Hardware Could someone explain to me why the Wii cannot be upscaled

[Dominator211]

I love my Wii but hate the 480p resolution and I have seen people say if it's upscaled it's really blurry and out of proportion. But why is it too weak, can the CPU/GPU not handle it. I'm just curious as to why the upscale won't do its job correctly for this console. I don't want to use a Wii u and two I like the original Wii and I like its design. SO I'd really appreciated it if someone could answer this for me.

 

[GerbilSoft]

The Wii's GPU does not have any options to set a resolution higher than "480p" (or "576p" if you like 50 Hz for some reason, though this isn't available except through hax). Even if you tried "576p", the internal framebuffer is 640x528, so you'd end up with black bars on the top and bottom.

It's a hardware limitation, plain and simple.

 

[Dominator211]

The Wii's GPU does not have any options to set a resolution higher than "480p" (or "576p" if you like 50 Hz for some reason, though this isn't available except through hax). Even if you tried "576p", the internal framebuffer is 640x528, so you'd end up with black bars on the top and bottom.

It's a hardware limitation, plain and simple.

I thought I mentioned A tv upscale would you kindly explain that

 

[azzarod]

The data in the original output simply isn't there. Since the maximum output of the Wii is 480p, every game made for it is going to have a maximum resolution of 480p.

If you are using an upscaler, it doesn't magically create higher-resolution image from nothing. Upscaling spaces out the original image creating gaps between the pixels. The upscaling device will have an algorithm built into the firmware that will 'guess' what should go in the blanks to make the image appear higher resolution than the source data.

Blurriness is going to depend on how good your upscaler is at guessing. Dolphin looks good because the upscaling algorithim is good. TV's and other hardware devices, the algorithim is not so good, so it's blurry/out of proportion.

I'm sure it gets a lot more technical, but that's my attempt at explaining in layman's terms. Hope it helps.

 

[Dominator211]

The data in the original output simply isn't there. Since the maximum output of the Wii is 480p, every game made for it is going to have a maximum resolution of 480p.

If you are using an upscaler, it doesn't magically create higher-resolution image from nothing. Upscaling spaces out the original image creating gaps between the pixels. The upscaling device will have an algorithm built into the firmware that will 'guess' what should go in the blanks to make the image appear higher resolution than the source data.

Blurriness is going to depend on how good your upscaler is at guessing. Dolphin looks good because the upscaling algorithim is good. TV's and other hardware devices, the algorithim is not so good, so it's blurry/out of proportion.

I'm sure it gets a lot more technical, but that's my attempt at explaining in layman's terms. Hope it helps.

well an sd res itis

 

[The Real Jdbye]

The data in the original output simply isn't there. Since the maximum output of the Wii is 480p, every game made for it is going to have a maximum resolution of 480p.

If you are using an upscaler, it doesn't magically create higher-resolution image from nothing. Upscaling spaces out the original image creating gaps between the pixels. The upscaling device will have an algorithm built into the firmware that will 'guess' what should go in the blanks to make the image appear higher resolution than the source data.

Blurriness is going to depend on how good your upscaler is at guessing. Dolphin looks good because the upscaling algorithim is good. TV's and other hardware devices, the algorithim is not so good, so it's blurry/out of proportion.

I'm sure it gets a lot more technical, but that's my attempt at explaining in layman's terms. Hope it helps.

Well, Dolphin looks good because it can render natively at a higher resolution. It's not upscaled.

 

[GerbilSoft]

I thought I mentioned A tv upscale would you kindly explain that

The same way taking a 640x480 image in MS Paint and stretching it to 1920x1080 works. It interpolates the pixels. Depending on the algorithm used, the resulting image might be blurry or jagged.

This doesn't mean the Wii is doing anything special. The upscaling is done by the TV. A good number of TVs have poor upscalers that add blur and input lag. (Interestingly, I haven't encountered this issue when using PC LCD monitors with low-resolution sources.)

Anyone saying it's "impossible" to upscale the Wii's output is misinformed. This is done by any TV that isn't 640x480 and has to show a 480p signal. As I said above, the real issue is poor-quality upscalers found in many TVs.

 

[Dominator211]

The same way taking a 640x480 image in MS Paint and stretching it to 1920x1080 works. It interpolates the pixels. Depending on the algorithm used, the resulting image might be blurry or jagged.

This doesn't mean the Wii is doing anything special. The upscaling is done by the TV. A good number of TVs have poor upscalers that add blur and input lag. (Interestingly, I haven't encountered this issue when using PC LCD monitors with low-resolution sources.)

Anyone saying it's "impossible" to upscale the Wii's output is misinformed. This is done by any TV that isn't 640x480 and has to show a 480p signal. As I said above, the real issue is poor-quality upscalers found in many TVs.

not saying that your wrong but what about the VDigi VD-W3 it apparently existed at some point so what makes this different and where can this diehard get his hands on one

 

[tswntk]

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2010/06/hardware_review_vdigi_vd_w3_wii_hdmi_upscaler

if you use the word diehard as if he expects sudden improvement to HD standards, then he will probably be disappointed.
As everyone has explained, the original signal is there, any modification/scaling to it will not be faithful nor magically add any details to it. Will it look better or worse is very subjective/personal and dependent on the converter.
The only way to truly improve visual quality is to modify the games themselves like the HD packs for Dolphin.

 

[Dominator211]

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2010/06/hardware_review_vdigi_vd_w3_wii_hdmi_upscaler

if you use the word diehard as if he expects sudden improvement to HD standards, then he will probably be disappointed.
As everyone has explained, the original signal is there, any modification/scaling to it will not be faithful nor magically add any details to it. Will it look better or worse is very subjective/personal and dependent on the converter.
The only way to truly improve visual quality is to modify the games themselves like the HD packs for Dolphin.

that link does nothing for me as to hwere to find it

 

[tswntk]

that link does nothing for me as to hwere to find it

so that link doesn't convince you that you probably won't get better quality out of a hdmi converter than a native component cable? YOU are really diehard.
That link was from 2010, so good luck finding one and if you did found one, than maybe its worth it that it can still sell today.

 

[Dominator211]

so that link doesn't convince you that you probably won't get better quality out of a hdmi converter than a native component cable? YOU are really diehard.
That link was from 2010, so good luck finding one and if you did found one, than maybe its worth it that it can still sell today.

i found an amzaon listing but its currently unavalable

 

[GreyWolf]

You will get a 640x480 (possibly anamorphic) picture stretched to another resolution, same as if you attach the regular component cables to an HD TV. An HDMI converter is only useful if your TV doesn't have component inputs.

 

[GerbilSoft]

not saying that your wrong but what about the VDigi VD-W3 it apparently existed at some point so what makes this different and where can this diehard get his hands on one

What makes it different? Nothing. It's still a generic upscaler. It doesn't magically add larger textures to make it "1080p"; it simply applies some filters to stretch it out. Maybe its filters are better than some other upscalers, but it's still not going to be the same as proper high-resolution rendering.

 

[ScarletDreamz]

im using a WII2HDMI adapter, old but still kicking.

 

[tech3475]

You will get a 640x480 (possibly anamorphic) picture stretched to another resolution, same as if you attach the regular component cables to an HD TV. An HDMI converter is only useful if your TV doesn't have component inputs.

One benefit that may exist to using an external upscaler even with component on the tv is if the tvs internal upscaler is not as good.

But of course that depends on the tv and any upscaler.