PAL and NTSC are not comparable

2006-02-20 12:09:50 pm

I know that there are many games on this site that has different videos for american and european runs, but from what I found, there should be a separate american and european category for ALL games, to make the contest fair.
Why?
This is what I found on a website:

"This difference in television standards has a negative knock on effect for gamers in Europe. Due to technical reasons, when games are converted to the European TV system (known as PAL) without any optimisation (additional programming) the games run approximately 17% slower and suffer from a slightly squashed image with borders at the top and bottom. They also run at a slightly lower frame rate which means a less smooth picture. "

Thread title:

Lag.Com

2006-02-20 12:36:17 pm

sda loyalist

Quote:

without any optimisation

Doesn't happen for ALL games.

Also, citing your source may help.

PAL times here are already given the approximate 17% treatment.

soteos

2006-02-20 03:26:48 pm

We already know about the two. And I believe the newer games have had that difference corrected.

Psychochild

2006-02-20 03:49:47 pm

Quote:

We already know about the two. And I believe the newer games have had that difference corrected.

Ratchet and Clank 3 for example is a pal game that doesn't suffer from the 5/6 thing.

Staralfur

2006-02-20 04:46:38 pm

hello there

Quote:

And suffer from a slightly squashed image with borders at the top and bottom.

Huh? A PAL output contains more pixels vertically. I think you've got the two mixed up. NTSC games always appear with borders on my TV.

I know it's not a game, but thankfully the Game Boy Player isn't affected.

Ekarderif

2006-02-20 07:39:11 pm

Your almighty lordship

GBP is affected. It's so affected, it shows up on NTSC as well as PAL. That is, if you don't have it set on stupid view.

nate

2006-02-20 10:49:26 pm

Quote:

Huh? A PAL output contains more pixels vertically. I think you've got the two mixed up. NTSC games always appear with borders on my TV.

I know it's not a game, but thankfully the Game Boy Player isn't affected.

probably talking about nes. have you seen the mega man 4 and 5 runs yet?

Madzombie

2006-02-23 11:15:52 pm

pidgeons

The borders only appear on poorly optimised games. Rather than adjusting the image so it uses all 576 vertical lines they just use the NTSC 480 line picture and stick it in the middle of the PAL picture, giving 48 black unused lines at the top and bottom. The picture also appear squashed as a result, as the image is designed for the full height of the TV, but instead it's only using about 5/6 of the height.

Mad_Andy

2006-02-25 07:44:31 pm

I think games that run on PAL 50hz and NTSC 60hz can be comparable as long as the speed you're playing at on both is the same.

YautjaElder

2006-02-25 07:53:06 pm

Speed is the key.

Some PAL GameCube games can be set to 60Hz mode.

Mad_Andy

2006-02-25 07:58:05 pm

Yea, i was refering to 50hz against 60hz as that's where you're likely to find a speed difference. PAL 60hz should have no problems to be compared with NTSC, but there are a few PAL 50hz games that run nearly identical to 60hz, so i don't see why in those occasions the separate versions can't be compared.

SuperCoolAl

2006-02-28 03:10:44 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Quote:

Yea, i was refering to 50hz against 60hz as that's where you're likely to find a speed difference. PAL 60hz should have no problems to be compared with NTSC, but there are a few PAL 50hz games that run nearly identical to 60hz, so i don't see why in those occasions the separate versions can't be compared.

That's why.

Mad_Andy

2006-02-28 07:14:30 pm

So they cannot be compared because 50hz has slightly wose picture quality and a different resolution? Original post said it:

"Due to technical reasons, when games are converted to the European TV system without any optimisation the games run approximately 17% slower"

I was talking about the games that ARE optimised, and therefore run the same as NTSC minus the picture quality and resolution. As long as the gameplay isn't altered by the process of conversion the games are comparable.

SuperCoolAl

2006-03-01 10:53:48 am

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Even optimised games have differences. For example in Goldeneye I believe doors open faster in NTSC even though the game has been optimised for PAL.

Staralfur

2006-03-03 05:25:39 pm

hello there

Quote:

GBP is affected. It's so affected, it shows up on NTSC as well as PAL. That is, if you don't have it set on stupid view.

I meant the speed isn't affected. I know there's some visual issues, though. Just try playing Yoshi's Island at 50Hz... ugh...

derDivisor47

2006-03-13 09:24:57 pm

Quote:

GBP is affected. It's so affected, it shows up on NTSC as well as PAL. That is, if you don't have it set on stupid view.

Hi - You're just talking about the resolution and not about the speed, right ?
Anyway, could you comment about that in this thread ?
http://speeddemosarchive.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=main;action=display;num=1142081496

thanks in advance

Daniel