I have the Pioneer 111 and I just got a PS3 Slim. When the PS3 boots up to the little main menu screen, it shows "1080P 36bit" in the upper right corner. When I go to play Madden 10, the screen will flash "1080P 36bit" again. However, it then blinks and displays "720P 36bit" in the upper right corner. The EA Sports logo appears and the game begins.

How do I get the game to play in 1080P?

The game was rendered in 720P, but it fake outputs 1080P only if you uncheck 720P in your video options. This is so the very rare old-school HDTV owners who don't have a 720P option can see the game above 480P, but it isn't worth doing for your set since 720P is the native resolution.

yup, not every ps3 game will output at 1080p. most will be 720p, but it's not really a problem.

MOST PS3 games will not render above 720p. Those that do are very low quality games or simpler PSN titles. There's probably a few exceptions. Ultimately your best bet is to just check every resolution option in your PS3 settings and let it determine what to output.

While not a widespread feature, for games that offer a 1080 option there are a number of them that aren't "low quality" or "simple PSN games". Here are some:

Blu discs:

Cars Mater-National
FIFA Street 3
Full Auto 2
GT5 Prologue
Lair
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
MLB 09: The Show (awesome title BTW)
NBA '07
NBA '08
NBA Street Home Court
Ninja Gaiden: Sigma
Ridge Racer 7
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
Virtua Tennis 3
World Series Of Poker 2008

PSN Games:

High Velocity Bowling
Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection
Wipeout HD (one of the most beautiful racers ever made)

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There are a lot more 1080P PSN titles (like Super Stardust HD), but I just mentioned a few that are a bit more complex. Also, there a re a lot of games altogether that are >720P if you select the highest rez possible that are not quite 1080P. Lastly, even more games are coming out with the resolution in the future (like God of War 3), but we'll likely still see 720P as the primary resolution.

There are many factors that go into making a game look good, so this isn't the only graphical feature to be concerned about. Uncharted, Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2 are some of the best looking titles ever and they aren't 1080P.

I think when he referenced "lower quality" he/she meant "less complex"

Most of those games you listed are not rendered at 1920*1080...they support 1080p output, but they are not 1080p. Some PS3 games are, such as Wipeout. For a game to really be 1080p, it needs to be rendered at 1920*1080...something like GT5p is 1024*1080, but it isn't really 1080p.

Almost every game I listed has a 1920x1080 option. You are right about GT5P however. It renders above 720P (I read it is 1280x1080), but is not rendered a full 1080P natively.

While not a widespread feature, for games that offer a 1080 option there are a number of them that aren't "low quality" or "simple PSN games".

Hence why I said "There's probably a few exceptions".

The game was rendered in 720P, but it fake outputs 1080P only if you uncheck 720P in your video options. This is so the very rare old-school HDTV owners who don't have a 720P option can see the game above 480P, but it isn't worth doing for your set since 720P is the native resolution.

So basically you're saying that when the game shows the 1080P option on the back of the box, it doesn't really mean anything yet? The game was made in 720P and will thus display in 720P? Am I understanding you correctly?

So basically you're saying that when the game shows the 1080P option on the back of the box, it doesn't really mean anything yet? The game was made in 720P and will thus display in 720P? Am I understanding you correctly?

Not the 1st report..

Not the 1st report..

Huh? I'm not following you ...

^^^

Here's what's going on. If your HDTV is 1080P, then technically it internally upscales to display the image from the source at 1080P. However, your HDTV (like almost all others) will show you the approximate resolution sent out by the source machine. That's why it'll show 720P even though your TV will make it 1080P just to show the image. I read an explanation on this once somewhere around here, so that's how I understand it.

Your question is about a game that says "1080P " on the back but showing up as 720P in-game. Those titles are easily confused with games that natively render at 1080P in this sense... they were not designed to run at 1080P and often will look exactly the same as 720P (the optimal resolution).

This is because the textures and rendering were made specifically for 720P. Better quality textures are needed to maximize the benefits of 1080P. That means smaller pixel sizes in the game, and means more work for the console to process and display.

You can get the PS3 to upscale a 720P image to 1080P in these "fake" 1080P games like Madden 10 if you disable 720P option as mentioned above, but most of the time, there is no improvement image wise at all. The reason it is included is because for VERY old HDTVs, there is no 720P mode. They will display in 1080P or 480P (actually, I think it is only a max 1080i). If a game ships with 720P and no 1080P option like Resistance: Fall of Man, then the game will be forced to 480P for them which is a noticibly worse image.

There are exceptions as I mentioned. If you disable 720P in Marvel Alliance, it will display 1080P with a better image quality than in 720P, but I noticed that the frame rate chugs as a result. That's an old game though, and most 1080P games now are rendered that way because they run as well as 720P (if the image improves), or are not given textures that were rendered in true 1080P to keep things smooth.

The bottom line is that if you have all modes checked off on your PS3 that your HDTV displays, it will output an image that matches the optimal resolution that the designers made it for. You honestly aren't missing anything.

Hence why I said "There's probably a few exceptions".

Of the 1080P games, more than just a few are more than the low quality and simple PSN games described. It appears to be roughly equal and not just a few exceptions.

^^^
The bottom line is that if you have all modes checked off on your PS3 that your HDTV displays, it will output an image that matches the optimal resolution that the designers made it for. You honestly aren't missing anything.


OK I'm following you. Now for a dumb question I'm sure and I apologize because I'm new to the PS3, but where do I go to check off all the modes?

Should be under Settings > Display > HDMI

i wanna know why COD WaW sends 1080p to my tv when i have every single resolution checked off. it's common knowledge that the games real resolution is not even 720p. it's closer to 600 lines. do they really expect people to uncheck 1080i and 1080p when they are playing this game?

Should be under Settings > Display > HDMI

Thanks to everyone for the help.

Of the 1080P games, more than just a few are more than the low quality and simple PSN games described. It appears to be roughly equal and not just a few exceptions.

Agree to disagree I suppose. I'd consider the majority of that list to either have low quality graphics or to just be bad games altogether.