So, I spent a fair bit of cash in 2007 buying a 1080p LCD TV. Another $90 for a HDMI cable so I can now have High-Def gaming goodness, thanks to my Xbox360. However... I have just bought myself a PS3 for Christmas. I have a few games for it, and they look amazing, but I noticed my TV switches from 1080p to 720p on each of these games! Checking the packaging, I have found that of the 5 games I bought, not one of them has a higher screen resolution than 720p! In fact, while browsing the PS3 games, I found very few that actually went to 1080p! Even games that were 1080p on the 360, are only 720p on PS3! Most of my 360 games are 1080p!

What's going on here? Why aren't PS3 games such as Fallout 3, 1080p, as they are on Xbox 360?

The absolute worst thing about this whole situation, is that I seem to care! I mean, up until 6 months ago, I played on my crappy old 68cm CRT TV. I didn't care about resolutions, I just enjoyed what I had. I don't know if MGS4 would look better in 1080p... it's looks fantastic in 720p, so I have to assume that it would look even fantasticer in 1080p, but can't say for sure.

I would appreciate any insight from people who actually know about these things... anyone???

I have a tiny standard-def T.V. and graphics don't bother me in the least. Beauty is game-play deep.

Are you serious? That just slaps another nail in the PS3 coffin.

Thats weird because i play MGS4 in 1080i. check all your settings and i actually have no clue there buddy.

In my wisened opinion, as long as you can actually play the game then you're fine.

If it looks good, great, that's a bonus. If it doesn't look so good, well, you still have a game to play which is better than nothing.

I just have a 60 hurtz screen as far as I know, what the hell is 1080p/720p?

Did anyone else think this thread was going to be about people who make too many New Years Resolutions?

*silly me*

I own a PS3, my brother owns an XBOX 360, on the same TV (1080p) we cannot tell the difference on the same game (Both Orange Box and Oblivion) so I really don't think that it makes that much of a difference anyway.

My Idea... Take the PS3, Return it to the store... And spend the 800 dollars or whatever you spent on it and spend it on new games or a really good surround sound system for your 360 (assumeing you dont already have one)

Ah yes, the majority of the games on the console with the allegedly best graphics can't handle 1080p. One of my friends with a PS3 found that out, but I always forget about it when I need to ward off one of those elitist PS3 owners(I know you aren't all that way, but I've met some people around school who really think that anyone who doesn't own a PS3 is a lower class of person then them)

Danprezco:
I own a PS3, my brother owns an XBOX 360, on the same TV (1080p) we cannot tell the difference on the same game (Both Orange Box and Oblivion) so I really don't think that it makes that much of a difference anyway.

Oh yeah, and this. The graphics on both consoles are near indistinguishable. These resolutions don't make that big of a difference.(Except for the Elitist PS3 owners out there)

You would like insight on... what?

Insight on you being a 'resolution snob'? That's for you to do, not us...

I don't really care about resolution (I actually play a lot of my games at 640x480, because high resolution seems to hog resources I could be using for other things, like playing the game), but if I were to, I'd probably still play games on my PC, which is running a 1440p monitor. This reminds me of a conversation I had with some retard at school. (Which was started be me jokingly saying, "PC gaming is infinitely superior to console gaming.")

There's a fair few games on both systems that aren't native 1080p. Sometimes for performance reasons, sometimes just because the developers were lazy. Shame, but there you go.

ultimately i don't really care as long as the game is good I'll play it. i've played some very pretty, and quite crap games lately, such as Prince of Persia, and graphics in no way will ever make up for gameplay in my mind.

that said, my decision on which platform to buy a new game, probably skate 2 in a couple of weeks, will probably be somewhat influenced by the resolutions available on either platform.

Don't become a resolution snob, those guys are idiots. I know someone who didn't buy littlebigplanet, because it wasn't in 1080p. That's stupid.

Oh and by the way. I response to:

Untamed Waters:
Are you serious? That just slaps another nail in the PS3 coffin.

Please stop being a fanboy/girl all consoles are as good as each other.

Think of it as a future investment. Most games aren't 1080p now but they definately will be next gen. Btw there isn't that much difference between 720p and 1080p anyway.

Untamed Waters:
Are you serious? That just slaps another nail in the PS3 coffin.

