Component video through Extron VGA Ars switch

[bobrocks95]

Looking at the user manual I was under the impression that I could route component YPbPr video through my Extron VGA switch, as it talks about "HDTV component video" as well as Y and "R-Y and B-Y of component video".

Spoiler

I bought this Startech adapter - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00213KFHW and I'm not getting any auto-switching on the Extron or anything on the OSSC.

I'm wondering if the adapter isn't bidirectional? I figured on VGA Red is Red, Blue is Blue and all that, but maybe I'm missing something. I will check the pinout on it, maybe the Extron is expecting different pins to be used too.

[fernan1234]

I used the same kind of adapter, one that came with an HDFury, and got the signal to trigger the auto-switch and pass through on my VGA Ars switch with the YPbPr 15khz signal from an Xbox360.

All you should need is simply match the colors on the cables. Maybe it is the case that the Startech adapter uses a non-standard pinout, so it's worth checking it.

[bobrocks95]

Pinout looks standard, RGB connected to pins 1-3 and all the grounds tied together- I will try another source and see what happens, I was trying with my Wii which should be set to 480p.

[bobrocks95]

Okay, so it's working, the switch just isn't auto-switching. What line does the Extron use to auto-switch with, one of the sync lines? Best I can find is in the quick start guide: "In auto switch mode, the switcher selects the highest-numbered input with sync signals
present."

Could the HDFury adapter be wired a little differently to induce a voltage on it or something?

[maxtherabbit]

Extron auto switches on H-sync

If you're hell bent on using the auto switching, you might be able to trick it by putting a steady +5 or ground on VGA pin 13, but I doubt that will work. It probably requires an actual pulse waveform to trigger the auto switch

[bobrocks95]

Extron auto switches on H-sync

If you're hell bent on using the auto switching, you might be able to trick it by putting a steady +5 or ground on VGA pin 13, but I doubt that will work. It probably requires an actual pulse waveform to trigger the auto switch

Documentation makes it sound like it definitely wants something that looks like a sync pulse.

No auto-switching completely kills the mood, I was thinking I could simplify my setup. Why would fernan1234's cable trigger auto-switching properly?

What's the setup on it, BNC female to VGA male? Or one of the male RCA + female to female adapters to VGA male? The adapters are fairly cheap on HDFury's website, but I don't know what would make them work differently unless they're hiding additional circuitry.

[fernan1234]

What's the setup on it, BNC female to VGA male? Or one of the male RCA + female to female adapters to VGA male? The adapters are fairly cheap on HDFury's website, but I don't know what would make them work differently unless they're hiding additional circuitry.

I don't think it would have anything other than those three lines going to the standard pins. Do you have anything else connected to the switch that may still be sending some signal and somehow keeping priority? My switch is an SW8 with two outputs, which may differ a bit from the ones with less inputs and a single output.

Extron auto switches on H-sync

Not really the case, since it actually switches even with just an audio line being detected--well, I wouldn't swear on this but I clearly remember this when I was routing audio from a Famicom to it while composite video was going elsewhere. The fact that it also switched for me with YPbPr also made me think that it will just switch with whatever it senses last.

edit: turns out I was using port 1 all along, sorry! The manual is correct of course.

[bobrocks95]

What's the setup on it, BNC female to VGA male? Or one of the male RCA + female to female adapters to VGA male? The adapters are fairly cheap on HDFury's website, but I don't know what would make them work differently unless they're hiding additional circuitry.

I don't think it would have anything other than those three lines going to the standard pins. Do you have anything else connected to the switch that may still be sending some signal and somehow keeping priority? My switch is an SW8 with two outputs, which may differ a bit from the ones with less inputs and a single output.

Extron auto switches on H-sync

Not really the case, since it actually switches even with just an audio line being detected--well, I wouldn't swear on this but I clearly remember this when I was routing audio from a Famicom to it while composite video was going elsewhere. The fact that it also switched for me with YPbPr also made me think that it will just switch with whatever it senses last.

I suppose I could disconnect what's connected to the first input and see what happens. I have an SW12 with 2 outputs as well, so it should be functionally identical to yours, the SW8 and SW12 use the same manual as compared to the 2, 4, and 6 input versions.

[maxtherabbit]

Extron auto switches on H-sync

If you're hell bent on using the auto switching, you might be able to trick it by putting a steady +5 or ground on VGA pin 13, but I doubt that will work. It probably requires an actual pulse waveform to trigger the auto switch

Documentation makes it sound like it definitely wants something that looks like a sync pulse.

No auto-switching completely kills the mood, I was thinking I could simplify my setup. Why would fernan1234's cable trigger auto-switching properly?

What's the setup on it, BNC female to VGA male? Or one of the male RCA + female to female adapters to VGA male? The adapters are fairly cheap on HDFury's website, but I don't know what would make them work differently unless they're hiding additional circuitry.

This is super dumb but you could run luma to a sync stripper (in addition to feeding it directly to VGA pin 2 of course) and then use the C-sync output from the stripper to trigger the switch.

I have no idea what's going on with fernan's setup but it is not commensurate with the SW4 VGA/Ars sitting in front of me right now. It switches on numerical priority just like the docs say. The docs also mention that using it for YPbPr will require manual switching

[bobrocks95]

The docs also mention that using it for YPbPr will require manual switching

Ah, okay, this is the key detail that I didn't see when I was looking through. Mine's definitely not switching on audio, and definitely not switching on component, so HSync it is.

