Wii and the 480p connection

Damn, this sucks. I was hoping I'd be able to pick this up in stores with my console. Now I'm going to have to play with regular composite cables until I order the components and they arrive. It'd be nice if they let you order the cable early so you could have it all set to go on launch day. That won't happen though. The Wii is going to look like sh*t on my widescreen with only a composite connection.

Can we just go to Best Buy online (or Circuit City online) and do an in-store pickup for our fancy component cables? Because, yeah, that would work well for me and my widescreen. So, uhmmmm... DO IT!

Seriously, why would they do this online only? I can't think of a good reason; they have to be making *some* kind of profit on the cables, so why not provide them in-store? Are they only allotted a certain amount of shelf space or something? Are they losing money on the cables? And, if they are losing money on the cables, WHO CARES! They are making a profit on every console sold from Day One, so why not reach out a friendly hand to the early adopters who probably also were early adopters of other tech (aka HD widescreen)?

This does not make sense! Why would a Wookiee, an eight-foot tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor with a bunch of two-foot tall Ewoks? That does not make sense! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must [put Nintendo-branded component cables on store shelves on launch day]! The defense rests.

480p is the new video output?

well looks like ill be overnighting the cables.

480p isn't new by any means. It is simply the highest quality connection the Wii is capable of. The different is night and day on larger TVs.

The really evil part is that Nintendo went out of their way to make sure you couldnt use your GC cables. The video boards are basically identical; in the same way that PS2 and PS3 can use the same connectors. Nintendo went in and added a few plastic notches here and a few nooks over there so that you couldnt shoehorn the GC cables in.

Oh yeah thats right WiiBoy2000, because have you even looked at the Wii Video connector. Oh guess not because its totally different then the dam game cube component one! Also guys how many people really have a GC component cable from Nintendo? Oh yeah thats right not many at all since they haven't been making them for years. Overall this really isn't a large issue for many. The real issue is not being able to get the Cable in stores.

Well, that at least answers one of my big questions about the Wii. My other remaining question I haven't seen answered is, "Does the Wii support WPA encryption, or just WEP like the DS?" Although, given that it has already been stated the Wii can use the DS Wi-Fi USB Connector, I'm not holding much hope for WPA compatibility.

nick:

The Wii and GC output the exact same type of AV: two channels of audio and video as composite, s-video, or component. Theres nothing magical about these outputs.

Now, Nintendo already had a port/connector setup that allow these types of outputs; the ones from GC...they work fine. They did not have to redesign a thing; they could have taken their AV port/connector designs from GC and put it on the Wii.

But, no, they modified the GC ports/connectors ever so slightly such that GC cables could no longer fit in.

And, tada, an extra $30 in their pockets. Since so many of their games are in 480p widescreen, they know many people will be going to these (you need these cables to get widescreen).

So, its basically, an extra $30 per Wii sold.

If I'm not mistaken, the vga cable will be supported also. THis mean they will need to ouput that as well, therefore the connector needs more ouput(unless they're using another connector for that...), so unfortunatly it need to be different. It doesn't seem to be a money thing for three reasons:
1) After all, they did keep the same RCA cables for the SNES, N64 and the Cube.
2) Like it was mentionned, they didn't sell alot of them in the first place (altho, I personnaly bought one), so it not like they're forcing that many people to repurchase one.
3) If they're selling mostly Online (it seems a few few stores will at least have them), then it means they don't intend on selling alot of them once again.

Even if the GCN component cables fit into the Wii, you wouldn't get any sound, because the GCN component cables don't have the red or white audio cables.

Nintendo, this is bull#*$&! Why would they do this?

Umm WiiBoy2000 theres one problem with the Game cube cable. It can't output audio. the component cable for the Game Cube was only for video and nothing more. With the old GC component cable you still needed to use your normal video/audio cable for the audio.

@9.

You sir, are wrong.

On the Gamecube, there were two different AV jacks. The standard analog jack that output 2-channel audio + composite/s-video; and a seperate 'digital out' jack.

On the GC, Nintendo's special component cables were connected to the digital out jack. The digital out jack sent out a proprietary digital signal that was then converted into component (which is analog, not digital) by a special chip made by Macronix. This chip was custom made for Nintendo, and was the only thing in the world capable of converting Nintendo's signal into standard analog component. This is why the cables were scare and why there were no third party component cables for the GC -- only Nintendo could get the Macronix chip.

