Wii Component Cable Advice

[FSUddin]

Hi,
Does anyone have any experience with Wii component cables? I dunno if it is worth the extra $20 to get it from Nintedo. I saw it on play-asia for $10.

FSUddin

[SilverPaw750]

I picked up the last set of Mad Catz component cables from the local Movie Gallery (your ID has "FSU" in it...are you in Tallahassee? I got them from the Thomasville Rd Movie Gallery). Any component cables are almost as good as any others...you wouldn't notice any difference unless you put them side by side, and even then...

Point is, the Mad Catz ones are working great, so $10 play asia ones probably would too. And if they don't, well then lesson learned, and you're only out $10.

[shadylane]

can these componet cables be used with the wii? if not does nintendo still sell them for the gc?

[RAMSTORIA]

i got the psyclone cables from best buy and they work great.

[PawnTakesKing]

I picked up the React component cables from Best Buy. They're definitely worth the $25 I paid for them. There is a HUGE difference, especially playing Zelda.

[keithp]

Are the component cables strictly component, or do they do S-Video also? If not are there any recommendations for S-Video cables?

[iazybandit]

I have Wii component cable for sale and reviewed

[Psyure]

Just ordered mine from play - asia,
13.39 final- out the door!
heres hoping they aint too cheap!

[Ender]

The ones from Penguin United are working just fine for me. The deal is on the front page of the Video Game Deal forum.

[dragonjud]

The play-asia cables are passable. They work fine, but look rather flimsy. They're fine as a second pair, but given the choice I'd spend the extra $20, and get the Nintendo ones. I got those as well, but wanted a second pair, in case I had to move the console around to another TV (hate disconnecting from my receiver).

[Ender]

Here's a question:

After switching to component, the textures look much better, but there are lots of "jaggies" on outlines of Link and other creatures. Any reason? I have a 56" DLP HDTV, and I switched the settings on the Wii to 480p. Is that just the way it is with 480?

[Mr Unoriginal]

Here's a question:

After switching to component, the textures look much better, but there are lots of "jaggies" on outlines of Link and other creatures. Any reason? I have a 56" DLP HDTV, and I switched the settings on the Wii to 480p. Is that just the way it is with 480?

It is the same way with mine as well. I'm not an expert but I think it is due to the fact that the component cables don't actually up the resolution at all, just make what is already there clearer so it's easier to notice the jaggies.

Someone please correct me though.

[gofishn]

Do you guys notice that Link looks especially screwed up when there is water behind him? Like if he is standing in a pond his whole body looks like it's rippling with the water if that makes any sense.

[iazybandit]

The ones from Penguin United are working just fine for me. The deal is on the front page of the Video Game Deal forum.
I should be getting from them as well for review.

[dragonjud]

It is the same way with mine as well. I'm not an expert but I think it is due to the fact that the component cables don't actually up the resolution at all, just make what is already there clearer so it's easier to notice the jaggies.

Someone please correct me though.

I'm with the rest of you on this. I cringed the first time I saw the game running on my 37 inch Sharp TV with component cables.
I almost disconnected evertything just so I can finish the game on my old (but nice) Sony regular TV. I played for about an hour, and then I got used to it. I still think it looks better on a regular TV with component hook ups, but I don't want to go back to that...

[Ender]

I'm with the rest of you on this. I cringed the first time I saw the game running on my 37 inch Sharp TV with component cables.
I almost disconnected evertything just so I can finish the game on my old (but nice) Sony regular TV. I played for about an hour, and then I got used to it. I still think it looks better on a regular TV with component hook ups, but I don't want to go back to that...

Yea, I've considered switching back to the regular cables, since the 56" TV makes the jagglies especially noticeable. However, I can't bring myself to do it, since I paid for the component cables.

BTW, if you play a game of Wii Baseball with the component cables, the players look really fucked. It's sad.

[Dezuria]

We can only hope that Wii gets 720p someday.

[fshaia]

A little off topic, but my old TV died last week, so I went and bought a 32" HDTV LCD, although I don't have an HD Directv receiver, It sure seems like my old tube TV looked just as good or even better, you would think that the new TV would look better even with a non-HD receiver.

