50Hz Video Modes for European games

Cemi70

Hello.

Normally i prefer 60Hz USA versions of games. That is fine for the video mode my PC sends to my TV (1920×1080@60Hz).

But english is not my native language and so i prefer sometimes european versions of games when they are very heavy text based. Some other games are Europe/UK/Australia only (Daze before Christmas SNES/Megadrive for example).

The problem is that these games run in 50Hz and, with a Video Out of 60Hz, these games judder a little bit when scrolling.

The solution is to select a video mode with 50Hz for these games as “per game” config. So the judder is gone. The only problem i have with this solution is, that there is only 720×576 selectable as 50Hz video mode. And that gives me borders all around the screen for these games.

Is it possible to select other 50Hz video modes for these games or make them availiable in future Batocera versions (1280×720@50Hz/1920×1080@50Hz)?

Thanks in advance

joinski

Cemi70

What kind of hardware do you use?

Cemi70

joinski A PC with a Ryzen 5 3400G and its integrated Vega 11 GPU.

I use the Batocera x64 architecture.

The problem should exist on any platform with 60Hz video out and games that run in 50Hz.

Atari

This so much, Batocera has lacking PAL region support!

Cemi70

Atari If there were not only 60Hz resolutions, except this one PAL “4:3” resolution, it would bei perfect.

Then we could use “Game Options/Advanced Game Options” in game select screen to use a 50Hz video mode for these PAL exclusive games or PAL games in native languages to avoid this judder of PAL games played with a 60Hz Video mode.

joinski

Cemi70

on RPi it is possible to choose a TV Mode with 50Hz, but on x86 unfortunately not and i don’t know why (maybe a driver related issue?)

Cemi70

joinski Last year i had an old full HD Plasma TV. That TV had an EDID that forced this PC to a Default of 1920×1080@50Hz. So i had no Problem, because i could choose a 60Hz Resolution for all systems in “Advanced system config” and had to choose the defauft resolution of my TV, which was a 50Hz resolution, only for the PAL exclusives and PAL games with native language.

Atari

joinski I think it’s just a matter of implementation. Right now Batocera is hard-coded to use 60Hz as its refresh rate. It could instead be separated so that refresh rate is a separate option to resolution.

Maybe it could be set up in a similar way to how audio output + audio profile is set up right now. First you select your desired resolution, then the options in “refresh rate” change based on that. Just spitballing ideas here, though.

Currently, there is no way to set a custom refresh rate. Note: you can set a custom framerate, but as far as I can tell this is purely internal (the screen still refreshes at 60Hz).

joinski

Cemi70

interesting! so it may depend on the used TV respective its EDID

Cemi70

Atari i would not set 50Hz global like the audio settings, because of such systems Like Arcade, Handheld and Systems like PC Engine or systems that had no european release. They all have no 50Hz games and then these games judder or slow down. The 50Hz option as “per system” or “per Game” config makes more sense in my opinion. So everyone can choose which system or Game runs in the desired refresh-rate without affecting the 60Hz only Systems.

Atari

well that’s what I’m suggesting… to add an option to the already existing “video mode” settings to also include “video refresh rate” as its own separate menu. That way you could set your own refresh rate per game/system/global.

Ultimately, the best solution is to just use the refresh rate of the game itself.

Cemi70

Atari Exactly, it depends on the game that is used.

Most european games are english only. There we can use 60Hz USA versions. Sonic and Mario are fine in 60Hz.

But text heavy PAL games in native languages or “PAL only” releases are better with 50Hz screen refresh rate. Some friends have never seen this judder since i have showed them the difference. They thought that this is normal for PAL. Outside Europe (in 60Hz regions) this problem most people probably will not care.

So it is not surprising that this problem is not so public.

I have checked the Pi4 from my son. As Joinsky said, the Pi has the option to choose a good amount of 50Hz resolutions that can be used for PAL games.

Seemingly it is a PC only problem.

Depending on the TV i have various refresh rates for different resolutions with batocera. But i can`t choose the refresh rate. With Batocera my old TV gave me 1920×1080@50Hz. With Batocera my new TV gives me only 720×576@50Hz for 50Hz, which scales horribly. With windows this PC can do 1280×720@50Hz and 1920×1080@50Hz on that new TV. So the hardware should not be the problem to do 50Hz for selected games.

Cemi70

I have played around with xrandr. The good thing is that i now know that Batocera could do 1920×1080@50Hz and 1280×720@50Hz with my PC and TV. The problem is that everytime i start a system or game with a 60Hz video mode as per game or system config and return to Emulationstation the xrandr selected video mode 50Hz is gone. When i reboot the PC the xrandr selected video mode with 50Hz is back.

These are the video modes my TV can do. It would be very helpful if Batocera has a option to select the refresh rate as per game or system config like the resolution and other options already are.

HDMI-A-0 connected primary 1280×720+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 1440mm x 810mm

1920×1080 60.00 + 120.00 100.00 119.88 50.00 59.94 30.00 25.00 24.00 29.97 23.98

3840×2160 60.00 50.00 59.94 30.00 25.00 24.00 29.97 23.98

1920×1080i 60.00 50.00 59.94

1600×1200 60.00

1680×1050 59.88

1400×1050 59.95

1280×1024 60.02

1440×900 59.90

1280×960 60.00

1280×800 59.91

1280×720 120.00 100.00 119.88 60.00 50.00* 59.94

1024×768 60.00

800×600 60.32

720×576 50.00

720×480 60.00 59.94

640×480 60.00 59.94

DisplayPort-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

Atari

Cemi70 You could probably refer to the CRT guide for the solution to ES forcing 60Hz again, check https://wiki.batocera.org/batocera-and-crt#disable_emulationstation_from_forcing_60_hz and https://wiki.batocera.org/batocera-and-crt#persist_screen_scaling_after_exiting_an_emulator

Cemi70

Atari Thank you for these links. I will test if it works for my problem. 😀

Cemi70

Atari with the 18th january beta i can choose various 50Hz resolutions for the PAL only games as per game config on my Emulation-PC 👍 Thank you to the good people from batocera.

marcelosofth

Cemi70 Hello friend, I saw that you found the solution to use 50Hz in Batocera, could you tell me how I do it too?