50Hz is crisp, 60Hz is blurred

[calmdownmonkey]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help...

My PAL Saturn is modded with a 50/60 switch. I connect it to my 37" Samsung TV with the SCART cable I got with the Saturn.

In 50Hz, the picture is great, and very very sharp, you can make out the edges of each individual pixel.

However, in 60Hz mode, the colours seem over-saturated and seem to "bleed" into surrounding pixels, giving the picture a very blurry look. I can also see horrible ghosting around text. I can take a photo if this description isn't very good.

My research hasn't found anyone with quite the same problem - most people seem to say "make sure you have an RGB SCART!", but I'm not sure how to verify this is what I have.

I have tried using each SCART socket on my TV (labeled "1. RGB" and "2. AV") but it looks identical in both.

If anyone can suggest a fix I'd be most grateful to hear... thanks!

[blackbeltjones]

You're not alone there, although i've never used scart, I share the same symptoms with you, as far as I can tell, it's kinda part and parcel of PAL (on saturn anyway). One example I have is with Nights, in which the pal version kinda looks like a stretched ntsc picture, you can see the lines on the screen interpolating or kinda unevenly meshing into the line above and below. But booting up a true ntsc copy, each of the 525 lines (or whatever res its running in) is clearly defined and crsip. Which in turn makes the picture look a hell of a lot better. My examples are from using a CRT. I dont have an lcd/led/plasma at this point.

I had my saturn for a good 7 years before i'd worked this out, after which i began grabbing the ntsc counterparts of my favourite games.

[Kibbles]

He is having the opposite problem from you, but seeing as you are in Australia and everything is upside down there I can understand your confusion

Anywhooo...

I'd say this is part and parcel of NTSC vs PAL - NTSC uses a lower bandwidth for color information and while the difference is negligible on most sets, on some older/poorer dual format sets the difference is quite huge.


To verify if you have an RGB scart or not, the picture quality on the "1. RGB" socket should look considerably better than the picture you get on "2. AV".

I have however seen sets in the past that seem to convert RGB to god knows what inside the TV in the past though... and end up making it look pretty ugly.

[calmdownmonkey]

I think BlackBeltJones may very well be having the same problem as me, since Australia uses PAL too... if I'm understanding you correctly, I should see better results with NTSC games as well. I have some Japanese shooter imports heading my way from ebay this week so I will check that out - all of my games atm are PAL ones.

Kibbles - based on what you say, it's safe to assume I do not have an RGB SCART, because the picture is completely identical in both SCART sockets (I have a very keen eye for such details). Should I go ahead and buy an RGB SCART cable from www.consolegoods.co.uk/, or is there another way I can be extra sure I don't already have one of these? Are there any markings on the cable, etc?

Thanks...

[sych]

I believe a normal scart has less pins than an RGB. If you look at your scart lead (from the end that plugs into the tv) the interface on a normal scart has less pins. On an RGB all the pin holes are complete. Thats the only difference I noticed when I upgraded to RGB SCART when comparing it to my standard scart that came with my Saturn. And plus for some reason the RGB scarts have shorter cables than the standard ones.

[Kibbles]

On an RGB Scart the only pins that need to be installed are the pins for R, G, B, Sync and audio, in maximum you only need 6 pins for RGB.

My Saturn came with an RGB Scart for some reason (Possibly something to do with SEGA trying to give itself less hassle by distributing the same SKU in France and the rest of Europe), but it only has the necessary pins for RGB.

[mick_aka]

Not all none RGB SCART leads have missing pins, quite a few have ALL pins present, they are just not wired up internally.

[calmdownmonkey]

Alrighty, thanks for the info - looks like I should splash out on another SCART cable and see if I get any results.

Suppose I can't complain, it could've been a lot worse - the quality of the PSOne on my TV is abysmal, and it takes a few on/off attempts to get a stable picture. Surprising, considering my LCD TV most definately isn't old or cheap compared to the rest that were on the shelf. Once I'd finished Silent Hill I couldn't be done with it anymore.