Console Image Quality Guide 269
Jakub writes "We've posted a comprehensive guide on how to improve your console's image quality. It covers everything from the various connectors through cables to fine-tuning by modifying sharpness and brightness. Though the article uses the prolific PlayStation 2 as an example, it applies equally well to all video devices."
console image quality?? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:console image quality?? (Score:5, Funny)
Improving image quality (Score:4, Funny)
I think those would be a good start. If they don't help, try:
If after following these steps your image quality hasn't improved, consider taking the console back for a refund. Or better yet, just send it to me and I'll take care of it for you.
ad for monster (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:ad for monster (Score:1)
Re:ad for monster (Score:5, Informative)
Any audio or videophile will tell you Monster Cable is way overpriced... and Monster Game?! Stick another name on it and up the price!
There is tons of good cable out there. Notice he didn't compare the Monster Game S-Video with the $6 Wal-Mart S-Video. Hmmm.
Re:ad for monster (Score:3, Informative)
It's definitely better to have something like S-Video rather than an RF connector. However, a cheap S-Video would only look bad compared to a more expensive cable if you are using good quality Home Cinema equipment. I'm not convinced the output of a game from a console is that good. Generally you'd be better off cleaning the screen, buying a cheap connector and breaking & making the connections periodically to avoid the build-up of dirt.
Re:ad for monster (Score:2)
Re:ad for monster (Score:2)
audio/videophiles get the worst bang for their buck. But hey, they gotta blow their dough on something.
--
Most enthusiasts get ripped off (Score:2)
Re:ad for monster (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, if you made it to page six, the article does just that. I couldn't see a difference, except in the zoomed-in screenshot.
filtering.. (Score:2, Interesting)
the article just boils down to this: "svideo is better than composite". now really, IS THIS A GUIDE???
where's RGB??
and some better guide would have mentioned things like getting a vga adapter or rgb connectors where possible..(dreamcast has some vga thingy at least)
Re:filtering.. (Score:2)
You're wrong about the cables... (Score:5, Informative)
Any such audiophile who does research on the physics of cables will come up with the knowledge that the very, very, slight benefits of higher end cables can only be achieved at lengths of greater than about HALF A MILE.
You can argue this 'till you're blue in the face, of course, but I suggest that instead you use the scientific method: hook your cheap cables and your good cables up to a switch so that all the other equipment is the same. See if it makes any difference whatsoever.
I have a friend with a LOT of monster cable who became a bit depressed after this test, because he owned a LOT of Monster cable. He could have spent the money on even more expensive speakers to actually improve his sound.
Qualifier: there is a difference between shielded and unshielded, twisted pair, and straight. However, there is very little difference between Radio Shack 16 gauge shielded, twisted pair and Monster 16 gauge shielded, twisted pair.
My qualifications: I've been a sound technician for 9 years now, and a musician for 17 years. I can play four instruments, have a vocal range of three octaves. I have worked VERY hard to have a critical ear over this time period, and I think I do.
Re:You're wrong about the cables... (Score:3, Insightful)
Any and all of these WILL add noise to the signal, and they will all almost always cause slight nonlinear filtering effects. So buying more expensive versions of these things are justified, as the more expensive versions can take care of these problems. Cables, however, are just plain linear resistors; they don't really do much to the sound at all - at least not at first.
As far as the half a mile thing, like I said, the effect is supposed to be very, very slight. Apparently there's a latency issue with low frequencies that can cause some phase shift. This effect is supposedly discernable at no less than half a mile.
Fortunately for sound, phase is not really important - or rather, the only important thing is that everything is in phase. There are now digital devices that can realign the phase after a very long signal transfer.
Note that this effect (phase shifting) will have the following results:
1) Everything will sound a little quieter than it would have otherwise
2) Instruments with very different ranges (such as Piccolo and Tuba) will not blend as well.
Note that phasing is a common side-effect from nearly every sound system component.
Phase effects are also canceled by reflection - that is, when they hit a wall and bounce off, or something like that. Also, if you've got enough sound sources, the amount of phasing due to this effect should be miniscule compared to the natural amount. Don't bother with worrying about this if you are using it to listen to rock music. You won't know the difference.
Now I'm STILL not sure I buy the fact that cables produce nonlinear phase-shifting, but it does seem possible. Like most people, however, I run a max of about 100' of cable to my speakers, so I don't EVER have to worry about those effects (and I don't get to check and see if the cable people are lying about that, too).
Re:ad for monster (Score:3, Insightful)
(1) Not a SINGLE comparison is between the same kind of cable. Every single comparison is between the regular RCA and Monster S-Video cable. What's next, comparing an optical cable with RCA?
(2) The article is completely devoid of any facts other than some really slowly loading screenshots.
