confused about PAL consoles and NTSC TVs

bacteria said:
The scrolling and the black and white is what you get with a PAL system on an NTSC old television or NTSC system on a PAL old television; as expected. Your DVD player said it did 50/60Hz so is happy with the PAL signal; although as you say, may need tweaking to get the best out of the composite. You can RGB a PAL SNES (I did it before) but composite looks slightly better on the PAL SNES anyway; however it is an option.

If you mod it to take NTSC carts, please post details - I haven't done that yet! (I have the document to do it but not tried it out). You can also mod your PAL SNES to output 50/60Hz via a switch, which would probably mean you can then play on your televisions directly?? MMmonkey site has a guide for that.

I am very happy the system worked and you are happy with your purchase! :thumb:

Oookay, time to clear some things up.

First, check your TVs for a "vertical hold" control. Apparently that can prevent the scrolling.

Secondly, adding a 50/60Hz switch won't work. Well, actually let me clarify that. You will get a stable NTSC image, but it will be in black and white because the colour will still be encoded in PAL, which your TV Does Not Like. HOWEVER you can buy a cheap converter that will convert the color signals to ones your NTSC TV can use. I think I posted a link earlier.

If you want to make your PAL SNES truly compatible colour-wise you will need to replace the PAL encoder with an NTSC one. It's theoretically possible but nobody has done it. Alternatively you could use RGB if you have anything that can take it. Either way you will still have to use the console at the 60Hz setting.
 
I may as well do the mod, even though I do have an NTSC snes to play NTSC games on. Or are you implying that i do the mod to play PAL games on my NTSC snes?
 
The region mod simply allows the lockout chip to be disabled. It makes the console MOSTLY region-free, but some games won't run without the lockout chip. The 50/60Hz mod changes the video output frequency. Some games only work at their native frequency, but it also lets you play some PAL games at 60Hz. Like I said before, if you run the SNES at 60Hz you should get a stable black and white picture.

And the mod works either way.
 
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