how do i calculate total input lag?

[UchihaMadao]

hi. this is my first post here and first topic and i wanted to get more insight in somethingw here i'm still a bit lost/confused/not sure.

the thing that i'm still a bit unsure about input lag is how is it calculated. do i just add up the lag from each of the devices i have connected or is it more complicated than that?

i have a few examples of connections i have and i'm wondering what's best:

to start, i have several devices currently hooked up to an HDTV. i've got N64, SNES, GC, Wii, Wii U and a PS3. they're plugged in various ways due to the cables involved but most of them pass by the framemeister (only the Wii U and PS3 go directly to the TV)

to play N64 (and SNES since they use the same cable and i just connect the one i'm going to use) on an HDTV, this would be the lag it encounters on the way from what i know:

1. the Framemeister (24 ms)
2. the HDTV lag (26 ms) (not sure about this one but models very close to mine have that number)

that'd produce a total of 50ms (about 3 frames)

is there extra lag to account for of is that all of it? the Framemeister outputs at the HDTV's native resolution (1080p) so there shouldn't be extra lag there and i'm using an RGB N64. i'm also using Game Mode on the TV. that'd be the best path for them, right?

for Wii i have 2 paths that lead to the HDTV.
path 1 is the same as the N64 path.
path 2 is Wii -> Receiver (with Component cable) and then Receiver -> HDTV (HDMI) since it can pass 480p Component signals through HDMI (the TV's info says i'm seeing 480p when i do it like this)

i've tried some basic tests like moving the cursor and timing inputs in games and it seems path 2 has a tiny bit less lag. that means the lag incurred by the conversion there is below the lag that the framemeister introduces, right?
would using a Wii 2 HDMI adapter be faster than the current paths i have?
also, how do receivers affect signals? are they known to introduce extra lag or is that case-by-case? the one i have doesn't do any processing but i don't want to assume it is lag-free.

i've heard that the lag on the framemeister varies by what inputs are used, like, HDMI inputs have different lag than the other ones. how much of a difference does that make?

also, for the Wii U and PS3, they only pass through an HDMI switcher when going to the TV. that doesn't introduce any lag, right?

seems like a lot of questions but it'd be nice to hook up these things in the best way possible.

edit: i forgot about the GC. for it, i have component cables and S-Video cables so i have many options with it. with component i use the same setup as with Wii and recently i've tried the S-Video cable with a setup like the N64 but i don't know which one is the best way to plug the GC (mianly used for GB Player)

[blizzz]

Input lag is usually the time it takes from the moment your device outputs a frame until it is visible on screen. So your 50ms is about right. You can also add the time it takes from the moment you press a button until it changes the game in the console / PC to that time. But usually it's just processors (external and inside your TV) and the time it takes for the panel to show the image.

(Most) Modern TVs have two factors that affect lag, game mode and deinterlacing. Game mode will disable most processing done by the TV. Interlacing will cause a noticeable delay, doesn't matter if it's 480i S-Video or 1080i HDMI. Progressive sources on the other hand (doesn't matter if it's HDMI, DVI, VGA, component) will have about the same lag, independent of the resolution. The scaling from 480p and 720p to the native resolution of your TV usually doesn't take any noticeable extra time.

Your receiver is most likely only transcoding the analog component video to a digital HDMI video. That can be done in under 1ms. There are Wii2HDMI adapters that will be fast (but also limited to 480p) and there are ones that are slow, because they scale the video to 720p / 1080p. HDMI switches (usually) don't add lag.

For the Gamecube you should go with your component cable and set the output to 480p.

[UchihaMadao]

oh that's pretty good then.

i'd need to free up a Component cable input to use GC component cables since i ran out of Component inputs recently.
i ordered a neoya wii2hdmi adapter so that should give me one extra Component input.

thanks for the response.

[BuckoA51]

to play N64 (and SNES since they use the same cable and i just connect the one i'm going to use)

That's unusual, usually a RGB modded N64 uses a Gamecube SCART cable not a SNES one.

[blizzz]

to play N64 (and SNES since they use the same cable and i just connect the one i'm going to use)

That's unusual, usually a RGB modded N64 uses a Gamecube SCART cable not a SNES one.

They are pretty much the same cables. The only difference between a Gamecube SCART and NTSC SNES SCART is that pin 8 doesn't get a voltage with a Gamecube cable on an NTSC console. And that is better in many cases. I'm using a Gamecube cable on my NTSC SNES.

[BuckoA51]

Ah yes you're right, it's the PAL SNES cable that's different. Good old Nintendo

[UchihaMadao]

does anyone use the neoya Wii2HDMI adapter with the framemeister? i got one but i don't know the optimal settings for it and currently the image looks weird (plus, some of the old controls can't be changed like saturation)

edit: on the same subject, i can't get the audio to work through HDMI using the Wii2HDMI adapter. anyone knows why that happens?