[Help] Help: Playstation 2 in HD

I recently was able to get a 27" HD TV from my friend for $150, because he got a new one at black friday, so I'm interested to see what kind of benefits I can get from component cables.

As I understand it, very few PS2 games actually support HD signals, so I'm wondering if it would be a waste of money to buy a PS2 component cable. But my question is also whether that would affect the DVDs I watch with the PS2.

I'm also curious for those in the know: does my cable company have to supply me with a specific HD cable box for me to access HD channels, or is it just a matter of getting a component cable for the TV signal?

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I recently bought a 27" HDTV and PS2 games looked terrible. Read more about that here.

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As I understand it, very few PS2 games actually support HD signals, so I'm wondering if it would be a waste of money to buy a PS2 component cable. But my question is also whether that would affect the DVDs I watch with the PS2.

To my knowledge it'd increase the quality of the DVD slightly. It's nothing in comparison to running regular dvds on a HD DVD though, which is much better.

You might also find this useful, as it tells you what PS2 games run in 16:9, 480, etc. Surprisingly there's very few, which is disappointing. All other consoles, including Dreamcast, seem to do a better job over the PS2 when it comes to 480p.

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In your other thread you mentioned that the HDTV was running through a very expensive HD DVD player? What do you mean by that? That the tv was actually playing a High Def DVD? Or that the TV-signal was passing through the HD DVD player and was therefore very high quality?

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Originally Posted by MagicalVacation

In your other thread you mentioned that the HDTV was running through a very expensive HD DVD player? What do you mean by that?

Basically the store had all of their HDTV's hooked up to HD DVD players to show off their capabilities.

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Originally Posted by Skexis

As I understand it, very few PS2 games actually support HD signals, so I'm wondering if it would be a waste of money to buy a PS2 component cable.

Well, technically, none of them support the higher HD resolutions. Some of them support 480p, which you will need the component cables for. 480p is also known as EDTV (Enhanced Definition TV) or just progressive scan.

The component cables will be needed to display this type of signal. So if that's what you want, yes, you'll need them.

Even for the games that don't have the progressive scan option, the component cables make a huge display difference, especially on an LCD like you've got. Colour seperation is better, and colour vividity is better too. Overall, the image is improved. It's totally worth it.

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But my question is also whether that would affect the DVDs I watch with the PS2.

The DVD player in the PS2 is....lacking features, so I honestly don't know if it can output progressive scan signals from the DVDs you're going to watch. Pretty much any DVD player, even the 60 dollar ones, can do it though, so if the PS2 can't, you can always grab one of those on the cheap.

Sorry about that, I wish I could remember if it could do this or not.

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I'm also curious for those in the know: does my cable company have to supply me with a specific HD cable box for me to access HD channels, or is it just a matter of getting a component cable for the TV signal?

Depends on the cable company. I know I need to get a special decoder box if I want to get HD channels. I'm willing to bet you're in the same boat. The input into your TV will more than likely not be a component input though.

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Older gen PS2's can't deinterlace DVDs, but newer ones can. I forgot the model number where they introduced the functionality. I wouldn't recommend getting just any DVD player with progressive scan functionality. At least get a GOOD one, like the Oppo DV971H or the DV-970HD.

Anyway, if your TV is indeed an LCD, you definitely want component cables or better for everything. Skills pretty much listed every benefit already, but be sure to enable progressive scan in every game possible (Some don't have it in the menu options, so you must hold triangle and X when starting the game to access the progressive scan controls.)

As for HD programming, you might want to find out if your TV has an internal HD tuner. If it does, all you need is a decent antenna to get normal broadcast HDTV. I'm pretty sure you have to go through your cable company to get an HD cable box, but I'm sure that's more reliable than simple over-the-air signals.

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Originally Posted by JasonTerminator

Older gen PS2's can't deinterlace DVDs, but newer ones can. I forgot the model number where they introduced the functionality. I wouldn't recommend getting just any DVD player with progressive scan functionality. At least get a GOOD one, like the Oppo DV971H or the DV-970HD.

I second this recommendation, but with an important note: The Oppo's excellent deinterlacing/upscaling comes into play only via DVI, not to mention reports that component is limited to 480i (while the former output goes from 480p to 1080i).

IMO, there are only 2 issues with the player and that's the flimsy tray and the possibility of increased macroblocking due to the Faroudja scaler/deinterlacer present.

Other than that, it's a steal at $200 @ Amazon, outperforming far more expensive equipment like Momitsu or Denon players. No need to buy an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player either, another great way to show the industry to shove their format war where the sun don't shine.

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Anyway, if your TV is indeed an LCD, you definitely want component cables or better for everything. Skills pretty much listed every benefit already, but be sure to enable progressive scan in every game possible (Some don't have it in the menu options, so you must hold triangle and X when starting the game to access the progressive scan controls.)

