My Wii games look worse in HD

[Singhson]

yeah, zapasant93 has a point, it might just be a hand shake problem from tv to console try it on another hd tv, or next best similar product to yours!

 

[Sterculius]

it's more likely just an issue of trying to put SD data on an HD TV. I just got a 32" LCD HDTV yesterday and came home started messing around with different things on it DVDs, games, cable tv...etc.

Just to compare I plugged in my xbox 360 first on SD output, and then on HD out put. The SD looked HORRIBLE with blurry textures and different colors than normal, all kinds of stuff. But the HD out put looked very crisp with every color and texture looking like it was supposed to. So I'm assuming it's just that the SD output is expecting to be on an SD tv, and thus doesn't quite show up correctly on HDTV. Just like how when you play GBA games on gameboy advance they look crisp and everything, because they're MEANT to be on that little screen and are programmed for it with the reflective LCD in mind and all that, but if you pop it into the GB-Player for gamecube, it looks a little blurry and the colors are slightly off.

I haven't got around to trying out the Wii on it yet though, I'll update when I do. I'm at work right now, so it'll be a while.

 

[Deanis]

Plugged into a Sony 42" 1080p, Wii looks pretty damn good. It's certainly clear and sharp...Low-res textures look particularly muddy, but then they do on our 55" rear-projection anyway....

I don't think theres too much you can do, different TV's process lower res stuff better than others, and obviously the more expensive ones seem to do it better. (The Sony's picture looks 720p, eg it gets upscaled).

 

[FRuMMaGe]

I haven't posted on this forum in a long time (not that I was ever a huge poster), but I'm getting back into the Wii in anticipation of SSB, but I have one problem that's frustrating me.

My Wii looks terrible on my Samsung HDTV.

Yes, I'm pluggin in the cords right, I have everything set up correctly, but games on my hdtv which is about two years old look terrible. Jagged edges appear in places i didn't think possible, and the graphics are reallllly disappointing.

When I plug the Wii into my much older, normal TV, everything looks fine, and there are fewer jagged edges and everything is just...tidier on the screen.

I need some advice, because I am someone who enjoys quality graphics in their games (kill me now), and I feel like I'm getting cheated out of the best picture I can get.

I have a 480p cable, and I'm considering buying a new HDTV to play Wii on, and need any advice you can dish out.

What type of HDTV should I get? LCD? Plasma?
What brand?
Any other advice?

Anyways, I didn't know whether to put this here or in the Nintendo hardware section, since it's not really a problem with my Wii. Thanks for listening, and I'm glad to be back.

Turn the sharpness down. Works like a charm :yesnod:

 

[wezeles]

its not the Wii its most likely your T.V!!

we have had this problem posted on here many times.

Alot of newer HDTV's specially Plasma and LCD are in a fixed resoultion... meaning you dont have the backwards compatability in order to play "CURRENT" media format like the Wii,VCR,DVD players and 90% of the t.v. channels on the air today... You probably are noticing how bad non HD t.v. channels look aswell...aswell as anything not in your native screen resolution...

First i recomend messing with your settings on your t.v. see if you can drop down the resolution on each channel to the same level as the signal going into it.. be it 480I 480p 720I 720p 1080I 1080P... you get my drift...
alot of these "high end" HDTV's don't give you this possability and only let you use the Native HD setting so someone with a 1080I or 1080P t.v. everything they watch is going to look like crap aside from HD signal that matches the t.v... Which you will quickly find out doesn't give you alot to do..lol

If your T.V. is this style of t.v. with a native resolution that can't be change go and pick up a HD upconverter/Scaler that matches the native resoulution on your t.v., A good one will normally range from 250-300 dollars and will have a nice onscreen adjustment menu to work any of your "Current" resolution devices... If you want some brand recomendations ill give you some... in essence its the same as all these new upconverting DVD players... it will take an old signal like 480 and upconvert it to look like 1080... still not as great as if it was originally that way but it will make a Wii look HD when its done...

