PS3 on monitors

[Geezer]

I haven't tested, but it's probably save to say that if the 225BW does it, the 226 will too.

Seriously though, pretty much all screens I know of can handle 50,60 and 75. I doubt this one will be any different. I'll test it though.

Thanks, hopefully it'll work fine

 

[alt_nick]

For Dell 2407 (not HC) you have to make sure it has the latest firmware (A04), since older firmwares don't support 16:9 input (dot by dot) for 1080p and have other bugs. If it's the latest one I definitely recommend it for a cheap PC monitor for PS3 use over other 24-inch monitors such as the BenQ HDMI model which doesn't support 16:9 at all.

Benq's FP241W/Z/VWs have (according to the interwebs) supported 16:9 since the the November 06 firmware update. They've had overscan issues over HDMI, but that seems to be fixed with the July firmware update.

 

[Refreshment]

Very nice thread, sadly i cant find any of the monitors listed.

Apologize for going of topic but is there a box that lets me play the PS3, Xbox360, Wii, Xbox, GC, etc in HD and progresive scan in a standar VGA monitor?

Since the cost and risk of importing a monitor would be to high for me.

Thanks.

 

[betan]

Very nice thread, sadly i cant find any of the monitors listed.

Apologize for going of topic but is there a box that lets me play the PS3, Xbox360, Wii, Xbox, GC, etc in HD and progresive scan in a standar VGA monitor?

Since the cost and risk of importing a monitor would be to high for me.

Thanks.

x2vga does that. it has two sets of component input, one vga input and one vga output.
You will need two of those if you want to connect everything at the same time.

And of course you need to make sure your monitor doesn't stretch the signal horizontally.

 

[Arwin]

Thanks, hopefully it'll work fine

I forgot that I had tied up my HDMI cable to the TV wall extention, so I couldn't do it yesterday. I'll get a second HDMI cable from somewhere, should make it a bit easier.

 

[Refreshment]

Thanks for the replay.

I think i heard about X2Vga some time ago but didnt know it supported the new consoles, that is PS3,Xbox360.

And of course you need to make sure your monitor doesn't stretch the signal horizontally.

Can you elaborate on this issue?

 

[betan]

Thanks for the replay.

I think i heard about X2Vga some time ago but didnt know it supported the new consoles, that is PS3,Xbox360.



Can you elaborate on this issue?

Standard (4:3) monitors tend to rescale the picture to fit on screen perfectly. Since PS3 only outputs widescreen HD that means vertical stretch (hmm, I just noticed I said horizontal before, ignore that).
That's somewhat bigger issue for LCDs as most CRTs allow you to rescale manually, and at least good ones remember the settings per resolution.

 

[cthellis42]

Still looking around, and came across a particular ViewSonic model that looks good: http://www.viewsonic.com/products/lcddisplays/xseries/vx2435wm/
On NewEgg right now ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824116079 ) there's a $100 rebate, which makes it basically $550, which sounds good to me. There are an awful lot of input modes and good built-in speakers (so you don't have to route everything through your PC or other speaker pods), and it's able to manually switch through whatever sources you want. (Sadly only the one digital input with HDMI, instead of separate DVI and HDMI sources, but that's about the only downside I see. It does include a DVI-to-HDMI cable, though, so you don't need an adaptor for your computer.)

As is the overall problem, though, it is not "high definition" so much as "HD quality," which makes me assume it doesn't know how to handle aspect ratio differences and will just auto-stretch any source coming into it.

Does anyone have and/or know the specifics of this monitor and how it handles a 1080p or 720p image? Or know if a 360/PS3 can feed the image to it properly so there's no aspect-manipulation? Firmware updates? Anything? It's certainly a big expense to hop on top of if it won't work the way I want it to.

