A $599 game console with no built in scaler? wow!

[diablohead]

So like yeah, the ps3 seems to have no scaler built into the system. In short this means if a game Is built for 720p and you have a 1080i hdtv like say, sodders, the ps3 will not upscale to 1080i and instead drop to a viewable image like 480p/i.

<Diab> so lets get this straight
<Diab> all games on 360 can get upscaled by the console itself to 1080p if you wish to do so
<Diab> ps3 will only do 1080p if the game makers add the code to their game

<Diab> it means a lot of americans with 1080i only hdtv's are forced to play 90% of the launch games in 480p
<Diab> because the 720p game will not upscale to 1080i
<Diab> wow sony, wow
<Diab> ps3 has NO INTERNAL upscaler, wow
<Diab> the best thing is, some sony hdtv's don't have 720p lol

<Diab> while here I can play halo2 in 1080p whenever I want (well my lcd doesnt support it but still!)
<Diab> thing is a lot of people wont care about the problem unless they have a 1080i only tv, but its still terrible of sony to not say anything about it after the hype they give about next-gen

[Robert]

Interesting. Not like it's any great hardware trick to scale images anymore. Maybe this was to make sure that developers could target optimal framerate on a particular mode and not worry about possible scale-induced slowdown of even the tiniest bit?

[diablohead]

The 360 scales without a performance hit, as it's run seperately to the game code. Thats my understanding of it so far anyway (there is a dedicated chip to render at 1080p on 360, and only that)

[Robert]

diablohead said:

The 360 scales without a performance hit, as it's run seperately to the game code. Thats my understanding of it so far anyway (there is a dedicated chip to render at 1080p on 360, and only that)

I figured the same development, too. But I guess I imagine even the perfect, seperated chip might induce a tiny bit of latency somewhere, even if it's by making frames display like 1ms behind realtime or something stupid like that which may amount to large delays if timing is key. Something like that.

[王泥喜]

How Ironic they Sony gave this talk about "True HD" and they don't even bother with upscaling.

[Keith T. Hemari]

Wait wait wait wait... so, lemme get this straight.

This would be kinda like having a emulator that had no 2X, 3X, 4X, etc video mode, right? So basically they won't let you fit the image to your own TV?

That's not just stupid, that's staggeringly obtuse! This kind of thing reminds me of the incident with the PSP, where the buttons didn't work right and, as I recall, the designers basically said "That's the way we made it, so deal with it."

I can't really comprehend what kind of thinking (or lack there of) goes into these sorts of choices...

[Matsrik]

Arrogance?

[diablohead]

keithhemari said:

Wait wait wait wait... so, lemme get this straight.

This would be kinda like having a emulator that had no 2X, 3X, 4X, etc video mode, right? So basically they won't let you fit the image to your own TV?

That's not just stupid, that's staggeringly obtuse! This kind of thing reminds me of the incident with the PSP, where the buttons didn't work right and, as I recall, the designers basically said "That's the way we made it, so deal with it."

I can't really comprehend what kind of thinking (or lack there of) goes into these sorts of choices...

Er? no it's nothing like zoom, is a lot more like resolutions. In fact it is.

[TonicBH]

diablohead said:

Er? no it's nothing like zoom, is a lot more like resolutions. In fact it is.

So it's like a game only being on 640x480, and unable to change resolutions.

[Neo]

It's like a game only being able to run at 640x480 or 1240x1028

But nothing in between.

(Numbers not to be taken literally, just explaining it simply)

[Oni Lukos]

Actually, only the second set is off, and not by much.

[Keith T. Hemari]

Oh, it was the word 'scale' that got me. Still, that's pretty stupid.

[Epon]

And that is why I laughed at the assholes standing in line yesterday when I waltzed out with my 360

[Kulock]

That doesn't make sense, I've seen a shot of the menu where you adjust your screen resolution... unless that just set the default preference...

[diablohead]

kulock said:

That doesn't make sense, I've seen a shot of the menu where you adjust your screen resolution... unless that just set the default preference...

You can pick all the resolutions from the console menu yes, but a game will not automaticly adjust to chosen menu res when played, unlike 360 games that do.

Resistance fall of man will not upscale to 1080i if you have the system set to 1080i, so this means if your tv does not accept 720p/i and only 640p and 1080i the game automaticly plays in the SD resolution.

[Squiggles the Chao]

Yes, but if you paid money for a TV that displays 1080i instead of 1080p, you should be kicking yourself anyway. The point of spending a lot of money on a HDTV is that you're paying a premium for better picture. At the point where you're spending that much money, it doesn't make sense to spend it on an interlaced picture.

Having said that, I'm not supporting Sony for not including a scaler. That's stupid.

[diablohead]

There are people who brought a HDtv 3 years ago for like 2k and do not wish to spend 2k again just for hdmi and 1080p. I cannot say much about it as europe has only been in the HD era for under a year, the 360 kind of kick started HD sales over here last november.

The 360 scaled, no one thought twice about "what if the ps3...", and I can understand that.

*edit* btw resistance fall of man does not do 1080p for what I know, only 720i/p and SD.