Banding issues with Psyclone Component Selector

I have the same exact problem with my psc01. this is my second one and i get the same issue.

i have a DVD player (component), ps2 (component), and a wii (component) hooked up and i get the same banding issues with my dvd player.

i emailed psyclone about it and they told me they are having manufacturing issues with the last wave.

not only do i have a problem with the banding, and i can't make it go away unless i bypass the selector box completely, but i also have a strange issue with the wii. it seems to drop the signal when i try to go into the shop channel (or other bright saturate screens) and then fights to get it back. eventually it comes back in when the page loads, but this is really going to suck when opera comes out and every page i try to load drops the signal. this doesn't happen in 480i, only in progressive.

i am returning this box sometime this week. between the two of us, that makes 3 boxes with the banding problem. thanks psyclone, $100 HD selector box that sucks.

-unwin (my first post too!)

i just bot a 240c joytech selector box and the problems are way worse. i am wondering now if something in my setup is causing my wii to drop signal or if my dvd player is creating the problem. what i don't understand is, how everything looks so great when connected directly into my tv, yet i have signal loss and horizontal banding on my DVD player through a powered selector box.

Xunwinx: Is your Wii connected via the Psyclone's ethernet port? I am asking because the Wii is wireless out of the box and therefore if you haven't connected it to the ethernet port on the Psyclone then the Wii dropping its connection should have nothing to do with the video selector box.

By the way, I got my Wii a few days ago and it drops connection to the shop channel all the time as do the Wii's from my friends. I know the wireless connection in my house is fine because we have 4 laptops and a wireless Xbox using it for at least a year with 0-drops, the Wii drops 10 times a day, its the Wii Shop channel server, not us.

I got my psyclone a few days ago and will have my Xbox, Xbox360, Wii and PS3 hooked up to it, still waiting for all my component cables to come in, when I have everything hooked up I'll post back with my results.

I have my cable box, DVD player, XBox 360 and PS3 connected to my PSC01. I am having three inch wide purple bands scrolling from the bottom to top of the screen. They are only visible on very dark and very light screens.

I am also having the exact same signal drop issues as xunwinx. It appears to happen mostly when displaying 1080i.

Anyone have any suggestions???

JD

I think it's from shielding issues inside the selector. Basically I think it's interference between the 2 signals inside the switch.

I have a joytech 240c and I get slight scan lines when my cable box is plugged into the switch because the cable box is constantly outputting a signal, so when I watch a dvd you can see a slight scan line on really dark parts of movies, but if you unplug the cable-box the scan line disappears.

Just my hunch,
-Bob

I'm bummed. I was really looking forward to this box. The optical switching, 1080i and customizable LCD was pretty attractive. I was even willing to look over the fact that it's silver.

Has anyone used this unit with positive results? Or can recommend one that works?

I just got my PS3 and Wii component cables in the mail yesterday, I connected everything up and popped Zelda into my Wii. All was fine until I went into a brightly lit zone then the video signal blanked out, sound kept playing. I verified this only happened with the video selector as direct to tv worked fine. I then tried playing a few movies thru the selector and sure enough in bright sunlight scenes the video would drop, same thing happened on my Xbox, big explosion goes off in a game making the screen go bright and then the video goes blank.

I am so annoyed, grr......... now I have to return this thing and find a better solution.

I just bought the newest model from Best Buy yesterday, it's the PSC01BK (Black Version) and the box actually has the 7 button remote pictured.

I love it however.

I have the same banding problem, here's what I tried: I can have the XBOX, XBOX360 and the PS3 all turned on at the same time with no problems. I'm using component connections on all my devices and have a Sony 57 720P native HDTV. I can switch between all of them with no problems. However, once I turn on my RCA DTC100 DirectTV HD Box, I get interference on all three devices (XBOX, XBOX 360, PS3). Very similar to the other problems listed above by other users (horizontal and vertical picture lines, signal cutting in and out, etc). I believe that Icedtea515 hit nailed the problem it the lack of shielding on the unit.

This is not a problem for me right now, because I can turn off the DirectTV HD box. My major concern is I'm thinking about upgrading my TV (I want a 1080P native set), if I dowill the built-in tuner (that's constantly on) cause banding problems similar to my DirectTV HD box?

