Game Room/ AV setup

[rancidskater18]

Hi everyone! I am FINALLY setting up about 20 systems in my entertainment center/game room. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to hook up that many A/V cables/RF units/HDMI. There is about 20 sets, and any advice on power units?


Thank you for any help, and I surely will post photos soon

[fastbilly1]

It depends on four main things:
1. Do you want them all setup and connected at the same time?
2. Which consoles are they?
3. What furniture are you using?
4. Can the circuit behind your tv handle the load, and/or do you have a second circuit you can draw from?

[samsonlonghair]

Look into power strips that have a real uninterruptable power supply. This will offer far more protection than your standard twelve dollar power strip.

[rancidskater18]

Thanks for the replies,

I am looking to keep them all set up at a time, as of now I do have power strips 6 each which have a few consoles on each which I keep turned off until I want to play them.

As of now, I am using two different circuits for this. 4 power strips all powered off until I use them.

As for the AV, it would be ideal to have them all connected and just a click of the button on the switch to play them.

As of now, I am using an entertainment center and a shelving unit.

I have, NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, WII, WIIU, Sega Genesis/CD/32x, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS1, PS2, Atari Jaguar/CD, PC Engine DUO, Supergrafx, Neo Geo CD, 3DO, and I will consider my CD-i (this thing is terrible..) and my NEC PC-FX is on its way.

[fastbilly1]

You have atleast 20 svideo or composite systems there, so it is unlikely you will be able to get a switcher with that many ports in a decent price range (we are talking a couple thousand USD if you can find one for sale). You could build your own if you are so inclined, but you could get switch for each floor of consoles, then they all go to a master switcher. For example, floor 1 is all Nintendo consoles so you hit floor 1 on the master switcher, then NES on the the floor 1 av switch.

It sounds like you have the power figured out, but I would go a step further and set them up so you can unplug the strips when you are done with them. You can never be too safe.

[Fragems]

I've been using one of these for the consoles I have setup in my computer room no problems so far. They are only $18 shipped as well if you are a Amazon prime member.



As for A/V Selectors The best one I have personally used is this little guy. It's only a 4 way selector though .

RCA VH911R System Selector



This one might be worth checking out if you are using a lot of composite connections. It's a 8 way selector for $20 shipped if you have prime. Plus it's flat so you could stack multiple if necessary.

MT-VIKI 8 Ports 8-In 1-Out AV RCA Splitter Selector Switch Adapter MT-831AV

Picture is actually two units stacked the inputs are not awkwardly placed on the front as it would appear at first glance.
.

[rancidskater18]

Thank you!!

It's funny I ordered that 8 av switch on ebay for 32$ shipped! Unfortunately it is cheaper on Amazon! So I ordered another, and that power outlet looks awesome, so I ordered two of those as well.



Thanks again!

[flojocabron]

these are nice too. Their price varies a lot. But they're nice to have if you set up the beast that is genesis/32x/sega cd. There are some real fancy versions now that I see them online. I guess they have more surge protection.



Also, you cant really go wrong with these! They use component cables. Maybe you can daisy chain these? Get two of them and keep hooking them up together? Just get some stickers and label each switch?



$0.02

[samsonlonghair]

Pelican and Joytech have both made 8-input selectors. For more than eight inputs, you're going to need pro equipment, which means big dollars.

This is the one I use.

By the way, we had an informative discussion regarding A/V selectors here:
http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=34814

[rancidskater18]

Thank you all for your helpful replies.


lol seriously, the ac adapters for the genesis/cd/32x is ridiculous! I was initially using a 6 strip which were all vertical. I could only get two adapters per strip.

Just waiting for my stuff to arrive and all my systems will be set up at once!