[mwschneider]

I'm thinking of adding a feed from my PC, but don't have enough inputs on my projector. I know of a number of switches out there, but if if some of you have switches that you are absolutely satisfied with, I see no reason to reinvent the wheel.


I would like something with IR remote control, but would consider something manual, if it's really good and/or inexpensive. I'm not sure how I want to use a PC with my setup, but I'm not willing to swap cables to play with it, so this is my first step.


Thanks,

-Mark

 

[Mr Joshua]

Go to www.markertek.com and do a search for "kramer vp 201".

Because of the way the website is set up, some of the pages open up in frames and I can't copy and paste a direct link to the item. The VP-211 is the one you want. You'll see it on the same page as the VP-201. No IR, but it automatically switches upon signal detection. I have one which I use to switch back and forth between a DTC-100 and a DISH 6000. It works great, and the price is definitely right, especially if you're suffering from the sticker shock associated with looking at Extron and Altinex switchers.


Kent


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The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

 

[mwschneider]

Thanks Kent, I had seen that one, but had kind of dismissed it due to the mechanical switching and the VGA style connectors. I'm not really looking forward to making up all those break-out cables either, but if you have found that it works well, I'll have to at least reconsider it.


-Mark

 

[Man E]

The URL can be obtained by right-clicking on the frame desired, selecting Properties, and copy/pasting the address from the dialog box.




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The button is labeled "Play", not "Pay". STOP the MPAA!

Our Silent Angels

Please visit The Manny Page!

 

[JohnRichmond]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr Joshua: Go to www.markertek.com and do a search for "kramer vp 201". Because of the way the website is set up, some of the pages open up in frames and I can't copy and paste a direct link to the item. The VP-211 is the one you want. You'll see it on the same page as the VP-201. No IR, but it automatically switches upon signal detection. I have one which I use to switch back and forth between a DTC-100 and a DISH 6000. It works great, and the price is definitely right, especially if you're suffering from the sticker shock associated with looking at Extron and Altinex switchers. Kent

Kent,


Do you know what the dofference is between the VP-201 and the VP-211?


JohnR



[This message has been edited by JohnRichmond (edited 06-27-2001).]

 

[Mr Joshua]

Mark,


In your case, it MIGHT be better to go with one of the more expensive switchers. The Kramer is a VGA only switch, whereas I noticed when I was switch shopping that the upper end switchers will operate with a YPrPb format with sync on green. I threw away the stuff that came with my switch, but I seem to recall that it requires either the H or V sync signal to switch. But you are still going to have the problem of putting your projector into the proper mode when you select different sources on that input.


I don't have any experience with the extreme upper end switchers, controllers, etc., but I don't know of any that will switch and allow certain signals to pass through in their native format while transcoding others. In other words, a device which possesses a built-in transcoder for one and only one of the signal paths. I understand your problem, and it appears to me that you are going to have to buy a switch and a transcoder of one type or another. I would buy something like the Key Digital Systems KD-VTC1 YPrPb to RGBHV transcoder for about $179 from www.copperbox.com and run your HDTV source through it. Get the Kramer switch, set your projector up in RGBHV mode on that input, and you're done. The total solution will probably cost about $350 with shipping included.


There have been some other discussions about using this switch on AVS Forum. Be aware that the outputs on certain types of video equipment aren't always off when you think they are. One of the inputs on the Kramer switch is a default input, and I think it is input number two. The best way to connect the rig would be to connect the computer to input two (or whichever is the default input) and connect your HDTV receiver to the other input. By toggling the HD receiver's HD output on and off you can select between the two sources even if the computer is still on.


I assume your projector input has the standard 5 BNC connectors for the RGBHV format. VGA to 5 BNC breakout cables are so common that they can be easily made (as you alluded to) or purchased from a number of vendors. Brad at Better Cables offers a terrific product. I have one of his cables. VGA to BNC breakout cables can also be purchased from the aforementioned Markertek. About $55 for a six footer all the way up to about $83 for a 25 foot cable.


John, the VP-201 is a manual switch, where as the VP-211 has the autoselect capability.


Man E, thanks for the tip on capturing the URL for frames.


Kent




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The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.


[This message has been edited by Mr Joshua (edited 06-27-2001).]


[This message has been edited by Mr Joshua (edited 06-27-2001).]

 

[Larry Hutchinson]

Mechanical switching is actually a good thing.


It means that you have basically just a simple wire path rather than electronic switching which might screw with the signal. (Of course, poorly laied out wires/relays can screw with the signal too.)


It also means, I hope, that you can pipe digital audio (SPDIF) signals through the connections meant for analog audio. I just ordered one of these puppys yesterday to switch between my DTC100 and a HiPix card. Then I noticed the DTC100 spits out only optical (toslink). Oh well...



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STOP DVI/HDCP; Boycott JVC

 

[mwschneider]

Larry,


I see what you're saying, but in my experience, the effectiveness of mechanical switching can vary widely. If the switch can maintain constant impedance up into the RF range, then it could work great, but on the other hand, many mechanical switch designs do not even attempt to maintain impedances, and the results can be ugly.


Kent says the Kramer does a good job for him, so apparently they did something right. If I go with that switch, I still need to figure out how to deal with the fact that my HDTV source is Y/Pr/Pb, and my computer source is more like R/G/B/H/V. Since a mechanical switch would not be able to do any signal conversion, I would have to try to build Pronto macros to reconfigure the projector input when switching between the sources. The trouble is that there are no discrete codes, to my knowledge, that would be able to tell the projector to switch a given input to computer mode, or to Y/Pr/Pb mode. It would involve navigating menus, which might or might not work in a macro.


I guess I could get yet another box to convert the PC's output, but at that point, I might actually save money with a different switch.


This is fun, isn't it?


-Mark

 

[Dean Roddey]

I use the Kramer VS-2503, which is quite nice. Its a 3 in 1 out switch. Nothing fancy, but it has 400Mhz bandwidth (which is massive overkill, but that means its not possibly going to have any detrimental effects due to lack of bandwidth.)



------------------

Dean Roddey

The Charmed Quark Controller
[email protected]
www.charmedquark.com


If it don't have a control port, don't buy it!

 

[mwschneider]

Dean,


Where can I see that Kramer VS-2503 ?

 

[kyungkim]

has anyone tried a regular computer kvm switch switch?

Dell accesories

search for 666997

belkin omnicube 4port.


We use these at work with some high resolutions, 1280x1024 or so. The picture looks good, no visible degradation. Supposedly it supports res of 1600x...


Dell is also having a 20% off sale for all their accessories and software.


The nice thing is that they can be switched by the keyboard. you just press scroll lock twice and hit the up or down button. Inputs not being used can also be disabled.


So if you have a wireless keyboard of some kind, it can remote switch. Damn, i think Im talking myself into this.


Also is there a signal loss when going from bnc-vga-bnc again?


K


[This message has been edited by kyungkim (edited 06-28-2001).]

 

[mwschneider]

Well...I have a couple of KVMs on my servers, so I guess I could try one...I had dismissed them as inferior, but now that you mention it, I've never noticed any degradation on the computer video. The ones I have get power from the connected PCs, so that might cause some trouble...(?) And then, there is still the issue that it would be convenient to get all of the signals into the same format...and to think this all started just because I wanted to be able to tinker with the WinAmp visualizations...


[This message has been edited by mwschneider (edited 06-28-2001).]