Now as I just thought about- the best solution is usually the easiest one. I'll just plug my one component device into Input 1! Problem solved lol.

Makes me feel better about the custom MVS cable I ordered too (mine has component outputs + RGB), I can think of it as an auto-switching upgrade. Eliminating just the 1 more component device from my chain is a big help, I'm currently switching around Gamecube, Wii, Xbox, and MVS component cables. Once the MVS cable comes in I'll now be able to keep one cord plugged into the OSSC and just swap at the console ends between Xbox and Gamecube (and once the Morph is out, Gamecube gets its HDMI input).

[fernan1234]

My apologies! I just checked the port where I had connected YPbPr (and audio) and it's port 1. So it was not auto-switching as I thought, but simply defaulting to it, d'oh!

Sorry for adding to the confusion, but good to see you found a solution.

[matt]

I use YPbPr through my 6-position VGA Ars. It works fine, although I made my own cables so I can't give advice on what brand of adapter to buy. As usual it's just Y, Pb, and Pr though green, blue, and red respectively.

Auto switching doesn't work for me. The unit doesn't seem to like 15khz csync and keeps shutting off the input sporadically. That's OK because I don't mind pushing the button.

[maxtherabbit]

Auto switching doesn't work for me. The unit doesn't seem to like 15khz csync and keeps shutting off the input sporadically. That's OK because I don't mind pushing the button.

Yeah I've seen that behavior also. It's very infrequent and hard to pin down, but it seems to be somewhat dependent on the source device as to whether the auto switcher can handle the 15kHz

[fernan1234]

That's interesting, 7 out of my 8 inputs are exclusively 15khz, and the 8th one more often than not is too, and after almost 3 years of use I've never noticed a single auto-switch failure, at least as I can remember. Then again, I almost never have two sources on at the same time.

[maxtherabbit]

I got very rare "switch drops" on genesis using 15kHz RGBS. I'm also 90% sure it happened at least once with dreamcast doing 15kHz RGBHV.

But on the flip side I have never once seen it happen with the 3 computers I currently have connected doing 15kHz RGBHV

[RottenToTheGore]

Totally spitballing here, so someone correct or confirm me as needed.

If it switches via a pulse on H-Sync, would any of the Y-Pb-Pr lines put out that type of pulse? There's 6 inch BNC to VGA adapters out there like this - https://www.extron.com/product/syvgamalefivebncfec

Could one of the video lines be split and also plugged into the H-Sync input using some kind of adapter?

I don't know anything about if that's possible or even safe but I thought I'd bring up the idea.

[bobrocks95]

The Y line carries sync data, Pb and Pr are chroma offsets. I thought about splitting the Y line, but since it also carries luma data I thought it might weaken the signal.

[smudgeface]

Joined this forum just to participate in this thread. Welcome all!

Did anyone ever get to the bottom of this? Maybe there's been some progress in the past 3 years?

If component video (YPbPr) on the VGA's RGB pins isn't enough to trigger the switching, did anyone try a sending one of the video signals (Y for example) down the HSync pin of the VGA? For example, get one of those RGBVH adapters on ebay and then use an RCA Y-adapter to connect the Y signal from your source device to both the G and the H pins on the VGA. Maybe that's enough?

[bobrocks95]

Joined this forum just to participate in this thread. Welcome all!

Did anyone ever get to the bottom of this? Maybe there's been some progress in the past 3 years?

If component video (YPbPr) on the VGA's RGB pins isn't enough to trigger the switching, did anyone try a sending one of the video signals (Y for example) down the HSync pin of the VGA? For example, get one of those RGBVH adapters on ebay and then use an RCA Y-adapter to connect the Y signal from your source device to both the G and the H pins on the VGA. Maybe that's enough?

Personally speaking I've since eliminated YPbPr from my setup completely. For quite awhile it was just the Wii for me, and now I've installed an ElectronAVE mod in it and run it and a few other consoles through an HDMI switch.

I would think split the Y signal and give it a try, issue being like my last post on this thread stated, you will probably lose brightness from Luma being split passively.

Any reason these days why you've ended up with the combo of Extron VGA switch and multiple component sources to connect? I was definitely waiting a long time for a scaler with HDMI input myself.

[smudgeface]

None of my devices are HDMI modded. I have one composite signal (NES), two RGBS signals (SNES, and RGB-modded N64), and one component signal (Wii). The plan is to connect all of these to an Extron SW4 and from there to a RetroTink 4k.

Would be neat to get aut-switching working. I don't mind whipping up an LM1881 sync stripper. I'm gearing up to make custom cables, like the retro-access ones, so I could easily put the LM1881 circuit in the DB15 shell. I just don't want to bother with all that if, ultimately, it doesn't work

[bobrocks95]

None of my devices are HDMI modded. I have one composite signal (NES), two RGBS signals (SNES, and RGB-modded N64), and one component signal (Wii). The plan is to connect all of these to an Extron SW4 and from there to a RetroTink 4k.

Would be neat to get aut-switching working. I don't mind whipping up an LM1881 sync stripper. I'm gearing up to make custom cables, like the retro-access ones, so I could easily put the LM1881 circuit in the DB15 shell. I just don't want to bother with all that if, ultimately, it doesn't work

For the different input types you're going to have to switch between Tink profiles or inputs anyways. I'd put component in switch port 1 (auto switching doesn't matter, it'll default to input 1), RGBS on 2 and 3, and then route composite to the front of the Tink or the component inputs on the back.