Saturn 50/60 hertz Switch

[Guest_Martin]

Well my nearest import shop does a 50/60 switch for the saturn that allows you to but PAL games in 60Hz.. how does this work.. and wouldn't it fuck up the timing on certain games? (like it does trying to run PAL Sonic 3 in 60Hz) :huh:  

[NFG]

While I'm not familiar with the mod in question (having no interest in PAL I've not spent much time with it) it sounds like the country is set to a PAL territory to run PAL games, but the video output or system is set to 60Hz.  

Maybe.

[Guest_Martin]

Cool.
Anyway It's just I have a PAL Saturn, and Id like to run my PAL copy of Burning Rangers at 60Hz .
Anyway.
For some reason the saturn got a few games releced in PAL that never got released in North America.. I dont get that. as usually America gets more games than the Uk o_0.

[Vertigo]

Does FMV not cock up royally when not played in its native speed?

[-Martin-]

That depends on how they ancoded it... if the FMVs refresh rate is set by the video card.. then it doesnt.. but if it's been encoded to refresh at 50Hz then it will cock up. Running a 60Hz FMV at 50Hz will ock it up... but only by slowing it down.
I dont know.
Pal Dreamcasts have games that have options in them to run them at 50 or 60Hz.
and the FMV stays the same on both speeds.
It just is a bit more "choppy" on 50Hz.

[Darklegion]

The mod runs well,and only requires 1 wire link.A lot of pal games are actually optmized to full speed on this system,which is actually annoying since I prefer to use 60hz in any case because of minimal flickering and a guarantee that it will be full screen.....however it is a lot of fun to play fighters megamix at faster than normal speed,gave an extra kick to the game.Also as a side note the saturn bios seems to think it is running in ntsc mode but the color circuitry will always output pal.Don't know if that can be hacked as well,but it most likely can be.

[Martin]

Yeah.. there are only a few games that didnt run at full speed in 50Hz Saturn.
The video circuit can be hacked.... As I know of PAL 50/60Hz saturns that have been modded to output NTSC 50/60Hz.

[Vertigo]

Is this hack switchable so you can run both?

[Martin]

Well.. the shop near me says they do a 50/60 switch.. but I noticed that their 50/60 switches actually change the video signal from PAL to NTSC as well as change the refresh rate... So it must be.

[Vertigo]

Of course it is, silly me, for some reason I thought you were on about a different mod.

[Darklegion]

It doesn't change the color signal and I don't think that can be done with saturn systems from what I have heard.The bios will tell you otherwise,but it just thinks it is NTSC when you set it to 60hz..

[Martin]

strange.. maybe the mod has different affects on later saturns? (there were some rather odd changes made to the hardware)

[NFG]

The saturn video encoder chip would require a new crystal for pal colour encoding (or NTSC on a PAL unit), in addition to setting the territory.

[Yod@]

how does this work.. and wouldn't it fuck up the timing on certain games? (like it does trying to run PAL Sonic 3 in 60Hz) :huh:

It depends on the game. Some PAL Saturn games were optimized to fill the whole screen - if you switch it into 60Hz (with the Saturn 50/60Hz mod you can change it on the fly while it's running) then you'll lose some of the image off the bottom of the screen. (Guardian Heroes in particular doesn't work in 60Hz - the bottom part of the screen becomes corrupted.)

However a lot of PAL games are unoptimised, and are boredered at 50Hz. These games will run perfectly at 60Hz.

[Martin]

how does this work.. and wouldn't it fuck up the timing on certain games? (like it does trying to run PAL Sonic 3 in 60Hz) :huh:

It depends on the game. Some PAL Saturn games were optimized to fill the whole screen - if you switch it into 60Hz (with the Saturn 50/60Hz mod you can change it on the fly while it's running) then you'll lose some of the image off the bottom of the screen. (Guardian Heroes in particular doesn't work in 60Hz - the bottom part of the screen becomes corrupted.)

However a lot of PAL games are unoptimised, and are boredered at 50Hz. These games will run perfectly at 60Hz.

