Leeram's age old console speed question : Xbox 360 this time

[Leeram]

Well, I return to the aged question about PAL console speed.

Up to now every British territoy (PAL) console has run slower than its USA and Japanese couterparts because PAL runs at 50hz.

I know the Dreamcast had a 60hz option and so I believe did the X-box (although I bought a USA one so I've never seen it for myself) but certainly with Dreamcast this wasn't available for every game.

I am intending on buying an Xbox 360 so here's the question,

Does anyone know for sure if the a Native British Xbox 360 runs at the same speed as a native USA or Japanese model for every game.


To explain a little. If you get a Japanese SNES and a UK one, put on F-Zero and then race around the track perfectly on each system, you will get to the end of the track significantly more quickly on the Japanese machine.

The last thing I want is to be trudging round PGR3 in super PAL'o'VISION mud. I want full on USA/Japanese intense speed .


Any information would be great

Cheers

Lee

[Thunder Force]

Although I have not seen formal benchmarks of speed, here is a partial summary of PAL 50/60hz Xbox 360 issues, afaik:

- Every PAL Xbox 360 game so far is supposed to support the full NTSC-speed PAL 60hz mode.
- Some PAL Xbox 360 games *only* support the PAL 60hz mode, and don't even support the slower PAL 50hz mode.
- A large number of backwards compatible XBox 1 games however, don't support the PAL 60hz mode, and they require displaying in PAL 50hz to run.
- If you use a PAL Xbox 360 with the HD VGA cable, it will only work in PAL 60hz mode, and so will not function with those backwards compatible XBox 1 games that require PAL 50hz. This includes not being able to run Halo 1 though the HD VGA cable with a PAL Xbox 360.
- If Microsoft were ever foolish enough to allow the release of a PAL Xbox 360 game that only supported the slower PAL 50hz mode, it would not display with the HD VGA cable, so it seems unlikely this will happen.

[system11]

In addition, all HD modes with the component cable are 60hz - 720P is 720P.

Aside from one of them... European 360s when set to 480P actually output a crappy 50hz version - allegedly. The way to fix this is to change it to some higher res, say 720 or 1080 (a good choice as some 480 TVs can show that, corrupted and rolling), then change back to 480 - to get true 480P. This was from info on the avforums, I did it on mine, seems to work, but my TV doesn't give a format readout so I'm not sure that it was wrong to begin with

Some games detect the PAL hz setting and complain even if you're using HD cables - so set this anyway first.

[MovingTarget]

Please excuse my ignorance, but can you get higher resolutions(definition) using a standard pc monitor? Are there adaptors so that you can play the 360 with a monitor? I really dont wanna buy an expensive TV at the moment...

[Thunder Force]

Please excuse my ignorance, but can you get higher resolutions(definition) using a standard pc monitor? Are there adaptors so that you can play the 360 with a monitor?

Yes, the aforementioned Xbox 360 HD VGA cable. Widescreen monitor recommended for 720p, although some games also work in letterboxed HD with 4:3 monitors.

[MovingTarget]

Great, cheers!

[FatCobra]

So you Euro guys are still getting screwed over there?

I thought they ended this PAL shit. Tough break pal (pun intended).

Just import like the rest of those gamers I guess.

[MovingTarget]

I think most games these days support 60, the only problem is having a tv which doesn't(old ones). Am I right, or am I drunk?

[D]

I think most games these days support 60, the only problem is having a tv which doesn't(old ones). Am I right, or am I drunk?

Your tv would have to be over 20 years old now not to have RGB scart, or it's one of those small bedroom models. So that problem is fixed
And, yes my son, you are drunk Just kiddin' now you take a cheap shot at me. Preparing for impact

[MovingTarget]

Also they tend not to be 60Hz compatible when you open them up fiddle with the settings and hope it'll all be ok after