Hey guys. I recently got a new HDTV for my Birthday and i've had a tube tv for all my life so I barely notice a difference to most of my Wii games. But I know Nintendo makes a official component cable that supposely makes the games look better?

I'm just wondering if it's worth buying or not. It's pretty expensive being $25 and all.

Progressive scan makes most textures sharper, which is nice (but it also makes aliasing more noticeable) In any case, if you're in the US, you can grab Wii component cables (not official ones) from PCH Cables for $6 plus shipping (unless you live in the Hillsboro area of Oregon). I have these cables, and they work well and cost significantly less (keep in mind the MSRP price for the component cables is like $35, not $25, which is ridiculous for what it is).

Anyway, here's a link to the store if you're interested. http://store.pchcables.com/6fowiicoviau.html
I'll vouch for them, since I buy cables from them pretty often.

What crono said is true but its not like anything's gonna change visually also it will make VC games look blocky if its nes, genesis, and anything else im thinking and it makes mm9 look terrible. although it could just really depend on the TV. Sanjix you gotta ask yourself just one question. whats wrong with the standard cables that came with the wii?

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6162297/p-2.html

That's a fairly decent comparison.

i got those for $10, def. not worth it unless you got money burning a hole in your pocket

If you have a bigger TV, I'd say go for it, spend the 10 bucks (or less on ebay) and you'll see an improvement.

For most games, I'd say they look better. No More Heroes looked a bit strange when I got the component cables in... Metroid Prime 3, and Zelda looked fantastic though once I upgraded.

First of all.

Component cables give you a sharper clearer image, they give you much better color, brightness and sound. I'm suprised nobody even mentioned this... i dont even have an HDTV, I have a Sony wega CRT SDTV and i use component cables and wow what a difference. If you have the Wii, they're the only way to fly. And since you have an HDTV, on top of the better PQ, you of course get progressive scan which is awesome. So you wont get those tiny interlaced squares that you see on interlaced sets, so your image will look crips and detailed, and you'll see games running at full frames.

Anyways, It's a no brainer, if you dont get component cables you're totaly missing out. And Composite is garbage, and is only good for retro consoles.

Personally i dont know how people play the wii using composite cables, ugh Component is a must. hell even S-video is a step up.

By the way those comparrison shots arent that great...you cant really go by screen shots off the net.

because some people don't have that kind of money to be spending on TVs that support using the blue green and orange yet...
also i felt that those comparison shots were terrible the moment i saw them.

This is ridiculous ... Audio is not part of component standards at all ... on the Wii they are the same as the composite versions of the cables.



And more visible aliasing. The difference between interlaced and progressive scan is interlaced does every other line every other frame and alternates between then very quickly, making a less clear image, progressive scan renders much faster and does every line in sequence ... this doesn't change the physical technology in the television just in the method the image on screen is produced. If anything, the artifacts you would notice with interlaced signals would be blank horizontal lines ... not squares. Maybe you're thinking of compression?



Not particularly. If, for instance, you have a game that has very detailed textures, washing them out a bit to get cheap anti-aliasing might not be a bad thing.



Not really. The only times you'll notice a difference with S-Video is if things on screen are small, because the improvement is incredibly small. But S-Video is interlaced too. You may notice a difference in colors ... but it'd be quite difficult if you aren't a computer.



Except when you mouseover they show exactly what they're there to show, the difference in sharpness. That's the primary gain when using component cables on the Wii. What the pictures don't convey well because of the small size and choice of games, is the increase in noticeable aliasing artifacts.

Waveboy, do you even play video games or do you just buy them to test your TV's specs?

Thanks for the advice, guys. It really helped.

And to Ratix, yeah the composite cables have no problems as you said. Only thing is when I play Animal Crossing on my bigger TV, it looks terrible, even the screenshots I take in the game now in wide screen (When I used to play in 4:3, they looked fine) look terrible. I haven't tested any other games yet, but all I know that the look of AC really bugged me a lot.

I got the component cables (that should be in the mail soon) from ebay for about $5 shipped.

does it look any better?
cuz if it don't its probly the graphics card nintendo got custom made for the system then

Sry, i was wrong about Component Cables giving you better sound, even though some TVs(like mine) support stereo along the same Component input Strip which does give you better sound...You dont get that by just using composite cables. But ya, all in all, they do give you a clearer image, better color, and brighter picture. And it all depends on the TV as well.

With me, I'm talking about using them on a Standard def CRT Flatscreen and it makes all the difference for me. I can't go back to composite, but like Ratix said, some people can't afford to upgrade, or some people simply dont have the inputs on their TV. all in all, whatever, play the games, have fun. All i'm saying is, a clearer image, better color and brighter image really do add to the fun, and is obviously more pleasing to the eye.

Also, Crono you're wrong about S-Video....i remember the day i switched from composite over to S-Video while playing Resident Evil 4 on the GCN and i immediatly saw the difference, the image was clearer/sharper. The image looked much better...Yet, I didn't exactly notice a difference in anything else though, maybe mildy regarding color.

I'm wondering if spending $5 on cheap component cables or getting the official Nintendo ones make a difference.
I've been hearing people say that getting super cheap HDMI cables Vs the crazy expensive ones offer no difference at all.

Yeah, my super cheap component cables seem to be working just fine. And besides if they do crap out, it won't a huge loss!

YOU GET THE SAME FUCKING SOUND OUT OF THOSE TWO DAMN CABLES PLUGGED INTO THE DAMN TV WAVEBOY WERE YOU DROPPED AS A CHILD? WHITE IS THE LEFT CHANNEL (MONO) AND RED IS THE RIGHT CHANNEL YOU PUT THE TWO TOGETHER YOU GET FUCKING STEREO UP IN THERE. REGARDLESS OF THE CABLE.