SD content on HDTVs

[suryad]

I have been browsing the avforums lately in preparation for buying a 55" or larger television. But my problem is that I want to be able to watch/view SD content on it aka PS2 games

I have been reading a lot of stuff about how the TVs that are really good at HD input suck at displaying SD. I guess it sorta makes sense but do you think playing old school PS2 games on a modern TV like say the XBR8...its going to look really bad?

 

[BRiT]

It wont be as bad if you play them from a farther distance, but if the PS2 can upscale to 480p it'll look a bit better than on SD TV, or if the PS3 can upscale it to HD res that would be ideal.

 

[AlNom]

There should be a number of games that support progressive scan, so it won't be *as* bad as an SD cable feed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HD_Enhanced_PS2_games

 

[3dcgi]

My experience has been modern HDTVs look pretty good with SD content. Especially if it's a clean SD source.

I've never owned a high end picture tube set, but HDTV's display SD content as good as most normal tubes.

 

[suryad]

It wont be as bad if you play them from a farther distance, but if the PS2 can upscale to 480p it'll look a bit better than on SD TV, or if the PS3 can upscale it to HD res that would be ideal.

Hmm that makes sense. How would you have the PS3 upscale it to an HD res though? I mean not all PS2 games work on it especially since the hardware backwards compatibility has been removed and I keep reading that the 80 gb version of the PS3 has absolutely no BC. Mind thoguh I have a PS3 I never got around to trying a PS2 game on it while I was in California.

There should be a number of games that support progressive scan, so it won't be *as* bad as an SD cable feed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HD_Enhanced_PS2_games

Thanks for the link! I never knew you could do that. Thats pretty cool. So to confirm, that can be done on a PS2 and a PS3 as well? It kinda goes against what I know about a PS3 and backwards compatibility but I guess those listed games run on ANY PS3?

 

[AlNom]

Thanks for the link! I never knew you could do that. Thats pretty cool. So to confirm, that can be done on a PS2 and a PS3 as well? It kinda goes against what I know about a PS3 and backwards compatibility but I guess those listed games run on ANY PS3?

That's a list just for PS2 games on PS2 (and assuming you have the component video cables for it). PS3 backward compatibility is pretty much limited to earlier versions of the hardware; I forget which ones though.

 

[V3]

It's bad, but it's playable. Can't expect too much from PS2. PS2 early games doesn't even look good on the old analog TV.

Concentrate on quality of HD contents, SD contents are acceptable on most sets anyway.

 

[suryad]

It's bad, but it's playable. Can't expect too much from PS2. PS2 early games doesn't even look good on the old analog TV.

Concentrate on quality of HD contents, SD contents are acceptable on most sets anyway.

I know what you mean but there are games like FF10 and 12 and 8 and 7 and Tekken and others that are just so fun to play...and I mean I would love if they redid all that for the PS3 but we all know thats not going to happen. Therefore my obsession with SD looking decent....at least if it looked the way it does on an analog tv then I would be ok with that too

 

[kyleb]

It wont be as bad if you play them from a farther distance, but if the PS2 can upscale to 480p it'll look a bit better than on SD TV, or if the PS3 can upscale it to HD res that would be ideal.

HDTVs upscale, there is no need for a PS3 to do that, though it can help if the TV has a poor scaler. PS3s can add a blur filter, but I don't recomend using it.

Also, SD content obviously doesn't look as good as HD content, particularly when the rendering resolution is SD quality, but there is nothing inherently bad about SD content looks on a HDTV.

 

[V3]

Well you can try passing the PS2 through a PC and let the PC upscale it for you. The result will look kinda blurry like analog TV.