How good are PS2's?

[MAME]

For being a DVD player? Can they play ripped movies on DVD from any random DVD burner? (Does the media matter in this case? +/- and brand...?)

I'm pretty confused

 

[MustISO]

As far as a DVD player they're not that good (compared to a standalone DVD player). Mine plays movies on DVD-R, never tried DVD+R. The new models do support progressive scan (for digital TV's) and also better support DVD+R. Personally I would never use my PS2 for movies, it's a game machine.

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: MustISO
As far as a DVD player they're not that good (compared to a standalone DVD player). Mine plays movies on DVD-R, never tried DVD+R. The new models do support progressive scan (for digital TV's) and also better support DVD+R. Personally I would never use my PS2 for movies, it's a game machine.

Hmm, is -R supposed to be better for DVD movies? and +R is better for storage?

 

[MustISO]

They're both equal for both. I've never heard any evidence that one is better for anything. Good quality media can be found for both types.

 

[Titan]

as I understand it, PS2s can't play VCDs while most standalone DVD players can. Not sure if that matters, just my 2¢.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

As far as a general DVD player goes, it's okay. Many have difficulty with dual layer disks (which most DVDs seem to be). They do play +R media.

 

[skace]

Mine plays regular rented / bought DVDs just fine. I havn't tried any homemade stuff or VCDs though.

 

[MAME]

2 things:
what are VCD's and what's this dual layer stuff? I was thinking about getting this: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=27-154-009&depa=0 but does that mean I can't make backups of movies that are dual layered?

 

[Fingolfin269]

Originally posted by: MustISO
They're both equal for both. I've never heard any evidence that one is better for anything. Good quality media can be found for both types.

Yup, all quality media is just that... quality media. The problem lies in whether or not your hardware is picky about reading that quality media or not.

 

[boomdart]

Go to walmart and buy a $50 dvd player...My ps2 sucks teh ballz at playing dvds, when it does play them.

Xbox is much better though.

 

[Turkey22]

The one major problem besides volume (I always have to crank mine way up for movies) and lack of controller (I know they have em for like $20, but a dvd player would come with a controller) is the fact that the drive doesnt seal properly when closed and subsequently sucks in a lot of dirt and dust. Which means after a while you will notice certain disks wont play at all, then it will become all disks. Blowing it out with compressed air worked for me, but I was goin crazy until I figured out that was the problem. They may have fixed this particular problem with newer models as I got mine within a month of release, but I'm not sure. I just know its annoying as hell. That being said I still use mine all the time, but I regret not having a regular player.

 

[MAME]

ah, how about the dual layer stuff?

 

[MrWizzard]

MAME once the disk is burned the one type of media is no better than another type when compairing + and -, however + is better when burning.
There is a phase of the writting process called "LEAD OUT", some of you may be familiar with it. Takes a long time sometimes. Anyway + media does not need to do this step that can take anywhere from a minute to 5 minutes or longer. When I found this out I switched to + media, it seems faster because it does not have that step, downside is some dvd players still don't play them . As for the PS2 it's ok, get it modded or just get a gameshark or action replay mod they let you play all regons and burnt dvds if you want.

Turkey 22, you may want to just replace your dvd drive that will fix a lot of your problems, its pretty easy to do and there are a lot of sites that have picture walkthroughs.

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: MrWizzard
MAME once the disk is burned the one type of media is no better than another type when compairing + and -, however + is better when burning.
There is a phase of the writting process called "LEAD OUT", some of you may be familiar with it. Takes a long time sometimes. Anyway + media does not need to do this step that can take anywhere from a minute to 5 minutes or longer. When I found this out I switched to + media, it seems faster because it does not have that step, downside is some dvd players still don't play them . As for the PS2 it's ok, get it modded or just get a gameshark or action replay mod they let you play all regons and burnt dvds if you want.

Turkey 22, you may want to just replace your dvd drive that will fix a lot of your problems, its pretty easy to do and there are a lot of sites that have picture walkthroughs.

it seems like + is the winner from what I've heard

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Dual layer is a setup that basically doubles how much data can fit on a disk. Many movies are like this, and burners for the media have only recently been made available (check out the reviews). If you're really looking to just watch movies DL'ed off the internet, try out Philips 642. There's a couple threads in hot deals about it. Mine works great and has much better quality than my PS2.

 

[boomdart]

My receiver needs to be turned up to half its max volume for a reasonable listening level from the ps2 as well. Ridiculous, from a cd on my receiver the half way mark is loud enough to fill a 50x50 room easily.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Well, it depends. The PS2 I got way back in summer 2001 has played dvds fine. Overheated a couple of times, but other than that has been flawless. My friend on the other hand, his got the dreaded disk read error (for which I hate PS2's because). It would just randomly choose to read certain games and wouldn't read dvds (which pissed off his parents because they used it as a dvd player). Well a year after his started screwing up it finally stopped reading altogether. My friend had declared he wouldn't buy the PS3 because of the problems with his PS2. Guess what happened. His younger brother and him each bought a new PS2.....

Sorry for the rant. I just hate when people do stupid stuff.

 

[austin316]

Originally posted by: boomdart
My receiver needs to be turned up to half its max volume for a reasonable listening level from the ps2 as well. Ridiculous, from a cd on my receiver the half way mark is loud enough to fill a 50x50 room easily.

You just have to fool with the settings. Turn on the ps2 without a game. Click on the setup utility and goto audio or sound. Move the volume control up to +2 and your set.

I am going off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure this is what you do. You might need to hit the start button to get to the audio/setup menu, or you might have to have a movie in the game machine.

 

[chrisms]

They are neat

 

[Anubis]

mine was fine, but then it stopped working, when it did play DVDs it was good, sound was good, I use the optical sound out, vid quality is fine

i had a first generation one so thats why it stopped working

the new ones support progressive scan and have component vid out

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: MustISO
They're both equal for both. I've never heard any evidence that one is better for anything. Good quality media can be found for both types.

Not quite true. According to Videohelp.com's DVD info page DVD-Rs are compatible with 90%+ of all DVD players, whereas DVD+R is compatible with 85%+. (Can't go to the site from work and check for the actual numbers) regardless it's a small factor all the same.

 

[JSClark]

Originally posted by: Turkey22
The one major problem besides volume (I always have to crank mine way up for movies) and lack of controller (I know they have em for like $20, but a dvd player would come with a controller) is the fact that the drive doesnt seal properly when closed and subsequently sucks in a lot of dirt and dust. Which means after a while you will notice certain disks wont play at all, then it will become all disks. Blowing it out with compressed air worked for me, but I was goin crazy until I figured out that was the problem. They may have fixed this particular problem with newer models as I got mine within a month of release, but I'm not sure. I just know its annoying as hell. That being said I still use mine all the time, but I regret not having a regular player.

I just gave mine up, it was one of the first ones released. DVDs stopped working on it all together, and its quite flaky with my PS2 games, as well as my DVD cleaner!

 

[MAME]

lol, I clicked on this thread thinking it was a dumb question. Then I read the DVD part and I thought, "oh, that's actually a good question"

Then I noticed who the OP was...woo!

 

[neonerd]

my ps2 sucked...it broke in the first 6 months