(3) You need a monster cable like you need a lobotomy. Not only do many other cables found in big chain stores are just as good, remember this if you are actually considering buying one: That $20 cable costs about $2 to make, which might explain why other cables sell for so much less.
Re:ad for monster (Score:2)
False: see page six, comparing generic composite to Monster composite (noticeable improvement) and generic S-video to Monster S-video (slight improvement in zoomed-in screenshot).
Re:ad for monster (Score:2)
> to Monster composite (noticeable improvement) and
> generic S-video to Monster S-video (slight
> improvement in zoomed-in screenshot).
My own tests of the cheaper (sub $20) s-video cable and Monster show almost none of the checkerboard pattern displayed on both that page's screenshots.
I *have* noticed that checkerboard once or twice if the cable wasn't plugged in fully (as in I pulled the console too far forward and pulled the video connector a little ways out of its socket). Hmm
Re:ad for monster (Score:3, Interesting)
Nothing irks me more than people who believe that the money:quality ratio is constant. It just isn't always the case... for instance, based on pure horsepower, I'd take my $700 AMD box over a $1500 Mac.
Re:ad for monster (Score:3, Interesting)
Bah, $150 is chump change. If he just wants some expensive cables, he can get a pair of Opus MM [transparentcable.com] speaker cables for around $23K. And don't forget the $1000 power cables [graniteaudio.com] for each component. Not to mention high-end power outlets and/or regenerators. You mean your outlets use steel screws to connect to house wiring instead of brass? Ha! They're useless!
And this isn't even close to being the absurd stuff. This guy [demon.co.uk] sells a pen that he claims will improve the sound quality of CDs by writing affirmative messages on their jacket covers. I have seen audiophile discussion boards where making fun of such products will get you flamed; "how can you say it doesn't work if you haven't tried it"?
I generally just build my own cables these days. For example I've found Belden 8281 (a 75ohm coax normally used to wire broadcast studios) for as little as $0.10/foot from folks who just want to get excess spools out of their warehouse. The tools and terminators easily end up being more expensive than the cable itself. I've also tried a few more exotic things like DIY braided power cords, which did reduce a ground loop I was having at the time but are mostly just a fun project even if they don't make a noticable improvement.
Monster , Text Book Marketing (Score:2, Informative)
Make no mistake, cables make a difference to those who care and Monsters products are worlds better then what comes out of the box or from wallmart. But they do not represent a good value-performance ratio. For the same amount you can buy a lesser marketed but more respected cable that is far superior. Many people will tell you that when you buy Monster or Bose you are paying for all their bright shiny ads in the magazines. This is very true, your dollars go to more marketing and not so much R&D or quaility materials/manufacturing.
Im not one of the crazy bastards who spends $15,000 on one speaker cable. I think if you add up all my cables it would total less then $3000. Many people who watch a movie at my house are blown away. There are also a lot of people who are convinced that it doesn't look any better then there 20'' Magnavox tv thats 10yrs old and conencted to an old VCR. Its quite simple, they are WRONG WRONG WRONG. At the same time, they do not know enough or care enough about the picture or sound to invest a dime in their equipment. I may not agree with them, I may think they are farking idiots, but I must respect their opinion.
P.S. Despite the many mentions of Monster Cable, I think this was a great article for educating people on the different connections, and the bennefits of investing in good cables.
bettercables.com [bettercables.com]
vampirewire.com [vampirewire.com]
vandenhull.com [vandenhull.com]
Re:ad for monster (Score:2)
I understand what the article looks like, but isn't it a bit obvious? I mean, if we were making an advertorial I hope you'd judge my editing skills sufficiently advanced to make it more subtle. The reason I left it as is, was in the hope that people would realize "wow, if they're pushing a product, maybe it's a little blatant."
Re:ad for monster (Score:2)
Re:ad for monster (Score:2)
Alan was making an article about console image quality. He had his monster cables and OEM s-video and composite cables. If he says "monster", that's what they are. The screenshots had to be labelled clearly. Seriously, what do you people expect? The most ambiguity possible? =/
Text of article (Score:1, Informative)
Introduction
If you only remember one thing from this article, remember this: After the memory card, the single most important upgrade for your console is an upgraded video cable.
Some of you may be surprised to read that the PlayStation 2 and TV are not configured for an optimal picture and audio quality straight out of the box. Neither is an Xbox or Gamecube. Some of you may be familiar with upgraded cables, but be unsure about the advantages on a "regular TV" as opposed to an exotic $15,000 plasma. Others may wonder if ultra-high-end cables such as those from Monster Cable are actually better than other cables. In this feature, we'll look at these questions and try to explain some of the concepts behind video quality without being too technical. We'll focus mostly on the PlayStation 2, as it is the most popular console, but by the time you finish reading this, you'll know how to maximize your console's picture and sound performance, whether you have an AV system that's 10 years old or 10 days old. This is a comprehensive article, so make sure you're comfy before you start reading.
