KingOfHyrule

Nice pics! It would be great to show the comparison between all the video modes but we'd need someone with all the gear to do it and capture the screens.

Yeah I could have thrown in info about connecting to a monitor but I don't think Wii is going to support DVI - you could connect to a monitor maybe through a VGA box with a component IN? The best you'll get from Wii will most likely be connected to a HDTV in progressive scan Thanks for all the feedback on the thread by the way!

I’ve decided to make a thread dedicated to explaining all the jargon surrounding the Wii’s video display capabilities because it seems some people either aren’t sure of how it works or what the hell it all means, and some probably don’t care either – so this thread’s for you. 1. REFRESH RATES 2. COMPOSITE, RGB, S-VIDEO, COMPONENT – Which cable do I use? 3. 16:9 WIDESCREEN 4. PROGRESSIVE SCAN 1 - REFRESH RATES -- 50Hz By default, PAL games run at a refresh rate of 50Hz, which means that the image refreshes itself 50 times in a second. What are the benefits? PAL media has superior resolution over NTSC, having 576 lines instead of 480 displayed onscreen, so staying with 50Hz means a more flickery display, but a richer, more stable colour palette. -- 60Hz NTSC games run at 60Hz by default, but in PAL regions most current-gen games had the option to select 60Hz, and if your TV could support 60Hz (you’ll rarely find a new TV these days that doesn’t, even the cheapest of TVs) pressing B at the bootup of most PAL GameCube games allowed the option to select either 50Hz or 60Hz. Some PAL games actually only ran in 60Hz (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, The Legend Of Zelda Collector’s Edition), so the people with TVs unable to support it couldn’t play them properly – time to upgrade that ould banger! What are the benefits? Selecting 60Hz means that the display would flicker less and motion would be cleaner and smoother (albeit inferior to 50Hz in terms of colour), refreshing 60 times a second instead of 50. -- PAL60 PAL games produced in PAL60 basically have the benefits of both 50Hz and 60Hz displays – the same richness from PAL and the 60Hz speed from NTSC. Who knows, maybe Wii games will be produced in PAL60? All in all it’s a personal preference whether to run 50Hz or 60Hz. Most people select 60Hz because it’s noticeably smoother and the difference in colour is not overly apparent. 2 - COMPOSITE, S-VIDEO, RGB, COMPONENT – Which cable do I use? -- COMPOSITE Composite cables were the standard cables included with GameCube in all regions, and will probably be included with Wii too. The video signal is carried on the yellow cable, and L & R audio signals on the red and white respectively. The majority of users probably used composite for the simple reason that the cable was included with the machine and it meant not having to go and buy another cable for the sake of improved display quality. Most DVD players, VCRs and other video devices include RCA (composite) jacks, but in Europe SCART connectors are just as widespread, which can carry RGB signals. -- S-VIDEO While S-Video was not supported in PAL GameCubes, NTSC ones did support it. S-Video is technically also a type of component signal because it splits brightness and colour signals, but it is the most inferior if included in that bracket. It is an improvement over composite, but not over RGB. Wii officially supports S-Video, presumably in all regions this time. -- RGB The Nintendo RGB cable for GameCube was somewhat difficult to come across in Europe, but those who wanted it badly enough sought it and found it! RGB is a component signal, splitting the display into red/green/blue, giving a far superior colour display and richer visuals. Because RGB is carried via a SCART connection, the audio signal was also included as one, annoying home theatre owners since they could not connect the audio to their surround sound system. Wii will support RGB and will be readily available at launch, since its predecessor did and proved successful. Unfortunately the Wii RGB cable will also not include separate audio jacks. -- COMPONENT The daddyo of video signals available to GameCube and Wii. Component cables again split the video signal into three, and are most commonly transferred using RCA connectors, which look similar to composite connectors. The quality is far superior to all of the video signals available to the console, and importantly allows games to run in Progressive Scan where available, and also HDTV where available, albeit not on Nintendo’s consoles. 