SCEA Comments on PS3 Resolution on Older HDTVs Posted by XanTium | 21-11-2006 17:56 EST

From biz.gamedaily.com: [QUOTE] Today Sony Computer Entertainment America confirmed the problem to GameDaily BIZ: "A small number of older High Definition television sets found in the United States only have 1080i inputs for HD signals. Those televisions will currently only play some PS3 titles at 480p resolution. PS3 games render images at either 720p or 1080p for High Definition, and you need 720p input on the TV to play select games that do not support 1080p. This is an issue on the side of the individual television sets, which do not accept 720p input, so when a game outputs an HD signal only at 720p, these select TVs have to display the game at 480p instead." The SCEA spokesperson went on to assure us that Sony is working on a solution. [/QUOTE] Read More: biz.gamedaily.com

ewww... can you imagine getting a 'great deal' on an older model HD projection tv..waiting in line over night... plugging them both in.......and........ 480p. Oh the humanity.

This pisses me off to no end. Very few HDTVs are they effin kidding me?? There are hundreds of thousands of tvs that where made to only support 1080i and 480i/p. And two years ago these were not cheap tvs.

His answer also danced around everything and answered nothing.

The fact is that if you own a tv that supports 1080i and 480i/p only and has NO BUILT IN SCALER CHIP you are out of luck for hi def gaming on the PS3. Also all those with tvs that do have built in scalers most of them didn't work very well so when you used them PQ goes to crap.

I am lucky enough to have a HDTV that supports 720p, but my main bigscreen was purchased a few years ago and doesn't support 720p, so i have to play my PS3 on my 30 inch.

If I didn't have my second tv I would have returned the PS3 because of this problem. And the fact that SONY seems they are not doing anything about it is just crap.

I agree much. I purchased my HDTV less than 2 years ago now and it does 480p and 1080i. I spent $1000 then, should I have to spend $1000 now because Sony can't downscale properly?

I will be the first to say I understand technology updates over time so 2 years is a long time, especially in the electronics world, but knowing I can't have 1080i is just more reason for my not to purchase a PS3.

Sony pushes this is the new bar blah blah blah but how many moms and dads are putting HDTVs in their kids rooms to handle it? Perhaps they could have spent their money better in other facets of the system vs $600.

If you ask me I think sony missed the mark on the playstation 3 completly. I mean I do think that having a gaming system that supports actual desktop computing power is awesome BUT at the same time it has alot of disadvantages. I mean as if the system wasnt enough now having an HDTV isnt enough either... To me thats completly crazy and when people ask their friends or consult reviews they will quickly hear that quirks and flaws and will possibly be disenchanted at the idea of buying a system. Now Im not just trying to bash the system here because the wii and most certainly the 360 have their problems as well but they werent as big of an investment as the others. Also the fact that sonys customer service leaves something to be desired (especially with this problem).

My tv is a year and a half old and supports upto 1080p but has issues with getting the proper resolutions as well and Ive never had a problem with my HD dvd player or my 360 linked thru DVI yet I pull the ps3 out of the box and BANG instant problems. Kinda lame as well that this system was pushed back and hyped as long as it was yet comes with such stupid issues ...

Just my .02

Wow. Sony just basically said "screw you, we don't want to cater to absolutely everybody. we might fix this sometime in the future."

All of you incompatible tv owners out there have my condolences - 480p is nothing compared to 1080i

Hopefully the problem is fixed soon.

Acctually buying a hdtv that doesn't do 720p shows that people buy stuff withouth knowing shit. I just wonder how they sold you on the part that says no 720p capability. Its like buying a car that will only take you to the game but not home after...

Ohh, so it's *their* fault that Sony aren't supporting a HD resolution OOTB? Silly me, there I was thinking that something as technically advanced as the PS3 should be able to output at 1080i without any further work being undertaken.

/Sarcasm off

So exactly what did you get for your money then? A pretty box? To insult others about their purchases two years ago is low, even for you Pheidias. Why not just point the finger at Sony (as supporting 1080i should be a no-brainer) - or will they kick you out of the Fanclub?

its a TV brought for??? you guessed it TV, Note that most HDTV broadcast is in 1080i and this is also the highest broadcast quality withtin reason why would you look for a lower spec? these are early adopter tvs, they are desgined to give the best possible image at that time. Only now as the format matures do we get sets that can scale to all the resolutions under the sun. Sony should know this after all they sold a hell of alot of HDTV's that only do 1080i.