Background Check
The first step in tweaking your console picture quality is using an appropriate video cable, and to do this we'll need to know the supported inputs for your TV. So, you'll either need to find your TV manual or take a look at the back panel of the TV as you read this next section.
RF Connector
All of you will have an RF connector. This is the input you normally use for your TV antenna and represents the oldest and worst format available. With this connection, the audio and video signal from the console must be converted into a "Cable/Antenna" channel for Channel 3 or 4. In the process, not only is the video quality greatly reduced but your console will also be limited to reduced-quality mono sound. If this is the only connector you have on the back of your TV, we're really sorry. There's not much you can do to improve your picture quality other than buying a new TV.
Composite
The composite video connector is the next most common input found on TVs, and unsurprisingly this is what the PS2, Xbox, and GC ship out of the box. In this approach, the video and audio signals are sent separately. Once the signal from the console system reaches the TV, it is decoded into separate luma (a form of brightness or intensity) and chroma (color) information.
In other news (Score:5, Funny)
Tips for getting the most out of a Walmart Keyboard
Is your toast the best it can be? Read on to find out...
Super Mario Bros. Tips and Tricks - How to run AND JUMP in COMBINATION!
And finally:
Screws: Righty-tighty or do they work better if you use hammers?
Re:In other news (Score:1)
Re:In other news (Score:2)
Use Monster cable between your tape deck and your VIC-20, of course! Eliminate those errors from 20-year-old tapes!
> Tips for getting the most out of a Walmart Keyboard
The XT keyboard port (gotta use that, none of this wimpy small-connector PS/2 stuff!) has five pins. Buy five strands of $15/foot cable and hook 'em up, one to a pin, for fastest time between keyboard and CPU!
> Is your toast the best it can be? Read on to find out...
Make more efficient toast by eliminating resistive heating in your AC line with a heavy-gauge solid-core copper plug, only $30/foot! Or for the best toast, buy $50/foot heavy-gauge pure-silver cable and rewire your whole frikkin' house!
> Super Mario Bros. Tips and Tricks - How to run AND JUMP in COMBINATION!
Best accomplished, of course, with our $10 per foot per pin per connector Super Mario Cable between your controller and your console!
> And finally:
>
> Screws: Righty-tighty or do they work better if you use hammers?
Huh? I don't get it. How the hell am I supposed to sell more cable with that?
buy the PC version of the game (Score:2)
Re:buy the PC version of the game (Score:2, Informative)
Re:buy the PC version of the game (Score:3, Insightful)
(That said, I still play console games because they aren't in my home office, making it *appear* I'm not at the same computer activity I was at for the previous 12 hours working... obsessive compulsiveness I guess.)
Re:buy the PC version of the game (Score:2)
Duh, not ALL games worth playing are made for the PC.
Besides, I never have had a crash, corrupted files, installation issues, or required hardware upgrades for my $150 Gamecube.
Re:buy the PC version of the game (Score:2)
Anyway, there are many reasons to play console games besides image quality. First of all, only a small portion of the noteworthy console games even get made for PC (and certainly, the reverse is true). Many people much prefer to play games in their living rooms than in front of a PC. It's a lot of fun to have four people sitting together in front of a good sized TV talking smack while playing Madden, or Gauntlet Legends, etc. Also, not everyone wants to spend the requisite money for a gaming PC, but they probably have a TV. A good video card costs as much, if not more, than a console.
Finally, if, for whatever reason, you've already decided to play games on a console, why not try to get the best image possible?
-J
How about this guide? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How about this guide? (Score:2)
2) ???
3) Server stays up!
What you really need to do (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, they could HEAR the difference between two different TOSLINK cables? Gimme a break. Sounds like a sponsored ad for Monster cable, whom audiophiles know is a rip-off anyways.
Re:What you really need to do (Score:2)
Re:What you really need to do (Score:2)
It's all moot since I've never seen anyone provide any actual PROOF that bi-amping actually works.
Ad for montser cable (Score:1)
New guide? (Score:3, Funny)
Um... what's that fizzing noise?
what would have been interesting (Score:1)
(you have to play with the brightness and contrast to make it look less ugly, and hope you've got at least s-video)
X-Box hint - buy the S-video adapter (Score:4, Informative)
Now if it only helped the gameplay...
Re:X-Box hint - buy the S-video adapter (Score:2)
Re:X-Box hint - buy the S-video adapter (Score:2, Informative)
As for the quality of S-video, I find the picture vastly sharper and clearer than using RCA video. When I was living at home still, my mom's TV had S-video. I hooked up the Dish Network receiver using both RCA and S-video to compare both. The S-video blew RCA away. The RCA video image appeared kind of grainy and especially so with the on-screen guide. This was using the generic S-video cable that came with the Dish Network receiver and nothing hyped-up at all.
