Man, not having component cables for your Wii is just gut-wrenching, let me tell you. A composite picture is so crappy when compared to component. I’ve been using an HD setup for about 6 months now, and I seriously hate looking at a composite signal. It’s way too muted and blurry.
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You know when people say the colors for a game are very bland and boring? Yeah, that’s because they are looking at the game through a composite signal. The colors through component, however, are extremely vibrant and beautiful, even when they use realistic colors like gray and brown. And you don’t even really need a TV with progressive scan. From the untrained eye, progressive scan just makes things sharper. Component seems to bring out a better picture concerning colors and contrast.
There are some times where I just want to stop playing whatever it is I’m playing, and wait until I get the Nintendo-branded Wii Component cables.
Which is far easier said than done. Nintendo has not shipped out any cables to stores (which won’t happen until the beginning of December), and their online store is currently sold out of them. As of now, eBay has them at an average of $150. I’m seriously contemplating putting eBay on my list of most hated things in my life at this point.
And no, I will not waste my money on those GameStop-branded pieces of garbage. They’re cheap for a reason: they suck.
Composite may not be the best, but it’s a hell of a lot better than coax. Sadly, neither of my TVs have even a working composite hookup, so I’ve been suing a coax for a while. The refresh rate will drive me mad sooner or later. As for Wii… I’m sure Nintendo will pick up the pace on production soon.
Damn, coax? That’s gotta hurt. I haven’t used coax since the SNES days. And after I got my N64, they let you use the same composite cables for the SNES, as well.
I used Coax up through the Dreamcast days. My folks never replaced tv’s with any that had composite (they didn’t know or care about it), and I finally had to get myself a little 13 incher with composite eventually. Having seen Xbox 360 in HD myself, I can attest to the amazing picture that you can get from anything better than composite, but I wouldn’t say its such an eyesore that I can’t play the Wii. If I could get myself used to the blocky graphics of most PS2 games, I can train myself to see them in a variety of display modes
Beyond just the better picture – I play all my games on a VGA monitor. (small apartment with limited wall space) Not having a real TV leaves me with two options for my new Wii – component cables with a vga converter, or a scanline converter box, which costs almost as much as the component cables are going for on ebay. Until I get one or the other, I’m using my old scanline converter which got mostly fried by lightning a few months back (always run your coax through a surge protector), and getting only the red channel. It’s like playing an amazing, motion-sensitive version of the virtual boy :)
I must be the only person on Earth who uses S-video with all his systems.
Well, you get points for trying, Jay, hehe.
S-Video isn’t bad. I actually find that the jump from composite to S-Video is a more recognizable improvement than S-Video to component. Obviously, I’d take component, but S-Video isn’t bad, and the cables are cheaper and more consistent.That being said, I’m sick and tired of big companies screwing up accessories and hardware supplies. I guess I understand PS3’s shortage of blu-ray components leading to an overall shortage, but you’d think Nintendo would want to capitalize on their high end gamer market (you know, the ones they’re trying to steal from Sony) and have freaking cables in stock.
Yeah, s-video isn’t horrible. I remember playing Metroid Prime in s-video and it looked pretty good. Got rid of that annoying flicker that composite had with some of the colors. And with this kind of shortage, Nintendo really needs to wake up now. If this many people want component cables, then something’s wrong, and Nintendo’s not paying attention to the current electronics market very well.