I was under the impression that tweakvc would work for RaspiOS Buster based systems, despite the comment on the project page.

Other option would be to add a correct sdtv_mode to config.txt - see here - but that would enable it permanently and wouldn't be a toggle as it is with tweakvc.

EDIT: it seems that the official firmware doesn't have PAL60 support, only some experimental versions which were beta tested as part of the Github topic mentioned above.

@mitu Yep it was that. Bought an official cable and it works. Now I just need to work out how to get emulationstation and the console to be the same scale

@MiroKostovBG
PAL and NTSC have different resolutions.
Perhaps when you are running PAL games, the screen output is resized to fit the extra vertical lines (576) onto the screen and that 'squishes' in the sides a bit. NTSC only has 480 lines.

You can probably eliminate the top/bottom black bars with overscan settings, but it seems like the left/right bars will likely always be there when playing a PAL game.

The issue seems to be specific to RetroArch, standalone emu like ReDream look both sharper and don't have screen tearing.

In RetroArch.cfg i've already set the following to no avail:

video_refresh_rate = "50.000000" video_vsync = "true"

Thanks for all the suggestions. I should have no problem scraping the region artwork I'm after now.

i use my Pi-Models 1-3 with CRTs (1x Samsung / 1x Bang&Olufsen)
Of course i wanted to connect the Pi4 also with my CRTs, but i only tried it once and burried that idea.
At least concerning the composite out.
Maybe i had bad luck and my Pi4/the AV-socket is broken, but the picture was H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E!!!

I am still searching for a verfied method to connect with better quality (Gert666, Pi2Scart etc.), but did not find anything that runs out of the box without any issues or performance loss :[

@averagespearman Quick question How did you get the IPEGA 9139 to connect to retropie

@windg said in Extract region of games via command line:

You can take the hash of the rom and compare it with a database. For example this site : http://redump.org/ have the hashes of the games of a lot disk systems.

Unfortunately that site does not have retro games listed. Only PSX, Dreamcast and up. However the m5 hash approach gave me an idea: I can download a rom pack and compare my roms to the ones from the pack. Thanks for your helpful answer! :-)

Righto, here's the solution for everyone who wants to let RetroPie handle NTSC/ NTSC progressive modes but then switch to the PAL60 equivalent:
Put this into runcommand-onstart.sh:

(sleep 15 && sudo /home/pi/tweakvec/tweakvec.py --preset PAL60) &

If it doesn't work for your Pi, try sleeping a bit longer. On my Pi3, 15 seconds seems like the sweet spot.

Unless you're connecting your Pi using a composite cable to your TV (which seems unlikely, since that won't do 1080), NTSC/PAL is not an issue for TV's video resolution.
Use raspi-config to choose your desired video resolution globally or modify your /boot/config.txt according to the Raspbery Pi video doc.

@dankcushions Yeah, the ROM I used was one I just had lying around from years ago when I first got into emulators. The emulator I used back then worked with the game fine, so it's probably just an issue with QuickNES as you've referenced. I've decided to use NTSC in the future. Cheers!

@mitu I checked out those points you recommended and they all seem fine. Im going to seem like total idiot now.. Everything else was fine but I just had to update the retropie setup. Then I updated the emulator again. I updated everything not too long time ago so I had no idea it could be that. I even uninstalled and re-installed the psx emulator and updated it before doing this. Now im wiser and can potentially help some other people in the future.

I really appreciate your help, it pushed me to right direction.

Have just published this - https://retropie.org.uk/2019/07/composite-out-broken-on-retropie-4-5/

First and most obvious question: are you sure that your PAL Roms aren't simply being sped up and running at 60Hz?

The refresh misalignment from a 50Hz game on a 60Hz display isn't all that noticeable, and certainly not in games that run at frame rates lower than the console's host refresh rate. Chaos Engine and God's definitely fall under that category as games that run at 25fps/30fps.

If you have games running at a smooth 50fps on 60fps display and there's a lot of movement along one axis (horizontal or vertical scrolling), the judder will be somewhat more apparent.

RetroPie emulators can be configured from the emulator launch menu to support a 50Hz refresh rate if your display supports it. I've found that this does make a slight but worthwhile difference, especially with C64 and console games.

@brimby It is overwhelmingly likely that European ROM files will be using the old PAL standard. Most emulators will run the game internally at 50fps but output 60fps to modern displays if you set them to do so. That means the unoptimized PAL ports that ran at incorrect speeds on original hardware will still have that problem preserved in most emulators at. If a game also had an NTSC release in a language that you can read, it's generally recommended that you use that file instead.

@thelostsoul said in NES PAL color reproduction in le-nestopia:

So its possible with both emulators.

Yes it is. They both even share many, if not all, of the same filters. However, in a few cases, the filters have different names.

Nestopia is said to be more accurate and less problems with sound production

Neither core will run every game, so you'll probably want both if you're looking for maximum coverage. lr-nestopia does seem to handle some of the more finicky unlicensed titles, like 'Action 52' that lr-fceumm won't even launch.

My main question is, what should I set them to if I want a similiar experience like my old PAL tv?

I'm a Statesman myself, so that'll best be answered by someone else.

@moltavia

Just a point of interest, Streets of Rage / Bare Knuckle isn't actually 2 ROMs but a single ROM that changes based on the language / country setting. It will even do this dynamically in some emulators and on real hardware if you have a country switch mod.

Load SOR and wait until the title sequence / back story start to play and once the story starts scrolling up, enter the GUI and change the language to Japanese and then exit the GUI. The story will continue to scroll and then change to Japanese after a few seconds.

Pal version is working fine on PCSX ReARMed , but FF8-FF9 are copy protected , you must patch iso with appropriate ppf.

here is the list of iso that you need patch to run.

http://consolecopyworld.com/psx/psx_protected_games_uk.shtml