PM me with details of the other "nails in the coffin" and I can explain why you're an idiot and then make you think about your outlook on life. I wish people (idiots) would stop getting hung up on which console is better. Go jack off to your bug ridden piece of hardware. Then come back and remove the nails you claim to be in the PS3's coffin, and kindly insert them into your spinal cord.

You want to know which console is better?

It's a judgement call. Nothing else. Though I imagine I'll get some comments on that..

As for the topic. Have you checked your settings? I can't imagine why it would be doing that. Apart from on the games that you know only go up to 720p.

I know what you're talking about in regards to not caring before. I have played a PS3 and 360 on both a HDTV and SDTV. And to go back to SDTV is like having to use public transport after you have had your own car. And i think you're well within your rights to be pissed off. The idea of having this next gen hardware is to enhance the gaming experience. If you're not able to do that, then why pay the extra money?

Check your settings. Make sure the games are designed to perfom at 1080p. And then feel annoyed at the designers of the games that don't.

I have about fifteen PS3 games and all of them are 720p. It's unfortunate but nothing to get hung up about. The game running smoothly is more important.

Great, someone who's obsessed with graphics.

Eggo:
That COD4 only renders at 600p really emphasizes the seriously outdated hardware on both of these overpriced junk buckets.

Besides, there's only one resolution to be "snobbish" about, and it's for good reason too: you need serious hardware power for 2560x1600 (and quite a bit of money for a good 2560x1600 monitor). It's one of the few times multiple graphics cards actually provide a serious boost to performance.

For those who aren't doing their counting, that's over 5.6 times the number of pixels Halo 3's rendered at.

What this guy says. The fact of the matter is that many, many Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games do not render at truly high-definition resolutions, especially the games that tend to be praised for their graphics, and most of them upscale the image in hardware to make it look better - which it does, but it's artificial. Call of Duty 4 is still considered to have some of the best graphics this generation, yet my computer runs it at a higher framerate at higher settings at double the resolution of the consoles, and it's not even that impressive a machine.

To answer the original poster, though, check to make sure your PlayStation 3 is upscaling games properly in your menus, because I believe it has the ability to do that as well. However, if you want to get a glimpse of what real high-resolution gaming is, head over to [H]ard|OCP and don't look back.

Part of the problem, OP, is that poor resolutions are noticeable on big HD LCD screens, whereas on smaller screens and CRTs with softer visuals, it doesn't stand out as much. So becoming a resolution snob is a vicious cycle.

I'm the same: I just bought a big LCD and suddenly all my games with good resolutions look much better but the ones with lower resolutions look worse, in a way.

Iron Mal:

I just have a 60 hurtz screen as far as I know, what the hell is 1080p/720p?

Google for a better definition, but they are levels of resolution. Most older TVs output at 640x480. This would be 480p/i if it existed. The value is just the number of pixels displayed vertically.
The p and i are different ways of displaying the images. 'i' is interlaced, it means that each line of pixels is slightly offset. I don't know why. I think it has something to do with motion blur.

But yeah, google it.

HSIAMetalKing:
Did anyone else think this thread was going to be about people who make too many New Years Resolutions?

*silly me*

I though it would be about someone lauding their number of successful resolutions over everyone else's.

Catkid906:
Oh and by the way. I response to:

Untamed Waters:
Are you serious? That just slaps another nail in the PS3 coffin.

Please stop being a fanboy/girl all consoles are as good as each other.

That doesn't mean the PS3 hasn't taken a lot of large hits lately. I share your view, but one console can still be down on it's luck even if both are equal.

JamminOz07:
So, I spent a fair bit of cash in 2007 buying a 1080p LCD TV. Another $90 for a HDMI cable so I can now have High-Def gaming goodness, thanks to my Xbox360. However... I have just bought myself a PS3 for Christmas. I have a few games for it, and they look amazing, but I noticed my TV switches from 1080p to 720p on each of these games! Checking the packaging, I have found that of the 5 games I bought, not one of them has a higher screen resolution than 720p! In fact, while browsing the PS3 games, I found very few that actually went to 1080p! Even games that were 1080p on the 360, are only 720p on PS3! Most of my 360 games are 1080p!

What's going on here? Why aren't PS3 games such as Fallout 3, 1080p, as they are on Xbox 360?

The absolute worst thing about this whole situation, is that I seem to care! I mean, up until 6 months ago, I played on my crappy old 68cm CRT TV. I didn't care about resolutions, I just enjoyed what I had. I don't know if MGS4 would look better in 1080p... it's looks fantastic in 720p, so I have to assume that it would look even fantasticer in 1080p, but can't say for sure.