The Wii, on the other hand, doesn't have any of this nonsense.

There is a single AV jack, which outputs audio as well as whatever video format is desired. This is similar to how many ATI/Nvidia cards on PCs don't have seperate component jacks, but instead allow you to connect a special s-video->component connector to the s-video port, change the settings, and viola have perfect component outputs. The AV jack on the Wii is entirely analog, and allows a single cable solution regardless of video output. Likewise, it also allows for third party folks to make component cables too; hence the $60 MadCatz "premium" component cable that's been listed for pre-sale on gamestop.com for awhile; and giving us all a heart attack until Nintendo announced this much more reasonable $30 cable.

[Source: http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=av:nintendodigitalav]
[Source: Google]

[Forgot to add to #13]

For those who were wondering where the Macronix chip was, it was located inside the component cable itself.

"theres one problem with the Game cube cable. It can't output audio"

Thank you nick! Exactly! All these people complaining when they don't even understand how this stuff works. If you plugged in the GC Component cable into the Wii you'd get NO SOUND! Do you understand that fools?! No sound! There's no way for it to trasmit actual SOUND.... understand yet? No Sound... none...

Ummmm...considering that the Wii is backwards compatible, and that Gamecube component cables go for an *insane* amount of money on eBay, why not just sell your GC cables to fund your Wii cables? It's not like you're going to need them when the Wii comes out. In fact, you won't need your Gamecube at all.

Seems easy enough.

Oh, and David Hinkle's a jerk. Ha!

Richard Mitchell
Xbox 360 Fanboy

So what's the strategy here? Preorder from Amazon or Best Buy with overnight delivery? I hope maybe they'll start shipping accessories prior to the console launch, like with the 360.

This is just annoying and doesn't make sense, Nintendo! Ya heard?

Yeah overnight Delivery here. going to see if i can have it shipped RED so i can get it that Saturday.

I'm more interested in availability of the VGA cable than the component cable.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/accessories/index.html

If you look at the link, it's the cable right above the component cable. Both of them are being priced at 2500 Yen so if we do get it here, they'll probably raise the proce to $30.

It's not a VGA cable, it's a type of TV connection the Japanese use.

Why are people complaining that they have to buy a new a/v cable for a console.

Also, I can't believe the Wii don't have Dolby Digital. Has Nintendo given a good reason? It's not like it's new or expensive. Audio greatly enhances gameplay...far more than video imo. Dolby Digital is pretty much the bare minimum I would have expected...hell the PS2 even had DTS! Dolby Pro Logic II is crap

*Deathsith238: "Also, I can't believe the Wii don't have Dolby Digital. Has Nintendo given a good reason?"

Since when has Nintendo needed to explain their decisions?

The audio core in the Wii is the same as Gamecube. People will buy it anyway. Nintendo isn't stupid.

As for the video cables... uh, given that this site is called "Nintendo Wii Fanboy", I'd expect more people here to know about the *proprietary* Gamecube component cables. Why people have been thinking for months that you'll be able to use GC component cables on Wii is a mystery.

i can't believe the Madcatz component cables for the Wii are going to cost 60 Dollars!

WHAT A RIP OFF!

http://www.ebgames.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=802520

The reason they're not selling the component cables a la brick and mortar falls into the fact that the expect the Component Cables to sell VERY poorly, which in turn falls in with the reason why they didn't go HD this gen

Regular stores see this too, in that even if they ordered the minimum shipment of component cables (lets say its 30) that's just one big-ass surplus that'll just take up space, because only 10 of those will probably ever be sold

But the same Composite cables as they've been using since the Super NES will still be used, right? Its so much easier to just pull the cable out of the console and move it over than it is to pull out the Red, White, and Yellow plugs in back...

Does anyone have a clue as to the impact of this on PAL territories? I want a component cable even if it is SD because the colour separation is better.

@8: the Wii does support WPA and WPA2

Matthias,

Yes it does support WPA and WPA2 in the wifi settings menu. If you see the IGN wii dashboard demo it does show it.

Eeeek...only 480p..That is not any better the previous gen consoles..I don't think that I can put my new 1080p TV through this. I understand their focus on games, but they should really start releasing hardware that is competitive with the rest of current gen consoles...Gimmicks like that new puck will only get you so far.

Too bad..I was always a big fan of Zelda.