PS3HEN Making an American PS3 display PAL through registry editing - is this possible?

J

joemanners21

Forum Noob
Through bad luck, I unknowingly bought a North American PS3. I originally purchased it for media playback on very old TV sets, something that I'm unable to do, due to the display settings only having NTSC as an option.

I installed HEN and HEN Toolbox on this to try registry editing. Not sure what to change. Is it possible to fix this obscure issue?

PS3 Model no.: CECH-3001A
Firmware: HEN 4.6.1
 
joemanners21 said:
Through bad luck, I unknowingly bought a North American PS3. I originally purchased it for media playback on very old TV sets, something that I'm unable to do, due to the display settings only having NTSC as an option.

I installed HEN and HEN Toolbox on this to try registry editing. Not sure what to change. Is it possible to fix this obscure issue?

PS3 Model no.: CECH-3001A
Firmware: HEN 4.6.1
Click to expand...
if you are talking about videos you have ripped from pal dvd, then i recommend trying movian. if it doesnt display correctly, there may be settings you can adjust. i watch some pal tv shows on american tv (PBS) and they will have very thin black line on the sides of older shows but its not a big deal.

if you talking about playing pal dvd directly, there is a setting in webman and multiman that will change dvd region.

BTW any ps3 games are region free. you can buy pal/euro or even japanese ps3 game disc and play on your american ps3.
 
I meant changing the actual system video output (the one you can set in Display Settings) to be PAL, not just DVDs. Since mine is an American system, it has NTSC ticked by default (I want to use the Multi AV out), and I can't change it. I was wondering if there's a way to override this.

And correction: System version is the latest 4.86 HEN.
 
If the TV is old and you see picture in shades of grey (black and white) you're probably connected with a composhit cable. Connect your Ps3 with a Scart-RGB one for Playstation (it's the same cable for Ps1/2/3), other than correctly see colors you'll have a huge improvement in overall picture quality over the composite cable.

If your TV has more than one SCART input, connect the SCART-RGB to the input number one (AV1, EXT1, VIDEO1...) 'cause usually RGB signal is only supported on the first input (on AV2 input you'll get a CVBS/composite signal even if you're using a SCART-RGB cable).

I had to do the same as you want but for the opposite (With PAL Ps3 I wanted the games to output at 60hz on a old CRT Tv because in PAL mode they're jerky due to 20% less frames at 50hz). With the help of the forum, I installed HAN and firstly tried editing the Registry (changing 2 or 3 options about video mode/output and console region), then I tried editing the game's PARAM.SFOs, but neither of those methods worked for every game (it worked for less than half of my games).

At last I changed the console region (to North America) accessing the debug menu (I changed the XMB from CEX to DEX with HAN Toolbox, changed region and reverted back to CEX).

This way almost all of my games correctly outputted in NTSC 60hz, not all of them btw, I had to change the PARAM.SFO too on some and even so 2 games out of 54 didn't worked even with console region changed and edited PARAM.SFO (One piece PW (PSN): after booting it kicks me back to the XMB. And First of the North Star Ken's Rage (BD): it give me a error message about video mode).

Obviously I can't play PAL DVDs without reverting back the console region. I agree with the solution @Coro gived you. Imho is better if you leave the console region to NTSC for having the correct screen refresh and game's frame-rate.
 
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Like Coro said, I never have faced problems playing PAL content on my NTSC console.

Anyway you can try spoofing the IDPS with an European idps with product code (85 or 87).
 
Peppe90 said:
If the TV is old and you see picture in shades of grey (black and white) you're probably connected with a composhit cable. Connect your Ps3 with a Scart-RGB one for Playstation (it's the same cable for Ps1/2/3), other than correctly see colors you'll have a huge improvement in overall picture quality over the composite cable.

If your TV has more than one SCART input, connect the SCART-RGB to the input number one (AV1, EXT1, VIDEO1...) 'cause usually RGB signal is only supported on the first input (on AV2 input you'll get a CVBS/composite signal even if you're using a SCART-RGB cable).

I had to do the same as you want but for the opposite (With PAL Ps3 I wanted the games to output at 60hz on a old CRT Tv because in PAL mode they're jerky due to 20% less frames at 50hz). With the help of the forum, I installed HAN and firstly tried editing the Registry (changing 2 or 3 options about video mode/output and console region), then I tried editing the game's PARAM.SFOs, but neither of those methods worked for every game (it worked for less than half of my games).

At last I changed the console region (to North America) accessing the debug menu (I changed the XMB from CEX to DEX with HAN Toolbox, changed region and reverted back to CEX).

This way almost all of my games correctly outputted in NTSC 60hz, not all of them btw, I had to change the PARAM.SFO too on some and even so 2 games out of 54 didn't worked even with console region changed and edited PARAM.SFO (One piece PW (PSN): after booting it kicks me back to the XMB. And First of the North Star Ken's Rage (BD): it give me a error message about video mode).

Obviously I can't play PAL DVDs without reverting back the console region. I agree with the solution @Coro gived you. Imho is better if you leave the console region to NTSC for having the correct screen refresh and game's frame-rate.
Click to expand...

I'm planning to use both RGB SCART and Composite (for RF Televisions). I bought a SCART cable from eBay, and was using it, but it only outputted either black and white composite, or just a green image when I set the TV to RGB (I'm not calling it a faulty cable just yet).

