Gaming Streaming Wii to PC, available options

[Joe_B]

Hello,

So, I've done a little research, and I'm a bit too lazy to search more, and I figured with all the experts here, this would be the best place to ask...

My objective:

• Playing a Wii game and have it streamed on my PC, for recording and/or live streaming purposes

My current options:

• Buying an old analog capture card and using either the RCA or component cables
  
• Buying an HDMI adaptor for the Wii and a more recent HDMI capture card
• Buying a used Wii U and an HDMI capture card and playing my Wii games on my Wii U

A few questions:

• Will I get better quality with the HDMI adaptor sending to HDMI capture card, compared to just using an old RCA or component capture card?
• Is the quality of the Wii U better than the Wii? Is it 1080P?
• I don't feel like using an emulator like Dolphin... Will I be able to get a good quality image without using Dolphin? I mean, my Wii is currently hooked up through a RCA yellow cable on my 42" 1080P plasma and I like the image quality. What will it look like once captured by a card?
  
• Anything else I should consider?

Thanks for the help

 

[Maeson]

I don't know about streaming Wii, but I can answer you a few questions:

"Is the quality of the Wii U better than the Wii? Is it 1080P?"

Actually, no, Wii on Wii U looks worse than playing on original hardware.
The image resolution is still 480P, like on Wii, but the Wii U is not showing pixelx 1x1, so there's some scaling, making it look off and blurrier than on an original Wii, and off-centered in most cases, slightly zoomed in. Colors can be a bit different too, because Wii U has limited RBG Display.

And it doesn't matter what cables or connection you're using, it will always be like that.

You can check these links, but you can also look around yourself (although you'll find many dumb "it's the wii's games fault" responses out there, ignoring that the Wii U is causing problems by itself):

https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=59908
https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=59474


"Anything else I should consider?"

Yeah, change that RCA cable for a Component or Wii2HDMI adapter. This is mostly because:

RCA is the worst quality output you can use on a Wii, so the image quality can only go up,
unless someone really likes blurry image (and even then you're better off with other set up).

Right now your Wii most probably is using 480I resolution because you have RCA.
With a Component cable or the HDMI adapter (which basically gets Component image
and makes it digital), you can upgrade to 480P.

The jump from Interlaced to Progressive is quite noticeable and can make most games look better,
specially in movement.

This here is not the best example, but for a quick look it will work:

Spoiler

There shouldn't be much of a difference between Component and and HDMI adapter, maybe the
bright will vary a little (in my personal experience), unless you want to also stream older games,
in that case Component has the advantage of being able to use the 240P resolution capabilities
of the Wii; but as I said, I have no idea of streaming, and if that would be important for it.

 

[Joe_B]

Wow, thanks, nice answer!

When I bought my used Wii, I had 2 sets of cables, RCA and a component... But the component is probably a cheap 2$ one shipped for free direct from China, because the picture is actually worse with it lol! But I'll try buying a decent quality HDMI adapter and see.

And you are correct about the 480I resolution. When I go in the Wii menu, I can't select to use 480P (it is greyed out) when I am using the RCA cable. I can only select it with the component cable.

It is very good to know that the Wii U's upscaling is bad for Wii games, because I was just about to buy a Wii U because I thought the quality would be better because of 1080P cable and upscaling!

So I'll try the HDMI adaptor, and if I like the quality, I'll buy a HDMI capture card.

I am sometimes playing older games, but what I want to do is mainly with Wii games. When I get the HDMI cable, I'll see how the old games work... And on the worse scenario, I'll buy the proper component cables.

I guess what I should be looking for is a video capture card that has both HDMI and component input, if I can find a good one...

Thanks again for your time!

 

[Maeson]

To be honest, I mentioned 240P because it can be pretty handy for certain things, although I personally don't see the need 240P for old games when using a modern display (like a LCD or superior), with CRTs it's much more noticeable. With good configuration and proper aspect ratio, old games on 480P through HDMI on mi Wii I find they look really nice, and it's a pretty simple set up.

Here are a couple of awfully-made photos of my tv with my Wii+HDMI combo:

Spoiler

But that's old stuff. For 3D games, the jump from 480I to 480P it's also quite nice, specially as I said, in movement, because there is no interlacing, which, if you never caught it when playing, it's something like this:

Spoiler

If you have a keen sight you can perceive it. Interlaced resolutions, as the name implies, not every horizontal line of pixels get updated with each frame. With Progressive it does, and makes a difference.

If you find a capture card with both hdmi and component at a good price that would be stellar, you could use it for many other systems if you wanted to, too!

 

[Joe_B]

Thanks man!