Best TV for Wii?

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Slartibartfast

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So I don't really know anything about HDTVs, and I want to get a smallish LCD for the Wii (that's all it will do). Size range is 19" - 24". What I'm trying to get a grasp on is the resolution.

Nobody really makes a 16:9 480p television, so I'm looking at 720p sets. My thinking is that is that if I go higher, the image will look blurrier (just like running a monitor at lower than native res). I'm finding that some 720p TV's are 1440x900, some are 1680 x 1050, while some are 1280x720.

So am I just misinterpreting what 720p really means? What should I look for to get the best quality image? Brand-wise I was leaning towards Samsung, Sony, or Westinghouse.
 
The wii is going to look bad no matter what resolution you display it at. A polished turd is still a turd (speaking in terms of resolution). Some games do some amazing selective anti-aliasing, which makes it disconcerting when a main character looks just as good on the Wii as it would on say, the XBox, but then the rest of the scene looks like a PS1 game with nice post-processing effects.

Anyway, at 19-24" you won't be finding 1080. The other options are going to be 720 or 768. 720 is a cleaner upscale than 768, but realistically speaking you won't see much difference if any from either.

If you're finding 1440x900 or 1680x1050, then that's a computer monitor (with or without a tuner slapped on). I'd look for a good brand (e.g. not Vizio, Westinghouse, or Insignia) tv at 720p. That should be fairly simple. As noted, I don't think you're going to see any benefit or disappointment from any resolution unless it's a 16:10 (computer monitor) which will require vertical stretching of the image that will likely be noticeable.

What's your price point? I wonder if you could stretch to say, a refurb Westinghouse (yeah yeah I know I said not to) at 32" for $400 or something like that, or if you're really looking at computer monitors because they're $200ish max.
 
The thing is, numerous TVs are listed at 720p but when you dig deep you see a variety of actual resolutions, including those I listed, as well as something like 1356 horizontal. $400 is the most I can spend.
 
Get a Westinghouse. I believe BB uses these for the wii kiosks, looks ok to me. Although nothing beats a 4:3 CRT in terms of PQ when using a wii. There's a 3rd party wii VGA adapter out, you may look into that.
 
I just got a Magnavox 32 incher at wal mart on clearance for 400.. Great deal for a pretty good tv. I'd say if you can find it, shoot for it and get a Component cable because it will look lots better. Honestly though, the Wii looked pretty good on my old regular CRT screen.

Westinghouse also has great picture (better quality than my magnavox) for the price. My friend said the wii on his with components looks better than mine, even though mine does look great. That's a lot to say for such an unknown (by the majority of people) brand. Keep in mind they do have quality issues.

Edit: My tv was an excellent bang for the buck though. Some HDTV channels look great, others suck. I believe it's because of the broadcast. SDTV looks like crap.. Hook a computer up to it and it looks excellent, great computer display IMHO. Also heard its really good with HD gaming systems. With only 400 to spend, I'd have to say you won't get a better NEW TV for the money
 
It actually looks okay on a small LCD TV. The smaller the set, the better it tends to look when it comes to HDTVs. Like Tzzird mentions, it looks pretty rough on a big set unless you have an upscaler of some kind. Even with one, it's still a LONG way from the other systems. Some games are better than others, though. Mario Galaxy and Mario Kart pretty much look like blurry GC games, but Smash Brothers actually does look pretty good.
If you can find a 16x9 SDTV I bet it would look best, but you'll be hard pressed to find one of those these days.
The issue with using an SDTV is that most games are better on a 16:9 set. There's just more viewable area.
 
I'm currently running it over component on a 16" SDTV. It looks pretty sharp, but I was hoping to find a way to get it to look better on a larger, 16:9 TV. It may just not be worth it until I have some more money to work with.
 
Ive got a 60 inch Mitsubishi Diamond DLP 1080p in my HTheater room and a 36inch flat tube Panasonic Tau 720p in the living room and with the 360 & PS3 the Mitsu looks alot better than the Pana.

But with the Wii, the Panasonic looks better than the Mitsubishi even though my Onkyo reciever can upconvert the 480p signal from the Wii all the way up to 1080p on the Mitsubishi the Panasonic still looks better. So I would say find a nice 36 CRT, if they still make them, and go with that.

But to each his own.;)
 
CRT all the way....maybe you can find a way to get a nice 21 inch CRT monitor and hook the Wii up to it. Will probably be more resistant to a Wii remote projectile as well.
 
The best way to view a Wii is on an SDTV with s-video. The text is a bit sharper, but the image isn't stretched. Get a regular ol' tube with S-Video in and S-Video cables for your Wii and you're good. The Wii is going to look like pure ass on any HDTV (I know, I've had both).
 
I have my Wii hooked into my Samsung 37" 1080p HDTV via component hookup, I have my TV set to auto-sense aspect ratio. Some games on the Wii show up as at 4:3, such as Metroid Prime 3, Wii Sports, and Super Paper Mario, other games like SSBB and Mario Kart display at 16:9. Either way none of the games look distorted, text is clear, square objects look square.
 
what.... whats this talk about the Wii looking bad no matter what. If you have the 6 connector component cable connected, it looks fine. My girlfriend's dad has a Wii hooked up this way to his 56" Samsung.

