My TV has a delay :(

So I noticed with my Wii U that my TV has a delay. I noticed this with my Wii as well, but it became totally apparently with the Wii U. For instance in Super Mario World, jumping on the gamepad is instantaneous, but on the TV, the jump is maybe a tenth of a second "late." Meanwhile, all doubts were settled by the audio on the gamepad versus the TV. If I have volume on my gamepad at all, there is an echo, because the TV is just ever so slightly (again, about a tenth of a second) behind.

Is there some option buried in the Wii U settings to adjust for this? Surely I'm not the only person on Earth with this issue on an HDTV. It's even a Sony TV for gosh sakes. Sony makes video games, yet it has no "game" settings on it.

It doesn't seem to be a big deal with "modern" games, but for retro games, it does matter. I can't play the old Mario games on the TV, just the gamepad, because of this, and NES Remix is impossible on the TV. And meanwhile, the sound echo is annoying and means I can never have audio on my gamepad and TV at the same time.

Help!!

Have you searched Google for your specific model and the problem? I was going to suggest looking for a Game Setting, but it sounds like you already did that.

Nope no game setting. I did google it once a while back but it wouldn't hurt to do it again!

You could always check to see if Sony has put out any firmware updates for your TV. I updated the firmware on my Bravia awhile back, and several display issues were improved dramatically.

Good idea! Unfortunately, I checked and saw no firmware updates for it. It's a pretty old TV, I think, although I'm not sure how old. It's from 2009 or earlier for sure, maybe a lot earlier.

Anyway, no luck googling. Found some people complaining about ghosting and lag for Halo and stuff, but that's the least of my worries. But I guess anything requiring split-second timing might be a problem with such a TV. It just never bothered me until virtual console and NES Remix (and the Wii U audio lag).

No game settings or settings to fiddle with to help, no firmware, no help online... Guess I have to just play on the game pad until I get a new TV someday.

It's funny, because it doesn't seem to be a problem in Super Mario 3D World (other than the audio delay), not even in Shovel Knight really, but retro Mario, big problems.

I found some examples of the kinds of problems you're having:

http://wiiudaily.com/2013/07/lag-in-wii-u-virtual-console/

http://nintendo.about.com/od/toppicks/tp/The-10-Most-Annoying-Things-About-The-Wii-U.htm

http://www.avforums.com/threads/input-lag-on-wii-mode-of-wii-u.1735657/

I searched "Wii U virtual console sound delay" (without the quotes). There seem to be plenty of complaints about sound delay and lag for VC games.

At the very least (if you are willing to do so), you can fix your audio lag easy enough by using a component cable instead of HDMI, and then having the two audio leads to go to a separate analog audio receiver (which are then connected to separate external speakers) rather than your TV input / internal speakers.

I do that now with my current set up by using an Aiwa CD player / receiver that looks pretty ghetto, but it removes all audio lag and sounds much better than the internal speakers.  I use this for my PS2 and older consoles as well.

Though I'm happy my Vizio has a pretty good fast response option, that cuts out as much digital processing features to reduce video input lag, but the audio is still off (hence the external audio option).

That's a great idea! I already use a component cable anyway (for some reason you can only boot to Wii mode with a component cable, not HDMI, and I didn't have any free HDMI slots anyway and blah blah etc etc). I also already use an audio receiver. I just have everything plugged into the TV and then plug the TV into the receiver, but it shouldn't be too hard to run the Wii U audio separately to it and use one of the inputs. Should be at least one free...

Thanks for the idea! This way I can also have the nice speakers on when the TV is off and I'm playing on the Gamepad (likely because of video lag or some other sadness).

Darn, my composite cable isn't long enough to get to the audio receiver. I just can't win.

chimpmeister said:

I found some examples of the kinds of problems you're having:
http://wiiudaily.com/2013/07/lag-in-wii-u-virtual-console/
http://nintendo.about.com/od/toppicks/tp/The-10-Most-Annoying-Things-About-The-Wii-U.htm
http://www.avforums.com/threads/input-lag-on-wii-mode-of-wii-u.1735657/
I searched "Wii U virtual console sound delay" (without the quotes). There seem to be plenty of complaints about sound delay and lag for VC games.

Click to expand...

Sorry, totally missed this post!! I will check out the links. Thanks!

I am not sure if this will help you, but you can edit your sound & picture quality output in the wii u settings. I realize this isn't a picture quality problem, but I did have a problem where if my picture setting was too high my tv would not show any picture. Perhaps your problem is the picture quality instead causes a delay on your tv. Since you are using the component cable you must make sure your wii u picture quality is set to 480p. If that doesn't work, perhaps you can try lowering the picture quality on your actual tv to 480p or 480i.

It's a 720p TV, so it can do 480i, 480p, 720i/p and 1080i, but not 1080p. I know some TVs can read 1080p and just display it in 1080i. This one can't (not that that would be useful or helpful anyway).

Anyway, long story short, maybe I could try setting it to just output only in 720p? Maybe that would be faster than 1080i or something. I'll give that a shot. Thanks!

And yeah, I could also try just setting it to 480i for virtual console games.

Never thought to fiddle with this stuff. Thanks!

My penis has a delay, it confounds my wife to no end.

That's better than being too fast!

Yeah setting the tv to 720p as well as the Wii U might fix the problem. If you have the Wii U set to a higher resolution that may be causing problems. 

Echoing what others have said, it sounds like the delay is occurring when the television adapts the 1080 signal to 720.  I've heard of this happening with game systems while a television upscales the signal as well.  (Attempting to play an older system like a Genesis on a modern television.) I'm assuming that since it's a 720 set that it's 60htz already so that would explain why there's no game mode.  (Game mode simply lowers the refresh rate back to 60fps.) 

Okay, an update--

I went through the Wii U settings and changed it from 1080i to 720p.  I still have the audio delay thing, but it might be better now (unless it's just my imagination).  In games, I still have more delay between button press and action on the TV than on the pad.  So I don't think that's fixed it.

Actually, I think 720p TVs can handle 1080i, can't they?  It's just 1080p that the TV would have to convert (which it's incapable of converting anyway).

Would using an HDMI cable instead of component help?  (I like component because using it, I can boot straight to Wii mode without having the TV on, where as with HDMI, for some reason you have to have the TV on to get into Wii mode.  Also, I only have two HDMI slots on the TV, so using component for the Wii U saves one.)