Can Gamecube games output 480p even when using Wii?

I'm sure this has been asked before but if I use my Wii Component cables and hook them up to an HDTV can my Progressive scan compatible Gamecube games output progressive scan?

Also does the Wii play Gamecube games exactly like the Gamecube plays them? I would assume yes.

Thanks

Yep, they'll do progressive scan.

Yep, the Wii plays Gamecube games exactly the same way.

Good question I really dont know but like your last sentence says I would assume yes also so it would output them in 480p. Again not %100 on this but it makes more sense that it would output 480p.

Ahh nice just what I wanted to hear. Mainly because the Nintendo official Gamecube component cables are like $170+ on ebay....crazy

@mariokart97: I got some of those. They do make the Gamecube games look great. I wouldn't pay that much for it, but its one of the rarest things in that generation. Totally worth the $20 I paid for them.

@juboner: We must have posted at almost the same time bc your post was not there when I began my reply.

I'm assuming the same applies to Wii U when playing Wii games? Does it have to upscale or does it play at 480p in Wii mode even when using HDMI?

I'm assuming the same applies to Wii U when playing Wii games? Does it have to upscale or does it play at 480p in Wii mode even when using HDMI?

The wiiU does not apply any upscaling to Wii games, its up to your tv's built in scaler whether it looks good or not. Samsung and Sony have decent built in scalers.

Who whoa whoa so does the Wii offer the best visuals for Wii games by default? Or can the Wii U do better but it depends on your TV?

I have a Samsung 650 series plasma and the wii games look really good on it through WiiU. But I also tried it out on my Asus monitor and it looks like garbage. I do not have a Wii so I cannot compare but most say the Wii looks slightly better with Wii games than the WiiU. If you have an HD tv the Wii would be getting upscaled as with the WiiU, if you play the Wii on a SD tv it should beat out the WiiU on an HDtv considering your SD tv is a quality one.

You can use upscalers on the Wii if you like. The Wii2HDMI device supposed to upconvert your Wii up to 1080p. While your TV will recognize it as a 1080p signal the difference in quality is somewhat negligible so I've been told. In the end I just went with composite cables on Wii and I own gamecube component cables so I just play Gamecube games on the cube.

Just so you know if you do get your hands on some make sure you hold down the B button when you're powering up a game that offers progressive scan. It'll ask you if you want the game to boot up in progressive scan. Then you're all set.

Thank you for clearing that up for me.

So Wii games on the Wii on HDTV using component cable is best since it's 480p natively.

And Wii games on Wii U on an HDTV is close to the quality but since Wii U outputs 1080p it'd be up-scaled. Both would be Progressive Scan since Wii has component and Wii U has HDMI which is good on HDTV anyway.

Obviously Wii games on Wii using composite on an HDTV is not satisfactory since it's interlaced 480i. And same with Wii U, I've personally used Wii composite cables on Wii U on an HDTV and it was godawful. (I left my HDMI cord at my friends house lol)

Wii games on HD tv with component cables will look better (maybe depends on tv scaler the people who have tested it that I have seen/read may not have taken that into consideration) bc it is original hardware, not bc of the native resolution. WiiU outputs Wii games in 480 same as Wii.

A 1080p tv has to re-arrange the 480 pixels to fit its screen with its own scaler, Nintendo could have made the WiiU upscale the 480p res. and that would help with tv's with crappy built-in scalers.

A SD tv would have the best picture (as long as the tv is good) with the Wii bc its screen is the native 480 of the Wii, no scaling needed, no re-arranged filled in pixels. Of course you may prefer the larger screen of an HD tv or some other attribute but thats preference.

I really cant tell a difference with 480i and 480p. I think you can get native 480p tv's and they called them ED (enhanced definition) tv's, they are crt.

But don't most SDTVs output only Interlaced? If the TV(like mine) only has S-video input I assume it can't output component Progressive scan.

Isn't the main advantage of component cables the fact that it makes it progressive scan which only HDTV can output? Other than the near limitless color depth? Actually something we haven't discussed at all is EDTV(enhanced definition) which very much resembles SDTVs but can actually output 480p I believe.

Idk if this is wrong but I have the idea that:

SDTV= best for interlaced

HDTV= best for progressive

So in theory composite(480i) would look best on an SDTV, whereas component(480p) would look best on an HDTV. Again just what I've been lead to believe.

Wow, I have two of those for two of my Gamecubes. Amazing.

Your getting there but 480(p) or (i) would look its best on SD or ED tv's, they both have native 480 resolution. In my experience progressive really doesnt have much impact on over all picture quality, it looks maybe like a more solid picture if that makes sense compared to interlaced. The biggest advantage of component cables is how it breaks up different parts of the video output like S-video does only more so. That and its capable of 1080i output on some devices like xbox 360. I had a crt SD tv with S-video and component inputs but it was not ED set so it could not display the progressive picture but it still made a big improvement of picture bc of how it handles the video output like I stated earlier with component cables.

SDtv= best for anything that outputs 480 p or i. But if someone really really cared about progressive output then they could get an EDtv for a 480p signal like the Wii.

HDtv= best for 1080 p or i

If you had lets say an NES with a good quality crt SD tv hooked up with composite cable (yellow one), and then hooked up the NES up to an HD tv plasma or LCD with composite cable and studied the picture you would see what I mean about the scaler distorting the picture.

It's unreal how rare and pricy those cables are. Nintendo doesn't sell them in its online store and I haven't managed to find generic ones anywhere.

Okay that really clears it up for me.

Since SDTVs and EDTVs are 480 native resolution, anything that outputs 480 would look better on those, because even if HDTV is Progressive scan, the difference is negligible but the image having to be scaled from 480p to 1080p makes the image somewhat inferior. (I'm assuming it also has something to do with it being stretched to 16:9 unless some games allow it normally which I think some do.)

Yeah I always felt that old consoles like NES looked best on the old CRT SDTVs and I knew it was because on HDTV would stretch the image to make it fit.

So in the case of the Wii:

SDTV- outputs 480 so that keeps the image not upscaled which is good, but if the SDTV doesn't have component input then using composite would lower the quality as it isn't as good of an output as component.

HDTV- outputs 1080 so that upscales the image which lowers the quality a bit, but when using component the video is separated(like S-video) which improves the quality.

So what do you reccomend as the ideal way to play Wii?

I would just play it on your HDtv really. But if your scaler is like the one in my Asus monitor I would not be too happy with the picture. If you really wanted to you could get a nice SD crt that has component off of craigslist or you could just get some inexpensive S-video cables for your crt.