Question ps3

[Raven]

I am finally buying a PS3 next week and have a few questions.

The PS3 will mostly be sat under the TV being a media centre but there are a couple of games I want to get, GT5 and Final Fantasy. The TV is mostly in use for my wife to watch whatever junk is being spewed out and for her Wii so I would like to connect it up to a monitor. The monitor I have does not have HDMI, I bought a new one last Christmas so I do not really want to have to buy another new one now that does have HDMI sockets. Would I lose much quality by using my existing monitor along with a DVI cable? Its a 22 inch WS decent quality Samsung.

I also notice Sony in all their wisdom do not bother supplying an HDMI cable, are the cheapo ones any good or should I get a decent one?

 

[ST^]

Cheap HDMI cables are fine unless you need a loooooooooong one.

The monitor is a problem, though. When using the HDMI output, even with a HDMI -> DVI adapter, the PS3 will only talk to a monitor that supports HDCP. Not sure if non-HDMI monitors support it, but check that out.

The other option is to use component-out and get a component -> VGA adapter. The quality won't be as good as HDMI.

Either way, you'll probably be receiving 720p and upscaling it, either stretching the image or leaving black borders at the top and bottom.

 

[nath]

My monitor has no HDMI but it does support HDCP so getting an HDMI to DVI converter may well work for you and your monitor. If it does, there should be absolutely no difference in quality whatsoever.

 

[Raven]

FYI for anyone buying one.

Sony Playstation 3 PS3 Console - 80GB HDD Model - Ebuyer

Just ordered mine to come tomorrow

 

[Ch3tan]

Cheapo HDMI cable, ebay and amazon traders are full of them.

 

[Raven]

Thanks for the help all. I "think" my monitor is HDCP compatible, will have to look deeper.

 

[Raven]

Overall pretty disapointed really. Went out and bought a few games on Saturday, to get me started. Infamous, Prototype, Killzone 2, MGS.

Terrible graphics and piss poor controls, awesome media centre though, even impressed the wife with an episode of EastEnders she had missed on Iplayer.

 

[ST^]

You bought killzone 2 and said terrible graphics?

Should make it a bit clearer what game you're talking about because if that really is what you meant, you need your eyes thoroughly checked

 

[Ch3tan]

Yeah, MGS also looked lovely. Uncharted was an early release, so it looked as good as any early release on 360 or ps3. As for controls, which game are you on about?

Prototype was fun, but the graphics were never spectacular on either console.

 

[Raven]

Killzone 2 is ok, I should have been clearer. Its not great though and uses a lot of trickery to appear better than it is, it also has annoying load times in the middle of a level. The controls are horrible too, I just can't get on with using a pad for an FPS. The PS3 has USB sockets so why they can't let you use a mouse and keyboard for FPS games I do not know.

Overall its a nice bit of kit and maybe I will eventually get used to the joypad.

 

[Zenith.UK]

I only saw this thread this morning so I didn't get time to mention about HDMI cables.
You don't need to buy £100 Monster cables. That's for people with more money than sense, or people easily led by shop staff.
What you do need is for your HDMI cable to be shielded or you might notice some "speckles" caused by RFI picked up by the cable. The thin HDMI lead that came with my PS3 picked up far too many speckles and wouldn't allow me to get up to 1080p. A £10 cable from a local electronic shop was MUCH thicker, eliminated speckles and allowed me to reach 1080p.

I also have a laptop with a HDMI socket and use the old PS3 HDMI lead with a DVI dongle to hook it up to my 22" PB Maestro monitor. It only has to get up to 1680x1050 but it works perfectly. I guess that a PS3 will do the same unless your monitor is 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 and you're trying to play 1080p. Then that whole HDCP compliant malarky comes into play.

When you talk about graphic quality of games, most PS3 games are 720p by default. The unit upscales to 1080p if you have it set that way. Some 1080p games use clever tricks to keep the framerate up. WipeoutHD can be played at 1080p natively but the PS3 uses clever scaling to keep the vertical resolution the same and expands the horizontal depending on the action.

See about installing PS3 Media Server on your computer to stream your video files to your PS3. It's a great way to get it onto your flatscreen.

 

[megadave]

There was a time when i slagged off console controllers for FPS etc games but after i learnt how to play i realised there were advantages to it as well

I'm sure there are some games that support a keyboard and mouse? You can even get a official ps3 kb/mouse.

If you think the graphics are bad you must have been playing nothing but Crysis on a high spec pc or what?

 

[ST^]

Only Unreal Tournament 3 supports KB/M. It's really impossible to balance a game for both control systems so I understand why it isn't used.