Note: Video comparison used for article explanation.

I have been playing Nintendo Wii for almost a month now and have been patiently waiting for the High Definition cables to come out. Having an HD television allows me to enjoy rich experiences, but I’m not sure if Nintendo is going to pull through on this one. Me and many others have been waiting for the component cables to be released and to see how the quality of HD gaming.
The Nintendo Wii is capable of outputting 480p (progressive scan) through component cables only. Unfortunately, the High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) cable will not be available since the maximum output is 480p. If you’re not using component cables then you’ll be stuck to use the regular Video Graphics Array (VGA) cables on a 480i (interlaced) output. The TV that I will be referring to is a 50 inch Samsung plasma.

As a HDTV owner, I am always looking to get high definition compliant devices that will allow me to have a complete experience. There is nothing unlike the HD experience - once you’ve been there it is hard to go back. Nintendo Wii was released about 30 days ago and I had not found any HD cables that would allow me to fully enjoy the Nintendo Wii. For the first 20 days, Nintendo announced that they would only be selling component cables through their online store and major online retail stores (such as Best Buy, Toys R Us, etc). I found this to be very frustrating because they would take orders online, but would not deliver them until December 12th (today). I was fortunate enough to walk into my local Best Buy and pick up a third-party version of the component cables. They’re not the same as the “Nintendo” branded cables, but they’ll have to do to appease my HD fix.

After connecting the third-party component cables for a full HD experience, I immediately noticed a sharpness in the picture! I was extremely happy with the first impression and how well Nintendo created the HD experience. I tried my favourite game, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, to see if there was an increase in quality. The colour’s instantly shot out of the TV as bright and vivid as I would ever imagine!! The quality of environments which originally had soft edges had crisp and defined outlines! The only downfall to this experience was character movement. When I would move Link or the horse on screen, you could clearly see pixelation around the edges of the character. Not only that, you could also see vertical lines across the screen until the movement stopped. The HD experience, which I was extremely excited about, turned into a half-HD experience.

Perhaps the third-party cables that I was using were not of good enough to produce the flawless HD experience I was expecting. If that was the case, then the Nintendo Wii interface wouldn’t look good, but it looked the best out of everything. I tried adjusting the settings on my TV and Wii to see if anything would fix this problem, but I realized the HD experience was game specific. You can consider it similar to a TV show that is filmed not using an HD camera - you can’t expect it to be in HD quality. I think the creators of Zelda made a HD experience as best they could, considering this game came was originally ported from the Gamecube.

After much time, I finally did receive my cables and played the Nintendo Wii being exposed to a semi-HD gaming experience. The good news for HD TV owners is that you will be able to play your favourite games on the Wii with either Nintendo or third-party component cables. All cables in North America should be available this week at your nearest retail superstore!

Side Note: I’ve video taped HD and non-HD experience to show off the difference in colour quality. Although, you can really see the high detail, you can indeed see the colour differences. The left side is is the HD and the right is the non-HD. Please excuse the quality! It is mainly to show off the colour differences. You can see how vivid and crisp the HD colours are compared to the blurred together non-HD colours. Watch the video!!!!