[Wii] Official Nintendo Wii thread

Originally Posted by Turbo

Some news you may not like..

Originally Posted by CloudNine

Yeah, that was discussed a few pages back. No gamestop outside of Hawaii seems to know anything about it. Seems like Hawaii is going to be a test subject of some kind.

Right you are.

Originally Posted by GoNintendo

Here’s the deal with the “trade $50 worth of stuff for a pre-order deposit” rumor. This rumor is true…however there is a catch. As of right now, Gamestop is doing a test run of this “offer” in the state of Hawaii and the island of Guam ONLY.All the details you posted last night are correct, but as of right now, this is only going to take place in the aforementioned regions (Hawaii & Guam).

I called several local Gamestops today (I live in the midwestern USA) and they still have no idea when they will be taking pre-orders.

I called two stores in Hawaii:

The first call was to Gamestop #1334 in Kahului (one of the outer islands) at (808) 877-8097 and he confirmed this program was indeed true.

The second call was to Software Etc. #1366 (which is owned by Gamestop) in Honolulu at (808) 947-1164. He gave me the entire set of details (mentioned above) and said that he had received numerous complaints about the programs since it was announced yesterday. He said they expect a large crowd on Monday when the “trade your entire game collection for a Wii/PS3 pre-order” program begins. He also said that they may run another pre-order program in Hawaii & Guam at a later date that would be the “normal” style of programs (i.e. your cash will be accepted) but that is dependant on how successful this program is.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by CloudNine

They don't take PS1 games, so I doubt they would take the systems.

:O

Thats why Silent Hill 1 was such a bitch to find. Those sobs.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

You know, putting my GC down for the pre-order wouldn't be so bad, but I'd be like GIVING UP my GC without any guarantee of when I'd be able to get the Wii. That's absurd.

It shows you something about their markup when the amount of business lost when not accepting cash is trumped by $50 of trade-in credit.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Don't you have faith in Nintendo and their claim that there will be few if any shortages on launch?

I was speaking idiomatically.

I don't have faith in Gamestop/EB distributing enough systems to each store though. I'll be getting mine from Best Buy if I can help it, like I do all my consoles. I love their replacement plan since you can bring your system back within 2 years for even the smallest problem and you get a replacement with almost no questions asked.

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Originally Posted by Metal Sphere

Store? Best Buy? Circuit City? Even boutiques devoted to home theater and all that goes with it are terrible places to compare given that signals are split an ungodly number of ways, settings are way off and the environment doesn't lend itself well to these kinds of things.

The store's Best Buy. And we actually had two out of the box TVs running to their own DVD players. One using the HDMI port, and one using A/V. The settings were also default factory settings. The only thing I could give you out of those three things you mentioned would be the enviroment, which I guess I can see how it can kind of offset things to a degree.

Quote:

Ironically enough, 25-50 HDMI cables (the "cheap" non-Monster ones) are just as good as their overpriced brethren. High quality is a non-issue with digital, as it's either signal or not. So, the cables don't matter and neither does their quality. HDMI or not.

Then good for people who are planning to buy a PS3 right away.

Anyway, the point still stands that having A/V cables only out of the box for Wii is just fine considering that it's not suppose to be a machine for graphic fanatics or HD-videophiles.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Technophile

Anyway, the point still stands that having A/V cables only out of the box for Wii is just fine considering that it's not suppose to be a machine for graphic fanatics or HD-videophiles.

I don't know why Nintendo keeps displaying the Wii on LCD and Plasma HD displays then.

It's retarded. Why show off the games playing on widescreen high-quality televisions when it's not what you're going to be able to do without a special cable (you can bet that those display Wii consoles are connected with Component).

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Technophile

The store's Best Buy. And we actually had two out of the box TVs running to their own DVD players. One using the HDMI port, and one using A/V.

OTB, all HDTVs come in torch mode (aka Vivid) so they can catch the eye of potential buyers. Colors thrown way too cool, brightness and contrast off the scales, viewing distance. The setups in Best Buy and Circuit City don't came anywhere near to meeting all this (even in the smaller darkrooms with one set being exhibited). Again, any comparisons there will likely be way off given those and many other factors. But let's end this whole discussion. Cables/PQ conversations get stale fast.

Quote:

The settings were also default factory settings. The only thing I could give you out of those three things you mentioned would be the enviroment, which I guess I can see how it can kind of offset things to a degree.

