Nintendo Wii - HD Upscaling Advice

[JP]

As many people who have a Wii will know, the image the Wii it puts out to a HDTV isn't quite what it should be.

I've taken care of that somewhat by running it 4:3 and setting the resolution to EDTV....but it's still not what I'm really hoping for.

Are there such things as external upscalers which I could run the signal through to output on my Sony Bravia KDL-32V2500 while improving the picture?

Lyris, andrewfee I know that you two (as well as others here) know far more about this than I do and I'd be grateful of any advice from people here!

[hudson]

I'm also interested to know if there is anyway to get a crisper picture from my Wii for my Sony Bravia KDL32S2530.

[Lyris]

Yes, there are better quality scaling solutions compared to the ones built into TVs, but they cost serious cash. Both DVDO (www.dvdo.com) and Lumagen (www.lumagen.com) have external video scalers that will scale anything you feed them.

It'll never be HD, but they'll stop the picture quality from getting any worse. I'm not sure if you'd be disappointed or not. Irritatingly there doesn't seem to be many examples of people who've taken pictures of the difference.

[andrewfee]

A Component to VGA transcoder (such as the X2VGA2, or VD-Z3) might give you some improvement, but other than that, you'll probably have to spend quite a bit to get a better picture.

EDIT: Such as the video processors Lyris has linked to.

[Lyris]

Even hooked up to a Progressive CRT monitor, I wasn't bowled over by the Wii's video output (this was through a Component to VGA transcoder, though). Virtual Console games for example were still a little bit ringy and not always brilliantly defined.

You're disappointed that it's not Dreamcast-VGA clarity, right? Me too. A lot of the problem is the fact that the Wii hardware has a Flicker Filter option that allows developers to blur the finest details out of the image. The idea is that it'll prevent Flicker on CRTs, but for some reason they still use it today when a lot of people have Panel TVs. Did you play Sonic and the Secret Rings? That game is flicker filtered to the high heavens. Whereas stuff like Zelda: Twilight Princess don't appear to be filtered at all.

The best outside processing box in the world wouldn't be able to correct the developer's incompetence

[hudson]

You're disappointed that it's not Dreamcast-VGA clarity, right?

Oh yeah, my DC via VGA is crispy fresh What resolution do DC display? (PS. I'm thick when it comes to TV tech talk (TVTT))

But yeah, my Wii looks a bit fluffy on screen. I expect more from it when choosing the HD option on the Wii going through a telly that cost me over half a grand.

[JP]

Thanks for the answers from both of you!

I imagine this is something that people have thought about quite a bit. I was hoping that there would be some sort of upscaling box but I wasn't expecting them to be quite in that price range to be honest.

Have either of you actually seen these solutions in action? I wonder if there is a more affordable alternative as in in something such as an Oppo upscaling DVD player that you could run the signal through?

[Lyris]

Oh yeah, my DC via VGA is crispy fresh What resolution do DC display? (PS. I'm thick when it comes to TV tech talk (TVTT))

The Dreamcast outputs 640x480. That's the same number of scan-lines as the Wii and the same screen refresh mode (Progressive). The key differences are that the Dreamcast is totally unfiltered so the absolute most of those 640x480 pixels is made. The Wii (like most consoles) allows the developers to flicker filter the image via hardware, some of them abuse this feature and use the blur it results in as "Free Antialiasing".

I've never had the chance to see an external scaler with a side-by-side comparison with and without. If I owned one then I guarantee you there would be pictures galore.

There have been cheaper scalers (Gefen released a $500 one) but msot people haven't been too impressed. Video processing is sadly a high-end high-cost thing. The problem with it is that the cheapest solutions usually aren't that much better than what's inside the TV so it needs money thrown at it.

[JP]

The Wii (like most consoles) allows the developers to flicker filter the image via hardware, some of them abuse this feature and use the blur it results in as "Free Antialiasing".

I wonder if the flicker filter could be disabled by chipping or some other mod in the future? Hopefully it's possible as I imagine it'll be something that many people would like to see happening.

If I owned one then I guarantee you there would be pictures galore.

Lol I believe you...I truly do!!

[hudson]

Thanks. What's slightly more annyoing is that you see screnshots of games for Wii about thy net or even on the back of the boxes and they look ace in comparison.

[JP]

Thanks. What's slightly more annyoing is that you see screnshots of games for Wii about thy net or even on the back of the boxes and they look ace in comparison.

I think screenshots are often taken from Dev Kits directly?

What's REALLY annoying is that downloaded games seem to be less filtered than Wii games to me. I can happily run Super Mario 64 or Link to the Past and they look almost perfect to me but Wii games, even the EDTV games can look terrible.

[JP]

Just found this thread now on AVS Forum: Upscaling the Wii?!?

EDIT:
Forget that, they don't seem to have any better ideas!

[Salsa Party Animal]

Let hope Home cinema amps manfacturers like Denon, Pioneer, Arcam, etc will do something in their budget amps range with more HDMI inputs in near future.

[Lyris]

I wonder if the flicker filter could be disabled by chipping or some other mod in the future? Hopefully it's possible as I imagine it'll be something that many people would like to see happening.

I hope so, but the problem is that most people aren't aware of Filtering and the damage it can do. Even DVD reviewers hand out high scores to stuff that's been blurred to hell.

[JP]

This may be a really stupid question but if Oppo can produce DVD players which upscale so well at such low prices, why isn't somebody able to produce a quality upscaling box at a similar price?

EDIT:
Is it somehow possible to use the upscaling hardware inside the Oppo to upscale external signals such as the Wii?