Component Cable Comparison

[darrencp22]

Has anyone compared the output of 3rd party component cables to Nintendo's?

I bought some component cables off of eBay. I have to say that the picture was better on my 27" TV using S-Video than it is on my HDTV using component. There are a lot of jaggies (I know they will be exposed)... but i just think it's pretty bad..too bad. Espcially text seems to be jaggy as well on the menus. I have to be honest... because of it, i've been playing my 360 more than the Wii... and I REALLY like Zelda.

I'm my no means a graphic whore, but I dont think i'm asking too much when I expected the picture to be better on my HDTV than on my old one. Someone please say that I have something setup wrong or that 1st party cables make a big difference.

Followup: yes, I've turned on progressive and wide-screen. I've also had to set my TV to stretch to get the correct ratio.

 

[Sp00ks]

I don't think you have anything set up wrong...you are going to notice less jaggies on your 27" cause it is smaller and you have less pixels to deal with. The jagged edges are always there, but less noticeable with the composite cables cause the quality is just not meant to be there. using component will increase color quality and will help to limit EI with better shielding. soooo, in the end you just have to compromise, until they start making graphic models for HD. personally, I can get around the jagged edges with better color, less blur, and great gameplay.

I have the GameStop Wii HD Premium Component Cable for $50, btw.

 

[wiifreek]

Will let you know tonight after I get mine. I will probably go with a brand name cable as per something off of eBay. Something I can return etc.

 

[darrencp22]

I guess my problem is that i'm not comparing to my HDTV on composite.. I'm comparing to my old TV that was considerably smaller. I didnt notice much blurryness at all. Picture seemed very crisp. I suppose if I were to not use component on the 50" it would look terrible.

 

[darrencp22]

One other thought... didnt the original xbox output the same as the wii (progressive only)? If that is the case, should the quality of picture on Wii look similar? I loaded Conker for xbox1 into my 360 and it looks great... no jaggies... Does that indicate a problem with my wii cable or does the 360 do something special to render old xbox games?

 

[Sp00ks]

only thing I can figure is that the 360 has a much better GPU than the Wii does. I very highly doubt that it's your component cable, as I said jagged edges are completely normal.

check out this review...
http://www.bonafidereviews.com/article.php?id=193

they give good before and after comparisons. try it yourself too, hook up composite cables first and try it on the 50, then try the component cables. look for crispness in color and around the edges. the graphics have just not been designed to look as they do on the 360 and PS3.

 

[wiifreek]

Great review Spooks !! Can't wait to get mine tonight.

 

[Inspire]

Pft. The Wii can only display a 480 res. The 360 can do 1080 - more than double (xbox did 720p). That's why you have 'jaggies'. Your problem would be even worse on a larger TV. It has nothing to do with the processor.

Cables are cables. If there is a difference between Nintendo's component cables and third-party cables, you won't notice it.

 

[MaXiMiUS]

Pft. The Wii can only display a 480 res. The 360 can do 1080 - more than double (xbox did 720p). That's why you have 'jaggies'. Your problem would be even worse on a larger TV. It has nothing to do with the processor.

Cables are cables. If there is a difference between Nintendo's component cables and third-party cables, you won't notice it.

According to Wikipedia, the original Xbox could do up to 1080i. Resolution counts, but there's other things you have to factor in.

Xbox specs:

Detailed specifications

    * CPU: 733 MHz Intel Pentium III (Micro-PGA2). IA-32. 180 nm process.
          o SSE. Floating point SIMD. 4 single-precision floating point numbers per clock cycle.
          o MMX. Integer SIMD.
          o 133 MHz 64-bit GTL+ front side bus to GPU/chipset.
          o 32 KiB L1 cache. 128 KiB on-die L2 Advanced Transfer Cache (256-bit bus).
    * Shared memory subsystem
          o 64 MiB DDR SDRAM at 200 MHz. 6.4 GB/s
          o Supplied by Hynix or Samsung depending on manufacture date and location.
    * Graphics processing unit (GPU) and system chipset: 233 MHz NV2A ASIC. Co-developed by Microsoft and NVIDIA.
          o 4 pixel pipelines with 2 texture units each
          o 115 million vertices/second, 125 million particles/second (peak)
          o 932 megapixels/second (233 MHz x 4 pipelines), 1,864 megatexels/second (932 MP x 2 texture units) (peak)
          o 4 textures per pass, texture compression, full scene anti-aliasing (NV Quincunx, supersampling, multisampling)
          o Bilinear, trilinear, and anisotropic texture filtering
          o Similar to the NV20 and NV25 PC GPUs.
    * Storage mediums
          o 2-5x (2.6 MB/s-6.6 MB/s) CAV DVD-ROM
          o 8 or 10 GB 3.5-inch 5,400 RPM hard disk. Formatted to 8 GB. FATX file system.
          o Optional 8 MB memory card for saved game file transfer.
    * Audio processor : NVIDIA MCPX (a.k.a. SoundStorm NVAPU)
          o 64 3D channels (up to 256 stereo voices)
          o HRTF Sensaura 3D enhancement
          o MIDI DLS2 Support
          o Monaural, Stereo, Dolby Surround, and Dolby Digital Live 5.1 audio output options
    * Integrated 10/100BASE-TX Ethernet
    * DVD movie playback
    * A/V outputs: composite video, S-Video, component video, SCART, Optical Digital TOSLINK, and stereo RCA analog audio.
    * Resolutions: 480i, 576i, 480p, 720p and 1080i.
    * Controller Ports: 4 proprietary USB ports
    * Weight: 3.86 kg (8.5 lb)
    * Dimensions: 320 × 100 × 260 mm (12.5 × 4 × 10.5 in)

