Sound and Graphics on PS3 (What are my options if any?)

[ibex333]

I have my PS3 hooked up through HDMI to my PC monitor which outputs teensy-weensy sound through it's horribad speakers. My PS3 does have an "optical" out, but I dont see any way to connect conventional speakers... I wish I could connect regular headphones... Is there any way to do that? Am I missing something obvious?


Is it just me or the PS3's graphics are BY FAR worse than those on the PC? I am probably raising a stupid question here and this was probably discussed a thousand times, but I didnt expect it to be this bad! Every game I play the edges of characters on the screen are always blurry and have a sort of a "shiny" effect going on. I cant help but notice that when playing Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter.

When I played SFIV on the PC the graphics were razor sharp. Literally nothing I can possibly complain about. I know consoles are ages behind PCs in graphics, but I had no idea it was so noticeable.... Would it help if I was playing on my HDTV instead of a PC monitor? Is there anything at all that I can do to improve gfx?

 

[KaOTiK]

The optical out jack in the back of the PS3 is meant for either a TV with it or more commonly for a av receiver. Can't connect conventional speakers to it, if they connect to your receiver and it has an optical or HDMI jack on it you can hook the PS3 up to that.

As for the graphics, welcome to the consoles. The tech is like 6 years. Some games will look pretty decent, but a lot just look mediocre since you game on a PC as well. Gaming on a TV and sitting farther away will help out tremendously. Sitting close to the screen when playing a console isn't the prettiest site as you have experienced 😀

 

[zerocool84]

Of course you can't improve the graphics, it's how it is. You don't say what rez your monitor is but it's blurry because any LCD monitor that doesn't display something in it's native rez is going to look blurry so if it's not a 720p monitor as most games are 720p, it's going to look blurry. HDTV's are going to have built in scalers to help with that so it should look MUCH better on a tv than a monitor. I'd figure you being a PC person would already know that.

Yes you can connect regular headphones, use the standard RCA yellow white and red connectors that come with the system, and buy a RCA to 3.5mm stereo converter and you can connect any set of headphones.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...d=10218&cs_id=1021804&p_id=666&seq=1&format=2

 

[KaOTiK]

Of course you can't improve the graphics, it's how it is. You don't say what rez your monitor is but it's blurry because any LCD monitor that doesn't display something in it's native rez is going to look blurry so if it's not a 720p monitor as most games are 720p, it's going to look blurry. HDTV's are going to have built in scalers to help with that so it should look MUCH better on a tv than a monitor. I'd figure you being a PC person would already know that.

Yes you can connect regular headphones, use the standard RCA yellow white and red connectors that come with the system, and buy a RCA to 3.5mm stereo converter and you can connect any set of headphones.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...d=10218&cs_id=1021804&p_id=666&seq=1&format=2

1080 monitor is fine too as the PS3 will scale output to that as well, just need to make sure your have your output settings correct iirc

 

[zerocool84]

1080 monitor is fine too as the PS3 will scale output to that as well, just need to make sure your have your output settings correct iirc

Well that really depends on the game. I think the new Mortal Kombat supports 1080p not sure as I haven't played it yet but Street Fighter IV doesn't so it'll look blurry on a 1080p monitor since the PS3 has no hardware scaler so each individual game has to support 1080p on PS3.

 

[KaOTiK]

Well that really depends on the game. I think the new Mortal Kombat supports 1080p not sure as I haven't played it yet but Street Fighter IV doesn't so it'll look blurry on a 1080p monitor since the PS3 has no hardware scaler so each individual game has to support 1080p on PS3.

You are right, I forgot it doesn't upscale the games but upscales movies. Just kinda lumped them together in my brain that it upscaled lol.

 

[ibex333]

The monitor in question is a 1080p monitor. It's an ASUS, I got it like a year ago.

Good point on the fact that I should already know these things Zerocool, but I don't concern myself much with graphics, especially those on consoles so I know little about that stuff.

