Upscale your PS2/PS1 for free: GSM 

Keep in mind, this runs within Open PS2 Loader options. You can boot rips or DLs off HDD or USB, then active GSM in options. In POPS for PS1 isos, use 480p cheat to force PS1 resolutions. Great solutions to save your disc drive.

I've been trying to use GSM for a long time, and was super chuffed that Tony Hawk 4 worked in 1080i, but it seems like certain games bug out and reset the GSM settings. Love a modded PS2 though, that shit tight.

This is pretty legit, and when I break out my PS2 again I'll definitely be checking out GSM.

this is exactly what i needed for my ps2 soft mod setup, and explaining what to expect. thumbs up homie

super cool man, Tekken tag tournament was the first game I tested when I got this working. I'm glad I tried other ones, because I was disappointed at the 1080I performance

My 4k tv could not pick up makai kingdom. I had to play it on my crt and constantly move my ps2 back and forth. So I tried this and my tv actually properly displayed it. Thanks for spreading the word and thank you to people who worked on this project. This is amazing.

this is awesome. Not sure if I will ever do this as I tend to just emulate older games. But I just love your voice and could listen to it all day Wish my voice was half as cool as yours

This is most impressive! Thank you for a detailed comprehensive look at this PS2 enhancing gizmo, a must have for 6th gen lovers like myself!

Funny i should come across this video. I just bought some high quality and expensive cables for my ps2 and psp. When i was reading up on them i thought about you and your channel and all the talking youve done about upscaling etc. Then i learned about GSM and vaugely remembered seeing something like that on the menu of the jailbroken ps2 with a 2TB HDD and McBoot installed i bought off FB Marketplace for $80. And now here i am, a long time fan, learning from you how to do the kind of stuff ive been watching you do for years, amazed. I never had any idea a $80 ps2 could do so much

Great video. I've been looking at OSSC and Framemiester for a while now but not wanting to spend nearly the value of my 4k TV to upscale my PS2. I'd love to try this out.

GSM actually doesn't Deinterlace the picture. It taps into the image back buffer that the ps2 uses which is 480p native! the half resolution problem is caused when the game in question uses two back buffers at half resolution (240P). This makes GSM only show half of the image. Just wanted to clear that up, great video though!

I appreciate this video because I have been using FMCB for nigh on 5 years and never took the time to learn what GSM was/is.

I NEEDED this video. Thank you!

this is an informative video - I use an OSSC and I also have freemcboot but havent gone into much testing to force resolutions in GSM yet and this makes me want to try out my ps2 collection to check the compatibility for output optimization. Especially for PS2 I have a hard time capturing upscaled footage due to the odd resolutions

Awesome video, broke down a lot of fun facts with scaling. New sub here. Keep up the great work :)

Thank you very much. This helps alot in deciding how to get the best image quality out of the PS2.

very informative video. Really enjoyed watching it out of academic interest. Have a Framemeistere already so I do not need the GSM but it still good to know that there are some other ways to improve the picture quality of the ps2 without paying a fortune for a decent upscaler. ps: I always enjoy your tech videos. So please make more of them.

Your new intro anim is awesome!

Thanks - I have a FMCB Memory Card and knew about GSM, but I was a little confused as to how it worked. This video showed me and your microphone is not horribly annoyingly bad, so that's all that really matters.

Digging the wild arms 3 fight music in the background

What a good review and a good channel, subscribed. 😊

This is pretty darn rad, even with some of the caveats, especially playing PSone games in 480p Also, Wild ARMs 3 and Makai Kingdom? Excellent taste, as always 👌

Ooooh, that Intro is killer.

I've been looking for something like this. I have a ton of old ps2 and 1 games so playing them on hi-def would rock.

An awesome video 😁 I'm currently in the process of cleaning & restoring my PS2 once I've done so I'll definitely be purchasing a Free McBoot memory card and checking out GSM. Just out of curiosity if you don't mind my asking what capture card do you use to capture your gameplay footage?

Cool video & great info, I bought a old CRT for £10 & now all my ps2 games are HD 👍

480p looks quite good. Ps2 phat is my preferred way to play ps1 games. Component video output and texture smoothing for pure 240p output is a great bonus. Not to mention digital stereo audio output via the optical out.

The ff7 sound effects are 🔥🔥🔥

is it just me or ps2 with progressive scan looks a bit like the Dreamcast?

This was definitely informative. I am unsure if either of my PS2 units are moddable, but given that I've been interested in checking out the recent PS3HEN, what is one more to add to the list? However, the only downside I see here is my Elgato doesn't support Composite or Component natively, and my Component to HDMI Converter stopped playing nice with my Elgato. I might have to buy another one but we'll have to see. Thanks for a video on this Jared!

