confused about PAL consoles and NTSC TVs

themadhacker

themadhacker

Crazy Train
I am buying a PAL snes from bacteria, and a thought crossed my mind. Everybody says that a PAL console will not work on an NTSC psone screen, but I want to know if they work on NTSC televisions. Would you have to have the TV on a different channel?
 
It likely won't work on an NTSC television, but most LCDs including the PSone LCD will support it.

Why would you want to use a PAL one? It just means your games will be slower, and games like Super Mario Kart have altered stats for the carts, making the gameplay different!
 
Televisions should include a manual or at least some way of telling you if it supports 50hz or not, i'd imagine they do, at least any modern TV.
 
NTSC does 30 frames per second, PAL only does about 25 - but, PAL does have over 600 lines of resoltion compared to NTSC's 500-and-some. PAL also has better color reproduction; NTSC was developed as a backwards-compatible signal here in the states for people who still had black and white televisions, so that they could still use those sets for the newer, color broadcasts.

If you've got an older TV, you're out of luck - I've got one that is about 10 years old or so, and does not have support for PAL.

I'm not sure about newer ones.
 
Bibin said:
It likely won't work on an NTSC television, but most LCDs including the PSone LCD will support it.

Why would you want to use a PAL one? It just means your games will be slower, and games like Super Mario Kart have altered stats for the carts, making the gameplay different!
Click to expand...


So it will work on an NTSC LCD screen? That's pretty much the opposite of what I have heard. And, in case you are wondering, I did not want to buy this to make portable. That would be stupid, as I can get an snes at any thrift store around here. I'm buying it because it looks way better than the american snes and because it would be cool to have.

I will look through my basement TV's manual to see if it supports PAL hardware. It was made in 2003 or so, so I might be in luck. In worst case scenerio I have some portable DVD players with AV in that I could use.
 
A few types of TV support both NTSC and PAL. Check the owner's manual.
Some TVs are tolerant enough to accept the PAL sync and image, but won't decode the color properly (or at all) giving a black and white image.
A lot of TVs will just throw a spaz and not work, or not lock on to the sync and give a rolling picture.

The good news is that you can get converters. Unfortunately, the cheaper ones only convert the color, so they require a sync-tolerant TV. You can adjust your TVs a little, but probably not enough if it doesn't work the first time.

Of course, it doesn't matter if you use RGB. Some RGB devices are sensitive to sync, but you are probably going to do a 50/60hz mod anyway.


Converters (cheap kind):
http://www.ambery.com/paltontsyco.html
Another one, long link

If all else fails, you can always swap a modded NTSC mobo in.
 
themadhacker said:
Yes, I was planning on the 50/60 hrz mod. Will that make the system compatable with NTSC TVs?
Click to expand...

No, you will still have PAL video. BUT if you get a converter like I showed you, it should work. Most TVs can handle the sync frequency and resolution of PAL, but they can't decode the color, which is what the converter is for. Modding the console to 60Hz should get you a B&W picture on any TV. If you have a TV that can decode PAL color signals you don't even need to do the mod, because if it can use the PAL color it can do the PAL sync and resolution too.

The best way to try is to just plug it in and try it. It shouldn't damage anything; on modern TVs the signal doesn't drive the tube directly like the bad old days. It goes through a bunch of circuits, which I think generate NEW signals to drive the guns. So it should be okay. Post your results.
 
Well,I looked in the manual. I didn't find the words PAL anywhere in it. And the only mention of hrz was that the booklet said that the TV ran at 120V/60hrz. No mention of 50hrz. I will have to look at my portable DVD player's manual now.
 
Ok, so i looked at the portable DVD player's manual. under specifications, it said: Power- AC100-240v 50/60Hz.

So then I suppose I am in luck.
 
That is the power frequency, which is completely irrelevant. Like I said, your best bet is to try it. If it says nothing about PAL it won't decode PAL color. However it MIGHT be able to use PAL sync so you can use a cheap PAL color converter.

About the controllers- NTSC consoles don't care about the region of controller, but PAL consoles need a mod to work with NTSC controllers. Why anyone would want to use an NTSC controller on a PAL console is beyond me.
 
Nah, I won't be gutting it. I have several cart slots from junked snes systems lying around my room which I can put on the pal one. And actually, I think the NTSC snes has a region block on the controllers as well. But it has a very simple fix. There are diodes on the controller port board on the snes. They cause the region block. If you bypass them, you can use any region controllers on it.
 
As far as I know the PAL controllers work on NTSC but not the other way around, but as themadhacker said there is a mod you can do. Also, the cart slot is the same, but the cartridge doors are different. You need to make a bigger hole and put in NTSC cartridge doors.
 
I have the cartridge size difference all planned out. I get a crappy snes game, desolder all the chips, solder a cart slot on top of that. That way, I do not have to destroy the case. I'll have an adapter so I can plug in my ntsc snes games. I may either have the adapter's board bare or just get a crap PAL game and use the case from that.
 
themadhacker said:
I have the cartridge size difference all planned out. I get a crappy snes game, desolder all the chips, solder a cart slot on top of that. That way, I do not have to destroy the case. I'll have an adapter so I can plug in my ntsc snes games. I may either have the adapter's board bare or just get a crap PAL game and use the case from that.
Click to expand...

That's going to take considerable rewiring, but a good idea nontheless. And yeah, get a crap PAL game. There's an adaptor availible that does what you want to do but I don't know how easily it is availible.
 
I got my snes from bacteria today. I have tested it out on my dvd player with the free game he gave me and as I expected, the DVD player accepts PAL signals. Also, I have noticed a few interesting things. For one, the colors are a bit off. Research shows that all PAL snes systems have a 75 ohm resistor on the video line inside the AV cables. So I will go make myself a PAL style AV cord. Also, my NTSC controllers do in fact work on the PAL snes.
 
I Just got done testing the snes on my CRT televisions. On the two I tested (one 20 years old, one 6) the game came on and started scrolling. Plus it was in black and white. If youi wonder what I mean by scrolling, imaging a big fat line on your TV that constantly moves down.

Regardless, the snes works on my DVD players so i am happy.
 
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