HYDRA - automatic scart switch

[Guspaz]

Keep an eye out for the upcoming My Life in Gaming switcher episode, which will cover a bunch of different SCART switchers.

[BuckoA51]

So I finally got around to hooking up my Hydra.. initial impressions:-

Picture quality is great, no complaints there.
The LEDs look cool.

However I was disappointed that the manual override buttons don't seem to work as I expected. I thought the switch would automatically detect an input but allow me to manually select another input as desired. One use for this is if you want to route audio only through a SCART plug, perhaps you had a Dreamcast connected to an OSSC and just needed to route the audio via SCART and the video separately by DSUB-15. This doesn't seem to be the case though, pressing the manual override makes the switch scan up or down for other active inputs. If you're routing audio only, the input will not be detected as active, disappointing.

Also what is button 1 (SW1) supposed to do? HD/SD mode?? It just seems to make the picture brighter or darker? Plus pressing it seems to turn out the LEDs and make selecting inputs impossible.. sometimes anyway...?? really confused.

[DiegoPonga]

Woah, woah... Wait right there... 16 SCART inputs? Within the EU (no customs)? That's too good to be tr... Oh, GOD, give me five of those!

[Guspaz]

The original plan was an 8-port switch with an expansion port to enable a "hydra head" expansion unit to add an extra 8 ports. It looks like now there is also a 16-port unit (the photo of it is nuts), and that one says it also supports the hydra-head for a total of 24 SCART ports in one switch.

Looking at the photos, it seems like the 16-port switch is actually just the 8-port switch with one "hydra head" attached, but put together into a single plexiglas chassis.

[DiegoPonga]

The original plan was an 8-port switch with an expansion port to enable a "hydra head" expansion unit to add an extra 8 ports. It looks like now there is also a 16-port unit (the photo of it is nuts), and that one says it also supports the hydra-head for a total of 24 SCART ports in one switch.

Looking at the photos, it seems like the 16-port switch is actually just the 8-port switch with one "hydra head" attached, but put together into a single plexiglas chassis.

As long as it works properly with up to 16 consoles and OSSC, I'm happy with that. I planned to connect Atari 2600, NES, MegaDrive, SNES, Saturn, PSX, N64, PS2, Xbox, GC and Wii through one of these, and probably some more devices (PC Engine? Custom MAME PC?), so this is just gorgeous while the Gscartsw falls short. Also, this is an EU product, which makes it way cheaper than ordering it from overseas for people like me, which once again makes it sexier than the Gscartsw.

We have too little info about many things (is it reliable? functions?), but it seems pretty good to me.

[RGB0b]

Has anyone been able to do a screen capture through it? Basically, do one directly into a capture card and another through the hydra into a capture card. I do that with all the devices I test. You'd be surprised at the differences you pick up when you zoom in.

[Shining]

I've been using the Hydra (8 port) for a couple of days now and it works great with everything i've thrown at it (NESRGB, SNES 1-chip-03, Genesis M1, PC Engine, PS1). No sync issues at all hooked up to my Sony KV-29X5E. I'm still waiting for a proper RGB-out cable to do some picture quality testing, but so far it looks great. I have no capture card though.

I have no idea what the middle button is supposed to do. The only difference i see when it is pressed is that the picture is moved slightly to the right, but it's only a millimeter or so.

[PascalP]

I have no idea what the middle button is supposed to do. The only difference i see when it is pressed is that the picture is moved slightly to the right, but it's only a millimeter or so.

Wouldn't that be to turn ON/OFF the sync stripper?
The picture on my gscartsw also shifts slightly when the sync stripper is turned ON, this is normal behavior

[ZellSF]

If the 16 port HYDRA was available when I bought my gscartsw it would have been very tempting.

[BuckoA51]

I have no idea what the middle button is supposed to do. The only difference i see when it is pressed is that the picture is moved slightly to the right, but it's only a millimeter or so.

Yeah I don't get the button configuration at all, I think there's some button combo supposed to turn off the LEDs? That's what happens on mine anyway, hopefully Lotharek can clarify.

[DiegoPonga]

I have no idea what the middle button is supposed to do. The only difference i see when it is pressed is that the picture is moved slightly to the right, but it's only a millimeter or so.

Yeah I don't get the button configuration at all, I think there's some button combo supposed to turn off the LEDs? That's what happens on mine anyway, hopefully Lotharek can clarify.

Could you guys talk about what buttons, options, outputs, etc. Hydra does offer? In its official webpage I cannot find any info. of those.

[Johnpv]

Anyone in the US buy one of these? I'm just wondering what the shipping costs/wait time were. Planning on putting some money aside for one of these and just trying to figure out a ballpark.

[DiegoPonga]

Anyone in the US buy one of these? I'm just wondering what the shipping costs/wait time were. Planning on putting some money aside for one of these and just trying to figure out a ballpark.

Do you have any friend or relative living in the European Union? Then it's time to make him/her a call and explain him/her that a little box from Poland is going to arrive in the next couple of days.