Honestly, Jared, this type of video isn't my cup of tea. However, upscaling the games that you showed in the video look really good. I can see the difference in sharpness, detail, etc. Keep up the good work, even though the technical aspects of these videos make me smile and nod lol.

Using the GSM for your CRT TV can yield unbelievable looking results as well. By switching the NTSC mode to NTSC-i you can get a 240p (Progressive) picture out of all your PS2 games and that includes the DVDs as well. On my 38 inch Sony Trinitron no flat screen can compare to the image quality to this day. IF interlacing flicker bothers you, then I'd give this a try because it may just change your life. :)

What GSM settings do you recommend for de-interlacing so I can get clean 480p with my retrotink?

For PS1 games I strongly recommend POPSTARTER it can play PS1 games from USB drives. It can upscaled PS1 games to 480P much better than GSM. You can find a lot of technical information about how GSM works at ps2-home Forum and also many other coll homebrews stuff. Stand alone versions of GSM does not come out anymore. If want newer versions after 0.38 you have to get the "Daily build version" of Open loader PS2 (also found at PS2 home Forum) is a another homebrew that let you play PS2 games from USB drives , internal HDD or network from your PC. It has a GSM built into it.This version of GSM is currently version 0.40. The 0.40 includes an option called "emulate field flipping". I don't know what that is but most games that previously were black screen are now fully playable. Now I can play GTA san andreas and Ratchet and clank 1 at 480p ! And Open loader will save all configs you made. I help the guys at the forums and I also like you always thought GSM deserved more. People think it is complicated to use it but when you start is actually very simple . I'd say that around 60% of games are playable at 480P in newer 0.40 version. I'm really looking forward a new video of yours about 0.40 !

Very interesting! I use a component cable but its deffo not ideal, might look into this. Cheers for the share dude :D

Thanks a lot! Great information and video 👍

What a great solution. Thanks for sharing!

I'm very keen to catch up on the PlayStation 2's legendary library, as well as revisit my GameCube & Xbox to catch up on what I missed or return to old favourites, so any advice on getting these displaying smoother on HDTVs or Caputre Devices is always appreciated, especially as I'm in the PAL region & don't always have the luck of a 60hz option (And have not the arrangements to set-up a CRT, yet at least).

Thanks for your tutorial! After watching your video, I start to apply your formula to my PS2. I did this mainly for running SH3 with nicer graphic. Unfortunately, it seems that SH3 is not compatible with gsm due to its unique resolution. However, I noticed you were running SH2@480p without glitches in the video. I saw articles mentioned SH2/3 had the same resolution. I wonder how you did that and if you successfully run SH3 with gsm.

Have you experimented with the GSM + the Retrotink 5x?

I really need that software. Playing PS1 and PS2 games on HDTV is a pain for my eyes.

What cables would you use? Do you still get the benefits no matter the cable connections? I went cheap a few years ago and I got a small upscaler that usually gives a blurry mess on big screen.

For people who has compatibility issues with the popular PS2 to HDMI dongle (3.5mm sound output working but screen throws an error or doesn't show anything), I found that GSM solves the issue and it looks fantastic. Bind GSM to a key on your joystick in freemcboot settings, save, plug in the PS2 to HDMI adapter and reboot holding the key. After about 10-15s press square four times, select and then start. Give it a few seconds and here you go, money not wasted after all. Thank you for letting me know about GSM, now I can use my PS2 to HDMI dongle >:D

that metal intro..Nicely done.

I tried this, For the life of me I could only get this to work with PAL games and other games I tried go to a black screen however i do have games that do progressive scan itself if that counts.

Hi. How to make the black bars (in the right and left side) disappear and put like a picture or video like you did in your video? what software you used? thanks.

So regarding PS1 games running menus in 480i (Silent Hill, Dino Crisis, etc): If you set GSM to use it's SDTV NTSC mode instead of 480p, it won't make the menu stretched like that. I was able to play Silent Hill with the game and the menu switching back and forth seemlessly with no annoying sync drops. The only thing is the game seems to run in 480i all around instead of 240p, or at least that's what the Framemeister is telling me when I hit the status button. That being said, it doesn't look interlaced. It LOOKS like every other 240p game that runs into it. No interlacing artifacts or anything like that. Now my setup is an RGB cable into the Framemeister, then HDMI out into an Elgato HD60 Pro, so I don't know if that also has something to do with it, but as far as I can tell it works fine. I know that might not work for people who don't have an upscaler (I have no way of testing a direct input of that signal into a capture card), but for a Framemeister user, it seems to be a solid work around.

what version of GSM are you using to get Silent Hill 2 to look like that? v0.38 has scrambled graphics at the bottom same with Silent Hill 3.

Sadly, the only way I got to play ps2 games in a bearable way was to use my old CRT (also adding some games even have problems with color and just display in B&W when I use my LCD) but this is a very affordable solution, thanks for adding more hours to my playtime dude! P.S: Does GSM work on a slim ps2? Or it has to be the fat models to run properly?

