1 pictures of insides?
2 might be ground loop

Scart pinout is different in Japan from Europe.
Double check if the pinout is the same and tripple check that nothing has shorted.

rasz_pl wrote on 2022-11-12, 15:03:

1 pictures of insides?
2 might be ground loop

filurkatten wrote on 2022-11-12, 15:43:

Scart pinout is different in Japan from Europe.
Double check if the pinout is the same and tripple check that nothing has shorted.

Thank you for your help, I must say beforehand that my knowledge in electronics is very limited, I only barely learned how to solder by myself so I could at least solve simple problems like connecting wires or reflowing cold joints.

I remember now that the very first time I plugged the Scart switcher it had both PAL and NTSC consoles connected, but because the sound was weaker the hissing wasn't so clear, but it was already there now that I think about it, before I even reflowed anything. Is "ground loop" an inevitability of this cheap product or is it something I can fix?

I assume I would need a multimeter to check for the pinout, but I don't have one. For what it's worth, the NTSC Saturn works fine on the switcher by itself or when turned on paired with the PAL PSX, it's the PAL PSX's sound when it's on that always hisses during speech with the "s" and "ss" words, when plugged along with the Japanese Saturn in the switcher.

I reflowed the pins along the board where there were weak joints in a first attempt to fix the weak sound, which it did, and then I reflowed with some new solder too the wire joints on the board to try and fix the hissing PSX sound. Apart from my ugly job, the wires already had some burn marks in their coatings from factory in this area, and the joints looked even worse.

I realise it's a very cheaply made product, but if I can keep it from landfill then it's worth a try.

That thing pictured is not a "switch", it's a scam (unless you want to use only the outermost socket as an axtension cord)!

If you connect multiple sources (or inputs) in parallel, the terminator resistors will add up and greatly degrade the signal... and even if you unplug the cables from the console side, the "tentacles" will cause reflections, so practically it's unfit for purpose...

Ryccardo wrote on 2022-11-12, 18:40:

That thing pictured is not a "switch", it's a scam (unless you want to use only the outermost socket as an axtension cord)!

If you connect multiple sources (or inputs) in parallel, the terminator resistors will add up and greatly degrade the signal... and even if you unplug the cables from the console side, the "tentacles" will cause reflections, so practically it's unfit for purpose...

Honest question, so are those stupidly expensive Scart switches built the same way? What differenciates them from this cheap (well, actually free) one? I'm not that concerned about this one, if there's something else to be done I'll try it. But I'm also curious as I would need one in the future and I'm more and more lost on what to do about it

andre_6 wrote on 2022-11-12, 18:48:

Honest question, so are those stupidly expensive Scart switches built the same way? What differenciates them from this cheap (well, actually free) one?

The real ones (which require power to work at all), like the one in the last picture, are actual electronic selectors (of the kind quite a few TVs with more than a tuner and one input had), in fact the top of the line ones are matrix type (as in, you can select "socket 1 goes to 5 and simultaneously socket 2 goes to both 3 and 4 with proper buffering so without the defects I mentioned before") 😀

Of course, many of those (including that one) are today's enthusiast manufacturing (or last decade's professional-priced gear) and very good examples of how small scale electronics production doesn't pay... 🙁

But you can get good results with a mechanical switch (Hama AV100S and its 100 clones when they're not broken out of the box), I bought one two years ago for 10 € full retail price, cheaper than a DVI-A to VGA adapter at the same consumer electronics store!

Ryccardo wrote on 2022-11-12, 19:07:

The real ones (which require power to work at all), like the one in the last picture, are actual electronic selectors (of the ki […]
Show full quote

andre_6 wrote on 2022-11-12, 18:48:

Honest question, so are those stupidly expensive Scart switches built the same way? What differenciates them from this cheap (well, actually free) one?

