ACTIVE SCART BUFFER V3 from JS Technology issues

[Strider77]

I bought an Active Scart Buffer (ver 3) from JS Technology to run my RGB sources to both my PVM and Retrotink 5X.

It's giving me issues though. You can see in the links/pics below; black areas in the screen have some sort of blow out at the top of the screen. It's white-ish... but with Starfox I can actually see some color in there like green. It's also causing some sync drops when there 's a bright flash on the screen... like dropping a bomb in Starfox (it drops sync every time I do that). On the Tink 5X I can solve the sync drops by turning SoG Tresh setting up to 200.

I don't understand what's going on with the black areas though. My Super Famicom (1 chip) and Saturn both do this... my PCE and Famicom don't seem to do this. I have alot of other consoles but I haven't tried them all.

https://flic.kr/p/2pKdSof
https://flic.kr/ps/449t6n

[Guspaz]

All of your PVM's inputs have corresponding outputs, why not use the PVM's outputs to loop the signal through to your RT5X instead of using an external splitter?

[Strider77]

Because I would have to needlessly route the cabling twice. As is I have two "zones" that my reciever is powering for audio. I have two sitting areas and all the cabling is already set up and hidden (actually the PVM set up is completelyhidden until I slide a curtain that reveals the second sitting area. I dread the thought of having to do all that cabling and hide it a second time. That's like 10 feet of cabling again and I don't know if there is enough space to cram a second set between the trim and carpeting (again).

Plus wouldn't the PVM have to be turned on to pass it through? I don't want to have to do that everytime I sit down to use my main set up. The PVM is really just for tate stuff.

Before I got my OLED and Retrotink 5X Pro everything was good. But after upgrading display/scalers some things changed in my chain (alot actually). So I've been dragging feet on the PVM. If Retrotink 4Ks weren't so hard to get ahold off I probably would hold off even longer with it's "rotate" feature. But I don't think I'll be able to get one anytime soon. With work I can't camp at a keyboard and my phone is to slow (at least it was with the PS5). So the PVM needs to be sorted out after dragging feet for 2 years.

[Guspaz]

It's been years since I've used it for that, but I'm 90% certain that you don't need to power on the PVM for the video outputs to work, though that doesn't help with your other concerns.

[kitty666cats]

Did you buy the regular one or the sync separator model? If the latter, perhaps try different configurations with the internal jumpers.

Otherwise, contact John! He’s as quick to respond as humanly possible (he’s had some health issues lately, but even with them he’s putting in lots of good work when he’s got time in the workshop!)

[orange808]

You might drop a sync stripper after the SCART switch and get a Kramer or Extron distribution amp. I haven't shopped them in a while, but they used to be very inexpensive--and they do what they're supposed to do.

[Gunstar]

Yeah I see it too (SNES '2Chip' C-Sync > OSSC > PC CRT)

I don't know if the artifact also appears on a consumer CRT set though, I couldn't see it in my tests. I have the version with Sync stripper function but it's set to stock configuration (stripping is off). Didn't have any de-syncs when firing off bombs.

[VEGETA]

isn't these based on rgb amplifier like ths7374? then why it suffers from sync problems?