Static Cling

Howdy, everyone! In addition to my PS2, I have a DVD player with digital sound that I use to play my movies. My PS2 will be solely for playing games. Right now my DVD player occupies the "DVD player digital sound input" in my receiver, and my PS2 is going through my cable box and into the receiver through the regular (RCA?) "cable box sound inputs."

The question... are there games that will benefit from a digital sound connection, or will my regular sound inputs do just fine? I'm wondering if I should be looking for an inexpensive A/V switcher with digital sound ins and outs. I haven't noticed a difference so far (I had my PS2 on a digital connection for the first few days), but does anyone know of any games coming out that will take advantage of the PS2's digital sound capabilities?

AgtFox

I've played, read or heard about the following games having 5.1 encoding in them (usually during cutscenes):

The Bouncer
Klonoa 2

Games like Madden 2002 and the rest of the EA Sports line tends to sound better when put through a digital connection than through a regular connection, but they are not 5.1 encoded to my knowledge

Upcoming:

SSX Tricky (no clue on whether this is during the game or not, probably not though)
FFX will probably have it in cutscenes
MGS2 will probably have some semblance of 5.1

Other people could tell you other titles though, but there is a difference between the two connections when playing games.

RCL66

I noticed a pretty big jump in quality when I hooked my PS2 up via the Optical digital cable instead of ther standard Left/Right RCA cable. The sound was much clearer and louder and just sounded much more powerful. Several games like Madden and SSX have really good sound that uses Dolby Surround (not digital) that sounds very good - although I imagine you would get surround sound via the RCA plugs just minus the clarity and loudness of the digital sound.

Also a few games like Klonoa 2 and Bouncer have some movies that are encoded in 5.1. But so far no games that actually play in 5.1. However I would say the difference is worth the upgrade. If in doubt, hook your PS2 up to your current DVD digital sound jack and see what you think.

Outlaw

Yeah its pretty cool, I noticed a lot cleaner sound and more bass playing SSX, but not on others, I think it really depends on the game and how the sound was recorded (redbook, etc.). Also as someone mentioned some games have 5.1 cut scenes which are pretty cool. If you've got a good receiver and a set of awesome speakers(I've got a set of Klipsch towers and center) you will notice a difference (even if it is only slightly on certain games). Not sure which games are coming out that support 5.1, but just regular 2-channel stereo and pro-logic sound great to me! I only spent around $10 on my optical cable and its fine, not sure how much switcher's go...

Darknight

I've just received word that SSX Tricky will support real time DTS in game in the PS2 version. They'll be using Dolby Digital for the X-Box version and Dolby Pro Logic 2 for the GC version.

RCL66

>I've just received word that SSX Tricky will support real time DTS in game in the PS2 version<

Will it also have Dolby Digital 5.1 in game? Where did you receive work from?

AgtFox

There was talk of the DTS encoding in the new PSM article on SSX Tricky. However, they did not talk about whether this was PS2 or it if was going to another system that has SSX Tricky. Maybe the PS2 can do in-game DTS sound, that would be cool.

Darknight

No it won't have real time dolby digital sound in the PS2 version. But yes, it will have real time DTS. Kind of surprised, but apparently the PS2 can do DTS over DD....

RCL66

Actually it will have Dolby Digital 5.1 support, it says in the article that owners of high end stereo systems will want to crank them up to enjoy the DD 5.1 sound. It just says the PS2 version will be the first PS2 game to support DTS sound.

Darknight

Well if it has Dolby Digital, it will only be in cut scenes and not during the actual game itself. It's not technically possible for them to include it. So no, the PS2 version will not have Dolby Digital in game. The only version to have Dolby Digital will be the X-Box version.

RCL66

Is it actually technically not possible or is it just that no game has actually included 5.1 encoded sounds and music? Maybe it's a matter of storage on the DVD. I don't remember ever hearing one way or another other than reading about 5.1 sound in games back before PS2 came out.

AgtFox

I remember reading a bit back about the fact that on-the-fly DD encoding was hard (and/or impossible) to do on the PS2. I have no clue about DTS encoding though, that was never talked about. X-Box (as much as I dislike it) should have on-the-fly DD encoding abilities from what I have heard. I will say that Jet Set Future does look cool, too bad I didn't like the original though .

Darknight

RCL: It is technically not reasonable to do on the fly Dolby Digital encoding on the PS2. I am a bit surprised that they can do real-time DTS encoding on the fly though.