A/V Switches?

[Ozzy_98]

So what AV switches are most of you running?  My planned setup in the game room will be using two seperate TVs, one old-school tube hooked to all the consoles, and a newer LCD\Plasma I'll have a PC hooked up to with emuators and console control adapters, sorta like a mame cab without the cab.  I'll also have a RetroN hooked to it if it ever comes out.

  The first switch I used, I noticed a loss of graphics quality, so I tried a diffrent brand, and it looked improved, but still a slight loss.  Then for sh-ts and grins, I hooked up the first brand of switch, and it looked the same as the second this time.  And while I can see a diffrence while doing a side-by-side, and keep thinking I should try for the best picture, the only reason I'm using the consoles and switch is for the old-school look, if I want a clean picture it'll be the emulators. 

  For thoese wondering, the first switch I used was Monoprice 4 Port Component Video Switch w/ IR Learning.  It's designed for component with digital output, but seems to work fine for composite.  The neat thing is since it has 6 RCA jacks per selection, it's really 8 inputs, 2 outputs.  So I have three switches total, the 2 outputs from the bottom switches running to the top switch, giving me 16 inputs for about $60, plus allowing me to use one remote (My TV remote) to pick all the systems.  No SVIDEO and questionable video quality though (The systems I tested with, my Duo and Jaguar, might have bad video connectors too; making a comparison even harder)

[wiggy]

These are the products I use (Extron).  Can be found on eBay in various configurations.

[zygmuray]

Wow that is badass Wiggy,

what are the top 2 boxes used for?

and are you running s-video, composite, and component through that bottom one?

[TDIRunner]

I use Psyclone brand source selectors.  I have three component source selectors and one HDMI selector.  The component selectors actual have four sets of composite video, analog audio (red and white), component video (red, green, blue), s-video, digital coax, digital optical and Ethernet connections.  The HDMI selectors have four sets of HDMI and digital optical inputs. 

The reason I like using these selectors is because they are the same size of standard audio video equipment (think DVD players or amplifiers), which means they fit very well into my component shelves.  They are good quality with gold plated connectors.  They have remote controls which makes it easy to switch between inputs.  And the best part is that you are able to name each input to anything within 8 characters.  This is especially helpful when you have 15 different video game systems in addition to all of my A/V equipment (another dozen pieces of equipment). 

[eastman415]

Wow, nice extron stuff. I work at a university and all of our teacher stations in the classrooms use extron gear for switching, etc. I've occasionally had the chance to "acquire" old stuff getting sent out to be recycled.