720p or 480p LCD TV?

[Rennn]

I'm looking for a screen to play my PS2 and PS3 on. Originally I was going for a 720p screen, but it looks like literally every 720p tv that exists is really 1360x768 or 1366x768, meaning they won't be at the native resolution of most PS3 games, which is 1280x720. Also, many PS3 games subsample to 1024x720 or 1280x600. I don't want to subsample at all. If a game isn't running at it's native resolution it nearly always looks like crap. 480p native looks better than 720p subsampled, imo.

 

So, I either want an exactly 1280x720 LCD/LED TV or a 16:9 480p LCD/LED TV to ensure that most PS2 and PS3 games run at the TV's native resolution. However, no *real* 720p screens or 480p screens with reasonable color accuracy seem to actually exist. Does anyone here know of any?

[JimboUK]

If a game is rendered at 1024x720 or 1280x600 the PS3 will still output at 720p, the PS3 doesn't output at those strange resolutions. A 720p set is the ideal resolution for the PS3, even when most of them aren't exactly 720p, they'll look better that a 480p set will, that's DVD resolution. With the PS3 you'll have to put up with a certain degree of scaling, fortunately the scaler is very good. If you're that worried about sticking exactly to your sets resolution then grab a 360 and a 360 VGA cable, that will output at all sorts of resolutions, including the odd ones that you find on most 720p sets.

 

The PS2 is a different story, that will look best on a SD CRT.

[Rennn]

If a game is rendered at 1024x720 or 1280x600 the PS3 will still output at 720p, the PS3 doesn't output at those strange resolutions. A 720p set is the ideal resolution for the PS3, even when most of them aren't exactly 720p, they'll look better that a 480p set will, that's DVD resolution. With the PS3 you'll have to put up with a certain degree of scaling, fortunately the scaler is very good. If you're that worried about sticking exactly to your sets resolution then grab a 360 and a 360 VGA cable, that will output at all sorts of resolutions, including the odd ones that you find on most 720p sets.

 

The PS2 is a different story, that will look best on a SD CRT.

 

I have to politely disagree with your claim that subsampled 720 still looks better than native 480p. I despise the blur associated with subsampling. :/

Also, Standard Definition CRT screens would be a good option for a PS2, except they have awful color quality, at least all the ones I've seen.

[Rennn]

Okay, I've looked at a list of PS3 resolutions, and almost half of the existing PS3 games run below 720p, getting as low as 960x540 in a few cases. :blink:

 

With that in mind, I no longer want a 720p TV for my PS2 and PS3. I just want to find a 480p Plasma, LCD, or LED screen (not CRT) with a 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio for both my PS2 and PS3. I've seen a few, but I don't know if any of them have decent color quality or contrast ratios. Any advice for choosing a 480p TV would be appreciated.

 

Please don't try to argue about how bad 480p is, okay? I hate subsampling with the passion of a thousand dying suns.

Edited February 3, 2014 by Rennn

[FMod]

What you should do is get a 1080p screen, on which any resolution will scale well. Plus it's not going to be useless for other purposes.

 

Just my 2c.

[Rennn]

What you should do is get a 1080p screen, on which any resolution will scale well. Plus it's not going to be useless for other purposes.

 

Just my 2c.

 

I have a 1080p screen, I use it for PC gaming. PS3 and PS2 games look absolutely terrible on it, far worse than either of them scaled up to 1360x768.

Edited February 3, 2014 by Rennn

[FMod]

We must have different criteria or the scaling might be utterly terrible in this case.

Don't have a console, but when I run either of my 1080p screens at low resolution, the picture is very decent. Text's readable, lines are clear if not crisp, etc. Would go as far as to say it looks better than on a lower-res screen.

 

Since different console games have different resolutions, it's not entirely possible to get it native.

