NTSC games on modded PAL console (PS2 and Mega Drive specifically)

Hey everyone,

So I have some questions I would like answering regarding NTSC games being played on a 60hz modded pal console. The consoles in question are PlayStation 2 and Sega Mega Drive. I'm fed up with terrible PAL 50 and currently building a new NTSC collection. All of my Nintendo consoles are NTSC models but to save a bit of money and space, I had my PS2 and Mega Drive 2 modded (modbo 4 and switchless reset button mod respectively)

I've read lots of snippets of info online that state NTSC games will run ever so slightly slower on a PAL modded console than they would on genuine NTSC hardware, however I am looking for a more coherent answer.

My understanding from what I've read online is that the GPU inside the 2 consoles runs slightly slower in PAL machines and results in a slightly slower refresh rate being produced (59.5 approx for modded PAL and 59.9 approx for actual NTSC)

What I would like to know is how noticeable is this difference when playing the games? Will NTSC games feel noticeably faster when played on an actual NTSC console, as opposed to on a modded PAL console?

If the speed differences of framerates are only milliseconds then I will be happy using the modded hardware, I'm not a speedrunner so not looking to break any records or anything, just want the best experience possible with retro games.

Many thanks!

 

I can't offer any knowledge on the PS2, but as far as the mega drive is concerned, 60Hz modding a PAL model not only produces an ever so slightly slower result, but the output picture is far too bright. It's not really that noticeable, but where you will notice it is in games that scroll smoothly, in a modded PAL console, the scrolling will stutter every now and again as the refresh rate gradually desynchronises with the TV and has to resync again. Personally, I replaced the master oscillator in my PAL console to an NTSC one, so it's effectively a true blue NTSC model in a PAL shell, which is better looking anyway in my opinion.

 

The PlayStation 2 will output a video signal that is specified by the program/game. So if your games are NTSC games, NTSC will be output. Even on a PAL console (once the region-locking is taken care of).
This does not apply to PlayStation games running on the PlayStation 2, however, as the PlayStation driver in the PlayStation 2 is hardcoded to use the default video mode of the region that the console belongs to (i.e. PAL console = PAL output).

 

PS2 games can be patched to switch regions.

http://sksapps.com/?page=ypatch.html

 

The difference is about 1%, and is unnoticeable to most people. For the megadrive, the exact clock frequencies are 53.203MHz in PAL mode and 53.6931MHz in NTSC mode (these were carefully chosen to be an integer multiple of the color subcarrier frequency used in each video mode) - so if the video chip would have generated exactly 60Hz in NTSC mode with the correct clock, then it will run at 59.45Hz in NTSC mode with the 53.203MHz PAL clock. In timing terms, this gives you a nominal field period of 16.666666... ms with the correct clock and 16.8208 ms with the PAL one. So each field is about 150 microseconds longer than it should be. Personally, I don't consider this to be significant.

The numbers are pretty similar with the PS2, although I can't remember the exact clock frequencies.

 

I remember you mentioning this before. But how did you determine that?
The PS2's video modes can be programmed (i.e. not fixed modes implemented by the hardware), so the video signal format should be the same across all regions.

I hope that you compared PS2s with similar mainboard models, so that it is possible to eliminate the possible change of parts.

 

Yeah, I think it was a SCPH-30000 and a SCPH-30002 - the SPCLK applied to the GS is slightly different between the models - it's been a while, but I think PAL is exactly 54.000MHz and NTSC is 53.9<something> I suspect this is because the color subcarrier is indirectly derived from SPCLK/2, and this signal needs to have low phase noise for color purity so you want to keep the synthesis of it as simple as possible.

 

I looked through a couple of the service manuals that I have, and that crystal X202 (54MHz) is the same on both the US (01) and European (02,03,04) sets.

The boards that I looked at were the B/C-chassis (GH-004/GH-005/GH-006/GH-007), GH-013 and GH-015 F-chassis.

Okay, I saw a 53.9MHz, but that is a clock generator circuit instead (Labeled as "54MHz/53.9MHz").
So PAL and NTSC consoles should be identical.