Help hooking up multiple consoles with RF adapters

[tsgthesportsgamer]

Hey guys,

 

New member here so excuse me if this is a newbie question or been asked before. I've long been a user of atariage, just never did get around to registering.

 

Anyway, my Q. I'm in the process of really "attacking" my game room, i.e. getting everything connected and working properly. I've heard good things about RCA switch boxes, but haven't yet to purchase one. But what do you do with all the consoles that hook up via RF only? Do you just keep linking the RF units together? I'd prefer a switch box personally. I can't seem to find one unless I'm not calling it by the right name.

 

Also, is there any danger in linking multiple RF units? Is there video conversion loss? What if, by chance, you turn two systems on at the same time that route through that RF linkage (and I guess as another Q, could you say, have one console set to channel 2 and one to channel 3)?

 

Thanks for the help guys.

[tetrode kink]

If you don't want to mod your consoles to A/V or S-Video, the RF switchbox is the way to go. Either that or constantly disconnecting/connecting when you want to change consoles. RF switchers do exist, maybe look for "cable switcher."

 

If by "linking multiple RF units" you mean hooking them all up to the TV at the same time, I don't see a problem there, unless any of them use "automatic" switchboxes; the kind that automatically switch from cable or antenna to the game system when you switch on the game system. Those could potentially send voltage back through the RF leads to the other consoles, which may or may not damage them.

 

If all your consoles use (originally came with) the old-fashioned manual switchboxes to change from antenna to game, there should be no problem if you just wire them all together, except for possible signal degradation, which could be annoying.

 

Off the top of my head, I don't see any problem with setting some on Channel 2 and others on Channel 3. Unless you're talking about having two consoles on at the same time, one on each channel. The only problem there would be signal interference between them, which you'd notice right away but it wouldn't be harmful. Again, probably not a good idea to have any hooked up together if even one of them used an automatic antenna/game switch, for reasons already stated.

 

Other than that, whatever works. Us old-school gamers gotta have our games, and the new video tech isn't helping matters!

 

-tet

[tsgthesportsgamer]

Ahh, thanks, that answered a lot for me. And by linking, I did mean just hooking each on up together to the same antennae jack on the TV. I have three rf boxes linked up right now and I'd prefer to have them each plugged in separately to a box of course. Just would be easier to manage.

[Video]

I have a 3 cable switch box and that's what I use on my older RF stuff. Just get you some of those RCA to Coax things and get rid of the clunky old slider switch boxes, the push button or didigtal boxes work so much better.

 

I've done this for years with no problems, and get some AV/Svideo switches too, and if you got newer stuff, you can see about some of the better HDMI switches, some of those are automatic too, which is nice.

[pags35]

I think this would probably be your best bet for 3 different systems, a 3 way isolation switch. Then I would get RCA to coaxial adapters to connect them. These should work much better then hooking up all of the switch boxes which will almost certainly degrade the quality of the picture.

[Albert]

Then I would get RCA to coaxial adapters to connect them. These should work much better then hooking up all of the switch boxes which will almost certainly degrade the quality of the picture.

Those can also be bought here:

 

http://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=42

 

..Al

[edintv]

Hi,

 

I did something like you asked here, my solution vas very inexpensive, you be the judge if suits for you:

 

First I bougth something like this:

 

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 250652089601

 

note that is not my sale, is just a reference of the product I bougth.

 

Then the adapter of the picture,

 

Add some good quality RCA yellow cables (Just the used for video), connect your three games and in the other side an Rca cable with the adaptor at the end, keep in mind that the less connections in the cable will get more video signal (more impedance, less quality)

 

Don´t get confused about Rf and Rca, You only had to be carefully at the time to connect in the back of the Tv , Rca signals in Rca Jack, Rf Signal in Rf Jack. all the rest is just copper carriying the signal, you put wahtever you like, only consider loss of signal if you add many things, the more direct the connection the better.

 

I hope this suit you,

 

Ed.

[edintv]

Hi,

 

I did something like you asked here, my solution vas very inexpensive, you be the judge if suits for you:

 

First I bougth something like this:

 

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 250652089601

 

note that is not my sale, is just a reference of the product I bougth.

 

Then the adapter of the picture,

 

Add some good quality RCA yellow cables (Just the used for video), connect your three games and in the other side an Rca cable with the adaptor at the end, keep in mind that the less connections in the cable will get more video signal (more impedance, less quality)

 

Don´t get confused about Rf and Rca, You only had to be carefully at the time to connect in the back of the Tv , Rca signals in Rca Jack, Rf Signal in Rf Jack. all the rest is just copper carriying the signal, you put wahtever you like, only consider loss of signal if you add many things, the more direct the connection the better.

 

I hope this suit you,

 

Ed.

 

Sorry, I forget the attachment..