I really don't get why monitors don't handle this kind of stuff better. They don't need a full fledged tuner if they have over the amount of native pixels, do they? Seems to me they just need something that can detect what kind of signal is being fed, and dedicate only a certain block of pixels to displaying the image, instead of the whole rack. I kinda thought that's why they DO (1:1 display mapping and such)--even this model ViewSonic--but either they don't, or the customer support reps don't understand what's going on to give me the right info.

 

[sir doris]

Stupid Question probably, but is there any way to update monitor firmware?

I have a 2407WFP with A03 (which I bought nearly a year ago), is there any way to update the firmware to A04 or are the internals different aswell?

Do Dell (UK) offer an upgrade service?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I think it depends on manufacturer and model. My mate's 40" Sammy TV had a bugged firmware, and the only way to update it was send it to Samsung, Not very convenient... He actually sent it back to the store and bought from a different supplier that could confirm the firmware (and actually understood what firmware meant!) There was talk of Samsung making available firmware updates to customers. It has a serial port AFAIK, and a suitable cable would let you connect up your PC to do it. Major faf though. if they're going to have upgradeable firmwares in these TVs, they ought to provide a simple way. Inclusion of an SD/CF card slot would be cheap and easily supported.

Not that any of this helps you

 

[Angelcurio]

In the end of the day, i went with the 226BW model and i can say that its awesome.

Coming from a SDTV owner, when you start playing in HD the difference is stunning. There is a lot of detail that goes unnoticed in SD that is so vibrant and clear in HD.

The only complaint i have with the monitor is that each time it switches to 1080p (when you are playing a 720P game and return to the XMB) the monitor displays a message that says "Not optimum mode", and you have to press any button on the display to make that warning disappear, after a while it gets tiring having to press a button on the panel for that warning to disappear.

Arwin, could you comment on this matter?

 

[Arwin]

Not really. My 225BW does the same thing. I'd almost forgotten it. I haven't looked into it very much, but I did set the OSD to transparent, which makes it slightly less annoying. It does disappear automatically after one minute.

From the manual:

You can see this message when the signal
from the video card exceeds the maximum
resolution and frequency that the monitor
can handle properly.
Adjust the maximum resolution and
frequency that the monitor can handle
properly.
If the display exceeds SXGA or 75 Hz, a
"Not Optimum Mode","Recommended
Mode 1680 x 1050 60 Hz" message is
displayed. If the display exceeds 85 Hz, the
display will work properly but the "Not
Optimum Mode","Recommended Mode
1680 x 1050 60 Hz" message appears for
one minute and then disappears.
Please change to the recommended mode
during this one-minute period.
(The message is displayed again if the
system is rebooted.)

Edit: this from the Q&A is interesting:

I cannot see the On
Screen Display.
Have you locked the On Screen
Display (OSD) Menu to prevent
changes?
Unlock the OSD by pressing the MENU
button for at least 5 seconds.

Apparently it can be locked. Let's search some more.

Edit: there you go:

After pushing the "MENU" button more than 5 seconds, OSD function is
locked (unlocked).

Don't know if that helps though! Can't test just now as the PS3 is back in the living room.

 

[macabre]

My mate's 40" Sammy TV had a bugged firmware,

M86 I guess ?

 

[Angelcurio]

Not really. My 225BW does the same thing. I'd almost forgotten it. I haven't looked into it very much, but I did set the OSD to transparent, which makes it slightly less annoying. It does disappear automatically after one minute.

From the manual:



Edit: this from the Q&A is interesting:



Apparently it can be locked. Let's search some more.

Edit: there you go:



Don't know if that helps though! Can't test just now as the PS3 is back in the living room.

Sadly, it doesnt works. Even if you turn transparency on, that message still shows up without transparency.

 

[crazygambit]

Sadly, it doesnt works. Even if you turn transparency on, that message still shows up without transparency.

