Component cables worth it?

I

IOWABERG

CAGiversary!
I just got a Wii for the family and was considering purchasing the cables. At $20, that's not bad. We have a 40" Samsung LCD. For those who use these were they worth the purchase in helping to in improve the games visually? I have a 360 and I didn't expect the same with the Wii, but I'm just wondering if it's worth a purchase.
 
People will lie to you and say "OMG, IT LOOKS AMAZING WITH COMPONENT CABLES"
It doesn't look amazing.
It looks OK.

Yes; component will be better then composite but keep in mind that graphically speaking, the Wii does not go that far (By developers CHOICE).

But, yeah, it's worth it. Not $20 though. You should have checked www.monoprice.com because component cables can be found for a few bucks.
 
sweet...i haven't bought them yet, so it's nice to know I can get them A LOT cheaper...that's why I come here!
 
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Oh, good! Glad to hear you didn't buy them yet!
I think most of us here have those specific cables and they work "great" (Again, don't expect too much from your Wii graphically..especially since you have a 360)

Make sure you start buying all of your cables from there because they are usually the best prices around. The customer service/shipping is great too. Shipping is only like $2.50ish too--so you'll get a set of component cables for like $6
 
I looked at ebay too and it looks like there are variations of them. Is that right? Should I be looking for any particular ones or does it really matter as long as it says they work for the Wii?
 
Correct.
I believe that there really isn't a matter of quality amongst the cables (aka just because a cable has gold on it and costs $60 doesn't mean it's better then a $3.52 cable)

I would just stay with Monoprice. Their customer service is great.
 
I had some problems hooking up my Wii with component cables. My TV isn't the greatest (Westinghouse 27" 720p) but it works well with component for PS3 and Xbox 360. With the Wii it just look washed out or whitewashed. I've played with settings to no end and been unable to get it not to look worse with component so I went back to standard. Oh, I tried more than one cable just to be sure. At $3.50 it's worth it though, haven't heard of many people with my problem.
 
Yes, component cables will give you a better picture. Brand doesn't matter. Just find some cheapo cable on eBay for a few bucks.
 
I bought some from monoprice just last week and got them within a few days. I would highly recommend ordering through them.
 
I've tried our Wii now on 3 TVs, two of which were Vizio's, one a 720p, one a 1080p and then on our 720p Samsung. All via component cable. On our 720p Samsung the Wii looks quite good. I would actually say great, but then I don't have a PS3 or 360 to compare it to, so I'll quell my enthusiasm a bit. I do get HDTV via broadcast, though, and yeah, it doesn't look that good, but still it does look very good. On the Vizios, especially on the 1080p Vizio, it didn't look that good. Very pixely, even with the sharpness turned all the way down.

So it depends on your TV, and probably will look better on a 720p set, but don't quote me on that. Definitely turn the sharpness down - this isn't a compromise for the Wii, this is to fix a mistake that is made on all shipped TVs, which is that the "sharpness" setting, which might more properly be called "noise enhancer", is set artificially high, because that's what people are use to. Turn the sharpness almost all the way down. Do that for everything, including for TV, DVD, BluRay, PS3 - everything. It will take a day to get use to it because you are use to too-high "sharpness", but then you'll see that it actually looks better.
 
my wii actually had a shaky right corner of the screen until i got the component cables... the picture was pretty messed up. now it looks normal which is fine by me
 
[quote name='crunchewy']I've tried our Wii now on 3 TVs, two of which were Vizio's, one a 720p, one a 1080p and then on our 720p Samsung. All via component cable. On our 720p Samsung the Wii looks quite good. I would actually say great, but then I don't have a PS3 or 360 to compare it to, so I'll quell my enthusiasm a bit. I do get HDTV via broadcast, though, and yeah, it doesn't look that good, but still it does look very good. On the Vizios, especially on the 1080p Vizio, it didn't look that good. Very pixely, even with the sharpness turned all the way down.

So it depends on your TV, and probably will look better on a 720p set, but don't quote me on that. Definitely turn the sharpness down - this isn't a compromise for the Wii, this is to fix a mistake that is made on all shipped TVs, which is that the "sharpness" setting, which might more properly be called "noise enhancer", is set artificially high, because that's what people are use to. Turn the sharpness almost all the way down. Do that for everything, including for TV, DVD, BluRay, PS3 - everything. It will take a day to get use to it because you are use to too-high "sharpness", but then you'll see that it actually looks better.[/quote]

Was the Samsung a plasma and the Vizio a LCD?
 
Definitely worth it.

If you use the standard video link, you get 480i, in which flicker can be noticeable when a static image or text is displayed. When you use component (480p), the flicker is gone and the image is slightly cleaner too.
 
[quote name='ProfWho']Was the Samsung a plasma and the Vizio a LCD?[/quote]


I hear plasma tv's and games do not mix. Am i correct?
 
[quote name='david12795']I hear plasma tv's and games do not mix. Am i correct?[/quote]

Plasmas are fine once you break them in (burn in is really blown out of proportion). In fact, they are better since they are faster and give better colors. Personally, I wouldn't go LCD for anything.
 
[quote name='ProfWho']Plasmas are fine once you break them in (burn in is really blown out of proportion). In fact, they are better since they are faster and give better colors. Personally, I wouldn't go LCD for anything.[/quote]


How do you "break" them in? lol

Because I'm not sure what type of T.V. we used to have. But it's a Sony 1080i, so I guess it's an HDTV. Well I was playing my PS2 games on it one day and left my screen idle there for like 5-10 minutes. When I came back, screen was permanently messed up :( . Gives distorted colors.
 
[quote name='david12795']How do you "break" them in? lol

Because I'm not sure what type of T.V. we used to have. But it's a Sony 1080i, so I guess it's an HDTV. Well I was playing my PS2 games on it one day and left my screen idle there for like 5-10 minutes. When I came back, screen was permanently messed up :( . Gives distorted colors.[/quote]

The first 100 hours on a plasma is when they have the real risk for burn in. What you should do is just have a DVD with random color patterns running none stop for the first week or so. After that you should be fine. I imagine the TV you are talking about was probably a Sony Picture Tube HDTV. I don't think SOny has made a plasma for a long time.
 
I'll agree with people that the 480i won't look 10 times better.

Things look "clearer" as opposed to fuzzy. With the standard cables my friend has a wii on a hdtv and it looks ok but it's fuzzy as hell. Not horrible but i ordered some component cables from monoprice to show him the difference it makes.

I remember when i got component cables and went to a dorm in my university to see how much better they were and the clarity is amazing. At least for Twilight Princess. :)

But even on my 21 inch standard def tv componet cables for the wii bring the colors instead of bleeding into each other when i use my rca cables. Obiously it's not noticeable from the get go but staring the screen playing smash or other wii games it can be noticeable.

Overall it's worth it. Because you are getting a clearer picture rather then i "fuzzy" picture.

Also, my bestbuy has all the game systems hooked up to hdtv's for a couple of months now. I went to the wii and they had it hooked up with the rca cables and the fuzz was noticeable. I'm sure people really didn't notice but it made me sad because that extra clarity is nice to have. I mean the 360's and PS 3's all were hooked up to hdmi cables.
 
[quote name='IOWABERG']We have a 40" Samsung LCD.[/quote]

I have a 42" Sharp, and I can vouch that component cables do make a lot of a difference. They really just fix the blur, but on a TV that big it's a big deal.
 
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