NTSC/PAL color mode mod?

[Yart]

Hello!

 

I know there's a way to change the frequency of the Jaguar from 50 to 60hz and vice versa, but is there also a way to mod a Jaguar to display either PAL or NTSC colour modes? If so, could someone point me in the right direction?

 

I have a PAL TV to play it on (Which I prefer for Tempest 2000), but I can't bring my Jag to my friends' houses for they have NTSC TVs and they don't do PAL colours. (NTSC sets are using composite)

Edited December 16, 2013 by Yart

[108 Stars]

There is no specific color mod afaik, this is also related to 50/60Hz.

When you mod your Jaguar to 60 Hz it will play in color on NTSC TVs. The downside is that most likely your own PAL TV will then only display b/w unless you use an RGB Scart cable (which is recommended for best quality anyway). There is a chance your TV can display 60 Hz in color without RGB though, you'd best try another NTSC console on it to check.

[LinkoVitch]

I am not an electrical boffin, especially with Analog stuff.. but IIRC the NTSC/PAL encoding is done by the modulator? so you should get colour via composite on both PAL/NTSC sets at either 50/60 Hz (You will just possibly get a rolling image if the set doesn't have automatic VSYNC detection, if there is a V-hold knob you can manually adjust this usually).

 

I could be talking complete piffle however, perhaps a true knight of the ways of electricery can confirm?

 

RGB is the king however

[108 Stars]

Well, I know for a fact that in the opposite situation, playing in 60Hz on a PAL TV without RGB you will get a b/w picture (no rolling though). I know that because that was the reason I ever started using RGB. In 1998 Resident Evil 2 was released, and fearing German censorship I imported it and had my PS1 chipped for imports. Ever since I had many systems running in 60Hz, and none of them was showing color without RGB. That's probably why RGB cables were usually included in the modding offers backin the day.

 

PAL60 is different, I think that offers full color + 60Hz without RGB... but that was first seen on Dreamcast afaik.

 

Of course it may be that the other way around is different, and that NTSC TVs display 50 Hz with other errors but correct colors, but judging from what Yart posted I would guess not. Not that I have not spread my fair share of false information here on AA, but maybe I can redeem myself.

Edited December 16, 2013 by 108 Stars

[LinkoVitch]

IIRC PAL60 is the Japanese spec of PAL and may have slightly different signaling..

 

I know from my own childhood shenanigans that running PAL at 50/60Hz should give you a colour signal over RF as I used to do it all the time on my Atari ST. Maybe it was something specific to the PS1 ? or the combo of the PS1 and your particular TV at the time?? We need one of them wizzard types to show up and provide factual answers we both seem to have experience of things working differently

[sh3-rg]

IIRC PAL60 is the Japanese spec of PAL and may have slightly different signaling..

Japan used a form of NTSC. Only country I can think of that used a sort of PAL60 is Brazil, I remember as I was lectured by someone who bought one of our games when I incorrectly answered his question :0)

 

Maybe it was something specific to the PS1 ? or the combo of the PS1 and your particular TV at the time?? We need one of them wizzard types to show up and provide factual answers we both seem to have experience of things working differently

I remember evenings of B&W PS game playing when we couldn't locate the proper video cables (just RF). Not sure if my Gamars Video CD player helped with the problem or not, far too long ago to remember.

[108 Stars]

I can safely say that the same problem with 60 Hz in b/w was apparent in PS1, PS2, Mega Drive, SNES and PC engine. The first three because I had those consoles modded back in t day myself, and the latter two because the 60Hz-Mod on SNES required a custom RGB cable since Nintendo in their eternal wisdom never sold RGB cables and made the ones for the Gamecube incompatible. The PC Engine even needs the console modded to output RGB if you want to play in color.

 

Ironically I have just experienced the b/w problem again a few days ago. My cheapo LED TV has no scart port, but rather a scart port as an extra connected via the AV-ports. So what ends up in the TV is not RGB no matter what cable I use. And voila, I had to switch my MD to 50 Hz because I enjoyed high definition colorlessness. :/

 

@Linkovitch

Possibly you used a computer monitor and not a TV? Or you may have just had a really good TV, as some are NTSC compatible by default, it was just that the majority required RGB for it.... not all.

[LinkoVitch]

Nope, Deffo TV, was even RF connections! Original TV didn't have v-hold so I could switch to 60Hz and watch a full colour rolling image. My next TV did have a v-hold and certainly wasn't a high quality TV (Hinari for any who know the make), and that would give me a colour stable image at 50 or 60 Hz.

 

I always believed the encoding of the signals of NTSC and PAL has nothing to do with the Frame frequency as they both have the same horizontal scan freq, they do encode the signals differently though. But it was my belief that Composite much like RGB is pretty much a pure encoding and therefor didn't have PAL/NTSC stuff applied in much the same way as RGB is just Red Green and Blue info on seperate physical channels.

[Zerosquare]

The 50/60 Hz switch mod for the Jag does precisely what its names says: it lets you choose the video signal field rate, either 50 Hz or 60 Hz.

 

The color encoding isn't affected, though. If you use RGB it doesn't matter, but for S-video and composite cables it does. Modding a PAL Jaguar gives you PAL at 60 Hz, which is useful since it makes some games smoother, and most European TV sets display 60 Hz signals just fine. Modding a NTSC Jaguar gives you NTSC @ 50 Hz, which is pretty useless since I don't know any game that runs better in 50 Hz, and USA TV sets mostly don't support it anyways.

 

But that's not enough to get a PAL Jaguar to work (with color) on a NTSC TV set (or vice-versa). You'd need at least to replace a crystal and a resistor in the video generation circuit (the system clock frequency for PAL and NTSC Jaguars is also slightly different, so theoratically you'd have to replace the crystal for that too, but the difference is so small that you can probably get away with it.) AFAIK nobody ever tried this.

 

Other solution:

- if the TV set has YPbPr inputs, get a SCART RGB cable and a RGB->YPbPr transcoder. You'll get a great picture, much better than with composite.

- use a PAL-to-NTSC transcoder.

- get a NTSC Jaguar (all games are compatible).