[addicted2games]

A little off topic, but my old TV died last week, so I went and bought a 32" HDTV LCD, although I don't have an HD Directv receiver, It sure seems like my old tube TV looked just as good or even better, you would think that the new TV would look better even with a non-HD receiver.
yeah I dont have digital HD cable, just regular cable and most channels look like crap on my 32 inch Samsung LCD HDTV. these tvs are made for HD signals and normal cable just looks blah on them. But I dont want to pay for HD cable yet. I am satisfied playing my games in HD, dont really care about watching tv in HD yet.

[io]

It is the same way with mine as well. I'm not an expert but I think it is due to the fact that the component cables don't actually up the resolution at all, just make what is already there clearer so it's easier to notice the jaggies.

Someone please correct me though.

That's about right - you are simply seeing the output of the Wii as it actually is, and not all fuzzed up via the composite cables. The composite cables smooth the image out so you don't notice the jaggies so much. I really noticed the difference on the Mii characters - as they move side to side you can watch the pixels crawl up and down their sides ;).

However, I've gotten used to it - the color is better, and the overall picture much sharper. Apparently Nintendo is missing some anti-aliasing on the edges of some of these things (which would help blend them into the background more even without higher res). The PS2 is notorious for this - it is utterly jaggy via component. The GC was much better - I'm not sure what's going on with the Wii. It appears worse for some things than for others though.

[Oops! I did it again.]

Speaking of component cables, since it seems the OP's question has already been answered, do you guys remember the day the cables went on sale in November? First there was that widely-spread e-mail when some people got orders in one night, and then the next day all hell broke loose.

I still remember sitting here at CAG as we all bitched about Nintendo's phone lines being killed, then celebrating when they were finally put online, then worrying that maybe the orders were not going to be filled in time, to celebrating as some orders shipped, to worrying about why each of the rest of our orders hadn't shipped, to finally celebrating when all showed up via UPS. :)

That was a wild couple of days in Wiiland.

[Ender]

Speaking of component cables, since it seems the OP's question has already been answered, do you guys remember the day the cables went on sale in November? First there was that widely-spread e-mail when some people got orders in one night, and then the next day all hell broke loose.

I still remember sitting here at CAG as we all bitched about Nintendo's phone lines being killed, then celebrating when they were finally put online, then worrying that maybe the orders were not going to be filled in time, to celebrating as some orders shipped, to worrying about why each of the rest of our orders hadn't shipped, to finally celebrating when all showed up via UPS. :)

That was a wild couple of days in Wiiland.


Your sig makes me want to shoot myself in the face.

[js1]

Here's a question:

After switching to component, the textures look much better, but there are lots of "jaggies" on outlines of Link and other creatures. Any reason? I have a 56" DLP HDTV, and I switched the settings on the Wii to 480p. Is that just the way it is with 480?

Yeah, it's just clearer. But also turning down the sharpness setting on your tv helps with jaggies.

The higher the sharpness, the more "noise"or distortion you add to the picture. lower your sharpness all the way or just a couple from the bottom. and that should help.

[Oops! I did it again.]

Your sig makes me want to shoot myself in the face.
What will it take to get you to COMMIT to it, though? Doubling the sig-size? :)

[JohnnyDrama]

I may pick up those cables from Play-Asia, I was thinking of getting the Nintendo ones, but if there's really no difference, I'll be ordering from Play-Asia soon.

[kaige17]

Fshaia if you want hd television,you can call Direct TV & they will bring you & install a new HD reciever & dish....the HD package costs 10.99 a month i believe & theyll want a 1 or 2 year commitment to any prgramming pkg.How i got my first HD tv hooked up,I have in 2 rooms now.I had to pay for the 2nd reciever my self though:(

[dragonjud]

Fshaia if you want hd television,you can call Direct TV & they will bring you & install a new HD reciever & dish....the HD package costs 10.99 a month i believe & theyll want a 1 or 2 year commitment to any prgramming pkg.How i got my first HD tv hooked up,I have in 2 rooms now.I had to pay for the 2nd reciever my self though:(

Beware though, that you're talking about maybe 4-5 channels in high definition. To me it just wasn't worth it, so I disconnected the service until they increase the number of channels or make it part of some standard package.

