Pal Gamecube vs US NTSC Gamecube

[Revolver Ocelot]

I used to own a Pal gamecube but it broke recently. Now i want to get a new one. I am just not sure if I should get a pal gamecube again or an NTSC cube. The US Gamecube had the advantage of using progressive scan modus with US Games. Sounds nice in theory but I really wonder if is worth it?

I use my consoles primarily on my HDTV with the Framemeister. Would 480p games look better on an HDTV than the 576i/480i on a Pal Gamecube?

I know that the best video output from the cube would be component but the component cables are too expensive, so they are out question. I will either use RGB Scart if i get a pal Gamecube again . Or S video if I get the NTSC Cube.

I am aware that in theory S-Video is inferior to RGB but is the case in the real world too? Would S Video on the Framemeister offer similar image quality to RGB?

what do you guys think?

Would be pleased hearing some opinions.

[bobrocks95]

I used to own a Pal gamecube but it broke recently. Now i want to get a new one. I am just not sure if I should get a pal gamecube again or an NTSC cube. The US Gamecube had the advantage of using progressive scan modus with US Games. Sounds nice in theory but I really wonder if is worth it?

I use my consoles primarily on my HDTV with the Framemeister. Would 480p games look better on an HDTV than the 576i/480i on a Pal Gamecube?

I know that the best video output from the cube would be component but the component cables are too expensive, so they are out question. I will either use RGB Scart if i get a pal Gamecube again . Or S video if I get the NTSC Cube.

I am aware that in theory S-Video is inferior to RGB but is the case in the real world too? Would S Video on the Framemeister offer similar image quality to RGB?

what do you guys think?

Would be pleased hearing some opinions.

Well, you can't output 480p over S-Video... So if you're opposed to getting some form of GCVideo mod you might as well get a PAL system and use RGB.

[Xer Xian]

Why do you even contemplate buying an NTSC cube if you're located in Austria? Especially given that you don't want to take Component (or GCVideo?) under consideration. Even if, PAL cubes can output 480p via simple softmod. Edit: or is it 576p? I actually do have an NTSC cube

[Joelepain]

And don't forget that the possibility to run a game in 480p is dictated by the game, not the console. So a PAL gamecube with a component cable running NTSC games can do it exactly like a US gamecube.

I think in the end it all depends if you have more pal games or ntsc games, and if you want to bother to mod your console to run games of the other region.
In my opinion the bump in quality of s-video->rgb is the less visible (but again it's my opinion, I know already that someone will jump on me and tear me apart, especially on this forum lol) after going from composhit->whatever is better, and 240p/480i->480p.

And yes gamecube games at 480p look really nice. You won't notice a big difference for 30fps games with a good deinterlacer, but for 60fps it's really better. Games like Metroid Prime, Soul calibur II, the 2 Rogue Squadron, Star Fox Adventures and F-Zero GX just look fantastic at 480p. (by the way F-zero GX is just mind-blowing, even in 2018, one of the best game ever made)

[Revolver Ocelot]

Thanks for the infos. I was considering a NTSC Gamecube to get better image quality more easy but if the pal cube is capable of that as well then there is nothing wrong with getting a Pal Gamecube again and something like the Freeloader to run NTSC Game on it.


It is no that I do not want to get the GC video but I am not skilled enough to do it myself. So I want a plug and Play solution. there are some out there but they are quite expensive, so I want to wait till the price of the Eon Adapter drops a bit.

[Joelepain]

Edit: or is it 576p? I actually do have an NTSC cube

It's actually both. Depends of the region of the game.
If you run a NTSC game you can use the native way (pushing the B Button on startup) to have progressive scan and end up with 480p, even on a PAL cube.
If you run a PAL game, you use something like swiss to force 480p or 576p, as you want. Then what you want to do is "pushing the B Button on startup" to use the native way of switching PAL Games to 60hz, if the game supports it.
You can mess up things if you want (480p@50hz or 576p@60hz) but that's kind of pointless, and it rarely works well.