See above. I highly doubt you guys actually tone down the light, have some bias lighting and run Avia/DVE on each set without splitting any signals.

Doesn't matter though, because this is the Wii thread. Good thing the sensor bar wire is pretty long, since I was worried about it not reaching.

Quote:

Anyway, the point still stands that having A/V cables only out of the box for Wii is just fine considering that it's not suppose to be a machine for graphic fanatics or HD-videophiles.

Oh, of course. It won't have anywhere near the impact of Sony leaving out HD capable cables than Nintendo doing the same. But to say the difference from composite to component is "nothing or paltry" is wrong at best.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Composite
S-Video
Here's the difference between Composite and just S-video. Not even jumping up to Component and already the difference is VERY clear. This was recorded on my computer through my TV tuner.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Exactly my point. How can anyone stomache it. It's so blurry, it's painful. =(

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I was about to say something that JazzFlight did. You can't really show off screen shot of a video running via composite, s-video, component and DVI/HDMI using your camera! You have to actually capture it directly. XP

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Um, I use composite AV cables and Atelier Iris doesn't look anything like that on my TV. It looks pretty much exactly like the S-Video screen you showed. If composite was really that bad I doubt anyone could stomach playing it.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Tritoch

Um, I use composite AV cables and Atelier Iris doesn't look anything like that on my TV. It looks pretty much exactly like the S-Video screen you showed. If composite was really that bad I doubt anyone could stomach playing it.

What kind of TV do you have?

I mean, on a computer monitor, the difference is obvious, but on an average CRT television, composite is enough (as long as you don't see S-Video next to it). I have a 30" CRT in my living room with an S-video input and there definately is a difference in sprite-based games (or just looking at text or straight lines).

If you see composite vs. s-video vs. component on an HDTV (where every pixel is crystal clear), the shortcomings of having only 1 cable for video is apparent. S-Video separates brightness from color and component separates red, green, and blue signals. When there's just 1 video cable, there's too much interference in the signal, and it bleeds together.

On my 50" DLP tv, I could barely stand playing gamecube in composite.

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Originally Posted by Slayer X

Don't you have faith in Nintendo and their claim that there will be few if any shortages on launch?

More than I would Sony or Microsoft.

But then, when the 360 launched, we all saw people buyin' 3 or 4 or 10 of them just to make an extra buck on eBay. I don't want to have to go through that, so I'll be up at midnight if need be.

FELIPE NO

My TV is roughly a 20" CRT and I've played on a 24" CRT too without seeing any blur. My AV cables are also all hooked up to the TV through a switchbox. I've never played through a computer monitor, so I guess the type of cables must have a much more prominent effect there.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Let me take a couple sentences here to clear up the whole Composite/SVideo/Component debate.

Originally Posted by JazzFlight

Here's the difference between Composite and just S-video. Not even jumping up to Component and already the difference is VERY clear. This was recorded on my computer through my TV tuner.

Sorry to say Jazz, but because of the way TV Tuner PCI cards are built, this is not a good way to make a comparison. When signal comes into your tuner card, the signal first of all might not be coming in through the same signal flow. Secondly, your card must de-interlace the signal which will produce more drastic than real life changes to the video signals.

I worked at a professional Audio/Video business, and we tested all three different types of cabling from a progressive scan DVD player to a EDTV Plasma, and to a standard SDTV CRT. We tested two DVD's, and also tested using THX's color/resolution/moire pattern screen. We were testing to decide whether we should upgrade to component cabling (as standard) for our customer rentals. These are our results.

First the plasma results. Composite was (obviously) the worst connection. Colors and extreme brightness difference were very blurred together. White and red and blue were the most significant bleeding colors. we had what I would say as about 50% resolution. S-Video was next in line, and DRASTICALLY better than composite. The connection increased resolution to approx 90% and bleeding was nearly eliminated in all colors. Bleeding caused by brightness levels was gone completely. Component cables were the best connection. Resolution increased to about 96% with no visible improvement in color/brightness/bleeding.

For the CRT SDTV, composite came in last once again. Resolution was about 30% with major bleeding issues across the spectrum. The low resolution made pixel definition very hard to judge as edges became soft everywhere. S-video came in second again, with resolution about 60% (note: better than composite on the EDTV plasma). The blurring/bleeding issues were once again DRASTICALLY reduced. Only the red spectrum gave slight bleeding troubles and this was only with saturation boosting on the TV. Component connection came in first again with about 65% resolution and even better lack of bleeding.

