Does anyone use their Dell 2405 as a TV?

[triggerthat]

I was curious to know what sort of picture the monitor gives using the input connectors? I was thinking of hooking up my playstation however am not sure what sort of quality I can expect. What resolution does component run at?

Thanks. If anyone has any pictures of the quality, that would be great.

 

[tom_nieto]

I used composite for my PS2, and while it didn't knock my socks off, it's certainly playable, and looks fine. I'd be really interested to plug something into the component input.

 

[simon567]

I *think* the component will do upto 1080i, it definately does 720p which looks pretty nice to me! Of course the problem is that most PS2 games will output 480p at best, so the quality isn't superb.

I was previously running my PS2 and Xbox on a 14" CRT TV and it's definately a huge step up from that, but you do have to sit back a little in most games as they can look a little jaggy close up. You also start to notice some of the texture qualities are a little poor, something that a RGB picture on a CRT hides.

If you're not already running your console on a good tv then it's definately worth giving a try!

I'll try and post some pics tomorrow when I have a little more time.

I definately think it's worth the upgrade to a component cable from composite.

 

[AWPC]

My PAL PS2 looks very good via the Component. God Of War, Shadow Of The Colossus, Ghosthunter & Resident Evil4 all look stunning in Progressive Scan mode on the 2405 even with the image scaled by the Dell to fill the screen.

PS2 via the S-Vhs or Composite connectors looks real bad unless you set the 2405 so it does not scale the image to fill the screen. Then it looks ok but only takes up a tiny area in the center approx 5"x3".

As others have said the PS2 has very low res textures & most PS2 games are optimised to look their best on a poor quality TV as that hides the hardware limitations due to the blurry/fuzzy picture quality of most TV sets composite input. This is another reason they get good FPS as 320x240 with low res textures is quite easy for the PS2 to handle quickly.

 

[ic1male]

I didn't think the PAL PS2 had a 480p capability? Can any good soul post any pics of a PS2 running on a 2405FPW?

As for the OP question, I have my Freeview box plugged into this screen via composite. A bit fuzzy up close but sitting a few feet away and you'd never tell. It's a pretty good picture.

 

[simon567]

ic1male: yes, the PAL PS2 can output 480p, just not many games support it! (some of the ones that do include be Soul Calibur 2, Out Run Coast to Coast and Shadow of the Colossus).

Do you have any problems with aspect ratio on a freeview box? I tried hooking up my Sky Digital, but I couldn't manage to get it to display at 16:9 (the Dell screen is 16:10, which means there should be thin black bars top and bottom). For some reason, consoles don't have this problem and seem to auto adjust.

I've taken some console pictures below, sorry they're not superb quality, but should give you an idea of how it looks. The jaggies are more visible when the image is moving and are not always captured very well here. The blurring on some images is just caused by the shutter speed of my camera, it definately doesn't represent ghosting of the screen!

Soul Calibur 2 at 480p
This one is a little jaggie when it's moving, lowres textures are noticeble in a few places on this screenshot:
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g75/simon567/soul.jpg

Shadow of the Collossus at 480p
Again, lowres textures are more visible than on a normal TV.
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g75/simon567/shadow.jpg

Outrun 2 on Xbox 480P
A lot of Xbox games look better due to higher res textures and better anti-aliasing, though Outrun is not the best example of this and looks very similar to the PS2 version:
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g75/simon567/outrun.jpg

Amped 2 on Xbox running at 720p
Not many games support this resolution, but it looks great!
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g75/simon567/amped2.jpg

Overall I do like how it looks, even though some games which look great on a TV suddenly look less impressive on this screen! So long as you sit back a little, overall it looks nice.

 

[ic1male]

Do you have any problems with aspect ratio on a freeview box? I tried hooking up my Sky Digital, but I couldn't manage to get it to display at 16:9 (the Dell screen is 16:10, which means there should be thin black bars top and bottom).

Many thanks for those pictures! The display doesn't look bad at all! The text seems quite crisp as if it's anti-aliased.

As for the aspect ratio, yes, the combination of Freeview & composite input fill up the whole screen for this 16:10 display. To be honest, there's not a lot of difference - people don't look squashed or tall. Typically I watch my TV in a little PIP box on the top right so I can surf at the same time. I only go full screen on special occasions - like Doctor Who.

 

[androomc]

i can run my xbox 360 with project gotham on my 2405 in the correct resolution (16:9), all i had to do was go into the OSD and choose 1:1 rather than full screen. i was using component, but i guess this should work with any other input too.

 

[ic1male]

What output have you got it on? 720p or 1080i?