PS NTSC/UC SCPH-7501 with better video (Vivid Colors) How to spot one?

(Offtopic: Stevie, is there a reason you post everything twice?)

 

@Stevie Goodwin you need to check your posting settings. You always double post!
From my experience, the Rohm and Sony encoders behave identically. Might be that the Sony encoder has the Y-Trap filter built-in and the Rohm has it externally (one inductor and one capacitor to ground). But I'm not sure. Could also be that Sony just sometimes didn't bother to install the filter ><

 

I don't know why i double post. I feel like people won't reply on here.

 

@TriMesh do you happen to know what's going on with the Y-Trap filter inductor / capacitor only being installed on certain mainboards? I don't even think there's a pattern to it. Just sometimes they have it, sometimes they don't (and replaced with a resistor of a specific value: One for PAL, one other for NTSC, I assume).
It's puzzling

 

My board has an OKI Chip on here, The chips said it was made on the 24th week of 1998 (9824). And on my Durabrand TV with both different encoders, I get different font smoothing on the menu.

 

It's hard to say - my guess would be simply that they removed the trap for reasons of cost reduction - an inductor is pretty expensive for a passive component, and resistors cost almost nothing. Near the end of the PlayStation production run they went into pretty aggressive cost-cutting mode.

Only just saw this - personally, I like the PU-18 board (SCPH-55xx, some SCPH-700x) - it still has the old clock design with two separate oscillators for the CPU and GPU and separate chips for all the major functions. It was also the first model to use digital servos for the focus and tracking in the CD drive (the spindle servo was always digital) so the CD drive is more stable (plus you can use the XLAT/ method for gating off a stealth modchip). The only things I don't like about it are the lack of RCA jacks on the rear panel and the long flex cable from the CD pickup which results in a certain amount of signal attenuation (which means, in practice, that you have to have a pickup that produces a reasonably high signal if you want to use CD-R).

 

I just got another SCPH-9001 for Christmas, I opened it up, and i was excited that it said T-2 on the RF shielding. But when i hook it up, I noticed it doesn't have the same image as my SCPH-7501 and it does have a Sony encoder instead of a Rohm.

 

Guess what guys, A month ago, I bought a really dirty SCPH-7001 (PU-20) from a broken lot that was corroded to hell and the laser connector ripped off and i noticed it has the same video image as my U68 SCPH-7501 that has the H720 video encoder. Maybe if i find another console with that video encoder that is not Sony A2106R, Is there a higher chance that it might be the same video as my SCPH-7501 i have if the encoder is H7240AKV?

 

The video encoder is what causes the variations in video quality, yes. But if you care that much about composite video being slightly better or worse, why not use RGB or even S-video instead? Both are MUCH better than composite which never looks any good to be honest...

Old site, but this demonstrates the difference pretty well.
http://www.chrismcovell.com/gotRGB/screenshots.html

 

I noticed video quality differences in an SCPH-1001 today, The colors look similar to my U68 serial number SCPH-7501, but was it more blurrier and the contrast was a little dark. The video encoder is the CXA1645 included in there and which PS1 system should i keep? Should i keep the awesome SCPH-1001 since it has RCA jacks or keep the SCPH-7501? I did install the 7501 laser in my 1001 and it works pefectly and some on slightly scratched copies of games i have, I get a couple of small FMV skips, so would resurfacing the discs help? I don't have a second laser though so i temporally put the 7501's laser in my 1001 and waiting for my totalconsole.com KSM-440-BAM to arrive from Kansas City after being ordered off Amazon.com.

 

I'd say keep them both, although if that KSM-440BAM is another chinese laser, you're not going to notice anything better in that 1001.

As for the 7501 drive, there's something weird going on. I used to have a old 1002 (wish I'd find one now) that had a 900x drive (exactly the same as the 7501) and would skip FMVs and stuff everytime. I swapped in a newer grey PSone slim drive and it would boot absolutely everything thrown at it and would never skip. Possible that it's the spindle causing this, as I recently had to do this on a 9002 (sounds weird, doesn't it?) that has a Stealth 2.8a chip in it that was skipping discs like hell. I swapped a slim PSone assembly in and used the 900x laser, and it's been running fine since then. I'm actually playing Crash Bandicoot 1 on it as we speak.

 

Stevie, why don't you try and find a monitor capable of RGB, instead of buying every single PS1 model on the market in the search for good composite picture quality? Which honestly you'll never find as composite sucks no matter what encoder is being used.
With RGB you can get literally PERFECT video quality

 

https://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.de/2015/03/the-case-for-composite.html

 

I know about dittering being used to simulate more colors and transparancy. And I think a lot of the graphics designers back then used these techniques very well. I just don't think it's worth sacrificing proper color and sharpness, personally I don't mind the checkerboard-look you get with RGB

Also, the PS1 can do proper transparancy and has a lot more colors than 16-bit consoles, so I really don't see the point in composite here

 

I'm saying that maybe he *wants* Composite Video because it has qualities RGB does not have.
Dithering is heavily used on PSX. The GPU has a dither enable feature that automatically dithers polygons.

Anyway, RGB is no solution to Composite, it's an alternative.
Those who want Composite are looking for the nicest implementation of it.

@Stevie Goodwin:
You can tweak the look by modifying the YTRAP passives. Additonal trimmer capacitor to ground for example applies more smoothing and removes more artifacts. Removing the capacitor and replacing it with a small value, like 15pF, produces almost S-Video sharpness.

 

Well he specifically mentioned colors and sharpness (blur), and in those cases composite will lose to RGB any day of the week.

 

I tried S-Video on a projector last night and the picture and sharpness was clear. Is S-Video good?

 

S-video is much better than composite. The sharpness is good, but the colors are not as good as RGB

 

Also, Since someone said the lasers from totalconsole.com are the best, Are they a real SONY laser?

 

Good news everybody, I found an SCPH-7501 today made October 1998 which has the same PU-22-21 board and same Rohm (H720AKV encoder) as my AUgust 1998 one and it has the same sharpness. What do you think.