Keene SyncBlaster Black Box

austin532 · Post by **austin532** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 2:23 am

Alright, so I am very interested in buying one of these but I'm a bit confused as to what exactly I need. On Keene's website they offer two different versions as well as three different worldwide power supplies. Does one just come with a different Euro power supply?

http://www.keene.co.uk/electronics/word ... +BLACK+BOX

http://www.keene.co.uk/electronics/word ... +WORLDWIDE

I'm pretty sure the 12V is what I need to use this in the US but I could be wrong as I'm not exactly familiar with using US power supplies with Euro devices.

Besides as Male to Male Scart cable is there anything else I need to get this working with the PS2?

mickcris · Post by **mickcris** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 3:16 am

You can just use any generic 12v dc output power supply that has a 5.5mmx2.1mm center positive tip per the specs. One is linked below. You may even have one laying around. You can order the 12v from them but it's pretty expensive. Not sure about the other stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Power-Adapter-Sup ... 005JRGOCM/

austin532 · Post by **austin532** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 12:26 am

What is the difference between the two? They both say they come with the Euro 2 pin power supply.

mickcris · Post by **mickcris** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 2:07 am

austin532 wrote:What is the difference between the two? They both say they come with the Euro 2 pin power supply.

If I had to wager a guess, it would be that one would come with a UK ps (since the company is in the UK) and the other is for europe (which has a different plug). You could email them and ask to be sure though. Think they just screwed up the description a bit.

edit:
that is what it is. look under description for the 1st one (SBBOXE):
**Is this for use within the UK? If so you will need the SBBOX***

austin532 · Post by **austin532** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 3:17 am

I see. I did not know the UK used one type of Power Supply. I thought all of Europe used the same 3 different inputs. Either way does it really matter though which version I get if I'm just going to use a US power supply anyway?

mickcris · Post by **mickcris** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 4:09 am

austin532 wrote:I see. I did not know the UK used one type of Power Supply. I thought all of Europe used the same 3 different inputs. Either way does it really matter though which version I get if I'm just going to use a US power supply anyway?

You can see pics of all the different plugs here if you want:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_p ... resent_use
Would be nice if the whole world had just went to one standard.

But yeah, it wont matter which one you get as long as you buy a US supply for it.

BuckoA51 · Post by **BuckoA51** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 6:36 pm

I ordered the UK one and it came with a 2 pin supply, thanks Keene

Edit - You don't need anything else to use it, no.

austin532 · Post by **austin532** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 7:35 pm

Thanks. Now if only I could get my order to go through correctly.....

austin532 · Post by **austin532** » Tue Jul 29, 2014 8:05 pm

Alright, so my BlackBox finally arrived and after spending time with it I can say it's.....convenient with a slight sacrifice in picture quality. It's very easy to use as all you have to do is plug in your PS2 Scart and then plug that into the Scart to 8 pin adapter and then plug that into the Mini. Then adjust the dip switches to disable Sync on Green so you can output in 480p using an RGB cable. Like Bucko51 posted before, there is some slight banding on the left side of the screen when in 480p. Not sure if this is caused by the Mini or the device itself. It's not a deal breaker but can be a minor annoyance with certain games that use bright vivid colors as that's when it shows up the most. Plus 480p is not very good on the Mini so there is only going to be a minor difference in picture quality even while using RGB cables.

I have not tried the Extron method so I'm not sure if there is a difference in picture quality. Overall though this is a nice little device that offers convenience.

If you haven't done so already check out Bucko's review of it on his site. He does a much better job explaining things. http://www.videogameperfection.com/2014 ... ck-review/

BuckoA51 · Post by **BuckoA51** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 2:29 pm

Thanks for that, I was organising to borrow another PS2 to see if it was my modded console causing the banding, but I guess not. I can say it's not the mini that causes it either since it showed up on my DVDO Edge too.

I have got a Sync Strike and an Extron interface that I'd like to compare at some point, but they're all integrated into my setup so it will be a pain to yank them out, I'll get around to it sometime soon though.

austin532 · Post by **austin532** » Wed Jul 30, 2014 8:21 pm

Looking forward to it. I'm curious to see it there is a difference.

BuckoA51 · Post by **BuckoA51** » Fri Aug 01, 2014 6:06 pm

Okay I got around to it today, full write up on my site soon but the two things you'll be bothered about are:-

1) There's no discoloured band with the Extron
2) Although there's no band, there is a slight shimmer/wobble added to parts of the image, such as white text. This can be quite offputting when you see it and for me it's worse than the Black Box's problems.

All in all I prefer the black box. The interface I used was a Extron RGB 203Rxi.

Thomago · Post by **Thomago** » Fri Aug 01, 2014 6:48 pm

BuckoA51 wrote: Although there's no band, there is a slight shimmer/wobble added to parts of the image, such as white text. This can be quite offputting when you see it and for me it's worse than the Black Box's problems.

