[Ryall]

Bought the ZP48 expecting a big improvement over my old 28", but its been a bit of a dissapointment so far, and I've spent yesterday evening and all today messing around with it.

It looks great with the 360 in 480p, a lot better than my old Sony anyway. I can't get a decent picture with a PS2 or Gamecube, however. Lots of flicker and jaggies and the colour is all off. I've been messing around with the contrast, brightness, colour and sharpness settings for a while, but to no avail. The geometry is also off (bit of a problem with the 360 as well, but not nearly as serious) - its distorted at the corners and with NTSC games (just about everything I own apart from the 360) the screen is cut on all sides so I'm missing a lot of the image.

Are the bigger 100hz CRT's like these simply not designed for older games consoles, or have I done a rubbish job setting the thing up?

Any help would be great.

[lmaolmao]

make sure you are using rgb or component for ps2. mine looks fine. my gamecube only has composite output so looks a little blurry. but in general everything is nice.

[Ryall]

I'm using RGB for both the cube and PS2. The main problem is simply the issue with NTSC signals. Its nice that it works for the 360, but I use my 360 once in a blue moon.

Do you think hooking them up through component would make much difference? And what have you got your settings on?

Cheers for the help mate.

[onkeh]

I think the bottom line is these consoles don't age very well compared to the new generation of consoles and weren't really designed to be used on large TVs.

The geometry and overscan issues are inherent flaws in CRT technology, I'm afraid. They can usually be reduced/adjusted via service menu but can never be completed fixed.

[KyoDash]

You are probably seeing the side effect of having 100hz. Using RGB Scart all PS2 and Cube games will be in 480i, and the TV doesn't do this natively but concerts it into 100hz, thus leaving artefacts and other issues. It's like deinterlacing.

Component won't make much, if any difference because you're still outputing an interlaced signal.

The 480p PS2 games will look great, and so will the Cube ones. However there are very few UK 480p PS2 titles, and non on Cube. You could purchase a Freeloader for the Cube and play the 480p supported US games.

For all my PS2, Cube and older stuff I stick to a standard 480i/240p CRT TV, and use a CRT monitor for my 360 and PS3.

If I were to get a Tosh ZP then I would buy all my PS2/Cube games again, but US versions that have 480p. They will look great.

[NST]

Also with the Gamecube, try holding down the B button whilst simultaneously switching on the console, as this will give you an option to use PAL60, even if the game doesn't actually support it (I think).

[onkeh]

Originally Posted by NST

Also with the Gamecube, try holding down the B button whilst simultaneously switching on the console, as this will give you an option to use PAL60, even if the game doesn't actually support it (I think).

I'm pretty sure this won't work if the game doesn't support it. Besides, all it does is change the signal from 576i50 to 480i60, which makes it look worse IMO.

[lmaolmao]

you can also turn it back into 50hz mode. Press menu on the remote and one of the options will be "scan mode" it makes it more "liney" but its smoother.

oh yea, it could be worse, you could have an lcd!

[Ryall]

Originally Posted by KyoDash

You are probably seeing the side effect of having 100hz. Using RGB Scart all PS2 and Cube games will be in 480i, and the TV doesn't do this natively but concerts it into 100hz, thus leaving artefacts and other issues. It's like deinterlacing.

Component won't make much, if any difference because you're still outputing an interlaced signal.

The 480p PS2 games will look great, and so will the Cube ones. However there are very few UK 480p PS2 titles, and non on Cube. You could purchase a Freeloader for the Cube and play the 480p supported US games.

For all my PS2, Cube and older stuff I stick to a standard 480i/240p CRT TV, and use a CRT monitor for my 360 and PS3.

If I were to get a Tosh ZP then I would buy all my PS2/Cube games again, but US versions that have 480p. They will look great.

I see, and here I was thinking 100hz would improve the picture! The picture I'm getting is full of jaggies and tends to flicker more than my old TV when anything is moving, and I guess this could be caused by 100hz. Although, I've tried all the different scan modes (Natural, Active, Progressive and 100hz). 100hz is the worst, but none of the others are that much better tbh.

Everything I own is NTSC, apart from the 360, and one of the big problems is the way the Tosh chops off the top and bottom of the screen. I've had this on other TV's but never this bad. I need to pick up component cables for the PS2 and Cube so I can see if I get a better picture than I am with RGB. Only so many NTSC games seem to support p.scan, however.

I think the TV simply isn't suited to the older consoles as Onkeh pointed out, but I might keep it for DVD's and 360 if I can't find a much better alternative.

Thanks for all the help.

[fallenangle]

There's no reason why it shouldn't give you decent PQ with PSOne, PS2, old XBox or GC games. It's meant for SD sources and that's what those consoles are. Loads of gamers use 32" WS for gaming and in fact the picture area being used for non-WS games is what you'd get on a 26" 4:3 if you could find such a thing.

You do have to remember most games do not support widescreen and prog scan although more common for US NTSC versions is still limited.

There might be problems due to the 100Hz processing creating artifacts. My 100Hz Sony 32KDDX15OU (RGB SCART) does not suit certain PS2 games. I get posterization and trailing in dark areas which in the case of one game, Soul Reaver 2 made underwater sections almost unplayable. However the general PQ is actually superb and is my preferred platform for Gran Turismo 3/4 and Tekken.

But I've been thinking about this - you're complaining about the general PQ particularly flicker. That got me thinking - do US PS2s and GCs support RGB through SCART? I really don't know but I can find out from a more dedicated import games' forum if you're interested. I suspect they do but there is another possibility - does the TV itself support RGB at 60Hz> or when presented with a NTSC signal?

It is well known that the popular JVC 32P37 which I also own defaults to composite when using SCART at 60Hz. Could the Toshiba also have this annoying quirk. If so this is one case where you might really see an improvement by getting Component cables for your PS2 and GC (good luck finding the latter). No promises though - it's just a semi-educated guess.