4 - 16:9 WIDESCREEN Games running in widescreen basically are made to fit the entire width of a widescreen TV without stretching the image. More of the onscreen action is displayed making use of the wider frame. As an example, most GameCube games such as The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker were produced in 4:3 for optimum display on a square shaped TV screen, whereas The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess for Wii (and all other first party Wii games) will display in 16:9 wth the option of 4:3 as well. As you can see, 4:3 games are intended for a square TV and look stretched and disfigured on a widescreen. Widescreen TVs usually include the option to display in 4:3 to keep the proper resolution unstretched, but this results in black bars being displayed to the left and right of the action. It's also worth noting that while 16:9 games are very likely to include a 4:3 option to cater for people without a widscreen TV, running the game in 16:9 on a square TV will result in black bars being displayed above and below the frame, much like running a widescreen DVD on a square TV. It's a much of a muchness for square TV owners; whether you want a full-frame display with less of the action onscreen, or all of the action with black bars, it's up to you. 5 - PROGRESSIVE SCAN As a standard, games run in interlaced mode, which means that every other horizontal line on the screen is displayed in sequence – odd lines first, then even lines, resulting in onscreen flicker. Most upmarket TVs and monitors have a "natural" display mode or 100Hz mode, which is designed to make the image more stable, but it's not progressive scan, as the display is still interlaced. In NTSC regions, because of the 480 lines displayed onscreen, interlaced display is known as 480i, and in PAL regions because of the 576 lines, 576i (i for interlaced). Progressive scan means that the odd lines and even lines are displayed together, giving a much richer, stable image and much less flicker. This is known as 480p/576p for obvious reasons. Again, NTSC regions are 60Hz and PAL are 50Hz by default, so this can be addressed as 480i60/480p60 and 576i50/576p50 respectively. Jesus, what a mouthful! Here's an exaggerated diagram from Wikipedia to explain the difference. The refresh rate is at 10Hz to slow things down enough to make the flicker obvious, but the same idea applies to anything in interlaced mode and at any refresh rate. As you can see, progressive is much smoother and sharper. It is false to say that PAL GameCubes did not support progressive scan – they actually did, it’s just that PAL games did not include the option to display in progressive. If one connected the Nintendo Component Cable to a TV capable of displaying in 480p, bought an NTSC game capable of the progressive display and ran it on a PAL GameCube using Freeloader, progressive scan is entirely possible. 480 interlaced and progressive is the highest resolution that Wii will be able to display. As a comparison, Xbox360 can display 720p (720 horizontal lines resolution in progressive) which is considered High Definition. 480i and 576i are what are known as SDTV (Standard Definition TV) and while 480p/576p is not High Def, it's what's known as EDTV (Enhanced Definition TV). Not every TV supports anything higher than 576i. If there are component connectors on your TV, it’s likely that you’ll be able to run Wii in progressive scan, but double check your TV’s manual before buying the cables. If you own a HDTV, you’re all set anyway. Hope this all helped - if anything appears to be incorrect, please let me know and I'll happily amend it!

