Does Size Matter?... How Big Is Too Big?

[david.dakota]

Verging on technical support, but i'll try my luck with a brand new thread.

 

Do you play your Wii on a large screen TV? How does it fare when blown up on 32+inch.

 

We use a SD screen at 34inches, through SCART and there are small signs of some image break up- particularly in the Mii Channel, but overall it holds up pretty well. Any larger, and i'd worry that it'd be more noticable.

 

Reason why i'm asking... I'm tempted by a massive 50inch plasma... A Wii killer, perhaps? Or would the component cable solve this issue?

[tapedeck]

 

The words 'too' and 'big' should never go next to each other!

 

Component is the way to go. The difference is unreal.

Edited May 19, 2009 by tapedeck

[lostmario]

50"? I think Lindsey will be happy with a 40" TV to go with the Wii and Mario Kart that you are getting her at the weekend.

[Goron_3]

Well I have a 40" LCD and have to admit, Mario Galaxy doesn't look to great on it compared to how it looked on the old 28" TV i first played it on.

[Tellyn]

I wouldn't recommend it, games don't look as hot on my 37" TV as they do on smaller ones. I'm going to downsize and get a smaller TV later this year in addition to relocating the Wii to my own room.

 

50"? I think Lindsey will be happy with a 40" TV to go with the Wii and Mario Kart that you are getting her at the weekend.

 

STAAAAAAAAAAAALKEEEEEEEEEEEEER!

[S.C.G]

23" is where it's at Imo, not too big, not too small but just right, I've had a 23" Samsung HDTV for years and it has served me well across all consoles and as a pretty reasonable monitor. :P

[dazzybee]

I have a 42" and it's awesome. Will the Wii look better on a smaller telly? Of course it will. But it won't have the scale!!

 

I wouldn't hesitate to get 50", that's why I'm doing when I get a house. Have the 42" for my bedroom!!!

[Daft]

Components make it clear and very jaggy. I stick with RBG on the 42".

[david.dakota]

Have the 42" for my bedroom!!!

 

And you don't have a girlfriend, Dazzy?

[lindsey]

50"? I think Lindsey will be happy with a 40" TV to go with the Wii and Mario Kart that you are getting her at the weekend.

 

Yeah, do as your told david!

[Strange Cookie]

Playing on a 40" 1080p LCD-screen.

 

Component makes everything look mighty crispy. If you have a HD TV, component is the way to go.

 

No complaints here!

[pedrocasilva]

Obviously the bigger the screen is and the more resolution it has the more likely it can appear wrong. But that is mostly due to two factors...

 

dot pitch size: 1080p is the top range no matter what, a 32" 1080p TV and a 100" TV have the same resolution, but play it at the same distance and you'll see a bucketload of pixels in the later, so pick a right TV for the space you have. (for the record 32" 1080p is not really right for a living room TV since at the distance you're supposed to be... 720p to 1080p shouldn't be noticeable, meaning you have to be closer to see.

 

upscale quality: Even if it's horrible (or non-existent) it'll be less noticeable on:

 

a) a smaller screen

 

b) a screen with less pixels

 

Of course a bigger screen will often have more resolution than the entry point screen and it'll be... well, bigger, meaning the original image has to be scretched to fill more pixels which, with a crappy upscaler chip is the recipee for a disaster.

 

Solution: get a good TV with proper upscale; good brands are Panasonic, Sharp Aquos, Pioneer and some Philips LCD TV's (be careful with Philips, some are good some are horrible, only purchase if you know the model/can test it beforehand)

 

Extra good solution:

 

Plasma's: Their pixels are different than LCD's, instead of a square predefined block in a dot matrix layer, so it'll tend to appear a lot less jagged than it would on a LCD, giving it a "softer" appearance. That way you don't have to worry about inches. (trust me, I've seen plasmas over 42" giving awesome image on wii games). Only consider Panasonic and/or Pioneer as Plasma brands though, everything else sucks. Plus, you'll be hard pressed to find a plasma with less than 42" anyway.

 

CRT HDTV's: I don't even know if these are still sold, but Philips sold them a little over a year ago. They were very, very good and cheap compared to LCD's and Plasma's.

[darksnowman]

We use a SD screen at 34inches, through SCART

 

Even at that and in split screen, you likely have a bigger view of the MK action than I do.

[david.dakota]

Is an upscaler usually mentioned as a 'feature'- how does one tell how good they are?

[pedrocasilva]

Is an upscaler usually mentioned as a 'feature'- how does one tell how good they are?

Not really, it's the kind of feature the regular consumer doesn't even know it's there; hence they'll compare a Panasonic 32" TV to a 32" Samsung and think they're the same and that Panasonic is ridiculously overpriced by comparison. They couldn't be farther from the truth.

