# ps2 - hi def tv question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 15, 2009, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ps2-hi-def-tv-question/521325 "2009-12-15T05:23:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ps2-hi-def-tv-question/521325/1 "2009-12-15T05:23:57Z")
I just bought a sony bravia hdtv for my gameroom, and hooked my ps2 up to it. The picture on it is terrible. Is this a problem with the PS2 not being a hi-def device on a tv that is? I didn’t think it would matter all that much, but my ps2 games are hard to even see very well on this tv. If there is a setting that I can change to make this work, let me know. I’ve read the user manual, but that hasn’t given me any insight. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ps2-hi-def-tv-question/521325/2 "2009-12-15T05:28:45Z")
You tried playing with the brightness and contrast settings? ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ps2-hi-def-tv-question/521325/3 "2009-12-15T06:34:37Z")
What input are you using? Composite (single yellow cable) won’t work too well, but Component (triple Red Blue Green cable) will look much better. Also, turn on Progressive scan on games that support it. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ps2-hi-def-tv-question/521325/4 "2009-12-15T06:51:27Z")
> [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](#): > > You tried playing with the brightness and contrast settings? indeed. I’ve tried everything like that, with no success. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ps2-hi-def-tv-question/521325/5 "2009-12-15T06:54:18Z")
> [@Silophant](#): > > What input are you using? Composite (single yellow cable) won’t work too well, but Component (triple Red Blue Green cable) will look much better. Also, turn on Progressive scan on games that support it. I am using three input cables. yellow, white and red. I’m not sure how to turn on progressive scan, or how to tell which games support it. Can you help me with this? ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ps2-hi-def-tv-question/521325/6 "2009-12-15T07:15:15Z")
Surely. Firstly, it looks like Progressive Scan doesn’t work through composite (which you have right now), so don’t worry about that quite yet. The first thing I would do is get a Component Video cable. You can get one at a Gamestop or any electronics store for about $25 if you don’t want to wait, or if you can wait 4-5 days, get [this one](http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10830&cs_id=1083003&p_id=4009&seq=1&format=2) for $4.50 plus postage. With the three cables you have now, the yellow one carries video, and the red and white carry stereo audio. With that component cable, the red and white pair will still carry stereo audio, but you’ll now have three video cables, one green, one blue, and one red. This will improve your picture quality greatly. After you get that cable hooked up, you can turn on Progressive scan in the settings menu of games that support it. Unfortunately, not all games support it. [Here’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_2_games_with_HD_support#fn_2) a list of games that do. The first column, 480p, shows games that support progressive scan. The second column shows games that can be switched into 16:9 aspect ratio, meaning they won’t be stretched or letterboxed on your TV. It also shows that Gran Turismo 4 apparently supports 1080i resolution, which I didn’t know the PS2 was capable of. However, keep in mind that the difference between Progressive and Interlaced won’t be nearly as obvious as the difference between the two video cables. ---
**Author:** ![Dandmb50](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ba9def/32.png) [@Dandmb50](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dandmb50)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ps2-hi-def-tv-question/521325/7 "2009-12-15T08:21:22Z")
We had a problem when we first got the HDTV. It wasn’t similar but what bugged us was the two strips of nothing on each side of the screen. I’m not sure if every cable/satellite company has it or not. But what you do is on the converter you hit the pound key (#) like on your phone. What it does (at least in our cable area) is increase the size of the screen, zoom in/out. We have four settings. Stretch, zoom1, zoom2 and normal. If the feed comes across that doesn’t fill the whole screen we hit # sign and it goes to stretch which makes it fill the whole screen. It gives a nicer effect when the signal coming across doesn’t fill the whole screen and it’s great for zooming in on close-ups. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ps2-hi-def-tv-question/521325/8 "2009-12-15T08:33:16Z")
If I’m not mistaken, some PS2 games just do not display in HD formats, even with the component cable. It should say on the back of the case. The newer PS2 games usually tend to have HD compatibility - the older ones, not. ---
**Author:** ![c\_goat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@c\_goat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/c_goat)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ps2-hi-def-tv-question/521325/9 "2009-12-15T14:04:46Z")
Listen to **Silophant**. I have my PS2 hooked up with that exact same monoprice cable and it looks great now. There’s something I had to change in the PS2 settings (turn on without a disc) to tell it I had a 16:9 TV. But I still have to change the aspect ratio (“P. Mode” on my Samsung remote) on the TV anyway depending on which game or movie is playing. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ps2-hi-def-tv-question/521325/10 "2009-12-16T01:01:40Z")