Also can you get tv's that dont do 1080i? surly this is more popular than 720p due to all the broadcasts being encoded as this? All the HDTV sat recievers ive seen also scale between 720p and 1080i...

and if your one with an old sony hdtv its more like buying a car only to find the manufacture doesnt intend to make any spare parts for it, so you can either get a new one or have to start translplaning bits and suffering performance loss.

sony need to learn that they are servicing their customers not the other way round. Hell they have had nearly a year waiting on their blue diodes, you would have thought they got some good testing of the rest of the hardware done.

You are not making well thought out comments and never have, please stop posting this drivel.

When I bought my tv 1080i was the only HDTV resolution, 720p barely exested yet and cost 10,000 bucks. So forgive me if i was only willing to drop $4500 on the newest and best technology.

Oh and by the way, SONY themselves have made many tvs that only support 1080i, because that used to be the standard. The PS3 doesn't work on all of these tvs either, think before you post.

I have a flat panel that accepts pretty much any resolution. Strange thing is that when I have my PS3 in 1080p it flickers like crazy - and yes I do have other things that output that res and work fine.

Also, if I have the PS3 set to 1080 and I then play a game that renders at 720 the PS3 automatically downscales to 480. So it doesn't even run it in it's native resolution, unless the PS3 is specifically set to 720p.

Where the fuck is the sense in the Sony? Huh?

The exact same thing happens to me when setting the resolution to 1080i on my tv that does 1080i, 720p, 480i/p. If i set the tv to 1080i it downscales everything to 480p. Also in 720p i get some screen flicker through HDMI no less.

They had better get busy writing some code to fix this dammit.

And I popped in a standard dvd and was dismayed when I found the PS3 does not upconvert standard dvds thrue HDMI to higher resolutions. That is so booty, i was hoping i could replace my dvd player all together but now i need to get a HDMI splitter.

I am looking forward to some good games in the future but I have been let down byt the PS3 so far.

I get flicker through HDMI as well.

It sucks!


So I'm using component. It's really
worth me having a Bluray in my PS3 and paying the extra cash for the privilege.

No flicker via HDMI cable bought from monoprice

it's not so much as who made the hdmi cable or what quality it is, but how your individual PS3 handshakes with the cable and your tele.

very true. Have you looked at firmware updates for your display?

The flickering is only noticeable in the dash not really in the game.

What tv's have firmware updates?

I don't have a list and it’s not every display. It’s up to the manufacturer to decide if they will release/support updates. Most displays that support firmware updates need to be updated with a service technician. Some receivers and DVD players can also be updated. Sometimes a feature is implemented before a standard is finalized, etc. The more complex CE devices become the greater the chance of FW updates.

I was just wondering if their particular displays can be updated as a possible solution to their issue.

Fuel for the fire

Sony screwed up on this issue plain and simple, and 1080i is absolutly an HD standard and anyone who says otherwise is an idiot.

When you play a game in 1080p and it downconverts all 720p games to 480p that is just a serious flaw and I hope sony gets of there lazy ass and fixes it.

Also not being able to upconvert standard dvds are they kidding me.

I've have my doubts if they can "fix" this issue and so are they.
Taking resources to scale the image will be hard without a performance hit. We'll wait and see, but I'm doubtful.

you all know it took MS almost a year to implement dvd upscaling and 1080p right? They also managed to screw that up so some tvs couldn't display it...

I'd say with all the crappy tvs and lose standards and shoddy connectors running rampant in the hdtv business its no wonder you can't cater to eneryone. If you have a 1080i set that can't do 720p, how do you watch abc as they broadcast in 720p. Don't complain if you bought a crappy tv set, just go out and get yourselfs a device to scale the signal from 720p to 1080i.

I will agree with that. There are plenty of devices that have handshake issues, etc. It usually occurs when a company adopts a feature before a standard is finalized.

The reason nobody notices the ABC broadcast isssue is that the FCC mandates that all tuners output at all resolutions, 480P, 1080i, and 720P. Thus if your TV has a built in tuner it will do the scaling and if you have a cable box it will do the scaling. The FCC does not mandate that a display support resolutions over component, VGA, DVI, etc. Nor does the FCC have control over a display's inputs only the tuners.

hmm...saw this over at AVS and thought it was interesting.

The interesting part is the mention of a hardware scaler in the PS3, the rest is what I have been saying if they try to do it in software. Another poster makes mention of the hardware scaler in a post claiming; "Sony is acknowledging on restricted developer documentation that they do have a scaler but they aren't using it, at least not for games." I would ask our resident developer if the PS3 does indeed have a hardware scaler and if it could be utilized, but I know the NDA won't allow him to.