I decided to go with the HP w2207 instead of the 226BW to avoid the whole lottery panel issue, since in my country only "C" models are available it's not much of a lottery anyway, but more of a garanteed "better luck again next time". Anyway I was a little surprised to find that it doesn't accept 1080i (or 1080p for that matter). I thought it would just scale it down to 1680x1050. Right now I'm running at 720p and while it still looks ace I feel a little disappointed that I'm wasting this awesome monitor, unless I'm missing something. Sony really needs to start supporting monitor resolutions natively.

 

[cthellis42]

Well, I caved and picked up the monitor anyway. Deal was too good to pass up, and my 19" LCD was pretty shabby anyway, so... At any rate, I can MOSTLY get every device working on the thing, but I'm getting an odd interaction from the PS3. Let me enter in more detail:

(This is transposed from a post I put on another forum, and I don't feel like futzing with all the wording to make it fitting, so I'll just leave it as is.)

I got a good deal on a new ViewSonic monitor recently ( http://www.viewsonic.com/products/lcddisplays/xseries/vx2435wm/ ), and have been testing out devices hooked up to all of the inputs. For the most part, it's all pretty brilliant, but I'm having some weirdness going through the HDMI.

Since it only has one (no DVI, which I find a strange exclusion), I picked up a MonoPrice switchbox (the HDS-201) to be able to plug in other HDMI devices, and with my PC it works flawlessly in every mode and resolution I can test. I'd like to keep it in 1:1 pulldown, so there's no chance of it warping or stretching different aspect ratios and such, upscaling on more of a case-by-case basis.

Testing the PS3, however (to see what it would be like) produces an odd result. While it tells me it's outputting at 1080p, 1:1 pulldown shows it as more... 1750x1000, or something strange like that. (I'm guesstimating the area compared to my PC's 1680x1050.) If I switch to a 4:3 aspect ratio it properly shifts to a 1920x1080 resolution, but for whatever reason designated 1080p content (games, videos, and system menu) only goes to somewhere in that 1750x1000 range and considers it "full screen." Playback of a DVD without upscaling (so, 480p) and "double size" work just fine.

So... does anyone know if this is a quick of HDMI playthrough in general or with the switchbox? My testing with the PC leads me to believe it's more on the PS3's end, but I have no idea just what might be causing it. It seems like an odd thing since it's basically ONLY that mode on 1:1 pulldown that acts like that.

I suppose I could switch to 4:3 and deal with it, but I'd rather not deal with potential other issues on PC-side with games (my primary use) or auto-upscaling 720p content (as I assume it would), so would rather try to figure out what's going on with 1:1 first and fix it, if I can.

Anyone know just what might be going on here? As it turns out, it upscales pretty well, so I CAN probably just use 4:3 mode the whole time (the computer is not affected doing that) since I like playing 720p at 1080p (I'll continue testing, but so far I've been using the demos to compare and contrast, and like it just fine), but I'd still rather know what's going on.

 

[Arwin]

Obviously you can test by just plugging the PS3 HDMI into the screen directly?

 

[cthellis42]

Does the same think without the switchbox too, and obviously my PC can route 1920x1080 and 1920x1200 through it just fine. That throwaway line was mainly to try to make my question "fit better" in an "HDMI forum."

 

[Arwin]

Does the same think without the switchbox too, and obviously my PC can route 1920x1080 and 1920x1200 through it just fine. That throwaway line was mainly to try to make my question "fit better" in an "HDMI forum."

Well you asked if it was an issue with HDMI or with the Switchbox ...

But I'm thinking it could be more specifically the handshaking between the PS3 and HDMI with your Monitor on 1:1 mode that goes awry. Sounds like you might have to settle for scaling on the PS3 at least until the next firmware update (you never know what these things add in terms of support).

My Samsung doesn't seem to have a 1:1 mode at all, so I don't have any experience with that.

 

[hey69]

i bought a cheapass ACER 2216W . what i found odd is that it gives black bars left and right with WARHAWK. all other things i tried where nice and fullscreen (limited testing ) i could set it to 480P 720P only. no 1080i 1080p .

is warhawk rendering in a special way, or is my monitor displaying this game in an odd way?