PAL vs NTSC Megachip

[madgrizzle]

What's the difference between a PAL and NTSC Megachip (besides one being PAL and the other NTSC).  I'm looking to increase the chip RAM in my Amiga 2000 and, unless I'm wrong, NTSC Megachip is fairly rare (and therefore expensive when they do come available.. I don't watch amibay 24/7 to express interest if one did show up there).  PAL Megachips, however, seem less rare.  Since I use a graphics card (VA2000/CX) and if there is no difference in motherboards, what is stopping me from installing a PAL Megachip?  I know the VA2000/CX works with PAL.

[madgrizzle]

I wonder if the difference in timing will throw-off the VA2000/CX.. Regardless, soft-switching doesn't likely to seem to be much of an issue.

[madgrizzle]

Even if the VA2000/CX does work with a PAL megachip, external NTSC equipment will not work, even if the machine is soft switched into NTSC mode

Ah, now I think I understand.. So even if the VA2000/CX can output a signal over HDMI, the HDMI monitor set for NTSC won't be able to display it?  When you talked about external equipment, I thought you were talking about things like genlocks and such which I don't use.

Well, anyway, we'll find out since I already bought the thing.  Who knows, maybe some of the settings of the VA2000CX can get tweaked.  Worst case scenario we'll put the question to rest and I either find an NTSC Agnus (right?) or just put it all up for sale for someone with a PAL Amiga.

[madgrizzle]

Maybe I missed the point of this thread, but assuming you have a monitor or display device that supports both NTSC and PAL, what's the issue?

Heck, I thought I understood this stuff until this morning.  Its a Dell (I think S2240L) with VGA and HDMI.. and I use HDMI with the VA2000/CX.. Isn't PAL and NTSC an analog thing?

For Workbench and productivity software it won't matter, just select whatever screenmode you want, and for games you can select either PAL or NTSC with WHDLoad/Degrader/etc.

Learning something new every day about my Amiga (didn't know about the WHDLoad tooltype).  Wish I hadn't taken a 25 year hiatus.

Or is the question will a NTSC motherboard + NTSC VA2000/CX work with a PAL Megachip?  Guess, like you said, we'll find out!  

AFAIK, there's no NTSC or PAL variety of VA2000/CX.. certainly didn't have to pick an option when I ordered it.

##SMDH, I can't believe we're still having issues with NTSC vs. PAL in 2017, lol. :laughing:

Hadn't heard of SMDH before.. when I googled it I got "Seriously Degraded Modem Hours"... which I thought was funny considering the era of the computers (I googled again and got the real definition)

[madgrizzle]

I hear you Pat and appreciate your comments.  I probably was too quick to pull the trigger, but it is what it is.  The nice thing about the VA2000/CX is that its an fpga and the developer is still active.  I'd be more concerned if I had a legacy graphics card, but right now, I'm hopeful with the parameters that can be set for the VA2000/CX that I can get it to work.  There are setting for mode (resolution), hsize, vsize, hoffset and voffset..

Is it correct to say that the megachip itself (not the chip, but the board) is the same regardless of being PAL or NTSC?  So if I find a NTSC Agnus I can pop it in and get a working NTSC megachip?

[madgrizzle]

Just installed megachip.  Booted up to workbench with no issues.  After boot, Amiga Workbench shows 1,912,888 graphics mem.  I was able to run Cannonfodder, which requires 2 MB of chip ram.

[madgrizzle]

To add some additional information to the topic, as I have been working on getting a 3000 going, I haven't done anything with my 2000.  I went ahead and connected the output of the 23-pin video to a GBS8220 to see what the PAL megachip would do and though it took some tweaking, the video works well with the workbench.  Whatever incompatibility there might be due to a PAL agnus inside an NTSC amiga is handled by the GBS.  I also tried a game on it (Defenders of the Crown) and it worked as well.  However, you cannot set a tooltype of NTSC for it.  I assume if there is no tooltype, it defaults to PAL and that seems to work.

[madgrizzle]

What do you have it connected to?  Are you going direct to a monitor or something else?