If you’re an expat like me (sorry, technically I’m an EX-expat), or if you’re into importing, then it’s possible you don’t own your region’s PS3. Me — I own a Japanese PS3, and live in Oz. Generally, this doesn’t cause any issues, as PS3 games are (thankfully) region-free (although it can be a pain when purchasing BluRay movies).

However, there may come a time when you try to load up a new game, and the screen flashes with "Content cannot be displayed at the current video output settings." Now what the hell does this mean???

Basically, Sony are living in a world that is stuck in the 90s. These were the days when TV signals mattered — PAL and NTSC signals, that is. Today, most modern SD TVs can output both PAL and NTSC without issue — at least that’s the case in Australia. Still, the odd game on PS3 will not allow this to happen — I couldn’t play certain games on my PS3 simply because the games themselves were PAL coded, but the system was NTSC. It didn’t cause any issues with other PAL-coded games, but for some reason, these titles (which include GTA4 Prologue, Flower, and siren: Blood Curse) just wouldn’t play — and all because I was connected to a standard def TV by standard AV cables.

Recently, however, I upgraded to a full HD TV, and connected it to my PS3 via HDMI. The issue is now gone. All games function without issue (as HD TVs no longer rely on PAL and NTSC TV signals like they used to), and all in glorious HD, I might add. If you are encountering this issue, there is nothing you can do but upgrade your TV or change your PS3 (I believe there are some regions that include a function to override this or something similar, but my J-PS3 did not).

That said, the difference an HD TV makes is phenomenal, and is worth the price. Recommend!