Skipping audio on modded PAL Saturn...

[flavio75]

Hello everyone

I have a question about CD-R games. I apologize if this has been already asked, but I really do not know what else to try. I just successfully installed a modboard in my Model 2 PAL Saturn. Everything works fine: the Saturn runs both originals and CD-R games. However, in a few games, the audio starts skipping after a few minutes of play. It skips for a few seconds, then resumes and plays normally for another few minutes. This only happens with a few games: for example it happens with Sonic R, but not with Virtua Racing (both CD-R). A few original games also apparently have the same problem: for example the audio of the Intro Movie in Magic Knight Rayearth skips a lot, but other Intro Movies, such as Sonic 3D Blast, work perfectly.

My question is: is this due to the 50/60 Hz problem ? My Saturn is PAL, so I guess it is running at 50 Hz. MKR is the US version, so probably it needs 60 Hz. However, all the background audio in Sonic R uses CD-DA format (in fact I can listen to it in a regular CD player), so I guess 50 or 60 Hz should not be important... I also listened to all the audio tracks in Sonic R, and they are ok, so it was not a bad .WAV file. Any ideas ?

Thanks to everybody,

Flavio

 

[IceDigger]

you could try to carefully clean your laser lens. also, check if the CDs are scratched. skipping audio on cdrs could be caused by bad/cheap media or too high burning speed.

 

[CrossBow]

Yeap...either the CDs burned the skips in originally or the it could be the lens...needs cleaning.

You should always burn the CDs no higher than about 4x speed to prevent skipping audio problems. Also it is possible that in some cases I have converted MP3s which produced skips in the actual wave simply because I was doing something in the background while the conversion was taking place. I have sinced started to use 2 PCs for this to prevent this.

 

[DarkX]

Well, it really could be the 50/60 Hz problem!

If the music is timed with the action on screen, such as in movies, then the screen will be slower than it has to when running a 60 Hz-game on PAL... So the music tries to sync with it and stutters!

I had the same problem with "House Of The Dead" US on my PAL Sat till I added a 50/60 Hz switch!

 

[mal]

Quote: from DarkX on 9:05 pm on Nov. 28, 2001

I had the same problem with "House Of The Dead" US on my PAL Sat till I added a 50/60 Hz switch!

I didn't have this problem with my (supposedly) US copy of House of the Dead. Maybe the rip I got was a Euro one converted to US, 'cause it seems to work fine on my PAL Saturn.

 

[DarkX]

I didn't have this problem with my (supposedly) US copy of House of the Dead. Maybe the rip I got was a Euro one converted to US, 'cause it seems to work fine on my PAL Saturn.

Possible...

Mine wasn't just skippy in sound but even the light-gun made problems...

Flavio: I really advise you to solder a PAL/NTSC-switch into your Saturn!

It isn't so hard to do if you can use a soldering-iron...