Everyone Loves there HDTV untill they find out its not the current tech level and most everything is not HDTV yet.
If you spend the bucks your lucky to get 10% of your t.v. channels in HD. It will slowly change but this will not be 100% for another 10-20 years.. The big DTV switch is just forced broadcast in digital signal instead of analog, and it is what boosted the production of HDTV's and a few of the HD channels on the market. But the switch doesnt force anyone to send signal in HDTV at all it just makes it possibal because of the switch... So its not a quick changeover like people think..

i recomend next time you buy a big new t.v. make sure its a backwards compatibal one... I've got a 52inch HD DLP samsung and it can play 1080P HD channels or the old School VHF signal Atari, and make them both look perfect..lol

 

[Budo]

It's what happens when you display a low res image on an HD display. It will always happen, it's just more noticeable to some than others. TV quality has some effect, but there's nothing you can do when your image is limited in the number of lines it's composed of.

 

[Atomheart]

its not the Wii its most likely your T.V!!

we have had this problem posted on here many times.

Alot of newer HDTV's specially Plasma and LCD are in a fixed resoultion... meaning you dont have the backwards compatability in order to play "CURRENT" media format like the Wii,VCR,DVD players and 90% of the t.v. channels on the air today... You probably are noticing how bad non HD t.v. channels look aswell...aswell as anything not in your native screen resolution...

First i recomend messing with your settings on your t.v. see if you can drop down the resolution on each channel to the same level as the signal going into it.. be it 480I 480p 720I 720p 1080I 1080P... you get my drift...
alot of these "high end" HDTV's don't give you this possability and only let you use the Native HD setting so someone with a 1080I or 1080P t.v. everything they watch is going to look like crap aside from HD signal that matches the t.v... Which you will quickly find out doesn't give you alot to do..lol

If your T.V. is this style of t.v. with a native resolution that can't be change go and pick up a HD upconverter/Scaler that matches the native resoulution on your t.v., A good one will normally range from 250-300 dollars and will have a nice onscreen adjustment menu to work any of your "Current" resolution devices... If you want some brand recomendations ill give you some... in essence its the same as all these new upconverting DVD players... it will take an old signal like 480 and upconvert it to look like 1080... still not as great as if it was originally that way but it will make a Wii look HD when its done...

Everyone Loves there HDTV untill they find out its not the current tech level and most everything is not HDTV yet.
If you spend the bucks your lucky to get 10% of your t.v. channels in HD. It will slowly change but this will not be 100% for another 10-20 years.. The big DTV switch is just forced broadcast in digital signal instead of analog, and it is what boosted the production of HDTV's and a few of the HD channels on the market. But the switch doesnt force anyone to send signal in HDTV at all it just makes it possibal because of the switch... So its not a quick changeover like people think..

i recomend next time you buy a big new t.v. make sure its a backwards compatibal one... I've got a 52inch HD DLP samsung and it can play 1080P HD channels or the old School VHF signal Atari, and make them both look perfect..lol

This is exactly your problem (to the OP). It has NOTHING to do with the size of the TV as others have claimed. It's all about the native resolution.

 

[Budo]

Saying that TV size has nothing to do with it is a little misleading. It plays a small part in the perception of quality, even though the numbers of lines remains the same.

 

[[DT]]

its not the Wii its most likely your T.V!!

we have had this problem posted on here many times.

Alot of newer HDTV's specially Plasma and LCD are in a fixed resoultion... meaning you dont have the backwards compatability in order to play "CURRENT" media format like the Wii,VCR,DVD players and 90% of the t.v. channels on the air today...

This was a reasonably decent post, just think a few things need clearing up. You had the fixed/native concept down, but then mentioned setting resolutions.

All non-tube based sets (DLP, LCD, Plasma) are single/native/fixed.

All these sets DO - by definition - handle backwards compatibility through the use of scalar/[de]interlacers. The real question is: how WELL do they handle it.

First i recomend messing with your settings on your t.v. see if you can drop down the resolution on each channel to the same level as the signal going into it.. be it 480I 480p 720I 720p 1080I 1080P... you get my drift...
alot of these "high end" HDTV's don't give you this possability and only let you use the Native HD setting so someone with a 1080I or 1080P t.v. everything they watch is going to look like crap aside from HD signal that matches the t.v... Which you will quickly find out doesn't give you alot to do..lol

You cannot change the resolution on any fixed output set. You can do this with tube based sets. I agree that older tube based sets can look better with an SD signal for the reason you cited - they handle the native 480 mode vs. upscaling it.