I have an Extron RGB 109xi and never experienced anything like that; the picture is rock-solid.

BuckoA51 · Post by **BuckoA51** » Fri Aug 01, 2014 6:53 pm

I can say it's definitely not my interface as I use it with my XRGB3 all the time and have never seen this shimmering effect.

How do you have the DIP switches set on your interface?

Thomago · Post by **Thomago** » Fri Aug 01, 2014 7:05 pm

Let's take a look... SOG is off, everything else is on. I played quite a bit with the switches and as far as I can remember one of them was vital for... something (don't remember the specifics), but the other ones had no effect whatsoever.

BuckoA51 · Post by **BuckoA51** » Fri Aug 01, 2014 7:07 pm

DDSP probably, with that off I could not get the mini to sync with the PS2 when it was outputting interlace.

The 109xi is pretty cheap on eBay, maybe I'll pick one up to try. I tried messing with sync level too but nothing would get rid of the wobble. It was most noticable on FMV sequences where my eyes just seemed to get drawn to parts of the image that were moving when they shouldn't have been.

Thomago · Post by **Thomago** » Fri Aug 01, 2014 7:24 pm

While we're at it: Without the whole Sync Strike and Extron interface stuff I can't get my US-SNES to work comfortably: Without them and with SYNC_MODE set to AUTO the Mini doesn't produce any picture. Setting SYNC_MODE to OFF and increasing SYNC_LEVEL (massively so) works, but only temporarily; after rebooting the Mini "forgets" that it was able to produce a picture before and I have to kick its ass by randomly increasing/decreasing SYNC_LEVEL.

On the other hand with the Sync Strike and the Extron interface I can't get any picture out of my digital-TV settop-box. I don't know if the Sync Strike or the Extron is at fault here, but the Extron interface shows random outlandish horizontal refresh rates when it is connected to the box - no wonder the Mini doesn't know how to handle that. Playing with the DIP switches unfortunately doesn't help here

BuckoA51 · Post by **BuckoA51** » Fri Aug 01, 2014 10:07 pm

One thought I just had (now I've packed all the stuff away..

) are you using an external PSU for your Sync Strike or just powering it from the PS2 SCART cable?

Thomago · Post by **Thomago** » Sat Aug 02, 2014 7:06 am

I use a PSU.

BuckoA51 · Post by **BuckoA51** » Thu Aug 07, 2014 4:04 pm

Managed to eliminate the wobble on the picture by using an external PSU with my Sync Strike!

Also, I see the small discolouration band on the Extron setup too, so I guess it's just something some PS2s do.

austin532 · Post by **austin532** » Thu Aug 07, 2014 8:48 pm

I thought there was no banding with the Extrons? So there is no difference then between using the Blackbox or Extron method? You never posted your write up on your site.

If the banding is a problem with all PS2 systems you would think Sony would have noticed it.....unless Sony got lazy and said "Fuck it, most people who use RGB won't be able to play games in 480p."

BuckoA51 · Post by **BuckoA51** » Thu Aug 07, 2014 10:17 pm

I only finished trying it today, give me a chance!

No I'd say there's really no difference picture quality wise. The banding is quite hard to spot in most games, actually last time I fired up the PS2 with the black box I thought it had disappeared but then your eye just catches it if you really look for it.

BuckoA51 · Post by **BuckoA51** » Sat Aug 16, 2014 3:46 pm

Having played around some more.. I would like to formally retract the above statement, sorry

Extron Interface does NOT have the band the same as the Keene unit.

I will have a full write up including screen grabs this week.

BuckoA51 · Post by **BuckoA51** » Sat Aug 16, 2014 4:23 pm

Or having looked at the screengrabs again, maybe they do... Okay just wait for my write up.

BuckoA51 · Post by **BuckoA51** » Sun Aug 17, 2014 1:00 am

Alright, having dicked around with various configurations most of today and having played a good few hours of PS2, I can say that I am satisfied the Extron interface doesn't have the discoloured strip same as the Keene Black Box....

However, the weird thing is I can't seem to capture a screen-shot of it, despite it showing up on Amarec with the capture card on the preview window.

bobrocks95 · Post by **bobrocks95** » Sun Aug 17, 2014 1:12 am

[Statement redacted]

austin532 · Post by **austin532** » Sun Aug 17, 2014 4:38 am

So we are back to square 1 then. Simplicity vs minor difference in quality?

BuckoA51 · Post by **BuckoA51** » Sun Aug 17, 2014 8:51 am

If you are just using the mini then yeah, there's a bit more to it but that's it in a nutshell.

BuckoA51 · Post by **BuckoA51** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 4:21 pm

Okay, write up is done with screen grab comparisons. http://www.videogameperfection.com/2014 ... -showdown/

Enjoy! As much as one does enjoy an article comparing sync processors anyway

austin532 · Post by **austin532** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 10:47 pm

Hmm, is it just me or does using the Extron method slightly darken the image?

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Keene SyncBlaster Black Box

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