I think that the console region change is what I need to go for, though I have no clue how to do that debug buisness. I need some help with that.
 
joemanners21 said:
I'm planning to use both RGB SCART and Composite (for RF Televisions). I bought a SCART cable from eBay, and was using it, but it only outputted either black and white composite, or just a green image when I set the TV to RGB (I'm not calling it a faulty cable just yet).

I think that the console region change is what I need to go for, though I have no clue how to do that debug buisness. I need some help with that.
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The DEX debug menu is unavailable on hen as far as i know.

I have used a "RF Modulator" with an older tv. It looked very bad (blurry). I don't know if pal tvs have the same hookups as we do but mine had composite input and the ouput went to antenna/cable hookup. the ps3 was displayed on channel 3.
 
Coro said:
The DEX debug menu is unavailable on hen as far as i know.

I have used a "RF Modulator" with an older tv. It looked very bad (blurry). I don't know if pal tvs have the same hookups as we do but mine had composite input and the ouput went to antenna/cable hookup. the ps3 was displayed on channel 3.
Click to expand...

Image quality isn't what I'm going for, I know it wouldn't be HDMI. My issue is that, as this thing is only outputting NTSC (and again, it's ticked by default and I can't change it) video on composite and RGB, I don't get a color image on these old (really old) color TVs. I'm not planning to play games through said analogue, so that part wouldn't be an issue.

It'd suck if I couldn't change the region somehow, or do some trickery just to enable the PAL setting in the display settings.
 
if you have the cash, get a framemeister. it can display ntsc or pal 60 or 50hz. I have mine in ntsc 1080p. they don't make them anymore though, and you have to import from Japan at the price of like $400. might not be worth it with an old tv. the framemeister cost more than the tv I use it with, but it's only 28" for my bedroom.
 
joemanners21 said:
Image quality isn't what I'm going for, I know it wouldn't be HDMI. My issue is that, as this thing is only outputting NTSC (and again, it's ticked by default and I can't change it) video on composite and RGB, I don't get a color image on these old (really old) color TVs. I'm not planning to play games through said analogue, so that part wouldn't be an issue.

It'd suck if I couldn't change the region somehow, or do some trickery just to enable the PAL setting in the display settings.
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you may be able to do it with xregistry but im not sure (search the forums).

i think i know what the ultimate issue is now...ntsc is 29.97 fps and pal is 25 fps (or 60hz and 50hz-same thing). that is what is taking out the color i believe. i have seen similar.
 
pinky said:
yes, normally incompatible display will lack color iirc.
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Yeah, that's why I want it to have the PAL option in the display settings.
Coro said:
you may be able to do it with xregistry but im not sure (search the forums).

i think i know what the ultimate issue is now...ntsc is 29.97 fps and pal is 25 fps (or 60hz and 50hz-same thing). that is what is taking out the color i believe. i have seen similar.
Click to expand...

https://psdevwiki.com/ps3/XRegistry.sys - I've been looking at this site, sadly, no mention of console region. The only PAL mentioned is something about DVD playback only, not what I'm going for. The forum doesn't have too many results for this either.
 
it may be listed based on region, but I don't know. have you tried changing your location to England or Spain?
 
on this page it says:
480i/480p is not supported on PAL, just as 576i/576p isn't on NTSC.

i dont think its gonna work without an adaptor.
 
pinky said:
it may be listed based on region, but I don't know. have you tried changing your location to England or Spain?
Click to expand...

Which setting, I may ask? I haven't found a system setting like that.

Coro said:
on this page it says:
480i/480p is not supported on PAL, just as 576i/576p isn't on NTSC.

i dont think its gonna work without an adaptor.
Click to expand...

That's why I wanted to ask if I could just change the system's region through hackery to be European.
 
I just took this photo while playing mega man x2 on the retron 3 HD. I have it on 1080p as you can see, but I can make it 576p 50hz with the framemeister if I want. off topic, I tried to win a donkey kong country 3 snes cart, since I lost mine, but I haven't been able to get it yet. $30 seems a little high for a not-so-rare game.
20200613_043815_HDR.jpg
 
pinky said:
I just took this photo while playing mega man x2 on the retron 3 HD. I have it on 1080p as you can see, but I can make it 576p 50hz with the framemeister if I want. off topic, I tried to win a donkey kong country 3 snes cart, since I lost mine, but I haven't been able to get it yet. $30 seems a little high for a not-so-rare game.
Click to expand...

This is a modern television that you're using, though. My TVs are all ancient, and I want to be able to use my PS3 for media playback on all of them.
 
pinky said:
it's in system settings. it displays a map when you choose your location.
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Sadly, all I can change is the language, not seeing any setting related to countries. I don't want to be dumb, I really just don't see options relating to what you're describing.
 
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hmm....maybe it's not there. the tv isn't that new. it's the only model I could find with vga. now tvs only come with hdmi. I recently bought a neo geo mini and that comes with mini hdmi, so I had to buy an adapter. that's all my setup is: adapters and lots and lots of cables. my receiver doesn't have hdmi either, so I have to convert the audio to optical and hdmi together from one hdmi source. my tv only has one hdmi port too, and I have 8 or 9 things plugged into it via adapters and splitters. the framemeister does have composite on the front of it. I know of no way to do what you're asking. there's probably a way, but I just have never delved into that facet of the ps3.
 
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