PAL or NTSC for ESR?

Hopefully my McBoot memory card arrives tomorrow and I'll be able to run some backups, patched, of course, but I've been wondering if there is any advantage to playing the NTSC releases of games rather than PAL, which is the standard where I live. Both of the tellies I might use (one CRT, one plasma - I switch a bit depending on things) support NTSC and, although I haven't done my homework, I believe ESR supports loading games with foreign video standards.

Both NTSC's higher refresh rate and PAL's higher resolution seem like such minimal differences - I really don't know what's best for games.

There is no real difference the odd game may contain slightly different content or there will be the odd NTSC only game or PAL only game

as for side by side differences

NTSC and PAL60 will look exactly the same (PAL 60 that some PAL games do support is basically an NTSC video mode)

PAL vs NTSC, PAL will have less display area black on top and bottom or a 4:3 display (I know that uses a slight higher res but that is the way it looks) NTSC will fill a 4:3 screen though as for frame rate per second the first and last frame of PAL is the exact same Frames as NTSC so neither one will run faster or slower than the other but per second NTSC will show more frames than PAL (60 Hz can show either 30 frames or 60 frames 50 Hz as you may guess show 25 or 50 frames) something you will never notice, the only time this has ever been noticed if they never done a convert from one to the other correctly or if you force a PAL or NTSC game to run at the wrong frame rate then you will either notice lag (or to go a little faster) or sync issues with sound over laps

Personally I have a lot of NTSC games that I ran on my PAL PS2 but I also used PAL games, but no there is no real advantage to going NTSC only or PAL only, games from either region are fine as long as your TV either supports 60Hz modes or you use component or RGB SCART (SCART can make NTSC games work on a PAL TV that normally would not support 60Hz modes)

If English isn't your native language that's another reason some people go for PAL releases. Yeah some NTSC games have more than just English, but PAL releases generally have a larger variety of options...there are sometimes even non-English variants of the same PAL game.

But as above, it's only bad conversions from NTSC to PAL that are a poor choice.

Eh, I'll just stick to PAL then unless there are any games with particularly bad PAL ports.

According to your ESR compatibility list, PaRappa the Rapper 2 doesn't work, and the rest of the internet seems to agree. I see no reason for PAL to be different so this upsets me a little, but I guess I could try loading it from USB. :/

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Originally Posted by deadlegion

If English isn't your native language that's another reason some people go for PAL releases. Yeah some NTSC games have more than just English, but PAL releases generally have a larger variety of options...there are sometimes even non-English variants of the same PAL game.

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Makes sense, but I only know English so that makes no difference. :)

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Originally Posted by iambreakingthelaw

Makes sense, but I only know English so that makes no difference. :)

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Fair enough, just thought I'd mention it 'cos a lot questions about PAL stuff (also requests for PAL games) seems to come from EU peeps that have English as a second language, or maybe they aren't proficient with it at all :shrug:

It is worth noting that the PS2 sucks in general at reading burned dual layer discs though aka DVD9

So for the few games that are on dual layer disc, try using a rip kit, but as a pre warning most kits are recognised as viral software because they alter files but they only change what you tell them to, if you want to edge on the side of caution run them from a virtual PC (aka x86 emulator with a basic version of XP installed to it, as long as you can copy from and to it, but that can be kinda complicated)

P.S. forgot to mention but I used to use ESR all the time, not used the PS2 though for some time

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Originally Posted by Zorlon

It is worth noting that the PS2 sucks in general at reading burned dual layer discs though aka DVD9

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Not interested in any dual layer games at the moment. ;)

As a rule of thumb PAL conversions have always been spotty. Due to time and budget constraints the vast majority were simply slowed down rather than properly converted. By the Dreamcast and PS2 era some developers started to negate the issue by offering a PAL60 option, but most didn't, and then you had games like Gran Turismo 4 where the NTSC version supported progressive scan and 1080i output but the PAL release didn't.

Stick with NTSC unless you have a specific reason not to.

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Originally Posted by Cosmic

As a rule of thumb PAL conversions have always been spotty. Due to time and budget constraints the vast majority were simply slowed down rather than properly converted. By the Dreamcast and PS2 era some developers started to negate the issue by offering a PAL60 option, but most didn't, and then you had games like Gran Turismo 4 where the NTSC version supported progressive scan and 1080i output but the PAL release didn't.

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Yeah, I've already missed out on a couple progressive scan game options, but with GSM I may be able to force it. Not tried yet as I'm not particularly bothered. I've got a couple games that support both PAL and NTSC so might just try comparing with both options on them. Jak and Daxter seemed nice with NTSC, Shadow the Hedgehog lagged really badly and I've never played past the opening tutorial level before. NTSC can have an improvement where the developers have been too lazy to rerender pre-rendered cutscenes, but outside of that I've not noticed anything. Any idea if NTSC can make a difference to games that can't even hit 25fps on their PS2 ports?

Also, holy smokes, you've been here for a while.

PS: If anyone has any idea on how to get PaRappa the Rapper 2 working (both USB and ESR go blank after company logo - tried all combinations of the ESR options and all game languages), let me know. Doesn't seem worth creating its own thread for as I doubt there's a Free McBoot solution.

To get 480p ect you do need component anyway, if you can find a quality cable you are fine but cheap ones are junk though, and will have intimated signal loss

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Originally Posted by Zorlon

To get 480p ect you do need component anyway, if you can find a quality cable you are fine but cheap ones are junk though, and will have intimated signal loss

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I ramble away here. Long story short, I have component cables. Or a cable consisting of five separate cables. However you want to think about it.

Spoiler warning:

I got a component cable so I could capture gameplay without relying on a DVD recorder, but recently found out that my capture box doesn't support the PS1 video output. Got it kind of working with GSM but not well enough to be usable at the moment. Anyway, the component cables were pretty cheap but when connected to the telly they look pixel perfect. When connected to the capture box there are some minor horizontal artifacts, kind of like this if you know what I mean. Also got an S-Video cable that looks perfect (granted, only tried on a CRT due to it becoming less common) but there is a lot of horizontal noise when connected to the DVD recorder. The S-Video cable was official, but also cheap because it's basically leftover stock. I reckon the capture box just has the artifacts because most people only care about using it with HDMI devices (and certainly not at 576i) and the DVD recorder is falling apart anyway, with the HDMI out and Freeview in busted and the drive making loud crunching noises.