Microsoft on PS3's HD Problem

November 28th, 2006, 04:13 Posted By: gunntims0103

news via gamedaily

If you bought your HDTV a few years ago, there's a good chance it doesn't support 720p resolution. And unfortunately, if you hook up a PS3 to these TVs, the only image you'll see will be in 480p, not 1080i. Microsoft's Andre Vrignaud believes this may not be fixable either...

As you probably have heard by now, some owners of older HDTV sets have been having trouble getting proper high-def visuals from the PlayStation 3. The PS3 outputs HD visuals for PS3 games in either 720p or 1080p, and if your HDTV does not support 720p, the PS3 won't upscale the picture to 1080i either.

While Sony initially told us that they are working on a fix (and still are apparently) that would come via a firmware patch, the company has since retracted its statement. Worse yet, it's not clear if this problem even is fixable via a patch because the PS3 hardware would appear to lack the necessary scaler.

Posting about his general PS3 impressions on his Microsoft Ozymandias blog Andre Vrignaud, director of technical strategy for Xbox Live, commented, "...it appears there's no internal hardware scaler in the PS3. As reported, it appears the PS3 is unable to output a consistent signal to your TV based upon your desired selection (ie, what your TV supports). This means that while I might want to play Resistance in 1080i, if the game doesn't support it the console drops down to a lower-common denominator of 480p. The game then tells me that if I want to play in the best quality, I need to quit out, go to the dashboard, change the PS3's resolution to 720p, and then relaunch the game. Oh, and when I return from the game, I'm obviously still at 720p, and not the 1080i I'd prefer to navigate the dash with. I experienced this myself and I can tell you it's hugely frustrating."

He continued, "This issue also affects people who have older HDTVs that only support 480i/480p and 1080i (not 720p - this was pretty common with earlier CRT HDTVs). These folks have no way to scale the game's output to 1080i, and are thus forced to play in 480i/p. This smells of the console being rushed to market, and I'm not holding out any hopes for any significant fix. It's bad, and feels like something Sony would have fixed if possible. My guess is the 'fix' they're working on is going to be a bit of streamlining in the dashboard (perhaps a switch to automatically change back to 1080i/p when returning from a game), but the core issue isn't going to be fixed. I hope I'm wrong, though, for the sake of all those folks having problems."

If Vrignaud is correct, and the resolution problem for owners of older HDTVs can't be fixed, then Sony has unfortunately alienated a larger group of people than they might think—people who don't want or can't afford to upgrade to a shiny new HDTV and who might very well put their money into a console from Microsoft and/or Nintendo.

For more of Vrignaud's (somewhat biased) impressions of the PS3 hardware, check out the blog linked above.

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