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Rochey69r
01-25-2003, 03:51 AM
hello all,

rochey here.

big fan of halo, nothing strange.

i got the mod chip for my xbox because i heard that ntsc games run faster than pal do so i fork out $75 for the chip.

$110 for HALO ntsc shipped to Australia.

and ill be darned. the NTSC copy runs around 30% - 40% better than the PAL one dos.

from now im importing all my games from the states as i think PAL is completely dodgy!!


im dead serious ausy gamers. you havnt experienced halo until you experience the NTSC copy.



and yes. it was worth paying $110 to get halo running that much faster.

only downside is it cant system link with pal halo's. :mad:


this makes me ****ed off that australia will continueto get slow half bake games as to the USA.

look out new york here i come!

(hopefully to live) ;)

BCan
01-25-2003, 06:51 AM
The reason NTSC runs faster is that it has a lower resolution than PAL....

NTSC has 525 horizontal lines compared to PAL's 625, viewable being 480 for NTSC and 576 for PAL. This is where the 480i and 480p standards come from, they are more based on the NTSC res.
NTSC has 640x480 @ 30 FPS
PAL has 768x576 @ 25.6 FPS

This is why a properly done DVD transfer to Zone 2/4 looks better on PAL than it does on NTSC.

If you have ever watched the sub standard world feed from the US Open tennis you can see the lack of resolution that exists, the whole shot looks out of focus more often than not.

This is where your speed is coming from, the game is able to punch out lower res graphics that you wouldn't probably pick up on. Give me the better quality pics and not the speed any day. The 20% increase in resolution is fine for me any day....

Rochey69r
01-25-2003, 06:58 AM
so your saying its because of the NTSC res when i watch espn ice hockey looks terrible?

so blurry and hard to see.


man i havnt looked up close at the textures yet but i much rather the speed than graphics.

1. gameplay
2. speed/ framerate
3. graphics

(all very important to me)


well said man i understand now. :)

BCan
01-25-2003, 07:12 AM
Unless the NHL feed is actually a world feed, and done in PAL, yeah, it will look a little worse. In general the extra frames that NTSC punches out can help make up for the loss in res, but it is noticable.
Personally I'd blame the lack of quality due to the bad camera operaters.... They always say the Aussie sports camera men seem to have it down to an art.

We'll see if Channel 10 can do a good job of the F1 coverage in Melbourne - if you have noticed that F1 isn't in their promo of major sports they are covering this year, but no official announcement that Channel 10 has the rights either. Foxtel is meant to be showing the races live that Channel 10 can't show live, and is meant to at least be showing the Saturday qualifying, live or not is another question - hopefully not since it is a one lap shoot out - they can cut out all the extra wasted time....

Insane Jester
01-26-2003, 08:32 AM
Well being from u.k i have pal aswell .. im not sure what u mean run faster? halo is smooth and ive only seen it jerk once for about 2 seconds. even on 2 player it runs smoother than a babies ass.. i just dont know what u mean by running faster,,

TiGGerLiAm
01-27-2003, 01:19 PM
of course most of us with pal machines go into the options of the actual xbox and choose "Pal-60" under the video thing. And then in games we get pal resolution WITH the NTSC frame rate. I'm 90% sure that this is what Pal-60 means and from my experience it seems to be doing this; i'm right aren't i ?. If not then what the hell is the Pal-60 option about ?, i know that games are significantly smoother when its turned on . . .

Rochey69r
01-27-2003, 11:27 PM
well i always have it set to pal-60.

playing halo PAL and halo NTSC is a huge diff!

:D

J Dub
01-27-2003, 11:45 PM
With PAL you get a higher resolution (720x576), but a slightly lower framerate (25fps). With NTSC the resolution is lower (720x480), but the framerate is slightly higher (29.97fps).

For the hardcore gamers, such as those who are used to the PC, I can understand that they may notice a difference in the framerate and they may be able to notice it not being as smooth. Because in PC gaming it's all about squeezing that extra few frames out, right?

But really, you're gaining one thing at the expense of the other with either system, be it NTSC or PAL. I honestly don't think there is one that's better. They're each better in different ways.

jackal
01-28-2003, 07:35 AM
dont mind me im just piis fatin around and postin my first post to see if my sig works.:eek:

jackal
01-28-2003, 07:41 AM
:confused:

Highlite23
01-28-2003, 08:23 AM
Sorry Jackal, no sig hosting on the site.

Ranchoweb has a free service, welcome to the site.;)

BCan
01-29-2003, 04:27 AM
I think the normal PAL refresh rate is actually 50 Hz - Play PGR and you will see that when you select your driver it has the screen refresh. This is basically the proper refresh rate to show 25 FPS, with the interlaced pictures, it has to do two screens in one hit.
I believe the NTSC refresh rate is actually 60Hz, ie interlaced screens for 30 FPS...

So, yeah that is right, it is PAL res, with the NTSC refresh rate...

Afro Aura
01-30-2003, 09:53 AM
Originally posted by BCan
This is where your speed is coming from, the game is able to punch out lower res graphics that you wouldn't probably pick up on. Give me the better quality pics and not the speed any day. The 20% increase in resolution is fine for me any day....
I agree with you BCan I'd rather have better resolution, we also have the option to change form 50 - 60hz which will make the games run faster, Halo was optimized to play at 50hz as I played PAL Halo at 60hz and it was jumping but when I changed it to 50hz it was nice and smooth and looked better than my US Halo (I have a PAL and a US XBOX)