Re:X-Box hint - buy the S-video adapter (Score:1)
I realise that's not really a useful suggestion mind you.
Oh well.
troc
Re:X-Box hint - buy the S-video adapter (Score:2)
Re:X-Box hint - buy the S-video adapter (Score:2)
Indeed, my whole system, TiVo, TV, DVD, VCR are all connected together via RGB SCART.
Re:X-Box hint - buy the S-video adapter (Score:1, Informative)
It will only cost you about £6 for the cable for most consoles and gives you full 3 channel R G B for
your TV
Re:X-Box hint - buy the S-video adapter (Score:2)
Seeing as the linked article is a giant "Monster Game/Monster Cable" advertisement, I'd assume that the author wants you to use them.
I wish they would have put more of a reason why to use that brand with comparisons of it to other brands of cable. This is what really leads me to believe that it is an advertisement more than an article.
Also, do you see this as
I guess it'd be a sectional article, but there is no section for tech or games.
Re:X-Box hint - buy the S-video adapter (Score:2)
As for the S-Video, yes using S-Video does make a huge difference. Using component cables, however, makes just as big a difference. Especially on the gamecube. FYI the cube has two A/V outs on the back. One is analog and one is digital. the analog one can be fitted with anything from a coax to an s-video cable, the digital one can be fitted with component video out. I don't have a tv with s-video in, let alone component in, but we went over to the auditorium on campus with the component digital out and hooked it up to a 1024x768 resolution LCD projector. HOLY CRAP!
Holy crap! It was every bit as good as if we had a huge gas plasma. Can't wait for Godzilla destroy all monsters melee. Use that projector and get us some 20 foot long mothras!
Re:X-Box hint - buy the S-video adapter (Score:2)
everything is better as svideo to the set/projector... when you bypass the damned filters in the set that split's it all out again you eliminate the smearing and the horrid dot-crawl.
it's not any better, it's just showing you how crappy your TV really is.
How to improve image quality .... (Score:1)
Step 2: Remember to bring $15,000 cash or a couple credit cards that haven't been maxed out with you
Step 3:Purchase 50" plasma HDTV
Step 4:Get TV into your house (or better yet, my house if you don't have room)
Step 5:Throw Play Station into trash
Step 6:Buy stupid expensive cables if you have any money left after buying the TV
Step 7:Plug Xbox into new kick ass TV
Now you have better picture quality!
Re:How to improve image quality .... (Score:2)
I'm quite happy with my current gaming setup, though, which runs the XBox, PS2, GC, Dreamcast, PSX, N64, Saturn, SNES, Megadrive, Jaguar, 3DO, and Atari 2600 (also the DVD player and satellite TV) through a *big* switcher box into a projector, which gives a nice bright 68" viewable screen. Only one thing missing from the setup - a fridge full of beer within arm's reach...
Comprehensive? (Score:3, Funny)
Dear Sirs,
I cannot find any information on your site about my "Scart" connection, which is the only other input my TV has - surely such a basic connection should have been covered in your "Comprehesive" guide to improving image quality.
Yours Faithfully
Re:Comprehensive? (Score:2)
Sharper image looks worse (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sharper image looks worse (Score:1)
Re:Sharper image looks worse (Score:2)
here's why (Score:2)
Sharpness is jacked up high for showroom floors, so the picture looks artifically clear in the bright lights. In an ideal setting, you turn it way down.
Re:Sharper image looks worse (Score:2)
Useless article (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Useless article (Score:2)
Re:Useless article (Score:2)
In other words, it wasn't a no-brainer for everyone, thus, it was useful for some of us.
Personally, I found it about 100x more interesting than another annoucement about how some backwater town has installed linux on some computer in a government office so Microsoft is clearly on the way to bankruptcy, or how someone has finally ported some Windows 1.0 program to work part of the time on the latest window manager that nobody uses.
PS2 Beats XBox Again! (Score:5, Funny)
Damn M$, And thanks, SlashDot, for setting me straight yet again!
Slashdotted already? (Score:4, Informative)
Don't use the composite video cables that came with your system. All kinds of TVs from 19" on up now ship with S-Video and even Component inputs (JVC ships a 20", 25", and 27" TV with component-in), so if you're anywhere near being in the market for a TV, there's no reason why you shouldn't be getting one with those inputs. $25 gets you the Sony-brand component cables, ditto for Nintendo (although you have to order them off of Nintendo's website). XBox component cables have been a little cheaper, $20 at most places, but the cables themselves look kind of cheap.