[fshaia]

Thanks guys,

I was thinking of upgrading my DirecTv, but maybe I will wait, I still think my old tv looked sharper, maybe I just havent got used to the LCD yet ?

[Ender]

What will it take to get you to COMMIT to it, though? Doubling the sig-size? :)

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Good one bro.

[KaneRobot]

Thanks guys,

I was thinking of upgrading my DirecTv, but maybe I will wait, I still think my old tv looked sharper, maybe I just havent got used to the LCD yet ?
This is getting into off-topic stuff, but LCD displays, depending on the quality of the upscaler in the set, can make standard definition stuff look worse than a CRT-based HDTV. LCDs are absolutely sharper when getting stuff coming in at the native resolution (or even closer to the native resolution), but if you're bumping a standard TV signal up to 720p or 1080p, you're going to notice some loss in quality. There are often ways to help this problem out (check avsforum.com and look for your model in the LCD forums, people post their optimal settings sometimes), but it's usually going to come down to the quality of your hardware. If you have a Sony, Sharp, or Samsung, it doesn't look too bad. If you have a Schmrrzz or SuperRES brand (yes, I made those up), it's going to look a bit worse.

[Popnmusic]

Hey JohnnyDrama,

I suggest you get component cables from www.penguinunited.com. They are located in the bay area so you'll have them shipped to you faster. I stopped by their place to pick up a set and they are awesome!

[Frogger]

Dude, the Pinguin United cables look pretty sweet. I opted for the premium model - i dunno about all that cable mumbo jumbo, but i liked that they were white and had badass looking connectors...

$31 shipped, vs probably $35 or more from Nintendo. And those cables are grey. meh.

I'll post something about the premuim cables after i have a chance to use it for a few days

[racthamp]

I'm about to pull a trigger on Play Asia Component, I swear I saw some sort of discount code for it. Is there any floating around?

Also, thinking about Xbox component cable as well. Can (original) xbox display at least 480 setting with the component cable? or it doesn't matter? thank you ;)

[gofishn]

I'm about to pull a trigger on Play Asia Component, I swear I saw some sort of discount code for it. Is there any floating around?

Also, thinking about Xbox component cable as well. Can (original) xbox display at least 480 setting with the component cable? or it doesn't matter? thank you ;)

There's $5 off of $50 coupons floating around. The original Xbox can actually do up to 720p with a few games and they look really good.

[oleander]

Any thoughts about the Penguin United vs. Official Nintendo cables? I normally stay away from third party accessories (especially controllers), but the premium PU cables are about the same price as the Nintendo ones and seem to be much better...

[Ziv]

There's $5 off of $50 coupons floating around. The original Xbox can actually do up to 720p with a few games and they look really good.

It can go up to 1080i. There's only a few games than can though. The only one that comes to mind is Enter the Matrix.

[bp_]

Any thoughts about the Penguin United vs. Official Nintendo cables? I normally stay away from third party accessories (especially controllers), but the premium PU cables are about the same price as the Nintendo ones and seem to be much better...

I am using the cheapest of the Penguin cables and they work great. It's a digital signal. You don't need premium cables - just a well manufactured cable. Just buy the cheapest one from Penguin and you'll have a fine pic and your wallet will thank you.

[trip1eX]

That's about right - you are simply seeing the output of the Wii as it actually is, and not all fuzzed up via the composite cables. The composite cables smooth the image out so you don't notice the jaggies so much. I really noticed the difference on the Mii characters - as they move side to side you can watch the pixels crawl up and down their sides ;).

However, I've gotten used to it - the color is better, and the overall picture much sharper. Apparently Nintendo is missing some anti-aliasing on the edges of some of these things (which would help blend them into the background more even without higher res). The PS2 is notorious for this - it is utterly jaggy via component. The GC was much better - I'm not sure what's going on with the Wii. It appears worse for some things than for others though.


eh I think it's the progressive scan that gives you all the jaggies. Not the component cables.

For many this is one and the same, but many sdtvs have component cables ie component still means 480i. It's the interlacing that gives a 'fuzzier' picture which acts like a poor man's anti-aliasing.