DC X/PAL 60Hz problem?

Just bought a new JVC PAL 32" HV-32P37S TV which is fully NTSC playback capable. It works fine with my modded XBox and PSOne (using PS X Change disc) for playing NTSC imports via RGB SCART connections.

My PAL DC (using fully wired RGB SCART) plays PAL games perfectly at the standard 50Hz setting. However, it won't play PAL games at 60Hz when that option is provided and won't play NTSC imports using a DC X boot disc. With the latter it loads OK but the screen goes grey/black halfway through the boot process. You can see a faint b/w image, enough to see the game disc does load properly, but obviously something isn't right..

All my other PAL TVs with NTSC capability work perfectly well with this DC set up but not this new one.

Does anyone have a sensible explanation?

Sounds odd to me. The fact that the other TV's work OK suggests it's not the DC or your Scart cable so I guess the issue may be the JVC TV itself. At least that seems the most logical thing based on what you've mentioned. If you have a mate with a DC Scart lead, you may want to try that one just to rule out that it may be the lead or connection. Are there any damaged pins in the scart socket perhaps?

Other than that I could only suggest trying the DC on as many different TV's as possible and if it still only does it with your JVC, then it it's probably something to do with the tellie itself. Maybe someone a bit more techy might help.

Thanks or the reply.

I haven't dismissed a cable problem/incompatibility so will be trying out alternative ones. I think it unlikely though and likewise the TV SCART sockets. All 3 (2 RGB) work through the same cable for 50Hz DC PAL games I cannot think why they shouldn't work with 60Hz/NTSC games.

My feeling is that it has something to do with the PAL 60 option not working. I was hoping somebody here would know how the DC X boot disc operated. I'm guessing that the TV is just not PAL 60 enabled and perhaps, unlike the PS X Change/modded XBox, the DC X disc requires a PAL 60 TV to work correctly. I'd like to know for sure though.

Don't know what to say really.

My PAL DC has an official Sega DC Scart cable and works fine on my Sony TV which says it's 50hz on the back yet it works in 60hz modes. I've used DC-X with all my imports and had no probs so I doubt it's the DC-X disc. Have you tried forcing DC-X to use 60hz mode in the special options screen? I doubt it'll make any difference as I've never needed to do it but it may be worth a try in your case.

Thanks again for the response.

Exactly How do I force the DC X into 60Hz mode? It came with no instructions other than those provided on screen and, as said, with this TV the screen goes near enough black after the usual Sega DC boot up logos.

I'm fairly sure this isn't a hardware problem but some sort of software/system incompatibility. But what and why?

I'll try and contact JVC to see if they can shed some light. I did the same with Sony (concerning my other TV) for another reason a few weeks ago and their tech dept. was exceptionally helpful. Hope JVC are as forthcoming.

Bump


Please - how do you get into the 'special options screen' of the DC-X to be able to force 60Hz mode?

You can access the special options screen of DC-X by pressing loading DC-X, removing the disc then pressing any button on your controller before sticking the game disc in. You can then choose between cable connections and TV mode (the NTSC mode should be the one you need to force).

Like I mentioned before, I've never needed to do it as DC-X has always automatically picked the right setting so I'm unsure if it will do anything. I hope it works for you though.

Thank you very much for your help and it DID help greatly but I still don't understand the results.

The TV in question actually seems to behave as if it were a NTSC model even though PAL. There is also a big problem using DC-X because it seems to need PAL60 to display properly. What you see is an odd b/w shadow image of the loading screens and this makes selecting/changing the options very difficult.

The trick seems to be to select PAL (NTSC is selected by default). Once done I found my NTSC DC games ran properly on my PAL DC displaying in what I think is PAL50.

What's odd is that if I then select NTSC 3.58 or 4.43 manually from the TV's menus the game runs perfectly too. Some colour adjustment is necessary but it seems it's running at 60Hz.

That got me thinking and I tried booting up a PAL game using DC-X this time selecting NTSC. It still auto selects and displays in PAL50 which meant I couldn't select the 60Hz in game option. But having using the DC-X I found that when I manually swapped the TV to NTSC 3.58/4.43 I could then select 60Hz because the PAL game was being treated as if it was NTSC. Odd.

Thanks again for your invaluable help.