Hey y’all, Try from My Life in Gaming here. Coury and I have spent a ton of time putting the Scalable Video Switch through its paces and have released our video review! In case you don’t know, the SVS is a modular analog video switch created and sold by Arthrimus, which allows you to pick and choose your inputs and outputs. You can have up to 32 inputs and 6 outputs in one stack, with expansion kits, RGB to YPbPr conversion modules, and YPbPr to RGB conversion modules slated to be arriving later this year. So far, one batch has been sold. Keep an eye on Retro RGB for news on when the next batch and future modules will be available.
I’d been completely happy with my 2 gscart and 2 gcomp switchers being the core of my retro gaming routing setup for something like, seven years I think. Coury has been the same, with Extron switchers thrown into the mix for additional routing. We knew we were getting great quality video with what we already had going on, so even though it seemed super cool, we weren’t exactly anticipating the arrival of the SVS. Quite the opposite, really! I have had issues with sub-optimal switchers and cables in the past, which compromised the accuracy of a few video comparisons I created. The fear of making mistakes like that literally keeps me awake at night. So even though all signs pointed toward the SVS being an extremely high quality and versatile product, I knew I’d be haunted by doubts if I didn’t spend weeks testing every reasonable and unreasonable scenario I could think of to ensure it lived up to my standards.
Luckily, the SVS does not introduce any visibly detectable additional noise as long as you use good cables and good power (weirdly, the USB power brick that came with the Sega Genesis Mini seemed to give me the cleanest results of the ones I tested). The SVS does lose just a tick more brightness than gscart/gcomp or a direct connection, but I feel it’s not something that would ever be noticed without a direct comparison. If you’re using a RetroTINK 4K, you can make this a complete non-issue with the Auto-Gain setting, and you could likely compensate in other situations as well.
The only notable asterisk from a quality standpoint is that the effect of a extremely slight lowpass filter accumulates as the signals pass through each module, which does have an impact on higher resolution signals, most notably 1080p and 720p. Any modules that use these resolutions should be put near the top. 480p can also be impacted, but to a much lesser degree. While we only had 10 input modules to test, 240p and 480i seem to be unaffected. Arthrimus believes that 240p and 480i sharpness would not be problematic up to the maximum supported inputs of 32, whereas 1080p is problematic by input 6. Essentially, this becomes a non-issue as long as you place inputs for systems that may run at at resolutions of 480p and higher near the control module, which divides the inputs and outputs. This makes up a minority of analog video consoles.
One thing I was thrilled by was the chance to finally test out the RetroTINK 4K’s enhanced S-video feature! I previously did not have a way to send S-video into the RetroTINK 4K’s VGA/D-sub/HD-15 port, but thanks to the SVS’s VGA output module, now I do. I’ll soon be getting a TurboNanza mod installed into a PC Engine soon, and I cannot wait to see what that looks like with enhanced S-video! Note that the below example is using the SNES Edge-Enhancer mod.
While we weren’t too enthusiastic about unplugging so much stuff to test the SVS, we’re now big fans and have already ordered additional output modules to help with routing our consoles. The VGA output module in particular is really incredible, as it can feed all signals into the RetroTINK 4K and also simplify connections to other devices like the OSSC Pro and of course PVMs. If you want to buy fewer inputs to save money (or buy a few to start and plan to buy more later), then daisy-chaining from your existing switchers like gscart and gcomp are extremely viable options and are, in fact, exactly what we’re planning to do for now. If you use multiple signal types and would like take advantage of multiple output types (or consolidate all signal types over D-sub or SCART) then the SVS can offer you a lot. Check out just how much excess cabling Coury managed to pull out of his setup thanks to the SVS allowing him to streamline things!
If you’re all-in on just SCART or just component though, gscart and gcomp may offer everything you need at a lower cost. But the customizability and additional features like automatic profile loading integration with the RetroTINK 4K do also offer significant added value. Coury has a comprehensive overview of the features in the first half of the video. So check it out and see if the SVS makes sense for your setup!