How do I build a video switching system between big TV in composite and RGB monitor?

[MaxFordham]

Okay, can you tell by my title what I'm trying to do here?

I want to switch between using my Amiga on a 1084 in its best quality and using it on my big-screen TV without having any analog RGB connection on the big TV, and without having to unplug and plug over and over.

So I have the DB23-DB9 cable, a DB9 switch, and then another DB9-DB23 cable, and some sex changers and null-modem adapters, trying to make a switching system because of how, stupidly, the 500 doesn't have composite video without the 520. (I have a 600 also, which looks like it does have composite video, but maybe it's only PAL; I'm not sure--anyway, that yellow jack's output is only B/W too.)

DB23-23 switches are very scarce for some reason, and are very expensive. DB25 switches aren't very expensive but then I don't know where to find a DB25-23 cable. But maybe I could just use a female-females 25 switch and a male-male 25 cable back to the A520 on one end, and then just find a 25M-9M cable for the 1084 on the other end.

Maybe it would have been smarter if I had just tried that first. But for whatever reason, I didn't think of it first. So I first tried just using a DB9 switch, two 9-23 cables, and a 25-pin sex changer or null-modem adapter for going back to the 520 on the one end with. I even bought a db9 nuller just in case that would work if the 25 one didn't. I've tried all kinds of combinations but can't make it work!

If the video signal only needs 6 pins, then why won't converting down from 23-9 (as is simply and perfectly done to monitors like the 1084), and then back up from 9 to 23 (to go back to the 520 from one end of the switch) work? And if it only needs 6 pins, then why have the 23 in the first place?

Has anyone here been successful with a switching system like this? Should I have just tried the DB25 switch?

[MaxFordham]

(Hey, can we get a moderator to move this thread into the hardware section, please, and then delete these lines that are requesting it? I hadn't found that section before now, but that would be more appropriate than here, I see.)


Thanks for your response! (Although... I have a hard time understanding why something I did my best to write very clearly still ends up as something that you claim you have to read over and over in order to understand.)

Well, I don't know if I need custom cables or not. These things seem to fit okay, but... yeah, maybe for the pinning to match, I'd have to have custom cables. As I said already, this really just uses 6 pins. I don't know why it ever had a 23-pin connector in the first place.

Oh, that piece of hardware would send both signals out at the same time, wouldn't it? Even better, since that would be one less switch to have to throw, and it would also be good for the occasional mirroring experience wanted.

Oh, but I just read about it, that page said that this brand/model suffers from quality trouble.

And I don't understand what the composite video through and the keying are supposed to do. Yes, I know how to chroma-key and luma-key, etc., and yes, I have a video switcher that does those things, and yes, I have nonlinear editing that does those, but I don't understand how they would work with this device. However, just something that will output RGB and composite at the same time or easily switchable would be fine for me.

I'll look and see if there are other brands that might have better quality than this page you showed me says the RocGen+ has.

Thanks

[MaxFordham]

Oops! The genlock in the picture IS the RocGen+. I don't know why I responded about it as if it were not. That's the one that that page says suffers from poor quality. I'll have to edit my previous response.

UPDATE:
There, I've edited my previous response accordingly.
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Why not get an Indivision?

1. Because I didn't know about that device either, until now. Maybe I would, now, though. But...

2. because from what you're saying, it sounds like it doesn't have composite or s-video output so that I could connect it to something like a DVD recorder or a PC's or Mac's capture card (since I don't yet have a way for the Amiga to record its own video internally and spit it right to DVD from inside there) for the occasional recording of something from it the Amiga.

3. Because my TV actually does not have an XGA/VGA input, so I'd still have to figure out how to convert from there to component or composite. (For some reason, while some newer TVs still have composite, not all even have s-video anymore, as is the case with my big one.)