Wii Component Cables = Thumbs Up on HDTVs

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icetrey47

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 3, 2006
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For anyone interested, I received my Wii component cables from Nintendo yesterday afternoon and tested them on my Samsung 42" DLP last night ... they are a huge leap from the composite that ships with the Wii. I played Zelda for a couple of hours and it was definitely more enjoyable than with the blurry composite cables. The lack of AA & AF was blatently obvious, and the fact that this Zelda is mostly a gamecube port becomes apparent, however the game was definitely enjoyable on my HDTV.

Any of you out there with a Wii and an HDTV should definitely invest in these cables if you plan on having your Wii hooked up to it. I'll test some other games (Wii Sports & Red Steel) when I get home tonight, but I'll answer as many questions as I can until then.
 
Everyone should get the cables reguardless. Composite is a joke, shame Nintendo didn't include them in the box. Really, IMO it makes the Wii cost $210. But ahem... thats just me. :p
 
I got the Wii component cables yesterday and I can confirm that they do make an improvement.

My problem is with the 480p image on a 1080i (or greater) HDTV. I have an Olevia 377h that I got for a steal on black friday and I notice a ton of aliasing when the 480p image gets converted to my native resoltion (1366x768).

Zelda does look tons better, but honestly the wii would look better via component on a SDTV. Some of the worst aliasing is with the bowling pins on Wii sports. The aliasing for me is actually worse on component then composite as the composite cables blur the aliasing. Component is still preferable, but I sure wish nintendo would support 1080i/720p etc.

360 via vga and my set top box look absolutely amazing on this set btw.

Jeff
 
Here's a question...

is the support for 720p/1080i a limitation of the Wii, or is it something the games could possibly do?

Meaning could the hardware push out the frames in HD if the games were written as such?
 
Im still trying to get component cables for my gamecube, for a reasonable price :(
 
KaosDG said:
Here's a question...

is the support for 720p/1080i a limitation of the Wii, or is it something the games could possibly do?

Meaning could the hardware push out the frames in HD if the games were written as such?
Click to expand...

The wii cannot output above 480 lines of resolution. It would theoretically be possible with a firmware update, but this would be completely opposite nintendo's stance on hd gaming all along, and realistically the system either can't push this or the nature of games we'll see on the wii don't necessitate it. People really underestimate the former reason- nintendo would have to completely eat their words if they added hd output support, even for the ui.

As for the blur/aliasing issue, I notice exactly the same thing. On my 50" the aliasing is ridiculous, but on my 32" its not quite as bad. The blur created by the composite connection definintely sucks, but at the same time blurs the aliasing away.
 
Spaceman_Spiff said:
The wii cannot output above 480 lines of resolution. It would theoretically be possible with a firmware update, but this would be completely opposite nintendo's stance on hd gaming all along, and realistically the system either can't push this or the nature of games we'll see on the wii don't necessitate it. People really underestimate the former reason- nintendo would have to completely eat their words if they added hd output support, even for the ui.

As for the blur/aliasing issue, I notice exactly the same thing. On my 50" the aliasing is ridiculous, but on my 32" its not quite as bad. The blur created by the composite connection definintely sucks, but at the same time blurs the aliasing away.
Click to expand...


Interesting. I don't see Nintendo as the type of company that wouldn't consider it though, if market trends show a good basis for HD gaming (with sub-1k plasmas and LCD's now, it's definitely starting to look good)

They are kind of stubborn though, it took them an entire generation to move away from cartridge based games.


edit: After posting this I realized that I have had a video game console from EVERY generation of consoles, from the 70's till now.

:(
 
KaosDG said:
They are kind of stubborn though, it took them an entire generation to move away from cartridge based games
Click to expand...

Yup, Nintendo is pretty stubborn, Gamecube had what, 2 online games? Wii doesn't seem to be getting online game this year also.
 
I got mine as well, and I'm torn on if the tradeoff is worth it ;). On the one hand you get much richer, clearer colors and a sharper image, on the other hand, now you gotta deal with jaggies, LOL. I'm using it on a 61" Sammy DLP, though, so maybe it's just worse for me.

I guess one advantage of Composite cables is that you get free AA :D
 
DragonMasterAlex said:
I got mine as well, and I'm torn on if the tradeoff is worth it ;). On the one hand you get much richer, clearer colors and a sharper image, on the other hand, now you gotta deal with jaggies, LOL. I'm using it on a 61" Sammy DLP, though, so maybe it's just worse for me.

I guess one advantage of Composite cables is that you get free AA :D
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Yeah, if you call sending the entire damn video signal along a single conductor poorly shielded piece of wire "Free AA". ;)

But yeah, the jaggies are the only real flaw as you say. I personally think the trade-off for the colors & sharpness is worth it. Just sit a bit further back from the TV.

