Do Wii games render in 480P or is it upscaled 480i?

[Unclepauly]

I just bought a Wii and remember the gamecube you had to hold B at the beginning of a game to get progressive scan with the component video cable, which resulted in a MUCH sharper and colorful image. No such option with the Wii, just a menu setting that says output to 480P. I've played a couple games so far that DO NOT improve visually when the Wii is set to 480P like certain games did on gamecube. Namely Mario Galaxy. Is there a secret trick like with the gamecube to get Mario to render in 480P? Or did Nintendo disable that feature and instead trick everyone into thinking they got 480P but instead are getting upscaled 480i?

Reminds me of early xbox 360 games where they rendered below 720P but people thought they were getting HD.

 

[Squilliam]

I believe that Wii games are ED or extended definition which is 480P.

 

[Unclepauly]

In my case they are rendering at 480i and look like utter crap. My gamecube games look better when ran at 480P.

 

[Boxercide]

Didn't I read that it's not 720x480 in one of the threads? Even when set for 16x9 it's just stretched 640x480.

 

[grandmaster]

480p games are definitely a native 640x480, and aren't upscaled 480i. Here's how the first generation Digital Foundry HD capture card sees 480p Wii (image stretched to 848x480):

http://www.digitalfoundry.org/blogfiles/excitetruck.jpg

 

[Unclepauly]

So maybe my Wii is broken then? Because super mario sunshine has like twice the sharpness and color fidelity than super mario galaxy on my system when in 480P. I'm gonna call nintendo I just bought this mofo.

 

[theLonely1]

Why not try a GC game on the Wii. Or you are comparing from memory? (Bad idea).

 

[DRS]

Perhaps a stupid question, but do you use component cable? I have my dev Wii on composite (SCART), but my GF's Wii is on component which really makes a huge difference!

 

[Unclepauly]

I rented a couple other games and they seem to be rendering in 480P but mario galaxy still doesn't. Maybe it's just disabled for certain games.

 

[Unclepauly]

Why not try a GC game on the Wii. Or you are comparing from memory? (Bad idea).

Yeah I've tried this, the gamecube games that support pro-scan look really good. Mario Kart seems to double in fidelity.

 

[grandmaster]

You can eliminate the hardware side of things by running the same game in your GC and Wii, surely? Do they look the same?

Mario Galaxy is most definitely full 480p and still one of the best looking Wii games: http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/5580/mario1000.jpg

I do find it quite amusing that out of all the platform holders, it is Nintendo that has the strongest commitment to 60fps gaming.

 

[Gradthrawn]

I do find it quite amusing that out of all the platform holders, it is Nintendo that has the strongest commitment to 60fps gaming.

That's a next gen feature, grandmaster. This gen is all about resolution, True HD and all

What's that you say? What do you mean a lot of game don't even render in 720p?

 

[Unclepauly]

You can eliminate the hardware side of things by running the same game in your GC and Wii, surely? Do they look the same?

Mario Galaxy is most definitely full 480p and still one of the best looking Wii games: http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/5580/mario1000.jpg

I do find it quite amusing that out of all the platform holders, it is Nintendo that has the strongest commitment to 60fps gaming.

It doesnt' even look 480P in the pic, quite blurry.

 

[Unclepauly]

I've ran games on both the gamecube and the wii and yes gamecube games improve immensely when ran in 480P and now that I've rented some Wii games that work, they improve too. For some ungodly reason Mario won't switch over to 480P.

 

[egoless]

Delete

 

[SG79]

"TrueHD" used to mean 1080p if. Usage of TrueHD and FullHD was all the buzz with the hype/marketing surrounding the PS3.

The CE (consumer electronics term) for the resolution is Full HD, which hit mainstream in mid 2006. TrueHD as it's spelled is Dolby's variable bit-rate lossless audio codec that's used in most BD movies nowadays, though DTS's HD MA (master audio) proved to be more popular initially.

A bit of a pet peeve of mine

On that note, I would not bother with Monster cables at all. This is coming from someone who got suckered into getting them last gen for every single console but the GC since they didn't make one for it.

 

[theLonely1]

Maybe you are looking at the effects of the Wii's Anamorphic widescreen vs GCs 4:3. I can see a difference between Wii at 480i and 480p in my TV (Samsung HD 44' CRT).

 

[Unclepauly]

Maybe you are looking at the effects of the Wii's Anamorphic widescreen vs GCs 4:3. I can see a difference between Wii at 480i and 480p in my TV (Samsung HD 44' CRT).

PLZ tell me that's an RPCRT cause I shudder at the thought of hefting a 44" traditional CRT around. Although the picture quality would prob be amazing.

 

[Unclepauly]

That's bizarre. Are you sure the other wii games are running in 480p for you and it's not some placebo effect? You are using the component cables correct? Maybe you need to buy the monster cables. Did you try mario kart to see if that brightly colored game also looks correct to you?

As for the other part of your post, based on the "early" you used in your comment, you should check the resolution thread. Many games run the gamut of resolutions from 480 (scaled down, not sure of native) to 1080 (native or scaled up).

It amazes me that, let's take Halo 3 @ 640p as an example, that 640p = 480p. What's even more amazing is that, taking the same game as an example, being 160p from standard def and being 80p from hardline 720p warrants the very same vitriol from the same people, even though it's significantly more fully featured pixels across the board than what the previous gen could offer.

Oh well, roll on subHD bandwagon. Roll on.

By the way, Sony was throwing around all the TrueHD talk when their system hadn't launched yet and the 360's HD initially topped out at 720p. "TrueHD" used to mean 1080p if. Usage of TrueHD and FullHD was all the buzz with the hype/marketing surrounding the PS3. Anyway, not all of us split hairs with native vs scaling, but it was required by many to keep the sniping going on each side.

I admire the fact that I set 1080p once in the 360 dashboard, and the rest is taken care of such that my HDTV doesn't blank and hunt for what resolution is coming in as I switch content. I like that I can tick 720p and 1080p in the XMB on the PS3, but it's still annoying that dependent on the source, i'm not necessarily getting the best output from the system unless I tinker with the XMB. You'd think microsoft would have marketed the fact that you set your display once and always get the optimal output (believe it or not these systems have great scalers) without your display doing the resolution dance. Oh wait, they did to some of us.

Anyway, I had to connect the Wii to my HDTV for the holidays for all the folks that came into town. I didn't see the big difference between 480i/p, but that could just be the effectiveness of my TV's scaler. But basically, if grandmaster says it's 480p, then it's certainly 480p.

Yes I'm using component cables I'm not mentally handicapped. I bought them for 4usd from monoprice as all cables look the same to me even if wound with silkworm thread with a rare gas inside to keep the signal 100% clean.

I own all the current consoles and have a mid/high end PC so I'm completely aware of resolution and am somewhat sensitive to it. The 360 does have a good scaler in it so games look ok at lower than HD res but I still can notice it. The main thing to me is a slight blur.

I need all the resolution I can get due to playing on a 60" SXRD that doesn't have the best scaler in it. 480i just looks horrible, and the improvement you get from bumping up the res on a big TV is huge.

 

[Boxercide]

PS: 480i->480p isn't upscaling.