Wii HDelay

[Red Warrior]

I couldn't find any other threads on this because the search engine doesn't allow me to search for "Wii" or "HD", as they're not at least 4 letters.

Anyway, since the launch of the Wii, I've been playing it on my 27" analog TV with no problems. About a year ago, I got married and my wife and I got a nice 32" HD widescreen TV. I was excited because now I'd be able to play my Wii games in HD. However, as good as the games looked in HD, they became IMPOSSIBLE to play... at least for me. I immediately noticed that, when using the wiimote or classic controller, there was a split second delay from my actual movements to what registered on screen. But it was only when using wireless controllers. If I played a game like Brawl using the wired GameCube controller, everything was fine. Whenever I pressed a button, it immediately registered on the screen. Just can't say the same for wireless though.

It's so bad, that I've since moved the Wii back to my analog television so I could actually use it. Mega Man 9 was the last straw. That game REQUIRES precise control, and I just wasn't getting that on the HD TV. I'd press the 'jump' button, and Mega Man would jump... half a second later! The only robot I could beat with that horrid delay was Galaxy Man.

The weird thing is that I don't have this problem with the Xbox 360 wireless controllers. Everything controls just as it's supposed to on the HD TV. Why is the Wii not able to control properly on HD televisions? And it's not just me. My brother's HD TV has a Wii delay as well... but no 360 delay. Same thing with the HD TV's in my friends' game store. The Wii's control like butt in wireless, but the 360's and PS3's control just fine! ARGH! I dunno... it's REALLY frustrating! I'd love to play Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxy, and Twilight Princess in HD Widescreen... but alas, it's not to be. I have to play them on an analog signal cuz I refuse to tolerate delayed gameplay. It just ruins the experience.

Does anyone else have this problem? Is there a fix, or is Nintendo just retarded when it comes to HD? Thanks for your time, and forgive me if this has been discussed before.

[demen999]

I can honestly say that I have never encountered that in any of my games. They usually register fine. The only thing that I can think about is if you went to the wii remote sensitivity option in the system settings. I have no clue if this matters...but maybe you have another IR device near you when you play?

[CosmicMonkey]

Assuming your LCD telly has a native resolution of 720p or 1080p, then there will be some lag upscaling the Wii's 480p output. Your Xbox 360 can output 720/1080p, so there's no delay there.

What make and model panel do you have?

[Chainclaw]

Your TV should have no effect on wireless controllers... unless it's built to jam your bluetooth signal.

However, not all HD-TVs handle low-resolution input very well. The Wii cannot output in HD, it does 480P through component, tops, if you are using composite, the signal will be 480I.

You have to do some major research before buying an HD-TV if you play games at all, because if you buy a TV with a slow upscaler, then you are out of luck.

Look through the TV's documentation for any sort of "game mode" feature, some TVs have this, specifically for the problem you are having.

[Rob2600]

Look through the TV's documentation for any sort of "game mode" feature, some TVs have this, specifically for the problem you are having.

Yes, newer HDTVs should have a game option. Enable it and the lag should go away. If your TV doesn't have a game option, see if it has a digital NR/digital filtering option. If it does, turn that off for gaming. Digital filtering adds lag.


The Wii cannot output in HD, it does 480P through component, tops, if you are using composite, the signal will be 480I.

Good advice. Again, make sure you're using the Wii component cables.

[Red Warrior]

Assuming your LCD telly has a native resolution of 720p or 1080p, then there will be some lag upscaling the Wii's 480p output. Your Xbox 360 can output 720/1080p, so there's no delay there.

What make and model panel do you have?

The make of my TV is Emerson. The model is LC320EM81. It's an LCD 32" HDTV according to the sticker on the back... and it was manufactured in September 2007. The highest resolution available is 1080i and 720p. It does not support 1080p.

And yes, I am using official Nintendo component cables that I purchased from their online store.