Played mario cart over the weekend and it looked fine
 
w1ngzer0 said:
what.... whats this talk about the Wii looking bad no matter what. If you have the 6 connector component cable connected, it looks fine. My girlfriend's dad has a Wii hooked up this way to his 56" Samsung.

Played mario cart over the weekend and it looked fine
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Depends on your definition of "fine." That game is pretty last-gen by any standards, and I'm a pretty big fan. It's not exactly horrendous, but it's just like a Gamecube game that's been stretched out to be 16x9. That's part of the issue with the Wii @ 16:9. They're just taking a 4:3 image and stretching it out.
If someone has a 1080p native TV, they're literally at 3X the resulution of the Wii, so it gets blurry and washed out. It's like playing Quake at 640x480 full-screen on a 1280x1024 LCD monitor.
 
I get the best results with CRT televisions around 20-24 inches. A larger screen is fine but you will need to sit farther away than normal TV viewing distance to get the best results.

You don't need 480P to get good results, but you do need the component cable.

Edit: Note that any TV that does 480P will do fine with the Wii, but the bigger it is the further away you need to set to get the image to resolve. If you think it looks blurry, back up a little more.
 
Domingo said:
Depends on your definition of "fine." That game is pretty last-gen by any standards, and I'm a pretty big fan. It's not exactly horrendous, but it's just like a Gamecube game that's been stretched out to be 16x9. That's part of the issue with the Wii @ 16:9. They're just taking a 4:3 image and stretching it out.
If someone has a 1080p native TV, they're literally at 3X the resulution of the Wii, so it gets blurry and washed out. It's like playing Quake at 640x480 full-screen on a 1280x1024 LCD monitor.
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my definition of fine is a game not looking like shit because of technical difficulties. The text is clear, the picture is clear, ect. I don't need a 720P PS3 game to enjoy video games.

If you feel like im attacking you or arguing with you. I'm not. Im telling you how i feel.
 
my wii is connected to my sony 55" 1080p 55A2000 via component and it looks very good, much better than composite did.
 
Fact: the Wii is playable on an HDTV scaled. Fact: it looks like ass most of the time. Deal with it.
 
Ok, I found a local guy selling a practically-new 30" Samsung CRT, 16:9, support up to 1080i for $390. 2x component, 2x hdmi, and lots of other goodies. I think I'm going to jump on it.
 
Woah, good deal! If you pass on it and happen to be in the bay area let me know so I can take it :eek:
 
A perfect match for a Wii would be a 480p ED set....of course those are hard to find these days and may seem a little lacking if you want to watch HD programming.
 
After playing my Wii on my HD/DLP pj at 480p moving it to an old 27" SD TV was horrible, the scan lines!! the freaking huge scan lines!!!

Anything that will take and display (with out mangling it too much) 480p should work great.
 
Slartibartfast said:
Ok, I found a local guy selling a practically-new 30" Samsung CRT, 16:9, support up to 1080i for $390. 2x component, 2x hdmi, and lots of other goodies. I think I'm going to jump on it.
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I would jump on that if I where you. I got practically the same tv and it's great for the Wii. Maby it can't do true high definition but I really don't care as 480P with 16:9 is the best you gonna get on the Wii with any tv and it does 480p native.

390$ might be a little high as I got mine around the same price a little over a year ago but they don't make them anymore so I would grab it still.

Edit: By true high definition I mean it can't do 720p or 1080p, it can however do both 720i and 1080i though. Still good enough to play PS3 and 360 on although not the optimal tv setup for those consoles.
 
That TV sounds great for the Wii. Hell,if it'll do 1080i, it'll work rather well with the 360, too. It'll at least be passable for the PS3, although they seem to have targeted 720p as their resolution more often than not.
 
If it'll do 720p, too....BUY IT!
It should be pretty ideal for all the systems in that case. CRT TV's rock but they just don't (understandably) make them big enough.
 
So I picked it up last night, and it's excellent (albeit 120 pounds). I'm very happy with it, the Wii looks great on it. Definitely a better choice than getting like a 20" LCD for the same cost.
 
Slartibartfast said:
So I picked it up last night, and it's excellent (albeit 120 pounds). I'm very happy with it, the Wii looks great on it. Definitely a better choice than getting like a 20" LCD for the same cost.
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120 pounds for 30" CRT? Ouch. I've forgotten how heavy old generation TVs can be :D

We used to have a 60" regular projection TV that we gave away to a friend that must've weighed 300 pounds.
 
Tzzird said:
We used to have a 60" regular projection TV that we gave away to a friend that must've weighed 300 pounds.
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Yeah, my last 60" RPTV was around 250lbs by the spec, and it weighed every ounce of it everytime it had to be moved.

I was drooling over those Olevia 65" LCD's when Costco had them, but I still can't bring myself to buy one as they weigh 240lbs! So much for progress. :)

I'm trying not to turn every display device I have into a projector. You can't beat 10lbs for portability.
 
