Extron Emotia Problems

[Trevor spencer]

Finally got my VGA cable today for my 360 so thought id check out my super emotia but im having some problems , ive set the 360 to 640x480 , i can see the emotia is picking up the signal from the LED on the front but when i plug it into my RGB TV i just get a black screen , ive tried my own RGBS lead and ive tried an RGBS adapter and both have the same problem , the adapter also has an input and output switch on it , when i switch it to input i can see the screen is getting some kind of feed but isnt displaying a picture also if i switch from pal to ntsc the screen flicks white ?

I thought these were pretty straight forward plug and play so i dont know whats going on

Feeling pretty fed up at the mo as this cost me quite a bit of cash (hope its not faulty)
Thanks

[Trevor spencer]

Not having much luck with this at all

Ive tried my Laptop via RGBS , i get no picture , ive also tried DC via RGBS also no picture

Heres the DC plugged in via RGBS , as you can see the emotia is working from the LED's


Heres the RGBS Cable via the RGBS adapter and BNC to RCA plugs (good quality cable too)
Setting this to input gives me some kind of signal with a black screen , setting to output gives me nothing , also i wired my own RGBS cable and that to gives me nothing



I did manage to get a picture via composite in my AV2 slot but it looked terrible , heres some pics of AV2 and AV1 RGBS
(black screen) when i had it in composite i could tell the 240P was working via the Interlace switch



Heres a video of it connected via RGBS and me flicking the PAL - NTSC switch


And Finally the dent and scratch on the unit when i unpacked it


Im using a sony 21" CRT RGB TV model no 21CT1U

[philexile]

Hi Trevor,

OK, here are a few things I'm noticing. First of all, those aren't 'proper' RGBs cables. In theory, what you are using should work fine, but I would recommend picking up cables like this:

http://tinyurl.com/3xrw4qk

In order to connect them to your RGBs to SCART, I would get 4 converters such as these:

http://tinyurl.com/5f6wfm

The links above are what I use and I've had good luck with them.

It also looks like you are using some sort of converter box. (I think I can see something in the background there) Could you post picts of this as well, along with the model number? Also, what make of male to female VGA cord are you using?

Also, I'm confused that you said the "DC is plugged in via RGBs." The Emotia can only output via RGBs. Its only input is via VGA. Did you input your Dreamcast via a VGA box? I assume this is the case. What type and could you post a pict?

Lastly, looking at the TV, I'm not entirely sure that its something the Emotia would be compatible with. Again, I'm not sure about this, not knowing much about UK TV sets or how their SCART interface works. Maybe someone else here will know more about it. I've used these only on video production monitors. Can you test on another TV?

Have you tried outputing S-Video?

That dent looks pretty nasty and definitely wasn't there when I shipped it out. However, that said, it looks mostly cosmetic. Hopefully, its not the indication of physical damage. I have a feeling that since you got a picture through composite that this is more likely an issue with your TV or RGBs cables.

Does anyone else have any insights here? Fudoh?

[Trevor spencer]

Yeah ive connected the DC via VGA box and then outputing via RGBs

The box was one i bought from play-asia a few years back (its not official) the switch box in the background is not being used in this set up , i did try the emotia on my 42" PLASMA VIA RGB SCART and had excatly the same problem (white and black screen)

I havnt tried S video yet , ill have to have a hunt round and see if i have a lead for this

Maybe ill try some new cables , thought i was gonna be playing ketsui in 240P tonight

[Trevor spencer]

VGA Cable is a lectropak silver range cable ( very nice )

[philexile]

Ok, that makes sense.

I don't think the Plasma would be a good thing to test on as they weren't designed for 240p input. I don't know much about the technical aspects of that however. I'm rocking a 2004 Sony CRT for my HD setup.

Can you get another RGBs -> SCART adapter at an electronics store to see if that is the issue?

Again, sorry you are having issues getting this going.

Talk soon

[Fudoh]

At the moment I wouldn't blame any of the involved electronics.

My guess is that you're missing the proper voltage signals to make the Sony TV switch into RGB mode. What you're feeding your TV is a pure RGBS signal, but you're missing the voltage signals which are usually present on pin 8 and 16 of the Scart cables to tell the TV that an actual RGB signal is incoming.

My early-90s Trinitron did have an actual RGB button which allowed to switch to RGB input without the usual voltage signals, but the function was dropped on most later TVs. Especially is you can cycle through AV1-3 only you're probably out of luck there.

If you have a spare RGB cable for any other of your systems (has to be REAL RGB with composite sync, not composite video) you can try this by just removing anything from the cable expect the R/G/B/GND signals.

EDIT: just a bonus info. Without the voltage signals on 8/16, the AV1 port expects composite video, but the Emotia only outputs real pure sync. This is why you get nothing picturewise. The switching voltages can be delivered by external sources as well, e.g. a battery. I've seen threads on the gamesx.com RGB board where people used this when connecting their RGB TVs to signal sources without the proper voltage signals.