While the difference between S-Video and Component isn't quite as pronounced (I mostly only see the difference in the colors, not in the fidelity of the picture), the difference between composite and either of the upper-tier inputs is enormously pronounced. On larger televisions in particular (32" and up), you can see very pronounced scan lines and blurriness of the image when using composite cables. The Nintendo Gamecube can give you a great demonstration fo this fact. The back of the unit has the standard video-out and then the "digital-out" port where the component video hooks in. You have to have both jacks connected and active, since the video is only fed on the component port, and the analog audio is still fed along with the composite video. Hook up both signals, turn on a game, and just flip back and forth between component and composite. You'll see what I mean.
That article is spreading fud. (Score:2, Interesting)
I believe that the "screenshots" in this article are fake. A little blur in Photoshop helps them to sell their expenisive cables.
There's a real cult around expensive cables, especially amoung the audiophile croud. It's simply ridiciculous that some people who have a 5000$ stereo spend 1000$ on the cables. There is no difference in sound. A copper-cable's resistance is the same, no matter wheter you payed 20$ or 300$ for the cable.
Please slashdoters. Don't believe that crap.
ciao
Re:That article is spreading fud. (Score:2, Interesting)
I can tell you that the difference between RCA and RGB SCART is pronounced and very, very clear. Even on my old 14" portable its imediatly obvious when I switch between the two.
As it happens my Cable TV box can be switched between Composite and RGB outputs (SCART has seperate lines for each, no problems). Composite output removes the snowing and ghosting interference you can get with RCA, but the colour is about the same. However, when you switch between Composite and RGB....the colours are cleaner, sharper and brighter. Edges are well defined. There is no colour smearing. The picture is steady.
In conclusion : RCA sucks. Composite sucks too. RGB SCART kicks your Composite ass from here to next Tuesday, steals your lunch money and throws your gym kit over the fence. Its that good.
Re:That article is spreading fud. (Score:2)
As for Monster cables, I think they're a rip off. They're made for the same people who buy $5,000 stereos for their cars. If it's more expensive it HAS to be good right?
Re:That article is spreading fud. (Score:2)
You have got to be kidding me. They're not faked. While the lay person may not be able to see a big difference if you show them a composite signal, and then a component signal... put the two side-by-side and it's night-and-day. Really. Don't believe me, go check it out for yousrself the next time you're in an electronics shop. Use a DVD.
There's a real cult around expensive cables, especially amoung the audiophile croud. It's simply ridiciculous that some people who have a 5000$ stereo spend 1000$ on the cables. There is no difference in sound. A copper-cable's resistance is the same, no matter wheter you payed 20$ or 300$ for the cable.
While I agree with you, it's a diminishing-returns kind of thing. There are guys out there who will insist that they can hear the difference between 1"-thick copper and regular lamp-cord. Maybe that's even true - in an anechoic chamber. If you've got even so much as a set of curtains in that room (or worse yet, a square listening room), that difference is gonzo.
Having said that, I sprang for a $20 component cord for my PS2, which is hooked to a Sony Wega 27". I'd say a 30% difference in colour saturation and clarity, easily (I'm a graphic designer by trade). Composite is really fuzzy. But the difference between my $20 component cable and an $80 Monster component cable (with no audio!) is probably less than 5%.
Now, to those who say the fuzziness provides a nice 'soft' look... yup, that's true. It depends on the game, and how badly it flickers (say, Armored Core vs. Silent Hill, the former being brutal). Luckily the Wega lets you adjust the sharpness through a method called Velocity Modulation. I turn it on and off depending on the game.
So that's my 2 pesos. As for this...
Please slashdoters. Don't believe that crap.
I agree. Check the cables on your tv/system/games. Buy to taste. But don't tell me it's a scam, it's just not true.
Re:You can hear the difference in Audio Cables. (Score:3, Informative)
EE says that's highly unlikely, unless you were comparing something like balanced vs. unbalanced cables. I really, really, really doubt that a reasonbly cheap Mic cable (not the absolute bottom barrel) and an expensive Mic cable have anything different other than durability (I think a 2-input summing/inverting Oscilloscope could show there's no difference). But, in the home stereo world, you don't get balanced, so you need to stick with decent quality cables.
If you're really worried, use RG-6 satellite cable for home stereo stuff. Cheap, easy to get ahold of, and if the quality is good enough to carry 1 GHz 100 ft., 20 kHz is not going to be a problem.
>Furthermore you can hear the difference between minidisc and CD and MP3.
Go here [r3mix.net] and read it. 320 kbps MP3 (which is similar to MD for recording time) is better, bar none, when coupled with a decent encoder and decoder. It actually picks up more of the (admittedly useless) frequencies that the MD doesn't.
>Furthermore you can hear the difference between a 2 million dollar Sony Oxford and a Behringer and an SSL.
Can't fault you there. But most people don't have a 2 million dollar budget.
