Take your PS2 games upto HD!

[cHodAX]

Just spotted this over at The Register, basically it is an upscaler for PS2 that takes the video output and scales it up to either 720p/1080i or VGA for your monitor/panel.

It is a damn good idea to be honest, you aren't getting true HD gaming but anything that gives your PS2 games a better picture can be no bad thing.

Anyway, the article is here..

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/08/01/ps2_hdtv_adaptor/

and the press release is here...

http://www.xploder.net/ps2/press-releases/26/HDTV-Game-Upgrade-for-PS2.htm

Well worth a look for those of you planning to keep your PS2, I am half tempted to get one myself just for playing God Of War at 720p on my 50inch TV. Picture quality will beat the shit out of anything you can expect from SCART.

 

[PLightstar]

Not really it might end up looking worse, the newer games say released over the past year may look good GOW, Black etc. but the older games will look bad, think of it you will see all the texture faults and glitches in the game, kinda how Tony Hawks American wasteland on the 360 looks on a HDTV or monitor.

Only games designed form the ground up for HD will look good, even Xbox BC games don't look all that good on a HD and the 'microsoft Ninjas ' have tried to optimise the games for HD.

 

[cHodAX]

Not really it might end up looking worse, the newer games say released over the past year may look good GOW, Black etc. but the older games will look bad, think of it you will see all the texture faults and glitches in the game, kinda how Tony Hawks American wasteland on the 360 looks on a HDTV or monitor.

Only games designed form the ground up for HD will look good, even Xbox BC games don't look all that good on a HD and the 'microsoft Ninjas ' have tried to optimise the games for HD.

Not always true but I do get where you are coming from, Gran Tourismo 4 looked a million miles better at 1080i than it ever did at at 480i or even 480p and alot of the better games will as well. Halo 2 running in 720p on 360 is tons better, ok the textures resolution isn't the best but the game is smooth as butter and seeing enemies on the horizon is miles easier.

As for the 360 BC, I would say half my old Xbox games look better running at 720p and none of them really look worse but then I only keep the quality games anyway and they usually scale up better.

Regardless though, anyone with a big HDTV is going to be better off with 720p/1080i games rather than running through scart or at 480p/i. It delivers a cleaner image if nothing else.

 

[Pirkel]

Thanks a lot Chodax ... I'll definatly give this a try. I just got a HD tv and play PS2 on it all the time.

 

[Yaka]

wonder how this would stand up aaginst mid to highend scalers

 

[cHodAX]

wonder how this would stand up aaginst mid to highend scalers

That will be the test to be honest. There is a real lack of detail at the moment, for instance the system uses some special software on the ps2 via a cd and saves some data onto memory card. What they haven't announced is how the cabling works and if there is an external box.

 

[Yaka]

That will be the test to be honest. There is a real lack of detail at the moment, for instance the system uses some special software on the ps2 via a cd and saves some data onto memory card. What they haven't announced is how the cabling works and if there is an external box.

think all they wil do is include component cables

 

[cHodAX]

think all they wil do is include component cables

If they don't have an external box then the software must be forcing the console into either rendering HD rendering or somehow forcing the console to upscale the output from the graphics synth. It will be interesting to find out how they do it to be honest and if the quality is as good as a stand alone scaler.