Nice intro Jared. After all I still see Krillin within you.

I’m curious to ask if this puts your ps2 at risk or is it safe to remove when you choose

Thanks, this was a really helpful video. I have a retro tink 2x pro multi, amazing with most console's (like xbox, dreamcast etc) but most PAL ps2 game's even with it couldn't go above 576i or 480i. Apparently 576p of great to use with PAL games through GSM as it's most stable, so I'm going to try this. In conjuction with the Retro tink and component cables, should have good results. I tried Tombi, a ps1 game (it's a fat SCPH-30003 ps2 so isn't emulating ps1 game's) but results were meh on the 55" tv. Screen flicker too especially on menu's.

whats up im jared i have a buttery smooth voice and this is the GSM

3:28 get's hit with the feels hearing Onimusha music lol

What you think? PS1/ps2 gsm +hd retrovision cables + component to HDMI + 480p + mclassic?

You have to use progressive scan? But I'm using a retrotink so would it be ok ?

I had a question about GSM, If you have a PS2toHDMI cable that says "(480i,576i,480p) " It would mean that you can try to put "1080i/1080p" but none of them would work right ? I have a PAL PS2 so I don't know what would be the best option, a YUV to HDMI + GSM ?

Awesome review buddy. It always feels good to watch a no nonsense reviewer. RU-vid sucks nowadays but that's another rant for another day lol I actually just got a 50' 4k UHD tv and i'm worried. I bought a POUND ps1/2 hdmi box but I've heard they're okay and just that. Basically all reviewers say it's better than nothing but I'm starting to think about those high dollar boxes for making old games look great on modern TV's. Funny that we're so ahead with technology right now that this kinda thing hasn't been sorted without an arm or leg price lol

Would upscaling my ps2 help fix why I see horizontal lines specifically when I play ps1 games? At the end of my rope just trying to figure out what going on

Great video. It's a shame that 480p is so finicky on the PS2. Apparently Sega had enough of a forward thinking mind to have 480p built for almost every game on the Dreamcast, such a shame that the people at Sony must have thought Interlaced tech was here to stay or something. They really should have made it a pre requisite around 2003 or something, that any developer making a game for the PS2 must include a 480p mode & a True Widescreen mode, the PS2 would have had so much more of a continued fanbase if that was the case. Silent Hill 3 is a very weird one... If you boot the NTSC (USA) version & configure GSM to 480p, you get this fuzzy line across the bottom of the screen. The game is playable, but this fuzzy line, which is the width of about 2 fingers is insanely off putting. However, If you get the Pal (Europe) version, & again configure GSM to 480p, when the game boots it gives the usual 50hz or 60hz option, if you pick 60hz, say hello to the fuzzy line again, but if you pick 50hz option, the game boots perfectly, BUT, there's more... Fmv's won't play through progressive (480p), so you have to press the start button to skip before the video at the beginning plays. If you don't skip, your game will crash on a black screen. If you manage to skip, you get to the main menu & everything's fine, right? WRONG. In game cutscenes & gameplay will run fine, UNTIL, you encounter another 2 - 3 fmvs, that are scattered across the game, & if you don't know where these fmv's are, & you happen to have not saved the game for a while, get ready for another crash, & get ready to play a whole segment of the game again, this time in 480i mode, just so you can view the fmv, save the game, reboot the console & go back to 480p again. IT'S THAT COMPLICATED. I'm no expert, I haven't tried a bunch of games with 480p but after my test with SH3 I'm hesitant to continue. I'd feel uneasy not knowing when another crash is round the corner because of a video that GSM can't play, there is an option to skip videos, but then you can say goodbye to a story that makes any sense. I just wish GSM was configured in a way that it could switch back into Interlaced mode when it needed to, rather than crashing on a black screen like a little bitch. I'm kinda happy to see the constant theory that NTSC games are THE BEST because they natively boot at 60hz proved kinda wrong though, because in this particular test the USA version sucked balls because it didn't have an option to run at 50hz, whereas the European version did, meaning that it could run in Progressive. Anyway thanks for reading, good luck.

Everytime its exiting ps2 browser after i pick the settings it just goes to no signal when i try to change the graphics

Awesome video! New sub here, quick question, will this work on burned dvd/esr?

Glad you told us about this but i can't seem to untilize this on my PS2 for now because it needs some repairs and I need to hunt down my USB 1.0 flashdrive somewhere in my room....

i would suggest gsm that comes with latest version of OPL, you can save gsm config globally or per game basis, also i think it got updated on the OPL version so more games could be compatible?

i mod my ps2 to run ps1 game but i can only play it with composite/av cable. i have a ps2tohdmi converter but the screen goes blank after the boot screen. i assume this would help me solve my problem by forcing it to run at 480p, but there are several 480p settings, which one should i be using? i see that the most suitable may be ps1 ntsc (hdtv 480p @60hz) ?

