Comments on: Movies on the PS2

Question: Movies on the PS2

squidlarkin — Sat, 13 May 2006 23:30:44 -0800

What exactly do I need to do to play AVIs and the like on my Playstation 2? I have a CD-RW drive and don't want to spend any money.

By: SweetJesus

SweetJesus — Sat, 13 May 2006 23:39:48 -0800

You're can't.

PS 2 doesn't (as far as I know) play VCDs with out a mod chip.

By: SweetJesus

SweetJesus — Sat, 13 May 2006 23:41:03 -0800

Or "you can't"...

By: ODiV

ODiV — Sat, 13 May 2006 23:43:13 -0800

There is no way to do this without spending money.

How close is your computer to the television that the PS2 is hooked up to? Is there a video out (S-video, RCA, whatever) on your graphics card? If yes, then it might be better to get some cables to go from the computer to the TV.

Another option (which takes both money and skill) is to mod your playstation. I'm not even sure what the abilities are of a modded PS2. I do know that a modded xbox makes a great media centre and can play all sorts of formats. Then you have to spend money on blank CDs.

A third possibility is to buy a DVD burner. They are getting a lot cheaper, but it still costs money and so do blanks. Also, I'm not sure if the PS2 has any problems with burned discs. I don't own one.

By: SweetJesus

SweetJesus — Sat, 13 May 2006 23:50:01 -0800

Just to expand that explanation, VCD's are encoded with MPEG 1 and the PS 2 only decodes MPEG 2. So, you *might* be able to do it with an SVCD or a DVD, but for-sure not with a VCD, which I assume is what you're trying to do. You will not be able to play an avi file natively on the PS 2 - you'll have to convert it, and you're going to have to buy some equipment (mod chip, or PS 2 hard drive) in order to do it.

Do yourself a favor and just spend 50 bucks on one of these at Best Buy, and you'll never fuck around with video formats again.

By: hattifattener

hattifattener — Sun, 14 May 2006 00:46:51 -0800

Some DVD players will happily play a DVD filesystem even if it's burned ont a CDR instead of a DVDR. I have no idea whether the PS2 is one such, though.

By: Good Brain

Good Brain — Sun, 14 May 2006 09:50:14 -0800

VideoHelp.com

By: Optimus Chyme

Optimus Chyme — Sun, 14 May 2006 10:09:27 -0800

A Philips DVP 642 costs $50- $70 and is worth every penny. It will play just about every file type on the planet. Normally when someone says "I don't want to spend any money" I'll try to work with that, but honestly, it's so much more efficient to just buy the proper equipment rather than spend literally hours messing around.

By: hoboynow

hoboynow — Sun, 14 May 2006 10:27:12 -0800

Do yourself a favor and just spend 50 bucks on one of these at Best Buy, and you'll never fuck around with video formats again.

I would not suggest that particular player (Philips DVP-3040) for this application; its performance on MPEG-4 encoded AVIs is very choppy and thus pretty unwatchable. I'd recommend instead the Toshiba SD-3990 for $10 more at Best Buy. I have no experience with the oft-recommended DVP-642.

All of these players, in addition to seving as more-or-less capable DVD players and offering playback of MPEG-4 AVIs, are also useful as region-free/PAL-->NTSC players (codes are available at this site.

By: formless

formless — Sun, 14 May 2006 17:26:29 -0800

You can also pick up an Action Replay MAX. It will let you burn videos to a CD-R and play them on your PS2. Standard retail price is $30.00, you can find them cheaper on auction sites.