Aside from adjusting the res in the XMB, are there any scaling adjustments that need to be done on the monitor itself?

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Could you imagine Mortal Kombat on pc? Drool.... Yeah I agree sf4 pc vs ps3 is not even close. Just enjoy it for what it is. I paid $259 for a new 160gb ps3. Final Fantasy looks pretty good and so far has been enjoyable. I paid $500 just for my graphics card in my pc so what can you expect for $259? My ps3 also plays 3d blu rays so I feel it was a solid deal.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Audio: if you attach the included composite AV pack (red, white, yellow) you might be able to use the stereo red/white at the same time as the HDMI. For PC speakers you'd probably need an adapter to convert them into a miniplug socket (2 RCA socket to one miniplug socket). zerocool's adapter will almost work except it has a miniplug jack instead of a socket.

 

[Anteaus]

I have my PS3 hooked up through HDMI to my PC monitor which outputs teensy-weensy sound through it's horribad speakers. My PS3 does have an "optical" out, but I dont see any way to connect conventional speakers... I wish I could connect regular headphones... Is there any way to do that? Am I missing something obvious?


Is it just me or the PS3's graphics are BY FAR worse than those on the PC? I am probably raising a stupid question here and this was probably discussed a thousand times, but I didnt expect it to be this bad! Every game I play the edges of characters on the screen are always blurry and have a sort of a "shiny" effect going on. I cant help but notice that when playing Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter.

When I played SFIV on the PC the graphics were razor sharp. Literally nothing I can possibly complain about. I know consoles are ages behind PCs in graphics, but I had no idea it was so noticeable.... Would it help if I was playing on my HDTV instead of a PC monitor? Is there anything at all that I can do to improve gfx?

Well, the PS3 GPU is old tech, but the biggest issue is with ram. The PS3 and 360 both only have 512MB total system ram, with half of that for the GPU. They were both originally designed for 720P, but 1080P was added after the fact once Sony responded to HD-DVD with Blu-ray. While both are technically able to produce 1080P resolution, fill rates and texture size prevent them from doing much with it so most are designed at 720P scaled up. Closed environment games like Killzone can "cheat" by using optimizations and tweaks, but open world games suffer greatly due to the limited memory footprint.

Low to mid range PCs have GPUs much more powerful and thus your experience will be better. This will only become more apparent as the years pass until the next console refresh.

Don't discount console graphics though because some developers are quite talented at making less look like more. Games Like Killzone 2 and Demon's Souls look amazing even years after release, and this is coming from someone with a well loaded gaming PC. It's all about what you want from your games.

 

[lamedude]

No excuse for sound though. Why does FF13, a game that uses a BD50, on a console capable of 7.1 PCM output use 192Kbps MP3 for music? PS1 games had higher quality than that (37.8/44.1KHZ PCM).

 

[Anarchist420]

No excuse for sound though. Why does FF13, a game that uses a BD50, on a console capable of 7.1 PCM output use 192Kbps MP3 for music? PS1 games had higher quality than that (37.8/44.1KHZ PCM).

:thumbsup:

It's ridiculous that they go from uncompressed audio then they go straight from uncompressed to lossy. I don't get why the hell the game developers have such an aversion to lossless audio. I'd take 2channel lossless over dolby digital under any circumstance.

I think a good idea would be for Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo to give discounts on royalty fees if the developer uses lossless audio.

 

[Anteaus]

No excuse for sound though. Why does FF13, a game that uses a BD50, on a console capable of 7.1 PCM output use 192Kbps MP3 for music? PS1 games had higher quality than that (37.8/44.1KHZ PCM).

There are various reasons, which are quite similar to graphics. Audio requires decoding for playback, and higher bitrates require more bandwidth. Also, the PS3 does the vast majority of its audio decoding in software, which means an increased demand of cpu. Once you throw in the game engine, graphics, sound, etc you start to see how its a balancing act. Software complexity also plays a role since the demand of each component various during usage. Everything is dynamic.

