PS2 region-free hacked BIOS?

The refresh rates etc are all set in software by the game afaik.

The force refresh rate thing in the matrix overrides that. Running what the game is supposed to run in should work fine from Free McBoot as much as my (limit) knowledge knows about it.

Still a fan of a chip to be honest.

 

I've fired off a PM to omp, we'll see what he says. He actually works two suburbs away from me, so he's pretty convenient to me

Since it seems like Free McBoot can't run PS1 games, yeah, a modchip would probably be my best option.

 

That's what I thought too. I don't recall PS2 hardware making any relation between console region, game region, and in-game video mode. In other words all instances of a specific disc defaulting to the same mode regardless what PS2 region they're run on.

Could be wrong...

 

Or you could buy Breaker Pro, which works as a boot disc for PS1, and SwapMagic or similar for PS2... but you still need to swap discs, so it's definitely more convenient to use a modchip.

 

50/60hz is indeed software controlled.

 

Definitely, I can see that becoming really repetitive

 

I like the Mars Pro a lot more than the modbo. The way I get around PAL games is using GS Mode Selector. I have it set it up in a MC has DEV1.

 

I had a Mars Pro in my v9 ps2... a SOLID chip that never ever created an issue even with DL discs (a plague that I never understood back in the day...)
A couple of years ago I upgraded to DMS4 pro for toxicOS... it's a great experience

 

The Mars Pro runs the Toxic Firmware which I feel is a better firmware. Most people are turn off because you can not save the firmware settings.
If you have a PAL PS2 with Mars Pro using RGB Scart you should be able to play NTSC imports PSX and PS2 without issue. Only NTSC user have problem playing PAL games.

 

Really? what mars pro version was that? The one I had did not have an upgradeable firmware at all... IIRC it was the first "pro" version, after some anti-modchip measures that caused the ps2 to freeze

 

Mars Pro GM-816HD.
I think I was the only US modder to use them since it seem most people like the Modbo series.
All my personal system have the Mars Pro.

 

I have an official DMS4's in one of mine.

I tend to use modbo's purely so people dont moan about things not working. I have a stack of mars chips, but I dont really use them unless by request.

 

Doesn't PS2 also determine NTSC or PAL color by the 50/60hz setting. I'm pretty certain PS2 is this way, surprisingly unlike the PS1.

 

Too bad theres no region modding, would be nice to play american PS2 games on a PSX...

 

I'd love to get ahold of a DMS4 but so far I haven't seen anything but the solderless chips that cost an arm and a leg to get shipped. Right now I have two different PS2s; one with a Modbo and another with a Mars Pro each for their own purposes. Would prefer to knock that down to just 1.

 

Which modchip do you guys think would be the best for my purposes? That is, all I want to do is play import PS2 and PS1 on a PAL PS2, and I want the experience to be hassle-free and the console should perform and look the same as an unmodded console (i.e you eject the drive, pop and disk in, close the drive, and away it goes). Jinn mentioned the Mars Pro being able to play import PS2 and PS1 games without issue, would that be a good choice? At the same time, I've never heard of that brand, but I have heard of the DMS4, which is suppose to be one of the best modchips.

*EDIT* Just got a message from omp, he doesn't know how to mod PS2s

 

Horizontal refresh rate is software controlled in both PS1 and PS2 ...

And since it's a Japanese design, the hardware defaults to NTSC, it's the BIOS that change to 50hz after the video chipset registers are set.

That's why PAL PS1s blink the screen twice (quite fast but it's twice) after a reset while NTSC ones only blink once.

Also that's why all PAL PS1s can do 60hz while some NTSC PS1s can't do 50hz (SONY removed the bridge that gives 53mhz clock for the PAL input on the GPU chip on these NTSC models that cannot do 50hz. Since there's no video clock they stall/hang once they switch to 50Hz). Meaning that if a PAL console only had clock input on the PAL clock pin, it would stall on first reset as the GPU expects clock on the NTSC clock source pin to start up...

The catch is that the 53mhz is divided by 15 to get the NTSC color carrier. A slightly different frequency is divided by 12 to get the PAL color carrier. Hence having two clock inputs (to make it possible for a dual standard PS1 Debugstation unit to exist).

Edit: And SONY smartened up on the PS2, they made a better circuit that can cover all bases without need to use the 53mhz clock for color carrier. I don't know the details, but I believe it's possible to do PAL60 and NTSC50 on the PS2 (not on the PS1 though)... But SONY libraries do not support such settings

 

These are both very much possible, I have used an older version of GSM to make NTSC50 and it at least worked fine on my SCPH-75001 at the time. I have not tested on my current SCPH-39001 as I had acquired a TV capable of both NTSC and PAL in the interim (and in fact I don't think my current TV supports NTSC50). PAL60 works fine on it though.

 

A lot of TV's will freak out at NTSC/50

However, pal50/60 exists and work fine

 

It's highly reprogrammable. I've even managed to get the pixel clock high enough to support 1080P.