Why in the world does the PSP have a 480 x 272 resolution screen?

[Josh]

480 x 270 with square pixels is a 16:9 aspect ratio.

480 x 272 with square pixels is not a 16:9 aspect ratio (it's actually 30:17, but that's beside the point).

So why did Sony choose a resolution that was really close to 16:9, but not actually 16:9?

[frogblast]

270 is not divisible by eight, while 272 is? Perhaps it has something to do with the available number of line buffers, or whatever.

In any case, having 1 pixel of black bar on the top and bottom isn't a big deal when playing 16:9 content.

[Brad Grenz]

Probably some artifact of LCD panel production at the time of the original design.

[Npl]

Caring for exact display aspect rate = pointless.
resolution is multiple of 16 = win!!!

[Silent_Buddha]

You could just as well ask why some 16:9 720p TV's are 1024x768 resolution. And some are 1366x768 (not exactly 16:9 either with square pixels. :P).

Regards,
SB

[Blazkowicz]

you can :
- scale from HD or SD to 480x272 and not care about 16:9 vs 15.9:9
- scale to 480x270 and not display two line of pixels and not care about them

probably doing the first is easier and not wasteful of 960 pixels.