A lot of threads have been circling about asking whether or not people can play their PS3 through their monitor.
With this thread I aim to answer these questions so that the short attention-spanned people you can't use the search feature can stop posting so many damned threads.
This thread will pretty much just be a Q&A to meet the demmands of the users with the short attention span.
Can I play on my PS3 using my PC monitor?
I have mentioned about HDMI to VGA adaptors at the end.
If you have a widescreen monitor with a DVI port then you can.
For Just Playing Games
Simply get hold of a HDMI/DVI cable and stick the ends into the corresponding holes of your monitor and PS3.
When you turn on your PS3 hold the PS button down to make your PS3 automatically detect output settings, that's it!
You can pretty much skip to the bottom of the guide about sound now.
If you are not using a widescreen monitor (not reccomended) I have wrote about the problems at the end.
Playing Blu-Ray movies
If you want to play Blu-Ray movies you need a monitor with a HDCP(High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) compliant DVI port. This is not needed for games but you will be needing it for blu-ray.
If you are unsure if you have one or not then google (Yes, I know this requires not only effort, but also searching ) the brand and model name of your monitor (e.g Samsung SM205bw). Look around at the specifications on various sites, press 'CTRL + F' then type in HDCP.
Important Notes
It has come to my attention that it is quite possible you need HDCP to play 1080p games and watch 1080p movies. It is also quite possible that you can watch Blu-Ray movies at 720p without HDCP.
My advice is just to get a HDCP monitor and save yourself of any restrictions.
*Please don't go looking at non-widescreen monitors then complain about not being able to find a monitor with a HDCP compliant DVI port.*
This is a DVI port, you cannot tell by looking at it if it is HDCP compliant
I have a monitor with a HDCP compliant DVI port, now what?
Now you simply need to find a HDMI/DVI cable, these are really easy to find and extremley cheap, just head on over to amazon, don't bother forking out extra cash for a 'higher-quality' cable, it's all digital so no quality should be lost anyway, at most all you should be getting is some magnetic shielding.Hook up your PS3 and monitor, head to the display settings on your PS3 and detect the optimal settings, it should go all the way up to 1080p with most monitors, though it will be 'shrank' down to the native resolution of the monitor.
Someone mentioned that it would be better to get a HDMI/HDMI cable with a HDMI/DVI adapter, this way if you decide to get a HDTV and start playing on that you still have a perfectly good HDMI cable. It's a good point, something I never considered, so if you're monitor is just a temporary solution, a HDMI/HDMI cable + HDMI/DVI adapter should probably be your preffered choice.
Does it look better than SDTV?
Yes,you will have at least 720p (1280*720) upscaled (stretched) to your native resolution.Your monitor will most probably accept 1080p(1920*1080) input signal and will downscale (shrink) it to your native resolution.
In short yes it will look awesome.
What about sound?
Some of you may know that DVI does not carry sound like HDMI does.
To achieve sound the two cheapest options are to play it through your desktop speakers, or play it through speakers built into your monitor. Now I've never owned a monitor with built-in speakers, but I'm going to assume it has a cable that plugs into your PC and so the same method applies.
You will be using the component cables for this method (the red white and yellow ones, you know, like the PS2 had).
You will be needing some extra hardware for this method and they are as follows:
RCA/3.5mm mini-jack adaptor
I don't know what electronics shops are big in america and as most users here I believe are american the best I can do is tell you to look around. Do a google search for a "phono rca male stereo adaptor"
You want one looking like the one above, it has two female RCA inputs, and one stereo 3.5m male output (the input/output part of that sentance isn't necessary but I didn't know how to structure the sentance otherwise).
Plug the red and white parts of you component cable into red and white parts of the adaptor.
Now you need a...
3.5mm mini-jack coupler
Again, I dont know where you guys shop but doing a google search for "Stereo Coupler" should suffice.
Stick the male (pointy) part of both the adaptor and your speakers into the coupler, select the relevant options under audio settings and you should have sound through your desktop speakers.
I reccomend using gold plated adaptors if you can get them, this reduces the amount of quality lost through all these various connections.
This method will only achieve stereo sound.
How do I achieve Surround Sound?
The only way your going to be getting full surround sound is via optical or HDMI, now the safest option for you is to take a look at the Logitech Digital series of speakers.
These are a line of 5.1 surround sound speakers, with a bunch of stuff you don't know about but basically they sound great and have optical input so you can plug them into your PS3.
At current I think there are 3 tiers of these speakers;
The Z-5400, the cheapest option.
These have less power than their brothers but are still feature-tastic and possibly one of the best buys in audio @ ~£130
The Z-5450, the middle ground
The same as the Z-5400 but with wireless rear speakers.
The Z-5500, top end
More power, more features, more money.
Any reccomendations for monitors?
I currently use a Samsung SM205BW, the SM206BW are an improved version of this and about the same price, a great feature called "MagicColour" so my reccomendation goes to those.
What are the negatives of using a monitor over a HDTV?
In my opinion, there is only one negative.
Because the screen ratio of HD resolutions is 16:9, and widescreen monitors at current have a screen ratio of 16:10 you will find that the picture you see will be squashed a little, as the picture on a monitor simply isn't wide enough.
This means the images you see will be slightly taller and out of proportion to what was designed, the difference is so slight though, that I'm not going to show you any comparison pictures, if someone wants to make them I'll stick them up here.
Not 720p, or 1080p, it's somewhere inbetween.
If you have or are going to buy a widescreen monitor it's probably going to be 1680*1050, or 1920*1200.
Basically your screen is going to be stretched or shrank one way or another, this shouldn't be something that should bother you, it's like changing the resolution on your down a bit, you'll notice that things may look a little stretched. This is because LCD monitors can only output one resolution which is their native resolution and images are stretched to fit.
Can I play through a VGA port on my monitor?
It's not impossible to play on your mointor through the VGA port, but it is very costly.
There are a couple of devices knocking around the internet that say they will convert HDMI to VGA and ouput full 1080p.
These device are extremley expensive ($150/£150) and it's probably going to be a better option simply to buy a new monitor. These devices were made for people who have bought an expensive TV or Projector in the past that was promising HD resolutions, these cost quite a lot but not all of them came with HDMI interfaces so these kind of devices are the only real option for them.
I don't know anyone who has bought one of these devices so I can't comment on their flaws, I can only guess at an increased latency.
HDfury (america),
Generic HDMI/VGA converter (UK)
Problems with non-widescreen monitors
If you are going to use the converter option above and you have a monitor that IS NOT widescreen (1280*1024) then it should be noted that your image will look VERY distorted.
This is because the 16:9 screen ratio of the signal input is being squashed into a 4:3 sceren ratio which makes everything look out of proportion and generally taller.
The images below show you what I mean.
The input signal - what it should look like
What it will look like when stretched on your monitor
I think that's it, I reckon I've covered everything, any feedback is more than welcome, spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes are greatly appreciated. Especially notify me on anythign I've missed out or is wrong, basically just feedback throw it all at me I dont mind. Hopefully this thread will become a refrence for people trying to achieve PS3 on their PC monitor.
I know I was a bit rude to the people who basically need this, my excuse is that I typed this in Opera, where CTRL + SPACE causes the page to refresh.
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