Rear projections are pretty lightweight, too.
My last CRT was a 40" Sony and it took at least 3 people to move it. Not only was it heavy, the weight was distributed so that there were no good hand-holds.
My 61" Samsung DLP could theoretically be moved by one person if they had the wingspan for it. I'd guess it's no more than 50-60 lbs.
 
Does anyone know of a good place to buy a handheld degausser for relatively cheap? I'm noticing that after being on for about 30 minutes I get a slight discoloration in the lower-left hand corner. There is nothing near the TV that could be causing that (no magnetic sources or anything). It seems ok right after it turns on and degausses itself though.

This is the cheapest one I've found:

http://www.sourcingmap.com/hand-hel...sing-coil-repair-screen-degausser-p-1454.html
 
w1ngzer0 said:
what.... whats this talk about the Wii looking bad no matter what. If you have the 6 connector component cable connected, it looks fine. My girlfriend's dad has a Wii hooked up this way to his 56" Samsung.

Played mario cart over the weekend and it looked fine
Click to expand...

I guess you missed the horrific aliasing?
 
Technoob said:
I guess you missed the horrific aliasing?
Click to expand...

I'm playing my Wii on an 84" projected 720P image (Epson 550, EliteScreens 84" 16:9 screen) and it looks great. Sure, it aliases especially so at this screen size, but honestly I'm not paying attention to that when I'm actually playing a game. Even looking at it for visual quality, it looks pretty darn good anyway. No, it's not an HD picture with the Wii, but it looks fine. If I want HD I'll hook my PC up, 360, or watch something off my TiVo HD. It's hooked up through the component cables. I just don't get the horrible Wii graphic bashing that people seem so fond of engaging in.
 
GoldenTiger said:
I just don't get the horrible Wii graphic bashing that people seem so fond of engaging in.
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Maybe it's because the graphics are bad? It's an overclocked gamecube in every sense of the word, and it costs the same as an xbox 360. Not caring that its graphics are terrible is one thing, but not understanding why people might wonder why the bowling pins in wiisports have 8 bit nes jaggies means you're willing to suspend criticism for some unknown reason.

Nintendo is lazy, they are making a killing selling a wiisports machine (since I'd guess a large percentage of wii buyers buy the console and nothing else), and as usual third party devs get nintendo shafted, and despite the HUGE numbers of wii's sold, nobody's making money off it but nintendo. Congrats to them, but the wii is a piece of shit as a gaming machine. Even the ps2 rocks its socks off.
 
^Wii software is consistently in the top-10 sales charts. Defining a "gaming" machine by it's graphics makes no sense. It may have shitty graphics, but it's an excellent gaming machine. If you don't like the games for it, it's pretty easy to not buy it.
 
The graphics on the Wii aren't that great, but you can still get some decent visuals out of the system. If you recall Mario Sunshine on the Gamecube looked fantastic, and Mario Galaxy continued that trend. I came across this new FPS being developed for the Wii, and honestly it looks pretty damn decent given the hardware limitations:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/17/the-conduit-gameplay-trailer-released/

I think a big part of the visuals is developers not taking the time to bleed the system of all it can do. In time they'll get better.
 
I actually think the graphics on the Wii are great, it is just that the hardware does not support the 720 and 1080 HD resolutions that are necessary to game on larger screens. Zelda Twilight Princess, or even the ORIGINAL Metroid Prime, are not lacking in graphics or detail at all. It is just the hardware can't generate a high enough resolution to make it not look jaggie on a large screen. If you have a picture-in-picture function on your large screen, and run your Wii in a window and shrink it down, you can see how the image resolves.

I would have gladly paid a little more for an HD Wii. At this point, games that are not at least 720P are a bummer because they just aren't compatible with larger screens.

It is really unfortunate that the Wii does not integrate well into a home theater.
 
I really have a feeling that Nintendo did not expect the Wii to be this big of a success and thus planned for something that would be fun but would go on a secondary TV (small childs room TV). With that said, who knows what the future holds for the Wii. They are making a killing off the console right now so who know maybe this year at E3 they will release an adapter for the Wii that will upscale the video to 720p. That is a long shot though.
 
Slartibartfast said:
^Wii software is consistently in the top-10 sales charts. Defining a "gaming" machine by it's graphics makes no sense. It may have shitty graphics, but it's an excellent gaming machine. If you don't like the games for it, it's pretty easy to not buy it.
Click to expand...

One of its all time best sellers is wii play, which I own, because it's the cheapest best value for an extra controller. That's consistently in the top ten, and it's pure ass. When nintendo has big releases of storied franchise retreads, yeah, they're in the top 10. Mario, Metroid, SSB, Mariokart. What third party non nintendo games sell at all on the system? The wii is bad for the industry as a whole, very very good for nintendo alone.
 
^Yeah there's a lot of crap on the Wii, but there was on the NES, GBA, DS, and PS1, all of which were important systems. All of those shitty games are going to be made regardless. If they weren't on the Wii they'd be somewhere else.

It is true that 3rd parties are having trouble with the Wii, but I still have some hope for it.
 
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