That's what I do with US only stuff. I have a friend who is working in Los Angeles, CA and he bought a couple of games for me. Then, when he came back to Spain for Christmas, he gave me my games.

If you have to pay taxes, customs and incredibly expensive shipping but then wait for up to 3 weeks, you'll get really mad if there is any little issue with your Hydra.

[NJRoadfan]

Shipping to the US can be less then the VAT on items (the US isn't going to hit you for customs fees on a SCART switcher). Shipping does take a while though. My OSSC is taking a tour of USPS facilities right now after its week long UK vacation.

[BuckoA51]

Lotharek is VAT registered in Poland so he can take the VAT off the price when sending outside the EU.

Since the USA don't usually charge customs on smaller value items this makes EU countries an insanely good place to be for small businesses selling lower value shipments, since you can send packages anywhere in the EU for cheap postage and neither you nor your customers will ever get charged import/handling fees (it's all done on VAT), plus you can send to the USA basically tax free. I'm not sure why the US is so lenient in this regard, Canada, Switzerland, Norway, Australia all sting my customers for import tax on a regular basis.

Good job no country is retarded enough to want to leave the EU huh

[Johnpv]

I've never gotten anything from Poland. The UK is painfully slow with everything, any time I order new RGB cables from retrogamingcables or when my Retro gamer subscription ships it takes for ever to get here. Anything from China I assume will take a month, and the only other place I've order stuff from is Japan and 9 times out of 10 that's here with in a few days. I don't know why or how but stuff I've ordered from Japan has gotten to me faster than stuff coming from California (I'm on the other coast of the US) sometimes.

Thanks for the info, I'll probably plan on adding another 30 - 40 to cover shipping costs, and just be patient for it's delivery.

[Guspaz]

By policy, the US does not process customs duties on packages below $800 USD in value. From $800 USD to $2,000 USD, they'll automatically add customs fees. Beyond $2,000, they'll hold your package and you need to do the paperwork yourself.

Canada's limit for avoiding customs fees is $20 CAD. Anything beyond that should officially be assessed federal and provincial sales tax (varies, but is roughly 15% for me), and different carriers have different fees for doing the customs clearance for you: Canada Post, by far the most common when receiving packages abroad, will add a $10 CAD fee on top of the sales tax. The trick is that Canada Post doesn't bother doing this on all packages, so some pacakges get through with no fees, some don't. These days I think around 1/3rd of my packages get hit, but at times it's been much better or much worse.

The limit is so low ($20) because it serves as a protectionist policy designed to encourage Canadians to shop at Canadian stores instead of American stores. It costs the government more money to administer the customs limit than they collect in customs fees, so the whole program is a net loss, meaning it really is 100% about protection.

For Canada, the alternative is for the seller to handle customs clearance themselves (normally they just pay a company to do it for them). In this scenario, the seller collects federal sales tax at the time of purchase, and provincial sales tax is not required at all: normally the customs clearance fees are less than provincial sales tax, and there is no extra $10 fee, so this is a much cheaper option for the buyer when a seller does it. Because of the hassle of doing this, most sellers don't bother, only stores that engauge in significant amounts of cross-border shipping bother. For example, Amazon USA and B&H Photo Video both do this, and Amazon USA's customs clearance fees are practically non-existent.

As an example, say I buy an item from the US for $199.89 USD with free shipping to Canada. One I buy from a seller that does not do clearance themselves, one I buy from B&H.

No clearance
Original price: $199.89 USD
Currency exchange: $267.60 CAD (all additional fees are in CAD in this scenario)
Federal sales tax (5%): $13.38 CAD
Quebec sales tax (9.975%): $29.69 CAD
Canada Post clearance fee: $10 CAD

Total: $320.67 CAD

B&H Clearance
Original price: $199.89 USD
Federal sales tax (5%): $9.99 USD (all additional fees are in USD in this scenario)
Brokerage: $1.56 USD
Disbursement: $0.30 USD
Security & Handling: $2.65 USD
Currency exchange: $287.44 CAD

Total: $287.44 CAD


So as you can see, by the store handling the customs clearance for the customer, the customer saved $33.23 CAD on their purchase of a $199.89 USD item, a pretty big savings. But as I said, this only really makes sense for sellers with big volumes to do.

[RGB0b]

Does anyone in the US have one of these and would be willing to let me borrow it to test? I'd only need it for a few days.

[DiegoPonga]

Does anyone in the US have one of these and would be willing to let me borrow it to test? I'd only need it for a few days.

That would be great!

If you gain access to one of these, do you mind to particularly test a couple of things for me?

RGsB through SCART for PlayStation 2 and YPbPr through SCART for either Wii or Xbox. Would you mind? You would do me a favor

[BuckoA51]

By policy, the US does not process customs duties on packages below $800 USD in value

Eight hundred dollars, mad isn't it? Uncle Sam must lose millions of tax dollars on this...sure, set it at something like 100 bucks but eight hundred? not that I'm complaining of course!