>If you could not tell a difference professional studios would just use shit cables.
No they wouldn't. In a professional studio, cables get stepped on, ends crushed, and they get yanked out of the sockets by the cable. They need the durability that a good cable brings. Not to mention that you're looking at 100ft.+ runs -- you don't want a cable with high resistance. They don't need a cable that goes flaky the fist time the audio engineer rolls his chair over it.
>There is a difference its just that for some electrical applications the difference is less.
Seriously, electrical applications (by which I'll assume all electronic applications) often work in the Ghz range. Even a $100/ft. Balanced XLR cord won't handle that, nosiree.
But audio frequencies aren't even within a factor of 100 of that.
>Use good cables for speakers
Use 16 or (if you can find it and have high-current speakers/stereos) 14 AWG lamp cord for speakers. Nice and flexible, and unless you run it parallel with your fluorescent light ballasts/power cables, very clean sound.
>Use pretty good cables for line level signals and you should be ok.
Of any signals, line level reqiures the best cables. We're talking less than 1V signal level in some applications. Thin, crappy cable will not do.
Just my 2 cents.
Some missing points (Score:4, Informative)
As one reader noted it would have been interesting if they actually wrote about something other than cables, eg how to set up your TV/HDTV/projector to make things look as good as possible, how VGA-boxes compare and so forth. And as far as I am concerned, Monster Cable are not by far the only manufacturer of high-end cables. Interact make some good stuff too, and about a million Hong Kong-manufacturers have different budget variants that will improve your results, if not by as much.
More specifically, a note that while MC do produce S-Video cables for all recent consoles, the PAL GameCubes do not support this kind of output, and thus a little test of RGB-Scarts wouldn't have been such a bad idea, eh? Especially considering that more people have Scart/Euro-connectors than S-video on their TVs, and that an RGB-Scart is easily on par with S-video output.
Since most people also only have one "good" Scart input on their TV set, a little write-up on different Scart-splitters and how they affect the quality would have been nice too.
Well, well, just a few thoughts. I guess we'll have to test these things ourselves, seeing as they who wrote the article are sponsored by MC and not interested in alternatives, which the consumer always is...
my experience with a ps2 vga adaptor (Score:4, Informative)
It's definately not worth the money:
-some games were black/white, it had something to do with the pal/ntsc switching of the console.
-the games that were displayed in color were in some sort of scanlined resolution on the monitor with a very low refresh-rate.
-there was no way to tweak the settings.
A couple months later I bought a better scart adaptor for my television set, which made the image a lot clearer and I gave the monitor to my little brother.
Re:my experience with a ps2 vga adaptor (Score:2)
I happen to have one (the Redant [gocybershop.ca] model) and couldn't be happier. Crisp and clear pictures on my monitor. It does run at 60Hz, but you can't expect a scan rate convertor in a $60 CDN item... But it does have a passthrough for the PS2 cable incase you want it on a Big Screen TV at the same time.
I've never seen a game play in Black & White. The only times I've heard of this problem is with Messiah hacked US consoles...
The Redant model actually does have a "soften" switch, though, in case you find that the picture is "too good" (since you will see the grainyness of 640x480 gameplay if you're sitting close).
Nifty S-Video trick (Score:3, Interesting)
But buy S-Video cables? Hey they are 'spensive. But there's a great substitute, and you probably have one in your basement right now.
Old-style Mac ADB (printer/modem) cables are perfect as S-Video cables: same pin arrangement. (Sound of 5,000
Funny that in my house, a PC is connected to a Toshiba projection screen via an old Mac cable. B) Yep, Apple just keeps on giving.
Rabbit Ears (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Rabbit Ears (Score:2)
The funny thing is that's pretty much what I've got - an ATI TV tuner card, one of those little 300-ohm gadgets plugged into the "cable in". And wires to screws on the other end of said gadget. And yes, rabbit ears on top of my 19" flat-face CRT monitor.
Everyone thinks they're just there as a joke, then I fire up the TV app and wiggle the ears. Big retro w00t!
Re:Rabbit Ears (Score:2)
You should put a bow-tie up there, too. Improve your UHF reception.
The real reason... (Score:2)
No connector's gonna fix that.
Re:The real reason... (Score:2)
No no no, that's not even CLOSE to what I was saying. The best way to improve your picture is to sell the Playstation 2 and buy a GameCube!! Duh!
Re:The real reason... (Score:2)
When did I mention XBOX? I'm a GameCube zealot, not an XBOX zealot.
Why all the fuss? (Score:2)
Ohhh, wait. Console image quality.
Cable hype (Score:3, Insightful)
Designing speaker and video cable takes a lot of science
This certainly isn't true when it comes to speaker cable - the audio cable industry would impress even PT Barnum, I'm sure he didn't realise just what suckers people are.