Some games benefit quite a bit from this, others... well, they end up looking like someone smeared a decent coat of vaseline over the displayed image.

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As for HD programming, you might want to find out if your TV has an internal HD tuner. If it does, all you need is a decent antenna to get normal broadcast HDTV. I'm pretty sure you have to go through your cable company to get an HD cable box, but I'm sure that's more reliable than simple over-the-air signals.

Oh, he can just get an antenna and get those channels, since many providers often multicast several shows on the same channel, degrading the quality of both. Others, like Time Warner, mangle the shit out of their HD shows, so there's one show of ten that looks great, and the others are wracked with myriad problems based largely at the station.

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What kind of TV is this? Whether or not PS2 games will look decent depends entirely upon the quality of the built in scaler. A Sony CRT will deliver some truly incredible results when dealing with 480i PS2 titles, for example, while a lesser CRT may end up producing something awful. If it's an LCD, well, PS2 games will NEVER look any good.

Only a good CRT or plasma will really deliver acceptable 480i PS2 gaming.

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didnt a grand turismo game do HD like 720p or somthing?

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The only PS2 game which supports 1080i is Gran Turismo 4.

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Originally Posted by Elixir

The only PS2 game which supports 1080i is Gran Turismo 4.

And there's much debate surrounding whether it's actually 1080i, or simply something slightly lower. I still remember those debates raging.

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Originally Posted by Metal Sphere

And there's much debate surrounding whether it's actually 1080i, or simply something slightly lower. I still remember those debates raging.

I don't even know why they bothered. Most PS2 owners don't have HDTVs, so putting 1080i into a single game is just weird and seems pretty pointless in my eyes.

There's hardly any games on the PS2 which support 480p, but 1080i? It just sound absurd.

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i agree with you. also. i'm having the same type of problem when i play that game

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Elixir

I don't even know why they bothered. Most PS2 owners don't have HDTVs, so putting 1080i into a single game is just weird and seems pretty pointless in my eyes.

Eh, I have no idea either. I guess it was mainly to inflate egos, but the mode is riddled with image quality issues and strange artifacts.

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There's hardly any games on the PS2 which support 480p, but 1080i? It just sound absurd.

To this day I still don't understand why most PS2 games don't have this option present. One possibility could be that the hardware is finally showing its age.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Metal Sphere

To this day I still don't understand why most PS2 games don't have this option present. One possibility could be that the hardware is finally showing its age.

It's really strange. I mean, almost every GC game has this mode. Same with Dreamcast, the only console known to automatically upscale.

I really don't mind though. At the moment I'm using component on my PS2 and it looks great, so anything above that isn't really necessary. My Wii looks equally as good with composite, which is odd. I'll probably change sometime in 2007.

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Originally Posted by Elixir

I don't even know why they bothered. Most PS2 owners don't have HDTVs, so putting 1080i into a single game is just weird and seems pretty pointless in my eyes.

There's hardly any games on the PS2 which support 480p, but 1080i? It just sound absurd.

Sony in itself is absurd nowadays. But it's a strong selling point, and the average joe buys the bullshit.

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Originally Posted by JasonTerminator

Older gen PS2's can't deinterlace DVDs, but newer ones can. I forgot the model number where they introduced the functionality.

I believe it was 50001. If the PS2 is that model number or higher (or any of the PS2 slims), then it will have the progressive mode for DVDs.

For progressive scan in PS2 games, about half of all new games and a very minimal amount of older games support it, but supposedly you can use the Xploder HDTV Player to force any game (hopefully) into 480p. It can also be used to upsample them to 720p or 1080i, but results seem pretty poor from what the review says. I can't really see why PS2 games don't have this option if it's so simple that it can be enabled by an external third party application, and I'm guessing a few games will have problems with it, but it's worth a shot if you want to try to play more PS2 games in 480p.

Oh, and GT4 isn't 1080i native, it's just an upsampled 480p image. Depending on your HDTV, it may be better simply to leave it at 480p so that you get a full progressive signal instead of a low resolution one that's stretched to an interlaced signal.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I just got my component cables in today, and I've been trying them out. I can see a clarity difference already, but I was wondering if anyone knows whether there's some kind of indicator that's supposed to go off when you activate progressive scan on some of the games.

I looked at the link Elixir gave me, and they said you have to hold triangle and square on boot, but I don't know if that means system boot or game boot. I tried it both ways and couldn't tell if I had done it right when the game started.

Also, do I only have to activate it once, or every time I start the game? It'd be a real pain if I have to activate it every time.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...Scan_PS2_Games

I think this answers most of your problems. There aren't very many games that actually use 480p, but component alone should be fine.

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