Good scart switcher? — problem with auto-switcher amp

[egparadigm]

Anyone got a good scart switcher that has passed the test of time and (crucially) can still be bought?

That is a box for 3 or 4 inputs/consoles with one output to TV. Happy with a manual switch and would prefer passive/unpowered (unless there’s a good reason for power).

I have a Hitachi one that was good but after a few years at least one of the inputs stopped displaying correctly, instead showing a tint (think it was green, may have been yellow). Now it’s losing signal for my OG Xbox and so useless (no problems plugged straight in to TV).

Found a few of these on eBay - Philips - any good?

EDIT 27/4/24: updated with query below.

[briareos_kerensky]

Depends on your budget.
There's the gscartsw, the SCA-101 (which I own), or the Hydra. The latter has a very divisive reputation in the community, I appear to have used one of the few that played nice with all consoles I hooked up...others classify it as one of the worst. You can always try to find a good old Joytech 965.

[egparadigm]

Depends on your budget.
There's the gscartsw, the SCA-101 (which I own), or the Hydra. The latter has a very divisive reputation in the community, I appear to have used one of the few that played nice with all consoles I hooked up...others classify it as one of the worst. You can always try to find a good old Joytech 965.

Thanks for the suggestions. Budget wise probably £50 max. I don’t want to spend top dollar considering it’s likely to get relatively little or at least sporadic use. I also don’t need more than 3 inputs really.

[egparadigm]

I bought 2 scart switchers (procrastination), one passive and manual (with switches), the other automatic, with a power supply. The manual one works fine, however the automatic-switching one displays a dim image on N64 and Dreamcast. The N64 has the old fashioned RGB mod with a little amp inside the scart head. The image is about 10% of the brightness it should be.

The Dreamcast image isn’t so badly affected, but it is noticeably darker than it is when connected directly or through the passive switcher.

I have googled a bit and found others with similar problems with auto-switchers. I am guessing it’s something to do with the the switcher somehow counteracting the amp, though that doesn’t explain the DC problem.

I don’t know why other consoles aren’t affected. GameCube and OG Xbox look fine. They’re both high quality cables, but then I think the DC one is also an official cable IIRC. 🤷🏻♂️

If anyone can explain this, it’d be really good to understand. If it were a fault I’d likely try to return to the seller, however I am guessing this is expected behaviour.