Wii VC game graphics problem (1 Viewer)

Since our twins were born back in November, the wife and I have realized that we don't get a chance to get out as much as we used to. So, as a result, we decided to do some upgrades to our home theatre system.

Over the weekend we purchased a Sony Wega 46" Widescreen LCD Projection HDTV, along with an HD Receiver (with PVR), and a nice new wireless router for the Wii (still debating about blue-ray and a surround sound system, but they'll have to wait until next payday!).

Anyway, I also purchased the Wii HD AV Component Cables (the one with the 5 connections vs the standard AV cables with 3). I've also gone through the Wii settings and changed it to the 480p output, as well as changing the aspect ratio to 16:9 to match the new widescreen TV.

However, I am still having a problem with the graphics on the Wii not looking as good as I think they should (IE, not any better than my on my old 27" tube TV that was nearly 14 years old!).

The two main examples are:

1) While playing Wii Sports Bowling, the curves on the pins don't look smooth, but jagged, especially when they are shown close up on the replay.

2) I downloaded Donkey Kong Country from the Wii VC and the graphics look even worse. I know they were ahead of their time back in 1994, especially for the SNES, and I figured they would have been at least on par with their original display performance; but they are very jagged and pixilated, especially during the between levels portion when moving from level to level (it is hard to even make out the character that is moving).

I like the TV, and the picture from the HD receiver is what I expected (and, SD channels don't look to terrible when you take into account they are SD, and not HD), but I would like to find a way to get it to work with the Wii a bit better.

I've gone over the Wii tech forums and posed the same question. Since their techs will probably tell me it is a TV issue and that they don't trouble shoot them, I figured I would ask here as well.

Any thoughts?

you're taking a 15 year old game (DKC) and running it with the best possible connections and output possible from the wii into new tech TV. I think what you are seeing is the game itself, nothing that you've done wrong, or is wrong with your system. Many people have said that putting the Wii on component to a good display you tend to see the pixels more clearly. It's the core of the great debate as to why Nintendo didn't go with a truly High(er) def system output. Ultimately, I think your "Problem" is that you are seeing the limitations of the Wii system's video outputs as a whole.

I often wondered that myself, especially with the level of graphics put out by the other competing systems.

Then again, Nintendo had/has big plans for its VC and they probably knew that going to the higher end of the graphics scale would just make the older games display even worse; and that they could save production costs and possibly reduce the amount of complaints due to poor graphics by going mid/low-range.

I remember reading that VC game downloads has surpassed 10million, and that the lowest price for a game is 500wii points (or $5US), then it doesn't take much to see that Nintendo racked in AT LEAST $50million for selling old games from old systems without putting much, or anything, into upgrading them; not to mention saving R&D costs, distribution costs, and even manual printing costs! From a business side it makes sense.... but then again, I am rambling!

Going back to the original problem, I guess I am just going to have to live with the graphics being not so great. It is too bad that there wasn't a way to preview games because this experience is seriously undermining my desire to download more games, especially if there is a good chance they are all going to look like crap. That being said, I am going to attempt to hook the Wii back up to the old TV and see if it looks any better. I'd hate to think that I just dropped a bucket of money on an TV, etc, just to have my 15+ year old TV display a better picture anyway!

I don't have a Wii, but my experience with various emulators on the PC tells me that you should check the Wii setup menus for a 'graphics smoothing' option or something to that effect.

What this does is slightly blur the pixels a bit, so you will see smoother edges, instead of the jagged pixelly appearance. Ironically, this is why your old tube tv looks better, because it didn't have the higher resolution that the new tv does.

A real world analogy is that you see someone coming toward you on the street that looks stunningly attractive, but when you get up close to them, suddenly you see all their flaws, and are like 'ewww!'.

So, any Wii owners out there, is there a setup option for smoothing?

No such option.

I'll probably have a chance to move the wii to the older TV this weekend and see if it displays any better (it has been a busy week!).

The crazy thing is, my exact same question has received NO ANSWERS over in the Wii Tech Forums; in fact, it is working its way down the board behind new posts. If it is just a matter of a older game not displaying properly on newer technology, then I don't have a problem with that. In my opinion, even an answer that this problem can not be solved is better customer service than no answer at all!

Jeff Cooper, as far as emulators go, I read that the Wii is releasing C64 games in Europe (and hopefully North America soon).... that would certainly bring me back some memories!

The answer is that the older games have the same resolution they had when they were programmed "back in the day". Playing them on a large TV is going to be noticeable. There's just no way around it.

or play them on a standard tube tv
which makes them look perfect

Yeah, that's true. Tube TVs will have smoother angled lines and curves than LCDs. Just the nature of the technologies.

Playing Tecmo Bowl on my 55-inch RPTV doesn't bother me.

My Wii is set up to a 32" tube TV via a component (interlaced) connection using the same Nintendo cable. On my set, Donkey Kong Country looks (and sounds) better on the Wii's VC than playing the SNES cartridge on the same TV. Ditto for Super Metroid and Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

I have only had my Wii for a couple of weeks now, but I think the Virtual Console is the "bee's knees!" I am very much into old school gaming and to be able to play perfect NES, SNES, Neo-Geo, Genesis, Sega Master System, Turbo Graphix 16, Nintendo 64, (and soon) Commodore 64 game classics, along with standard GameCube discs and new Wii titles all out of one box, is the gaming deal of the decade IMO!

There is nothing "high-def" about these VC classics... But of the ones I have played so far, they are completely faithful and appear to be exact replicas of the originals.

Right after the GameCube came out, Shigeru Miyamoto had a meeting to discuss the next console and said he wanted to repackage the GameCube hardware with some innovative twist and then resell it at a really low price. Essentially, that's the Wii. The hardware is slightly more powerful and is reduced in size, but essentially the abilities of the two systems are similar enough.

Also, the Virtual Console games are supposed to be spot-on perfect recreations of the originals. That means that effects like slow-down in Nintendo games or graphical glitches are intact. Some games have improvements (a couple N64 games have smoother 3D graphics) or added features (Pokemon Snap lets you export your pictures to your Wii Message Board), but that's all.

I'm really happy with my Wii overall but I wish they had a hard drive or some sort of large-capacity device. I'll settle for an ugly USB add-on (like they would have trouble selling it anyway; Wii Fit did HUGE numbers in Japan and will do the same when it's released here).

As much as I like the Wii, being a re-hashed gamecube doesn't, in my opinion, qualify it to be considered a "next generation console."

Anyway, I hooked the Wii back up to the old tube TV and the VC games looked fine. As it turns out, a Captain of mine has the same TV and also a Wii. He says he gets the same issue with the graphics when playing gamecube games, which lends more support to the argument about the SD based games not displaying as nicely on an HDTV.

It isn't that the games are un-playable, but I guess I just expected more.