RGB And ESR. Possible?

[Weedbag]

Hi everybody
I have a problem playing NTSC on my PAL tv. I know i have to buy a RGB cable for it to show colours, but how do i know if my tv is RGB compatible?
And i have read on a page that sells these cables and it says that Sony made it so that you can't play NTSC dvd's in colours, only games. and now comes my question, ESR patches the game so the PS2 will think it's a dvdv right? will it then come in colours or not?
BTW: thanks for the forum and ESR

[leonidas]

I could be wrong but I think all TVs are RGB compatible as long as has a SCART connection.

[Weedbag]

Okay i hope that.
But what about the fact that ESR patches the game to look like a DVDV?
can ps2 PAL machine play NTSC DVD's in colours with a RGB Cable?

[dlanor]

Hi everybody
I have a problem playing NTSC on my PAL tv. I know i have to buy a RGB cable for it to show colours, but how do i know if my tv is RGB compatible?

I agree with leonidas that any TV set that even has a SCART connector should be able to use its RGB signals (a fully equipped SCART connector has both RGB and composite signals).

And i have read on a page that sells these cables and it says that Sony made it so that you can't play NTSC dvd's in colours, only games.

The DVD-Player of the PS2 will activate extra signals (internally) that turn the picture green. You can still see everything, but it's all monochrome, almost like ancient TV systems (pre-PAL and pre-NTSC), except that the picture is black-and-green instead of black-and-white. This green 'overlay' affects only the RGB and the component outputs, so switching to composite signals will restore the colour. As for playing a US video on a european console, I'm not sure how that would work out since I haven't tried it yet.

and now comes my question, ESR patches the game so the PS2 will think it's a dvdv right?

Not really. The patch makes the 'mechacon' processor handling the PS2 CDVD unit see the disc as being a dvdv disc, but the ESR device driver patches makes the main processor and the IO processor of the PS2 see the disc as having the original filesystems it had before being patched. So they will then load and use the game files just as if they came from an original pressed disc.

The reason why we need the patch in the first place is because the mechacon processor which handles the disc validation is not amenable to programming by us, so the ESR disc patch is the only way for us to trick it into allowing the other processors to access any data from a burned disc. But since those other processors are programmable by us we can then trick them into seeing the data from the patched and burned disc as coming from an unpatched original disc. ('We' here meaning the ESR program...)

will it then come in colours or not?

The games will show olours when you use RGB signals in the SCART, but black-and-white when using composite signals.

If you use your TV set with more than one signal source (real DVD player, Pay-TV boxes, etc) then you will probably come to need some kind of switchbox to select between these different sources. Be very careful when buying such equipment as the vast majority of those I've found in various shops are equipped to handle only the fully composite or S-Video signals (a slight variation on composite). You need one capable of handling all the SCART signals, including the separate RGB leads, and these are usually a bit more expensive but well worth it anyway.

Best regards: dlanor

[Weedbag]

Thank you very much. now i dare to go buy that cable. actually i have to get 3, so im very thankfull for your information.

[dlanor]

Thank you very much. now i dare to go buy that cable. actually i have to get 3, so im very thankfull for your information.

Make very sure that the cables themselves are fully connected, as some bastards sell cables connecting only the composite video pins. Try to get a money-back guarantee on that issue (if their stuff is fully connected they have no reason to refuse).

Best regards: dlanor

[phoenixclaws]

PS2s play both NTSC and PAL PS2 games. Doesn't matter if it is USA, Europe or Japan region. The region issue is with the Video DVDs. USA and Japan games are NTSC but Europe is PAL. There are tvs sold that are called Multisystem that include both NTSC and PAL tuners. Someday I might get one since it would save the hassle.

[dlanor]

PS2s play both NTSC and PAL PS2 games.

But not without some kind of mod. (hard modchip or softmod game loader like ESR)
As manufactured they only accept original pressed game discs of their native region.

Doesn't matter if it is USA, Europe or Japan region. The region issue is with the Video DVDs. USA and Japan games are NTSC but Europe is PAL. There are tvs sold that are called Multisystem that include both NTSC and PAL tuners.

In Europe we simply use any modern TV set, as nearly all such can sync to the slightly faster NTSC rate, and the colour modulation issues do not exist when using RGB connection. Having NTSC compatible tuners is thus not necessary at all.

It is still a bit different with US TV sets, even if they do have component inputs to deal with the colour issue. But it is hard for a TV set to resync to an incoming signal with a slower sync pulse rate than the one native to the TV set, as required to use PAL video timing on an NTSC TV set. The difficulty arises from the fact that the native circuitry generates each new internal HSync appx 3ms before the arrival of the incoming HSync pulse that it needs to resync to, and it is not possible to 'take back' a pulse already issued. (It can be solved by smarter PLL methods though.)

That is why the european market has an 'automatic' lead in this, because it is much easier to resync to a faster rate than the one native to the TV set, as when using NTSC with a PAL TV set. Here the incoming HSync pulse will normally arrive appx 3ms before the one that the native circuitry would generate, so this will immediately resync to each new such pulse.

Someday I might get one since it would save the hassle.

It is very convenient, and I never bother to convert games from NTSC to PAL myself. They work fine as-is on my equipment, and it's not worth the effort of conversion just to make them work also with composite cables (or ancient TV sets).

Best regards: dlanor