URGENT HELP - differences between UK & US G400MAX?

[adamhamilton]

Does anyone know if the US and UK versions of the G400-MAX are different at all?
I'm thinking mainly about TV-out compatability etc.

I have live in the UK and have a friend who can get me one in the US.

Thanks,

[Paddy]

I would not have thought so
I have a G400 and it came with a S-VHS lead.

[Jorden]

There shouldn't be a difference, for you can set the output to the TV to NTSC or PAL using the Powerdesk. There isn't a difference between output to a European or American monitor... as far as I know of anyway.

85Hz is 85Hz, right?

Just the TV output is different (NTSC = 60Hz against PAL = 50Hz)

Jorden.

[Frank]

Yep, I agree with me mate Jordy (mind if I
call ya that?.....ahem....).
Monitors are universal around the world except for their voltage rating at the power socket.
However TV's, as said upstairs, are 60hz for example Yankland NTSC and 50Hz for PAL like in Aussiestralia.
The tv's draw their refresh rate from the power mains, 115V@60Hz vs 240V@50Hz.
The construction of the G400/Max offers compatibility with both standards.
Actually you get a higher resolution on the PAL standard tv's 'cos I think they scan 625 lines whereas NTSC scans 550 something...
but by the same token NTSC has a higher refresh rate. 10 fps more.....heh

[adamhamilton]

That's cool, my friend has now ordered it for me and he's bringing it with him when he comes to the UK next week :-)

It's saved me 50 UK pounds (about US $82).

[Frank]

Dunno Hellmut, that is my understanding of what a tv's refresh rate is based on.

CALLING ALL TV REPAIRMEN and VIDEO TECHNICIANS....please!

[Hellmut]

I just felt like pointing out that the internal frequencies of a tv set are generated through some precision quartz/pll stuff instead of just hacking the wall outlet AC into a TTL level square signal through transforming/gating ;-)
BTW, the broadcasted TV signal contains the VSync in itself, no need to sync the refresh rate to the AC...

whatever,
Hellmut

[Maggi]

Hi Frank,

trust Hellmut in Video-topics ...

------------------
Cheers,
Maggi
________________________

Working Rig:
Asus P2B-DS @ 103MHz FSB
Double Pentium III-450 @ 464 MHz
4 x 128MB CAS2 SDRAM
Matrox Millennium G400 32MB DualHead
Nokia 445Xi (21")
Nokia 447Xpro (17")

Home Rig:
Asus P2B-S Bios 1010 @ 100MHz FSB
Celeron 333A @ 500MHz
2 x 128MB CAS2 SDRAM
Matrox Millennium G400 32MB DualHead @ 150/200MHz
CTX VL710T (17")

[Hellmut]

Hi Frank,

it is right that the refresh rate equals the surge frequency, but it is not drawn from it.
Those 50/60Hz from your wall outlet vary by some Hz up and down. The powerplant's generators have to adapt to changing loads (i.e. when Reynolds Aluminium switches on the melter), regarding the tons of steel involved, it is obvious that there is a latency between load changes and recovering to 50 x n rpm, where n is the pole pairs.
Deriving the frequency from the wall power would be somewhat too unstable for driving a TV picture...Know those old clocks that run faster one day and slower the other? Over a week it runs about right ;-)

l8er,
Hellmut

[smitr]

I think some of the realy early sets refresh rate had something to do with the mains frequency (I'm talking 40 years ago here).
But TV now are more flexible and will sync to almost any frequency (depending on the quality of parts used). This is to make it easy when selling to different countries of differn't stadards in refresh rates and resolution(I beleave Australias PAL standard 500 lines@50Hz and NTSC is 400 lines@60Hz and a revised version of PAL gets even more lines and some European countries use other variations of PAL refresh & lines/frame rates) this means other than the color standards most TVs will operate under any standard (new TVs can even handel both color standards).

I have used my old(about 20 years old) PAL TV set to watch NTSC out of DVD decoder card and got a good B/w picture.



[This message has been edited by smitr (edited 02 November 1999).]