[maxtherabbit]

PAL cubes can output 480p over RGB with NTSC games???

how do you make this happen? would a xeno gc get the job done?

[Joelepain]

PAL cubes can output 480p over RGB with NTSC games???

how do you make this happen? would a xeno gc get the job done?

No you still have to use a component cable or GCVideo for this. I should have been more specific in my previous post.

[Revolver Ocelot]

PAL cubes can output 480p over RGB with NTSC games???

how do you make this happen? would a xeno gc get the job done?

No you still have to use a component cable or GCVideo for this. I should have been more specific in my previous post.

The Maximum Resolution you can get with S-Video or RGB is 480i right? Then I will get a nice cheap RGB Scart cable before I get hold on a nice gc Video plug and Play device and freeloader to Play games in 480p.

[Joelepain]

The Maximum Resolution you can get with S-Video or RGB is 480i right?

Yes. (or 576i for PAL games running at 50hz).
One thing you can take into account to decide is that RGB is better for 60hz. Some TV don't like composite or s-video with PAL encoding and 60hz (I think the Framemeister doesn't like it either, I don't remember...).
Being in Europe you shouldn't have problem running composite or s-video with NTSC encoding and 60hz if you decide to opt for an US console. But you should check that too. (No problem with Framemeister in that case)

[Revolver Ocelot]

The Maximum Resolution you can get with S-Video or RGB is 480i right?

Yes. (or 576i for PAL games running at 50hz).
One thing you can take into account to decide is that RGB is better for 60hz. Some TV don't like composite or s-video with PAL encoding and 60hz (I think the Framemeister doesn't like it either, I don't remember...).
Being in Europe you shouldn't have problem running composite or s-video with NTSC encoding and 60hz if you decide to opt for an US console. But you should check that too. (No problem with Framemeister in that case)

Ok I see. Thanks for the further information.

[strayan]

I live in Australia and have both a PAL and NTSC gamecube with the gcvideo plug and play hdmi adapter.

Running games at 480p is much better than 576i. Check the list of games with alternate display modes to see if it's worth getting an NTSC console. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... play_modes

Edit: doesn't really matter what region console you get has long as you can run ntsc games with the freeloader. I bought a beatup ntsc console because i got sick of using the freeloader disc and the first iteration of the gcvideo plug and play was dodgy enough to short your console.

[Revolver Ocelot]

I live in Australia and have both a PAL and NTSC gamecube with the gcvideo plug and play hdmi adapter.

Running games at 480p is much better than 576i. Check the list of games with alternate display modes to see if it's worth getting an NTSC console. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... play_modes

Edit: doesn't really matter what region console you get as long as you can run NTSC games with the freeloader. I bought a beatup ntsc console because i got sick of using the freeloader disc and the first iteration of the gcvideo plug and play was dodgy enough to short your console.

Thanks for the List. there are plenty of interesting games that have the alternative display mode. So it would be definitely worth for me to get either another pal cube and the freeloader or an NTSC console.

The decision will depend on the prices of the consoles. In theory, the pal gamecube would be better because I could use RGB Scart as a stop-gap measure till I got my GC video plug play. I have already heard that the first generation of the zeldra pro HDMI adapter can damage your gamecube when moved. But there is a revision now out there, without that problem. And there is also the Eon plug and play available without that problem. At least nobody mentioned it. I will still get the third version of the Zelda pro adapter because it is a bit cheaper than the Eon one.

But now back the consoles. as I said in theory rgb scart and the pal cube would be the better choice. But I am quite sure now that i want to get many NTSC Games so it would be a bit bothersome to use the freeloader disc all the time. So getting an NTSC cube would more convenient.

The only drawback would be that the US Cube cannot use RGB. But I am not sure if that is really a drawback. S-Video is not that bad. I use S-Video with my N64 on the Framemeister and it looks decent.

I have also seen many videos on youtube about the S-video image quality of the Gamecube and at least to me the difference between S-video und RGB is not that big as many people seem to think.

But thats just me. Maybe the result may differ when I see the games on my TV Screen. If not I would happy with S-video for sure..