Comparison between the PSP screen and playing through HDTV

[Silver Phoenix]

I found this interesting. When I hooked up my component cable to the PSP to see how the game looked on my HDTV it looked pretty damn good. I had to set my color matrix to HD, because in SD it was hiding some color details.

Of course the best way to view the game is directly on the PSP because of the sharpness and detail, but yet you'll see detail on a tv that you won't see on the PSP. It's weird, but Alex's Zephyr Blade (AG skill) looks better on my tv because it's enlarged, and you see more detail in the tornado than on the PSP.

The characters look better on the PSP because you're not enlarging the sprites, and the color is more accurate. Smaller screens just give sharper resolution, but not everything is seen as easily as on a tv. The sound is also better played through a tv, but headphones may help alleviate the tinny sound that comes from the PSP speakers.

I'm just glad it looks good on both screens, but I'm torn as to how I plan to play the game.

[TerraBemani]

I tried this with the demo too. And it just kinda sucks that the proper 16:9 only takes up like half your hdtv screen. And I have a 42" one so it's not using a LOT of space. I can set it to Zoom2 to get the screen taking up around 75% but that makes it letterboxed 4:3. Zoom1 for me is more 16:9 but stretched on the sides a bit. And panoramic is about perfect 16:9 for it.

Just always thought it was a ripoff buying psp only component cables and getting something like this. I'm wondering if there's a custom firmware that would help it fill all or more of the screen?

[Silver Phoenix]

If you played on a computer monitor with component inputs it may fill the whole screen. I have a 42" tv myself. I can change the HD (broadcast signal) size to 1 or 2. 1 is a little more zoomed in, but 2 is the proper pixel ratio. It would make the image size a little larger on 1, and HD Size 1 is on the tv just to remove the tiny black bars that may show up on a channel because it is the actual size of the broadcast display. You're not going to get true resolution on size 1 though, as it's accurate on Size 2.

Picture size is a different story when you're talking about Zoom, or Full Screen, etc. The more you stretch the image the less clarity it will have. So if you were to blow out the PSP screen on a widescreen tv it would end up looking closer to a Gameboy Advance game because of detail loss.

[Aaron]

I have done this as well and I generally feel it looks all around worse.

I have heard that there is custom firmware that makes it better. Unfortunately this looks like a software issue that sony isn't interested in fixing. Look to the community there are a couple of fixes that have been release each with their pros and cons.

On my TV it just comes out blurry and overly colored. I can play with the settings and nothing works.

[Silver Phoenix]

It looks fine on my tv, but obviously you're going to lose detail when you enlarge the image. Colors are bright, but also a little washed out as far as detail is concerned and more pixelated. This is why I hate handhelds, and prefer full screen games on a console.

When I acess the PSP screen on the tv it's full screen, but it is smaller when I play a game. You could try the 4:3 ratio setting on your PSP when you convert the video transfer to your television as it may come in better. However, I assume the image will also be smaller.

[Lunataks]

Kind of sucks on a 58" Panasonic Plasma. 8ft component cable is not long enough. Colors are washed out - more so on the party than monsters. Shrunken screen doesn't bug me. Sound is better than PSP speakers (nothing head phones can't fix).

Might look better on a smaller HD TV with a higher color depth/contrast.

I'll stick with the PSP.

[HiroOne]

What's all this color matrix mumbo jumbo you're talking about? Where's the co-ax rf-switch hookup?

[ShindoW]

Since I cant really tell the difference (or maybe I just dont notice) as far as the graphics go, I'll just say its easier on my eyes playing on my 32" lcd rather than the tiny PSP screen... I hate that the PSP doesn't charge through the TV, just the laptop or PS3, in my experience, which is why I put the game down so long today. ;(

[localflick]

It varies a lot depending on the tv. When the psp 2000 first came out and the tv-out was a big selling point there were a lot of video reviews on youtube and it seemed like every tv they used it on had a different sized border.

I have a 32" 720p LCD which is decent, but the aspect ratio is perfect for it, so with the right "pix" setting it fills the whole screen and looks pretty good.

