Consoles today may have regional locks (but i am pretty sure PS3, PS4 and XB1 does not), but this has nothing to do with the TV signal formats anymore, after HD displays with HDMI connectivity became the standard.
Ah, yes I just confirmed this today from the guy selling it to me; he says ever since FULL HD has been introduced, all games on all region consoles run at 60 Hz and there's no lag or sluggish gameplay. If a game's running at 30 fps in the US, it'll run at exactly 30 fps in other non-US regions, so long as you have an HD/HDMI complaint TV.
**Back when the two different systems were in use, NTSC games would not run at lower framerates on PAL systems. They would simply not run at all**, because the consoles would not accept games from other regions. If you modified a PAL region console to run NTSC games, the games would run at the framerate they were intended to run at, but if your TV set didn't support 60hz output, you'd either get a messed up picture, or no picture on the screen at all.
In my previous post, I was pointing to the fact that PAL games generally ran slower on PAL systems as opposed to US games running on NTSC systems, not trying to run PAL games on an NTSC system or the other way around. For example, when I had a SNES, it was an NTSC system, and games like DKC and MK ran very smoothly, no lag. My mate had a PAL SNES, I could notice the lag and slower frames right away. Same was the case with Mega Drive, PS1 and PS2 games.
The reason they are different in the first place, is that in the old days, television sets were made to refresh at the same rate as the electricity in people's houses were (for various reasons, i don't remember exactly), which was 50 hz in europe, but 60 hz in the US. In reality, the PAL and NTSC color formats are independent of the refresh rate of the signal, but because PAL TV sets also normally supported only 50 hz, it wasn't exactly much of a point in supplying 60hz content as well, as many users wouldn't have any use for it.
Right, so you're reiterating that there are now no frame rate differences or noticeable lag IF you're running a game on a console that isn't NTSC? Doesn't matter which region it is, all games will run the same, and now you CAN run a PAL game on an NTSC X1 and the other way around? I just need to know we're on the same page, that's all.
Starting at around the year 2000, TVs that would support almost any signal you threw at it became more and more common, which is why a fair amount of games on the PS2, especially those that relied on precise timing (tekken, an other fighting games for example), would support 60hz refresh rate modes even if it was a PAL game.
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Other than the framerate, there wasn't any extra lag introduced on a pal system. However, some games terribly ported, and instead of adjusting animations so that each movement had fewer frames, they instead slowed game's graphics down by approximately 16%, making animations and gameplay very sluggy. For example, running in some games started looking like you were actually walking on the moon.
I noticed this on EVERY game my friend had on his PAL PS1. My NTSC version of WRC or Road Rash for example, ran noticeably smoother.
However, because the two signal standards have also become synonymous with the region the standards are used in, some consoles that still use regional locks may still use those terms to distinguish between regions.
Ah, right. So as of now, both the PS4 and X1 run Bluray disc games from all regions no matter what region your console is?
Personally, I think this is very funny on handheld game systems, which in fact use neither PAL or NTSC, but still label their games as one of those.
Tinfoil mode: I think the manufacturers of these handheld consoles are trying to ensure that the majority of players still think there is an actual reason to keep regional locks, when in reality this is done solely to prevent imports so that they can segment the various markets in the world more easily and charge as much as possible in every area.
I guess GT7 will support it as well.
