Famicom in Australia

[silenzxe]

Righto, so, everything's working now! Fantastic!

Except I'm getting weird ass screen bobbing/shaking or something.

Famicom is now hooked up to a Sony HDTV via a PAL N64 cable, though, so what do you guys think?

[GreenKoopa]

The problem is the cable you are using. As the AV Famicom is NTSC, you must use a NTSC cable. This is why you're getting a picture issue. I recommend you buy a genuine Nintendo branded NTSC cable - forget the aftermarket stuff. It can be American (NTSC) or Japanese (J-NTSC), either will work the same.

The technical reasons as to why there is a difference between cables: http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?PHPSESSID=f9atn3icj02q4ao6f0gtmn9d23&topic=3203.0

PAL cables have a particular resistor and capacitor located in the console and none in the cable, whereas for NTSC this resistor and capacitor are located in the cable and none in the console. In your setup,both the PAL cable and NTSC console don't have this resistor and capacitor which you need to get the correct picture. Supposedly Nintendo did this as a form of region lockout.

[silenzxe]

Hey man, thanks a bunch for the detailed answer.

I'll see about getting onto that as soon as possible, then.

[P]

The problem is the cable you are using. As the AV Famicom is NTSC, you must use a NTSC cable. This is why you're getting a picture issue. I recommend you buy a genuine Nintendo branded NTSC cable - forget the aftermarket stuff. It can be American (NTSC) or Japanese (J-NTSC), either will work the same.

The technical reasons as to why there is a difference between cables: http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?PHPSESSID=f9atn3icj02q4ao6f0gtmn9d23&topic=3203.0

PAL cables have a particular resistor and capacitor located in the console and none in the cable, whereas for NTSC this resistor and capacitor are located in the cable and none in the console. In your setup,both the PAL cable and NTSC console don't have this resistor and capacitor which you need to get the correct picture. Supposedly Nintendo did this as a form of region lockout.

Does this really apply to AV-cables? I've been using my AV-cables on all my Nintendo systems that have the multi-out port and it works on both my NTSC and PAL systems as far as I can tell.

[GreenKoopa]

Does this really apply to AV-cables? I've been using my AV-cables on all my Nintendo systems that have the multi-out port and it works on both my NTSC and PAL systems as far as I can tell.

From what I found out a while back, Pal-A (UK, Italy & Australia) were the most profitable markets, so Nintendo wanted to ensure people couldn't import cheaper NTSC games and hardware. However, maybe they did the same thing with Pal-B (rest of Europe) so Pal-A couldn't use these items also? I've read that Pal A games won't work in a Pal-B Nes console and vice versa due to the lockout chip, so maybe they did the same thing with the hardware also? Someone else will need to confirm.

Is your cable Pal-A or Pal-B?

[verteks]

Standard controllers also have lockout chip - when you want to use NTSC NES pad with PAL - A / PAL - B console, it won't work. Controllers are protected like cables - resistor (or two, I don't remember) in PAL controllers.

I didn't know about "lockout" in cables before I read this thread, so I can't confirm this.

[P]

Yeah not really lockout chips but it uses discrete circuitry like resistors or diodes for a very simple region protection. This only applies to certain PAL NES controllers and all PAL SNES controllers though (Nintendo 64 and later controllers are region-free everywhere). SCN (Scandinavian Nintendo, I think it's part of PAL-B) was supposedly first in Europe and we didn't have any lockout in our NES controllers (USA NES controllers works).

I've read that Pal A games won't work in a Pal-B Nes console and vice versa due to the lockout chip, so maybe they did the same thing with the hardware also?.

Games yes, hardware probably not. Non-Scandinavian PAL-B NES systems requires their own controllers (and AC-adapters I believe) I heard. US NES, SCN PAL-B NES, AV-Famicom (probably), and maybe PAL-A NES too, however can use any NES controllers.
For SNES, all PAL SNES systems requires PAL SNES controllers, while NTSC SNES and Super Famicom can use any controller. So the lockout in hardware is only one-way.

Is your cable Pal-A or Pal-B?

My PAL systems are all from SCN so I guess they'd be PAL-B, but I don't think PAL-A and PAL-B applies to SNES and later Nintendo systems. Which means there are probably no PAL-A/B AV-cables (since NES uses RCA sockets for AV, not the multi-out socket, and AV-Famicom is NTSC only). My AV-cables came with my Nintendo 64 and Gamecube (SNES bought new at launch, only came with the RF-switch as far as I remember), and they all work on all my Nintendo systems.