Dracoro

What cable do I need to go from the PS2 to the TV to get good DVD playback audio & visual?

Currently have cable that connects from the PS2 and at the other end has 3 connectors (red, white & yellow). Is this the one to have?

Will the current setup support the surround sound etc.?

Also what's the remote like for the PS2?

BTW - I have phillips 32" w/s which has 3 inbuilt speakers and two extra ones plugged in as rear speakers.

[Edited by Dracoro - 18/07/2003 11:56:03]

Dazza01

A decent SCART cable and not a £2.99 from Wilko's

Hanslow

Best setup to have is an RGB scart cable (they are labelled as such so should be easy to get). Most are switchable between RGB and composite and you will notice a difference. It goes from being slightly fuzzy (on composite) to quite sharp (on RGB). I never realised how much better it was until I tried it.

Drawback to the above is that all the films will be in green unless you can get hold of something like RegionX. The green-ness is a protection thing to stop you recording the films to video through the RGB. RegionX is just a disk that you put in first, select the region, and then put the DVD in.

As for surround sound, the best option is to use the optical out on the back of the PS2. Sounds like you will be able to get Dolby Pro Logic through your TV and possibly not Dolby Digital? What does your TV support through its own audio decoder?

The remote is a lot better than using a joypad, but you do have to dump the software onto a memory card. Can't remember how much room it takes up but it isn't much. Worth getting the official Sony one as it upgrades the DVD software giving you some extra things such as 3x forward and reverse.

Dracoro

The cable I have means my DVD's have a slight (I mean slight) green hue to them. I thought upgrading the cable would solve this?
Where/how much are these RegionX discs? Do I have to put it in every time I watch a DVD?

TV has a number of sound modes which are normal stereo, hall surround, dolby pro logic and other modes which are just enabling/disabling rear/front speakers. No mention of digital anywhere.

Dazza01

my lad users a scart cable and it plays his dvd's g8t, his PS2 is chipped with the messiah chip so i don't need region x

http://www.calibresoftware.co.uk/aca..._Region_X.html

this should help

[Edited by Dazza01 - 18/07/2003 12:14:15]

Hanslow

RegionX is available from Special Reserve but it's 19 quid!! They gave it away free about a year ago on the cover on one of the PS2 magazines. You could probably get hold of a copy on ebay or elsewhere for cheaper.
It would mean you have to put it in each time you want to watch a DVD, but it's a 30 second thing from turning the PS2 on to watching a film.

Sounds like your sound will be dolby pro logic stuff and not digital then which should be OK through the scart cable. The RGB will give you a very green screen, as in everything is in complete shades of green.

You could chip it as mentioned above or use the RegionX thing to get round this.

Oops just seen Dazza had put in a cheaper link anyway


[Edited by Hanslow - 18/07/2003 12:23:37]

Dracoro

What's this messiah chip? costs?

Like I say, a dvd I tried on my ps2 had a very slight green hue on the white areas of the picture. Sounds like what you have mentioned is a strong green prescence on all the picture. Maybe I've got the right sort of cable already? It came with the ps2 (bought 6 months ago or so) and has 3 connectors (red/white/yellow) and a scart plug adapter that these connectors can go into (I don't as I have a 3 pin connection thing on the tv anyway.)

Hope this explains my situtation better

many thanks for the advice so far!

Dazza01

Hang on, before u go and buy one today, will check with my lad when he gets home from school if we still have ours, which we used b4 getting the ps2 chipped.
i would go look myself but his room is like a bomb site, can't even find the floor.

Dazza01

The messiah chip allow your ps2 to play copied games and dvd's.
So instead of paying £30/40 for a game i pay £5 for games and dvd's plus u can get tiltes that r not yet available in uk.

Hanslow

That cable is the composite one that comes with the PS2. The RGB scart is a different cable. The composite mode on the switchable scarts gives you the same quality as what you currently have.

The proper RGB scart gives you a much sharper picture. You just have to get round the green screen thing

Dazza01

The scart lead needs to have all the pins inside it about 20 i think, the one u get with the ps2 only has 8 or 9 ?

Funkii Munkii

Try the PS2 S-VHS cable £19.99

It improved the graphics of the games as well as improving the picture quality of the DVD's.

Dave

Dracoro

I saw the cable with all the pins (gold plated) in GAME for £15 which says on the box 'No Green screen'! Guess that must be the one??

Hanslow

Probably a S-VHS one. As far as I am aware, if you get a full RGB one, you will get a green screen (unless it's chipped or you use RegionX or something similar).

The S-VHS does give an improved image over standard for games and DVDs, but the RGB is a better image than the S-VHS one.

What you could do though is ask the Game staff if they would be willing to refund your money if you are not happy. Then try it and take it back if you don't like it.

Whereabouts in the country are you? Is there no-one you know that can lend you an RGB cable to see the difference? You could just try it with a game to see the difference without the green stuff.

terzo42

the rgb lead will only work propely if your tv has an rgb scart,my tv has 3 scarts but only one is rgb,but the picture using it with a ps2 and regionx is superb