PS3, Samsung, & 720p questions

I

icetrey47

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 3, 2006
Messages
163
Hello all, I was hoping I could get some help analysing my situation. I recently purchased a PS3, which is connected to my Samsung 42" DLP (HLS4266W). I currently have it connected via HDMI. The picture quality appears to be very washed out in Resistance as well as on the console's dashboard, and I don't have a blu-ray movie yet to test that out (apparently the PS3's don't ship with a freebie anymore). I will pick one up later, but in the mean time, here are my questions.

- 720p vs. 1080i ... my TV goes up to 720p and 1080i ... I prefer to run everything at 720p since it seems to look a bit better on my TV, however I'm a bit confused as to how the PS3 should be set. I can disable 1080i and it will say it's at 720p, however does doing this force blu-rays to render at 480p? I would like movies and games to both always run at 720p ... this is possible right?

- HDMI vs. Component ... would using Component cables make a difference in my picture quality and/or the ability to run everything at 720p like I want? Do any of you have experience with comparing the two?

As I said, I have a Samsung 42" DLP ... do any of you have PS3's hooked up to a similar TV that could share your experiences with me? Thanks!
 
icetrey47 said:
I would like movies and games to both always run at 720p ... this is possible right?
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Blu-Ray movies won't show at 720p, last I checked. If someone wants to correct me, feel free.

would using Component cables make a difference in my picture quality and/or the ability to run everything at 720p like I want? Do any of you have experience with comparing the two?
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HDMI is technically better, but at 720p, it's not going to matter much, if at all. Try both - it's not like HDMI cables cost that much if you get them from monoprice or such.

However, remember that component doesn't support HDCP, and if the image constraint token ever gets enabled on Blu-Ray discs, you might be in trouble. Personally, I wouldn't sweat about it - that's years off, if ever.
 
I do currently have it connected via HDMI ... I was mainly just wondering if the HDMI cable was why the picture looked washed out. Maybe I just need to do some calibration?
 
icetrey47 said:
I do currently have it connected via HDMI ... I was mainly just wondering if the HDMI cable was why the picture looked washed out. Maybe I just need to do some calibration?
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Definitely. It is a truly rare TV that doesn't need serious calibration out of the box.
 
erwos said:
Blu-Ray movies won't show at 720p, last I checked. If someone wants to correct me, feel free.
Click to expand...

Can anyone confirm this on the PS3? I have a 720P LCD and want to run it with HDMI, can I only run it at standard-def for Blu-Ray movies? That's lame if so. Could I run it at 1080i and have my TV downscale it? What about for games? I'm looking at getting a PS3 soon.
 
Blu-Ray movies do NOT play at 720P. I can confirm this as I have a PS3 and a 27" LCD that does 720P and 1080i through HDMI. Just run at 1080i it looks fine unless you really can't stand the flickering issues which is soothed through the LCD :D. I notice DLP color wheel problems more than I notice the flicker. The rainbow effect makes me want to tear out my eyes out.

Most games for the PS3 are 720P and look great even on large tv's (50" that i've tested on). The ones that do 1080i are few but look great too. But yeah blu-ray will downscale to 480P if you run your XMB from 720P. Hopefully they fix that soon. I wish there was a way to set blu-ray movies to 1080i and set the XMB and games to 720P. That was be sweet.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Can anyone confirm this on the PS3? I have a 720P LCD and want to run it with HDMI, can I only run it at standard-def for Blu-Ray movies? That's lame if so. Could I run it at 1080i and have my TV downscale it? What about for games? I'm looking at getting a PS3 soon.
Click to expand...

If your TV is a 720p native DLP, which if it's not a 1080p DLP set, it's a 720p native. So that tells you what to set all your devices to.

If the PS3 forces downscaling on Blu-Ray to 480p when you use 720p then you need to set it at 1080i, and you let the TV's internal scaler do the work. Thats the way it works with all my items on my 720p HD set.

The chip in your TV dictates what you see on the screen, with the exception of, say, a 480p source, in which case the TV will accept the lower resolution signal, and upscale it.

I hope that answers your question. :)
 
It's really a shame that you can't play Blu-Ray at 720p ... is this a Blu-Ray specific restriction? Or is it just the PS3's fault? The only BD I have is the Ricky Bobby movie, and when I use that 7-6-6-9 code to pull up the calibration screens, the black and white one with all the lines and shapes has quite a bit of flickering.

I'm not really complaining too much though b/c the movie itself still looked awesome, and games seem to be fine too. I don't really have any way to tell with my TV whether the games are running in 720p or 1080i ... the only thing I could do would be to go and change the video settings in the PS3 and get back into the game and see if I could notice anything. I tried that a few times actually, and I guess the process just took too long, cause by the time i was back in the game it looked the same as before.

In all, I'm currently satisfied with how it all looks having all resolutions checked (480p/720p/1080i) ... the only thing that aggrivates me is that I had to set the Blu-Ray drive to RGB and then adjust my TV's settings from there. I would have rather left it set to the other setting (Y/R/Gr/Bl/Rd ?).

I'm almost tempted to go get the Component cable and see if it makes any difference, but I can't imagine it would look BETTER than HDMI, would it?
 
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