Video Displays and the PS3
2.1 - WHAT ARE ALL OF THESE VIDEO ACRONYMS?
Here's a brief explanation of all the videophile terminology that will be used
in the FAQ up ahead.
SDTV:
SDTV stands for "Standard Definition Television" and it refers to legacy TV standards. There were three competing SDTV standards: NTSC (used in most of the Americas and in some places in Asia), SECAM (used in France, Russia, and former colonies of both), and PAL (used just about everywhere else in the world).
NTSC:
NTSC stands for "National Television Standard Committee" and is the original television standard. NTSC ran at a resolution of 640x480 interlaced pixels with a refresh rate of 60 Hz. Originally NTSC only supported black and white images, but color support was later retro-fitted into the standard.
PAL:
PAL stands for "Phase Altering Line" and was created after color support was added to the NTSC standard. PAL ran at a resolution of 640x576 interlaced pixels with a refresh rate of 50 Hz, and its main advantage over NTSC was the tint of the picture never needed to be adjusted.
SECAM:
SECAM stands for "SÉquentiel Couleur À Mémoire" and was a superior broadcasting format to NTSC and PAL. Since most TV sets that support SECAM also support PAL
(and some also support NTSC), very few (if any) games were made for this format.
HDTV:
HDTV stands for "High Definition Television" and replaces the old NTSC, PAL, and SECAM standards. On broadcast HDTV signals (which have nothing to do with the PS3), the audio is compressed using AC-3 compression (more on audio later), and video is compressed using one of the MPEG codecs. The main advantages HDTV has over SDTV is it supports progressive-scan video in addition to interlaced video, and it supports much higher resolutions and different aspect ratios.
Interlaced Video:
In order to conserve bandwidth over a limited-bandwidth connection, an interlaced video scheme sends two images containing a single frame of video to the display, one after the other, with one image containing half of the vertical lines of video, and the second image containing the other half. The display then puts them back together before displaying the full frame. Although this reduces the bandwidth used, the picture is not as good, because sometimes the frames come out of sync, giving the picture noticeable video artifacting. (PS2 owners know the effect as "the jaggies".) The maximum frame rate of interlaced video is 60 frames/second.
Progressive Scan Video:
Progressive scan video schemes send a single image containing the frame to the display. It takes twice the bandwidth of interlaced video, but the image is much sharper and does not suffer from any artifacts brought about by interlacing frames. The maximum frame rate of progressive scan video is 30 frames/second.
4:3:
4:3 is the standard aspect ratio used by NTSC TV, and is also the standard aspect ratio on non-widescreen computer monitors. (An aspect ratio refers to the number of number of horizontal pixels per vertical pixel.)
16:9:
16:9 is the most common widescreen aspect ratio used in HDTV sets. (Most widescreen computer monitors are actually 16:10; see below for details.) Most of the time, when a game or DVD says it supports "widescreen", it really means 16:9 support.
16:10:
16:10 is the second most common widescreen aspect ratio. It is very rarely seen on TV sets, but is very common in widescreen computer monitors, mainly because 16:10 resolutions are more backward-compatible with 4:3 aspect content. Many 16:10 displays support letterboxing 16:9 video so it doesn't look stretched.
XXXXi/p:
This refers to the resolution of the picture. The XXXX refers to the number of vertical lines in the picture, while "i" stands for interlaced and "p" stands for progressive scan. Typical resolutions are 480i/p, 576i/p, 720i/p, and 1080i/p.
CRT:
CRT stands for "Cathode Ray Tube" and is the original TV display technology. CRT technology is time-tested and cheap, but CRT-based TV sets are big and heavy, susceptible to radio interference, and their image quality tends to degrade over time. CRTs are also susceptible to permanent burn-in, which occurs when an image is displayed on the monitor for long periods of time, causing a "ghost" of that image to be permanently burned into the screen.
LCD:
LCD stands for "Liquid Crystal Display" and is the original alternative to the CRT for displaying images on a screen. LCDs were once expensive, but their prices have dropped dramatically, and their capabilities have increased equally dramatically, since they were introduced in the 1970s. LCDs are digital, and although they are susceptible to burn-in, the burn-in is temporary and will go away shortly after it occurs. The problem with LCDs is they cannot display the color black correctly.
Plasma:
Plasma TVs are similar to LCDs, except that they are far better at displaying black and other dark colors, with the main trade-off being that they are more expensive and susceptible to permanent burn-in.
RPD:
RPD stands for "Rear Projection Display". These displays give the best possible image size, but they're expensive, and they're the most susceptible to burn-in.
2.2 - WHAT VIDEO CABLES ARE SUPPORTED BY THE PS3?
