Prince

Please note, that, YES I realize this is a PSX-related question and YES the products in question are legally obtained and owned. I do not condone piracy in any form.

Now that that is out of the way, the reason I am posting this here instead of Gaming is because my problem has to do with the technical differences between PAL and NTSC video signals. Let me explain.

I moved to the US from Europe, and brought with me a bunch of PAL psx games, and a PAL console, with the controllers, memory cards, the shit. However, although I fixed the voltage issue with a step down transformer, it turns out that I cannot seem to be able to get the video signal to display properly on the American (NTSC) television set (brand new Hitachi 28", bought this spring).

I knew this would happen, so I purchased a PAL-to-NTSC converter from Chipzone...which did not help one bit. I sent it back and got a replacement...and it doesn't work for me either. The problem is that the resulting image has the right colours, but it is extremely jumpy. It's a pity since the audio works fine and the colours are there.

I asked about the refresh rate differences (50 Hz/60 Hz) but the blokes at Chipzone said that it does not matter; the converter works with a PAL psx and an NTSC tv set.

Yeah well, it doesn't. Any ideas? I am under the impression that the refresh rate of a PAL tv set is 50 Hz, and that of a US (NTSC) set is 60 Hz. Is this precisely the problem, as I have assumed, or should the converter fix this for me?

It says on the bottom of my PSX unit: ~AC 220-240V 50/60Hz 10W. As I said, I used a step down transformer to change the voltage at the US apartment to the required. Does the mention of 50/60Hz have anything to do with the refresh rate, or is that only related to the power supply or something?

I know this is a long shot, but thanks for any advice you can give. I am also sorry for such a long post and the redundancy of my questions, but this is something that is really bugging me and I want to find a way to fix this. Or at the very least understand why I cannot.

charliex

yep american tvs are 60HZ and europeans, 50hz also the resoultion is different.

The converter should fix it, but a lot of TV's are really sensitive to the timing rates, and if its a cheap converter its probably slightly off

also a lot of your twitch games won't play the same as the timing reference is different.

yes the mains frequency has something to do with it.

use a computer monitor with either a psx to vga or a tv to vga convertor.

most projection TVS will not sync to an off signal.

Sony CRTs seem to do well.

My japanese neo geo works on some but not others.


dual standard TVs are available but costly and the resoultion and timing differences mean its not worth the hassle.

Some games you'll lose part of the screen image when it does work

Vanquish

Your problem is that PAL and NTSC are two different framerates for one thing. NTSC Uses 29.97 FPS and PAL uses 25FPS therefore the TV wouldn't be able to acurately display the PAL material. Second, the aspect ratios of PAL are different. PAL being 1.067 for the most part and NTSC being 0.9. And finally the res of them is also different. NTSC Being 720/480 and PAL being 720/576.

ANyway to correct your problem you could try and run the feed through a comp that your not using, it would have to allow realtime output tho, so thats probably an expensive route. Another option would be to try one of those fancy VCRs that can record and playback a BUNCH of formats like the sv-5000w by samsung.

Finally take a look and make sure that you are allowed to change the power like you did. Using a transformer you might be loosing some of the current thats needed to run the system. For instance at our family run Arena we reciently installed a Fire Alarm system and needed a step down transformer to switch the 120v to around 24v The transformer we initally recieved was a 24v but it only gave us an output of around 19-20v. We switched to a 32v and the output hovered around 24-25v. Now this could have been because our transformers were of a lower quality or something, I dont know. However, plug it in, get a multimeter and make sure you are getting the correct Voltage out of it. Also you check the amperage your getting off it.

Also as for the 50/60hz on the bottem of the console, I would imagen that is normal. The frequency of AC Current is 60 cycles per second here in Canada so I would imagen that is what it is meaning, and if so it would only be the powersupply. But if there was a massive change from that, it would probably just not run / lockup like a computer does. Dont quote me on that tho

Gluck

Prince

Thank you, the both of you. Insightful and informative, I am really grateful!

__________________
Who is John Galt?