PlayStation 2 on Modern TVs with Open Scan Converter

May 26, 2026

A while ago I decided it would be cool to find my old PlayStation 2 and try out some Need for Speed Underground 2. Little did I know this would turn into a rabbit hole journey. This re-introduced several technical challenges that are solved with modern video technology. The first challenge was that I no longer had the video cable from the console to the TV which was what lead to the problem statement: How can I get the best picture quality possible from the PS2 to the TV?

The PS2 delivers analogue video through an AV Multi Out port which can deliver audio and video through composite (CVBS), S-Video, and component cable (arranged from worst to best). So I went to get a component video cable as my current TV has input for component cable. However, lines looked weird which was probably an artifact from bad upscaler on the TV from analogue perhaps to make SD video look better after being upscaled to HD?

So I went ahead to get an adapter that would deliver video signal using the composite signal to HDMI - how hard could it be? My first attempt was a rather generic adapter (PS2 RGBS/YPBPR Upscaler for PS1/PS2 “Jerilla”) but this had issues with deinterlacing the video stream, picture quality was otherwise fine. The conclusion from this iteration was that the cheap PS2-adapters being sold are often using poor-quality analogue-to-digital converters and as a consequence leads to worse picture quality since they handle deinterlacing not so well.

One alternative was to get a Retrotink box, which was way beyond my budget. Instead I went for an Open Source Scan Converter (OSSC) which was way more budget friendly. Another good aspect was that it gave me complete control over the video processing being done between the PS2 video signal and the HDMI output. The only downside was that I needed skills beyond my knowledge within the video processing domain - which basically stops at knowing what interlaced and deinterlaced video is.

After having bought this and set it up, I enabled pass-through of the video signal and most of the picture looked great. But there was a new issue emerged after this, my TV turned off and on each minute or so. It was after a week of fiddling with timing settings and experimenting with what some claim was the most “optimal setting” (albeit somewhat vibrating) for PS2 where I found a thread with the the author of the OSSC software discsusing this issue. Enabling the “Allow TVP HPLL2X” flag under “Compatibility” resolved the blackout.

I was quite satisfied with the picture quality in NFSU2, but while playing Megaman X Command Mission I noticed some noise in the background. It was hard to notice and it only seemed to appear under bright colors. This issue appeared to be easier to solve than the previous challenges as it turned out the video cable was low quality and introduced the noise. Importing an HD Retrovision component cable (as they are known for having the best quality video cables) from Switzerland resolved this and I was finally satisfied with the picture quality which was now free of any noise.

To summarize what I learned:

Component cable is the best analogue video cable, and the quality of the cable actually matters!
A reminder that dealing with anaologue means dealing with noise, something we forgot after going HDMI.
De-interlacing can be annoying, but my experience has been that the TV can do a great job as the deinterlacer.
Some TVs can be picky when it comes to timing of the video signal, enabling the compatibility flag on my OSSC lead to that none of the projectors or TVs at work could read the signal.

Note that the aim of this process was to get a smooth and high quality picture quality. There are probably many more options that can be tweaked for picture properties that is not important to me, but this setup was more satisfying for me to look at compared to the potato quality from a 10$ adapter. And those pixels do matter when you are trying figure out from 10x10 pixels if you will hit a car or continue on a road while playing NFSU2.

It was a fun journey to set up, and it is refreshing to go from a modern system that requires all kinds of shenanigans before being able to play (system update, game update, login, account verification, etc.) to being able to put the disc in and just play the game. It just worked. But some issues from that era is forgotten. In addition to the noise issue I mentioned earlier, the fragile discs can get unreadable from scratches, and the cable length for the controllers can be a major constraint with how large TVs are today and we normally sit a few meters away from the TV. So I bought a wireless PS3 controller and a Wingman PS2 to get rid of the cables.