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Love the 'PAL' reference - just like how many in North America were pining for the PAL video standard (initially Europe but later entire world except North Amer
by rwbt 2y ago
Love the 'PAL' reference - just like how many in North America were pining for the PAL video standard (initially Europe but later entire world except North America) but we were stuck with NTSC (and doubled down).
- lxgr 2y agoOn the other hand, many cool games never made it to the PAL region, and a lot of PAL ports (and video releases) got technically botched in some way.
- talldayo 2y agoThere's a sad bit of irony that the year is 2024 and the game console in your pocket could feasibly run anything you want, but the OEM region-locked it again.
- nfriedly 2y agoI initially thought of my RG35XX+ when I read "the game console in your pocket" and thought "no, it's not region locked". Then I realized this was a discussion about iPhones and yes, they are region locked now. But, FWIW, I've been really happy with acmeplus's beta of Batocera Linux on my RG35XX+. My son and I have been taking turns playing through old gems like Pokemon and Aladdin on it, and I'm hoping to finally beat Final Fantasy VII one of these days.
- kernal 2y agoMost, if not all, emulators ignore / bypass region locking. I've yet to come across any emulator that strictly enforces it
- TheCapeGreek 2y agoEmulators using region-specific BIOS files can still have issues though.
- deergomoo 2y agoYeah, as a European retro game enthusiast I tend to avoid the PAL versions of anything older than the sixth gen of consoles like the plague. By the PS2/GameCube/Xbox era most games were fine and PAL60 was becoming a thing anyway, but older than that and there’s a good chance the game just runs 17% slower due to the 50/60Hz difference, or has some weird letterboxing due to not accounting for 576 vs 480 lines.
- giobox 2y agoReally? As someone who grew up with PAL, we were pining for your 60fps NTSC output, especially in fast games like beatem-ups etc (PAL is 50). I still remember the first time I saw an imported Japanese PS1 playing Teken 2, and how much smoother it looked on NTSC. I could never look at my PAL copy the same way again, I couldn't unsee the NTSC version. For me personally, those extra 10 frames trump the extra 100 scanlines in PAL etc.
- rwbt 2y agoI think gamers preferred NTSC (and 60Hz) but video/movie buffs adored PAL (higher resolution and 25fps being closer to film).
- glhaynes 2y agoHonest question: is 25fps a net positive over 29.97 for 24fps content? No 3:2 pulldown judder/tearing, but speed/pitch are wrong. (Not to mention color differences, necessity of a tint knob, etc etc.) I don't recall having heard it discussed; wouldn't surprise me if some types of content are better on each system or it simply comes down to how relatively much the particular person is bothered by the downsides of each.
- giobox 2y agoIt was kind of a non-issue at the time, for the simple reason the DVD format used by all the players only supported PAL 25fps or NTSC 29.976 IIRC. There was very few "official" ways to get native 24fps content into the home until Blu-Ray, and by then many TVs offered a 24p mode to go with it. Neither PAL nor NTSC is ideal for 24fps content.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- glhaynes 2y agoYeah but what I was interested in was what people who came into contact with both considered superior. I'm gonna nip back across the pond tomorrow so should I watch my Betamax movie tonight or wait until after my Concorde lands? :)
- toast0 2y agoI always wanted to watch movies just a bit faster. (and yes, with more consistent color, and a higher vertical resolution) Although, I'm sure US commercial TV stations frame drop movies to speed them up so they can insert more commercials these days anyway.
- reaperducer 2y agoAlthough, I'm sure US commercial TV stations frame drop movies to speed them up so they can insert more commercials these days anyway. I can't say how it's done today, but at the TV station where I worked in the 1990's, we did. But we never dropped frames of content. That would cause all kinds of copyright and contract problems. We did, however, drop frames of black and superblack. In an average hour, we were able to get back enough frames to insert an extra 15-second commercial at the top of the hour.
- pantulis 2y agoWhat is "superblack"?
- extraduder_ire 2y agoIn a TV signal, the brightness is encoded using certain signal levels. So you'll have a set black point, and white point representing the darkest and brightest values to be displayed respectively. If you send a signal outside those bands, it's known as a superblack/superwhite. The "blanking interval" (when the beam is meant to start at the top of the screen again) has a signal blacker than any black that would show up in a broadcast. If that were not the case, a black screen in a show would mess up your TVs tracking.
- pantulis 2y agoThanks!
- reaperducer 2y ago[flagged]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- buran77 2y agoTell us the NTSC joke so it doesn't look like you're playing favorites. :)
- dylan604 2y agoNever the same color
- buran77 2y agoMore familiar with the "Twice" version. But what I meant was that the reply looked more like a "mine's longer" type contest. Missing the most famous of the jokes, for NTSC, is a weird omission for someone in the industry. Also according to Wikipedia PAL is also backronymed as Pay for Additional Luxury, Peace At Last, Perfection At Last or Pictures Always Lovely, all positive but none that I've heard before. Is there any indication that the store's name is really a reference to the TV standard?
- reaperducer 2y agoMore familiar with the "Twice" version. But what I meant was that the reply looked more like a "mine's longer" type contest. Missing the most famous of the jokes, for NTSC, is a weird omission for someone in the industry. We always used Never The Same Color. I worked at five stations in four states, and never heard the "Twice" version until the commercial internet became a thing.
- buran77 2y agoMaybe different continents had different versions and they finally aligned when they had the chance to talk to each other. I worked at the places that developed and built the equipment and tech used in TV stations, just across the ocean.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- tombert 2y agoIsn't Japan also NTSC as well?
- parski 2y agoSure is.
- grishka 2y agoNo SECAM though so it would only be in black and white in France.