Best Wii video connection

[ChrisF]

Ok, so I've had my Wii since last Christmas and haven't really had much cause to get overly bothered by the quality of the graphics since then. But now, thanks to Mario, I am extremely disppointed by the picture quality I'm getting. It reminds me of the bog standard connection you get with a Gamecube.

The reason I'm concerned is that after I see the adverts/footage on Gamer TV etc... it looks a MILLION times better than the actual picture quality I'm getting.

My setup.

PAL Wii -->
GAME Wii component cable -->
Farmer component switch -->
Some other component cable (not sure what!) -->
Sony 40" LCD

My 360 is plugged into the Farmer as well, and is fine. I've also tried connecting the Wii straight into the TV via the GAME component cable and I get exactly the same quality picture.

So I'm guessing that the trouble lies with the GAME component cable, although when I bought it, I remember reading good reviews of it.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what other cables/connections I can use please?

(or if there are any other links on here to read, fire em my way please. I did check the FAQ but no dice)

Cheers

[smouty]

Oh I hope Nintendo haven't maxed up the flicker filter on SMG

[ChrisF]

No, it's not just SMG. Other games I've played too (Excite Truck was one) were particularly bad. I wasn't as fussed about those games as I am about SMG

[smouty]

Are you sure you've set your Wii to 480p in the settings?

[dvdx2]

check you have set to 480p
ditch the game component lead (buy the official)
ditch the farmer component box (lowers the pic quality)
if it still looks bad, then its a new TV!

TBH the wii 480p image quality isnt great.....

[Baseley09]

Probably your TV. Excite truck looks pretty fabulous on a CRT if thats anything to go by.

[ChrisF]

It's definitely set to 480p in the settings... 3rd option for EDTV(?)/HDTV.

I'll try and track down an official cable, as I don't think a new telly is on the cards!

Cheers for the replies guys.

[sj33]

I had a Farmer switch box - you don't realise how much it degrades picture quality until you try it without. I ditched the switch box, used the Wii in the Component, and moved my 360 over to VGA, much better.

And definately try an official cable, especially with analogue cables like a Component one.

It'll never look as good as on the telly, but it certainly shouldn't look bad.

[ChrisF]

Seriously? I never noticed any degredation (from the Farmer) with the 360 and pretty sure I never with the Wii either. I will try it again now that I have SMG.

My problem is that I have a somewhat delicate balance of switchers/cables round back of my telly.

Obviously the video signal (3 cables) goes off to the Farmer (from the Wii) and the other 2 go off to my Yamaha sound speaker. My 360 has a similar thing where 3 go to the Farmer, and the optical goes to the Yamaha. Tinkering with this harmony is a bit of a problem I can't even get an HDMI 360 because all the slots on my HDMI switch are full.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a properly legit Wii Component cable please? The ones on eBay look VERY dodgy. I didn't think the Japanese ones had Japanese writing on the boxes? (which the ones based in America seem to have, yet the ones in Hong Kong don't!)

edit: found an official one on play.com! Ordered...

[thegreathopper]

480p vs 480i

I have a question regarding settings, on my setup with a USA Wii plugged direct in to a Panasonic 42 inch Plasma HD ready 42PX60, the image is much sharper when set to 480i.
When set to 480p or EDTV the text appears not as sharp, I am using Component cables and all connections are correct.

Anyone else noticed this or is it just me?

[Kyutu]

Just recieved the Wii VGA cable from VDigi, and so far I'm impressed.

I had my Wii connected to a 32" LCD TV via official Component cable, which was in turn connected to a Farmer Component switchbox, and I always hated the slightly over blurred look of games. After I realised how awesome the VGA input is on my tv (I moved my 360 over to it and it looked much better), I opted to try the same thing with the Wii, and the image certainly seems to be clearer and more defined. I'd tried a few Wii games out to test it, and all of them appeared to be cleaner and crisper. Even the Wii menu seems to look slightly better.

Can't say I noticed any difference in colour however.

The lack of 50hz support is of course quite crippling when it comes to playing VC titles on PAL consoles, but I'm willing to put up with switching cables in exchange for the best image quality possible for the proper Wii games.

[fuse]

I got me one of the VDigi cables too, and although I've got nothing to compare it against, it does look bloody stunning. After having numerous bad experiences with VGA boxes before (including an XRGB2+ and XRGB3), I didn't have great expectations for a cable-only solution, but it was a piece of cake to set up (comparatively) and gives a top-notch picture. Using a JPN Wii to a Samsung 24" WS monitor, I'm presuming that all of the VC stuff I download will be able to do 480p ok? All the Wii games I've tried have been fine, same with VC too, but I wasn't sure if certain older stuff is going to kick up a stink with having to use prog scan.

[Kyutu]

As far as I'm aware, so long as you're using a US/JAP console you should be fine with all VC games I think, the only thing to remember would be for Gamecube games, and that you may need to enable progressive scan on them by holding the B button down on boot.

[pentarou]

That looks awesome, will have to get one of those once I get a new TV. What is the green wire for though?

[Kyutu]

That looks awesome, will have to get one of those once I get a new TV. What is the green wire for though?

It's basically a very crude Composite cable, the idea being that you need to have selected the HDTV setting under the video settings on the Wii in order to get a picture from this cable. The green plug is so you can connect it to the composite input on your tv giving you a basic picture allowing you to navigate the menus. Of course if you already have this setting enabled, then you won't need it.