HDTV Xploder - which combination of PAL/NTSC Games/machines?

[Fudoh]

I've posted as a followup in the PGM2950 thread already, but it might catch a little more interested as a standalone thread. Aleanil did post some pictures of his modded US PS2 running Mushihimesama in 480p without any upscaling device.

I've tried to do the same on my setup, but utterly failed and I can't really imagine why. I'm using a modded PAL PS2 (Matrix Infinity), a HDTV Exploder (PAL iso) and an original japanese Mushihimesama and I end up with a black screen when I try to boot the game in 480p.

So, I wonder if anyone using a HDTV Xploder on his setup and might be able to give me hint where the problem lies - - maybe by posting your config: PAL/NTSC console, modded/unmodded, PAL/NTSC Xploder disc.

I know that the Infinity has an internal VGA mode, similar to the Xploder HD mode, but it works with VGA only and while I could buy a VGA adapter for it, I'd rather prefer a YUV progressive connection.

Possible causes I could think of:

- HD Xploder doesn't like modded PS2s (but works on Aleanil's setup)
- I have a PAL version of the XPloder instead a NTSC one *
- You need a NTSC console to put NTSC games into 480p mode

* but I really don't think there's difference between them, it's most likely only the bootcode on the XPloder CD itself.

Any help on this one would be highly appreciated ! Thanks !

Fudoh

[D]

I wish I could help out. I'm very curious myself about this subject.
Too little info on the net. So sorry for this totally useless post.

[Fudoh]

no prob'. I've mailed to the Xploder support team as well, maybe they can help on this one. What's really just bothering is that Mushihimesama runs fine on Aleanil's setup, but not on mine...

[neorichieb1971]

I doubt the region of the ps2 has any significance.

Are you using Component video cables? And how does that work with a SVGA monitor? Thats my question.

[Fudoh]

I'm using a LCD HDTV and an iScan videoprocessor (VP30/50) and I hate to see how the videoprocessor fails on certain games like ESPGaluda (the aircrafts' shadow on the ground for example), so I'd like to try feeding progressive to the videoprocessor thus disabling it's deinterlacer and using it for scaling only.

So, it's Component from the PS2 to the iScan and HDMI from there to the LCD.

[D]

I'm using a LCD HDTV and an iScan videoprocessor (VP30/50) and I hate to see how the videoprocessor fails on certain games like ESPGaluda (the aircrafts' shadow on the ground for example), so I'd like to try feeding progressive to the videoprocessor thus disabling it's deinterlacer and using it for scaling only.

So, it's Component from the PS2 to the iScan and HDMI from there to the LCD.

I would not use the VP30/50 at all. Component or VGA to the tv is fine. You will hardly see any difference.So your tv does not have vga in then?
It's like when you would have a normal cd player and you fed the analog signal into some converting device that turns it into an optical digital signal and then feed that to your amplifiers optical digital inputs. this is a conversion process that's really unnecesary.

[Fudoh]

Believe me, it's ok this way.The display has VGA as well, but a) do I have far to many machines to connect them all without a proper videoprocessor as a switch, b) has the display an extremely hard scaling on the VGA input, so the scaling of the videoprocessor is much better, c) has the display a crappy signal processing of the YUV ports, which means consoles directly attached look like shit (no matter if interlaced or progressive) and d) does my display disable the ratio controls on the VGA input, so 640*480 is forced onto 16:9.

I've used videoprocessors for about 3 years now and would NEVER go without one again - but nevertheless thanks for the input !

[zakk]

I'm using a LCD HDTV and an iScan videoprocessor (VP30/50) and I hate to see how the videoprocessor fails on certain games like ESPGaluda (the aircrafts' shadow on the ground for example), so I'd like to try feeding progressive to the videoprocessor thus disabling it's deinterlacer and using it for scaling only.

So, it's Component from the PS2 to the iScan and HDMI from there to the LCD.

Is that with the deinterlacer in 'game' mode? (if that model has it?)

[Fudoh]

yes, it is. I've switched from a Faroudja-based Crystalio to the iScan, but I'm not too happy with the videogame processing.

I've posted a few comparison screenshots between Game Mode 1 and 2 over at the AVS board.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthre ... st11278301

Game Mode 1 does handle 240p properly, but the picture gets a bit shaky and the scaling isn't as good as on the Crystalio and Game Mode 2 utterly fails on various 240p games. Screenshots are taken from ESPGaluda.

[Strider77]

Fudoh.... what kind of display device are you using?

[General Martok]

a HDTV Exploder (PAL iso)

If i recall correctly , the hdtv player works fine with modchips and imports but you can't use a burned iso of it. You have to either use the retail disc or a patched iso of it.
Other Possibility would be that you need a patched HDTV player anyway if you are running imports which are not the same region as your HDTV player(??)
My guess is on the first possibility though.

[Fudoh]

@Strider77: I'm using a LCD display (LG 3200C-BA), the screenshots posted in the AVS thread were taken from it.

@G.M.: I'll see if I can find into on that. When the friend came over with the Xploder disc, I'm pretty sure we tried the original disc as well before making a copy of it, but I'll recheck.

[Aleanil]

a HDTV Exploder (PAL iso)

If i recall correctly , the hdtv player works fine with modchips and imports but you can't use a burned iso of it. You have to either use the retail disc or a patched iso of it.

Other Possibility would be that you need a patched HDTV player anyway if you are running imports which are not the same region as your HDTV player(??)

Well, I can respond to both points. I used a burned iso of xploder (unpatched so far as I know) and it worked. The pics I posted were from Mushihime-sama (NTSC-J) and Gunbird 1 & 2 (PAL), both booted from my xploder disc (using default 480p VGA settings) and displayed on my PGM-2950. I'm kinda short on time at the moment (getting married on Saturday), or I'd do some more extensive testing right now. As it is, I'm really interested in why mine works and what, if any, games wouldn't work on mine.

[D]

getting married on Saturday.

Congratulations.

[Aleanil]

Ok, I played with this for a bit yesterday. I found that I could get mushihime-sama to boot if I put in the xploder disc. The boot screen for it has:

"Press <triangle> for VGA modes"
"Press <square> for HDTV modes"
"Press <circle for PAL/NTSC"

So I pushed triangle once. Although 640x480 vga had already been selected by default, it didn't boot that way. But after I pressed the button once (seemingly reselecting it), it worked. Hope that helps a bit!

[antron]

I can confirm what Aleanil said about pushing triangle (manually putting it in VGA mode, again)

I'm using NTSC Xploder -> Swap Magic 3.6 -> Mushi (on an ummodded US console)

It seams Xploder doesn't set all its parameters properly when loading its setting from a memory card. I wonder how many games this can fix?

I can also report that ESPGaluda doesn't run correctly with Xploder (and Swap Magic) The screen has double vision, locks up, and this trick won't fix it.

[D]

Results including 480p and 240p and hdtv xploder
http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 25&t=30389