Here they are, listed in rough order of video quality:
RFU
Supported Resolutions: 480i (NTSC), 576i (PAL/SECAM)
Supported Audio Types: Mono
Picture Quality: Worst
RFU, or coaxial video, is the one universal method of getting video into a TV set. It is also the worst, because the limited bandwidth being used to display a full picture as well as audio severely degrades the quality of both, and it is very susceptible to radio interference. Although many TVs only support RFU input, I strongly recommend against playing PS3 games on RFU-only TVs. Seriously, a lot of the video will be unrecognizable, and even if you can see things on the screen, you're missing out on a lot of the experience.
If you must use an RFU adapter, do pay attention to the channel used by the adapter. Most people will want to use channel 3, but for some, channel 4 will provide a better picture. Your mileage may vary.
Composite
Supported Resolutions: 480i (NTSC), 576i (PAL/SECAM)
Supported Audio Types: Mono, Stereo, DPL1, DPL2
Picture Quality: Bad
Composite video, also sometimes known as RCA video because RCA developed the plug type used by composite video, is a step up from RFU video. It is nearly universal in SDTV sets, although a number of low-end and cheap SDTVs don't support it. Composite video provides better quality audio and video than RFU, since it splits the audio and video into separate channels, allowing more bandwidth for video. Also, composite video is not as susceptible to interference as RFU. However, since it delivers all of the video in a single bandwidth-limited channel, the quality is not that great.
The PS3 comes with a composite video cable. Still, I would not recommend this video type if you have access to a display with better input types.
S-Video
Supported Resolutions: 480i (NTSC), 576i (PAL/SECAM)
Supported Audio Types: Mono, Stereo, DPL1, DPL2
Picture Quality: OK
S-Video is a huge step up in video quality over composite video. Like composite video, S-Video puts the video signal into a single cable, but that cable splits the chroma (color) and luma (brightness) into two separate pins, which greatly increases the picture quality due to the higher bandwidth availability.
S-Video is universally supported by all PS1, PS2, and PS3 games. However, some PS1 games, particularly "Wipeout", look ugly in S-Video (or better connections) because they include video artifacts that the developers thought no one would notice, since in the early days of the PS1 almost everyone used RFU or composite video.
Also, S-Video may look blocky on big screens, but that's mainly caused by having a sharp, low-resolution picture on a big screen.
S-Video is the minimum recommended (by me) video cable type for playing PS2 and PS3 games.
Component (Y/Pr/Pb)
Supported Resolutions: 480i/p, 576i/p, 720i/p, 1080i/p
(support varies by display; not all displays support
720i/p or 1080p)
Supported Audio Types: Mono, Stereo, DPL1, DPL2
Picture Quality: Great
Component video is a big step up over S-Video, since it separates the chroma into two separate video color components - luma (Y), the difference between blue and luma (Pb), and the difference between red and luma (Pr) - and provides a big bandwidth boost for one of the sharpest-looking analog video types around. In addition, component video supports multiple resolutions as well as progressive scan video. Its biggest problem is it only synchronizes vertically with the display, so the horizontal aspect ratio of the picture has to be set on the display (unless you don't mind the compressed or stretched picture).
Component (Y/Pb/Pr) video ports are universal on HDTV sets. Also, a handful of computer monitors have component video ports, usually in addition to VGA or DVI ports.
D-Terminal
Supported Resolutions: 480i/p, 720p, 1080i/p
(support varies by display)
Supported Audio Types: Mono, Stereo, DPL1, DPL2
Picture Quality: Great
D-Terminal is a type of video connector that is used exclusively in Japan. It carries a component video signal in a single cable, but is otherwise no different than the three cable connectors used in the rest of the world.
SCART
Supported Resolutions: Varies
Supported Audio Types: Mono, Stereo, DPL1, DPL2
Picture Quality: Varies
SCART is a European standard for analog video that originated in France, and is rarely spotted outside Europe. A SCART connection can carry either Composite, S-Video, or Component video, so the quality really depends on what the display supports.
IMPORTANT: DVD and Blu-ray playback may not be possible on SCART connections because SCART traditionally defeats the Macrovision encoding of video signals intended to defeat casual piracy.
VGA (RGBHV)
Supported Resolutions: 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080p (support varies by display)
Supported Audio Types: Mono, Stereo, DPL1, DPL2
Picture Quality: Excellent
VGA stands for "Video Graphics Array" and is a slight step up from component video. It is very common on computer monitors, and is present on some HDTV sets as well. Like component video, VGA splits the video signal into separate components. Unlike component video, VGA uses only a single video cable, it supports both vertical and horizontal synchronization (so the user doesn't have to manually adjust the monitor's aspect ratio), and it only supports progressive scan signals.
VGA ports are sometimes identified as "RGB" on some displays.
VGA cables for the PS3 are quite rare. Sony once made an official VGA cable for the PS2, but it was only bundled with the Linux Kit, it only supported monitors that supported "sync on green" synchronization (the majority of which are, surprise surprise, Sony monitors), and it only really worked with Linux (it unofficially worked with other games that supported progressive scan). Most "VGA boxes" for the PlayStation consoles are nothing more than upscan converters, that take S-Video or some other video type, and convert it to VGA. Blaze Gear was the only company that made a true VGA cable for the PS2 that actually worked. I have no idea how well it works with the PS3.
