Nintendo Wii

[teddymeow]

Well, I've sent Nintendo UK an e-mail asking about progressive scan support and all that gumph so, hopefully, by Monday I'll know whether to get a US or UK one. I hope the UK does support progrssive scan. I mean they were nice to us PAL owners with all the hoo-hah about the 60Hz modes on PAL Cube stuff.

It might end up that all First Party stuff supports prog scan but only select (read: those that can be arsed) Third Party stuff will (a bit like the 60Hz option now).

I've still pre-ordered a UK one mind. Don't want to get left out of all that excitement!! Y'know; 12 weeks to go until launch and all that.

[Geezer]

I'm still a bit miffed that Nintendo haven't made progressive scan support mandatory for games, 480p can't be that much of a performance hit surely?
I'm sure pretty much all 1st party games will support it though and it also looks like Nintendo are gunning for all 1st party games to offer 16:9 support too which is good news.

[Lyris]

I'm still a bit miffed that Nintendo haven't made progressive scan support mandatory for games, 480p can't be that much of a performance hit surely?

It's not any performance hit actually - it just means the video chip has to output in a different way, and probably means more testing needs to be done.

I'm also annoyed they haven't made that mandatory but I hope it comes the standard especially given how many flat panel screens are out there now. I'd honestly feel less ready to spend full price on a game that would be full of deinterlacing artefacts. Any 480i games for me can wait until they drop in price, unless they're must-haves.

Well, I've sent Nintendo UK an e-mail asking about progressive scan support and all that gumph so, hopefully, by Monday I'll know whether to get a US or UK one. I hope the UK does support progrssive scan. I mean they were nice to us PAL owners with all the hoo-hah about the 60Hz modes on PAL Cube stuff.

Yeah... Europe's bonus treat was a 60hz 480i mode, the US gamers' bonus treat was 60hz 480p with 60hz 480i on every game. Good deal or what

[Baseley09]

Even if pal progressive isnt included, are games gonna be in true widescreen?

i.e. not pre anomorphic widescreen on wide tvs, if what im saying doesnt make sense, slap me in the morning.

[Lyris]

Even if pal progressive isnt included, are games gonna be in true widescreen?

Nintendo have said that all their first party ones are. Again, it seems that the other publishers are following suit. Although I seem to remember the screen shots of Trauma Center are in 4:3.

BTW, I doubt there'd be PAL Progressive. That'd be 576p at 50hz and have all the same problems as PAL games in the past. It's NTSC Progressive (480p at 60hz) that you'd want.

[Concept]

I think 480i games look better than 480p on non-native resolution sets. I'm sure plenty will disagree with me but I've used three LCD panels and none of them compare to my CRT via RGB scart with either the GC, PS2 or Xbox.

In other words, I'm not going to refuse to buy them if not all Wii games support progressive scan. It isn't a system aimed at the high-end audio/visual market and part of me is almost glad on that - the fuss I've experienced with HDTV sets/jargon/faffing about has made me at moments pine for simpler times.

[teddymeow]

It's not that I won't buy games that don't have a 480p option. If it's something I want to play I'll have to buy it. I'm just saying that with this whole push towards HD and digital (including normal TV stuff like Sky) that Nintendo maybe have to realise that a fair few of their customers might be plugging their new Wii into an LCD or whatnot and so they might want to consider giving us the option. Especially seeing as all the demo units so far have been running in prog-scan on lovely flat panels! Why can't we replicate that in our European houses?

If the Wii only supports Composite & RGB then it's going to look awful!! In my experience non-prog scan stuff on Xbox & PS2 through Component looks utter rubbish on an LCD panel. I can't play OutRun 2006 for more than 15 minutes without getting a headache because of all the fuzz!

And this ain't no cheap LCD TV I'm on about either. Or, maybe it's just my eyes rotting from too many games...?

[Mofoman]

I've been playing my Cube in RGB today on my little 14" Sony CRT and the quality is bang on, much better than component through the projector.

The 360 looks **** in component also, compared to VGA. I've yet to see anything component on an LCD screen however as my Dell LCD only takes VGA and HDi.

I hope we see a VGA lead for the Wii as it's the only HD connection I trust.

Amen to that!!I agree 100% with what you say Dave , VGa to me is miles and I mean miles better than component, and to me RGB is too.

I would think that RGB scart cables will be availbale in the uk like they did with the cube and I would imagine they will work with the Jap or US consoles.That's the connection I will be going with unless they do a VGA cable, in that case it will be VGA all the way for me upstairs on the monitor and Rgb on the trinitron widescreen downstairs.

[teddymeow]

Just had a look on the UK section of Wii.com and at the bottom of the hardware page it says "AV Multi out for connection via Composite, Component & S-Video".

Does anyone know what the AV Out on the Wii looks like? I guess they can go one of three ways;

1. Continue using the same port connection since the days of the SNES
2. Use the digital out that they removed off of later models of Cube (isn't that where the Cube Component lead plugs in?)
3. Do a Microsoft and design a port that is only slightly different from the previous console so at a glance it looks like you can use your old cables but then you sink as you realise you have to splash out another 20GBP to get it displaying how you want.

Time, or a reply to my e-mail to Nintendo.co.uk, will tell...

[lurch996]

In my experience non-prog scan stuff on Xbox & PS2 through Component looks utter rubbish on an LCD panel. I can't play OutRun 2006 for more than 15 minutes without getting a headache because of all the fuzz!

Outrun 2006 has progressive scan

[Geezer]

Dev kit pics

Looks pretty damn nice.

[$h@d0w]

Does anyone know what the AV Out on the Wii looks like?

The AV port is different to previous consoles.

[spagmasterswift]

So the Wii comes with a senser strip and stand? I'm a little concern I'm gonna have to set up the lounge differently in order to play games. Not sure the girlfriend is gonna be happy with that...Is the stand for the senser strip or is it that thing that the Wii sits in?

[elkatas]

3. Do a Microsoft and design a port that is only slightly different from the previous console so at a glance it looks like you can use your old cables but then you sink as you realise you have to splash out another 20GBP to get it displaying how you want.

It is number three. There has been some pictures from Wii's behind, and all those show that plug is slightly changed from previous iterations. Shame really.

[MattyD]

So the Wii comes with a senser strip and stand? I'm a little concern I'm gonna have to set up the lounge differently in order to play games. Not sure the girlfriend is gonna be happy with that...Is the stand for the senser strip or is it that thing that the Wii sits in?

It's a small black strip about 30cm long and barely a couple high. I think you're supposed to just leave it on top of or under your TV. There's some pics here.