[Brian Kendig]

My Playstation 2 plays games and DVD's just fine on my new Seleco HT200DM over an S-Video connection... but I want more, so today I got the Sony PS2 component video cable and connected the Playstation 2 to the projector with that.


Problem is, the display is garbled and unreadable. It appears that it can't get sync, because the picture rolls very quickly, and I can't even make out what's rolling. The rolling image itself has blue in it -- a little blue when the PS2 is supposed to be showing its menu screen (dark with floating stars), and a lot of blue when the PS2 is supposed to be showing its browser screen (which is supposed to be all grey).


I double-checked and I believe I've got the plugs in the right connections. Can anyone help me diagnose this problem? Thanks very much!

 

[KeithR]

Make sure you aren't using the 480p input on the menu (ie. 32 hz i believe), but rather 480i (15hz i believe). Then, it should work right.

 

[Brian Kendig]

I figured it out! Two notes to help anyone else who hits this problem:


(1) The wires which the installer carefully labelled were carefully labelled wrong. Two of the three component video lines were swapped. Once I swapped the inputs to compensate, I got a steady image, but it was still garbage. (Tip: If the Y input is connected properly, the image will be steady, because the projector syncs on Y; if the image is rolling, that means Y isn't connected properly.)


(2) Even though the Playstation 2 had its 'Component Video' setting at 'Y/Cr/Pr/Cb/Pb' (or however that setting is labelled), I had to swap to my S-Video cable, go back into the PS2 settings menu, and re-select that setting before it would actually take effect. I then reconnected the component video cable and it output the proper image.


Wow... even though my screen is washed out by daylight, I can still see that component video is sharper than S-Video. I can't wait 'til the sun goes down so I can see it better. ;-)


(Yeah, I have blinds for that room on order...)

 

[jjmata]

Brian,


Could you please send us a quick update once you've seen the actual difference between the two output signals.


I have an LT150 which I use with the PS2 to watch DVDs but I made the "mistake" of using my laptop once just to see what the HTPC craze was all about and now I can't stand (well, an exageration maybe) the image that I get out of the svideo output of the PS2.


I know a lot has to do with the LT150's internal scaler, but the source signal sure makes a difference anyway.


Any others care to comment?


Thanks for your help.

 

[Jeff J]

Brian,

It might be interesting to set the ps2 to output rgb for game based output for another comparison. I think that the general consensus is that there is not a noticeable difference between cmpt and rgb, but it might be worth taking a look.


I would also be interested in any comments on the difference between s-vid and cmpt.

-jeff

 

[jjmata]

Unless Jeff knows something I don't there is no official PS2 VGA output yet. Everything on the market being advertised/sold as PS2 VGA boxes seem to be line doublers that do processing to the (component?) signal coming out of the console.


Now, the PS2 seems to be capable of VGA output (and Sony has shipped VGA adapters with the Linux kit in Japan, they plan something similar here in the States in their joint effort with AOL) but I don't really know what the deal is/when it will happen.

 

[Jeff J]

There is an option in the ps2 setup menu to select RGB or component for game play only use - the instruction say that DVD playback will always default to component format. this would not give you vga, just a RGB based 480i picture.


I thought that one would be able to use the regular component connector and the ps2 would output an RGB signal with sync on green. but, might this require some other connector, maybe a European format with additional sync cables?


I'll try this out tonight to see if this works.