NTSC and PAL - They're not friends

dcware · Post by **dcware** » Mon May 02, 2005 5:01 pm

I've just got myself loads of kit to start an Exodus, but then I realised something very bad...

Hip Gear Screen - NTSC

Radica - PAL

All my GEN games - UK PAL

I got my hip gear screen from canada, as they're like Â£100 ($180) over here. The weird thing is, is the lcd controller board has about 8 adjustment pots (maybe one is signal mode?)

What would you experts recommenend I do? Will a NTSC radica play my UK PAL games? I know they'll be faster (i don't care really), but will they lock out due to wrong region etc..)

Many Thanks,
Dan

Post by **gannon** » Mon May 02, 2005 5:22 pm

I just checked out my hip screen and it has 2 crystals on it. I assume one is ntsc and the other is PAL. I'm not sure how to switch modes though (unless maybe it's auto-detect)

dcware · Post by **dcware** » Mon May 02, 2005 5:36 pm

Just checked and it just gives serious scrolling with PAL.

XBOX in NTSC mode is great however. But that defeats the object of having a portable genny, or Megadrive as we call it.

Post by **gannon** » Mon May 02, 2005 6:22 pm

ok. On the back there is a 16 pin SMT chip labelled 4053. If you desolder pin 9, 10, and 11 and connect them to ground it *should* switch to PAL mode.

Please note you do so at your own risk

dcware · Post by **dcware** » Tue May 03, 2005 11:18 am

Thanks very much Gannon, I'll try this at my own risk, i've nothing to lose.

I'll report back shortly, this could be very useful for other fools like me who buy the wrong one.

dcware · Post by **dcware** » Tue May 03, 2005 1:37 pm

Upon looking at my hip pad board, I'm not 100% sure we're looking at the same thing, my hip pad doesn't have ANY components on the back at all. An I can't find one label 4053 on the front.

That is unless you're about the radica, but I couldn't find that chip on there either.

Post by **gannon** » Tue May 03, 2005 2:38 pm

are you looking at the board with the pots on it, or the board that hooks up to the lcd?
It should be on the later.

dcware · Post by **dcware** » Tue May 03, 2005 2:40 pm

I chucked out the one with pots, I'm looking at the one that connects to the LCD directly via ribbon cable.

Post by **gannon** » Tue May 03, 2005 3:01 pm

This is mine:
The 2 crystals are towards the input.

The chip you need to mod is in the middle on the side facing the back of the lcd.

Maybe you can find similar parts on yours

dcware · Post by **dcware** » Tue May 03, 2005 4:03 pm

That's a totally different board to mine, but as there's only one 16 pin chip on my entire board It must be that. Only thing is the pins are not labeled as to which ones are what.

I assume it goes left to right, down, left to right (assuming the text on chip is right way up)?

Post by **gannon** » Tue May 03, 2005 4:42 pm

There should be a dot on the top of the chip showing where pin 1 is.

dcware · Post by **dcware** » Tue May 03, 2005 4:50 pm

I'm starting to think it'd be easier to just get an NTSC radica, but will it play uk pal games? It's just modifying the LCD seems to be proving difficult.

az_bont · Post by **az_bont** » Wed May 04, 2005 8:48 am

About a week ago there was a German selling either the Intec or Hip Gear screens that claimed they supported both PAL and NTSC.

*o* · Post by ***o*** » Wed May 04, 2005 3:24 pm

can someone in england tell me if you have cheap psone lcds over there

dcware · Post by **dcware** » Wed May 04, 2005 6:25 pm

by the way, what exactly does a crystal look like?