Extron CVC 200 review
Purpose
The Extron CVC 200 is a professional video converter that takes YPbPr (“component video”) and outputs RGBHV (“VGA”). RGBHV is the standard video signal for CRT computer monitors, which are widely available, always lagless¹ displays for Melee. CRT TVs, by comparison, sometimes do lag and are almost never capable of displaying 480p60 content (and even if they do, they usually lag).
Gamecube and Wii 480p60-capable cables output YPbPr by default, which is not supported by CRT computer monitors. Some professional video studio CRTs support 480p60 over component², however they are usually quite expensive (~250$/€ used), whereas CRT computer monitors can often be had for 0-50$/€.
By converting the YPbPr signal to RGBHV, you can connect Gamecube or Wii component cables to CRT computer monitors, which in total allows for rather cheap, lagless 480p60 Melee setups.
Size and connectors
The CVC 200 is rather large for a simple converter, 22*24*4 cm. The front only has a power LED, no buttons. On the back side, there are three BNC connectors for the YPbPr input and six BNC connectors for the RGBHV or RGBS² output. There’s also a rotary switch, which you want to keep at the “2” position for 480p (and higher).
To connect the CVC to your console and monitor, you’ll need three RCA-BNC adapters (for Y, Pb and Pr) and either a 5BNC-5BNC cable (if your monitor has BNC inputs) or a 5BNC-VGA cable. These shouldn’t cost you more than 20$ in total.
Video quality and processing time
The video quality of the CVC 200 is about as good as it gets. It’s noticeably better than the cheaper Mayflash products³, which are my only reference.
I don’t have tools for measuring video delay properly yet, but I will add my measurements and comparisons with other setups once I do. I did not notice lag while playing, for what it’s worth. Extron products are usually very fast in their processing time, so I expect the CVC 200’s propagation delay to be in the 2-3 digit nanoseconds range.
Update 2017-02-15: I measured the CVC 200's output versus its inputs with my Rigol DS1054Z oscilloscope and found the input lag to be insignificant (<10 µs), so the CVC 200 can be considered lagless.
Power usage
The CVC 200 is a professional device, not a consumer product. As such, it doesn’t have a standby mode, so you’ll have to turn off its power supply to ensure no power is drawn.
Regardless of whether video is being input or not, the CVC 200 draws between 8 and 9 Watts. (Measured with a Voltcraft 3000.)
Sources
It’s offered on Ebay quite often. I bought mine for 35$ (before shipping and import fees to Europe, which increased the total to 89$), which seems to be a bit below the average sold price.
I recommend buying these whenever you can get them for 100$ shipped or less. (Assuming having the best possible picture quality and the lowest possible amount of lag is worth that much to you.)
Example auctions:
1,
2
Alternatives
There are other Extron products that basically do the same job: CVC 100, CVC 300 and IN1503.
The
StarTech CPNT2VGAA has been tested to have no lag (less than 10µs if I’m understanding the diagram correctly)
by jmlee337. He also mentioned that its internal build quality isn’t too great, though, and it is not yet known whether its VGA outputs has proper sync levels for recording and distribution-amplifying.
By comparison with the Extron CVC 200, the CPNT2VGAA is a bit more expensive (especially if you live in America, where used Extrons are cheap).
Mayflash VGA-004 and VGA-005³ are even cheaper, but they have worse video quality by default. By running their output through an RGB interface (Extron 164xi, for example), sync levels are cleaned up and the picture looks quite nice, however it won’t be quite as good as with the CVC 200. Also, some of these have an issue of blacking out on scene changes (doesn’t happen mid-match fortunately, but sometimes during result screens), which supposedly can be solved by exchanging a capacitor (
source in German).
Without running the Mayflash video output through an RGB interface, it will only get recognized by CRT monitors, not by capture cards or distribution amplifiers.
I only recommend these to you if you are super-tight on money, or if you already have an RGB interface around.
¹670 nanoseconds propagation delay between video signal input and corresponding phosphor photon output, according to prad.de
²Horizontal and vertical sync combined into one composite sync signal.
³Mayflash VGA-004, which is a 20$ VGA cable for the Wii that directly converts the Multi-AV plug YPbPr signals into RGBHV, although with only mediocre quality; and Mayflash VGA-005, which for ~25$ does the same but is a small converter with three RCA inputs for YPbPr and a mini-B-USB connector for power supply.
jmlee337 , have you tried connecting the CPNT2VGAA output to a capture card or dist amp? My experience is that the Mayflash converters’ outputs will not be recognized by these, so it would be interesting for me whether the StarTech converter does a better job at sync-cleaning.
