Upping from Composite to Component (PS2)

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:44 pm

I recently picked up an LCD TV because I can't be buggered to move my huge-ass CRT all over the country...and I really needed to watch Adult Swim last night. ...anyway...I didn't expect picture quality to be very good with the standard composite connection. How much of a difference would picking up component cables for the PS2 make? Enough to make it less fugly? I'm hopeful since Esprade run through S-Video actually looked decent.

At least I won't have to worry about this with the 360...nice HDMI port on the back...

EDIT: This is mostly in regard to shmups. I knew picture quality wouldn't be as good as on a CRT but, once again, size and weight were issues.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:27 pm

The jump has 2 factors involved.

1) 480i - 480i
2) 480i - 480p

Number 1 is going to be significant, slightly better than svideo.

Number 2 is going to be VERY significant depending on your TV's built in scaler. Overall, its probably the best $20 or so bucks you can spend on improving PQ.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:40 pm

Hmm....Mushi is fine, but when I Tate Galuda or DOJ the screen starts screwing up.

...and these are booted from SwapMagic.

EDIT: Shit. Interlacing on those two.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:09 am

So did you buy the cable?

Mushi should look the worst out of the 3. I don't understand what you mean about the screen screwing up. LCD should be fine in TATE.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:26 am

When I pop Galuda or DOJ into Tate mode in the option screen, the screen splits and I see remnants of the screen at the bottom and the current option screen is rotated at the top. It does this sometimes at the SwapMagic screen as well.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:43 am

Is Swap magic forcing the game into progressive 480p mode?

If so, thats why. Just use interlaced mode.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:45 am

Word on the street is that Galuda and DOJ force progressive in Tate. I'm going home to toy with it and see what can be done.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 7:28 pm

Well, at least I know my TV will display 480p in conjunction with the PS2 as I tried Tekken 5 today and it worked perfectly. Dunno if SwapMagic is causing the problem since both Mushi and Ibara work in Tate, but Galuda and DOJ don't. They do, however, work in Tate when run through composite, but that's really killing the point.

The problems only begin when switching from Yoko to Tate. Makes me wonder if the proper signal was sent, as the TV still lists the signal as 480i when in Tate mode when it should be 480p.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 8:59 pm

I have no idea whats going on. DOJ and Galuda do not support 480p natively. So you are using some sort of gizmo to force it into 480p and thats the problem. Even Mushi does not support 480p.

I am not sure, when in TATE mode the resolution changes. The arcade runs at 240p I believe which is not even supported by ps2 or your TV. I think I read someone saying the PS2 version runs 240p in TATE via RGB. However, using a transcoder to component it probably converts to 480i.

Talk to Elvis, he knows more about this stuff.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 12:12 am

Bleh. May be SwapMagic, may be the TV. Nothing between the PS2 and the TV.

Post by **nZero** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:13 am

Elvis has left the building.

it290 · Post by **it290** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 4:43 pm

DOJ and ESPGaluda both run in 240p when in tate. This should be the same regardless of whether you're using composite or component. So maybe your TV just doesn't like that mode over component for whatever reason. The solution would be to set both games to tatehosei mode, in which case they will look basically the same as Mushi or Ibara (though probably a bit less filtered). This isn't as good as the regular tate mode, but should work fine on your TV.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 11:24 pm

No dice. Tatehosei mode has the same issue. Unfortunately it looks like Tate in composite is my only option...unless I buy an S-Video cable or return my TV for a different one.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 2:59 am

Apparently it's the TV. It's 1440 x 900, and 240p games sometimes go wonky.

Anyone have any suggestions for a relatively cheap HDTV? I'll probably return this one due to the 16:10 aspect ratio...or should I just leave well enough alone since only a few games are affected and the aspect isn't _that_ far off?

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:32 am

For those games I'd just get a used TV from a repair shop or something, I wouldn't even go HD.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 2:57 pm

I'm starting to think that way as well. Since I already have a large CRT in Kansas, methinks I've got it covered. For what it is, a relatively cheap LCD HDTV, the picture quality, when recieving a good signal, is pretty damn good.

Oddly enough, I'm getting conflicting reports concerning the resolution. Online it's listed as a 1440 x 900, but in the manual it's telling me it's 1400 x 900. What the hell? ...or are they just rounding in the manual to screw with me?

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 4:55 pm

Resolution usually does not affect anything, the scaler fills the screen no matter what.

As for your Cave problems, its something other than that.