Pal and NTSC - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

12 Nov 2000

On Wed, 8 Nov 2000 Lawrence Walker wrote:
...
   I have an old famicon game system that is
PAL-compliant.
 Other than a PAL/NTSC converter or PAL TV is there any way of 
 hooking this up. ? 
Yes.

...
   I do have a kaleidoscopic collection of monitors as
well as
 several VCR tape decks and a JDH Videomate external VGA/TV
 adapter which allows me to use my NEC multisync as an all-
 purpose viewer. It has an H-Phase pot whose response on the 
 monitor is a shift to the side of the display and otherwise not 
 causing any picture distortion. I recall on my Atari there were
 programs that shifted from 60mhz to 50mhz and allowed you to
 play PAL formatted games, but in this case there is no computer
 intervention with the JDH. It is a straight-thru switch. 
The main issue here is the colour encoding. If you could get a usable display
...
 from your Atari in 50Hz mode, you will get a usable
display from the Famicom. 
If your VGA/TV converter only understands NTSC colour encoding, the picture
will be in black-and-white. (Assuming that it works with a 50Hz/625 line
picture.)

You can get analogue NTSC-to-PAL colour standard converters, which only change
the colour encoding, not the number of lines per field, for about US$80 if I
remember rightly; I believe MCM Electronics sell something like that. Short of
making/buying a PAL-to-RGB decoder, that is what you want and would give
better results more expensive standards converters.

Depending on exactly which console you have, it may be possible to modify it
to give true NTSC output; some Famicom clone consoles have this capability,
but a real one does not.

Oh, if your Famicom only has RF output, you'll need a TV tuner that is
compatible with its signal.

[Contact me by email if you need more help, and give a description of the
console.]

-- Mark