Movies on the other hand are simple things. The Video and audio streams merely need to be decoded and routed to their proper places. Everything is buffered and the console merely needs to keep up.

As to the PS1, your comparison is incorrect. The PS3 handles LPCM of 44.1 kHz - 192 kHz whereas the PS1 only handles 44.1. 44.1 kHz is the standard for redbook cd audio, which is why the PS1 supported it. kHz refers to the waveform and not the bitrate. Kbps and kHz are not the same thing.

 

[BD2003]

:thumbsup:

It's ridiculous that they go from uncompressed audio then they go straight from uncompressed to lossy. I don't get why the hell the game developers have such an aversion to lossless audio. I'd take 2channel lossless over dolby digital under any circumstance.

I think a good idea would be for Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo to give discounts on royalty fees if the developer uses lossless audio.

You can force the use of digital stereo on the 360, which will give you a raw uncompressed 2 channel PCM stream.

Still, that doesn't determine whether the source is compressed on the disc. It most likely is for much of the audio, but that has more to do with disc and ram constraints than from any sort of laziness or stupidity on the devs part.

Of course we're back full circle to the current crop of consoles not being powerful enough in a myriad number of ways to match high end or even midrange a/v gear.

The next batch of consoles can't come soon enough, but even then I doubt we'll get all the way there. Hopefully one of the three will be brave enough to release a "pro" version of their platform with better hardware that can handle higher resolutions, frame rates, and audio quality - for the price premium that I'm sure many would be willing to pay.

 

[lamedude]

As to the PS1, your comparison is incorrect. The PS3 handles LPCM of 44.1 kHz - 192 kHz whereas the PS1 only handles 44.1. 44.1 kHz is the standard for redbook cd audio, which is why the PS1 supported it. kHz refers to the waveform and not the bitrate. Kbps and kHz are not the same thing.

Most PS1 PCM music is redbook or 44.1/37.8 (from the games I've ripped) in a XA file. PS3 is usually ADPCM or ATRAC/MP3. Games are too busy streaming textures to leave any bandwidth for music these days. 🙁

 

[BD2003]

Most PS1 PCM music is redbook or 44.1/37.8 (from the games I've ripped) in a XA file. PS3 is usually ADPCM or ATRAC/MP3. Games are too busy streaming textures to leave any bandwidth for music these days. 🙁

It's an understandable sacrifice. They're having trouble squeezing the games onto DVDs at this point. They can get 95% of the way there with a good 192-384kbps or more multichannel encode, save a ton of space, fit WAY more music and 99.99% of people probably don't have the gear or even the care to notice the difference. If they're not going lossless on the ps3 bluray it still probably has more to do with memory or even I/O constraints. Sacrifices have to be made for these ancient consoles and IMO they're making the right ones, I just hope the standard is higher for the next batch.

 

[alcoholbob]

Yeah but aren't PC games in the same boat? Audio compression is a fact of life because DVDs are running out of space for content.

 

[Anteaus]

Yeah but aren't PC games in the same boat? Audio compression is a fact of life because DVDs are running out of space for content.

Audio compression is a way of life because:

A) Consumer hardware isn't robust enough to handle full time uncompressed audio. Only HDMI currently provides enough bandwidth to bitstream uncompressed or lossless audio streams, and this requires a receiver that can receive it as well as a blu-ray player that can transmit it, and those aren't exactly widespread. Ironically, the PS3 fat can't do this, but the slim supports Dolby TrueHD, so get ready to spend more money if you don't have one. Not sure about the 360. PCs are capable of high end audio decoding (assuming a proper sound card), but then again most of us pipe that sound into computer media speakers that really don't have the response necessary to benefit from it. Which brings us to your comment, which is true :

