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Fri, 28 Dec 2007

No HDMI for Wii

I decided to do some more shopping for my game system, and went to the store to buy a (non existant) HDMI-Wii cable.

"I see the component cables, but where do you keep the Wii HDMI cables?", I ask.

"The Wii is not high definition, its just 480p", looking smug, as if I was a complete idiot (subjective).

After a quick iPhone googling in the store -- there really was no such thing. No need to argue, it just does not have any digital out. Lots of forum posts with this exact same HDMI question, and plenty more Fred Meyer electronics section employee-esk responses.

Ugh. Time for video school forum posters and store clerks alike:

  • HDMI does not equal "high definition only", its a cable specification that carries a variety digital video and audio signals. 480p works just fine over HDMI and is part of the specification.

  • Converting a digital signal to analog and then right back to digital is silly, no matter what the resolution. Virtually all televisions that accept component will put it back into digital format anyway. Why introduce analog artifacts needlessly? Wii's component output is not perfect. There is noticable ghosting between pixels of high contrast. Especially so on a large TV.

  • HDMI carries digital audio, reducing the need for extra wires and yet another ADC/DAC step.

    I don't care about the "jaggies" or blocky video game graphics. All I want is there to be one mario, not one mario and three of his ghosts, because nintendo has a slight impedance mismatch on the component jacks.

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