Yes, thats for screen resolution, But MANY almost ALL of the PAL games were optimised for Speed, all of the 1st Party games anyway...
So Playing them at 60Hz usually allways messes up the timing. :angry:
Or makes them run way to fast... just try it, buy a Japanese and PAL saturn, run NiGHTS on them both at the same time, They run at the same speed... just one runs with borders :angry:  

[Yod@]

Ahh, I get you - yes, that's right, if the PAL game is also optimised to run at the same speed as the NTSC versions, then it'll run too fast at 60Hz.

I didn't realise so many of the Saturn's PAL games *had* been optimised for speed - fortunately I tend to have NTSC versions of the games.    

[Martin]

Okay... I just did this mod And I'm completly pissed off now.
I Soldered the wires to where they were supposed to be soldered to (thats JP1 by the way) Made sure every thing was secure, and no risk of internal shorting.
A added an on/off switch to the wires (to connect and brake JP1).
Then I put my saturn all back together, and switched it on with the switch off (50Hz). Then I switched my Saturn off, and switched the 50/60Hz switch I added over to 60. When I turned the saturn on all it did was short (ie flashing power LED).

So I'm peeved that the mod doesn't seem to work on my saturn :angry:

and BTW I am working on an oval button PAL saturn, so therefor this MOD should work perfectly (there is another method.. but its for circle buttons)

[Yod@]

Yeah, the JP1 mod is a bit hit-or-miss - it only works on one particular revision of the Saturn board.

You're better to lift pin 79 of the gfx chip (look for a chip marked either 315-5964, 315-5690, or 315-5890) and switch it between GND and 5 Volts. Works on every single Saturn I've seen so far.

[Martin]

Yeah, the JP1 mod is a bit hit-or-miss - it only works on one particular revision of the Saturn board.

You're better to lift pin 79 of the gfx chip (look for a chip marked either 315-5964, 315-5690, or 315-5890) and switch it between GND and 5 Volts. Works on every single Saturn I've seen so far.

I know this is a really stupid question, but what Kind of switch is preffered for this mod.. 3PTT?
Also, which line sets it to 60Hz, GND, or 5V?

[Yod@]

An SPDT switch. Ground is 60Hz, 5 Volts for 50Hz.

BTW I've seen a few people just leave it "floating" rather than grounding it - this can often give intermittent problems, so I don't recommend it.

[Martin]

Ok Big thanks
I remember I already have a dead saturn as a result of trying to mod it without knowing how
but they're pretty cheap n easy to come across on the net lol
And I'm better at soldering now lol (a melted SH2 processor does not look nice)

[Martin]

I know this is a stupid question again...
but remind me of the color coding on the Saturn's PSU :unsure:
Isn't Orange=5V and Black=Ground?
Lol.. sorry for being kind of noobish... but I am a noob relativley when it comes to working with a PSU.. as Ive never done it before  

[Yod@]

AFAIK there's no "colour-coding" on the Saturn PSU at all  :unsure:
Isn't it just a board which plugs into a row of pins to connect it to the motherboard?

Anyway, some PSUs have a row of 4 pins, some have 5. I've just had a quick look at one with a 5-pin connector, and (assuming pin 1 is closest to the front of the Saturn) pins 1&2 are GND, pins 3&4 are 5 Volts, pin 5 is 12 Volts.

[Martin]

AFAIK there's no "colour-coding" on the Saturn PSU at all  :unsure:
Isn't it just a board which plugs into a row of pins to connect it to the motherboard?

Anyway, some PSUs have a row of 4 pins, some have 5. I've just had a quick look at one with a 5-pin connector, and (assuming pin 1 is closest to the front of the Saturn) pins 1&2 are GND, pins 3&4 are 5 Volts, pin 5 is 12 Volts.

On my saturn the pins have color coding on them  :huh:  

[Yod@]

On my saturn the pins have color coding on them  :huh:

That's odd, I don't recall noticing that before! Doesn't matter anyway really.