I'm mainly interested in this product for the potential to eliminate lag in PS2 fighting and music games that don't natively support HD video modes. Games like Guitar Hero are largely unplayable on LCD screens that convert everyting to 720p and on other HD sets that convert everything to 480p or 1080i. I'm hoping that this kind of product would fix that.
IGN has posted a review of the Xploder HDTV player. Their conclusion? They weren't particularly impressed -- deinterlacing the 480i signal to 480p worked fine, but upscaling led to strange graphical distortion in some cases. I'm considering getting one at some point to do deinterlacing, but it doesn't look like a solution to getting HD-resolution graphics out of the PS2.
The full review is here:
http://gear.ign.com/articles/742/742965p1.html
I did notice distortion in games that already are progressive scan like GOW or GT4, FFXII didn't like it either. The 480i to 480p does work well though.Originally Posted by Damaniel
Part of the #Vbender Crew
That review is pretty horrible. He didn't even test out music or fighting games. I'm also pretty sure that the reviewer is American, that he doesn't know he's reviewing a British product, and that 576p is pretty much a PAL exclusive HD format.
Today I went into a EB Games looking for cool cheap games when I stumbled on the Xploder HDTV package. I wasn't even looking for it. My mind had gotten preoccupied with work and writing a guide for "Bully" (for GameFAQs).
Natuarlly I picked it up. I have only tried it out on five games (in 640x480 VGA) so far.
"Bully" looks fantastic in Progressive Scan. No issues at all.
"Grand Theft Auto III", "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City", "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas", and "Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories" work well but with one minor issue. The main title screens are in FMV and they weren't meant to be used in Progressive Scan. So they crap out a bit while playing. But when you get past the intros they look pretty good with no additional issues (other than the fact the GTA3 looks a little more jaggy due to it's ancient graphics).
Got this a while ago, but the whole board issue prevented me from posting (obviously). My problem with this was the compatibility. None of my obscure titles would play... at all.
Capcom Classics?
Contra?
Neo Contra?
Sega Classics Collection?
Silpheed?
R-Type Final?
Mobile Light Force 2?
Nope, none of them worked. I haven't really tried more since I bought it as this really discouraged me. King of Fighters Maximum Impact was a dramatic improvement I can add, but with such a large portion of my collection unuseable with it, it's really hard to justify what I paid for it.
It should be noted that PS1 games are anything but compatible with this thing, s1lence pointed out to me on another forum that when you try and play one the picture on the TV is like basicaly non existant.
It won't upscale DVDs either. It will play them, but the screen flickers like mad.
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