The real ones (which require power to work at all), like the one in the last picture, are actual electronic selectors (of the kind quite a few TVs with more than a tuner and one input had), in fact the top of the line ones are matrix type (as in, you can select "socket 1 goes to 5 and simultaneously socket 2 goes to both 3 and 4 with proper buffering so without the defects I mentioned before") 😀

Of course, many of those (including that one) are today's enthusiast manufacturing (or last decade's professional-priced gear) and very good examples of how small scale electronics production doesn't pay... 🙁

But you can get good results with a mechanical switch (Hama AV100S and its 100 clones when they're not broken out of the box), I bought one two years ago for 10 € full retail price, cheaper than a DVI-A to VGA adapter at the same consumer electronics store!

Thanks for the suggestion, Philips actually made a clone of that AV100S if Hama really is the original manufacturer, that seems easy to find!

Like above poster said, what you have is a passive splitter.
It will just connect everything and that will cause interference and might even cause damage to the connected devices.
Its fine if only one thing is connected.
I would NOT use it u less you know one of the devices has some sort of input protection like some old VHS does. Video game consoles does not.

The mentioned Hama passive mecanical switch is really good. I have a couple and they give no signal loss at all for me.
I also find that the hobby enthusiast are way to expensive, what I did was that I bought a dirt cheap 1 input 8 output scart box, isolated all connectors and routed everything to buswitches that I control with a 8way rotating switch.

filurkatten wrote on 2022-11-12, 19:22:

Like above poster said, what you have is a passive splitter. It will just connect everything and that will cause interference an […]
Show full quote

Like above poster said, what you have is a passive splitter.
It will just connect everything and that will cause interference and might even cause damage to the connected devices.
Its fine if only one thing is connected.
I would NOT use it u less you know one of the devices has some sort of input protection like some old VHS does. Video game consoles does not.

The mentioned Hama passive mecanical switch is really good. I have a couple and they give no signal loss at all for me.
I also find that the hobby enthusiast are way to expensive, what I did was that I bought a dirt cheap 1 input 8 output scart box, isolated all connectors and routed everything to buswitches that I control with a 8way rotating switch.

Would gladly do that if I had the skill, happy that a viable option like the Hama exists though. I'm not interested in any PVM like shenanigans or any CRT rabbit hole like that, just a good reliable option to plug some consoles on a consumer CRT to sit and relax for an hour from time to time

Then the Hama will do you fine! 😀
You can also daisychain them if you need more inputs, abit annoying to select but it works if needed.
Gaming on CRT can be a bit of a rabbit hole, I agree. Currently building a RGB horizontal sync shifter becouse on my Bang Olufsen some consoles has it's RGB shifted a bit to the left, some Wiis and the 1Chip Snes revision to name a few.

filurkatten wrote on 2022-11-12, 19:56:

Then the Hama will do you fine! 😀
You can also daisychain them if you need more inputs, abit annoying to select but it works if needed.
Gaming on CRT can be a bit of a rabbit hole, I agree. Currently building a RGB horizontal sync shifter becouse on my Bang Olufsen some consoles has it's RGB shifted a bit to the left, some Wiis and the 1Chip Snes revision to name a few.

I'm sure it will, thanks for all the help, yours and everyone's. 3 or 4 inputs will be fine. Had no idea you could build something like that for that purpose. Would love to see some pics of that if you care to create a thread one day. One last question please, with the Hama would I be able to connect everything as leave each input as "active", and simply turn on the console I want each time, or would I need to select the active one I want on the Hama before each session, if I want to switch a different console from last time?

Beyond geometry and focus adjustments if needed, image wise what I did with my CRTs was to connect each console that I want to use on that particular CRT, see the underscan and resolution that each one provides, pick the console with the highest resolution and less underscan (which is inevitable as in my case it's PAL) and vertically stretch that one to its maximum capacity within the screen to maximize its potential, and the other consoles will go along with it. These other consoles will still have some small black bands of underscan, sure, but it's perfectly fine and balances out the CRT for universal use with all of them.

I like to do what I can to set up things to a point where it's plug and play from then on. The 240p suite is very useful but a newcomer can easily become obsessed with his CRT's flaws shown in the suite, whereas if he didn't use the suite in the first place he would most likely have been perfectly satisfied with the CRT while playing without ever realising those flaws

No problem, happy to help out!
With the Hama you need to select the active input each time. There are "smart" switches aswel but they need power and cost more if you want a good one.