And note the distinct lack of any actual scientific testing of the cable and no comparison amongst S-Video cables. You'll see the same thing in audiophile magazines in their so-called cable reviews. If we're going to use subjective tests then I can say that the picture I get with my cheap S-video cable looks just like the one they're getting with the Monster Cable.
Reality is that any decent quality cable will give you the same results as a cable that costs thousands of dollars. And when it comes to speaker cable decent grade lamp flex will equal any cable out there unless you happen to have your speakers at least 50m from your amp (differences are only really even significantly measurable at around 100m and up).
Expensive cables? But ... (Score:2)
I thought that all I needed to do was run a green pen around the edge of the discs to get optimal picture and sound quality - or does that only work on the older CD-based consoles?
Composite CGA (Score:3, Interesting)
Article Summary for those with no time. (Score:2)
Specifically:
S-Video - Gamelink 300 Component Video - Gamelink 400 and Gamelink 400CVAA
Composite video is far worse than S-Video. Don't pick a Monster Composite cable over a generic S-Video cable.
Turn down the contract on your TV. Default settings have the contrast and brightness set too high. Easier to see in a store, but causes problems with bright images and scenes.
Turn down the sharpness on your TV for DVDs and games. Digital images are mangled by excessive sharpness, and reducing it will result in softer, more realistic images. Sharpness just adds data that isn't there to digital images.
You should also configure your PlayStation 2 DVD sharpening to -2. The default "+0" setting is actually adding a lot of artifacts to your picture. The -2 setting is the true "neutral" setting.
Use an optical audio cable if available. This reduces Jitter, even over a digital audio cable. Most users will not notice the difference between a decent optical audio cable and a an ultra high end one.
Article wrong about "Xbox HDTV" games (Score:2, Insightful)
TVs suck... (Score:2)
In reality, TVs and these modulation standards weren't designed with high resoltion, sharp images in mind, which is why they will ALWAYS look like garbage compared to their PC counterparts. You're an absolute fool if you spend $30-50 on a stupid Monster cable to try to make this look any better. That's like someone getting a $50 monster cable to improve the resolution of their atari 2600!
Hopefully HDTV will fix this discrepancy, but the price for a HDTV set right now is still astronomical compared to a 21" computer monitor. I'm not very famiiar with the new consoles, but I know they process their video as RGB, so is there a way to bypass the modulator?
You're Watching a Bleeping TV Set !! (Score:2)
No TV game is going to compare to a 1600 x 1200 computer display because it's well, a TV game that you watch on a TV. Improving the image quality of your TV set is like improving the performance of your Yugo. When all is said and done, you still have... a Yugo.
I understand that most people don't have a 40 inch computer monitor, but still you can only go so far with image quality on an NTSC television set. TVs are not high resolution display devices by definition.
Vortran out
Re:You're Watching a Bleeping TV Set !! (Score:2)
However, at a certain point, (about 20 bits color depth) the actual resolution of the display device becomes the primary factor in perceived image quality. This is where the TV set fails to match up to the digital computer display.
Vortran: RE Vortran out
The Audio Section (Score:2)
I further want to know why jitter would have those particular effects on the sound before I believe it's not something else.
It seems highly unlikely (Though possible) to me that a system capable of reproducing DTS (or just AC3, like my sony cheapie receiver (which is hooked up to my PC with a creative SB live, which is pretty lame for various reasons) would have any problem transmitting PCM. I know that MPEG has its own ways of correcting for those kinds of problems but bear with me anyway.
So if the system is even capable of doing AC3 or DTS, I'd think that it would have no trouble running over some cheap-ass copper given that it's a digital signal and some degradation shouldn't matter, as one would hope our signal voltage is much higher than our trigger voltage. I suppose the trigger varies somewhat. Stats on that might be interesting. Fiber should be even easier, though the quality will vary there as well. I don't exactly have the kind of system (the sb live, remember?) to do any serious testing along those lines, and I'm not about to go look up specifications on copper wire and cheap fiber and so on, I have other shit to do :)
Re:The Audio Section (Score:2)
If buffering were a cure-all then we would just send ALL of the data to the receiver with an imperative to play it at exactly however many ms after it receives it, and we wouldn't have problems with PCM or with MPEG.
If this IS how it's being done, there's no excuse for not doing it with PCM when you can do it with MPEG.
Tron (Score:3, Interesting)
From what I understand, a good portion of poor image quality has to do with improper television settings. After I ran through that utility, the picture quality on my TV was dramatically improved.
I wonder why more DVDs don't do this, or even video game consols. It just seems like such a good idea to improve the quality of the experience.
Don't waste your time reading this (Score:2)
While I grant that /most/ people probably have an F-type connection on the back of their tv, I think assuming ALL have it is probably a little much. There's always one.
