How bad does PS2 look on fancy HDTV?

dothog

dothog

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I've got a friend who's not a big gamer, but does enjoy a little platforming and fighting every now and then. I was thinking of getting him a PS2 Slim as a thank you for having gone out of his way to help me when I've needed it. He's always letting me exploit his connections, so I figure I owe the guy many times over for those "little things" that people overlook. It's one of those things I know he'll enjoy even though he would never buy one for himself, no matter how cheap they are.

Anyhow, he's one of these pixel counters who talks in i's and p's when discussing TVs, cable/dishes, and DVD playback. That is to say he actually gives a shit about resolutions and whatnot. He recently got a newer, fancier LCD flat panel. I don't know what it is specifically, but it's a top-of-the-line mofo that I would imagine can do whatever the HD nuts want it to do.

I read a lot about backwards compatibility and the magic of "upscaling" in the PS3 forum, and I'm wanting to know, just how bad do PS2 games played on a PS2 look on a HD set? Because I know the people with hardons for HD swear by how shitty everything looks once they've got the latest and greatest, and I know that people with hardons for PS3s are also hot to note how fantastically ahead of its time [yet still 1) remarkably affordable relative to the original PS in its time and 2) easy to develop for it's just that developers haven't taken the energy to do it right] that magical console is.

So I'm hoping some right-minded individual can stroll through this thread, set aside their love for superbly rendered graphics on cutting edge technology, and give me the skinny on how awful or not-so-bad games will look on my friend's shithot HDTV via the PS2.
 
How a game will look on an HDTV will depend on the game; how well, or if, the TV converts the signal to its native resolution; and the resolution the TV can go up to(I will assume that your friend bought a 1080p TV). If the game supports 480p, then it will look very nice for the most part. If a game only supports 480i, then the game can look anywhere from very nice to downright horrible.

I have had 480i games that look just as good as a 480p game, however, I have also had 480i games that are almost unplayable due to how bad they look due to jaggies and other graphical shortcomings.

The majority of games will look very nice, albeit not High Definition nice, so you should go ahead and buy your friend the PS2. I have a 37'' 1080p TV and most of my PS2 games(100+) look very good except for a couple of them.

Be sure to get him component cables for the best possible video quality on the PS2; otherwise, ALL the games will look horrible.
 
If he's playing a game that supports 480p, it'll look ok with component cables. If it's a game that doesn't support 480p, it's going to look meh on any kind of cables.
 
It depends on what he's going to compare it to (late reply, I know). I watch plenty of SD content (regular cable) stretched on my 32" LCD. Compared to that, 480i PS2 looks fine - I played Rogue Galaxy for 40 hours on it, didn't hurt my enjoyment of the game, thought it looked great.

But I'm not the kind of videophile your friend is, so my opinion is null and void. First question stands, though. If he's watching all HD-DVD/Blu-Ray and HD digital cable, he'll probably be saddened by 480i PS2 stuff.
 
[quote name='botticus']But I'm not the kind of videophile your friend is, so my opinion is null and void. First question stands, though. If he's watching all HD-DVD/Blu-Ray and HD digital cable, he'll probably be saddened by 480i PS2 stuff.[/QUOTE]
Well, I think he's capable of realizing that it's a PS2 and not a next-gen, all-in-one supercomputer. So long as things don't look particularly offensive while he mashes buttons, I think he'll be okay.

My reaction was just to some of the posts in the PS3 forums that talk about how absolutely awful those PS2 titles look. It sounds like while they certainly see more jaggies, with a component cable things will still look decent enough.
 
[quote name='dothog']Well, I think he's capable of realizing that it's a PS2 and not a next-gen, all-in-one supercomputer. So long as things don't look particularly offensive while he mashes buttons, I think he'll be okay.

My reaction was just to some of the posts in the PS3 forums that talk about how absolutely awful those PS2 titles look. It sounds like while they certainly see more jaggies, with a component cable things will still look decent enough.[/quote]Yeah, I should also note that I'm running my PS2 on composite cables... so if I can deal with that, he should be able to handle it running over component.
 
just be sure to get component cables. here you can see a list of games that support 480p here

i recently played through shadow of the colossus again in 480p, first time since i got my hd and i thought it looks a lot nicer.
 
Personally, I think everything without widescreen and progressive scan options looks like shit, but tolerable I suppose. Without component cables, games are unplayable. I usually swap my PS2 between rooms/TVs depending on what I'm playing.
 
Do you know how big his screen is? Since you said his TV is top of the line, the one thing independent of quality of TV that will determine if the PS2 displays nicely on the screen, is screen size. My friend and I both have pretty nice HDTVs, but his PS2 games definitely look "nicer" because his screen is smaller. If his screen is 50 inches or greater, a PS2 game will look horrible, especially a game like Final Fantasy 12, which has no progressive scan option.
 
[quote name='jling84']Do you know how big his screen is? Since you said his TV is top of the line, the one thing independent of quality of TV that will determine if the PS2 displays nicely on the screen, is screen size. My friend and I both have pretty nice HDTVs, but his PS2 games definitely look "nicer" because his screen is smaller. If his screen is 50 inches or greater, a PS2 game will look horrible, especially a game like Final Fantasy 12, which has no progressive scan option.[/QUOTE]
My guess is somewhere around 40". I'm going ahead with the PS2 w/ component cable. If he's really that offended by what he sees, he can cram it. I think he'll be happy to have an occasional gaming outlet, as I know he digs games but doesn't bother with them enough. The PS2 will be a push in the right direction.
 
[quote name='dothog']My guess is somewhere around 40". I'm going ahead with the PS2 w/ component cable. If he's really that offended by what he sees, he can cram it. I think he'll be happy to have an occasional gaming outlet, as I know he digs games but doesn't bother with them enough. The PS2 will be a push in the right direction.[/QUOTE]
Oh, if he bitches about it, he can definitely kiss your ass. It's an awesome gift.
 
You said he likes button mashing action games right? Make sure he gets God of War II (or I for that matter) as that game looks great on HDTVs since it has a progressive scan option as well as widescreen. Also it has a hidden 576p (I think that's the correct number) mode.

If he complains about the resolution you could just tell him at least you didn't give him a Wii. God that thing looks horrible on my 52" screen. Fun as hell, but I swear nearly every game looks worse than the PS2 games when displayed in HD even though the system has a 480p mode.
 
[quote name='Sofa King Kool']If he's playing a game that supports 480p, it'll look ok with component cables. If it's a game that doesn't support 480p, it's going to look meh on any kind of cables.[/quote]

QFT
 
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