Before the psp 2000 there were a lot of bulky devices to display a mirrored projection of the psp image on your screen. Here's a picture of one if you're curious:
http://www.pspworld.com/sony-psp/images ... totype.jpg

I can't imagine that would be comfortable to play, and it makes the psp look like Pyramid head from silent hill.

[liquidpolicenaut]

I found this interesting. When I hooked up my component cable to the PSP to see how the game looked on my HDTV it looked pretty damn good. I had to set my color matrix to HD, because in SD it was hiding some color details.

Of course the best way to view the game is directly on the PSP because of the sharpness and detail, but yet you'll see detail on a tv that you won't see on the PSP. It's weird, but Alex's Zephyr Blade (AG skill) looks better on my tv because it's enlarged, and you see more detail in the tornado than on the PSP.

The characters look better on the PSP because you're not enlarging the sprites, and the color is more accurate. Smaller screens just give sharper resolution, but not everything is seen as easily as on a tv. The sound is also better played through a tv, but headphones may help alleviate the tinny sound that comes from the PSP speakers.

I'm just glad it looks good on both screens, but I'm torn as to how I plan to play the game.

I gotta say that those are pretty much my exact thoughts on when I hooked up my PSP to my LCD TV and thought of the results. The only thing different is that, when my system is hooked up, the audio goes directly to my stereo so that actually sounds even better than the PSP speakers....

[Silver Phoenix]

Are you using a Y-Splitter so that you're getting audio through your stereo speakers, or is just because you have your television hooked up to stereo speakers so the sound is being transferred?

The issue with HDTV's is that there are different modes that might make something look better, or process fast moving images better. I've just been playing the game on my PSP, but having the color matrix on my Game Mode set to HD for the Component input is actually wrong. The game and system is not HD, but a darker saturartion of black actually makes certain details look better when Lunar is displayed on the tv. However, this also causes other details to be lost if they're already dark. It's called "crushing" blacks.

You aren't supposed to be able to use regular Composite Cables (yellow for video, red and white for audio) to play the PSP on a tv, but I've seen someone do that. It was only supposed to work for series 1000 units, but it seems to work on 2000 and 3000 as well if you have a certain brand cable. If you have a Component Cable (magenta, blue, green, red and white for audio) you have to have a progressive scan television for it to display correctly. (480p, 720p, 1080p)

I'd like to play Lunar through my surround sound but I have an older unit, so I only have one optical input and two red and white inputs which I have the tv through. I could try playing with the stereo on but it's not going to filter the sound as cleanly as having it go through directly.

[TerraBemani]

I know how to fix all these problems!

Hook up your psp to your hdtv with a RF adapter! It's just like playing your sega genesis/cd all over again! XD

And wouldn't custom firmware fix somethings anyway? Like being able to use the full screen on your hdtv at the proper 16:9 size for the game? I'd really like to see the game at full 16:9 using the whole tv screen too. And the psp resolution is 480x272 displayed at 480p on your tv. So even at the smallest screen size that's still upscaling it? Going from 480x272 to 848x480 which I think is the 480p resolution?

[Silver Phoenix]

I haven't found a way for the PSP to display full-screen on my 42" plasma, and probably wouldn't want to because of the detail loss. Even when I have it hooked up to my tv I have to crank up the volume because it doesn't sound very loud on my normal settings.

[TerraBemani]

So it messes up colors as well as picture quality too? Just wondering.

[liquidpolicenaut]

Are you using a Y-Splitter so that you're getting audio through your stereo speakers, or is just because you have your television hooked up to stereo speakers so the sound is being transferred?

Actually, I have a 4-way component switch box and the audio from that is hooked up directly to my stereo..

You aren't supposed to be able to use regular Composite Cables (yellow for video, red and white for audio) to play the PSP on a tv, but I've seen someone do that. It was only supposed to work for series 1000 units, but it seems to work on 2000 and 3000 as well if you have a certain brand cable.

Really?!? I thought the 3000 was the only one that can output games via composite /s-video cable. I would love to know what specific brand cable would let me output my games via s-video or composite from my 2000 model...

[Silver Phoenix]

From my own experience I'm using Component Cables for my 3000, and I thought you could only use Component for the 2000 as well. Some 3rd party cables end up working regardless of the model series, whether they be component or composite.