So that Samsung in my sig that I have been working on.. For the past month or so it's been my TV and has been finally fixed, no more working on it.

So while messing around with it, I had my SEGA Genesis/32X hooked up to it and wanted to play a PAL game.. I noticed one quirk though, when I threw it in 50Hz mode, the TV not only had no problem with vertical sync, it was in COLOR!

So apparently an old TV like this is a multisystem, or is something else at play here..

Either that or the Game outputs NTSC despite the PAL game?
I didn't know game cartridges had Regions but I guess it makes sense.

Yea, they got region protection, so I had to modify my console to output a 50Hz signal for the games that check for it, via a switch.

If you mod a 16-bit NTSC console for 50 Hz it outputs 50 Hz NTSC; the NTSC and PAL graphics chips are separate models so the color encoding is still NTSC. It's sort of the Bizarro version of the 60 Hz PAL they use in Brazil.

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If you mod a 16-bit NTSC console for 50 Hz it outputs 50 Hz NTSC; the NTSC and PAL graphics chips are separate models so the color encoding is still NTSC. It's sort of the Bizarro version of the 60 Hz PAL they use in Brazil.

I thought about this, but the Genesis graphics chip actually outputs RGB to a Sony CXA composite decoder, which supports both PAL and NTSC, which is determined by an oscillator. On the Genesis, when I shift to 50Hz the entire system bus changes, so I would think that would change the frequency going into the CXA chip as there's only one oscillator in the system. I'll need to scope it out, perhaps it still stays the same..

I doubt that old Samsung can do PAL, but many modern flat panels fully support PAL because they design the video processing chips to work in any country. Some DVD players will output PAL when playing a PAL DVD (others convert to NTSC, and some won't play at all).

I tried a flat panel and it came out black and white with some odd color bars like it had no color lock.

Back in 1996 I worked for Samsung, developing (I was one of 2 architects, and a crew of veralog coders) a NTSC/PAL/SECAM decoder chip. This chip could automatically determine which standard was being seen, and adjust itself accordingly. Your set may have this or a similar chip inside it.

Ok so here's what's apparently going on.

When I have the 32X attached, I get color on 50Hz, with it removed and the TV plugged into the Genesis directly, I get a black and white picture.. On the oscilloscope, I found two things going on here..

On the Genesis when switched into 50Hz, the picture goes black and white because the encoder chip is in PAL mode but is being fed a subcarrier frequency of NTSC, so the encoder chip outputs a very BAD color subcarrier, and the TV doesn't even try.. With the 32X attached (which takes the Genesis RGB output to overlay it's own graphics and encode it's own video), I found that the encoder chip it has, when in 50Hz, while still being fed an NTSC frequency, was able to output a correct NTSC 50Hz output, so that is why the TV was seeing it in color.

ischmidt, you were right.. When I have the 32X attached, it is outputting NTSC 50.. But you know what, this works to my advantage! I can now play PAL games, in COLOR!

That's super cool. A nice useful side effect of the 32X's otherwise kludgey use of analog genlock to overlay on the Genesis graphics.