Nov 30, 2007
Next-gennoobsgather round… by those quizzical looks we can see you’ve got questions. Lucky for you, we’ve got the answers.
What’s the deal with HDMI? I’m confused… do I need an expensive TV?
Yes. Anyone running PS3 through a standard def (read: old) TV is missing out on just how good games can look. You need a good 16:9 (read: widescreen) TV with an HDMI input. That’s better than any other kind of current connection. If it’s running at least 1080i/720p, that means that the TV is officially ‘hi-def’. PS3 can output up to 1080p resolution (read: show even more pixels), so you could shell out the extra for a TV that can handle it, but only a few games use 1080p and you can’t see the difference unless you set two TVs side by side.
Blu-ray is the best reason to spring for that 1080p set. All Blu-ray movies play at 1080p - the highest resolution you can get. Do you need Blu-ray? That’s debatable now that PS3 can ‘upscale’ (read: run at hi-res) your old DVDs. Many ‘old’ DVDs (that were well recorded) look superb on PS3, meaning that re-buying your old movies on Blu-ray is a massive waste of cash. Still, in side-by-side comparisons, Blu-ray does look sharper than DVD.