Conclusions: Composite < Svideo < Component

No surprise there. HOWEVER, the most significant improvements were seen between Composite and Svideo. Svideo cabling provides SIGNIFICANT clarity over composite in both interlaced and progressive situations. We found a component connection's improvements can only be tangibily seen when not dealing with interlaced/SD signal. Do note, that we did not test HDTV resolutions. ONLY SDTV (480i) and EDTV (480p).

It is my strong recommendation that everyone use S-Video connections instead of composite. There will be significant improvements in visual quality on any reasonably nice display (NOTE: Jazz's pictures above demostrate this difference between composite&svideo on a progressive display). I recommend spending money on component connections when dealing with progressive displays (LCD, Plasma, DLP, LCoS/ILA, SED) or with displays that have higher resolution than 480i/480p.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

DLP and LCoS (ILA) are progressive display too. :/

Don't forget that the games on the Wii are display at 480p internatlly (I remember someone from Nintendo saying that). That's one reason why I will be buying a component cable. I do switch back and forth playing on my 25" CRT (my room) and my 52" ILA (living room) TV (don't ask why! XP). There's one CRT SDTV that does have component input (it isn't mine) and using component cable was WAY better than s-video/composite.

Oh, don't forget those RF cable! Who still use that?!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by BigCN401

DLP and LCoS (ILA) are progressive display too. :/

Don't forget that the games on the Wii are display at 480p internatlly (I remember someone from Nintendo saying that). That's one reason why I will be buying a component cable. I do switch back and forth playing on my 25" CRT (my room) and my 52" ILA (living room) TV (don't ask why! XP). There's one CRT SDTV that does have component input (it isn't mine) and using component cable was WAY better than s-video/composite.

Sorry, I forget about projection displays alot. I'm not a huge fan of rear-projection especially, though front-projection is good/ok to me. I love direct displays. To me they feel more like a window with the light coming right at me.

As to your results with the CRT SDTV, that is very interesting. Are you sure you were comparing S-Video and Component? At those low resolutions with properly tuned TV settings, they should be nearly identical. Differences in the display settings between inputs also has significant effects on the overall quality.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Slayer X

Malmer: Alright then man, just thought I'd throw it out there for ya.

Thanks - it wasn't supposed to be read so harsh. I must have been in a somewhat complaining mood.


Now that I've been looking around for TV's, I never thought so much about how important size might be for the Wii.
Yeah, they say it works with all types and all sizes, but imagine playing Wii Sports, that require some amount of space, five feet from the TV - to be able to see anything on a small screen.
Also, some of the dudes from either IGN or Gamespot said that it felt better playing Wii at some distance.

Now I'm trying to figure out if 26" is enough - as I don't have much room for anything bigger.
Has this crossed anyone's mind?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by BigCN401

Oh, don't forget those RF cable! Who still use that?!

*shudder*

i just got a sega genesis two weeks ago. it had ONLY the RF attachment (this is a genesis-2). i have a very nice VCR with all sorts of nice connection options, but sega games still look like absolute shit on my projector-- the NES looks better/clearer by far, and there is no bleeding on it. why? because the NES is going through composite, and thanks to a kickass filter on my projector, it looks decent enough. the rf cable though... looks terrible. anything on a blue background looks terrible - whether it's sonic on a blue sky, raiden shooting lightning in mortal kombat.... and ecco is downright unplayable.

i really really want to get some composite cables for this thing!

How ya doing, buddy?

I'll be holding off playing it until I can get some component cables for the thing. Just be thankful that this time Nintendo is actually going to sell the damned component cables through retail rather than a damned subsection of their online store. That was so retarded.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I don't know what all this drama is over cables. A game is a game is a game is a game.

FELIPE NO

A game is a game is a game is a LASER EYE SURGERY HOLY FUCK I CAN'T SEE SHIT WHAT DOES THAT TEXT SAY? I HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE WHAT I'M DOING HERE. OH, SHIT, I'M BLIND.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

The only games I've seen with extremely small text are RPGs, and I don't think there's going to be very many of them on the Wii.

We're talking this small. Which doesn't apply for every game.

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Originally Posted by BigCN401

Oh, don't forget those RF cable! Who still use that?!

*meekly raises hand, staring at his ancient TV without an A/V port that he plays games on*

- WraithTwo -

There's nowhere I can't reach.