Wouldn't running games on the PS Classic via Autobleem or Bleemsync give you even better results? Any why 480p over 1080i?

what kind of video cables and capture card do you use with this?

How do the VGA Modes look? I want to do this but via RGB PS2 Slim going through an OSSC then to a HDMI to VGA, it's 1280x1024 resolution :)

If you put games on a hard drive in the PS2 you can use GSM inside Open PS2 Loader where it lets you save your GSM settings per game. It's much less of a faff that way.

I tried to use it with PS1 games at 480p resolution pressing X at the GSM menu. Once the PS1 game boots the signal goes back to interlaced. Any suggestion? I'm using an PS2 Slim 90001

feelin that sweet hype

Nice video man, I couldn't forgive myself if i were to spend $400 on a FM

I have a tv that's 4:3 but it can take 1080i via component and wandering what would you recommend.

i love you thank you for this solution :D

What the name of fps with dual revolvers?

GSM is a life saver for me, I use a Kaico HDMI dongle and my Samsung TV won't accept 240p, so using OPL with built in options for GSM, I can get some pretty decent results.. ICO for example is a native 240p game, I just set GSM to NTSC with a horizontal offset of -65 and a vertical offset of 9 and select the in-game 60hz option and I get a perfect 480i picture. The PAL exclusive Alone in the Dark: A New Nightmare works the same way. Also, the main advantage of using GSM via OPL is the ability to save settings for individual games.

Video quality on the PS2 by default (as long as I'm using a component cable) looks great when I have the PS2 connected to my HDTV. But, the reason why I clicked on this video is so I can look for a way to get great video quality on my AverMedia game capture device. My BenQ monitor also suggests 1080p, so that software is the right thing!

What about using GSM through a Levelhike cable? How does that work and does it work well? Edit: Nope, my Levelhike cable only utilizes the PS2's RGB signal and not the YPBPR. I'll get component cables soon.

This isn't working for me...I tried setting up GSM to specific resolutions like 480p, 720p, and even 1080p, but it's just not working for me. My HDTV either shows no signal or it freaks out like how no signal is on something like antenna TV.

Great video, def. gonna try that out! But tell me, what game is this at 3:40? That pixelart looks really good!

I tried running RE4 on OPL with GSM forced to 480p NTSC it blew my mind how much cleaner the game looks compared to standard 480i where on that it was low res and a lot of banding looking but forced 480p fixed that and the game looked a lot less rough now PQ wise not graphically of course. I can't believe it took me this long to tried out GSM

Hey dude. Does GSM count as an upscaler for the screen. Im trying to plug in my ps2 to my PC monitor using one of them Ps2 to HDMI doohickey and both my screen says the signal is out of range(most likely doesn't support interlaced) would GSM fix this issue or do i have to still go out of my way and buy an upscaler? Would be a massive help if id get a response to this. Tnx in advance.

Question, how do i set this via a specific game?? I got the menu on via my stick but idk how to go about adjusting it in gsm via the game or before loading the game

You helped me to much,now I can finally play with my old console. Did u know another ps1 game I could run on 480p? I just can’t find one. I tried but it’s really difficult to find some.

I used gsm, but it makes the game tiny and there are huge black borders around it. Is this supposed to happen?

thanks dawg!

Good work.

When you turn off the console, the GMS settings remain or does it return to the basic setting of the PS2 ?

@Avalanche Reviews I use gsm it slows my ps2 is it my tv oled lg 50 inch,ish or quite possibly my dying gpu? Ive had mine since release 2001 or 2002.

Dumb question: what's the difference between this and the old method of pressing and holding triangle and X together on starting up the game, when the Playstation 2 logo is displayed?

I set it to 1080 & once I exited my image was stretched how can I fix this?

does it matter what video cable i use? scart or composite

This is awesome! I have two questions though: 1) When using GSM, does it make a difference if your PS2 is connected to your TV with component cable or with composite cable? 2) I'm using a cheap upscaler as a convertor for RCA to HDMI, where I can't turn off the upscaling. Would that interfere with GSM? Thanks for the video

11:02 could you explain further how you were able to accomplish this?

Does this works with disk or do i need a soft mod for my PS2?

That onimusha 3 ost hit hard

what cable do you need to get this hi deff picture from the ps2 to hdmi ?

for some reason GSM adds a weird interference to the video out signal. I thought it was my cable going bad at first, but the messed up signal only happens when GSM is running. I was excited for this but I guess I can't use it on my playstation. oh well.

Will GSM work if you use an RGB scart cable ?

My HDtv doesn't have component cable compatibility. I got one of those PS2-to-HDMI adaptors...and not too great. Will GSM work with those as well or only for component...please help!