240p test disc/ROM

[buckoa51]

I'm always harping on about how HDTV's don't display the Saturn's video output very well, well now you can test your HDTV or processors handling of 240p material with this handy new tool. There are versions for the Dreamcast and Mega Drive currently, check it out here:-
junkerhq.net/xrgb/index.php/240p_test_suite

[mick_aka]

Going to give this a go tonight.

[Xen]

Same, thanks man!

[buckoa51]

Remember you'll need your Dreamcast SCART cables for 240p (I believe anyway). There's a problem with the DC version that the test patterns get cropped at the bottom in some situations, this isn't necessarily a problem with your setup.

I gave the 240p test disk a whirl on our Panasonic Plasma, Dreamcast to SCART directly to the TV. On that screen the image is not only cropped but off centre too! Though in honesty I was surprised at how well the Panny coped with 240p, it failed the drop shadow test as you might imagine, but did OK on the lines and checker-board. In game mode the picture has some flickering (perhaps deinterlacing artefacts?) and most damningly would not let me switch out of widescreen, which really spoils it for a otherwise reasonable retrogaming set.

[zyrobs]

Yeah, I tried a DC + rgb scart + G10 pana plasma too, and I can confirm that it's insanely off-center. Also, a little part from both the top and bottom are cut off, or at least in Soul Calibur when using 60hz mode. I didn't check that in 50hz.

This is a problem with the h/v signal though, and I'm sure it could be remedied just be re-aligning some pins or adding some resistors... hell, you could probably even install a circuit there to control the sync values.

However, I could get widescreen fine (in fact it defaulted to it, and I had to manually change back to 4:3 all the time). Perhaps thats a cable issue as well, since widescreen is controlled by a voltage select pin on a SCART connector.

By the way, there's a homebrew resolution test disc for Saturn. It only displays a rectangular grid and nothing else, but it can be used to cycle through all available resolutions, including EDTV/VGA (which won't produce a valid picture, and really I wonder how you could get that working. Probably had to intercept the r/g/b/h/v signal before it reaches the ntsc encoder chip.).

[buckoa51]

My problem isn't getting widescreen it's getting rid of it, in game mode the TV won't switch out of it for some reason, in non-game mode it will. No big deal though since I never use the console directly to the TV.

[zyrobs]

Good point. I only tried the DC with Cinema mode.