I don't know the specifics of it. But it plays in 480p/i. I believe it converts the analog signal. But without the big expensive converter. I'm not sure how they accomplished it. They're about $20 or less on Amazon. And there's one for the Wii as well. We have a component cable hooked up to the other PS2 in the house, and I was going to just buy another one of those, but this is handy since HDMI is basically the standard now. But the quality is pretty much the same since it's just the component signal displayed with HDMI input. It doesn't do any upscaling or anything that I'm aware of. But my TV isn't grumpy about displaying 480p or 480i so it all works out. You still see pixelation and jagged edges, but it's crisp pixelation and jaggies lol