Wii specs:

Technical specifications

Nintendo itself has released few technical specifics regarding the Wii system, but some key facts have leaked to the press.[1][36]

Processors:

    * CPU: PowerPC based "Broadway" processor, made with a 90 nm SOI CMOS process, reportedly* clocked at 729 MHz[38]

    * GPU: ATI "Hollywood" GPU made with a 90 nm CMOS process,[39] reportedly* clocked at 243 MHz[38]

Memory:

    * 88 MB main memory (24 MB "internal" 1T-SRAM integrated into graphics package, 64 MB "external" GDDR3 SDRAM)[40]
    * 3 MB GPU texture memory

Ports and peripheral capabilities:

    * Up to four Wii Remote controllers (connected wirelessly via Bluetooth) - five player capability using four Wii Remotes and one Nintendo GameCube controller
    * One SD memory card slot
    * Two USB 2.0 ports
    * One Sensor Bar port
    * One accessory port on the bottom of the Wii Remote
    * Four Nintendo GameCube controller ports
    * Two Nintendo GameCube memory card ports
    * Mitsumi DWM-W004 WiFi 802.11b/g wireless module
    * Compatible with optional USB 2.0 to Ethernet LAN adaptor

Built-in content ratings systems:

    * BBFC, CERO, ESRB, OFLC, OFLC (NZ), PEGI, USK

	

Storage:

    * 512 MB built-in NAND flash memory
    * Expansion available via SD card memory, 2 GB maximum supported capacity
    * Nintendo GameCube Memory Cards (for saving GameCube games only)

IBM's Wii "Broadway" CPU
IBM's Wii "Broadway" CPU
ATI's Wii "Hollywood" GPU
ATI's Wii "Hollywood" GPU

    * Slot-loading disc drive compatible with 8 cm GameCube optical disc and 12 cm Wii Optical Disc
    * Mask ROM by Macronix[41]

Video:

    * Up to 480p (PAL/NTSC) or 576i (PAL/SECAM), standard 4:3 and 16:9 anamorphic widescreen[42]
    * Component (including Progressive scan), RGB SCART (PAL only), S-Video (NTSC only), composite output, or D-Terminal[43]

Audio:

    * Main: Stereo - Dolby Pro Logic II-capable[44]
    * Controller: Built-in speaker

* None of the clock rates have been confirmed by Nintendo, IBM, or ATI.

Edit:

To simplify things: the Wii is more powerful than the original Xbox, and the original Xbox could stretch it's blurry textures further. The Wii has a more powerful (as in, WAY higher quality) CPU, higher quality memory/RAM (and more of it), and better GPU.

Wii = quality hardware

 

[Inspire]

Maximus, I could debate your points, but I don't need to. I never made any reference to the xbox being more powerful than the Wii.

I simply said that 'jaggies' result from a low resolution, which is why the op notices 'jaggies' on Zelda and not on xbox.

 

[MaXiMiUS]

Maximus, I could debate your points, but I don't need to. I never made any reference to the xbox being more powerful than the Wii.

I simply said that 'jaggies' result from a low resolution, which is why the op notices 'jaggies' on Zelda and not on xbox.

I never said that you had said that, either. Hell, I even carried on your post (with the 1080i). No reason to rep me and leave "******" as a comment, I wasn't bashing you at all.

 

[darrencp22]

I"m getting conflciting info..

If the Wii is more powerful than the original xbox, shouldn't i receive at least a comprable image quality? I don't. My wii is inferior (in terms of jaggies) than original Xbox games... These games are played through the 360. Does that matter? Are these games some how upscaled or rendered differently on the 360?

This is the main reason why I ask about my cable. I guess the biggest annoynace is that text on the Wii menus is rough and not smooth.

 

[adrelith]

I have the official Nintendo component cable hooked up to my 42 inch plasma, and yes, the text is a little jagged. Its because of the resolution of the screen. Same thing happens if you try and run a computer at on a TV at a larger resolution than it can run comfortably.

 

[darrencp22]

Finally my answer from wikipedia:
"Backward compatibility is achieved through software emulation of the original Xbox. Emulated games offer graphical enhancements because they are rendered in 720p, 1080i, or 1080p resolution with anti-aliasing enabled rather than the Xbox standard of 480p"...

so the 360 does render games different than the original.. so I dont have a valid comparison. I'm now confident that it is not my cable.

 

[2ZeBeach]

Because the Wii is more powerful than the 360, then there stands a possibility that eventually they could offer an upgrade so the Wii could render 720p res. that would be sweet.



Edit: Sorry, didn't mean the 360, meant to say the original Xbox.