Not haveing a scaler in the ps3 is an issue for people with 1080p and 720p tvs as well.

game is 1080p, dash is at 1080p, tv is 1080p= game is displayed at 1080p

game is 720p,dash is 1080p, tv is 1080p= game is displayed at 480p

Take your blinders off and realize Sony dropped the ball end of story.

Who are you talking to? This thread is about Sony trying to fix the issue, possible solutions, and why more than a FW update might be needed. The PS3 does have a scaler for whateve crazy reason Sony didn't want developers to utilize it. Some theories were posted, but again just speculation.

Where are you getting this from? Virtually all 1080p (not i ) tv's support 720p, because they have enough pixels to do so. The problem with 1080i CRT's is that they can only do a max of 540 lines per frame - so 720 lines is out of the question.

heh good catch I just glossed over that.

It is not because a 1080p TV can't do 720p; it is because the ps3 won't switch between 1080p and 720p.

If you are playing a 1080p game and have the PS3 set to 1080p and than put a 720p game in the PS3 converts the 720p game to 480p. You than have to manually set the PS3 to 720p again to get the 720p game in 720p.

I have had to do this on a 1080p TV myself and it is not BS it is a stupid design and a huge fuck up on Sony’s behalf. You would think something like this would not have slipped by testers.

As far as them fixing it I hope they can work something out although I doubt they can. The PS3 has potential but I think this is a big screw up.

Also bob saying the ps3 even has a scaler is very debatable and also speculation on your part.

Yes, it is speculation, but found it interesting and it was said by an apparent insider. Of course this is the internet and he could be some bored guy on the computer feeding us crap.

I guess you could say it is merely a matter of switching but if it had a scaler it wouldn't be an issue to begin with. I also think it goes a little deeper than that, why would it not lower resolution to 1080i if it wasn't a resolution issue? Why go all the way down to 480p?

It really is annoying.

lol I edited my post after I realized what you were getting at. You want it upscale the 720P to 1080P instead of merely switching to 720P. Some folks have found the the PS3 has an odd way of deciding what resolution takes precedence, another issue to be woked on.

I can't believe all you people backing up sony over all this. I love my 360 but never back up ms when they do something wrong with it. I hate sony fanboys and ms fanboys. But sony fanboys are the worst, they would go out and buy a cement brick for $800 if it had a sony symbol on it and they would defend it to no end not even knowing what it's supposed to do, much like the ps3 which is supposed to be the next level of high def yet it only supports hd in 2 forms instead of the 3 standards. FUCK SONY

It does support 3 HD resolutions, it doesn't scale. Did you have anything else to add to this thread or just a diatribe on Sony fanboys and shout "FUCK SONY"?

That is all rubbish. So let me see if i understand you correctly: It's not sony's fault that their ps3 is having problems with crappy 'psuado HDTV'......psuado HDTV's of which sony made many of themselves?

Both their video game consoles and TV's are under the same division...'Home Entertainment'. So to say that it has "nothing to do with sony games division" is BS.

People need to be PATIENT there will be updates to the system, both to hardware and software. People seem to be giving the PS3 an extremely hard time, whether they've played it or not. It is an extremely impressive system when you actually see it running as it was intended. Owners of older hdtvs may have to wait to see it in all it's glory, but at least they still can play it. This was not the case for many early adopters for the Xbox 360. 4 of my friends purchased 360's on release. 3 of them spent at least a months waiting for microsoft to take it back and send a repaired one. One friend had to wait 3 months... It seems everyone who's criticizing the ps3 launch has forgotten what happened at the last major console launch.

How are they going to update the hardware?

Simple: they aren't.

Emotion engine, CGI-quality graphics, dual HDMI output, 7 controllers, gigabit ethernet hub, reality synthesizer, spring 2006.
What do all these have in common? They are all things that Sony hopes its fans will forget about.

Add this major screw-up to the list.

o.0 That has absolutely nothing to do with the statement. How many versions of the xbox were there? 10. Sony will tweak the hardware and make some changes to it in the future if need be. No console is ever perfect on launch. That's life.


The features which were removed from the e3 specs were useless. Someone came to their senses and realized there's no way in hell you need dual hdmi, or an intigrated gigabit hub. And the console does still support 7 controllers.. The power of this console is far from being utilized do not discount any claims on graphics/ai just yet.

None of the changes to the Xbox throughout its life modified its functionality.

I guarantee you, if Sony were to add a hardware scalar (accessible by the devs) it would break something else. That's just the way computers are.

Besides, how are they going to explain to early adopters that they need to go out and buy the PS3.1? Read up on those other forums -- plenty of the posters there are refusing to purchase PS3s as it is.