I would appreciate any insight from people who actually know about these things... anyone???

Are you sure that the 360 games aren't actually 1080i? Not 1080p?

JamminOz07:
So, I spent a fair bit of cash

And that's why I have "mainstream apathy".

That COD4 only renders at 600p really emphasizes the seriously outdated hardware on both of these overpriced junk buckets.

It emphasizes not a thing. The article doesn't even clarify if the game does run at the 600p that is claimed let alone give even a half arsed reason as to why it runs at the quoted res.

The majority of people still own an SD TV. HD TV sales only just overtook SD TV sales in October of last year so that logically means that the number of people that own SD TVs still greatly outnumbers the number that own HD TVS. This means a res of 480i for NTSC and 576i for PAL. For many developers that means it is logical for them to make their console games to take advantage of the lower res market otherwise you get the issues as seen in dead rising were people on standard res tvs couldn't read the text because it had been designed for higher res displays.

Thanks everyone for your interest. I have taken a few things away from your posts.

I have checked the net, and the PS3 does not seem to be capable of upscaling the graphics on games or DVD's.

So when it says 720p on the back of the game case, that's what it will display in.

A couple of responses to your posts...

seamusotorain:

JamminOz07:
So, I spent a fair bit of cash

And that's why I have "mainstream apathy".

... I have no idea what this means!

Ionami:

Are you sure that the 360 games aren't actually 1080i? Not 1080p?

... Pretty sure. The TV displays the mode when you change channel or if it changes resolution. It's usually 1080p for Xbox 360. I only noticed this whole thing because the PS3 games keep changing the tv mode to 720p.

sirdanrhodes:
Great, someone who's obsessed with graphics.

... Well, it's better than my obsession with your mum.

Eggo:

Besides, there's only one resolution to be "snobbish" about, and it's for good reason too: you need serious hardware power for 2560x1600 (and quite a bit of money for a good 2560x1600 monitor). It's one of the few times multiple graphics cards actually provide a serious boost to performance.

Thanks Eggo, yr post was probably the most useful. However I stopped PC gaming when the original XBOX came out. It's too expensive trying to keep a PC up to the latest specs... even if you don't have to buy the games for it.

Finally, in case you missed my earlier post, I'm not really a graphics whore or snob. It's about the games, not the system for me. The resolution will definately be a factor when I'm deciding which platform to buy for, I mean, why would I buy the Wii version of a game, when I can get the xbox 360 version with superior graphics/gameplay?

But how much would it cost my to buy a current gaming PC which can run these newest games at these massively high resolutions? $3000? $4000? Not an investment I'm willing to make, purely for playing video games.

CoverYourHead:
I have a tiny standard-def T.V. and graphics don't bother me in the least. Beauty is game-play deep.

But why have a window into a gaming world when you could have an epic panorama?

Willwillwritehiswill:

CoverYourHead:
I have a tiny standard-def T.V. and graphics don't bother me in the least. Beauty is game-play deep.

But why have a window into a gaming world when you could have an epic panorama?

Well... I have no money, otherwise I'd choose the latter.

I wish I had an HD TV... lol =)

HSIAMetalKing:
Did anyone else think this thread was going to be about people who make too many New Years Resolutions?

*silly me*

Oddly enough I read the OP about 5 times because I didn't understand what his New Year's resolution was. I read the responses and realized what he meant.

You say you want a resolution, well, you know, we don't want to change the world...
-Where was I?

The poly counts and texture use, along with lighting and effects, are what brings greater realism on any but the biggest TVs. This generation of consoles isn't that much higher in terms of pixel count, but I think we can agree Halo 3 running in 640p looks a hell of a lot better than Halo PC running in 1024x768. Yeah, devs get lazy and it's annoying, but photorealism is mostly a pipe dream for the current generation.

Danprezco:
I own a PS3, my brother owns an XBOX 360, on the same TV (1080p) we cannot tell the difference on the same game (Both Orange Box and Oblivion) so I really don't think that it makes that much of a difference anyway.

The level of graphics between two games and on the differing systems would be the same. A company would not make a game with differing graphics on different systems. It would cost too much to create better graphics on either. They only way for a specific console to shine is with exclusives which the PS3 is lacking.