PAL vs NTSC times?

[jeffgoddin]

Just wondering if anybody out there knows how to convert between PAL and NTSC times... I've heard that the timer runs slower for PAL and I wanted to compare laps times among people using the different versions.

Thanks!

 

[Xenn]

Here's what I found. I don't know if this will be correct though.

PAL time/1,2 = NTSC time. NTSC time*1,2 = PAL time (all times in seconds)

 

[Pyle_PMG]

, I had both versions for awhile, but I really didn't notice a difference in the timer speed.

 

[Xenn]

, I had both versions for awhile, but I really didn't notice a difference in the timer speed.

That's because when you play a PAL game on a NTSC console, the game will still play at NTSC speeds.

 

[Pyle_PMG]

That makes sense. Isn't there a lower frame-rate with PAL? That could be a reason.

 

[Xenn]

Yeah, there's a lower frame rate when played on PAL consoles.

 

[Pyle_PMG]

Why exactly is that? Is it because you guys use that pin connector thing instead of RCA Audio Video cable?

 

[Xenn]

I believe it could be the CPU speed difference between PAL and NTSC consoles. NTSC consoles have a higher CPU speed.

 

[Pyle_PMG]

Sounds Plausible.

 

[XoravaX]

Actually the framerate difference of 10 half-refreshes goes far beyond the time when microprocessors were used regularly.

NTSC was the first system to be created, at 60Hz with 480 line (640x480) definition.

PAL was developed a bit later, at 50Hz (just a choice, but it may correlate to the fact Europe having 50Hz 230V electricity compared to North America's 60Hz 110V, correct me if this is completely wrong) and a bit higher definition, 576 lines (720x576). It also had bit better colour definition.

In the case of the clock running a bit more slowly, PD was just too lazy to convert the 60Hz game into 50Hz. This also means that the cars, and the whole game run slower.

But TBH I've never noticed the game's timer running slower than the real clocks and I have the PAL version on a PAL console.

 

[TB]

I request a stopwatch and a PAL lap counter video, if you please.

 

[Xenn]

I don't have a stopwatch, but I got a pal video here.

 

[Keef]

I don't have a stopwatch, but I got a pal video here.

The race begins a tiny bit after 9 seconds into the Youtube timer.

The race ends a tiny bit before 1:47 into the youtube timer.

So what we do is we take 167 seconds (1:47) minus 9 and tiny bit from the beginning and a tiny bit from the end, and that comes out to 1:37.5, which happens to be the total length of the race shown in the video. From that we can conclude that none of you know what you're on about.

Any reason for time discrepancies in the real world can be attributed to the complexities of what time actually is an how it works, not the way we calculate it electronically. The precision of the electronics is actually the reason we can't calculate time perfectly - because time isn't perfect.

 

[jeffgoddin]

Wow. That was deep. But yeah, the youtube counter stays precisely 9 seconds ahead of the race timer for the whole video, so it looks like this is proof that it's a myth that PAL and NTSC times don't correlate. Thanks!

 

[Pyle_PMG]

So I guess a bunch of us were wrong, eh? Oh well, that's a good thing.