HDTV & PS2 – Happy family?

Posted by Spider on March 30, 2007 in Guides | ∞

I picked up an HDTV set in early March. Nice set, has new and legacy ports so I can hook up all of my existing devices as well as add new ones (upscale DVD player is great).

With this I thought I would add a small primer on getting your console (mainly PS2 as that is what I had when doing this) to work the best possible on your new HDTV, for those getting one.

What you will need:

HDTV
PS2
Component Cable for PS2

There are relatively few steps to getting your PS2 to work on an HDTV with great glory.

Step one is to hook up the PS2 the way you have it hooked up now; coaxial, composite, or S-video. Turn on the PS2 without a disc in the drive. This will allow you to access the System Configuration menu.

Within this menu d-pad down to change the screen to 16:9, then d-pad down again to the output type. Here choose Yb/Pb/Cr instead of RCA. This will change the PS2 to component output.

Next hook the PS2 up to your component cable then to the component connectors on your HDTV. Switch the HDTV to the component input. You should see your PS2 System Configuration screen.

This process is pretty easy but people like myself forget that you have to change these things before they work so I felt a reminder was in order. After doing this change my playing of Final Fantasy XII and God of War II just shot into another realm. The graphics are even better than I had seen by using composite (RCA) cables.

Even if you don’t have an HDTV you might be able to do the above. Some EDTVs (Enhanced Definition, otherwise known as Digital CRT TVS) have component hook ups. Look at the back of your television and see if there is an RCA looking hook up that is green, blue, and red. If so then you too can have greater scale of graphics.