Ragfish wrote:Roareye wrote:I actually do not like the PS2 either. The difference is I've not played one because the graphical output is awful. It's a blurry mess.
Is it really that bad? I have my ps2, dreamcast, gamecube, and xbox all connected to a crt via s video and they all look pretty much on par with each other. If there are differences, then I'm not able to notice them during actual gameplay.
Your problem is that you're playing all of them on S-Video, which is a sub-standard output. I'm aware it was the most common connection in America, but in PAL territories we wer elucky to have RGB SCART as the de-facto standard way of connecting equipment. It's no exaggeration to state that SCART was the HDMI of the 1990s, certainly in the UK. We left composite and s-video behind in the 80s. Even consoles that only had composite output (such as N64) used a SCART adapter to connect to most TVs here. RGB SCART could carry a composite signal, but it's most important function was the far superior RGB signal. Even under all being connected via s-video, the PS2 had a blurry look - but the truth is by playing the other consoles in a sub-par quality you basically forced them into looking as bad as the PS2.
- The Dreamcast allows for RGB SCART, if you wanted to continue using TV frequencies that would vastly improve your picture on both CRT and LCD. I run the Dreamcast through VGA because it is cleaner than RGB, but it is more of a monitor frequency than a TV one.
- The Gamecube also has RGB capability, so again if you wanted to use a bog standard TV signal you'd have such a better image using RGB SCART than S-video. Gamecube also allows digital output at 480p via component cables, which many TVs accept, but even if your TV is older RGB SCART would improve and clean up your image.
- The Xbox has RGB SCART capability, and famously allows for up to 720p/1080i via component cables (depending on the game).
- The Playstation 2 also allows for RGB SCART, so even the PS2 image quality via s-video is reduced from it's maximum potential. Of course by cleaning up your image you'd really notice how muddy and blurry the video output of the PS2 is.
You play how you want to play, and if you're satisfied with s-video then that's all good. However comparing all the consoles by saying they all look the same on a bad connection isn't really a fair comparison. From my comments you'll note I spoke quite a bit about maximum image output, s-video doesn't qualify unless we're talking N64.
BEST OUTPUT FORMATS
---NINTENDO---
(1983) NES - Composite
(1990) SNES - RGB Scart
(1996) N64 - Composite
(2001) Gamecube - Component
(2006) Wii - Composite (Back to the early 1980s, yey
)
(2012) Wii U - HDMI
(2017) Switch - HDMI
---SEGA---
(1983) SG-1000 - Composite
(1985) Mark III/Master System - RGB SCART (It's 1985 and SEGA is already using a better output than a Nintendo Wii)
(1988) Mega Drive - RGB SCART
(1994) Saturn - RGB SCART
(1998) Dreamcast - VGA
---SONY---
(1994) Playstation - RGB SCART
(2000) Playstation 2 - RGB SCART
(2006) Playstation 3 - HDMI
(2013) Playstation 4 - HDMI
(2020) Playstation 5 - HDMI
---MICROSOFT---
(2002) Xbox - Component
(2005) Xbox 360 - Component (First release) / HDMI (Second release onwards)
(2013) Xbox One - HDMI
(2020) Xbox Series X/S - HDMI