[JimboUK]

A PS3 will look worse on a 1080p set than 720p one, the problem is it's not going to look great on anything, the games are rendered at all sorts of resolutions, some even change during the game. The games are rendered at the same resolution no matter what TV you have, they are then scaled one way or the other depending on what you've got it connected to, unlike the PC it's not possible to keep to the native resolution all the time. The PS3 is never going to look as sharp as a PC no matter what you do, it will however look better on a good HD TV than it will on a similar quality SD TV. Something that may help, go to settings>display settings and ensure that Deep Colour is set to automatic, if your TV supports it then you may see an improvement. Just as a matter of interest, are you using HDMI to connect to the HD TV?

 

As for CRTs are you NTSC or PAL? NTSC was called "Never Twice the Same Colour" for a reason, if you're PAL then look around, some sets have stunning colours.

[Rennn]

A PS3 will look worse on a 1080p set than 720p one, the problem is it's not going to look great on anything, the games are rendered at all sorts of resolutions, some even change during the game. The games are rendered at the same resolution no matter what TV you have, they are then scaled one way or the other depending on what you've got it connected to, unlike the PC it's not possible to keep to the native resolution all the time. The PS3 is never going to look as sharp as a PC no matter what you do, it will however look better on a good HD TV than it will on a similar quality SD TV. Something that may help, go to settings>display settings and ensure that Deep Colour is set to automatic, if your TV supports it then you may see an improvement. Just as a matter of interest, are you using HDMI to connect to the HD TV?

 

As for CRTs are you NTSC or PAL? NTSC was called "Never Twice the Same Colour" for a reason, if you're PAL then look around, some sets have stunning colours.

 

True, but no PS3 games go as low as 854x480, meaning I *would* most likely be running at the TV's native resolution on that. Or downsampling, perhaps, which looks okay. Just not subsampling.

Also, NTSC.

[obobski]

In response to CRTs looking awful - I'd say it's a matter of experience. CRT quality varied WILDLY over the whatever 5 decades it was the reigning tech for displays, which is something a lot of CRT proponents fail to recognize. There are a lot of just really dreadful TVs and monitors out there (with all manner of geometry, color, etc issues). There are (were?) plenty of high end models that look absolutely great though - most of them are made by Sony. If you aren't opposed to used hardware, and don't mind hefting a TV that may weigh up to 200 lbs around, I'd say look around in local classifieds and similar for a Sony Wega. Note that there are a variety of different HD and SD models, and that just because the TV is 4:3 physically doesn't mean it can't do 16:9 (a lot of the Wega TVs can scan 16:9 which gives you all of their effective lines for widescreen viewing; some will automatically detect widescreen content). You will probably lose HDCP support for the PS3 though, unless you get one of the very last models produced - this shouldn't have any impact on games (it hasn't been an issue for my PS3), but it may get in the way of Blu-ray playback.

 

 

As far as a brand-new TV - the other posters are right that you pretty much have to live with whatever the PS3 does internally. I would suggest that you steer away from a low res plasma; they're usually the cheapest possible tubes, and you will burn them in with gaming; even the high-end Pioneer and Panasonic plasmas will burn-in if you aren't careful. That leaves LCDs (LED is LCD; and unless you're spending serious bucks (many thousands of dollars) all it gets you is lower power consumption) - from there I'd basically figure out how far you want to sit away from the thing, and size it based on that (further away = it needs to be bigger). If you can't find what you want as an HDTV, and assuming you don't need to sit 20' back, there are a variety of computer monitors with HDMI inputs that could accomodate the PS3. The PS2 can connect via VGA if memory serves (I'm fairly sure you can select RGB output under the advanced video options) although you may need adapters to physically get everything together.

 

Regarding the panel resolution you're seeing - you may not even be able to drive the TV at that resolution; most TVs have a video processor that sits between the inputs and the panel, and takes whatever input (480i, 1080p, whatever) and makes it work for whatever the panel actually is. On higher quality sets this is usually pretty seamless, on cheaper sets it may not look perfect if you're asking it to scale a very low resolution source (like VHS) up to a very high resolution (like 1080p). It's safe to assume that outside of Blu-ray into a 1080p TV, a degree of conversion is necessarily going to take place; if you can't live with that, go to PC gaming - as long as the GPU(s) are up to it, you can render into whatever your monitor's native resolution is and map everything 1:1.