Screen Refresh Rate Setting in Windows

[Yardley]

Hi guys, I've always had a problem displaying 480i where it looks as if the FPS is sluggish (best way I can describe it). It doesn't look choppy, just sluggish, almost a bit dream like if you think of it as an effect even though the emulator will show that it is running at full speed. This happens with all 480i content like playing video files not just with gaming/emulators.

Recently in Windows 7, I went to Screen Resolution -> Advanced settings -> Monitor and changed the screen refresh rate from 60 Hertz to 30 Herz interlaced and I'm pretty sure this fixed the problem. The motion looks much snappier now.

Can someone comment as to why this might be happening? This happens with multiple CRT monitors by the way.

[krick]

We need more details.

What are your system specs?

What version of groovymame? 

What version of CRT Emudriver?

Run the game in question and generate a log and post it here.

[Yardley]

We need more details.

What are your system specs?

What version of groovymame? 

What version of CRT Emudriver?

Run the game in question and generate a log and post it here.

Read my post please, it's not related to any specific game or emulator. It is related to 480i content overall, even playing a music video file in Windows. Like I mentioned, I seem to have fixed it by setting the refresh rate to 30 Hertz I'm just trying to understand why this is happening and if setting the refresh rate in Windows to 30 Hertz is ok. I'm running an i5-3470 with an R7 250 graphics card and CRT Emudriver Beta 10 16.2.1 to take advantage of the flicker filter that was removed in later versions.

[Yardley]

Anyone?

[chromium]

Anyone?

Did you try this?

http://geedorah.com/eiusdemmodi/forum/viewtopic.php?id=344

I tried to install it, but it didn't recognise my build number

[Yardley]

Anyone?

Did you try this?

http://geedorah.com/eiusdemmodi/forum/viewtopic.php?id=344

I tried to install it, but it didn't recognise my build number

Yeah I had the same problem. I emailed the kernel file mentioned in the instructions if it failed to Calamity but I didn’t hear back.

[Yardley]

Now after changing the refresh rate from 60 Hertz to 30 Hertz in Windows, I cannot go back to 60 Hertz. When I try, my screen goes black and I have to reboot. After I reboot, it boots up with a resolution of 1280x240 and if I change it to 640x480, the refresh automatically sets itself to 30 Hertz 

[Calamity]

Now after changing the refresh rate from 60 Hertz to 30 Hertz in Windows, I cannot go back to 60 Hertz. When I try, my screen goes black and I have to reboot. After I reboot, it boots up with a resolution of 1280x240 and if I change it to 640x480, the refresh automatically sets itself to 30 Hertz 

You're not supposed to use Windows dialog to change the refresh alone. You want full control of what you're doing, that means setting a whole video mode (width x height @ refresh) not a simple refresh rate. You can do that using, e.g. Arcade OSD.

That said, Windows makes a confusing mess about refresh rates when interlace is considered. Instead of just saying 60 Hz+interlaced (60i), Windows reports 30 Hz. I wish the engineers that made this stupid decision are given what they deserve in this life or the next.

Probably, the issue you're seeing has to do with how Aero (the enhanced video system in 7) handles desktop compositing in combination with an interlaced video mode. Try disabling Aero and see if it makes a difference.

[Yardley]

Now after changing the refresh rate from 60 Hertz to 30 Hertz in Windows, I cannot go back to 60 Hertz. When I try, my screen goes black and I have to reboot. After I reboot, it boots up with a resolution of 1280x240 and if I change it to 640x480, the refresh automatically sets itself to 30 Hertz 

You're not supposed to use Windows dialog to change the refresh alone. You want full control of what you're doing, that means setting a whole video mode (width x height @ refresh) not a simple refresh rate. You can do that using, e.g. Arcade OSD.

That said, Windows makes a confusing mess about refresh rates when interlace is considered. Instead of just saying 60 Hz+interlaced (60i), Windows reports 30 Hz. I wish the engineers that made this stupid decision are given what they deserve in this life or the next.

Probably, the issue you're seeing has to do with how Aero (the enhanced video system in 7) handles desktop compositing in combination with an interlaced video mode. Try disabling Aero and see if it makes a difference.

Hi Calamity, thanks so much for responding. I tried disabling Aero and I think that it does fix the issue. I'm just confused by some of the behavior I am noticing through troubleshooting and also confused as to why changing the refresh rate in Windows from 60 to 30 also fixes the issue as I would rather use this method. Just to make sure I am understanding correctly, you're saying that when the Windows dialog reports "30 Hertz, Interlaced" it is really 60 Hertz interlaced?



When I start fresh from a backed up image of my GM build, the Windows dialog is always set to 60 Hertz by default as in the image above (this is with the "Arcade 15.7 kHz - standard resolution" monitor preset in VMM. This setting gives me what I'll call the "ghosting" problem that I was trying to fix. When I change the refresh to 30 Hertz, Interlaced in the dialog above, it fixes the problem. I understand you said to use Arcade OSD going forward, but is "30 Hertz, Interlaced" the correct setting that should be set in the Windows dialog or is it supposed to be on 60 Hertz (with Aero turned off)?

This is a screen shot of Arcade OSD form when I start from the fresh image:

[FinalBoss]

Like Yardley, I too was looking for a solution and am using the same drivers.

First I enabled 30 herts interlaced within windows. This solved the issue but i noticed a lot of noise coming from my monitor (Using a Sega Astro City). The noise was more than typical 15klhz whine and was starting to make me nervous. This was with multiple games. Almost like the monitor was going to die/explode from overload.

What I ended up doing was changing it back to 60i in ArcadeOSD then disable Windows Aero. I now have the benefits of viewinig 480i content without straining my monitor while playing games.

I'm not sure if my monitor issues would have gone away if i selected 30i in arcade osd instead of changing it in Windows initially like I did.

Can anyone confirm which setting is the correct one to be using? Or does it really not matter and depend on your hardware.

Thanks!