SEGA SATURN - the discussion thread

[?L?w?]

It still works alright.... not had it come on since.

It happened after plugging it back into the mains after taking the plug out overnight.

It is a Japanese Saturn using a stepdown.

[Big Seany]

As you lot may know, I only recently bought my Saturn - a MK1 model which is modified for imprts, and which I thought has a HZ switch on. On Saturday I recieved my first ever Jap games - Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter 2, Panzer Dragoon and Soukygarentai - and discovered there is not a switch for 50/60hz.

Now as you may also know, I am crap at doing technical stuff (I once blew up a Jap dreamcast and was so afraid of switching it back on when I replaced the power board I had to phone Strider, who then went on NTSC and checked it out with Nick Pavey), but on Saturday morning I got the soldering iron out, and managed to put a 50/60hz switch on my console - and it worked. I am so chuffed it is untrue!!!!

"Import gaming to begin again!"

[anephric]

*cough* how exactly did you think there was a 60hz switch when there wasn't? It's normally sticking out the back like a steel nipple and hard to miss if it is/isn't there...

Kudos on your soldering skills, btw - I modded by Xbox and came perilously close to borking it... never again will I attempt modding involving anything hot and molten.

[Big Seany]

Shut it, you!!

The reason I thought there was one was because there were two switches originally. Turns out they are both required to select the region, so now I have three small switches (looks tidier than it sounds), that have to be fiddled with according to region. Saying that, I haven't tried any US games yet as I don;t have any. If anyone wants to send me one for free then I would appreciate it ; )

[anephric]

Only US game I've got is Guardian Heroes, and you ain't getting that.

[Big Seany]

Denied!

[sj33]

Been messing with the Saturn today, this seems like the best place to post this.

I had always assumed the official Scart cables would be the best... however, I set up my Saturn today to try it on my HD-Ready LCD, used the official Scart, and was really disappointed at how bad it looked. Really looked bad, nothing was clear at all.
Dug out an old 3rd party Scart lead I had tossed aside, tried that instead.... low and behold, super duper, sharp, vibrant picture! This has really shock me, I had assumed official was the way to go, not so in this case... I recommend people shopping around and trying out some of the other cables.

Oh and I'm not sure what people are going on about when they say non-HD stuff looks **** on an LCD TV - This is ace. Nights in Widescreen ^_^

[Strider]

I got myself a 50" high definition DLP about a month back and was really looking forward to playing my Saturn shmups on it. Sadly, it appears to be incompatible with the TV and seems to miss out frames (speeding everything up). I'm absolutely gutted and now considering selling my machine

[sj33]

Sucks man, don't really know much about DLP's myself so I can't help you out. This excluive to the Saturn though? Cause I'd assume an output is an output, it's PAL or it's NTSC y'know =/

[Strider]

No it affects my PS2 (when playing playstation games) and N64 as well. It's very annoying...

[sj33]

Don't know how much money you would want to lay into it, but you could use a device like the iScan or X-RGB2 to convert the signal to VGA, which your TV might prefer.
Would actually look better too, rather than using the TV's internal scaler.

Just an idea if it comes to it.

[Strider]

Don't know how much money you would want to lay into it, but you could use a device like the iScan or X-RGB2 to convert the signal to VGA, which your TV might prefer.
Would actually look better too, rather than using the TV's internal scaler.

Just an idea if it comes to it.

any links mate?

[SharkSkin-Man]

I had always assumed the official Scart cables would be the best... however, I set up my Saturn today to try it on my HD-Ready LCD, used the official Scart, and was really disappointed at how bad it looked. Really looked bad, nothing was clear at all.
Dug out an old 3rd party Scart lead I had tossed aside, tried that instead.... low and behold, super duper, sharp, vibrant picture! This has really shock me, I had assumed official was the way to go, not so in this case... I recommend people shopping around and trying out some of the other cables.

The official cables often fail to switch TVs to RGB and will display a composite picture because the voltage to pins 8/16 is too low. Might be the problem, but I don't even know if these new fangled HD things do RGB???

I also got the Saturn out tonight - official Scart on a million year old CM8833 RGB monitor. Best. Picture. Ever.

[sj33]

Here's a little bit about the X-RGB2 Plus, along with pics

http://www.hdtvarcade.com/hdtvforum/...ighlight=xrgb2

And a bit about the iScan.

http://www.hdtvarcade.com/hdtvforum/...highlight=580p

I'm just shuffling through trying to find out if this gear properly supports PAL input.
Such devices are the prefered method of using interlaced games consoles on TV's like this, though they're a bit extravagant and kinda costly.

To be honest man, I'd only look at this as a last resort if you've got no choice... probably preferable to return the set if possible. I might have to return my set too if I can't work out what's wrong with the Component connector.

The official cables often fail to switch TVs to RGB and will display a composite picture because the voltage to pins 8/16 is too low. Might be the problem, but I don't even know if these new fangled HD things do RGB???

I also got the Saturn out tonight - official Scart on a million year old CM8833 RGB monitor. Best. Picture. Ever.

I reckon your right man, though I don't really know how to 'force' it to RGB on this set.
No matter, this 3rd party one looks gorgeous. I'm playing PDS now... seeing how awesome this looks on this LCD, I can't help but wonder what people are smoking when they say SD looks **** on such TV's... it does expose the faults that were in the image to start with, yeah...
Yeah all UK HD sets will have an RGB Scart.

[Strider]

Crikey, 200 quid is a lot of cash... I'm certainly not selling the TV though