What do I look for to find out how fast the "upscaler" on my TV is? I've never heard of that before. And I'll go look to see if it has a "game mode" or anything like that in the options menu.

[CosmicMonkey]

The panel is most likely 720p native resolution. The upscaler in your TV is shite, I can tell you that now. Even the upscanners in top of the line Sonys really aren't all that. If your TV does have a Game Mode then it'll decrease the picture quality and still have some lag. But that's most likely your problem: the TV is scaling the 480p signal to 720p and doing it very slowly.

This is the unfortunate position we've been put in. As far as the electronics companies are concerned, HD TV arrived and we should all keep up. They don't seem to understand that people still have PlayStation 2s, Saturns and Neo Geos randomly kicking around with years' worth of games still to play. As far as the electronics companies are concerned, we should embrace the wonder of 1080p wholeheartedly, and not play anything that isn't a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 with an HDMI connection.

The problem with the scalers in telly sets is that they're slow. They're made for upscaling your DVD player/TV signal and making it look nice, not for anything that requires active feedback. So your upscaled DVD image may look very nice, but you don't notice the delay because information is only traveling one-way. Soon as you involve a games console that requires feedback, you notice the lag.

Is there a solution to the problem? Yes indeed, but you best be feeling rich.

[DreamTR]

and you can really feel the lag when you play anything responsive like DDR, Guitar Hero, fighting games, etc.

I think too many people are fooled by the looks of these sets...

[Red Warrior]

The panel is most likely 720p native resolution. The upscaler in your TV is shite, I can tell you that now. Even the upscanners in top of the line Sonys really aren't all that. If your TV does have a Game Mode then it'll decrease the picture quality and still have some lag. But that's most likely your problem: the TV is scaling the 480p signal to 720p and doing it very slowly.

This is the unfortunate position we've been put in. As far as the electronics companies are concerned, HD TV arrived and we should all keep up. They don't seem to understand that people still have PlayStation 2s, Saturns and Neo Geos randomly kicking around with years' worth of games still to play. As far as the electronics companies are concerned, we should embrace the wonder of 1080p wholeheartedly, and not play anything that isn't a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 with an HDMI connection.

The problem with the scalers in telly sets is that they're slow. They're made for upscaling your DVD player/TV signal and making it look nice, not for anything that requires active feedback. So your upscaled DVD image may look very nice, but you don't notice the delay because information is only traveling one-way. Soon as you involve a games console that requires feedback, you notice the lag.

Is there a solution to the problem? Yes indeed, but you best be feeling rich.

Thanks for the info. This actually makes alot of sense. Never knew what any of that was before.
My TV actually does support HDMI, and that's how I hook up my 360. Is that why the 360 has no lag and the Wii does?

And no, I don't feel rich... probably never will. So I guess my Wii is staying on the analog TV for now.

[Chainclaw]

Anything Guitar Hero after the first should have an HDTV delay tuner, where you can go into the in-game options menu, and it will figure out how many milliseconds it is taking between your console pushing out the video signal, and your TV displaying it.

Anything besides that, and you really need to do your research buying an HD-TV. Bring in an old game console with a game that needs fast reflexes, and bring in an RF, composite, and s-video connection for it (SNES probably works best for this).

Price and brand name have little to do with how well the HD-TV will perform with gaming.

These upscaling problems really only effect gamers, so there is not a lot of pressure for most TV makers to do anything about this.

[alxbly]

Have a look at your TV's display options and if there's any kind of image processing switch it off. That could reduce the time it takes to upscale the image. Also, does the TV automatically detect the image size on your set? If not then make sure the TV knows it's receiving a 480p signal when you play the Wii.

The 360 has no lag because it's sending a signal to your TV at 720p, which is likely to be the actual size of your TV screen (720 x 1280 pixels). Therefore your TV doesn't need to rescale the image to display it. The wii is sending out a 480p signal (480 x 640 pixels) so inorder for your TV to display the image it blows it up to the size of the screen (720 x1280). It's that process that's causing the slight time delay.