[philexile]

Thanks for the post Fudoh. As usually, you are a font of information!

[Trevor spencer]

At the moment I wouldn't blame any of the involved electronics.

My guess is that you're missing the proper voltage signals to make the Sony TV switch into RGB mode. What you're feeding your TV is a pure RGBS signal, but you're missing the voltage signals which are usually present on pin 8 and 16 of the Scart cables to tell the TV that an actual RGB signal is incoming.

My early-90s Trinitron did have an actual RGB button which allowed to switch to RGB input without the usual voltage signals, but the function was dropped on most later TVs. Especially is you can cycle through AV1-3 only you're probably out of luck there.

If you have a spare RGB cable for any other of your systems (has to be REAL RGB with composite sync, not composite video) you can try this by just removing anything from the cable expect the R/G/B/GND signals.

EDIT: just a bonus info. Without the voltage signals on 8/16, the AV1 port expects composite video, but the Emotia only outputs real pure sync. This is why you get nothing picturewise. The switching voltages can be delivered by external sources as well, e.g. a battery. I've seen threads on the gamesx.com RGB board where people used this when connecting their RGB TVs to signal sources without the proper voltage signals.

Ahh good getting somewhere , thanks

So maybe i could wire a battery into my scart lead i have , ill have to look on gamesx . So if i hooked this up to a cab they dont need the voltage to switch to RGB right ? hmm wish i had a cab here to test

[Fudoh]

Yes, those switching voltages are only used on european TVs, which don't have a dedicated RGB input, but a Multi-AV input which handles multiple signals.

[philexile]

Hi Trevor,

I think it would be worth looking into a Sony PVM monitor. You may be able to get a deal on one and I think it would be quite a step up in terms of quality from what you are seeing on the set you have now.

Good luck

[gray117]

The rgb switch will almost certainly be your issue. I actually use my old pvm remote to change my regular sony tv (which I lost the remote to) to rgb mode - if you got a sony remote with an rgb button on it the chances are it will probably change the picture to rgb for you - your tv will probably accept the remote code.

[I used to have a pvm until it died soon after I actually bought my emotia... after feeding it the pass through by mistake ]

[Fudoh]

On some Sony TVs you can also assign AV channels to channel numers, e.g. 1 = AV2 etc. On some TVs the TV will allow you to set 1 (or any other channel) = RGB which would also solve the problem.

[Trevor spencer]

after feeding it the pass through by mistake

Opps , i actually have a harmony here , i could program it with a suitable sony remote . what was your PVM model number ?

or i was thinking about soldering something like this into my scart lead

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BATTERY-CR-2032-W ... 35a6b3065f

is it pins 16 and pins 14 ?

http://www.elektroda.pl/rtvforum/files- ... _scart.gif

As for a PVM , well i would like one but i dont think my missus would like it sat on our living room floor unless it was pretty tidy

Thanks

[philexile]

Hi Trevor,

I actually have two of the same line, one is a PVM 20M4U and the other is a 20M2U. Both work great, however, you have to watch out you don't get a bum one. Some of this line have issues with 1 capacitor getting dried out and causing eventual image distortion.

There is an easy way to check for it though. Just hit the "underscan" button on the front and if you see 3 RGB lines on the top that are not straight across, almost bowing, then leave it as it will only last 2/3 more years at most. Although, if you don't usually use it everyday, it may last longer. Its a bit of crap shoot.

Good luck

[gray117]

after feeding it the pass through by mistake

what was your PVM model number ?

It was a pvm-2950 [low res one - think the high res has QM on the end?] ... a front heavy box @ 55kg they're certainly not a gf's idea of a good feature even if they keep you quiet. In addition they also seem to be pretty hard to find these days. Consumer 26 inch trinitrons imho seem to be a pretty good compromise on size and quality [and probably weigh about 30kg so very easy to move] ...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SONY-505-MONITOR- ... 1674wt_682

^^ this is the remote I believe.

[Trevor spencer]

Got it working grays idea worked , i upload the PVm remote settings to my harmony and it was able to switch to RGB mode , my own lead i made still dont work for some reason but my RGBs adapter is working fine .

Drama over , thanks guys

[philexile]

Good to hear, Trevor! Enjoy 240p

[antares]

I didn't want to make an extra thread for this but here are some (not very good) pictures from my Extron Emotia I received yesterday.

Thanks to philexile for selling me the device and Fudoh for helping setting it up

First, my very professional mod to supply voltage to pin 16 on the scart connector, otherwise my TVs wouldn't recognize the RGB signal:


Mega CD emulator with Sonic CD:


MAME with Dangun Feveron:


XBox 360 with Ketsui X


XBox 360 with Deathsmiles (Arcade mode):