PAL Television shows black and white for NTSC games!

[crovax87]

Hi, I live in the UK and bought a second hand PAL tv which is pretty old. It has yellow and white sockets and and aerial socket only.

The problem is, I can play PS2 PAL games with colour but my NTSC games turn out in black and white although the picture is fine.

Is there anyway to solve this?

Thanks in advance!

[charlesr]

If it has no scart sockets with RGB then you are doomed. You can get NTSC>PAL converters but they are universally pants: you get colour but also interference and artifacts. For ?50 you should be able to pick up a 2nd hand TV with RGB scart (just having scart isn't enough - you need RGB Scart). You then need an RGB scart cable, like the Blaze Ultimate Scart PS2 cable.

[fallenangle]

I hate that particular cable - unless it's changed design since I bought one it has a nasty unreliable switch for PS2 DVD use, the cable twists easily and it looks vile.

I'd just buy any fully wired, gold-plated heavily weight PS2 RGB SCART cable - the ones from GAME have always worked well for me and Amazon sell various types to match every pocket. In fact if you look under PSOne cables (which of course work perfectly onthe PS2) you could find a high quality lead at a much better price.

I assume that it is a chipped PS2. Won't there also be a problem with buying a 'cheap' PAL TV with RGB SCART connections? Many I've looked at in the lower price range are not 60Hz/NTSC capable so, surely, they will not display properly whatever connection is being used?

[fallenangle]

I've actually just been checking and the info I have is that whatever cable you're using a PAL TV, even with a PAL60 mode, will not be able to display a PS2 NTSC game correctly. According to the AVForums when used this way it is actually producing a NTSC output. That's why ^ the picture is in b/w on the PAL TV - no colour signal.

You do need a TV with proper a NTSC playback option.

[gIzzE]

That's not right, you can't play an ntsc game on a chipped pal PS2 without being in RGB/YUV mode even on an NTSC TV, simple as that.
The only way you can get it to play in colour is if you use Component or RGB, as obvioulsy these are not Pal or NTSC, they are what they are.

So you need a TV that has either component or RGBs (scart RGB) and is capbable of 50 and 60hz. Nearly every TV that has RGB will handle 60Hz, it would have to be very old or very cheap not to.

[charlesr]

My Blaze scart cable doesn't have a switch on it. And gives a perfect picture. However, you'll need a new telly first

[Salsa Party Animal]

Keep an eye on ebay for quality TV as you can pick one up cheap as there are many people selling it after upgrading to flatscreen TV.

[crovax87]

That's great. Thanks for the help people!

[fallenangle]

I didn't actually comment on what cable was needed for correct NTSC playback from a chipped PS2. I thought we'd already established that a RGB SCART cable would be required.

All I said was that, according to information available from a respected source, when it was being used at 60Hz a PAL PS2 does not output a PAL60 signal but a NTSC one. Ergo a UK PAL TV which does not have NTSC playback capabilities will not be able to display PS2 NTSC (or PAL games with a 60Hz option) correctly.

I'm only repeating what I read. If it's wrong or my assumptions about what a chipped PS2 does to the output signal is incorrect I, for one, would be interested in knowing the facts.

However it is a true that many cheap UK PAL TVs and a surprising number of more expensive ones too are not NTSC capable. If you're buying a new TV for gaming or import DVDs it is something you do need to check.

[gIzzE]

A Pal PS2 can only output Pal at 50/60hz, as soon as you play ntsc through the video decoder it doesn't undertand it, therefore you have to bypass it and go via RGB or YUV.
Therefore a TV that accepts 50/60hz and RGB is enough, and 90% of TVs that accept RGB accept 60hz.
In fact I can only think of two Philips widescreen sets from 10 years ago that don't.

[Shinebi]

Well, if there's a DMS3 or 4 installed, it will play NTSC PS1 games in color, but PS2 NTSC games or DVD movies will still be in black & white.
Either way, you can easily fix this by just bridging 2 small points on the PS2's MB.
Then you'll get color for anything NTSC!! (for the old models AFAIK, not sure about slimline.)
Just google for images of an NTSC/PAL fix or something.

[gIzzE]

But didn't bridging the points also mess something else up??

Last time I worried about all this Pal/NTSC stuff was trying to get my Superfamicom to run in the bedroom after being booted of the main TV, that must have been 15 years ago!!

[Shinebi]

Haven't done this myself yet, but in the shop I've worked for, we had one that had this done. Worked like a charm, no problems encountered. (could be you'd still need a RGB cable then, something to do with green screen I think, not sure)
So if you're not afraid to open up an solder, I'd recommend this, far cheaper than splashing out on a new telly.

Personally I can't be bothered, everything has always worked for me on a cheap Daewoo (Plilips tube), only thing I had to make a cable for was the Q: for 50 Hz FO CRYING OUT LOUD!!

Good luck!

[fallenangle]

Sorry to be thick about this but there are articles on more than one AV forum which state specifically that an unmodded, bog standard PAL PS2/PSTwo does not support PAL60. They say that any PAL games with a 60Hz option is actually outputting a NTSC signal. I've always assumed this was correct, hence my understanding that either a NTSC TV ot NTSC playback capable PAL TV was required. Are you guys saying this isn't right and that the PAL PS2 does support PAL60?

[Shinebi]

What you're saying is right, they always produce 60Hz NTSC (SONY mafia b***hes!), but just bridge them point and voila.

Personally, I think SONY would guess any dumb consumer would then buy a SONY TV, just to be sure the picture would show up in color .

Will get back to you on that,as I'm very sure there wasn't any chip inside!!
And the telly was NOT NTSC compatible, is was also B/W with NTSC Saturn, so, I would say YES.
So, I will try it out on an unmodded PS2, just to make you guys believe me

Later.