[norkusa]

and you can really feel the lag when you play anything responsive like DDR, Guitar Hero, fighting games, etc.

I think too many people are fooled by the looks of these sets...

Yeah, this is a big problem for me when playing PS2 games on my HDTV. Music games like DDR and IIDX aren't a big deal since they have timing options that you can adjust, but I can't play any pinball games because the lag is so bad. Shumps and fighting games are impossible to play too.

And just because a HDTV has a game mode doesn't mean it'll make it lag-free. I've played on a few sets that had the option and they still lagged badly.

[CosmicMonkey]

If you're wanting to play fighting games or shooters on LCD TVs with consoles that don't have HDMI (that's everything ever, except PS3 and 360) you'll be needing either a DVDO EDGE, an XRGB-3 or one of the Gefen VGA-DVI boxes if you have your Dreamcast running via VGA box.

Unfortunately, external video processors really are the only option. Even more unfortunately, none of these units are exactly cheap.

So it's really a case of -

Play your PS3 and 360 on your flash new LCD panel. Keep a CRT telly around for your PS2, SNES etc.

Play everything on your flash new LCD panel and cry when it doesn't see your Neo Geo's 240p signal.

Play everything on your LCD using external video processors for your old skool stuff, and marvel at Last Blade in glorious 1080p.

Or get one of those ASUS Eeeeeeeee box jobbies. They should be able to emulate most things and you can even emulate scan lines and things.

[cityside75]

I immediately noticed that, when using the wiimote or classic controller, there was a split second delay from my actual movements to what registered on screen. But it was only when using wireless controllers. If I played a game like Brawl using the wired GameCube controller, everything was fine. Whenever I pressed a button, it immediately registered on the screen. Just can't say the same for wireless though.

This comment stands out to me in relation to the responses given so far. While scaler delay is certainly a common issue, if the above description is accurate it would rule out scaler delay. The scaler would cause the same delay regardless of the type of controller being used. Are you absolutely certain that the delay was gone with a wired controller?

Also, we have a 32" 720p lcd that our Wii is connected to upstairs. It is an Insignia, so I'm quite sure it's scaler is no better than the one in your Emerson, and was purchased around the same time, and we have the Wii connected via component cables. Having said all that, we have no problem with lag with any controllers.

I raise these two points for further consideration before we determine for certain that the situation is hopeless unless he gets a new TV. Perhaps there's something else we haven't thought of?

[TheDomesticInstitution]

I too have a Wii and it's hooked up to a Sony LCD TV via component. I notice no lag when playing the TV. Like everyone has said it's most likely a setting in your TV... or your TV itself may be at fault. Wiis are designed to work with all manner of HDTV sets and shouldn't have a problem with lag.

[CosmicMonkey]

Fair point. I only really play adventure style games on the Wii, so I've never really noticed any major lag even on my 1080p native set. That's with the Wii connected directly via Component.

But yeah, there shouldn't be any noticeable difference between controller types. Odd. Isn't there a way to change the channel your Wiimote uses when you sync it with the console?

[spoon]

I believe these sets have a pretty high refresh rate as well. I dunno if that would cause the problem you are having or not?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I have my Wii hooked up via component cables and set to high resolution mode and I've never experienced any type of lag between controller action and on-screen action.

Panasonic LCD if that makes a difference.

[rbudrick]

Or get one of those ASUS Eeeeeeeee box jobbies.

What's that? Got a link?

-Rob

[CosmicMonkey]

Asus product page (http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=2289&l1=24&l2=165&l3=0&l4=0)

http://uk.gizmodo.com/asus%20eee%20box%201.jpg

[calthaer]

Hmm...I have neither Wii nor 360, and play my PS2 and GameCube via component cables on a 720p Samsung (just got this a month or so ago) and have zero lag whatsoever. Maybe the newer HDTVs have better components to handle "older" signals?