1 Topic by icemac (edited by icemac 2018-11-11 11:17:02)

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Topic: 50 and 60Hz modelines together with a single PAL tv

Hello Calamity,
I would like to thank you once again for your work and support. I've used CRTemudrivers for almost four years on XP 32-bit and Win7 64-bit without any problem. I've a PC with ATI Radeon HD5650 and two 50Hz Trinitron TVs.
Everything fine with Mame and lots of emulators (except for those which don't support lowres settings via menu/register/ini/config files like Spectaculator or Stella) until I approached Retroarch 1.7.5 with CRT support.


Just one basic question: I prepared a new user_mode.ini input file with EXACT vertical timings (e.g 320 x 288 @ 49.701458 MegadrivePal). I wrote 100+ modelines for both 50Hz and 60 Hz. Same resolutions have sometimes two entries with different timings (one for 50Hz and one for 60Hz).

Run Vmmaker (set to Tv PAL 50Hz), importing customized user_mode.ini -> Generate Modes -> Install modes.

[SOLVED - sorry]
Installed modelines are only ONE for each resolution. Is this correct? Only 50Hz modelines are generated. Do I need 60Hz modelines to run NTSC games in a proper way? (with emus like Snes9X or Fusion I never had problem using only 50Hz modelines both with European and USA games).
Also: is it useful to specify exact console vfreq? 

Thank you in advance.

p.s.: [SOLVED] I realized that I had on PC 2.0 beta 8 drivers. Now I installed 2.0beta 14 and see both 50 and 60 Hz modelines

2 Reply by icemac (edited by icemac 2018-11-11 12:23:55)

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Re: 50 and 60Hz modelines together with a single PAL tv

I updated to crt_emudriver_&_tools_2.0_beta_14_16.2.1_W.7.8.10-64_nieg and now the system is unstable...
1) Arcade OSD crashes everytime I set a new resolution (new resolution changes then program crashes) or I test an edited modeline (so I'm not able to adjust resolutions to screen).
2) Desktop resolution 640x480 @25i is a lot more flickery than before (same situation with 640x480@50i) and I don't know why. Can't install interlace patch "binary version not supported" (don't remember if it was ever installed before in my system)

3) Vmmaker generates STATIC resolution "normalizing" every resolution to 50Hz I wiped out all resolutions and tryed a user mode.ini input with just 5 "test" STATIC resolutions (50Hz and 60Hz): everything becomes 50Hz

My Card: Ati Radeon HD 5700 series

I switched back to driver 2.0beta 8 and two of three problems are solved:
2) less flicker in desktop 640x480@25i
3) bot 50Hz and 60Hz resolutions are installed

the issue 1) crashing ArcadeOSD (when I try to set or test a resolution) still remains

3 Reply by icemac

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Re: 50 and 60Hz modelines together with a single PAL tv

Same PC, different primary HDD - Windows 10 pro 64bit fresh install.

Straightforward installation of

crt_emudriver_&_tools_2.0_beta_14_12.6_W.7.8.10-64

No errors but...

1) Arcade OSD opens, shows and allow resolution list navigation but
DOESN'T CHANGE resolutions pressing Enter or testing. The program simply closes without error message and doing nothing. I'm stuck at standard 640x480@25Hz

2) Desktop resolution 640x480@25 flickers a lot

3) SOLVED, understood my error: resolutions were normalized because I selected TV PAL 15kHz. When I select Arcade Monitor before generating resolutions, both
50 and 60Hz are generated.

4 Reply by Calamity

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Re: 50 and 60Hz modelines together with a single PAL tv

With regards to 2, the deflicker filter was removed by popular demand:

[24/11/2017][CRT Emudriver 2.0][CRT Tools 2.0][beta 11]

  - [Emudriver]  Disabled deflicker filter for interlaced modes. Now your interlaced modes will look perfectly sharp, with all their genuine flicker intact.

If you like the deflicker filter, you can use a version of the driver previous to beta 11, and still use the updated CRT Tools.

With regards to 1, I'm afraid that must be some Windows 10 incompatibility. If you press "d", it'll show a debug console. Its contents my help diagnosing the issue.

5 Reply by icemac (edited by icemac 2018-11-12 01:10:27)

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Re: 50 and 60Hz modelines together with a single PAL tv

Thank you for your reply!

UNDER WIN10 fresh install SOLVED (1) :
start ArcadeOSD selecting Run in compatibility Mode for Windows 7
The program correctly enters TEST mode and changes resolutions without crashing anymore!

I can't manually add interlace patch on newer driver versions, can I? (yes... small fonts in windows are crispy... but flickering is very annoying).

6 Reply by Calamity

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Re: 50 and 60Hz modelines together with a single PAL tv

Most people hated the deflicker filter so I removed it from the driver (wasn't easy). It's not something that can be enabled through a registry setting. You need to use the old driver binary where the setting is enabled.

So the problem with Arcade OSD was Windows 10 compatibility, after all. I need to modernize it at some point.

7 Reply by icemac

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Re: 50 and 60Hz modelines together with a single PAL tv

Unfortunately, compatibility trick doesn't work with Windows7 64bit (tried checking every single compatibility flag, run as administrator but no way), ArcadeOSD crashes.

8 Reply by Calamity

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Re: 50 and 60Hz modelines together with a single PAL tv

I've never seen any crash on W7. Is DirectX properly installed?