Hi,
I am planning to buy an NTSC NES conosle from ebay. Will it work on my TV which I guess is based on PAL standards?
Cheers
For me the video works fine through RF, but not the sound - it's all buzzy and I have to mute it. The reason is that it's modulated at a slightly higher frequency carrier I think, and too bad it seems they hard-cored the demodulation to european frequencies (but I might be wrong about what went wrong).
Also I bought a top-loader, if you buy a front-loader you could always use A/V jacks and get sound.
PS : Make sure your TV supports NTSC color encoding tough (I guess all recent TV does).
Nadia wrote:
Hi,
I am planning to buy an NTSC NES conosle from ebay. Will it work on my TV which I guess is based on PAL standards?
Cheers
What brand and model is your TV?
My 40" Samsung LCD doesn't like the low resolution from the NES, so beware..
oRBIT2002 wrote:
My 40" Samsung LCD doesn't like the low resolution from the NES, so beware..
I think it doesn't like the fact that the NES outputs a non-interlaced signal. Very sloppy engineering in modern TV chipsets. Better start collecting and hoarding old CRT sets, to keep the gaming experience alive until i'm 80.
(TV system for this post: NTSC U/C)
With Wii using 240p video for Virtual Console when set to 480i mode, and with
dedicated consoles still using 240p because it's cheaper than 480i, I guess HDTV makers still have to consider 240p for a while. My 32" Vizio works with 240p video through composite or S-Video, but not component. My Aiptek camcorder can function as a digital video recorder, but it doesn't work with my NES (video on display slows down and eventually overflows the decode buffer), while my Philips DVD recorder works fine.
Using a line-doubler like an Xrgb to convert 240p to 480p helps a lot, as does using an external scaler like the DVDO Edge. It has supported 240p for a while now.
I never imagined the CRT TV would become obsolete before the game systems themselves. We live in strange times. :)
Maybe it's the hugeness of CRTs. I know I'd love to ditch my 27 inch CRT TV and not have to lug it around the next time I move, but no way I'm going to give up its advantages. For the PC, though, CRT is gone for good.
The NES should work on most modern TVs as they should all be multi system now so no PAL/NTSC issues. But beware that anything less than 480p that isn't TV or a movie will look pretty bad. TV makers I think only consider 480i for people watching TV/Movie, not low resolution computer devices.
I keep around a large and heavy 19" Sony PVM RGB monitor for this reason. It's way better than playing on a HDTV for your older stuff.
You won't be using a Zapper with any modern TV, that's for sure.
My NES works fine on my HD tv. You should turn the sharpness all the way down though.
My audio is buzzy too, but I think that's because there's crosstalk between the video signal and the audio signal. I use the yellow/red ports on the side of my NES, and if I play with the cable a bit, I can reduce the buzzing.
Got a 42" 720p Panasonic Plasma and it displays everything I can throw at it.
Composite, Component, S-video all in 240p, no problem.
Was made in 2009.
I think the higher end sets seem to have better circuitry than the cheaper models.
Oh,
It also seems to handle NTSC @ 50hz, and a PAL encoded signal too from my PAL C64.
6502freak wrote:
Nadia wrote:
Hi,
I am planning to buy an NTSC NES conosle from ebay. Will it work on my TV which I guess is based on PAL standards?
Cheers
What brand and model is your TV?
Its a SONY Bravio(LCD).
Memblers wrote:
You won't be using a Zapper with any modern TV, that's for sure.
I noticed this too.
Does the zapper work on an LCD screen?
No, the LightGun needs light to be emitted into the lens located in the barrel. CRT's operate in a way that does this. LCDs don't. Also many Lightguns actually use the way in which a CRT redraws the screen to help calculate position of the shot. NES doesn't but it still requires the display light to be beamed into the lens.
@Nadia i've tried NESes on SONY Bravio TVs before without any problems (not sure if the aspect ratio is correct though)
@MottZilla are you sure it's not just a timing issue as LCD Screens have a latency which CRT hasn't?
the circuit in the zapper is supposed to be looking for a 15 KHz white, which the LCD probably isn't generating
MottZilla wrote:
Also many Lightguns actually use the way in which a CRT redraws the screen to help calculate position of the shot. NEWS doesn't but it still requires the display light to be beamed into the lens.
If by NEWS you mean NES, then there are games that do rely on the top-to-bottom scanning of a CRT so that they can only iterate among the targets close to the scanline where the player shot. It's fairly easy to determine the time between sprite 0 and sensing light, even if the NES isn't fast enough to count how far from the left the shot was. One game relying on this is
Operation Wolf.
ReaperSMS wrote:
the circuit in the zapper is supposed to be looking for a 15 KHz white, which the LCD probably isn't generating
Isn't there also a delay introduced by the LCD TV? Don't they spend some time filtering analog signals, meaning that when the white is finally displayed the NES game isn't even looking for it anymore?
I don't think the latency or non-scanning even comes into play as the LCD doesn't emit light to the Lens of the gun. They would be the next issues to worry about. But the NES Zapper is very primative as I've heard. Something about only detecting not enough light, and enough light, combining with white hit boxes and black screen to figure it out.
On SNES and I think Genesis there are HV latches to help figure out shot location. On PS1/PS2 Guncon they even bring in the Composite Video signal to help figure out shot location. But these all rely on the scanning raster type update of a CRT at 15khz.
I'm not expert on the details, but I can tell you as someone that enjoys lightgun games that they are all designed to work on a 15khz CRT. If they don't use a CRT, they aren't relying on the Light from the display for aiming and are using another mech for it. Like the Wii and Infrared.
MottZilla wrote:
I don't think the latency or non-scanning even comes into play as the LCD doesn't emit light to the Lens of the gun.
You're right: the fluorescent lamp or LED matrix behind the LCD emits the light.
Quote:
But the NES Zapper is very primative as I've heard. Something about only detecting not enough light, and enough light, combining with white hit boxes and black screen to figure it out.
That and optionally detecting the time in scanlines from when the PPU started sending the frame to when the light is in range, which acts like the V half of an HV latch.
Wii uses an 0.01 Mpx pixel camera in the remote that reads the positions of up to four IR emitters. (The Sensor Bar contains two banks of IR LEDs.) I wonder why Virtual Console doesn't emulate a Zapper with this information.