Are my cables incompatible with this scart switcher?

[smokeyb]

https://youtu.be/Ru7q5FFABes
Bought a scart switcher from aliexpress and hooked it up with some scart cables. These cables are from retrogamingcables and they're sync on luma. I don't understand why they're not working with the switcher though, I can only guess it's faulty or something else is at play.

[Guspaz]

You're really not giving us much to work with. Which SCART switch? Which cables?

[Sumez]

I assume you have tested that these cables work fine plugged directly into the same TVs right?

[smokeyb]

I bought this switcher. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004 ... UuNDQuMC4w
The cables work directly plugged into the TV yes.

[Guspaz]

I suspect that either the switch or your output SCART cable is using the wrong pin for sync. SCART has two sync pins (well, composite video pins, which is used for sync): pin 19 for sync output, and pin 20 for sync input. The two pins are not connected, but depending on the use case, would be crossed from one end of the cable to the other.

One thing that you can try is connecting an RCA cable from the Switch's RCA SYNC pin (the yellow one) to the TV. With a sync-on-luma cable, you should see a black and white image. This would confirm that the Switch is mostly working, and point more heavily to the pin mismatch issue.

[Fudoh]

I would second what Guspaz is saying. If your sources' RGB cables work directly connected to TV, then those are not the issue. Look at the cable you're using to to connect the switch's output to the TV. Either it's not a proper bi-directional cable (in that case, try to swap the cable ends around) or the output of the switch isn't wired to the exact standards (unlikely).

[Sumez]

Oh yeah. To summarize, it's very possible that the switch requires a non-crossed SCART cable between its output and the TV.

OR maybe a more likely scenario - the cable you're using to connect the switcher's output to your TV isn't a European standard SCART cable.
I'm not too familiar with JP21 cables, but I imagine they don't cross the same pins as SCART, if they're even crossing any at all?

[Guspaz]

My expectation would be that the switch itself would cross the pins (take the sync input pin on the input ports and connect it to the sync output pin on the sync output), which I believe is what most SCART switches do, but if they wired the switch to just directly map every pin on the input to the output unchanged, then the normal crossover cable you'd use after the switch wouldn't work. You may encounter the same problem with the audio pins (they also have input/output variants).

If this is the case, and you're handy with a soldering iron, it's not hard to modify the switch or a scart cable yourself to bridge or rewire the appropriate pins. If you're not comfortable with that, then you might want to check how the switch and cable pins are routed using a multimeter in continuity mode to figure out what is connected to what.

[Triple Lei]

Huh. I'm having almost this exact problem too.

Cable: Sony Playstation RGB SCART lightgun compatible lead PS1 PS2 Luma GROUNDED cable (Retro Access, August 2021)

Switcher: gscartsw (CastleMania, July 2021)

Full equipment chain: consoles > gscartsw > RGB2COMP > gcompsw > gcompsw > RetroTINK 5x-Pro or OSSC Pro (> optionally: powered component splitter > CRT) > TESmart HDMI Switcher > more than one HDMI splitter... > display(s)

I'm not blaming any vendors or creators here. I only recently started using the Sync-on-luma SCART cable to make use of the GunCons I started hoarding because the HD Retrovision component cables I've had work great. But it's only the PlayStation connected with that SCART cable that gives me trouble. I can get it to work with my RT5X and OSSC Pro, but I have to power cycle my USB charger (at the power outlet level), and I think the component spltiter and retro scalers. And if I power off the PlayStation I have to power cycle again.

Somehow I was led to believe that those luma cables were best for PS1 and that sync-on-luma was "safer" than Csync. But if that's the only cable that's giving me trouble and that's also the only sync-on-luma cable in use, maybe I'll just get more HD Retrovision cables for PS1. I really don't want to send my cable to out some modder. Or should I just play with the dipswitches on the gscartsw? One of them is "Enable sync regeneration" and I forget if that's on or not... but to get to it, I'll have to move my Kallax and that's practically a weekend task in itself...

[Guspaz]

The PS1 doesn't output csync, so your only options are "sync-on-luma" or "sync-on-composite". They're actually both valid composite video signals, the only difference is that the actual composite line will have the colour data added, which can cause interference in poorly shielded cables. Hence why we prefer sync-on-luma. From a sync compatibility standpoint, they're identical.

[Fudoh]

Maybe the switch doesn't use (and interconnect) all the ground pins.

I've seen similar when using scart cables that ONLY ground the outer metal shield (I think the original Japanese Sega Saturn cable is known for that), while an adapter used with the cable (e.g. from Scart to BNC) only uses the actual inner ground pins, but not the outer metal shield. Hence no ground connection.

[Triple Lei]

Well in case anyone has this same problem:

Seems there's an order to powering on, and I shouldn't be splitting the video signal when powering on -- at least with sync-on-luma cables.

As a reminder, output 1 of gcompsw #2 goes to my RetroTINK 5X-Pro. Output 2 of gcompsw #2 goes to a separate powered component splitter, which splits to my OSSC Pro and a CRT.

Here's what works: powering on the PS1, then the RT5X, then the HDMI automatic switcher. I wait a few seconds in between to let any HDMI handshakes resolve. Most importantly, I don't provide power to the powered component splitter or the OSSC Pro when powering on the PS1. I don't even have the OSSC Pro in standby mode. But powering on the OSSC Pro when I see the picture from the RT5X will work.

FWIW I did flip on the sync regeneration dipswitch on the gscartsw, which may or may not have done something, but I'm not going to bother testing further when I've already found a configuration that works. Just wish I figured it all out before I bought a second PS1 sync-on-luma cable, the OSSC Pro AV expansion, the rather expensive composite video extension cable from Blue Jeans Cable, and the pair of audio splitting adapters because the OSSC Pro AV expansion card doesn't carry audio. Hmph.

So, lesson learned. The PS1 sync-on-luma cable is one jealous mistress!

EDIT: Seems there's still trouble if you ever do something stupid like turn the PS1 off... Back to square one...

EDIT 2: Power cycling my USB hub that powers everything (gscartsw, RGB2COMP, gcompsw #1, gcompsw #2, HDMI splitters) restores the video signal as usual. FWIW My PS1 outputs RGB from the multi-out and composite from the RCA jacks at the same time, and the RT5X never has a problem with that through its SCART-CV input. I've since bought a pair of ELECTOP 2 Pack Male to Female USB Cable with On/Off Switch to see if all I need to power cycle is the gscartsw.

EDIT 3: Seems power cycling the gscartsw alone wasn't enough, so I got my old SABRENT 4 Port USB 2.0 Data Hub with Individual LED lit Power Switches out. I hooked up my gscartsw, RGB2comp, gcompsw #1 and gcompsw #2 to that instead, and put this 4-port hub at the bottom of my powered USB hub. And happily, hitting all those switches to power cycle those four devices worked. Goddamn FINALLY. Easy enough to hit all four switches at the same time too!

EDIT 4: Although I still think there's some truth to the "not splitting the signal" bit in my initial post (I do remember the OLED display of the OSSC Pro going nuts), even more testing reveals that all I really needed to power cycle was my gcompsw #1. Or to put it another way, the piece in the equipment chain directly following conversion from RGB to component with the RGB2COMP. I suppose it's easier hitting the one button to power off/on the gcompsw, but I've since arranged the USB cables so that it goes: 4-way hub with individual switches > short USB extension with rocker switch > powered USB hub... so flicking the switch is pretty easy too. Either way I just have to wait three seconds before powering on again. Is it any safer just power cycling the one gcompsw instead of all four (gscartsw, RGB2COMP, gscompsw, gcompsw)?