Half-Life 2 in HDTV

Login_Here

Newbie
Joined
Jul 8, 2003
Messages
841
Reaction score
0
Gamespy has recently tested Half-Life 2 on a 50 inch widescreen monitor and compared
it to Half-Life on a normal monitor. You can find the whole article with comparative
screenshots here.
 
My bro has a 52 inch HDTV, maybe I'll take my computer down to his house on Sunday when we watch football.
 
Man that is totally kickin rad. If i ever get any money some day, thats the first thing im gonna get/do.
 
maybe if I put something pathetic, yet original on eBay Gabe would buy me a 50" HDTV set? :cheers:
 
I got a Phillips 55" widescreen rear projection TV, but i only have a DVI connection and when i hook my PC to it, it over scans and you cant see your health and score. PLus you cant put it in a high resolution. Unless someone knows something i dont.
 
Probably not true HD

Half Life2 is formatted for both 4:3 apesct ratio and 16:9 apsect ratio. Though it is not a true HD signal when sent to a HDTV. Much like the claim Xbox uses saying their games are HD when connected to a HD set thru componet (Pr Pb Y) cables. The signal at best would be a 480p signal (progressive scan). Graphics card (for the most part) do not send out the 1080i (interlaced) or the true high def signal 780p neccesary for being considered true high definition.

And the loss of the health and other stats is more likely and adjustment to the tv's aspect ratio. Try setting it to normal zoom. And make sure the TV is not defaulting to the 4:3 aspect from the source as some manufactuers set their TV's to do.

I wouldn't recommend playing a computer game on any CRT rear projection set or plasma as these suffer from nasty screen burn-in (image ghosting) when static images are displayed for periods of time. Those of youwith LCD or DLP Rear projection go nuts because in progressive scan mode this game must look sick.
 
yeah the only thing keeping me from hooking my PC up to my 50" widescreen TV is the fear of image burning.

I'm often frustrated by TV channels that leave their logos 24/7 in a corner of the screen, I'm afraid they'll become permanently printed on my screen.
 
Only 50 inch? Thats small :D I've been playing Hl2 with a 92 inch (2m, 16:9 screen). Videoprojectors own \o/ it realy gives more feel to the game.
 
Half Life 2 IMAX, it's the only way to play it.

Alyx's butt is as big as a house.
 
I just wanted to point out that you don't need to use a widescreen monitor to take advantage of this. He seems to imply that you do at the end when he laments the fact that Valve didn't provide a "letterbox option" for a 4:3 ratio. I played the whole HL2 campaign in widescreen on my 19 inch 4:3 CRT and I've been playing widescreen CS:S since the beta. All you have to do is select a widescreen ratio and then use your monitor's geometry controls to squish the vertical dimention. Here's a crappy pick that shows what I mean.

I'm sure the same is possible on a 4:3 LCD, especially ones with a native horizontal resolution of 1280 pixels. All you'd have to do is make sure the LCD isn't set up to stretch images that aren't the same size as the screen. Move the image to the center and there you go.
 
HiroProtaganist said:
Graphics card (for the most part) do not send out the 1080i (interlaced) or the true high def signal 780p neccesary for being considered true high definition.
This is not true. Computer graphics cards are more than capable of outputting 720p. That's only 1280x720. All you need is an HDTV that'll accept RGB input instead of only componant.

The part about 1080i output is correct. PCs don't output interlaced signals at all. But they'd have no problem outputting 1080p.
 
CoreyGH said:
This is not true. Computer graphics cards are more than capable of outputting 720p. That's only 1280x720. All you need is an HDTV that'll accept RGB input instead of only componant.

The part about 1080i output is correct. PCs don't output interlaced signals at all. But they'd have no problem outputting 1080p.
ok Im lost, whats the difference between RGB input and Componant input???
 
Pc's can't input 1080i? Then how can I use 1080i with my videoprojector (i watch dvd:s through my computer with DVI, better quality)? But I don't use it, because 720p is it's native resolution.
 
SIN55 said:
ok Im lost, whats the difference between RGB input and Componant input???
Here's a faq that may help. http://www.syncblaster.com/gtmfytv.htm

Basically, they are 2 separate video standards. RGB uses the three cables to send three color signals (red, green, and blue). Component uses the three cables to send one luminance signal and sync info and the other two send color info. They are very similar, but a device that's expecting RGB will not show the correct picture when given Componant (YCrCb or YPrPb {which are also both different}).
 
I finished the game on my (ten year old!) Sony VPH 1270 CRT beamer in 720p and i've got to say, nothing comes close!
The way you get dragged into the action, especially with a good 5.1 set, is just amazing!

This is a game to really show off your hometheater!
 
The Radeon series (from the 9700/9500pro and on) have a dvi to component adapter that lets you hook up to an HDTV in 480p, 720p and yes, even 1080i. In order to get 1080i all you have to do is set it to 30hz rather then 60hz. It works like a charm on mine. Also, most sets or should I say most non-plasma sets, are pretty resistant to burn in. Just keep the playtime to a reasonable amount of time and make sure not to do anything foolish like leave the game on the TV while you go to the store. But playing on a big set, rocks and all those who can try this definitely should.
 
Played it on my Toshiba 46H84 Set- Flawless Victory

I finally got the newest drivers from ATI that support HDTV settings/timings and got HL 2 up and running on my bigscreen in 16:9 format. I'm running it at 1776*1080 and its liquid smooth. I finished the game last night playing like this and could not believe how surreal gaming like this was. Sitting on my couch watching the action unfold in front of me took me off the couch and
into the game. When I was on one of the last lvls with the striders walking around the street and the big buildings in the background I was drooling the whole time. After playing most of the game on my 20" monitor @ 1600 * 1200 I
thought it looked awesome until I saw it in this format. INCREDIBLE. Thanks Valve.
 
Back
Top