Digital/Component Vs. the stock cables

[Cyric]

After spending well over a year trying to play FFX and FFX-2 on a PlayStation 2 emulator, I decided to go back to the roots and play it on my PS2. Never before have I actually noticed a difference between the quality you get from the Analog (RGB) cables versus the quality of the digital signal. My mouth literally dropped at the difference. I've had these component cables for a while, so you'd wonder why I hadn't noticed it earlier. The digital feed looks virtually identical to what you'd see on a PS2 emulator: sharp edges, bright (and accurate) colours, no fuzz. Even the subtitles/text looks sharp and crisp, instead of slightly blurry around the edges. Of course, this was all taken in on an HDTV, so I'm pretty sure there isn't much difference between the two cables if you're on a standard definition TV.

The only drawback I can see, are vertical 'bands' of colour across the image. It only happens during gameplay sequences, the CG movies are unaffected. The stock cables, although the image is not as bright, or sharp, the transition between colours is much more smooth.

I just thought I'd share my two-cents for all to decide whether it's relevant to them or not.

[Mirage]

What exactly are you talking about? Using digital signals between the PS2 and TV? That's impossible because the PS2 can't output a digital video signal.

If you're talking about the difference between standard PS2 composite cables and RGB component cables however, yes the difference is very big. You don't get the colour bleeding problem with RGB component cables, like what you get with the standard yellow composite cable.

[Cyric]

What exactly are you talking about? Using digital signals between the PS2 and TV? That's impossible because the PS2 can't output a digital video signal.

So, I guess that "Digital Output (Optical)" option in the System Configuration is full of crap?

If you're talking about the difference between standard PS2 composite cables and RGB component cables however, yes the difference is very big. You don't get the colour bleeding problem with RGB component cables, like what you get with the standard yellow composite cable.

Those are the cables I'm talking about.

[Mirage]

Digital output is for audio only, not video. And yes, RGB component cables are vastly superior to composite, but both are analogue :p. Analogue doesn't automatically mean bad though, I mean most people wouldn't be able to notice if their PC monitors were changed from using DVI cables to VGA cables without them knowing :p.

[Slothy]

Digital output is for audio only, not video.

This. And to be honest, if you're just running the sound into a TV there's not a whole lot of point with the PS2 since you'll never hear any difference in stereo on poor quality speakers. Makes a difference with surround though, but obviously that would be the case since you're not going to get a surround signal over stereo cables.

But yeah, the difference between composite and component is night and day in a lot of cases. The biggest difference I saw with the switch was in Gran Turismo 4, but it was actually made to run at 480p.

[Cyric]

Digital output is for audio only, not video.

Ahh, ok. It looks nice nonetheless. lol. but yeah, I have the audio going directly into $150 DJ headphones. I haven't used my TV's speakers for a LONG time. I'm actually trying to rack-up enough 'points' on my credit card for a new TV. I'm almost there too. The TV I'm looking at is 32" (as opposed to 26" now), 6ms g2g (as opposed to 8ms now), 10000:1 DCR (as opposed to 1000:1 now), is made by Samsung (as opposed to 'Envision' now) and it's $500 (I have almost $400 worth of points on my card).

[Rad Bromance]

The difference between the regular Red/Yellow/White composite hookup and an S-Video line is phenomenal on a regular television. A lot of people don't realize it, but I played on an S-video hookup for years, then I got a different tv without one and it looks absolutely awful to me.

In fact, I'd go as far to say S-Video via a standard definition television is the best way to play PS2, as it looks terrible on an HDTV.

[Mirage]

S-Video is better than composite, well almost anything is. I'm fairly sure it's around the same quality as component RGB.

Red/yellow/white is in reality just yellow in terms of video signal transmission, because red/white is left/right audio, and is also in use when you use S-video and component RGB :p.

How well a PS2 game looks on a HDTV depends a lot on how good the TV is at processing low-res signals and deinterlacing them. I think they look allright on my TV :p.

[Rad Bromance]

How well a PS2 game looks on a HDTV depends a lot on how good the TV is at processing low-res signals and deinterlacing them. I think they look allright on my TV .

Yeah, could just be the HDTV I've tried playing on. The PS2 games look terrible on it, and I've heard the same story from lots of people who tried theirs on an HDTV. I'd love one that standard-res stuff actually looked decent on.

[Mirage]

The main thing I think is that the low quality and lack of antialiasing is no longer hidden by the innate lack of sharpness on a CRT :p.