? Has this been fixed in later switcher revisions? Also, the RGB308 people said this can be fixed with switching the Sega Genesis to sync on composite instead of CSYNC.

Does the Framemeister XRGB-mini even support sync on composite? I have no idea! Also, how do you force the Sega Genesis to output sync on composite instead of composite sync?

Is this a good quality switcher as far as noise and crosstalk? What about sharpness and brightness? What do you think?

Thanks for the information!

Erik W.

[Josh128]

I am soon going to buy a stock Sega Genesis console. I am also thinking about buying the Hydra 16 SCART Swticher: https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=149

I read on RGB308, that if you hook up the Sega Genesis with CSYNC, you will have artifacts? Has this been fixed in later switcher revisions? Also, the RGB308 people said this can be fixed with switching the Sega Genesis to sync on composite instead of CSYNC.

Does the Framemeister XRGB-mini even support sync on composite? I have no idea! Also, how do you force the Sega Genesis to output sync on composite instead of composite sync?

Is this a good quality switcher as far as noise and crosstalk? What about sharpness and brightness? What do you think?

Thanks for the information!

Erik W.

You just have to make sure that composite video (Genesis 1 Pin 1) instead of composite sync (Genesis 1 Pin 6) coming from your Genesis is connected to pin 20 of your SCART cable. Thats it.

[erik343]

If I set pin 20 on the SCART cable to composite video, will the Framemeister XRGB-mini work with that sync signal (sync on composite)?

[Josh128]

One of the XRGB Mini owners would have to chime in, but if I had to guess, I would say it should work.

[6t8k]

erik343:
In general, the Framemeister supports sync-on-composite on its "RGB IN" port. But keep in mind that with sync-on-composite, it has/had problems outputting a stable signal in combination with some sources (adjusting the "SYNC_LEVEL" setting might help in this case, the Genesis should be fine though), and you may run into video quality issues because the composite video signal interferes with the R,G,B lines. The latter aspect can be alleviated by using a SCART cable that shields the individual signal lines well from each other, but from a video quality perspective it's best to use composite sync.

[erik343]

I was also wondering if the Framemeister XRGB-mini supports sync on luma or sync on green?

[6t8k]

Sync on luma works: it's the same pin, and the Framemeister can extract the composite sync signal embedded into luma just as well as in the case of luma and chroma (i.e. composite video), if not better. Technically speaking the Framemeister also accepts sync on luma via its D-Terminal (YPbPr) and S-Video inputs.

Sync on green doesn't work. To use a sync on green source with the Framemeister, you need an additional device that separates the sync and green signals, like an Extron 203 Rxi, and use a suitable cable/adapter to connect the output of that to the Framemeister's RGB IN port.

Small heads-up: I'm not really familiar with the Hydra SCART switches, but if the particular model you're considering to buy needs composite video instead of composite sync in order to function correctly, then of course you need to use the former. Please research this properly beforehand ^^;

[erik343]

Thanks for the information, everything is clear now

I am probably going to daisy chain two Shinybow 6x2 SCART Matrix Router Switchers. And, soon I am going to start modding and messing around with my consoles. So, I am asking all of these questions so that I know what I am doing before I start this long project! I did some research on the Shinybow Switchers also, and they are solid!

I saw a video about Sync on Green (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pzTfdUcAfg) of this guy hooking up the PS2 to a Sync Strike, and then the Sync Strike into the Extron 203 rxi, and then the Extron into the Framemeister. I am not 100% sure what this guy was doing, but can this Sync Strike parse out a Sync on Green signal? What exactly is the Sync Strike designed to do in this case?

[Guspaz]

AFAIK the sync strike doesn't have anything to do with sync-on-green, it just removes the video signal from cvbs and splits off vsync. It'd be the Extron 203 rxi that is splitting off the sync from green. Since the PS2 outputs either RGBS or RGsB depending on the resolution, he's probably using the sync strike so that the Extron either gets RGsB or csync RGBS.

Just remember that in analog video chain, every single step will degrade the video signal to some extent. Even if you re-amplify the signal, you're still going to lose some sharpness, so you want to minimize the number of steps as much as possible. As such, you're better off using a better scart switch that can automatically convert sync-on-green like the gscartsw.

[6t8k]

AFAIK the sync strike doesn't have anything to do with sync-on-green, it just removes the video signal from cvbs and splits off vsync. It'd be the Extron 203 rxi that is splitting off the sync from green.

Yes, sync on green is just passed through, so in the 480p-via-RGsB case, he's basically using the Sync Strike to get from one physical connector type to the other (SCART to VGA).

[erik343]

Cool! Thanks!

I am going to watch the video again after work...

[erik343]

Thanks guys for explaining it all.

I know understand how it works, and I might consider the gscart just for Sync on Green consoles...