The problem with RGB on the B&O and also on some Sonys that Im facing is that the RGB signal is outside the CRTs range, so with the menus I can move the image horizontal, stretch and tilt and all that but spme part of the image is always cropped to the left. If I move it to the right all I get is the cropped image and a black border.
With a horizontal shift circuit I can move the image independent from the CRT.

I can post some images later this week if you are interested. Not much to se, I pull 12v from pin8 that is the aspecratio selection pin. 5v for widescreen and 12v for 4:3. This is usually bad practice as not all consoles provide 12v and if they do the voltage isnt stable but in my scart switch I have a 12v regulator for providing this voltage for this purpose. 😀
This will also allways force the tv to switch to 4:3, Bang Olufsen MX8000 defaults to widescreen if the 12v is absent.
The circuit is done, soldered I just need to 3D print a case.

filurkatten wrote on 2022-11-12, 22:26:

No problem, happy to help out! With the Hama you need to select the active input each time. There are "smart" switches aswel but […]
Show full quote

No problem, happy to help out!
With the Hama you need to select the active input each time. There are "smart" switches aswel but they need power and cost more if you want a good one.

The problem with RGB on the B&O and also on some Sonys that Im facing is that the RGB signal is outside the CRTs range, so with the menus I can move the image horizontal, stretch and tilt and all that but spme part of the image is always cropped to the left. If I move it to the right all I get is the cropped image and a black border.
With a horizontal shift circuit I can move the image independent from the CRT.

I can post some images later this week if you are interested. Not much to se, I pull 12v from pin8 that is the aspecratio selection pin. 5v for widescreen and 12v for 4:3. This is usually bad practice as not all consoles provide 12v and if they do the voltage isnt stable but in my scart switch I have a 12v regulator for providing this voltage for this purpose. 😀
This will also allways force the tv to switch to 4:3, Bang Olufsen MX8000 defaults to widescreen if the 12v is absent.
The circuit is done, soldered I just need to 3D print a case.

Would love to see it thanks, I'm way over my head with the technical aspects but I'm curious about it. I don't imagine it to be beyond my reach in practical terms, but the lack of knowledge cripples my efforts! How would you compare B&O's MX models to a classic 90's black Trinitron, or even the later silver Trinitrons? B&Os don't appear much for sale around here but I always wondered if it would be worth it in case I came across one. I have a Trinitron just because they're the most common and easier to get. I would love a 50cm NEC one as I have a smaller one that has long been around the house and I always adored it. Still looking for a NEC Multisync CRT Monitor too

B&O compared to Trinitron is a little in the eye of the beholder.
B&O MX7000 and 8000 is in my opinion just as good image wise as a good consumer Trinitron.
The big difference is that the B&O MX series has really good sound! And I like how they look. 😉

But ofc if we are talking professional monitors Sony wins.

filurkatten wrote on 2022-11-12, 22:56:

B&O compared to Trinitron is a little in the eye of the beholder. B&O MX7000 and 8000 is in my opinion just as good image wise a […]
Show full quote

B&O compared to Trinitron is a little in the eye of the beholder.
B&O MX7000 and 8000 is in my opinion just as good image wise as a good consumer Trinitron.
The big difference is that the B&O MX series has really good sound! And I like how they look. 😉

But ofc if we are talking professional monitors Sony wins.

Good to know, design would mainly be the reason to go for one, I confess, but if they're on a par image wise with a good Trinitron then it's a no brainer. Oddly I've seen more Beovision Avant for sale, but they're enormous and even if it would be a 50/60hz model instead of the more common 100hz ones, playing on a 4:3 format within a big 16:9 screen would feel odd. But maybe the image is very nice on the 50/60hz ones, no idea, there's not a lot of info on those. The sound is its main selling point too, and that rotating motor is just sci-fi even today, beautiful... It's the one specific instance where I would have to really test it before committing to transporting such a behemoth and placing it within the house!