ps3 BC question regarding displays

[inlimbo]

i have an original 60gb model and until recently i've been playing with an old sdtv. some weeks ago i invested in a few hdmi to dvi cables and now i use my widescreen monitor as my television (an AOC F22). the trouble i'm having is that the ps3 outputs ps2 games in letterbox regardless if they support 16x9 or are natively 4:3.

this isn't so bad for 16x9 games, but is annoying for 4:3 games since they're small enough as it is. is this a quirk related to my monitor or is it a ps3 issue that can't be solved?

 

[Xenus]

It sounds like your monitor is 16:10 vs 16:9

 

[inlimbo]

it's not, unless i'm mistaken. the effect i'm getting is boxing around the whole image. so it's not just vertical letterboxing on a 16:9 image, it's horizontal as well

 

[Xenus]

ahh what rest is it? And is it only on certain resolution of displays?

 

[Jedi2016]

How big are these bars? A lot of PS2 games were slightly smaller than normal resolution, intentionally downsized to increased performance. Since almost all SDTVs overscanned to varying degrees, the system simply didn't render those outer edges of the frame that no one would ever miss. Chances are, the system always rendered it that way, you just never noticed because your TV was overscanning (the black bars were offscreen).

It's been a while since I've played PS2 games since my original PS3 died, so I honestly don't remember how it rendered them. But I'd wager that what you're seeing is normal.

 

[inlimbo]

they're significant - enough that the horizontal letterboxing on 16:9 couldn't be from lack of overscan. here's an example: i own jak and daxters 1 through 3, which all support 480p 16:9 output, and sphinx and the cursed mummy, which only supports 16:9, and i get the same image. i imagine that's thanks to the ps3's upscaler

 

[Xenus]

I know a lot of those games you had to do something special to enable 16:9 mode hold triangle and x and boot or stuff like that. Also PS2 games rely on your tv being in 16:9 mode so it could be your monitor is forcing 4:3 for some reason.

 

[inlimbo]

i do get accurate 16:9. for some games, like sphinx, you have to select widescreen in the game's options -and- manually set the ps3's upscaler to "fullscreen" to get a proper widescreen image, but it works. it's just still boxed for whatever reason. i play in 1080p, but i've tested in 720 and 480 with the same results

edit: i was wrong about jak 1 support 480p, but the rest do and they all support 16:9

 

[Jedi2016]

Maybe you should post a photo of your screen so we can see what you're talking about.

 

[inlimbo]

best i could do:

 

[Jedi2016]

Yeah, that's exactly what I was talking about.. overscan compensation.

The reason the side bars are larger is because the screen is rendered anamorphically (like a DVD) and stretched horizontally to fill the screen. If you were viewing it in 4:3 mode, the bars would be equal all around (not including the TV's own windowboxing).

My TV has a "zoom" function that almost perfectly eliminates that.

 

[inlimbo]

well, damn. wish it were easier to adjust the image with a monitor