PS2, component video worth it?

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KevC

Supreme [H]ardness
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Oct 21, 2001
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Hey,

I just bought a PS2... fiiiinaly. I'm buying these games:

God of War
Gran Turismo 4
Shadow of Colossus
Street Fighter: Anniversary Edition (this was the main reason I bought the PS2 :D)

The first 3 are 16:9, 480p games.

Now, I don't know too much about TVs so that's why I'm asking here. I have an HDTV-ready TV, not a TRUE HDTV. So it's standard 4:3, not 16:9. And I'm guessing it can only do 480p not 1080i (which GT4 can do, and I'd love to see it do, but I don't have the equipment :()

Should I buy the component video cable? Worth the $30 or so over the RCA?

I don't think I'll be upgrading my TV anytime soon, (I've thought about getting a sweet LCD but I don't think I have room in my budget anytime soon).

Thoughts?
 
I'd say go for it. Our TV can only do EDTV resolutions (it can, however, downconvert 720P and 1080i to its native), but 480P is quite an improvement over S-Video with the old Sony Trinitron.
 
HDTV-Ready television usually means it just doesn't have a OTA tuner installed, meaning you have to supply a digital cable box tuner or a sat tuner box. Should you go for it? For the vast majority of the games, they don't really care if you have it or not. In the end however, it's just a small investment in a cable (don't get the overpriced Sony cables... any PS2 > component cables will do.) that for me it's probably worth it.
 
i have a 51" hdtv and dont notice much difference w/ the hd cables for the ps2. I have the monster and the cheaper hd cables(had 2 ps2's). ONly a few games are 480p gran turismo is 1080i. Go w/ the s-video cable. Also alot of games that do support progressive scan you have to enable it while the game loads up by either holding the top button(triangle i think) and sometimes holding the top and the bottom button during the whole loading process. Pretty anoying!!!!

You should of got an xbox. If you mainly got the ps2 for street fighter the xbox version is online and it like most of there games are 480p.
 
Buy a cheap set of no-name component cables for 15 bucks, its worth it.
 
I got the Sony component cables for $15 a while ago, and I must say, God of War looks good in progressive scan :D

To me, it was worth the money. You bought an HDTV, might as well use it to its full potential.
 
At least go S-video. I am on an original PS2 without progressive output at the moment, but it looks good over S-vid. I am just out of inputs on my TV. Xbox360 and HDMI DVD player share the DVI input, HD cable box takes the 2nd component, Laserdisc take S-Vid input 3, and the PS2 gets S-vid input 4, leaving VCR on cable and gamecube/SNES/Genesis/Camcorder on a switchbox on the front inputs. Anyway, it looks good on S-Vid, but if you have an open component input go for it.
 
My vote for "Go for it". Playing a game in 16:9 is great when your TV is that aspect.
 
Don't listen to these clowns who suggest s-video...you need component for progressive scan. For games that support progressive, it is definitely worth it, and s-video cables are roughly the same price anyway. For games that do not support progressive scan though, you will not notice any difference between s-video and component, FYI. But the point is simply that s-video cables cannot transmit a progressive signal so they are not a good buy when component is an option.
 
kohan69 said:
does a version4 ps2 have progressibe scan?
Click to expand...

Both the old fat PS2s and the new Slim PS2s play GAMES progressively.

But the old fat PS2 does not play MOVIES progressively. Only the slim models do that.
 
YES, buy component cables. in GT4 i could barely read the words until i hooked up the component cable and everything became so much crisper
 
CKMorpheus said:
Both the old fat PS2s and the new Slim PS2s play GAMES progressively.

But the old fat PS2 does not play MOVIES progressively. Only the slim models do that.
Click to expand...

Some of the big PS2s have Progressive Scan, some don't. Mine is first edition hardware, so it doesn't have it, not sure when they added it...
 
KevC said:
I have an HDTV-ready TV, not a TRUE HDTV. So it's standard 4:3, not 16:9. And I'm guessing it can only do 480p not 1080i
Click to expand...
If you have an HDTV-ready display, then it can display 720p and/or 1080i. The "ready" portion simply means it lacks the QAM tuner.
 
NulloModo said:
Some of the big PS2s have Progressive Scan, some don't. Mine is first edition hardware, so it doesn't have it, not sure when they added it...
Click to expand...
Same here, and if you have one of these, the component cable does nothing. I have a 50" plasma and there was no discernable difference in GT4 when enabling progressive/hd output.
 
Buy Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening Special Edition!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's easily 100x better than God of War. I won't start a debate though unless you really want my reasons.

Needless to say, just buy it since it's $20. You can thank me later! ;)
 
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