audio matrix options?

[collegeboyslive]

I use autopatch in most installs I do, I am wondering if there is another company making a simalar product at a cheaper price?

normally i need 4-6 inputs and a min of 16 outputs.

anyone ?

[dmurray14]

Collegeboys...

I have been meaning to ask you about your AutoPatches for a while. Your setup looks really nice, and I'd like to try something like that. What kind of AutoPatch do you have? 1YDM? Also, how did you interface it with homeseer? Is there a seperate script for each and every input and output combination, or do you have some way of switching it by itself? Anything else I'd need to know in doing it?

Thanks,
Dan

Also... I have been looking at switches for a while, and the cheapest I've seen, by far, is the autopatch. Other names include AudioAccess Vaux Electronics, and I believe Xantech makes a switcher as well, but I found these to be a lot more expensive then the autopatches on ebay.

[bruce l]

I've looked at the autopatch devices. 1YDM seems like a good choice - but - 1YDM seems to be a general card frame that takes many different I/O cards.

Is there an easy way to tell what I/O cards are in a unit? Most of the autopatch boxes on ebay don't list the specific cards and I don't want to buy the wrong device.

I want to switch audio signals, 4 input to at least 12 outputs, 16 would be fine.

Anyone that can help ?

Thanks,

[collegeboyslive]

i have done several installs now all of which i have used autopatches.

the 1ydm is nice BUT warning. you can ONLY switch inputs and outputs on the same card. you can put upto 4 cards into the 1ydm though.

this means if you have 8 in and 8 out on 1 card you cannot switch an input on card 1 to an output on card 2

on the 4ydm you can do this however. so I say get the 4ydm unit if you can as it will pretty much expand with you.

on the switching. its really really simple. it accepts serial coommands

for example to switch input 1 to outputs 2 3 4 and 5 all i would do is send the folowing line to the serial port : CI1O2345T

thats it, it also have memories which i use for doing announcements.

CRR1T takes a snapshot of what all the inputs and outputs are set to , then i can change them to say, make an announcment. then i simply issue an CRR1T to set everything back to the way it was before the announcement, so if you are listening to music in the bedroom, the announcemnt is played then it switches right back to music.

I am sure there are other matrix switchers out there and all probally do the same. but I have used autopatch and like them so far

[dmurray14]

College,

Would you be able to suggest an autopatch for me? I would like at least say 6 Video+L+R inputs and at least 5 outputs for now. What am I looking at here? A 4YDM?

Thanks,
Dan

[collegeboyslive]

yes , look on ebay under autopatch. look at the 4ydm's and look at the picturs of the back of them. the video inputs and outputs are a round bnc socket, the audio inputs and outputs are green terminal connectors.

[rv6pilot]

Maybe a dumb question... but if these come standard with BNC connectors, how do we/I use them for equipment that has either a composite/rca connector or s-video?

[bdickhaus]

In my limited experience on this subject, the BNC connectors are typically composite video, and there are adapters available for a couple of bucks to convert the connectors. I use the adapters on a couple of my connections. S-video is a different animal, I don't have an answer on that one.

Bill

[dkindred]

RV6Pilot,

S-video is a different animal than composite, so you can't really convert from one to the other with a connector. S-video cables have 4 pins. 2 pins carry the lumenence information, and 2 carry the chroma. You'd need a small electronic device (which I understand is available) to convert S-video to composite.

--David

[zoomkat]

You can make a simple composite/s-video adapter from radio shack parts. Stangely enough, it works composite to s-video, and s-video to composite. I use the below adapter I made to use a composite cam on the s-video input on my winnov capture card. Works very well.

http://www.geocities.com/zoomkat/winnov.htm

[fireball]

http://www.lg-internet.com/catalog/p...roducts_id/238

S-video to RCA converter. Price is $2.25 and I can vouch that they actually work very well too because I've been running a couple of these in my setup for a couple of months now with absolutely no problems at all. Not only that but shipping is only a few dollars as well so you don't get hit with $20 shipping on a $2 item like many eBay auctions. I purchased two of them and my total was around $6-$7 dollars at most. Also, if you buy 5 or more the price drops to $1.39 each.

[bruce l]

Has anyone used the AVS8X8 ? At $199 for true 8x8 stereo audio & video it's beginning to sound pretty good.

[dmurray14]

Bruce...

That looks DAMN good! We're gonna need to look into this... anyone used it?

[zoomkat]

I looked at the little info on the avs 8x8 on a web site and saw "buffered output (so any one input can drive 1-8 outputs)". This looks like the usual only one input at a time setup.

[dmurray14]

...I hope not! What would the point be of a device that doesn't matrix switch?