Saturn S-Video checker board transparancies on LCD?

[Hair]

I have an LCD TV and just got my Saturn S-Video cable today. The colors look better, but anything transparent shows a very small checkboard (black white) pattern instead. Two examples are the Super Meters in Alpha 2, and the radar in Panzer Dragoon 2. With the RCA video cable this doesn't happen. Some times this pattern is visable on shaded colors as well. With the RCA cable the shaded colors tend to blur or blend the pattern so it looks like a solid color instead of a bunch of dots.

Is there anything I can do to fix this, or is an issue with how the Saturn displays S-Video on my particular TV (a Dynex; not high-end)?

Adjusting TV settings didn't help. Even with a low sharpness the checker board is still visable and the aforementioned meters and rader are not transparent.

Is this dot crawl? If not, can someone please explain dot crawl to me? I read about it in my pre-post searches, but it sounds like something different.

Thanks in advance.

[AmazingRetro]

There is nothing wrong with your cable or your tv. This is also not dot crawl.
The Saturn is not very good at transparancies so usually developers use a black white checkerboard pattern in order to easily display transparancies such as the radar in panzer dragoon.
Because an RCA video cable is a low quality signal the colors bleed into each other making it look like it is transparant. As you are now using an s-video connection the signal is improved and the image displayed on your tv is much sharper. Because of this you can easily see the checkerboard patterns and the dithering used to simulate shades of color.
There is nothing you can do to make the checkerboard pattern disappear as it is displaying exactly what the Saturn is outputting. The only thing you could do is to start using the RCA cable again but that will mean the entire image is less sharp and the colors will be more washed out.

[Majors]

Or you can stop playing 3D games and stick w/ 2D fighters

Well, C:SotN has transparancies...your screwed. I've been down the same road, don't feel so bad.

[fvgazi]

Or you can stop playing 3D games and stick w/ 2D fighters

Well, C:SotN has transparancies...your screwed. I've been down the same road, don't feel so bad.

Play SotN on PSX!

I will be switching over to S-Video for my Saturn soon. I'm assuming this problems happens even on CRTs. I have a Sony Trinitron.

[AppleQueso]

heh, one of the few reasons I stick with composite for the most part

[CRTGAMER]

The continual debate between CRT vs LCD. may post a pic to help see exactly what the problem is. I suspect a combination of using a LCD and in widescreen mode. Turn off that wide screen stretch. Stick with S-Video, Composite only blurs the image.

My CRT vs LCD signature link may give some insight.

[BananaXX]

I could have sworn I heard somewhere that later on in the Saturn's life that developers achieved a true transparency.... Maybe I dreamt that...

[AppleQueso]

The continual debate between CRT vs LCD. may post a pic to help see exactly what the problem is. I suspect a combination of using a LCD and in widescreen mode. Turn off that wide screen stretch. Stick with S-Video, Composite only blurs the image.

My CRT vs LCD signature link may give some insight.

Amazingretro has already explained the issue to the OP. I don't think this has anything to do with LCD vs CRT at all.

[flamepanther]

Yep. This is normal on many Saturn games. They're using fake transparency instead of color blending. From what I understand, the Saturn was only designed to handle color blending on background layers, not sprites, 3D objects, or anything in the foreground. It's the only huge technical weakness of the Saturn that I can think of.

The same trick was used in some games on Sega Genesis as well.

[Hobie-wan]

Indeed, it is similar to the flicker trick used for transparency on older systems. It mostly works on RF and composite signals on a CRT due to the low quality and interlacing, but not so much on modern TVs and with systems that have been modded to tap into higher quality output signals. It's just like one's older systems looking 'fine' on the hand-me-down blurry TV you used as a kid, but looking 'blocky' now you might have it hooked up to a newer TV.