I’m considering getting a PS3 in part for the Bluray. However, I’ve got an older HDTV that does not have HDMI. It supposedly supports 1080i via Component Video, and it seems to work fine with whatever the XBox 360 outputs on Component Video. Am I going to be able to get Bluray HD without HDMI? Or is some kind of copy protection scheme going to limit the output to 480p or something similar.
You should be fine. I could never get the HDMI port to work on my PS3 (although I’m not sure if it’s a problem with the PS3 or my Samsung TV) and I’ve never had any problems using component connections instead, at 1080.
-Tom
Your only limitation with component is you won’t be able to do 1080p, if playing Blu-ray titles. It is due to AACS (the DRM on Blu-ray movies) that only allows a max resolution of 1080i on analog connections.
BTW, does your older HDTV have a DVI connector? If so, you may be able to insert a HDMI -> DVI connector into the path and get the full 1080p signal irrespective of source media.
I have an old HD CRT. Component is my only option, and it runs fine with the ps3 Blu-ray player at 1080i. However, due to my set being unable to display 720p, there is an issue with some games downscaling to 480p.
Wasn’t that issue supposed to have been fixed with some PS3 update?
No. If your TV does not support 720p there’s a list of titles that will go down to 480p.
http://www.hdfury.com/
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10114&cs_id=1011402&p_id=5035&seq=1&format=2
Not that I have one (pretty darn pricey) but interesting.
I had another friend how had that problem with a Samsung TV. Maybe there’s an unusal setting on their HDMI ports?
I have a Samsung and the PS3 HDMI works fine. Although it does go into the receiver first.
Same here. The copy protection needs to do a handshake between the display device and the PS3 while the receiver is “invisible” in the conversation. Essentially an extension of the wire.
I’ve had multiple Samsung devices hooked up to the PS3: a second gen DLP, 2 LCD TVs, and a current gen Plasma and have had zero issues.
Thanks for the answers everyone.
No, no DVI connector, just three component videos, and a bunch of composite and S-Video inputs.
Just curious but wouldn’t an HDMI->DVI converter with full 1080p output defeat the copy protection scheme and allow people to copy 1080p protected media?
hdmi -> dvi is a completely passive conversion. The hdcp protection is passed along (it’s not stripped out). DVI and HDMI are basically exactly the same minus the audio on dvi.