Yup, PS2 Supports 525P (1 Viewer)

[JoshF]

might be old news, but if you havnt heard it its new to you.

[linkhttp://www.gamers.com/news/1126169]link[/link]

By: James Mielke April 2, 2002 6:46 PM PST

While most people are content to plug their video game consoles in with the standard RCA cables (or, god forbid, with RF adapters), some swing to the higher end of audio-visual mayhem and prefer their games in as high a resolution as they can get. This usually means using either S-video, or optimally, component cables. Then, for folks who have the luxury of watching their movies on a progressive scan-enabled television, you have to have a progressive scan-enabled DVD player.

Take a look at this story for more on the specifics of progressive scan technology

Since the PS2 is a DVD player, you may have wondered if your PS2 can do progressive scan output. While the PS2 isn't currently equipped to do so, we're still glad to confirm that, yes, it can.

To get the full poop, we contacted Seth Luisi, producer on SOCOM: Navy Seals, over at Sony to see what he had to say on the subject. Word up, yo!

"The PS2 can indeed output in progressive scan and the new Sony Libraries that were just released allow PS2 developers to do Anamorphic Widescreen Progressive Scan output in their games. Actually, Tekken4, which was just released in Japan, is the first PS2 game with progressive scan output.

"We are actually considering adding progressive scan output to SOCOM but we may not be able to do to our tight schedule. In order to do progressive scan output you need to run with a full size frame buffer, not a half size frame buffer that is interlaced, which is what a lot of PS2 games use in order to save VRAM. In order to realistically use a full size frame buffer you have to use dynamic texturing and store a lot of your textures in main RAM, which is the method that SOCOM and most advanced 3rd generation PS2 games will use.

"Dynamic texturing has many pluses besides just allowing a full size frame buffer and progressive scan output. With dynamic texturing, the amount VRAM in the PS2 does not matter because you are only using it as a texture cache, as it was meant to be used. We use over 4MB of textures for our character models in SOCOM alone, even though the PS2 only has 4MB of VRAM. The textures are swapped into and out of VRAM every game frame (1/60th or 1/30th of a second) which the PS2 can do since it has such fast memory access.

"Regarding DVD playback, I am not certain it will be included in the future. However, it is definitely possible and since SCEI has made Anamorphic Widescreen Progressive Scan output available for game it only makes sense to add it to the next release of the DVD Drivers."

 

[Andrew Grall]

The X-Box was all set to be progressive scan DVD as well, but the movie industry had a fit over the prospect. Thus, Microsoft was forced to disable progressive scan movie playback before its release.

Therefore, I highly doubt progressive scan DVD playback is in either PS2's or X-Box's future.

 

[Scott L]

Wasn't it Stacie who worked over at MS that told us that 480i output on Xbox DVD play was due to Macrovision issues? Not saying you're wrong Andrew just trying to remember the situation exactly.

And this is good news for the PS2! It keeps doing things no one thought was possible. I remember people kept saying 'in-game 5.1 sound, progresssive on PS2?? Never!!' It's really great how the developers can keep finding things out about the machine.

And for the record, 480p is the actual number you'd wanna use to describe progressive output. The extra 45 lines of resolution aren't picture info, but every article on the gaming sites seem to use "525p." Not a *big* deal, it will just cause more confusion to J6P who kept hearing the term 480p.

 

[Andrew Grall]

I think it was indeed a macrovision issue, and I would assume it would apply to either console...

 

[Gary King]

Wasn't it Stacie who worked over at MS that told us that 480i output on Xbox DVD play was due to Macrovision issues? Not saying you're wrong Andrew just trying to remember the situation exactly.

Well, technically Macrovision not working at 480p and the movie industry having a fit are basically the same issue, at least in my opinion. Saying "the movie industry had a fit" is less specific than saying "Macrovision doesn't work," but the only group that cares whether or not Macrovision works is the movie industry.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Well, technically Macrovision not working at 480p and the movie industry having a fit are basically the same issue, at least in my opinion. Saying "the movie industry had a fit" is less specific than saying "Macrovision doesn't work," but the only group that cares whether or not Macrovision works is the movie industry

I think that saying "the movie industry had a fit" is not really what the case was. If they put pressure on MS to pull the feature because of the Macrovision issues, then that would be one thing, but that wasn't the case and MS did it on their own. Saying that the movie industry WOULD HAVE had a fit would be fitting.

 

[Dave Bennett]

It amazes me what developers can do once they learn the hardware. It reminds me of when Gran Turismo came out for the PS1. At the time, those were some of the best in game graphics ever and they still had realistic physics. GT2 was even better because they figured out how to make the physics engine take up less power. I'm loving my PS2 and it's good news to hear it'll be able do do progressive scan(even though I don't have a prog capable set.

 

[Sean Oneil]

So does this mean that the American release of Tekken 4 will have Anamorphic Progressive scan? or at least Progressive Scan?

I have my PS2 plugged into one of my progressive inputs on my TV with a component cable. I hope this is all that will be needed... I don't want to have to buy a special Linux kit and cable.

 

[Andrew Grall]

I think that saying "the movie industry had a fit" is not really what the case was. If they put pressure on MS to pull the feature because of the Macrovision issues, then that would be one thing, but that wasn't the case and MS did it on their own. Saying that the movie industry WOULD HAVE had a fit would be fitting.

My, my, my...

People sure are getting into semantics here...

From what I understand, Microsoft was all set to include progressive scan DVD playback with the X-Box. Even to the point that early advertisements for the X-Box insinuated as much... But when the movie industry caught word of this, the "had a fit", so to speak. They did not want something out there that could (potentially?) bypass Macrovision on DVDs. So, at the "last moment", Microsoft pulled the feature and disabled progressive scan playback.

 

[MikeSerrano]

Am I missing something?

Aren't there already progressive-scan DVD players on the market? (Rhetorical question; I own two...)

Why the concern over macrovision on a game-console/DVD player and not on stand-alone progressive-scan DVD players?

-Mike

 

[Andrew Grall]

Not sure... maybe something in the hardware of DVD stand-alone prog-scan players adds macrovision compatibility (?)

 

[Gary King]

No, I don't think Macrovision exists at all for progressive players, since Macrovision is heavily tied to the technical properties of the interlaced signal.

My gue$$ i$ that the $$$MPAA$$$ like$ to keep progre$$ive $can DVD player$ $$$out-of-reach$$$ of Joe Con$umer, and Micro$oft wa$n't willing to play their $$$game$$$.

 

[DeanWalsh]

Wasn't it Stacie who worked over at MS that told us that 480i output on Xbox DVD play was due to Macrovision issues?

This issue also once threatened and held back the release of progressive scan dvd players to the market. These are getting MUCH cheaper now, so what difference does it make if xbox has this feature? I realise the movie industry would see a mass market game console as more of a threat, but a p-scan dvd player could be bought nowadays at a similar price. Besides, anyone with the desire to do so can work their way around macrovision via their pc anyway. While I don't condone piracy, I don't think we as a consumer should be punished for other peoples doings with an inferior product. As I said, anyone with the desire to make copies is probably doing it already anyway.