XRGB-mini Framemeister

[austin532]

Yes, I'm using the original Mini's PSU which is plugged in to a 12 outlet surge protector. The noise is still noticeable using PS2 RGB but is very minor compared to PS2 Component. I even tried it with PS1 just to make sure it wasn't just the PS2.

Chain two surge protectors together? Is that even safe?

Not even remotely. Don't do this.

I figured it wouldn't be. Any suggestions or am I forced to free up some outlets?

[Ed Oscuro]

Chaining power strips / surge protector strips is (as I said yesterday on Digital Press) something that was obviously problematic when people hooked up lots of big current draw devices through them, and when people used strips that had skinny wires. Still, it's good common sense not to do that.

But even so, a surge suppressor won't do what you want anyway. You need something like a line conditioner / isolation transformer. I was looking at these recently - perhaps one of the cheaper ones made for DJs will work out well.

Incidentally, I've heard some audiophile recommendations to look at the "medical grade" equipment in this area, which must be safe and have certifying marks. Apparently a lot of the "videophile" / "audio grade" stuff is just overpriced and not professionally qualified. But you can check this out for any product that grabs your interest.

[CkRtech]

I suppose you could plug a power strip into the surge protector and make sure the surge protector is plugged directly into the wall. Also note that the protection in those surge protectors will "age" and not be as good of a protection over time.

My setup is actually rather wild with a UPS, surge protectors, and extension cords. Larger draw items that need battery backup are plugged directly into the UPS (Xbox 360, PS3, TV). I use a separate strip for the various vintage consoles that is actually daisy chained into the UPS. No two devices on that strip are ever powered up at the same time - the only other real draw would be the AC-DC conversion that goes on for wall wart-based consoles.

Receiver goes into a separate surge protector plugged directly into the wall. Subwoofer goes into the same. This isn't a walmart one, btw. I got one that is rather high end and made by Surgex. It is probably overkill - I bought it when I lived in a house that didn't have grounded plugs (which is how most traditional surge protectors eliminate surge - via ground).

Make sure that your surge protector is also rated for what you want it to protect. If you draw say... 12 amps from the wall on a 15 amp fuse and your surge protector is only rated for 9 amps...that is not good.

What sort of 12 outlet surge protector are you using? Just a standard one? You can get hefty ones with line filtering and also move up to UPSes with voltage regulation, etc. That will help clean up your power.

EDIT: Here is a bit of info concerning plugging a surge protector into a UPS and why it is better to use a PDU instead: http://www.schneider-electric.us/sites/ ... irect=true

[austin532]

I still don't feel safe about plugging another power strip in a surge protector.

I'm using a Belkin 12 Outlet Pivot Plug Surge Protector. It supports up to 4320 Joules. It doesn't have any kind of Noise Filtering though.

Why would I need an Uninterruptible Power Supply and not just a protector with Noise Filtering?

What's the difference between a Power Conditioner that has EMI and FRI Filtering and a Surge Protector with the same thing?

[BuckoA51]

I hate swapping plugs and I chain power strips all the time, never had an issue. As long as you don't have everything switched on at once I don't see why it's a problem. Even if you did with consoles they don't exactly pull much power so I doubt you'd be getting into dangerous territory. Maybe if you ran your heater or AC off the same strip at the same time...Only problem I can see is more chance of ground-loop interference.

So there is no need for a Sync Strike or Extron then? How would you set this up? PS2 > RGB Scart > Syncblaster > Scart to 8 Pin MiniDin > XRGB Mini? If so that is a hell of a lot easier.

Exactly. I should have one of these in for review next month to 100% confirm this, but according to the devices manual that is what it does (convert RGsB to RGBs).

[EmperorZelos]

I still don't feel safe about plugging another power strip in a surge protector.

I have daisy chained a bunch of them, no issue, the thing is most things don't draw that much power so there are no worries, if I had everything running at once it might be an issue

[Unseen]

I hate swapping plugs and I chain power strips all the time, never had an issue. As long as you don't have everything switched on at once I don't see why it's a problem. Even if you did with consoles they don't exactly pull much power so I doubt you'd be getting into dangerous territory.

As far as I know the "official" reason why chaining power strips is discouraged or even forbidden in some electrical codes isn't because of the possibility of overload but for better protection in case of a fault: If you chain multiple power strips, the resistance from the outlet increases with each power strip. If a device plugged into the last strip develops a short, the resistance of the entire chain must still be low enough that enough current can flow to trip the mains fuse. The requirements for the wiring and power strips are chosen that this is not an issue with a single power strip connected to the outlet, but if you assume the worst-case allowed parameters (as safety-engineers do) a chain of power strips could allow a short-circuited device at the end to just cook without triggering the fuse.

Of course in reality the chance of all worst-case parameters appearing together in a single installation is probably not that high, so the decision to chain or not rests with your own risk assessment.

[Astraea FGA Mk. I]

Thanks for the responses, I definitely want one now. I made a thread on the trade board pleading for someone to sell me theirs, no bites yet, if anyone here is selling one PM me!
Otherwise I will have to use ebay and pay lots for shipping and tax from Japan.

