Page 1 of 50Htz , 60Htz , what the Htz?!!

I have a 100Htz Sony TV connected to my Xbox. I am having difficulty getting my head around all this 50/60 Htz stuff. Some games are said to run better in 60Htz mode , and some better in 50Htz. What is the difference , and if my TV is running at 100Htz will I notice any??

I`d say if your TV is running at 100Hz you best stick to 50Hz as I`m sure you`d get jerky updates otherwise.

If you had a non-100Hz TV and it supported NTSC`s 60Hz, then you could select that for a faster frame update. But you probably wouldn`t notice it too much.

The 100Hz thing isn`t really relevant to this issue. 100Hz sets should really be called "frequency doubling" sets - that is, if the input signal is 50Hz, the display frequency will be 100Hz, but if it`s 60Hz, then you`ll generally get a 120Hz display. (Having said that, some sets don`t do 120Hz and will instead drop back to 60Hz, but again, that`s not really relevant to the subject at hand.)

As you might know, America and Japan use the NTSC colour TV standard with a 60Hz display of 525 lines, whereas Europe uses the PAL standard in conjunction with a 50Hz display of 625 lines. (Other combinations are used elsewhere in the world, but those are the two main ones.)

Because America and Japan are the two main markets for video games, a large percentage of games are optimised for 525 line, 60Hz displays during development. This causes a problem for gamers in Europe, since if a 625 line, 50Hz display system is used, the game may have a squashed display with borders around it, and may also run about 17% too slowly (that is, if the game speed is synchronised to the display frequency). You`ve probably noticed this phenomenon in many of the games you`ve played, especially on older consoles like the Mega Drive.

It`s possible for games to be "tweaked" so they run correctly at 625 lines/50Hz, but this obviously takes time and results in a delay between the US/Japanese release date and the European release. What a lot of publishers are doing instead, considering that most modern European TVs have no problems with 60Hz input, is including a 50Hz/60Hz option in the European releases of their games. This gives you the possibility of running the game properly if your TV supports 60Hz, while still giving owners of older TVs the chance to play the game (albeit possibly slower and bordered) at 50Hz.

There are exceptions to this rule - for example Halo, which runs better at 50Hz than it does at 60Hz. You`re therefore best advised to try both modes and use whichever works best for each individual game, but in most cases, 60Hz mode will give better results.

Mike

I have Pioneer DV-350S DVD Multi Region Player.
I connected it`s scart output to my 3-4 years old
Nicam Stereo 21" Ferguson TV with a SCART socket using
a SCART Cable.

The picture on TV Screen is cut from top and bottom and
there is a bright white line on top.
There is no distortion or deformation in the picture.
The colors and picture quality is perfect. But the picture
is shrunk with about 2" black bars on top & bottom.

I have set the video option of the dvd player to
4:3 letterbox option as suggested.

I also tried connecting my dvd player with the same SCART Cable
to my friend`s Old Panasonic TV with SCART and it works perfect
without a problem.

SO I think it is my TV`s problem but don`t know what it could be.

Someone said that there can be a Signal Frequency mismatch between the
DVD Player & the TV.

Is it so?

Do anyone of you have any idea about this?
What could be wrong?
What could be done?
Is it a NTSC / PAL issue?

If the picture is indeed *shrunk* - i.e. everybody looks shorter and/or fatter than they should be - then it could be that the TV doesn`t properly support a 60Hz input signal. I`ve noticed this phenomenon (vertical squashing of the picture) when playing NTSC VHS tapes through a 15 year old Ferguson TV.

Presumably it only happens when playing NTSC DVDs. If you also get this from PAL UK DVDs, then you have a different problem (I have no idea what, though).

Mike