Fix for those with component cable brightness issues

Cwiiis · 10-27-2007, 02:28 PM

First off, I really empathise with people who suffer from this - all these people saying 'adjust your brightness and contrast', as if you were too stupid to think of that - It's so annoying that people are so patronising... This thread is for those people whose television can't handle the Wii's out-of-spec component signal and lose detail in bright areas (for example, the glossy gradient in the Wii menu buttons is almost invisible, or text in the Wii shop and internet channel is very hard to read).

I had this problem and just now fixed it - A warning, this requires making a special adaptor type thing, but really, anyone can do this - if you've figured out how to turn your computer on and get this far, this should be no problem

You need:
2 x Phono Chassis Socket
1 x 0.5w 10ohm resistors
1 x stranded wire (you only need like 5cm worth, so get the shortest length you can)
1 x Phono to phono lead (the higher the quality the better, but any phono-to-phono will do, even one of the channels from a stereo lead works - if you use bad quality wires, expect a slightly blurred picture)

I got all of this from http://www.bowood-electronics.co.uk/ - It was dirt cheap so I bought a load of spares and some other bits and pieces I needed to. They were very good, but I've only ever made one order from them, so order these from whoever you trust the most.

It's pretty obvious how to put these pieces together, but just in case:
- connect the resistor between the two phono chassis sockets
- connect the ground between the two sockets with the wire (I don't think this is strictly necessary, but I have no idea and it doesn't hurt)
- connect the phono-to-phono lead to one end of the adaptor
- Put this between the Y (green) lead of your component cable and your TV

For me, this worked great - the amount of resistance you need may vary depending on how badly you experience the problem, but the more you use, the blurrier and duller the picture will get. With 10ohms, I get no noticeable reduction in brightness, other than the high-range colours now being visible and a *very slightly* blurrier picture (but not so blurry as to reduce effective resolution).

Hope this helps some people!

[DT] · 10-27-2007, 07:02 PM

Thanks for the post, nice hack! I don't seem to need it, but I like a good DIY fix

~DT

sugart · 10-28-2007, 12:53 AM

When I first bought my Wii, I was having this problem. I thought it was the TV, since it was pretty old, but when I switched to a different TV, it still had the same problem. I had it connected to a rf adapter so I could have my dvd player, satellite box , and Wii all hooked at the same time. It turns out that was the problem. All I had to do was hook the Wii directly to the TV and it works great.