DVI
Supported Resolutions: 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080p (support varies by display)
Supported Audio Types: None
Picture Quality: Perfect
DVI stands for "Digital Visual Interface" and is a common digital video standard. It is similar to HDMI, the PS3's native digital output type, except that its bandwidth is limited, and it can't carry audio at all.
The PS3 can output DVI if you use a HDMI-to-DVI cable, but if you do this, you won't get any sound unless you use a separate optical audio cable.
DVI can carry both digital and analog signals. Some DVI displays only accept one or the other. Since the only way to get the PS3 to use DVI is to use an HDMI-to-DVI cable, the signal will only be digital, so this will not work with older DVI monitors that only supported analog signals.
IMPORTANT: The PS3 may not work with DVI monitors that do not support HDCP ("High Definition Content Protection"). No DVI monitors made prior to 2004 support HDCP.
HDMI
Supported Resolutions: 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080p (support varies by display)
Supported Audio Types: Mono, Stereo, DPL1, DPL2, AC-3, DTS, TrueHD
Picture Quality: Perfect
HDMI stands for "High Definition Multimedia Interface" and is an emerging digital video standard. HDMI's main advantages over other digital video types (D-Terminal, DVI, etc.) are that HDMI has much greater bandwidth, carries up to 7.1 channel audio, and is able to drive displays that are larger than about 30 inches. Like VGA and DVI, HDMI supports multiple resolutions, and synchronizes both horizontally and vertically. Ultimately, HDMI will replace DVI and all of the analog video types.
Since HDMI is digital, its picture quality is just as good as the display.
2.3 - CAN I USE MY PS1 OR PS2 VIDEO CABLE(S) WITH THE PS3?
Yes. The PS3 uses the same video plug as the PS1 and PS2, so you can bring over your video cables from your old console if you have any.
2.4 - WHY DOES MY TV IMAGE BOUNCE WHEN I CONNECT MY PS3 TO IT?
You must have an older Zenith TV. Earlier Sony consoles would output video in a way that was incompatible with Zenith TVs, which caused the TV to freak out and start bouncing the image around the screen. Later Zenith TVs fixed the problem, and Sony would modify affected users' consoles to correct the problem. It is not clear as to whether this still occurs with the PS3, but if you see this behavior, then now you know... Anyway, contact Sony and explain the situation; your PS3 may require a slight tweak.
2.5 - WHY IS MY VIDEO SCRAMBLED WHILE WATCHING A DVD?
You've most likely stumbled upon the Macrovision encoding that is present in almost all commercial DVDs. Macrovision is designed to scramble a picture if you have a DVD player connected to a VCR.
The solution is to never connect a PS3 to a VCR; always connect it either directly to a TV or to a video switch box.
2.6 - WHAT SHOULD I LOOK FOR WHEN CHOOSING A DISPLAY FOR MY PS3?
While it is possible to connect a PS3 to an SDTV set, you're missing out on half of the fun of owning a PS3 if you do that. The PS3 was built from the ground up for HDTV. Still, if you absolutely must play the PS3 on an SDTV set, then at the least, make sure it supports S-Video. PS3 games look terrible on composite and RFU displays.
If you do have an HDTV set, then make sure it supports a wide variety of resolutions. Some PS3 games only support 720i/p, such as "Resistance: Fall of Man", and some older HDTV sets don't support 720i/p, meaning the game will only run at 480i/p on those sets.
You most certainly can hook your PS3 up to a computer monitor if you'd like. Computer monitors tend to be smaller than many peoples' TV sets, but they have much better resolution at those smaller sizes. Usually you'd connect the PS3 to the monitor using either an HDMI->DVI or VGA cable, although some monitors also support HDMI or component video. The one caveat about using a monitor for a display is most widescreen computer monitors have a 16:10 aspect ratio, while widescreen games typically use a 16:9 ratio, so you want to make sure you set your monitor's ratio correctly or else you'll get a stretched picture.
CRT, LCD, Plasma, or RPD? There is no best answer to this; it is more of a personal preference decision. But if you are going to use any display type other than LCD, then make sure you turn on the PS3's built-in screen saver. Also, if you are going to use an RPD, then I would strongly recommend avoiding playing marathon-length games that display static image(s) on the screen for hours at a time.
2.7 - CAN I PLAY "PAL" GAMES ON AN "NTSC" PS3/TV, OR VICE VERSA?
Yes. As mentioned in 1.5 above, PS3 games do not have territorial lockouts. And PAL/NTSC conversions of games, which were once necessary back in the days when screen resolutions and refresh rates were hard-coded into software, are now things of the past.
Note that this doesn't apply to PS1 or PS2 games, which do have a territorial lockout and often did have to be converted to one format or the other. Continued on next page...
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