Hardware Are any of those cheap HDMI adapters any good?

[Cyber Akuma]

I have been trying to play some games on my Wii I never got around to using the component cables in 480p and 16:9 mode and it looks BAD, really REALLY bad.

And yes, I know it's a 14 year old SD system, but this goes beyond that. I actually have component cables for my Sega Genesis and PS1, despite most of the games on those systems not even running at 480 but at 240.... and they look better.

It's not that the graphics are pixelated, or even blurry, they are..... blotchy. As if some kind of poor quality old de-pixelate emulator filter is being run over the whole screen or something. And yes, my TV is in game mode.

Only seems to be my Wii, my even older consoles that I got component cables for look better, and when I tried switching my Wii to 4:3 it still looked bad.

So now I am looking at those HDMI adapters. Thing is.... just about all of them are some insanely cheap Chinese product you can get from eBay or AliExpress or so. Are these even any decent at all? Would the produce an even WORSE image than my component cables? Or add lag. Or even risk shorting out my Wii or something?

And if not all of them are garbage (Because there definitely appear to be some trashy ones) there are any good ones, can someone recommend a specific one I should be looking for? There are so many generic/n-name ones on eBay and Amazon that it's impossible to sort through them.

And yes, I know there is a more permanent and professional solution, but I can't afford a $100 mod right now nor have the soldering skills to install it, I just want a temporarily cheap solution for now that is just going to be better than my component cables..... as long as it's not going to risk damaging my system.

 

[TheThief]

Sounds like you are on a 4k TV. Ive used either Nintendo's official component cable or a generic brand component cable on an 720p or 1080p TV and it looks fine, but the moment I got a 4K TV I experienced the blurry/blotchy image you are describing. It's like everything got coated in vaseline. First thing I did was swap out the TV to a better brand, it was a very cheap 4K. I did this not just for games but I noticed it was just a bad image overall. I'm not suggesting you get another TV, just describing my experience. What really helped was adjusting the Picture Settings on the TV. After choosing GAME mode I adjusted the Sharpness, Contrast, Saturation, Color, Brightness, Backlight level.

I also ended up getting a Hyperkin HDMI cable, which I think is more convenient than the HDMI converters, one end of this HDMI is a standard Wii video connector.

I had to adjust the contrast, Brightness levels again because going through HDMI slightly darkened the image. Sometimes I capture my games, so I needed an HDMI solution. I would say the image was slightly better with the cable but the most improvement came from adjusting the Sharpness, contrast, etc.

So I would try, if you haven't already, adjusting the TV settings, if that doesn't do it for ya then try either an HDMI adapter you were talking about or try the Hyperkin hdmi cable.

 

[Ryccardo]

Thing is.... just about all of them are some insanely cheap Chinese product you can get from eBay or AliExpress or so. Are these even any decent at all? Would the produce an even WORSE image than my component cables?

Could well be - you're simply using an external ADC and scaler: whether or not they're better than what may already be in your display is a separate question, but
1- being $10 freeshipped from China and
2- being meant as last resorts for people who don't have a compatible input and can't get a proper tube TV free from the trash or classifieds
must mean something, amirite?

Or add lag.

All processing adds some (whether or not it is problematic, or noticeable at all, are separate questions)

Or even risk shorting out my Wii or something?

Unlikely but never underestimate what can happen with no quality control (said from someone who had an ssd catch fire when used with a defective sata/ide converter)

 

[Cyber Akuma]

Sounds like you are on a 4k TV. Ive used either Nintendo's official component cable or a generic brand component cable on an 720p or 1080p TV and it looks fine, but the moment I got a 4K TV I experienced the blurry/blotchy image you are describing. It's like everything got coated in vaseline.

Yeah, I do have a 4K TV, and yes, that's exactly what it looks like for me too.

First thing I did was swap out the TV to a better brand, it was a very cheap 4K. I did this not just for games but I noticed it was just a bad image overall.

Well, that part isn't true. It's literally only my Wii that looks bad on it. Even other older systems don't look like this on it.

And I did try setting it to game mode.

I also ended up getting a Hyperkin HDMI cable, which I think is more convenient than the HDMI converters, one end of this HDMI is a standard Wii video connector.

I have heard of that too, but I am not sure how good it is, seems more like one of those devices made more for convenience than quality. Also with my setup it would actually be more inconvenient to have it built into the cable (Plus, I don't want to have ot worry about the entire device being useless if anything happens to the cable).

