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Comment by kitsunesoba | Hacker News Reader

I would agree, which is why a PS2 is on my list of consoles to acquire at some point, but it does have one significant nit: there is easily available no digital video output mods for them, which makes getting a decent picture out of them a challenge unless you already have a suitable CRT to pair with it.

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You don't really need a CRT, any television with a RCA or S-video input would work. If you track down the component video cable (kinda pricey and rare) you can use that too. Most of the LCD TVs at least of the 2010s still had those analog inputs. I'd be surprised if you didn't get at least a RCA input on most new TVs today.

It's not so much a matter of it working as it is the picture looking acceptable. A friend brought over and hooked their PS2 up to my LCD TV in the past with component cables and it looked terrible compared what I remember from PS2s hooked up to CRT TVs back in high school. The built in PS1 emulation on a PS3 through HDMI looks way, way better on the same TV.

720p/1080i CRT's can be had - I have a late model Sony Wega 36" I snagged for $30.

I've used component cable as well as one of those HDMI adapters which are powered off USB - and it's not that much different with my CRT. Maybe it makes more of a difference with an LCD.

And even then, no progressive scan at 480 lines.

I remember some games offering progressive scan, but you needed a component video cable.

At a push the PS2 could do 720P as seen in aspects of Gran Turismo 4 (like it's screenshot mode) which to my mind is phenomenal.

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