Playing PAL games on modded NTSC hardware. Will they run in 60Hz?

[gossi the dog]

Much to my suprise my modded Japanese Dreamcast plays all the bordered PAL releases such as Virtua Fighter 3 and Sega Rally 2 at full screen and what I assume is full speed. My question is do any other modded NTSC consoles run all PAL games at full screen and full speed?

[Lyris]

It depends on the console.

Dreamcast = depends on the console, UNLESS the game disc has code at the very start of the program forcing 60hz (eg Sega Smash Pack)

Sega Saturn = depends on the console

Xbox = depends on the setting of the console, other times the game

PS2 = depends on the game, unless it has a 50/60hz option at the start of the PAL version

Bottom line is, you should usually try and buy USA games for your USA console, etc.

[hankwangford]

Dreamcast is a very odd one. Playing Japanese and American software on a modded PAL unit seems to be completely random as to which games will play in 50hz and 60hz. I remember importing Shenmue US only to find it was in 50hz ?_?

[gossi the dog]

It depends on the console.

Dreamcast = depends on the console, UNLESS the game disc has code at the very start of the program forcing 60hz (eg Sega Smash Pack)

Sega Saturn = depends on the console

Xbox = depends on the setting of the console, other times the game

PS2 = depends on the game, unless it has a 50/60hz option at the start of the PAL version

Bottom line is, you should usually try and buy USA games for your USA console, etc.

By depends on the console do you mean region or a specific model?

[Lyris]

I mean it depends on the system - Dreamcast, Saturn, etc. Of course, region will affect it too. For the Dreamcast, an NTSC 'cast will show everything in 60hz, and games that only support 50hz will run at 50hz video frequency, but with very odd results (ie the top half of the screen totally black with part of the picture showing at the bottom of the screen).

[gossi the dog]

I'm not following you. As I mentioned in my first post my Japanese Dreamcast runs all PAL games at what I assume is full screen full speed (the borders disappear on the likes of VF3 and SR2), I haven't come across any of the results you mentioned.

I understand that different consoles eg Dreamcast, Saturn etc will give different results, hence why I posted the thread in order to assertain which modded NTSC consoles would run PAL 50Hz at full screen and full speed.

[sj33]

I'm not following you. As I mentioned in my first post my Japanese Dreamcast runs all PAL games at what I assume is full screen full speed (the borders disappear on the likes of VF3 and SR2), I haven't come across any of the results you mentioned.

I understand that different consoles eg Dreamcast, Saturn etc will give different results, hence why I posted the thread in order to assertain which modded NTSC consoles would run PAL 50Hz at full screen and full speed.

With the Dreamcast, it's dictated by the software. Most games specifically state they wish to run at a certain rate, whereas some just use the hardware default (which is why some NTSC games run in 50Hz on modded PAL machines). It is dictated by the software.

Same goes for the GC and XBox - the software will specify 50Hz or 60Hz. The PS2 is a strange one, the software will specify PAL@50hz or NTSC@60Hz, as opposed to PAL or PAL60 like DC/GC/XBox.

With the Saturn, and pretty much everything older, it's the opposite - it's dictated by the hardware what rate the games run at, which is why switches are usually necessary.

[fahrenheit]

A modded NTSC Xbox console will output PAL games as 60HZ NTSC only. Most PAL Xbox games have support for NTSC mode. In the rare cases of PAL only encoded games, those games will not display on the console.