B) Space is always a consideration. 7.1 (8 channels) of 24-bit uncompressed audio takes a little under 16 GB of space for just one hour of audio. One 2-hour movie would take almost 32 GB, which is much larger than a single layer Blu-ray disc, and that's just for the soundtrack. As long as compressed video is kept to a minimum and a lossy soundtrack is used, DVDs still have plenty of space for games and the audio quality is fine. The fact that most games still come on one DVD proves that. Blu-ray is a cool tech, but more space doesn't automatically make a better game. In fact, due to the hardware restrictions placed on consoles, the average PC game has much higher resolution textures available and DVD is more than able to supply them. Blu-ray is very useful for packing tons of compressed video, but thats about it. Eventually it will be the media of choice, but it's not mandatory...at least not yet.

C) Would you really know? The human ear can only hear so much. While there are audiophiles out there that can tell the difference, I'd be hard pressed to say that most people can tell the difference between lossy and lossless. Hell, I know people who can't tell the visual difference between DVD and Blu-ray.

I think in the end we will have full on uncompressed or lossless audio as standard, but that will be the benefit of tech and not because of necessity.

 

[alcoholbob]

Audio compression is a way of life because:

A) Consumer hardware isn't robust enough to handle full time uncompressed audio. Only HDMI currently provides enough bandwidth to bitstream uncompressed or lossless audio streams, and this requires a receiver that can receive it as well as a blu-ray player that can transmit it, and those aren't exactly widespread. Ironically, the PS3 fat can't do this, but the slim supports Dolby TrueHD

The slim can do uncompressed 8 channel PCM, which more receivers support than TrueHD or DTS-Master.

so get ready to spend more money if you don't have one. Not sure about the 360. PCs are capable of high end audio decoding (assuming a proper sound card)

Assuming the proper software as well...additional investment.

but then again most of us pipe that sound into computer media speakers that really don't have the response necessary to benefit from it. Which brings us to your comment, which is true

A 7.4 GB DVD can't fit that much into audio anyway, it has nothing to do with the quality of speakers people use at their desktop. Bioware has recently commented that further compression of audio has allowed more character voicing in their games...we are talking about 96 or 112 kbps audio here...

Would you really know? The human ear can only hear so much. While there are audiophiles out there that can tell the difference, I'd be hard pressed to say that most people can tell the difference between lossy and lossless. Hell, I know people who can't tell the visual difference between DVD and Blu-ray

I would call this attentiveness to detail, or the lack thereof.

I can't speak for audio because your hearing is pretty much fixed even if you try your discerning best and someone points out the difference in a passage the most you can do is clean your ears of wax...but visually, if you can get a pair of glasses or contacts and get up to 20/20 vision, a little pointer here and there and a viewer can easily tell the difference.

I think in the end we will have full on uncompressed or lossless audio as standard, but that will be the benefit of tech and not because of necessity.

It's a selling point for sure. We are certainly running into a wall at the momentum audio-wise due to limitations in recording technology, but video can move up a little more.

 

[smitbret]

I would call this attentiveness to detail, or the lack thereof.

I can't speak for audio because your hearing is pretty much fixed even if you try your discerning best and someone points out the difference in a passage the most you can do is clean your ears of wax...but visually, if you can get a pair of glasses or contacts and get up to 20/20 vision, a little pointer here and there and a viewer can easily tell the difference.

Who watches tv with a pointer? If I have to spend my time looking for differences, then I'm certainly not paying attention to the movie. LOL.

 

[dpodblood]

If you are playing console games on a PC monitor chances are you're sitting close to the screen. This makes them look even worse because when you are sitting far away from a 1080p screen you will not notice all the jaggies and imperfections as much. When you sit close all that aliasing, and upscaling will become immediately apparent.

 

[alcoholbob]

Who watches tv with a pointer? If I have to spend my time looking for differences, then I'm certainly not paying attention to the movie. LOL.

A pointer as in someone pointing out differences, not a laser pointer.