Mega Drive with less on-screen colours?

[GagaMan]

So I recently acquired a modded Mega Drive 1, Asian spec PAL-D (runs on same electric as UK) that has a 50/60hz switch and a Japanese/English language switch. It also came with a scart cable for stero sound and better picture quality.

Picture on the system looks great on my TV, all sharp, but I just have one snag with it: it seems to produce less colour then my standard UK mega drive 2, also on scart.

Here's how it looks on my Multi-mega (the same as the Mega Drive 2 I have visually, and of course it only rusn at 50hz):



and this is how it looks on the Mega Drive 1 mod (60 and 50hz look the same other than the screen size and speed):



Notice how shading on Ristar and the logo are much more basic. Some colours almost blend together, like skin tones on white. Many colours are much brighter.

This is all on the same TV settings etc, and tinkering with brightness/contrast levels didn't seem to bring the other shades back. Any ideas?

[Limewater]

Are you running each through the same cable, or are you running each through the cable that came with it?

[GagaMan]

Well the mega Drive 1 and 2 have different scart cables because they can't be used with the other (the AV connection entirely different) though i have tried them in the same port in my TV.

Popped the system open to see if anything looked off, seemed fine. Tried out the RGB cable that also came with the mega Drive 1 and in 50hz the colours were right, so the system can output the right colours, though when it was at 60hz it had what looks like a rainbow over the screen! very odd.

This does probably mean it's the scart cable then.

[Limewater]

You're in a PAL region, right? Why would you want to try to set the Megadrive at 60Hz?

I wouldn't be too surprised at seeing weird stuff onscreen if you're in a PAL region and set your console to 60Hz, since your television would only be updating at 50Hz.

But yes, the problem is likely just your cable. It's also possible it could be a drive-level issues on the board running the SCART output, but I really don't know much at all about SCART, so I can't say much on that.

One thing you can try is to hook everything up and then just jiggle the cable around a little bit and see how, if at all, the picture changes. If it does, then that would confirm that it's a physical connection issue somewhere-- either in the connectors in the television (unlikely), attached to the cable, or in the MD, or some frayed wire inside the cable. The best thing to do, though, is borrow a cable that you know works well from a friend and give it a shot. If the good cable gives the same results, the problem is likely in the MD itself.

[GagaMan]

You're in a PAL region, right? Why would you want to try to set the Megadrive at 60Hz?

I wouldn't be too surprised at seeing weird stuff onscreen if you're in a PAL region and set your console to 60Hz, since your television would only be updating at 50Hz.

50hz has borders and is considerably slower, flicking the switch even when it's currently on shows an instant difference. My TV can update at 50 or 60hz too, most modern PAL TVs can.

[Limewater]

I live in NTSC land, so I don't really have to worry about those things too often. So this is kind of outside of my area of experience.

But regarding the rainbow color, even if your television can operate at 60Hz, your power coming out of your wall may still be a problem. CRT screen refreshes were tied to the frequency of the power supply. In NTSC regions, power comes out of the wall at 60Hz, while in PAL regions, it comes out of the wall at 50Hz. Since the Megadrive is older, it may be using oscillations in its power supply to attempt to sync with the television screen. Since power out of your wall is still at 50Hz, even with the 60Hz switch is could exhibit some odd behavior. Otherwise, the system should work fine in 60Hz mode, as processor is running off of a local oscillator.

But I'm guessing you can't just hop over to an NTSC region and hook it up to check. Sorry I can't be of more help.

[GagaMan]

Got a new cable, fixed my problem.