PS2 playstation 2 component vs composite difference quality guide test comparison

Playstation 2 cables comparison - Composite vs component

By Ree (Ree. at, email. dot, nu)
Feel free to contact me for questions

Last updated: Fri Jan 16 19:26:00 CET 2005

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I was very eager to try it out to see if there was any difference at from my original A/V-composite cable that came with my PS2. And the results were very interesting indeed...

When I had enabled YCbCr/YPbPr in the PS's menu system, and connected it with the component cable, I got 625i as a default resolution. Note I live in Sweden and this is a PAL-console. I'm not sure what the NTSC version defaults to, but my guess would be 525i since that is the standard NTSC resolution. I'll start with showing you a close-up comparison of the text in the menu system of the PS2.

The composite signal...

...and the component signal!
Quite a difference actually, just look at the left edge of the "B" and the horizontal blurring occuring around the the circle. But to make it even easier for you to compare them, here's a small animation:

Animation...

Next up is a closer close-up of another part of the screen.

Composite..

...and component.
Again, a noticable difference. There's a small animation for this comparison too:

Animation...

These shots are from a further distance, to get a better general idea of what we're looking at. They are taken at the startscreen for SSX3. Still 625i for both modes.

Composite, note the text at the bottom.

Component, the text looks a lot sharper. The backround behind the large text is much clearer and detailed. It actually looks like I was a bit shaky while taking the picture for the composite connection, but that's not the case. (like i mentioned before, a tripod is used. And even though it may be shitty it sure as hell won't move by itself.)
Here's an animation for this comparison:

Animation...

In this section I would like to show you what difference progressive scan can make. These photos are taken of the start screen in Soul Calibur 2, which supports progressive mode. Note that the difference between these two shots are not just because of progressive scan, but also because of the cables used.

The game gave me 525p resolution in progressive mode and 625i in interlaced mode.

625i resolution with composite cable. The small text is barely readable.

525p resolution with component cable. The text is now clear and crisp, we don't have to make small guesses of what it says anymore. You may notice that the screen seems to have different proportions (or aspect ratios) in the two shots. Thats because of the 100 lines less of resolution in 525p. So despite the fact that progressive mode has 100 less lines, it looks much better.

To make it even more obvious:

Animation...

So...

I didn't include a comparison of the Playstations DVD-mode with the different cables. The reason for this is that I simply do not think you should use it anyway. The PS2 is for playing games and the DVD-player is of playing DVD's. =P

Conclusion.

Progressive scan owns.
Component input is the shit.

ps. Don't buy cables from "Monster cables". They suck .ds

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