It comes in black now? Thank the heavens!

Only my Wii, PS2 and GCN are going to be hooked to the unit so I think I'm going to bite. Thanks for sharing your experience!

I took back my psyclone due to the fact that I did not hear back from tech support. I did not want to risk being stuck with a $100 boat anchor. I went to Radio Shack and bought a selector from them for $30. It has four inputs and two outputs, but no optical (not a bad deal for me since I already have an optical selector.) The good news is that I have experienced none of the signal loss that I did with the psyclone. The bad news is that I still am dealing with some banding (albeit faint, but banding nonetheless).

I have discovered that the source of my problem is my Scientific Atlanta HD DVR. If I unplug the component cables from the DVR, the banding goes away. The banding still appears to be present when I turn the power off.

Any suggestions?

Like I stated above, I believe the issues are caused by poor shielding inside the switches. Your DVR box is probably constantly outputting a signal and it's causing interference inside the switch with your other signals. That's why it goes away when you unplug it.

Mine does the same thing with my cable box plugged in.

I think you will like it; I've had the switcher for several days now and love it. I just have to remember to shut down my Direct TV HD box before I switch on the Xbox, Xbox 360, or PS3. Everything looks and sounds great, I have a Sony KP-57WV600 running 1080i and 720p (native) with no signal loss. As stated earlier I'm running all four devices on the component / fiber in. Last night I was able to program my Sony AV3000 remote to with the Psyclone 7 buttons. I'm waiting on my Harmony 880 to come in, the Sony AV3000 is way to big!

Deja Vu. Wish I had found this thread earlier. I just got an xbox 360 so I got the Psyclone Audio/Video Switch (PSC-01). I have had the multi band color and it seems to be only on the Dish 622 DVR, whether the xbox is on or not. The thing I have noticed is it is triggered by fast or skip forward, commericals, an extreme scene change (from dark to light) or extreme action (explosions). Which pretty much covers everything. My problem is not impacted by any other input. I can connect only the 622 and it starts.

I too thought it was a bad A/V switch and exchanged it only to find the same thing. Unfortunately I just ordered the joytech to replace it.

Has anyone found a component A/V switch that they could recommend? The Impact Acoustics 3-Play - AV selector looks hopeful. Anyone tried it?

Thanks

First post........ Maybe it may help you out.

I just hooked up a PS3 and PS2 through an older Pelican AV Selector and have the same problem with banding.

After researching the web, for those who are using multiple electrical outlets for powering-up your hardware, the problem is most likely not the AV Selector but a ground loop problem (probably due to your cable tv) (Do a google search on ground loop PS3)

Simple test is to plug your av selector into the same power strip as the rest of your hardware (assuming that you have a quality grade power strip...... but you do so at your own risk, I don't want to be blamed for any system damage). I did this and the banding went away.

or disconnect your cable tv cable from your cable box..... also tried this and the banding went away.

or bypass your av selector and run direclty into the TV, if your banding persists, it's not the AV selector.

It has been recommended on some sites to remove the grounding prong from the ps3 or your surge protector or buy a three prong to two prong adapter (It may not be safe to do this..... The ground prong is there for a reason).

I've spent many hours changing cables around plugging and unplugging things to figure this out.

Now, the problem is that my PS3 and PS2 are across the room from the rest of my system..... there are ways to remedy this is to 1) run an extension cord from the gaming systems and keep them plugged into the same surge protector as the rest of the system or 2) purchase a good ground isolator (not the radio shack 3.99 stuff, search for Jensen VR-1FF, 3) call your cable company to check the ground loop problem (good luck on that) or 4) Unplug the cable wire from your cable box everytime you want to play games (not really practical), or 5) Live with it.

I have a jensen on order, when I get it, I'll post the results. ** 01/12/07 Just to follow-up, I installed the Jensen and it worked perfectly..... No More Banding.


I don't know if this solves all the problems that are on this forum but it may help some of you.


By the way, where can I purchase the Black Psyclone..... The Psyclone looks sorta nice (My BB doesn't carry it)


--------------------------------------------------------
If it doesn't kill you it makes you stronger.....