[SGGG2]

Yakumo over at Assmebler sells them at a good price: http://tinyurl.com/ka69rjn

[austin532]

Thanks for the responses, I definitely want one now. I made a thread on the trade board pleading for someone to sell me theirs, no bites yet, if anyone here is selling one PM me!
Otherwise I will have to use ebay and pay lots for shipping and tax from Japan.

Yep. My only problem with the Mini was not getting one sooner.....that and the 5 second blackout.

[TheShadowRunner]

Flame Meister (^_^;) now at 30k on amazon.co.jp:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B006IO36BM

[airs]

Cool, wonder if Yakumo and SolarisJapan will drop their prices too..

[juji82]

37000 shipped is a very good price, why should he drop that?

[TheShadowRunner]

EMS shipping from Japan to USA/Europe for this item is 2800/3250 yen
https://www.post.japanpost.jp/english/f ... l/ems.html
Food for thoughts xD

[airs]

37000 shipped is a very good price, why should he drop that?

Why is that a "very good price"?

[eightbitminiboss]

Look at it this way. Yakumo and Solaris Japan will at least help you out with warranty if there's a problem. Buying direct from Amazon Japan won't give you that.

[juji82]

It is his job, plus add packing. I think he deserve the plus money he gets from this business or You work everyday for free?
plus ^^

[airs]

Look at it this way. Yakumo and Solaris Japan will at least help you out with warranty if there's a problem. Buying direct from Amazon Japan won't give you that.

I'm not knocking their service - I bought one from SolarisJapan a couple months ago and I'm very happy.

Yakumo and SJ have dropped their prices over time. If prices for the Mini are dropping again in Japan, I would expect that they would drop prices again since they would be able to acquire them at a lower cost.

[SGGG2]

Amazon Japan won't ship outside the country for certain items, which the XRGB is one of. Believe me, I tried.

[darcagn]

I could be wrong about this, but last time I looked into it, Amazon Japan won't ship outside of Japan anyway.


EDIT: Beaten to it.

[eightbitminiboss]

Amazon Japan won't ship outside the country for certain items, which the XRGB is one of. Believe me, I tried.

Yep, I used Tenso to get my Mini from Amazon Japan when it was cheaper at the time.

Edit: Breakdown of what I paid to have it shipped to California.

EMS shipping fee : 3200 yen
Service fee : 980 yen
EMS insurance : 50 yen (insured)
Total amount : 4230 yen

Remarks : Personal Effects 　-- Package information ( 1 ) -- 　Sender : amazon 　Description : Consumer Electronic Accessory 　Number of items : 1 　Price of items : 28288 yen

Grand Total: 32518 yen

[lettuce]

What algorithm does the XRGB-mini use for displaying its scanline at 720p and does it use this same method for 1080p?, i know 1080p is mess up with the xrgb-mini so what should it use for 1080p?

Is 720p like, 5 active rows then 2 blanking rows or 3 and 1 for example??

[Fudoh]

For good looking 1080p scanlines they would have to be applied on the 480p image that comes from the FPGA after linedoubling, but before the Marvell does the upscaling. There's no other way. You can check this out by feeding a scanlined 480p image into the Mini (either from a SLG3000 or from a game that has software support for scanlines (Sega Ages titles on the PS2). Looks excellent.

720p uses 1 line of scanlines and two without for each source pixel line, so on the Mini's output signal they're not thicker than those tiny 1080p scanlines, but the TVs scaling makes them look a lot better.

[eightbitminiboss]

Received a CSYNC wired cable for my SNES mini yesterday, all good with sync signal now.

Also the gscartsw is a pretty sweet switch.

[EmperorZelos]

Received a CSYNC wired cable for my SNES mini yesterday, all good with sync signal now.

Also the gscartsw is a pretty sweet switch.

hows the daisy chaining of them?

[eightbitminiboss]

Received a CSYNC wired cable for my SNES mini yesterday, all good with sync signal now.

Also the gscartsw is a pretty sweet switch.

hows the daisy chaining of them?

The only other switch I have is the Bandridge and it doesn't appear to work with it. Probably only works with another gscartsw.

[mickcris]

Received a CSYNC wired cable for my SNES mini yesterday, all good with sync signal now.

Also the gscartsw is a pretty sweet switch.

hows the daisy chaining of them?

Pretty sure superg designed them to be daisy chained. I think he said so in his tread over at assembler.

[goldenegg]

I'm sorry if this has already been answered, but i can't find a way to search in a specific thread.

I've had my XRGB-mini for a while now, but only tried the component input for the first time tonight. Is there any way to have the unit mix in audio from the front inputs when using the component dongle? I went through the menus and couldn't seem to find any option which would affect this. There's an option for RGB audio, but that doesn't seem to affect the component input.

[eightbitminiboss]

I'm sorry if this has already been answered, but i can't find a way to search in a specific thread.

I've had my XRGB-mini for a while now, but only tried the component input for the first time tonight. Is there any way to have the unit mix in audio from the front inputs when using the component dongle? I went through the menus and couldn't seem to find any option which would affect this. There's an option for RGB audio, but that doesn't seem to affect the component input.

I believe it only pulls audio from the adjacent RCA inputs in the back right next to the D Terminal port when using component. The front RCA inputs are for composite and S-Video.

[Fudoh]

The front RCA inputs are for composite and S-Video.

and RGB. But you're right about component. Only the back RCA ports work for that.