Canada's limit for avoiding customs fees is $20 CAD.

That's much more common around the world in my experience, I think the EU limit is something like 20 Euro or lower.

The limit is so low ($20) because it serves as a protectionist policy designed to encourage Canadians to shop at Canadian stores instead of American stores.

I do wonder about that, but considering you always get a handling fee slapped on too (same as EU), I wonder if it really makes no money at all on most shipments?

[Guspaz]

The limit is so low ($20) because it serves as a protectionist policy designed to encourage Canadians to shop at Canadian stores instead of American stores.

I do wonder about that, but considering you always get a handling fee slapped on too (same as EU), I wonder if it really makes no money at all on most shipments?

A recent study showed that Canada spent $166 million administering the program, and collected a total of $39 million in taxes and fees.

The equivalent fee (apparently called "de minimis") in Europe varies by country. For VAT it's mostly similar to Canada, for customs duties it seems to be roughly 150 euros on average.

I found a list of a lot of countries here:

http://www.global-express.org/assets/fi ... l-2016.pdf

I found an article on the subject which has some interesting statistics. On the whole, 25% of packages handled by Canada Post over $20 actually get the sales tax applied (as I said, random chance), and Canada Post handles nearly half of such packages. Since this is based on a study done by UPS, they're keen to point out that 100% of packages carried by express couriers had sales tax charged, because they're making it out to be an unfair competition thing.

[NJRoadfan]

By policy, the US does not process customs duties on packages below $800 USD in value

Eight hundred dollars, mad isn't it? Uncle Sam must lose millions of tax dollars on this...sure, set it at something like 100 bucks but eight hundred? not that I'm complaining of course!

There is no federal sales tax or VAT in the US, only state level sales tax. The only thing we have to worry about with imports is customs duties, which isn't going to be too much anyway.

[BuckoA51]

A recent study showed that Canada spent $166 million administering the program, and collected a total of $39 million in taxes and fees.

Very interesting. I can just imagine how UK boarders are going to cope when everything from the EU requires a customs sticker/inspection

Anyway, back on topic, I'll have to go pester Lotharek when I'm a little less busy and get the mystery of these buttons worked out.

[ZellSF]

I found an article on the subject which has some interesting statistics. On the whole, 25% of packages handled by Canada Post over $20 actually get the sales tax applied (as I said, random chance), and Canada Post handles nearly half of such packages. Since this is based on a study done by UPS, they're keen to point out that 100% of packages carried by express couriers had sales tax charged, because they're making it out to be an unfair competition thing.

I'll actually agree on them on that. Living in Norway, I avoid express couriers not because of price, but because they'll basically always charge import tax. Posten Norge's (state owned postal service) miss ratio is probably near 75% too.

[Wolf_]

Does this have a manual only mode? So that way if say the resolution changes it won't cycle through all the inputs and blank the screen while it searches for new inputs but instead stays on the current input?

[BuckoA51]

I've been trying to figure that out myself. I guess it's time I dropped Lotharek an e-mail get him to check in here.

Edit - Lotharek updated the product page:-

BUTTONS: (firmware update may be needed)

Left - scan for active source to the left from active one (if active is far left, no action)
Right - scan for active source to the right from active one (if active is far right, no action)
Middle - Toggle the low pass filter (led on/off) - default ON
left+right pressed together - disables the Knight Rider style LED effect

Does not look like there's a "hold on current input" or, disappointingly, a manual select input. I'm not sure how to update the firmware yet, I may have a compatible programmer I'll need to check.

Edit (again) Lotharek suggested in an e-mail to me that these features might be added in a firmware update.

[Shining]

Maybe this was a stupid thing to do, i don't know, but i tried hooking up my Wii U (official Wii RGB scart) to the Hydra and i think i fried one of the scart sockets along with the USB wall charger powering the Hydra.
Need to do some more testing tonight, but i think this is the case. Switched out the wall charger and the Hydra worked fine again, except for that one scart socket.

Edit: Yep, one socket is fried.

[lettuce]

My Life in Gaming did a video on video switches this weekend and included the Hydra switch. Their results found that it gave a slightly dimmed display when compared to the gscartsw and had issues with sync on some systems (megadrive and psx) and the Dreamcast toro box, but then it is a fair bit cheaper than the gscartsw.

Video here....

https://youtu.be/998tBzpJhVo

[Shining]

To me, the Hydra seems to give a slightly sharper picture although a bit darker. And the sync issues seems to be related to the XRGB-Mini?

[strygo]

I just received the 16x1 Hydra this week and had a chance to hook it up this morning. What a wonder. I love this thing. I see no degradation whatsoever on an SD CRT, HD CRT, or the Framemeister. The automatic switching has worked with everything I've tried - I haven't tried RGsB yet. The manual override buttons are also super useful when switching between signals.

The only downside is that it is bigger than I had envisioned. It takes up most of a shelf. I thought the Knight Rider effect might be gimmicky, but it makes the whole setup much more impressive.

Now I just need to figure out what to put in these few remaining open spots.