If your T.V. is this style of t.v. with a native resolution that can't be change go and pick up a HD upconverter/Scaler that matches the native resoulution on your t.v., A good one will normally range from 250-300 dollars and will have a nice onscreen adjustment menu to work any of your "Current" resolution devices... If you want some brand recomendations ill give you some... in essence its the same as all these new upconverting DVD players... it will take an old signal like 480 and upconvert it to look like 1080... still not as great as if it was originally that way but it will make a Wii look HD when its done...

The scalars in most modern sets are pretty outstanding - I can almost garantee a $300 scalar isn't going to do much better. A $1500 DVDO product? Probably so, but we're talking about pretty simple video game console not highend HT.

and most everything is not HDTV yet.
If you spend the bucks your lucky to get 10% of your t.v. channels in HD.

I'd say 95% of ourchannels are in HD, and 80% of the programming on D* is HD sourced: everything broadcast after 8pm on the major networks (CBS, Fox, NBC), every sports channel, speed, NFL, all the premium movie channels, Discovery, History, UHD, etc.

i recomend next time you buy a big new t.v. make sure its a backwards compatibal one... I've got a 52inch HD DLP samsung and it can play 1080P HD channels or the old School VHF signal Atari, and make them both look perfect..lol

I am unaware on any DLP based tech that doesn't use a single native mode - I think you might be confusing that is handles lower resolution input signals like all modern LCD/DLP/Plasma's do. It's doesn't mean it's running at that lower res, it means it's doing a great job upscaling.

I'm assuming you have something like a S5296? Nice set, 1920x1080 native resolution - all low def/SD content is upscaled/deinterlaced.

Still a good informative post.

 

[wezeles]

Saying that TV size has nothing to do with it is a little misleading. It plays a small part in the perception of quality, even though the numbers of lines remains the same.

Thats true but your not supose to sit 12 inches away from a 60 inch t.v. lol

You will always notice flaws more in a larger t.v. because the image itself is larger but you will also notice much more detail because of the size aswell.
The key is to find a happy middle or something that can constantly make it in the happy middle.... the signal going into it is the same be it a 13 inch or a 60 inch t.v....

Its the same concept of blowing up and shrinking a picture on your computer. If you go to big it will get distorted, go to small you wont notice the details... Bump up the resolution of the camera from a 2 meg to a 10 meg and you can make the picture bigger with less distortion and more detail.

Bump up the SDTV, EDTV signal to an HDTV signal with and upconverter/scaler and you wont notice the flaws as much because your letting it fit the size of the screen...

 

[wezeles]

The scalars in most modern sets are pretty outstanding - I can almost garantee a $300 scalar isn't going to do much better. A $1500 DVDO product? Probably so, but we're talking about pretty simple video game console not highend HT.

I'd say 95% of ourchannels are in HD, and 80% of the programming on D* is HD sourced: everything broadcast after 8pm on the major networks (CBS, Fox, NBC), every sports channel, speed, NFL, all the premium movie channels, Discovery, History, UHD, etc.

Well the concept i was aiming at was the fact of backwards compatibal... The reason i pick DLP is because I've yet to See a DLP or any HD Projection t.v. that has not included a nice upscaller built in alot of them with "resolution settings" built into every channel for precise control of the input signal.
This is probably because these t.v's are so cheep to produce in the first place and they sell based on the extras they offer and not how "cutting edge" they are....

More and more though there are alot of LCD,Plasma's HDTV's that have no upconverter or very weak ones included in the set... This is probably just to save a buck and compete by offering a lower price on the Newest technology using a cheep upconverter if one at all. Its all over, tones of people complaining... I personally have set up about 4 home entertainment systems that needed upconverters because of "high end" Native resolution only t.v.'s

Last time i checked the HD channels List the FCC posted it was 10% broadcasted in HDTV.
Your probably thinking most of them being specialty channels like discovery,sports,news. That you can only get with subscribed service, even then you have to order these or as i said "pay the bucks" to get them from your local cable or satelite provider to get them. And the amount offered by any cable or satelite company has yet to be more than 10% of there overall channels offered usually consisiting of 25-75 True HDTV channels out of a possibal 900 or so channels offered...