My real point though is that this is about where I stopped reading. F-type is the oldest and worst? Has he never seen/played a console on a tv connected with a 300 Ohm connection? I'm going to guess he probably hasn't. To me, this little slip just confirms my original thought upon browsing through his little "guide" that he really doesn't have a clue, and is just regurgitation what some sucker-savvy salesman told him about "Monster Cable".
Save your money. It's not worth it. Good cables are important, and can give you a better, or more reliably quality experience, but you don't need to buy monster cables to get that. Buy any of the higher end cables from any of the major electronics retailers and you'll get the same thing. Or even the walmart one.
RGB SCART/Component is the only way to go (Score:2)
The PS1 of course also looks great through RGB.
S-Video is a minor improvement over composite video, but it still doesn't hold up when compared to RGB input.
However, most people are stuck with composite, and a major improvement in signal quality can be had simply by using a good quality 75 ohm video cable to run composite video across.
I had the good fortune to buy an Iomega Buz card some years ago, and found it came with a short high-quality 75ohm coax video cable. Simply using this interconnect instead of the skinny little video cable provided by most consumer video equipment suppliers gives a major (and i do mean major) increase in visual quality. this was an eye-opener for me, and ever since then I have made my own composite video cables out of cheap 75 ohm coax (NZ$2 per meter retail), with excellent results.
Especially improved is the composite output of one of my cheap scan converters for displaying VGA on a TV.
Unfortunately, this is not really an option on the PS2/later PS1s/Dreamcast - though my old 1000-series PS1 has 'standard' RCA connectors on the back (dunno about the X-Box, i don't own one) since they use a proprietary connector on the end of crappy, low-quality composite cables.
W/regard to the superiority of 'Monster' or similar 'branded' cables, I believe this is a total crock, and anyone who would try and claim 'higher quality' on things like digital interconnects, or claim there is some benefit in 'directional' speaker cables etc. is clearly a liar, and those hi-fi magazine reviewer clowns who claim they can hear a 'day and night difference' between various cables and digital (digital!) interconnects are liars too.
Using a cable with a signal-loss and power-handling rating that matches your application will always give you an improvement in quality over a cable that doesn't, however you don't need to pay a massive premium for the privilege of using such a cable.
They totally don't know what they're talking about (Score:2)
First, no significant difference is going to be seen in the jitter caused by two different 75 ohm coaxial cables (or fiber optic cables). Second, any data sent across a TOSLINK cable gets synched up to an amplifiers internal clock before being d/a converted, so my first point doesn't even matter. In a fair test, using lab equipment, instead of hearsay, they would not be able to tell the difference between a "standard" coaxial or optical toslink cable and moster cable. That's why the data is sent in digital format in the first place.
This:
Even so, while I was able to identify the Monster Cable with statistical significance with 95% confidence, it was barely perceptible and I could only distinguish between the two optical cables with one track.
Or this:
when we put in an audiophile-grade TOSLINK cable (that retails for just under $200 for three meters), our blind testing concluded that there was a slight improvement in transparency and a reduction in boominess on a wide-range of source material
is a total lie. In a double-blind test there is no diffrence.
This is what I use: (Score:3, Interesting)
My setup [denver.co.us] that I have made a year ago, is relatively cheap (the only non-computer expensive component is Proxima Ovation, an old LCD projection panel) and nice enough to displace a TV from my living room. Original version used composite video from PS2 to the TV capture board instead of S-Video, and image quality was pretty terrible. VCR's tuner happened to be better than one built into the capture board, and I didn't care much for improving audio quality beyond a reasonable level, so audio goes through rather cheap components.
LCD panel, projector and PC produce more noise than what I would prefer, and adjusting image on a projector was a pain in the neck (Proxima's bit depth sucks), but in the end image quality ended up being far superior to a TV. I have found out that in this configuration xawtv works better with Xv disabled, and many games look terrible if blown to a full 1024x768 screen, so I keep them at the NTSC resolution. DVDs are played with Ogle on a computer.
Proxima Ovation has S-Video and composite inputs, however the scaling algorithm that it uses for them, is absolutely horrible.
If not Monster Cables, then ... (Score:2)
What brands would people recommend for:
1. Cables? (Less then $200)
2. Projection TVs? (Less then $3k)
3. Switcher Box? (Less then $200)
4. Speakers (5.1 or better) (Less then $500)
from Tweeter, Best Buy, or Radio Shack since they are the closest A/V stores.
Cheers
Whoops, forgot one part (Score:2)
Re:Improving Playstation 2 image quality (Score:1)
Re:Improving Playstation 2 image quality (Score:1, Informative)
However, all Xbox games (with 1 or 2 small exceptions) are progressive scan (480p) which gives a small improvement is visual accuity over normal output (480i).