Extreme slowdown and 720p problems

[cants]

Hi. I don't know if this is the right place for this, but has anyone else had this issue? I have Pinball Arcade for PS3, but when displayed in 1080p or 1080i it suffers from slowdown that makes it practically unplayable. Even the DMD display is slow. I've read that changing your TV's display to 720p should fix this issue, but when I do that, the tables do not display at all. I can boot the game and pick a table, but then there's just a black screen. I still get sound, and the DMD is shown, but no table. What gives?

The only way I can play the tables without slowdown is changing my display to 576p, which is really just unacceptable - it looks awful and I shouldn't have to change my TV's display to make a game work the way it should. This is supposed to be a high definition game, why doesn't it work properly? I haven't read of too many people having this problem on this forum (unless this is the dreaded flipper lag), so if anyone else is having this issue could you please let me know how you got around it?

Thanks!

 

[smbhax]

576p? What display device are you using?

 

[brakel]

576p? What display device are you using?

One from down under mate!

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

It does 420p, 526 is higher right?

 

[cants]

It's a Sony Bravia TV, nothing out of the ordinary. Has anyone else experienced this no picture issue?

 

[DrainoBraino]

Never heard of this problem. Sorry.

In 720 the tables don't display at all?? Maybe try uninstalling/deleting the game and redownloading it. Might have glitched or something. I really don't have any other ideas.

 

[Tabe]

Granted, I'm in North America, but I play in 720p all the time without issue.

 

[heddhunter]

Granted, I'm in North America, but I play in 720p all the time without issue.

Yeah, north america here too. I use 1080p and it works fine, no slowdown.

I think what is confusing cants is the instruction to change the resolution to 720p. That means change your PS3's resolution, not your tv! If your tv goes blank it's because it's expecting a certain resolution and/or refresh rate, and getting something else. There should be a setting on your tv that makes it auto-detect resolution/refresh change. Are you using HDMI or component video cables?

 

[cants]

No, I'm not changing the TV's resolution, I'm changing it on the PS3. I don't get a blank screen, what happens is that the TPA menu and HUD items, including the DMD display, show up, but the pinball table and the room it normally sits in do not appear. There's still sound, and the flippers work etc, it's just the table doesn't show up on screen. Again, this only happens in 720p and not 576i (where there's no lag) or 1080i/p (where the slowdown makes the game unplayable). It's not just flipper lag either; if I hit the ball to the top of the table, the wait for it to come back down to the flippers is agonising. Heddhunter: I'm using an HDMI cable.

 

[Tabe]

Any chance you could post video of this stuff? What you're describing has not been mentioned by anybody else that I'm aware of.

 

[The Amazing Psych-Man]

I have not had the pleasure of gaming with the Pinball Arcade on the PS3 (long suffering 360 user here) but wouldn't this be a widespread issue if it were really a problem?

I searched google and only found one reference to someone having the same exact issue: they were using a hacked version on a PS3 running old firmware. Not making accusations but I am guessing that's probably the only way this can happen since every PS3 runs software the same... legit game on an unmodified console should run perfectly (er, at least 'as intended'). I'm guessing the black screen at 720p is due to some feature that isn't in the old PS3 firmware that the game uses.

 

[cants]

That's interesting, but my PS3 isn't hacked and is completely up to date. In fact, I tried the game on a friend's PS3 in 720p (but his is lag-free at 1080p) and the same result occurred. I'd imagine that the reason it's not so widely reported is that a lot of people have no reason to try it in 720p. I will try and post a video today or tomorrow.

 

[brakel]

I know some people on this forum are playing in 720p in order to improve the lag issue.

 

[Pop Sergeant]

It's a Sony Bravia TV, nothing out of the ordinary. Has anyone else experienced this no picture issue?

I didn't see this mentioned so just to throw it out there ... I googled "Sony Bravia game mode" and "Pinball Sony Bravia". I read that depending on the model you may have two settings that will help: first, turn off motionflow (also known as cinemotion), this supposedly helps with lag even at 1080p/1080i; then, turn on game mode, this is supposed to shut down post processing though it may wash out your colors. I suppose you could try mixing it up too, just to see if one or the other has a bigger impact. Don't know if that will help but I figure it might be worth a try at this point. I hope it does help.

 

[smbhax]

Yeah, 720's never been a problem for me. Was your friend's PS3 hooked up to the same TV, or a different one?

I suppose it's possible this a region or cross-region compatibility issue with this particular combination of TV, game, and console regions, whatever they are. Like, I gather the TV is region 4, if it's an Australian one.

For instance, maybe the TV or console is trying to do 50 fps 720p, while the other is trying to do 60 fps 720p, or something like that.

 

[iCub]

I know some people on this forum are playing in 720p in order to improve the lag issue.

720p here (to avoid lag) without any issues. I am running the the most current Euro/Aus version of TPA.

The 50hz issue has all but vanished and only really still comes into play at SD resolutions and on old analogue devices/displays (DVDs, old games consoles, VHS). Modern LCD/Plasma TVs sold in UK/Europe/Aus are capable of running at 50 and 60hz and the Playstation 3 outputs at 60hz at 720p and above over HDMI.