Could well be - you're simply using an external ADC and scaler: whether or not they're better than what may already be in your display is a separate question, but
1- being $10 freeshipped from China and
2- being meant as last resorts for people who don't have a compatible input and can't get a proper tube TV free from the trash or classifieds
must mean something, amirite?

True.

Thing is though I am seeing a lot of talk about a brand called Sewell, and that SUPPOSEDLY (I can't verify these claims though) a lot of Smash tournaments (I assume they mean Melee through a Wii) use them.

Although they also cost more than twice as most other brands.

 

[rmorris003]

Try to source a WII U for cheap and hack it. Would be way cheaper than the RGB upscalers.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

I actually did that earlier as I have a WiiU, just never hacked the vWii on it before.

The image is much clearer.... but there are still a little bit of remnants of said "Vaseline", that being said though that damn thing fought me every step of the way of trying to hack it, and this is a temporarily setup that I just wanted to see if I could get to work for this one game... (the method to load multiple games wasn't working).

It will work for now for playing a handful of games, but I am going to need something better for down the road, which is why I am still considering an adapter, especially since the WiiU complains a LOT about having multiple USB devices in it that you basically have to break the MBR of to stop it from whining and I use my Wii for GC too, so th WiiU won't really work out for me as a complete Wii replacement. (Even Nintendon't has limits, the GC controller adapter can't do GBA passthrough, and I actually still have my old GC memorycards that I use for my savegames in the Wii's GC mode).

(That being said though, even this temporary WiiU solution only works out because I already happened to have a WiiU, looking on eBay the cheapest one can find a working one with the gamepad is around $150+, for that price one can get the Wii HDMI mod AND someone to install it for them, I was trying to look for a cheap solution for my Wii, hence those adapters. I want to someday get that HDMI mod, but I can't afford it right now)

 

[Hakaisha]

I have tested out several Wii HDMI adapters, including the Hyperkin cable. In my personal opinion, the Sewell HDMI adapter provides the best audio and video quality of all the 'affordable' Wii HDMI solutions. I have been using mine for the past 4 years without failure or issue.

Most Wii HDMI adapters have a poor picture quality due not only to their cheap production quality, but because of their insistence on internally upscaling the image to 720p/1080p before sending the signal to the TV. This upscaling algorithm is often very poor, resulting in a blurry image with washed out colors. The Sewell HDMI adapter and Hyperkin cable do not upscale the image, but simply convert the 480p signal to HDMI, then let your TV do the upscaling as it usually does with component cables.

I see quite a bit less visual noise in the Sewell HDMI adapter's image quality, as opposed to Hyperkin's HDMI cable. But even so, the Hyperkin HDMI cable is still leaps and bounds better in quality than most of the cheap and questionable "no-brand" adapters you find for cheap. I would say the Sewell and Hyperkin are the 2 best HDMI solutions, outside of getting your Wii modified with the WiiDual HDMI kit.

However, I am unsure if any HDMI adapter will solve your particular issue if component cables are already providing an unsatisfactory result. The visual quality of component cables and the Sewell HDMI adapter are practically identical.

A common mistake people often make when upgrading to Component or an HDMI adapter, is not turning on the 'EDTV or HDTV (480p)' setting in the Wii Settings menu. Have you adjusted this setting? If it is still set to 'Standard TV (480i)', the picture will look quite terrible even if you are using Component or HDMI.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

Great to hear some feedback from someone who has experimented with these, thanks. Sounds like if I were to pull the trigger on an adapter, the Sewell and Hyperkin are the way to go. (Huh, I always through Hyperkin was a cheap quality brand)

And yeah, setting it to 480p and 16:9 was the first thing I did when I got my component cables. I can't speak for the Wii alone, but there was definitely a big difference between my Wii's component output and my WiiU's HDMI output for the same Wii games and homebrew.

By the way, was one of the ones you tested by any chance the Portlogic one? I heard that is one of the apparently popular-but-very-poor-quality ones. Can you either confirm or deny?

 

[Hakaisha]

I cannot personally speak for the Portholic brand HDMI adapter, but its product page does seem to suggest the adapter does not upscale to 720/1080; meaning it simply converts the native 480p resolution to HDMI like the Sewell and Hyperkin adapters do.

Honestly speaking, the product pages also make me a bit weary of purchasing it.

Spoiler: Portholic product images

Sometimes the photos suggest it outputs 1080p. Sometimes the photos suggest it's outputting 480p. In my experience with buying Wii HDMI adapters advertised in this manner, it's usually a tossup which one you will end up receiving.

The Portholic may very well be a quality adapter, as many reviews seem to suggest. But I would still recommend to tread carefully.