Meh I wouldn't believe that lad. RGB is a bog standard output these days, whoever said that was probably talking out their hole lol Maybe with a multi-out port on Wii there will come a multi-out cable with the console (composite, component, S-video, RGB, plus audio L and R?)...but then again component components (did you like the play on words there :awesome: eh lol) are expensive, I don't think Nintendo would go for that as a giveaway with the machine, especially considering most users will likely be using RGB or composite. Looks like it'll just have to be bought seperate at launch - if I don't get one at least by Christmas I'll be less than pleased; Twilight Princess in 480i? I think not :shock:

They said there would be some sort of bonus with TP, but I think they've done a 'DVD support?' and decided not to give any bonus.

You need a TV with component IN sockets to use the component cable, but that's usually an EDTV or a HDTV anyway. But in terms of RGB (analogue), your TV most likely has scart sockets which RGB cables use, unless your TV is ultra ancient but I'm sure there are scart sockets. If it has more than one scart, the RGB socket is usually the first one. I've actually just realised - if the Wii has a multi-out socket, I and any other gamer out there who has a GCN component cable actually won't be able to use it on Wii, even if it fits - because it has no audio jacks!! To achieve audio on GCN if using the component cable, the standard composite cable's red and white audio jacks have to also be used coming from the analogue OUT. How sucky is that? Which means we'll have to buy a new bastard component anyway, providing Nintendo have the sense to manufacture one with audio jacks on.

If you take a look here and watch Matt walk through the Wii console, look closely at the multi-AV/OUT socket at the back, and the power socket - they both look identical to those of the GCN and in terms of the AV socket, identical to the SNES and N64 scart outputs so I'm quite confident that the GCN component cable will be usable with Wii.

Ever tried playing the likes of Metroid Prime or Wind Waker NTSC in 480p? Both games are 4:3 and look great on my 42" RPTV. No black bars, no blatant overstretching. So Wii games that run in 16:9 and 480p can only look even better; there should be no black bars from the games at all on a widescreen TV, even if the game is in 4:3 and/or 480i.

Ah fuck...don't tell me they're actually going to change the output format after years of using it? The SNES, N64 and GCN all used the same AV out and I'd be surprised and heartbroken if the Wii didn't allow the GCN component cable to be used.

Yeah it was my understanding that if the material is actually coded in DPLII (ie Wii games), it's real 5.1 surround, not just artificial surround made up from a stereo signal.

Nice thread - definitely create a Mii then maybe see if I can get the thing hooked up to the internet connection, then spend the entire 25th of December with Liink. Maybe stopping for some turkey and crap Asda Christmas crackers.

I actually thought ftw was "what the fuck" backwards too, that's why I had to ask

7th October? Watch Ireland v Cyprus instead :P

Ah thanks

I can't work out what these abbreviations are lol

My take on it is that once you set up the sensor bar properly (and providing the sensor bar is stable and won't wobble about the place) the Wii surely will have a calibration procedure so that when you point at your screen at various crosshair points the sensor bar will detect where the centre of the TV screen by where you're pointing, not literally by using the size of the TV screen or anything else. I have a 42" TV but it would make absolutely no difference to someone playing on a 21" tube once it's calibrated properly.

A man that knows his stuff! I take it that 640x480 is 4:3 and 852x480 is 16:9? So we're stuck with 480p...oh well. At least the games with 16:9 as well as prog scan support will look pretty on any HDTV.

I prefer the Belfast branch of Gamestop to GAME without a doubt, much friendlier and generally better offers and prices. Sorry if anyone from the Donegall Arcade branch of GAME posts here, but I've generally found them to be ignorant wankers.

Since we know Wii will support progressive scan output (EDTV) a question has been fumbling about in my head for a while - do you think Nintendo will be lazy and give us PAL regions 480p (NTSC EDTV standard) display as opposed to PAL 576p? It would be nice to see Nintendo recognise our higher resolution standard and work with it - but then again I could be talking out of my arse.

Two years ago at Christmas I had 2 DS ordered from Lik-Sang and 2 Super Mario 64 DS ordered from Play.com, and the anxiety I had to go through from 16-24 December waiting on the bastards to arrive was enough to put me off ordering any hardware online at launch again lol I'll be going for good old GAME or Gamestop in Belfast this time.

If that quote is from a native English speaker and not a translation from Japanese and is recent, I actually don't think it's the Wii they're talking about; language like "another console" and "even further" suggest something separate from the Wii altoegther. Likely a handheld, but why? Isn't the DS enough?

Queen's University Belfast for Irish & French. Anyone else here going to Queen's?

I've done three before, and I actually couldn't speak lol I woke up the next morning and my mouth tasted like the bottom of Ghandi's flip-flop! I really wouldn't recommend beating him, five carbombs could mean being stretchered out of the venue, he was lucky!

He was hung over for two days solid, no joke!

Lol great memory! Yeah they go by both names. Watch the video and see the results of five of them lol I'm Larry in the video by the way. I've too many nicknames.