Long live YPbPr!
 
movax said:
Yeah, if you call sending the entire damn video signal along a single conductor poorly shielded piece of wire "Free AA". ;)

But yeah, the jaggies are the only real flaw as you say. I personally think the trade-off for the colors & sharpness is worth it. Just sit a bit further back from the TV.

Long live YPbPr!
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's worth it, I was just pointing out that it's not 100% bonus-o-rific is all :)
 
It's not so much the lack of detail but rather the extreme blurriness that I find problematic. The cables I ordered three weeks ago should be here within a few days. I'm sure it will help but the thought of web browsing in 480 is horrendous.
 
Wii component cables at Bestbuy. They don't have them listed online as available but walked right into one and they had them there
 
VoodooChi|d said:
This thread is worthless without pictures ;)
Click to expand...

Honestly, you've gotta see them both on a 50"+ to really see what we're talking about with the blur vs. jaggies stuff anyway. On my 32" at normal viewing distance its all right and component is clearly better...on my 50" its kinda meh. Developers should be able to avoid it once its identified as a problem to watch out for, and based on general feedback it seems a lot of people do in fact notice it.
 
I thought about taking some pictures ... I still may later, however my camera is probably going to ruin the discrepancies. I'll probably just take a few later for the hell of it.

I tested Wii Sports and Red Steel last night ... Wii Sports obviously looks great for what it is ... with Composite everything looked slightly blurry, now the textures are much sharper and the graphics are as good as they're going to get for this game.

Red Steel ... all I can say is, Component shows you how ugly this game really is. When I first bought the game I was playing on a 27" Tube using Composite ... I thought the game looked pretty decent and that it wasn't given a fair chance (graphically) in the reviews. Since having seen it on my new 42" Samsung DLP HDTV, I can say I know where the negativities come from. ALL of the imperfections in this game stand out now; jaggies, piss poor textures ... I can honestly say that it looks like an 8 year old game. Aside from the apperance, the gameplay hasn't changed from changing the cables, so if you enjoy the game for what it is, Component will at least make the game look slightly better than it did with Composite.

Overall I am very satisfied with the Component cables ... after playing Zelda for 3 hours I am satisfied with it (compared to my Tube TV). Don't get me wrong ... GRAPHICALLY the Wii still has NOTHING on an Xbox 360 @ 720p or higher. The purpose of this thread is to let all of you know (who were wondering) that getting the Component cables is worth every penny if you own an HDTV.
 
unfortunatly i don't have an HDtv and will not get one for another two years or so (i'm still in college).. so i roll with composite for now... i also have to roll wit h composite for the Xbox 360 that's coming in soon.. :(

i really need to join you guys in the future... :(
 
Rancid you could grab the VGA cable for your incoming 360 and hook it up to your monitor (depending on what type you have) ... I was going to do that with my 20.1" Dell 2007WFP before I got my sammy.
 
DragonMasterAlex said:
Yeah, it's worth it, I was just pointing out that it's not 100% bonus-o-rific is all :)
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Yep, if there wasn't that great of a sharpness/color difference I'd be pissed, but the difference more than makes up for the jaggies.
 
So...

If you set the Wii to progressive scan and pop in a Gamecube game that supports progressive scan...

Will the Wii run the GC game in 480p? If so, then why bother getting a GC component cable? That alone is half the price of a Wii ;)
 
Ashtaka said:
So...

If you set the Wii to progressive scan and pop in a Gamecube game that supports progressive scan...

Will the Wii run the GC game in 480p? If so, then why bother getting a GC component cable? That alone is half the price of a Wii ;)
Click to expand...


yes, it will play those gamecube games in 480p :)

very nice
 
icetrey47 said:
Rancid you could grab the VGA cable for your incoming 360 and hook it up to your monitor (depending on what type you have) ... I was going to do that with my 20.1" Dell 2007WFP before I got my sammy.
Click to expand...


yea.. i think i'll get that alittle later down the road.. sometime early next year.. i don't feel like dishing out another 20 - 30 bucks right now...
 
I can't wait for my component cables. Composite looks like when you first put in Grand Theft Auto and have all those crazy trails...everything is all swirly and it makes me sick when theres too much HDR because it looks so bad.


On the bright side I'm just getting to Death Mountain :D
 
I got my cables direct from Nintendo for $29.99+shipping (something like $33 total). I ordered them on November 21st (they were on backorder at the time) and received them on Tuesday, December 5th.

The dungeon following Death Mountain happens to be a great place to see the benefits of Component. :D
 
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