PS3: No HD on 1080i-only HDTVs
November 15, 2006 - As final PlayStation 3 units continue to trickle into more and more hands, additional details about how the system works and what it can and can’t do are hitting the web. The latest (rather major) tidbit is how the console treats the upscaling and downscaling of 720p titles on televisions that don’t support that resolution — specifically those that are only 1080i capable.
As it turns out, gamers who own older HD sets that feature only 480i, 480p, and 1080i resolution input capabilities will have to settle for the display quality being downsized as the game boots in its 480p mode rather than upscaling the image from its more desirable 720p mode to the TV’s 1080i. We tested this development on older HDTV sets with games designed for 720p but not 1080i — Resistance: Fall of Man, NHL 2K7, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07, and Need for Speed Carbon. Sure enough, the system downshifted all four titles to 480p rather than moving up to 1080i.
The PlayStation 3’s competitor, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, does upscale 720p games to 1080i if the HD set supports only 1080i and not 720p, which is very common with most non-high-end HDTVs.
Click here for the full article.
IGN does some damage control for Sony there, making it sound like 1080i TVs are somehow some kind of ancient species. This is not the case. Not only are 1080i-only TVs not that old, but they are also the most commonly used HDTVs in homes these days. When HDTVs first started penetrating the market, they were the cheapest TVs that still offered great quality. This revelation is just another embarrassment to the Sony PlayStation 3, which will be “launching” this Friday.
November 15th, 2006 at 11:23 pm
*Continues to sit back with popcorn and watch Sony’s black plague unfold*
November 16th, 2006 at 12:31 am
You know that’s a good name for ps3, black plague. It’s big, black, sucks and liable to kill million (when the internal power supplies go nuclear O_O)
November 16th, 2006 at 3:24 am
Let’s see the the fanboys spin this…
November 16th, 2006 at 7:04 am
I was thinking the same thing David. I think Sony loyalists will just take this news and instead of trying to get Sony to somehow fix it, they will just insult those without 720p TVs and say it’s too bad.
Also, I was wondering, do the PS3 backwards-compatible titles (the ones that actually work) upscale to 720p if you have a 720p TV? Like if I had a PS3, and put Metal Gear Solid 2 in it, would it upscale to 720p? Just curious if Sony has skipped out on that feature too.
November 16th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
First, lol PsychoJethro…..and second, what is Sony thinking? I guess when they finally started manufacturing they realized that happened, then it was too late. Either that, or their cheap and stupid, whatever.
November 16th, 2006 at 4:50 pm
While this a major detriment to the console, this is most probably something that can be fixed with a firmware update. This is, however, stupid as hell, and I won’t be getting one because my TV is 1080i, even though my TV can scale.
F Sony in the pooper, I say.
November 16th, 2006 at 5:22 pm
It’s only a matter of time before Sony fanboys start talking about how you won’t even be able to notice a difference in quality or something to that effect.
Oh, and UNSCleric, I’m guessing that if you could pop in MGS 2 and it would upscale, Sony would have advertized it. They need all the good news they can get right now…
November 25th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
[...] Remember the story about the PS3 not up-scaling to 1080i if your TV doesn’t support 720p? That’s something the Xbox 360 has done since day one, but it seems Sony puts zero value into providing this feature for its customers. Here’s Sony’s new stance regarding this issue: [...]
February 24th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
[...] How many other ways has Sony shown ill-placed deference to their media aspirations? They did add HDMI to the low-end unit a few months before launch, which is great news for non-gaming uses such as watching Blu-ray movies in 1080p. It also increased the price on the low-end unit, of course. Then there’s the HD scaler: hard-locked resolutions are more media-oriented than the more gamer-friendly variable resolutions. [...]