I had the same problem that you have all been talking about.....what I did for a fix was to go buy a different brand of system selector (Universal System Selector Pro). It worked like a charm.........with Motorola digital cable box, Sony DVD player and my Netgear Network player and all devices on at the same time! No banding, no streaking no matter what resolution I choose...480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i...
There is however one caveat...you cannot rename the input labels on this system selector unlike the Psyclone PSC01

By Pelican, right ? the Universal System Selector Pro

Everyone should return their Psyclone source selectors. I don't believe that there should be any interference regardless of the cables used or the status of the other attached components. Check out the a/v switchers at "impactacoustics" on the web.

I picked up a 6x2 component selector matrix (with optical). so I can also set up a different room as well and share my components. A little more expensive, and not as nice-looking, but you get what you pay for!

Hi

I'd like to add my own experience on this.. skip to the end for the question:

At my previous house we had Wii, Xbox, and comcast's motorola HD DVR plugged into the PSC01. The other devices are a DVD player, and a yamaha receiver. 'Monitor out' went to the projector behind the couch.

We had no issues with banding, except the vertical line stuff with the xbox. Now we have moved, and with the same devices, except a new dish vip622 DVR (and a panasonic dvd player not connected to the switcher). With just the DVR on, I see huge veritcal bands, especially on high color shows like the simpsons.

Between these bars it alternates gray-ish and a light green. The bars get more distinct and intense the higher the res.. at 480i it blends more (at 92" it's pretty fuzzy too).

I plugged the DVD into the switcher, got some banding, put it back to the yamaha and no banding. Haven't tried the other devices.. I use optical for audio btw, and I haven't even plugged the wii in yet.

Bypassing the switcher solves the problem. But when using it, disconnecting the cable doesn't do anything (per a previous post), and no other device is ever powered on. All devices are plugged into the same surge protector, and I tried plugging the PSC01 into the wall jack directly, nada.

Now I would hate to spend all that cash on a ground isolator if disconnecting the cable doesn't do crap, so does anyone have suggestions?

More importantly, I have no idea what is good for switchers out there, so if I have to dump this, I don't want to get another crappy one. I heard about the Zektor switches, those any good? Any other ones < $300 or so that are decent, or should I dig deeper into the wallet for something that won't cause this?

Sorry for the long post, thanks!

I realize this reply is coming in a little late, but I would have to agree with Rglassnj. I have the same problem with my 4 year old Mitsubishi 55 inch Diamond that has only one 1080i input. I bought the Pysclone PSC01BK component source selector from Best Buy to be able to toggle from my Motorola HD DVR (Verizon Fios) and Sony HD DVR (over the air HD). Both components work well when plugged directly into the TV, but the Sony has no picture when both components are plugged in the Psyclone. I bought new cables, checked all connections, etc.

Apparently Psyclone is having a problem with interference with certain devices. I have pasted the email I received today -- the advice from the company is plug the device directly into the TV and don't use the switcher! I am going to return it and try another switcher.

From: psyclonegamer [mailto:customerservice@psyclonegamer.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 10:20 AM
To:
Subject: RE: PsycloneGamer.com: Tech Support - Model #Psyclone PSC01 Source Selector (2/6/2008 9:38:03 AM)

Hello,

Thanks for choosing our great gaming products. We have noticed that certain devices plugged into the switcher may cause some channel interference across the entire device. Our engineers are working hard to try and solve this compatibility issue and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. The only solution offered currently is to unplug any cable or satellite box from the switcher and plug it directly into the TV. Please let us know if this solution does not help or you have any more questions.

Thank you!

Psyclone Gaming Customer Service
**Please include original messages in your replies**

Grounding interference issue...

elmalloc (or anyone else):

Do you have any guidance on how to resolve the grounding interference issue? I returned the Psyclone switcher and bought the Phillips component switcher. However, I am having similar problems with the Phillips in terms of loss of visual content/banding with the two HD components plugged in. It only occurs when trying to watch HD, not when analog channels are on.

Any help that could be provided would be appreciated.

Thanks,