Mod PAL PSX to output NTSC signal (Ie 60hz)?

Can it be done?

 

You can't get NTSC but you can get 60hz by playing a NTSC game I think.

 

can't tell whether it's NTSC or PAL-60 - TV doesn't tell the incoming signal - but I get the picture on my PAL TV which is multi-format type

 

I'll have to check. I can swap the PSU so that it will work on 110AC at least and just connect it to the TV and see if I get a clear picture.

Also, will a component cable, like this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=21188&item=8163027854&rd=1

Work on a PSX?

 

I extremely doubt it. AFAIK you're stuck with composite, s-video or RGB. Though RGB's probably out of the question unless you're one of those people who keep old Amiga monitors :smt023

You should remember, though, that NTSC and PAL do not necessarily refer to the refresh rates - they're just the colour systems, and can both work at either 50Hz or 60Hz. I don't know how the PSX works, but it could be that whatever chip does the analogue video colour could only do PAL or NTSC, so you may have to change that with one from an NTSC console. I know modded PAL consoles output in PAL-60.

If your TV can't support PAL (check your manual/OSD), you'll get no colour if you try and display PAL on it, and if it can't do 50Hz signals the picture won't be stable at all.

 

It is a little more than colour, Zilog. It is screen size!

I think you'll find that a chipped unit outputs 60Hz when playing an import game, although I'm not sure of this. There were those chips that only did country lockout if you don't want to play "backups".

As for NTSC output, use an external encoder is your best bet.

Most machines (I mean any console) would need lots of components replaced for TRUE NTSC output - things like the MD 50/60Hz switch only does that, it still outputs in PAL technically. And to be a true US machine, you'd need to replace the BIOS.

 

Well actually you can do it! There's a chip on the system's board (usually by Sony) that takes RGB inputs from the RAMDAC and converts them into composite/s-video. It usually has a pin to switch between PAL and NTSC encoding. But it doesn't do the refresh rate, you have to find another jumper for that, or use software, depending on the system. In fact I once looked the pin info up on the chip used in the SCPH-1002 for you I think it was, madhatter.

 

What do you mean? I was just saying how PAL and NTSC technically only refer to the colour systems, making some stuff a bit misleading. I didn't phrase that very well at all.

 

PAL games will boot into NTSC/50hz I believe on a NTSC PSX. I don't believe you can swap encoding without hardwiring the pin on the video standards encoder to NTSC like Antipasta said. Even so, it'll then only NTSC at 50hz, the chip itself can't change 50hz into 60hz but if you only have NTSC games than that shouldn't be a problem.

 

OK, let me try to explain.

PAL and NTSC are video standards. Forget colour for now. Please don't forget - video games came AFTER television. PAL and NTSC are a lot to do with broadcasting.

PAL runs on 625 lines (as does SECAM). NTSC runs on 525 lines.

Incidentally, the luminance bandwidth is wider on PAL, which is why PAL has a better picture quality.

The vertical frequency of PAL is 50Hz, and NTSC 60Hz.

PAL frame rate is 25 frames per second, NTSC is 29.97.

OK, so can you see what PAL and NTSC are? In simplest terms, lines, frequency and framerate. There are other things but not so important - and they vary with the sub-standards.

Right, let's look at the issues we get - flicker and colour loss.

I hope everyone can grasp that running a device that outputs 50 cycles a second into a device that receives 50 cycles a second is going to cause problems, i.e. picture rolling.

The colour sub-carrier frequency of PAL I (UK PAL) is 4.433618 Mhz. This means the frequency which transmits the colour information. The colour frequency of NTSC M is 3.579545 Mhz. Therefore, a TV looking for a PAL colour signal will not see anything from an NTSC signal.

This hopefully explains why PAL and NTSC aren't colour information, but information on how the picture will be made up, and also why the colour is lost.

 

As for the Playstation giving out an NTSC signal by doing that... I'd have to study the details of that chip, but it probably isn't TRUE NTSC. There are most likely external clock sources that still give a PAL clock. This may not be the case, though.