 

Most entry point TV's go right to the upscaler and nuke it in some form; since you don't know it's there, after all a good one has to be pretty powerful, we're talking about bicubic kind of quality (a photoshop filter), applied to 60 images per second (minimum) with no noticeable lag. Most entry point HDTV's can't even cope with regular poor upscaling at a proper speed, hence offering those "gaming modes" that either reduce the post processing quality further so it manages to be faster and thus... responsive enough for gaming or they turn off color stabilization (really bad for the image quality). A good TV never ever needs such thing as a gaming mode. (some high end ones still offer a preset called like that as some kind of feature though)

 

With those TV's you only can regulate the sharpness, and the only logic decision to make is... lower it until the max.

 

Samsung and LG are particularly bad, and Sony used to follow suit as they used to have samsung screens under the hood, albeit with different chips I remember the top range model to only be able to score an "average" at deinterlacing... for instance. Either way now they realized that was turd and made, at least the top range ones to be toshiba; I haven't read feedback from those yet.

 

Anyway the brands I've never seen disapoint in that area are panasonic, sharp aquos and pionneer... pretty much.

 

And the other tip I can give is... if you ever see a TV from any brand that's unbelievably cheaper compared to anything else/the price such product goes for... be weary, it's either a old stock/last gen HDTV that's still being manufactured (and those tend to be ok, although they have less contrast ratio) or... they're crap made to catter for the entry point.

[Emasher]

I've got a 50" plasma. My Wii isn't generally hooked up to it, but when it is (through component) it looks great. Obviously it looks a bit pixelated, but the upscaling chip does its job, it looks much better on it than my 1680x1050 21.6" monitor with no upscaling. It works well, I'd say do it.

 

BTW, my TV is a samsung if that helps.

[danny]

Ive got a 37 inch samsung with components and it looks good. The Wii dosent have fantastic graphics to start with (Dont kid yourself it does) i dont think it makes them any worse really. Its all about the gameplay and i would say a bigger screen far out weighs any negatives from degraded graphics.

[Choze]

Depends on your tv. Some can even enchance your PQ. Toshiba seem to focus alot on that.

 

Depends on the model though as SD isnt a priority for most. Even high end Sony's or Panasonic's may not bother with SD stuff much and expect you to use an external device since you are in that price category.

 

All the 50" pdp (plasma) will do is to make the flaws more noticeable. Hence more need to get the input as good as possible. Though you could tweak alot.

 

All in all just got for the 50" pdp.

[Nicktendo]

I have a 32" because anything under that doesn't really compliment HD. The Wii looks pretty poor on it to be honest but Cel shaded games look amazing, the coulours are incredible when compared to an CRT. I would say that if you want an LCD get 26" or less but the benefit of HD (if you actually watch any) won't be as pronounced. If you're wanting 37 + Definatly get a plasma because the Wii through componant looks AMAZING on any size screen, just be careful about screen burn. If it's a 32" then I'd go with LCD but it's at 32 inches that the Wii starts to look really, really jaggy. It's a tough choice where you will have to sacrifice something (HD quality, Wii Quality or your money).

[dazzybee]

And you don't have a girlfriend, Dazzy?

 

Sorry, I missed the '.'. I mean 4.2"......

 

PS And who said I don't have a girlfriend? I'm a quick mover!

[david.dakota]

Sorry, I missed the '.'. I mean 4.2"......

 

I think you forgot the correct placing of the 4 and the 2 as well.

 

PS And who said I don't have a girlfriend? I'm a quick mover!

 

Just made the assumption.

[marcel]

Hey, First I need to know how far you are sitting away from your TV. In my case that’s 2.5-3 meters, Than a 37 inch will look good enough. I have a Samsung LCD TV (HD ready a.k.a. 720p, Wii on 1080p looks like garbage). I’ve added some random pictures that where shot with my digital camera (with flash on).

 

[Choze]

Distance is subjective. Bigger is better for most people. As said earlier if you want your Wii to look as good as possible focus on a tv with good video processing for SD content.

[marcel]

i personally think that samsung at this point has the best SD scaler chip (for normal price tv's, not the 1700 euro tv's that often are not better than the cheaper ones)

[pedrocasilva]

i personally think that samsung at this point has the best SD scaler chip (for normal price tv's, not the 1700 euro tv's that often are not better than the cheaper ones)

I beg to differ:

 

 

And that's not even a 1000 euro TV. (and yes, it's MH3)

 

Your TV allows to see the jaggies even with the forum redimensioning going on. Plus, it has some kind of emboss going on. Have you lowered your sharpness to the lowest?

 

Anyway... I wouldn't call that good upscale at all, in fact I wouldn't buy that TV solely based on the results you posted.

 

PS: the TV in the photos is a 42"

 

I can also post images of a sharp LCD TV upscale (2 year old 700 euro TV at that) and it'll kick that TV of yours into oblivion as well.

 

 

EDIT: 2 year old 700 euro Sharpy to the rescue:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Endless ocean looks particularly awesome.

 

 

All this with no special calibration at hand (sharpness isn't even at it's lowest, or even leaning towards that, quite the oposite)... now look for them jaggies. (of course you can still spot some once in a while and up close but damn, it's not like I can count them like on that samsung of yours)

Edited May 20, 2009 by pedrocasilva