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Issue playing NTSC games on PAL PS1.

Alphagear

Member
HI Guys.

Just purchased Xenogears for the PS1 and I'm having issues playing it on my modded PAL Ps1.

Been a while but I remember in the past I used an RGB scart cable or S video cable to allow the TV to output NTSC games in colour on PAL TVs.

I don't have either connection on my new TV so have to use composite.

Problem I'm having with composite is the display is rainbow coloured.

Have a component cable for the PS2 and thats not supported by Ps1.

Any solutions?
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Z5oSkxg.jpg

I have to use this for my AV to work. Irrelevant, but who would I share this information with? :messenger_grinning_squinting:
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
HDMI and component. Even has RF.

No scart or S-video.
Only thing I can think of 😕
 

Trimesh

Banned
From the sounds of it you have one of the later consoles (SCPH-7002, SCPH-7502, SCPH-9002) that has a clock synthesizer and you also have a TV that can't handle NTSC-4.43. If your TV can handle PAL-60 (which is likely, since the fact you get color at all suggests it can handle NTSC), then there is a workaround which involves lifting up pin 157 of the GPU (luckily, it's right on one corner) and connecting the pad it used to be wired to to ground.

This will force the video output in 60Hz mode from NTSC-4.43 to PAL60
 

Alphagear

Member
From the sounds of it you have one of the later consoles (SCPH-7002, SCPH-7502, SCPH-9002) that has a clock synthesizer and you also have a TV that can't handle NTSC-4.43. If your TV can handle PAL-60 (which is likely, since the fact you get color at all suggests it can handle NTSC), then there is a workaround which involves lifting up pin 157 of the GPU (luckily, it's right on one corner) and connecting the pad it used to be wired to to ground.

This will force the video output in 60Hz mode from NTSC-4.43 to PAL60
Not one of those unfortunately. Model number is SCPH-5552.
 

Trimesh

Banned
Not one of those unfortunately. Model number is SCPH-5552.

Ah, in that case there is no simple hack you can do. Those older machines derived the color reference frequency from the master GPU clock crystal - and the PAL and NTSC variants used slightly different ones. The options are basically either providing an additional GPU clock that's at the right frequency for NTSC or providing a separate 4.43MHz clock source for the video encoder - both of which obviously require extra hardware.

If you can get hold of a later console then it might be worth trying that, since maybe your TV does support NTSC-4.43 (some multistandard VCRs output it back in the day).

For testing, it's best to use a SCPH-7502 or SCPH-9002 because the early production SCPH-7002s have the same PU-18 board in them as your SCPH-5552 and would exhibit the same issues (the later ones have a PU-20, which has the new oscillator arrangement and generates NTSC-4.43).
 

Alphagear

Member
Ah, in that case there is no simple hack you can do. Those older machines derived the color reference frequency from the master GPU clock crystal - and the PAL and NTSC variants used slightly different ones. The options are basically either providing an additional GPU clock that's at the right frequency for NTSC or providing a separate 4.43MHz clock source for the video encoder - both of which obviously require extra hardware.

If you can get hold of a later console then it might be worth trying that, since maybe your TV does support NTSC-4.43 (some multistandard VCRs output it back in the day).

For testing, it's best to use a SCPH-7502 or SCPH-9002 because the early production SCPH-7002s have the same PU-18 board in them as your SCPH-5552 and would exhibit the same issues (the later ones have a PU-20, which has the new oscillator arrangement and generates NTSC-4.43).

Thanks for the help mate. Just one more question.

I have a PS2 with a Messiah chip. Model number is SCPH-30003. It played PS1 and PS2 imports in the past but the laser is dead from the looks of it.

I have a working PS2 model number SCPH-50003. Can I use the laser from this one and put in the 30003 model?
 

Trimesh

Banned
Thanks for the help mate. Just one more question.

I have a PS2 with a Messiah chip. Model number is SCPH-30003. It played PS1 and PS2 imports in the past but the laser is dead from the looks of it.

I have a working PS2 model number SCPH-50003. Can I use the laser from this one and put in the 30003 model?

Unfortunately, this is a question that has no firm answer - there were several different types of optical pickups used in these units and the parameters for them were stored in the mechacon EEPROM so the console model number is not a useful indication of which one you actually have. Having said that, the answer is "probably not, at least directly". The SCPH-3000x machines used as KHS-400B pickup and the SCPH-5000x ones used a KHS-400C (at least if it was never serviced).

If both machines have the same part number pickup, then you can swap them - if they are different then you need a homebrew program called "PS2 lens changer" that can reprogram the mechacon EEPROM for the new pickup type - you can run this using FMCB even on an unmodified machine.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
HDMI to scart is probably most convenient option. I also have one but make sure its one that allows RGB passthrough because some shitty ass ones don't.
 
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