PS2 HDTV and TV cards question

[D.D.]

Hey all.

Ever since it was announced that GT4 was gonna have HDTv support, and seeing from this review from FiringSquad how sweet this game is gonna be using HDTV, ive been worried that my experience of this game, come Feb 22, will be marred because of the fact that my vga adapter doesnt support 480i or 1080i (and thus will lack the amazing in-game quality seen in the gallery ). as u can see, this new quality is simply too amazing to let go of.

seeing as how im cheap and simply cannot afford to go buy an HDTV, and i wish to capture the quality of GT4 myself on my computer, ive been thinking about getting a tv card. now, the problem is, im considering getting either a TV2000 Expert or a Sapphire Threatrix Theater 550 Pro. my question is, to those with a TV card and/or knowledge in this area, whether or not you can enable the progressive scan feature in the few ps2 games that are out rite now (ie, booting tekken 4 while holding triange and X and selecting progressive scan) and see an image (with improved quality) on ur computer thru ur card.

thx!(i knoe it was a long post but i wanted to be as specific as i cud and as clear as i cud. >.<)

[Toshiro]

I would go with the Theatrix, but be warned, the software support by ATi's original multimedia stuff is still pretty bad. I know some ppl who complained not getting the FM working (not that it matters you are not using it for that purpose anyways). Be sure to have XP since some of them will not work with any other OS.

As for how well it works, I never recieved any feedbacks from ppl who bought it at my store. It should be a good buy, its price point is one of its most attractive selling features. Check out reviews and formulate a decision, unless someone in this forum can give some feedback it would help D.D.

[didamangi]

AFAIK there is no internal TV tuner that support progressive scan, I have the leadtek expert tv card and it definitely don't have prog scan support.

The only way I know to play prog scan game on your monitor is by vga box that support prog scan.

On x-box you can buy x2vga from x2vga.com and for the other 2 consoles you can try VDZ3 (works with xbox as well) here : http://www.vdigi.com/

Since VDZ3 only accept paypal and I have no way to pay them via paypal I am planning to buy this baby right here:

http://www.success-hk.com/pp/item_detail.asp?itemID={1F078AA6-C9C6-43DF-A1E8-7FC066DF9EF0}#

Take note that these kind of vga box only support prog scan games, so you can't play non prog scan games (like 95% PS2 games out there )

[The Captain]

Originally Posted by didamangi

AFAIK there is no internal TV tuner that support progressive scan, I have the leadtek expert tv card and it definitely don't have prog scan support.

The only way I know to play prog scan game on your monitor is by vga box that support prog scan.

On x-box you can buy x2vga from x2vga.com and for the other 2 consoles you can try VDZ3 (works with xbox as well) here : http://www.vdigi.com/

Since VDZ3 only accept paypal and I have no way to pay them via paypal I am planning to buy this baby right here:

http://www.success-hk.com/pp/item_detail.asp?itemID={1F078AA6-C9C6-43DF-A1E8-7FC066DF9EF0}#

Take note that these kind of vga box only support prog scan games, so you can't play non prog scan games (like 95% PS2 games out there )

My friend bought the one you are looking at for his xbox, and it plays beautifully. But, like you said, it doesn't support non-progressive scan games.

[didamangi]

Yeah, but if you use it for xbox it should not be a problem since 98% of its game support 480p.

And indeed it looks great.

I've bought the x2vga and playing ninja gaiden with 480p is awesome

[D.D.]

thx for the responses guys. Toshiro, if i end up getting the ati card ill most likely end up using the dscaler proggie >.<. i have winxp also so im not too worried about that.

it doesn't support non-progressive scan games.

um. yes. and so i wud have to switch vga boxes every friggin time, AFTER paying $50 USD the money to get the adapter and make the necessary cable adjustments. ooooh boy i dont like the sound of this at all

[didamangi]

Well basically yeah, you have to do that, ps2 hardware limitation if you ask me

And since I've got 3 consoles I want to hook up to the adapter I would have to buy a component switch too

Thankfully I found a cheap one
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-n-70-3cb.html

[D.D.]

look wut i found : ATI HDTV wonder

perfect! ..... i thot

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Information for Canadian customers - Currently the HDTV WONDER™ is not being offered in Canada. The product is designed to receive over-the-air HDTV broadcasts which, although widely available throughout the United States, are not available in many parts of Canada. ATI will continue to evaluate the availability of terrestrial HDTV broadcasts throughout Canada and hopes to offer the HDTV WONDER™ for sale when the market is sufficiently developed.

Yay....n so far not one canadian company sells it here

[didamangi]

Nope you can't play prog scan games with that card, it only support HDTV broadcast.

http://www.ati.com/products/hdtvwonder/gallery.html
As you can see there is no component input

[Kane]

>And since I've got 3 consoles I want to hook up to the adapter I would have to buy a component switch too

Or you could get the combo cable like the S-video/SCART one I have which supports the SNES,N64,GC,PSX,PS2 and XBox

[D.D.]

Nope you can't play prog scan games with that card, it only support HDTV broadcast

jeez ur rite. searched the net and so far there arent any consumer cards that support HDTV-in via component or DVI . the breakout box for this thing only adds composite in and S-video in....

[didamangi]

Originally Posted by Kane

>And since I've got 3 consoles I want to hook up to the adapter I would have to buy a component switch too

Or you could get the combo cable like the S-video/SCART one I have which supports the SNES,N64,GC,PSX,PS2 and XBox

I've search for that earlier and only found a Xbox PS2 combo component cable so far

I think there is no 3rd party component cable for GC.

[Kane]

>I think there is no 3rd party component cable for GC.

I have no idea about that. Hell hte GC doesn't even work in RGB so it wouldn't surprise me.

[Bgnome]

didnt the older models have a digital a/v port?

edit: nintendo sells their component cables here

[Dgurion]

Hmm, I was looking to buy the VDZ3 and then I realized it can only display Progressive Scan games, So I was wondering if I could hook up my PS2 to a DVD player with component out, and then hook that up to the VDZ3 and play non progressive scan games that way?

[Valcrist]

That should work in theory, but I don't think the dvd player is going to convert it to progressive scan. Why not just buy to vga boxes? one for progressive scan and one that is for "normal" games?

[Dgurion]

Well, thats what I was thinking of, Do you know of a good VGA box that I could use for normal games? Im probably just going to stick with the normal one, and then once I get some more money I will buy one for progressive scan games.... Well if anyone has any suggestions for a good VGA box, I would appreciate it....

[The Vagrant]

TV Tuner cards do not support prog scan as they do not need to. They already deinterlace and upscale the image. You can change the interal resolution from inside Dscaler and your monitor well control the output resolution.

And no there is no 3rd party component cable for the GC, I looked but in the end had to settle for the overpriced nintendo cable.

I have a HDTV and in terms of image quality when my games are running in prog they look the same as when they are running on my computer. A little bit better I guess since a 40' is better than 20.1'.

[D.D.]

TV Tuner cards do not support prog scan as they do not need to. They already deinterlace and upscale the image. You can change the interal resolution from inside Dscaler and your monitor well control the output resolution.

whoa. that sounds sweet! how come no one mentioned this b4. if thats the case, there would be no need for me to got and buy this sucker: Viewsonic Nextvision N6. Even tho this is the sure, fool proof option that supports a whole lotta other features in addition to supporting hdtv from any source and outputting it to the monitor, it costs $250 CAD in comparision to a TV card that can be had for $80 CAD.

EDIT: also, vagrant, are you using component cables to plug your GC into your TV card? Because i was told that component-in tv cards are not out . wutever the case, could you also tell me your tv-card/videocard supporting tv-in is? thx