RocShemp

I just rented HULK on the PS2. In the audio options it has mono, stereo and 5.1 as options. I selected 5.1 but it soundsjust like stereo and does not trigger my receiver's 5.1 decoder (neither in Dolby Digital or DTS). I've played games that featured 5.1 or DTS 4.1 Interactive (like Batman Vengeance and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City) before and my receiver was automatically triggered when I selected them in the sound options. I have my Playstation 2 hooked up viathe optical out but it just comesout as stereo in this game though I selected 5.1 sound (not even the cutscenes appear in 5.1). What gives?

Giantrobo

I thought PS2 only had 5.1 during cut scenes in the games?


I know XBOX has it full time during games that feature it.

Joshic

Klonoa 2 for PS2 also has 3 sound options: mono, stereo, and dolby digital 5.1. But we all know that the PS2 is not capable of outputting DD5.1 in-game. It's only for cutscenes. It's possible that Hulk for PS2 has DD5.1 just for the intro cutscene, or only a few cutscenes.

RocShemp

Giantrobo and Joshic,
I assumed that all the cutescenes would be in 5.1 (a'la Batman Vengeance) or just a select few (like Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty) but it seems this option does nothing. Oh well.

Just chalk it up to another reason to saveup to buy an X-Box (I love my PS2 but I want to hear Hulk smash in 5.1).

porieux

I've yet to be able to get my PS2 (connected via optical to my Denon AVR-2800) to ever register anything except Dolby Pro Logic. Even when playing DVDs.....

porieux

Of course that doesn't mean I'll stoop to getting an xbox

RocShemp

porieux,
Are you sureyou activated the digital out of your PS2? You can check by starting up your PS2 without a disc in it.

Anyhoo, I've gotten 5.1 out of my PS2 either in the cutscenes of games or when I've played DVDs on it (not lately since it's not my main player and I was only curious how good it'd sound). But with HULK (just beat it) none of the cutscenes are in 5.1 so the option in the menu is false. What I did notice is that the so called 5.1 is in fact more of a Pro-Logic II mix for the actual game. I just don't get why they didn't just call it Pro-Logic II (or simply Surround) instead of "5.1".

As for "stoop[ing] to getting an xbox," though there are not many games on it that I'm interested in (which is why I've yet to purchase it whenever I did have the money), I do acknowledge that it's a goodpiece of hardware and it can do things that my PS2 can barely accomplish.

porieux

RocShemp, thanks. Yes I am using the digital out for the audio, just haven't been able to get Dolby Digital or DTS to register for some reason.

As for my stooping comment, well I refuse to do business with Microsoft and haven't been impressed by the games or ergonomics of the Xbox. Just my opinion.

RocShemp

porieux,
Try playing a DVD and cycle through GUI menu (while the disc is playing) and find the sound optionsmenu. There should be severaloptions there allow you to enable/disable DTS (I don't remember if the same can be done for Dolby Digital) and the PS2's DVD Player's support of the digital out.

Yeah, the controller takes some getting used to and the machine takes a whole lot of space but I agree that there aren'tmany games to be impressed with. This why I've held out for so long. But if more third party developers took full advantage of what the X-Box is capable and brought along a wholeslew of their AAA titles, I'd swallowmy prideand buy an X-Box (or at least wait just a little longer if they were about to release the often rumoured slimmer version or the X-Box 2 or whatever it's going to be called).

El Kabong

I haven't played it on my upstairs setup for a long time, but I'm pretty sure that my receiver always said my PS2 was putting out stereo or DD surround even though it actually sounded like it was 5.1. I think the DTS titles may have showed up correctly though.