PAL vs NTSC

[insanity5000]

Hi everyone, I got a new 42" LCD 1080p compatible TV last christmas. This caused me to essentially stop playing my PS2 as the picture gets terribly stretched. Then i realized that with FMCB I could import PAL games for relatively cheap which have a higher vertical resolution than NTSC since my TV supports 576i/p (currently have a US NTSC console). I was simply wondering what PAL games truly look better than their NTSC counter-parts, I did some reading and it seems that some PAL games simply add borders to the 480i picture in order to achieve 576i. Please list a few games that don't use this method and truly look better than their NTSC counterparts, thnx

[Orbiting234]

Any LCD worth it's salt will have an option to change the displayed image in 16:9, 4:3 and a host of other zoom options. Just change TV from it's default 16:9 mode to 4:3 mode when playing PS2 games and it won't be distorting the image to stretch it to fit the screen. Boom, problem solved.

[insanity5000]

Any LCD worth it's salt will have an option to change the displayed image in 16:9, 4:3 and a host of other zoom options. Just change TV from it's default 16:9 mode to 4:3 mode when playing PS2 games and it won't be distorting the image to stretch it to fit the screen. Boom, problem solved.

I've already done that ;-) I still want a higher quality picture. mainly just looking to increase my PS2 gaming experience in general.

[Peppero01]

Just to note, I hope that you aren't using the default cables that came with the PS2, otherwise playing PS2 games on a high definition television will indeed look pretty terrible. If you haven't already, I'd suggest investing in component cables; the difference is like night and day. It definitely sharpens the picture up noticeably from the original cables because it splits video into its corresponding three colors, instead of feeding it to the television via one input.

Lastly, make sure that once you get the component cables, you turn the option on via the PS2 menu (although this is obvious or else it doesn't display on the TV) AND set the resolution to 16:9 on the PS2. I think the latter part is pretty important because I noticed less jaggies--I... could be mistaken on this, but I'm pretty sure setting it on 16:9 also makes noticeable differences in clarity.

Edit: Also, component cables allow for progressive scan to be enabled! Here's an example I found on the net, although it's a bit difficult to tell. It's better up front: http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/8...iongow1jk1.jpg

[broodje]

I can understand that. I have bought a 50 inch plasma tv last week (samsung PS-50A756)

and i was eagerly waiting to play burnout on that big screen!

but, it wasnt as great as i hoped the picture was upscaled ofcourse, so it got a "block" like screen in return.

guess i need to buy a pS3 now....

I have a PAL machine with PAL games. but it still looks shite. i just cant enjoy it so much anymore

[insanity5000]

yes, i have the component cables, and I'm sure to turn on progressive scan with each game that supports it.

[kevstah2004]

PAL 60Hz is what looking for?
the benefit of the extra PAL resolution and NTSC 60 frame per second frame rate.

[TnA]

@kevstah2004: As far as I know, PAL60 is only NTSC with PAL Colour-Carrier-Frequency.
No Resolution-Change,...

You could even do the same vice versa and call it NTSC50.
Use a normal PAL-Signal @50Hz with 720x576, but with NTSC-Color-Carrier-Frequency.

[dlanor]

Only a few games have true 16:9 widescreen support, adding picture material at the right and left edges of the screen that would not be displayed at all when using 4:3 settings (like FF12 for example). But activating such a widescreen option will not in itself cause a progressive signal to be produced. That is another feature, which needs a separate option in the very few games that support it.

As for LCD TVs displaying the game screens 'blocky', this has to do with internal scaling methods of the TV, which can use very different upscale filtering. When I first started using my own 32" LCD TV (bought quite recently) I thought everything except normal TV programming looked crappy on it, including all PS1/PS2 games as well as my DVD player. But that was because the default settings were unsuitable for them, and with modified settings everything now looks pretty good (certainly better than on my old CRT TV). And this has nothing to do with use of 'progressive' mode, but all the more to do with the filtering needed to display any image in larger scale that was designed for a lower scale to begin with. (Which is true for most PS1/PS2 games, as well as for most of my AVI collection.)

Best regards: dlanor

[insanity5000]

I'm simply looking for a higher resolution, i already have everything properly setup on the TV and PS2 side, still doesn't look very good :-( I'm hoping the higher resolution will increase the picture quality slightly. my TV is currently set to display the PS2 in 4:3 by default, if a game supports 16:9 then I obviously switch it over. I enable 480p in 16:9 or 4:3 if the game supports it. The Ps2 itself is hooked via component cables

(btw if anyone needs component cables and lives in the US, check out this great deal http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2, i have this cable and the official Sony cables and there is virtually no difference in picture quality).

my TV is a Philips 42PFL3603D (couldn't pass it up for $854, great deal eh?) , it lacks some features, but picture quality in general is amazing for 720/1080p. I was already aware that the distortion is due to the TV's internal scaling, but i have no control over that unless someone knows if it can be changed from the service menu.