 

[torrent_get]

Adding to options the KCOOL hdmi converter also outputs at 480p no upscale.

Ignore the full HD blurb. I have one.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

Yeah, I heard about the Kcool one not upscaling as well, but couldn't find any people reviewing it.

But the bigger problem is that it seems to be sold out everywhere, and apparently it only works with a direct connection to the screen, no switchboxes or splitters can be in the way.

 

[TheThief]

I see quite a bit less visual noise in the Sewell HDMI adapter's image quality, as opposed to Hyperkin's HDMI cable. But even so, the Hyperkin HDMI cable is still leaps and bounds better in quality than most of the cheap and questionable "no-brand" adapters you find for cheap. I would say the Sewell and Hyperkin are the 2 best HDMI solutions, outside of getting your Wii modified with the WiiDual HDMI kit.
.

I originally was going to get one of those generic adapters but was worried about getting a bad one so I went with the Hyperkin. I do like that the Sewell adapter has audio out port. Perhaps I'll try one some point. Thanks y'all for the info.

 

[MarknuB]

I believe none of those Wii2HDMI devices do upscaling, or else they certainly wouldn't cost $10.
I bought two of them from separate sellers, the first one had interference issues and had fast scrolling /////// lines, then i bought a second one and it works good enough. It's a gamble.

I can't wait til i get my OSSC.

 

[satbunny]

I just bought a component video cable for my Wii and all I can say is WOW, why didn't I do this years ago!!

Crisp, clear, recommended

Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

 

[eSocrates]

Mayflash Wii2HDMI maybe wasn’t out when this post was active but I can confirm it’s great. It’s the only one I’ve seen that looks physically different than all the others. It’s about half as long so it doesn’t stick out the back nearly as far which is nice.

I even tested it on the multi out on my Wii U and it looked as good as my Nintendo brand component cables did at all the different resolutions all the way up to 1080p.

Side note for the record. On both my Tv and Benq projector Wii U at 1080p from the multi out has some unstable fuzziness and faint double imaging easily visible especially around text on the menus. And that’s trying both the official component cables or the Mayflash WII2HDMI. Maybe an even higher quality component cable could solve that but I think it’s inherent to the Wii U analog output.

Interestingly 1080i looks tack sharp with both cables while 720 is a bit less so which could be partially partially due to scaling to my 1080p displays but I did notice a bit of the unstable noisy-ness like 1080p mode compared to the rock solid image quality of 1080i mode. None of the faint doubling of the image like 1080p though.

480i and 480p both look pretty blurry ofc but actually it’s worse than the 480p output of my Wii. But I believe the poor quality 480p of Wii U has been analyzed and noted before.

I guess another Wii U might put out sharper HD video out of the multi out but I only have mine to test. I realize this is all a bit outside of the original question and probably way too late anyways but I think it’s good info.

To the original question I can say due to the Mayflash Wii2HDMI having a completely different design than all the others you are avoiding the “lottery” of getting one of the Portholic, eBay, Amazon clone “good ones”. That’s why I decided to go for one tested it like I described. Then I bought another for a friend that I also tested and got the exact same results. They’re only $14 when in stock on Amazon and output excellent quality video with no “defects”other than maybe a slightly different color temperature than actual component cables. And the brightness on your tv might need to be adjusted to dial in correct black levels.

 

[Urbanshadow]

My Wii U has HDMI Output and works perfect in V-Wii, why bother with adaptors?

 

[eSocrates]

My Wii U has HDMI Output and works perfect in V-Wii, why bother with adaptors?

There’s no reason to use one of these on a Wii U unless your HDMI jack gets busted or something.

What happened was I bought it initially to turn into a homemade Xbox2HDMI. The thing is the Xbox adapters I tried first would look fine with 720p content but have a bunch of interference and a different brightness level with 480p content. I wanted to test this Mayflash adapter at all the different resolutions and I realized I could do that with my Wii U.

None of that information is actually important if your looking for an HDMI solution for a regular Wii but I do think it speaks to the quality of the hardware in the device that it can handle all those different modes without issue.

Plus the fact that it’s half the size of the common adapters that are clones of each other. Which is the real reason to buy it. Not because the size matters all that much but because the design of the electronics inside is updated compared to the common ones that all look the same but may or may not be good.

Side note. The Kaico brand Xbox HDMI Adapter sold on Amazon is what I ended up using for Xbox. It’s a rebranded Bitfunx which are available cheaper on Aliexpress if you don’t mind waiting. It works great and I didn’t have to try building my own which is always a plus.