Consoles And New TVs Questions

Figured I'd drop a post here in cast I am just missing something really simple. I'm not very tech savvy about modern TVs and stuff. Just had a few inquires for anyone who may be.
I've been in the market for a new television. One to be of the current generation as the modern consoles. I surfed through consumer reports and found a reliable and recent choice. I ended up getting it and finished installing it a few days ago. This is where my questions begin. I loaded it up with my PS2 and logged into FFXI. Yes, I play on PS2. Get over that. I cannot get the game to look even near what it looked like on my old TV. I have the aspect ratio and all that other stuff figured out, but the colors are just obscenely "off". Is there some way to adjust this via FFXI? I tried all the modes on my TV and all of them looked like crap (Vivid, Standard, Cinema, Gaming, Custom).
It's hard to describe how the colors look. They just...seem off..somewhat blurry and high contrast or something.
Just wondering if anyone else has encountered this issue. Inquiring because currently FFXI is the only thing I would use it for until FF13 etc come out. It drives me so crazy I cannot play and I'm very close to just returning the new damn TV.
On the other hand I also loaded up my 360 and everything seemed to be reasonably fine. I assumed this to be cause they are of or near the same generation of tech.
Anyhow, I'm short on time atm, so need to end here. If anyone has any suggestions or questions that'd be great. I'd like to get this resolved because it's driving me insane.

What kind of TV do you have? Specs and all.

The only thing I can think of off the top of my head would be the "Gamma" settings in FFXI. They control the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) colouring on the screen. (Config > Gameplay)

I can't think of any particular reason they would be off though tbh.

PS2 limi... Damnit!

would give you an answer but you need to learn to hit the enter button every once in awhile. It's called paragraphs.

do you use the default AVI cables? or do you use Composite cables on your ps2?

edit: Composite cables, need a small setup on your ps2 to enable it. while things wont look as good (due to the sharpness/resolution on an HDTV, it will make it look better than the default AVI cables.

you mentioned you have a 360, have you considered using the 360 version?

You know, it could be that it looks better on 360 perhaps because the TV you bought is an HDTV and the 360 is going to be more capability with that. Also the 360's game is superior to PS2's. The price you pay for putting an old gen console on a new gen TV.

I can't explain literal color disparity, but regarding the picture in general, even with component cables the max resolution the PS2 will display is 640x480 or 852z480 if it supports 16:9. The greater your TV's resolution, such as 1920x1080, the worse the picture's going to look in a sense because that small SD picture is just being stretched and stretched to fit the now HD resolution. Maybe try a 4:3 mode to retain some quality? You'll get black bars on either side, but the picture may at least look a little better.

The only TV's that look good in both SD and HD are the discontinued CRT HD television sets made back in like 2006. A friend of mine has one and everything from NES to PS2 to Xbox 360 looks gorgeous on it. It can't do higher than 1080i, but honestly the properties of a CRT monitor mean it doesn't have to. Even without the highest HD resolutions the way a CRT blurs its picture will make HD games still look smooth, but the resolution is high enough that you can read your text and such in HD games.

There is no way you can find one of these new. Someone might be looking to pawn one off on the cheap on craigslist or something. The problem is you'll probably never be able to replace it again when it breaks anyway. To fix this very problem you're having, I set up an old SD CRT television in my living room right next to the new HD. They're both around 27" in size so neither one overpowers the other. Works out really great. Plus when friends are over we can play two games at once.

I suggest hanging on to your new TV either way. Sooner or later you'll just end up buying another one for the benefits of bluray, hd broadcast tv, and ps3/xbox360 + whatever new ones come out in the future. Just don't expect old stuff to look remotely decent on it. You might be having color issues, but it will still just look terrible and have bad refresh rates and input lag on old games even if you fix the color.

This. A thousand times, this.

Sounds like the the brightness is high when it really isn't. I get this when I play my xbox with the old school RCA cable vs. the composite.

I wasn't able to check this until now, but thanks for all the helpful replies. I will try some of these solutions.
I hadn't considered the "stretch" factor. My old TV was 24" 4:3 and my new TV is 40 inches WS.
I am probably using the default AVI cables (R/W/Y cables into TV). I have no idea what the difference between these and the composite are so I never looked into it.
If nothing else I will just use my old TV for now and keep the new one for PS3 and 360. I've also been playing since PS2 release on the same setup so I am sure I might be reading too much into it; wanting everything to be exactly the same.

I'll have to see what happens. Hell idk. If FFXIV wasn't coming out in half a year I might even try to convert to PC using my new TV and a coltrol, but it's probably not worth it now.

Thanks again for all of the help and tips.