how can you tell between 50hz and 60hz releases?

[Black/\lpacino]

Hi, I was wondering if there is a way to tell if an XBOX PAL game plays in 60hz mode. You see i only ever buy an imported NTSC game if it runs in 60hz and the PAL release doesn't.

I'm asking because it would be a lot less of a hassle to know before buying, to save having to give the game back if it plays in 50hz.

Thanx for your help,
tamer

[Naiera]

It doesn't say on the boxes. Eurogamer.net has a yes/no box in their reviews, so best thing to do would be to wait for their review, I guess.

[Commander Marklar]

Does you TV have any signs of a 60hz display? The few I have push the volume off the bottom of the screen in PAL60/NTSC. 50hz games don't.

[randombs]

like Marklar said, also try pressing the button on your remote that keeps the channel number displayed instead of showing it for a few seconds and then disappearing. Notice the shape, then turn on the XBox and boot the game up. If the channel number suddenly stretches, the xbox is running in 60Hz

btw, do you own two XBoxes? reason I ask is if you only have the one, then I'm assuming it's chipped, in which case you could just force NTSC output. Most PAL games work fine like this and the few that won't can be swapped for their US/JAP versions

See, the thing is, the XBox is like the Dreamcast, in that some US/JAP games won't play in 60Hz even if the pal60 option has been enabled in the dashboard...Soul Calibur 2 is one example - I had the Jap one and it would play in 50Hz unless the XBox was set to full NTSC mode...also most US/JAP DVD's I own always play in 50Hz (thus get really jerky) unless set to NTSC mode. Just a thought...hope this helps

[randombs]

oh but in terms of knowing BEFOREHAND (which is what you're asking!), I guess your best bet would be to try before you buy, like you mentioned.
It seems that 60Hz is not an important bit of info to print on the game cover. Oh no, it's pointless for sure - it's much more important to know that the game I'm buying supports vibration or the (pretty much useless) XBox memory card (I have one, and it's only used for the 007 save hack if my chip goes belly-up)

[C']

Slightly OT (which I apologise for) but I've noticed that recent NOE Gamecube releases have stated on the back of the case what display modes the game supports.

Hopefully more publishers will follow the lead.

[randombs]

yeah you're right. i like the big '60Hz ONLY' stickers pasted on the zelda ocarina bonus cd (sorry - proprietary optical disc) that came out, like that's gonna scare us NTSC bods! it seems nintendo are innovating in all the right places eh

i've noticed some games putting the sign up on the back too, and i like that the games just ask you instead of having to hold down B every time i boot up the machine (must be something to do with the mem card as before I got one I had to keep holding B. Now I don't need to, regardless of whether the game has a save on the card or not..)

hey what are the chances the next round of consoles will still be predominantly 50Hz?

[EvilBoris]

the way i estimate whether a game will have 60hz or not

does it have lots of FMV?

if it does, then there is little chance it will have a 60hz option.

Slow or fast moving game

some games just don't bother because there is barely an difference between the 50/60hz game speeds.

who is making it?

you are more likely to get a 60hz option from sega or capcom that you are from the likes of the smaller companies.

the best one I find for xbox games is just listening.

listen to the high frequency humming noise that your tv makes when the dashboard is on.

Put a game you know is 60hz on, as soon as it boots up you will hear the buzzing noise change in pitch. If a game doesn't change in pitch , it hasn't changed to 60hz

[randombs]

thing is, how would you know there's a lot of FMV in a game without playing it? I'd understand for an adventure game which would quote 'over 2 hours of FMV' or something, but what about other games?

when putting games on my xbox hdd, i've noticed there are quite a few that have folders called 'PAL' and 'NTSC', and these are UK games (eg. Worms3D and Splinter Cell do it)

I like the buzz test though

Although the easiest method for checking games you already own would be just to look at the TV's OSD - if it's 60Hz it'll stretch. If not it'll be the regular size (my Sony TV stretches the channel number to nearly 1.5 times it's height. The little Matsui stretches it a bit but it isn't always apparent to the untrained eye )