I use my PS2 as a DVD player (of course). One thing has driven me nuts though, and the game contoller is awkward to use as a DVD controller. So, I bought an aftermarket cordless DVD controller. It worked, kinda. Well, let me replace kinda with “barely”.
After a month, it broke and I bought another one of a different brand. It was mildly better. The biggest problems with both of them was that the “direction” control was sporadic at best and the remote for my TV and stereo interferred with the PS2. So, I would be changing the volume on the TV and the movie would stop. Ugh.
On Friday I bought a genuine Sony PS2 DVD remote. Wow. The quality is so much better, its how every controller should be. It also comes with a DVD driver disk that updates the PS2 DVD capabilities.
Just wanted to let my fellow Dopers that own PS2s to grab one of these suckas. They’re far better than any aftermarket one you are using now.
I too got suckered into buying one of those off brand remotes that I could never get to work reliably.
I’m definitely going to try the Sony.
Thanks for the tip.
Well, I use my PC as a DVD-Player (and as a Playstation 2!). At the moment it’s not a problem using the mouse to control the disc because the PC is on a desk and we all have to hunch round it on closely piled chairs anyway. But we’re shortly to move back in with my mum (YES I’m sure it’s a good idea!) and it’d be kinda nice to use the player as much as possible, in the bigger rooms we’ll have there. Is there any way to get a remote for a PC dvd-rom? Any way to get a SCART lead or something, to hook the dvd drive up to a television?
Yes, and yes. Optical mouse is one example for a remote - I hear good things on them.
For tv output, you need a video card with tv outs. Many newer cards have them, and you can choose whether to display to monitor/tv/both. I’d suggest NOT using a Diamond card (Viper II, etc) as I’ve had problems with mine.
I called Sony because my PS2 would not read any DVDs or games. The customer service guy I spoke with warned against using anything not made or licensed by Sony. Now I know they want to sell more of their products but he did say that using brand X may damage your PS2. I had to pay $119- for them to fix mine. I second the Sony remote, got mine this weekend and it works much better the the Pelican one I had.
I have a Voodoo 5 5500 PCI. After searching for over an hour for the specs list, I can’t for the life of me establish whether or not it has a TV-output, so I’d imagine that indicates that it does not.
Now, is it necessary to purchase a new card to use a TV (ie. forget the whole thing)? Or is there some kind of add-on I can use?
A V5500 does not have a TV output. So yes, you would need another card.
While the 5500 is a decent card (I have an AGP version myself) many of the newer Raedons and GeForces have a TV out built in. You may want to consider buying one of those and dumping the Voodoo entirely.
Look at the back of your video card & see if you have an a/v port, thats usually tv in/out
What does the manual say about keeping the drivers on the memory card? Are those the old drivers so you can restore them if you need to? It seems odd they would put the new drivers there to be loaded each time.
[negotiation mode]
What if I bought the earliest, cheapest possible TV-out card available, and stuck it in another PCI slot? (for reasons best known to my psychiatrist I bought a motherboard with no AGP slots SHOOT ME SHOOT ME NOW)
Would that be cheaper? Easy to swap to and from? Cos I shelled out £170 quid for the Voodoo5 and frankly I’d planned on squeezing every last drop of life out of it until it was nothing but a dried-out husk, then feeding its remains to my new card in a grotesque transfer of power.
I think you can get a pure TV-Out card for pretty cheap. So yeah, that might be an idea… or that USB idea the above poster had.
I would caution against another 3D card with a video out. While it is possible to use with the Voodoo, I’ve heard of it being a pain in the ass configuring them so your Voodoo will only do the 3D duties. However, if you really want to go that way, I have seen articles on it in the past. A google could probably turn something up for you. I would probably recomend a cheapo pure TV out card if you can find one though.