Blaze, XPloder PS2 HDTV

You've got to hand it to peripheral have-a-go heroes Blaze – they tackle problems that would have most other sensible game add-on companies throwing up their hands and surrendering.

Like the problem of how to make the defiantly low-def PS2 play games in 1080 hi-def without cracking it open and soldering some new electronics in there. Most companies would have seen that as pretty insurmountable. Not Blaze.

All in the output
Naturally, getting your PS2 to output in a resolution it wasn't designed to isn't a simple matter. In addition to the – really pretty good — component cable you get in the box, there's a software disc. And this is not a disc you load once – you have to load it EVERY SINGLE TIME you want to play a game in hi-def.

Simply ("simply" they say) bang it in, a Blaze screen pops up, you select a resolution, swap in your disc, and Bingo! High-res video out of a last-gen console.

Game over
There may well be some games with which the Xploder makes look superb. It was just that the first eight we tried weren’t among them.

The simple lesson? No mattter what low-def console – Wii, PS2, any older ones – running it through a component cable is going to make it better, full stop.

But you just can’t make PS2 run proper hi-def. The reason DVD players can do it is that they have a whole lot of smart software and hardware inside designed to do just that. Sticking a £15 disc into your PS2 isn’t going to have quite the same effect.