Never mind, someone already posted the link I was posting! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ps2-hi-def-tv-question/521325/11 "2009-12-19T03:10:11Z")
Thanks, all! I am going to pick up one of the cables that \*\*Silophant \*\*suggests. Hopefully, that will improve the situation. As for PS2 games being HD compatible, is there a special mark on the case indicating this, just something that says “HD Compatible”, or is it based on when the game was produced? I haven’t gone through all of my games, but I haven’t seen anything indicating this one way or the other. I figure I’m either not looking in the right place, or my eyesight is shot. One final question for those of you that have already been through this. If I buy a PS3, will this correct the problem, or is the problem with the game itself (meaning if the game isn’t HD compatible, it will never look right on an HDTV)? ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ps2-hi-def-tv-question/521325/12 "2009-12-19T04:01:09Z")
> [@Dandmb50](#): > > We had a problem when we first got the HDTV. It wasn’t similar but what bugged us was the two strips of nothing on each side of the screen. I’m not sure if every cable/satellite company has it or not. But what you do is on the converter you hit the pound key (#) like on your phone. What it does (at least in our cable area) is increase the size of the screen, zoom in/out. We have four settings. Stretch, zoom1, zoom2 and normal. If the feed comes across that doesn’t fill the whole screen we hit # sign and it goes to stretch which makes it fill the whole screen. It gives a nicer effect when the signal coming across doesn’t fill the whole screen and it’s great for zooming in on close-ups. Why’d you even bother getting an HDTV if you just stretch & zoom the image? Doing that just makes the image more pixelated and lower quality. ---
**Author:** ![srzss05](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@srzss05](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/srzss05)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ps2-hi-def-tv-question/521325/13 "2009-12-19T04:07:30Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Why’d you even bother getting an HDTV if you just stretch & zoom the image? Doing that just makes the image more pixelated and lower quality. Plus, doing it that way may “get rid of” the bars on the sides on 4:3 programs, but it also cuts off the top and bottom of the picture as well. ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ps2-hi-def-tv-question/521325/14 "2009-12-19T22:50:16Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > As for PS2 games being HD compatible, is there a special mark on the case indicating this, just something that says “HD Compatible”, or is it based on when the game was produced? I haven’t gone through all of my games, but I haven’t seen anything indicating this one way or the other. I figure I’m either not looking in the right place, or my eyesight is shot. It varies. On the back of the case, down at the bottom, there will be a bunch of little black boxes indicating different things. One will say “Analog Compatible”, one will say how many players the game supports, and so on. Some games will have a box that says “Progressive Scan”. Any game that has this box will display in 480p. That being said, _Shadow of the Colossus_ doesn’t have this label, and it definitely supports Progressive Scan. So even if the box doesn’t say it, check in the video options for a Progressive Scan option. > [@](#): > > One final question for those of you that have already been through this. If I buy a PS3, will this correct the problem, or is the problem with the game itself (meaning if the game isn’t HD compatible, it will never look right on an HDTV)? Yes, if you get a backwards compatible PS3, it will upscale your PS2 games. Be warned, however. Sony decided a long time ago that, since it’s still making PS2s, and they’re cheap, backwards compatibility was a waste of money. Therefore, no new PS3s are backwards compatible, and you’ll have to get one at least two years old to get one that is. If you do go this route, you need to get an old 60 GB model. Some 80 GBs will have backwards compatibility, but not many. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ps2-hi-def-tv-question/521325/15 "2009-12-28T00:28:01Z")
> [@Silophant](#): > > It varies. On the back of the case, down at the bottom, there will be a bunch of little black boxes indicating different things. One will say “Analog Compatible”, one will say how many players the game supports, and so on. Some games will have a box that says “Progressive Scan”. Any game that has this box will display in 480p. That being said, _Shadow of the Colossus_ doesn’t have this label, and it definitely supports Progressive Scan. So even if the box doesn’t say it, check in the video options for a Progressive Scan option. > Yes, if you get a backwards compatible PS3, it will upscale your PS2 games. Be warned, however. Sony decided a long time ago that, since it’s still making PS2s, and they’re cheap, backwards compatibility was a waste of money. Therefore, no new PS3s are backwards compatible, and you’ll have to get one at least two years old to get one that is. If you do go this route, you need to get an old 60 GB model. Some 80 GBs will have backwards compatibility, but not many. I just wanted to follow up with you (and everyone else that responded) that your cable did the trick! I ordered the exact same on provided on your link, it finally came, and the picture is excellent! Thanks for the great help!