Still, you'll often find that this is enough to fool a television set ;-)

 

I have the data sheet of the chip used in the SCPH-1002 somewhere if you want it. There's a pin called P/N which selects PAL or NTSC, depending on where it's soldered to.

 

I don't know if I'm completely missing the point here, but my PAL PlayStation most definately outputs an NTSC signal when running NTSC games... not PAL60. Same goes for the PS2.

In fact, I was under the impression that both PlayStations could not output PAL60 at all. You will see Devil May Cry 2 PAL has an optional NTSC option, rather than an PAL60 option seen on most GC, DC and XBox games.

 

Retro, I think there is a mis-understanding going on here. PAL and NTSC are the names given to the colour TV systems - 625 and 525 line TV systems were around before them! PAL and NTSC by no means officially refer to the video frequencies or anything like that, it's just that because NTSC was developed in the US it was designed in mind of use in the US (60Hz land), whereas PAL was designed in Germany where 625-line television was used.

As a matter of fact, the first colour TV test broadcasts by the BBC in the early 60's were using NTSC colour on normal "A" system 405-line TV!

I'm just saying the 50 and 60Hz stuff should be treated differently from PAL and NTSC - as we've seen with AntiPasta's talking about a certain pin in the PS1 that only changes between PAL and NTSC colour systems but not scanrates, they are by no means always directly linked.

 

... that of course being the basis behind PAL60!

 

Just to notice that the PS2 can be set to a whide range of video formats, including the aformentioned PAL60. However, since PAL60 as a composite signal isn't a standard per se, SCEE seems to only allow NTSC as 60Hz option. This doesn't matter mutch, since most europeans use SCART RGB and bugger all to color encoding... That of course, if the bloddy PS2 RGB cable had 12V on pin 8, instead of 5V, and hence activating 16:9 on my 4:3 tv, squashing the image in the process... but I rant.

 

You sure you set the aspect ratio settings properly in the BIOS menu? There's like 4:3, 16:9 and "full". Or do these still not make it work properly?

 

Zilog, you obviously don't grasp the premise.

PAL and NTSC are standards. There are sub-standards of that that include different frequencies, yes.

However, they are standards to tell the receiver how to interpret the signal to get an image.

PAL is 50Hz. NTSC is 60Hz. PAL60 is a pseudo thing, it isn't real PAL. PAL is 625 lines. NTSC is 525. That is the major part of the specification.

Colour has nothing to do with it - the standards were set up before colour. That was an addition. PAL colour signals work on black and white TVs, because the TV is PAL standard. It ignores the colour information, it isn't important in getting a picture. What is important is that it knows how many lines to scan and at what frequency.

Hence, PAL and NTSC has EVERYTHING to do with 50Hz and 60Hz, and 625 and 525 lines, and NOTHING to do with colour, which is an extra thing transmitted at various different frequencies. You can't say it is the standard for colour TV, because it was invented before colour TV was. The standard for colour TV is PAL-I, or whatever variant of PAL you have.

Do you see what I mean? If you have a PAL N television in the UK, it will look for the colour sub-carrier at 3.582056 Mhz. The UK broadcasts PAL-I, which sends the sub-carrier at 4.433618 Mhz. Therefore, a PAL-I colour broadcast received on a PAL-N television will be as black-and-white as it would be on an NTSC televison. However, the picture should be stable as the frequencies are correct - this wouldn't be a guarantee on an NTSC television.

However, I do admit that PAL-M is the black sheep in the family. Created by the Brazilians to be more compatible with the US market. To be honest, I'm not sure why they didn't just go with NTSC. They used PAL, but at 60Hz with 525 lines and the same bandwidth as NTSC, which basically eliminated the picture improvement! So PAL-M doesn't count ;-) hehe.

I actually forgot to include one important point.....

Technically, SECAM is PAL, but with a different colour sub-carrier. This is why French videos will play in black and white on a PAL TV.