And most of them arn't in 1080 alot of "HD channels" are in 720 some even as low as 480p in 16:9 format are still considered HD because of how loosley the deffinition of HDTV was when the concept first hit the market...Still to this day alot of t.v. manufacturers and broadcast companys consider 480P HD just because they are using it in 16:9 format instead of the old NTSC standard of 4:3 Now we consider this to be EDTV but they will decieve you when they can to get your money... So be carefull and read everything before you buy it.

Now as the ATSC replaces the NTSC in Febuary 2009 and we step into the full digital signal age, im sure these Fuzzy lines of what is and isn't HD will be set in stone by the commission instead of the broadcasters and manufacturers. Still you have to look at what you purchase...HDTV has a solid step as our future format but there is no garantee how long it will last before something else bumps it!

Whenever you purchase a "new gen" of any electronic just make sure it will be 100% compatibal with your current and previous generations that you own... I would even suggest waiting untill you see a strong market share shift twards the new technology before spending the money. If you have no need for it like a newer DVD player,video game sytem that can use it, then skip it. You never know what the overall market will decide they want in the end.

Many times in electronics history superior products have been pushed away for simpler more basic versions, even though the product picked by the mass public was inferior... 8-track > cassette , Betamax > VCR Im not saying this will happen to HDTV but there is a chance...

Like i said before the DTV switch of 2009 does not make anyone switch to HDTV its just the direction companies seem to be going, With DTV signal any format is possibal now they can fit alot more information in less space with less distortion as opposed to the old school analog radio waves...

Just learn about it,Wait if you can,Then make an informed decision when you buy a new product, otherwise your going to end up needing coslty "adapters" to make everything work.. Like the person in this post... obviously his upconverter in his t.v. "if it has one" isn't that great if it cant even make a 480p 16:9 format look good. That means the majority of channels being in the standard deffinition of 480I would look even worse!
In witch case the Wii would be the last thing i would complain about, I would have taken it back to the electronics store when i first plugged it in for normall t.v. watching.

In the end everyone pays for there mistakes in this case its with money..lol

 

[highroller]

CHange the resolution of your HD tv to 480 and it will be displayed nicely. Not all tv's have this option, but if you have it, go ahead

Trying to display 480 in a 1080 TV will not look good, because the TV tries to fill those 600 extra pixels per square inch with something. That is the reason why it looks bad. But if you set your tv to a 480i or p (with the HD component cables), then the Wii will look beautiful.

Or use a Standard Definition TV (regular TV) - so it will look good

Wii is NOT HD it is 480p (DVD quality) not 720 and 1080 (Blu-Ray and HD DVD quality)

Try also watching non HD television in an HD tv (it will look strange - showing imperfections on screen) and like mini-squares with movement

 

[Limbo]

From all the different answers it sounds like this problem may be more of a problem with my TV then a general HD problem.

I did some more research this afternoon, and came across some stuff about EDTV (enhanced definition TV), which displays in 480p.

Now, if I'm only going to be using this TV for Wii, would that be the way to go maybe? It would be cheaper, but it broadcasts in 480p, which is the best the wii can display in. I could get a somewhat compact one so the pixels aren't too large, and I would think it would display clearer than 720p+ hdtvs. (The problem with my TV is that it almosts seems to be searching to output detail onto the screen which simply isn't there with the wii, so the end result is a sloppy, jagged picture. And no, I do not have a 1080p tv.)

Thanks for the help

 

[alexbel]

:lol: how can something look worse in hd

 

[sremick]

:lol: how can something look worse in hd

Because the Wii isn't HD. SD stuff can look worse on an HD television than it does on an SD television.

If you read this thread, you'll see that this has already been explained by multiple people. There are also other threads which explain the same thing.