PS2 Wrong aspect ratio when playing PS1 games with OPL and $FORCEPAL activated

[Naharsio]

Hello, this is my first post here but I'm very thankful for all the information on modding the PS2.

Now, I'm trying to run Einhänder (NTSC game) on my PS2 FAT PAL in a PAL TV (obviously). I'm using a composite cable with a SCART head.

On this TV I can play 60hz games (I have a wii and I can set the TV to 60hz when playing Game Cube games for instance), but I think my ps2 cable is not letting me to do the same thing. So, when trying to play Einhänder for the PS1 with POPSTARTER, what I did was to set up the $FORCEPAL option with the special cheats option for POPS. Before doing so, the game was on full aspect ratio, but in black and white. After doing the $FORCEPAL thing, I can play with full color, but in a wrong aspect ratio, with a big black bar on the bottom of the screen.

Is there a way to correct the aspect ratio in the Display Settings menu in OPL or some other way?

Thanks in advance.

 

[jolek]

If your TV has a component input:

Buy a component cable:

You will get the best picture quality that the PS2 can output.
Plus these cables should be really cheap.


If it only has a SCART input buy a real RGB Scart Cable:

Additionally maybe one of these codes should become handy:

https://bitbucket.org/ShaolinAssassin/popstarter-documentation-stuff/wiki/special-cheats.

 

[Naharsio]

Thank you for your reply!

My tv does not have the component input you posted, but it does have two scart input points. The cable should do fine then?

 

[jolek]

This should be fine (real RGB cable):

But not this one:

 

[Naharsio]

Thanks! The second one is what I'm using. So I will skip POPS Cheats and just get that cable. Thank you!

 

[jolek]

At least try with CHEATS.TXT:

$HDTVFIX
$FORCEPAL
$YPOS_45

If the screen is too low try the decrease $YPOS_45 to e.g. $YPOS_40.
If the screen is too high try the increase $YPOS_45 to e.g. $YPOS_50.

Additionally if the screen is shift a little bit to the right try to enter $XPOS_632
If the screen is shift a little bit to the left try to enter $XPOS_642

$HDTVFIX
$FORCEPAL
$YPOS_45
$XPOS_632

 

[krHACKen]

Yeah, get a RGB SCART cable instead. The $FORCEPAL function is not meant to convert NTSC games to PAL. It is meant for PAL games that have their boot sector modified (to force POPS running in PAL mode when it cannot do it auromatically, because the said boot sector is wrong).
When using $FORCEPAL with a NTSC game, the NTSC aspect ratio is kept, display isn't centered and the emulator runs at PAL speed (which is incorrect for a NTSC game).
The wiki description says "Forces the activation of the PAL patcher (POPS will run it PAL) and patches the BIOS region code to Euro (shows the boot screen in PAL). Useful for PAL VCDs that don't have a valid license text in their bootsector." So $FORCEPAL should not be used with NTSC games.

 

[Naharsio]

The new cable worked like a charm. Thank you!