NTSC games on my PAL console - image offset.

[drojman]

Hi there,

I'm trying to play FFVII NTSC on my PAL PS1 console. It runs fine while connected to my LCD, but when I connect it to my CRT via scart the full image is not displayed (it's shifted to the right, cutting off a chunk of the menu). I've tried using the TV controls to shift the image right, but all it does is shift the whole thing right, so nothing more is actually shown. Is there some sort of tool I can use to play it correctly, or try shifting the image? I've ripped the game, patched it it with PAL4U, but it gives me black bars and a lower framerate, which obviously isn't ideal.

Any help would be great.

[deadlegion]

I don't recall having any problems like this playing out of region games on my crt Might just be the tv that's the problem?
Yes my consoles are PAL, and all my tv's have been multi region capable for a very long time. Although I haven't had a tv with scart for a long time.

[drojman]

Yeah, I'm wondering if it is the issue.

There's two ports on the back of the TV. I just tried plugging the scart from one port into the other and now the image is correctly centered, but in black and white. Odd.

[deadlegion]

Yeah, I'm wondering if it is the issue.

There's two ports on the back of the TV. I just tried plugging the scart from one port into the other and now the image is correctly centered, but in black and white. Odd.

Might be a poor quality scart adapter, idk tbh. I never really used scart for consoles much in the past as I only ever had one tv with it.
The black and white thing usually indicates your tv isn't proper multi region iirc, but as you can see colour from the other port I dunno what's going on.

[drojman]

I have two adapters and I have the same issue with both. I tilted the screen forward and can see one Scart socket says RGB and the other doesn't so I guess that solves that mystery.

It's frustrating though, the TV is otherwise lovely, but obviously not that helpful if PS1 games aren't displaying properly...

[deadlegion]

As I said I can't recall any issues like you describe. My current crt is a 32" Sony Trinitron with multiple inputs (composite/s-video/component). Only one of my PSX consoles has s-video out though (and it isn't PAL, it's NTSC-J) but that has a dead laser atm.

[Zorlon]

I have two adapters and I have the same issue with both. I tilted the screen forward and can see one Scart socket says RGB and the other doesn't so I guess that solves that mystery.

It's frustrating though, the TV is otherwise lovely, but obviously not that helpful if PS1 games aren't displaying properly...

If you are using a small SCART adaptor with the red white and Yellow input ports, then no that will not work, you will want to get yourself a RGB SCART cable instead

RGB SCART cables will work, even with none 60Hz compatible TV's, RGB SCART converters don't work though, they just give the B/W image and do not produce a true RGB SCART image, but just convert standard A/V (Red/White Audio/Yellow Video)

[drojman]

If you are using a small SCART adaptor with the red white and Yellow input ports, then no that will not work, you will want to get yourself a RGB SCART cable instead

RGB SCART cables will work, even with none 60Hz compatible TV's, RGB SCART converters don't work though, they just give the B/W image and do not produce a true RGB SCART image, but just convert standard A/V (Red/White Audio/Yellow Video)

Sorry, it was stupid of me to put adapter. They are both RGB scart cables, I haven't used composite for years. As far as I can tell, the SCART socket that is giving me black and white is a non RGB socket. Picture looks good otherwise, just black and white. The RGB SCART socket looks like great colour, but sadly it's cut off.

[Zorlon]

Yeah I would say it is the TV itself

You can try sticking to PAL games mostly even those with copy protection and just use a patch to bypass the protection (Action Replay codes can also be used)

as for centering up NTSC, I'm not sure it can be done, try both the NTSC Import Player and the PAL version of Import Player and look at the display options there in

https://www.epforums.org/showthread....70#post1582370

Zapper 2000 and PAL4U are both worth looking at if you can do a pos fix without patching the games display to PAL

It is best to avoid forcing NTSC to PAL modes or vice versa as that causes sync issues worst effect to that is the game crashing out so it is not playable otherwise it is just annoying. Some games this works fine with, but import player can be used instead of patching your disc images up before burning...

The PAL version of the game in question though is copy protected and I already have the ppf file uploaded at https://www.epforums.org/showthread.php?67412 all 4 disc images would need patching before you burn them

The patches I uploaded will need to be renamed, the way they are uploaded is to use ePSXe's auto patch option but all that is done is that the ppf file was renames to the SLES boot file on the disc so all you need to do is change the file extension to ppf or in ppf-o-matic when you go to open a ppf file put *.* as the file name to show all files then select the SLES file (either way works)

Thankfully the patch for game does not include trainers but some of those patches do, but just don't enable them

[drojman]

Just a quick update (and also thank you for all the help), I burned a copy of that Import Player Lite EU to disc and fired it up. I saw in the description it said this:

This version fixes some bugs in the older versions and adds some features such as in-game screen positioning (press L1+L2+R1+R2 & use the directional buttons)

I had thought that would be perfect, but for some reason I can't get it to work. I assumed I'm supposed to hold it as the game loads up but I've had no luck doing so.

[Zorlon]

To be honest it is years since I used it and I used SCART to fix display but I had no issue with the pos I do have a PAL PSone with a mod chip that was connected wrong and would only boot PAL games so used Import Player to boot via until I just patched the boot code to PAL keeping the NTSC display so never had a need to use for this

At a guess though try doing this before loading the game, might even be worth grabbing the NTSC version, then you can see the pos in NTSC video mode
Though sounds like it should be used once fully booted, the NTSC version is still worth a shot though as that may only be possible if the video mode is set to the same as the Import player disc region

P.S. the ones on our site are the last version 2.1 before they got removed from their official site that is long gone

[drojman]

Alrighty, I'll give those a try.

Interestingly if I use the PS1vmodeneg program on my PS2 I can actually get the game to display correctly, in NTSC with no cut off bars, using the same cable on the same TV. Just not on my PS1.

My only other thought is I could use an S-Video cable since my TV supports it, but I have no idea how good that will look...

[Zorlon]

I have used S-Video but that does not solve the Black and White issue and the quality is lower than SCART

The issue is still the TV rather than the cable

I did have problems with certain TV with SCART and NTSC games being off center, more modern TV's are fine with it though and a few of my older sets worked fine also

Best solution though for that game is just to get the PAL version of it, the game does not run any slower the only time that would happen is if it was forced from NTSC to PAL or if the it was badly coded to PAL officially, NTSC games may run at 30 to 60 Frames per second but the first and last frame of those is exactly the same frome as the 25 to 50 FPS PAL versions, the end result is the same they would look the same running side by side as well, if anything PAL games run at a higher res, though not noticeable anyway

I guess you could try the Patchers I mentioned Patch the game to PAL then Patch it back to NTSC with a pos fix, but was sure you could only do a Y pos fis (top to bottom)

[deadlegion]

S-video is only better if your PSX has s-video out. I'm not aware of any retail PSX consoles with component out.