Topic: HDMI upscaler for the Wii available now, so it seems

[Mannypon]

Hey everyone, starting this thread to discuss an item I ran into about 2 days ago.  Now I do like to consider myself to be tech savy but not enough to really get into the details on how this might work or weather it is worth the investment.  What I'm talking about is a third party upscaler for the Wii which upscales the output to 1080p.  Here's the link to a page with further info on the item and a pic.
 

http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=118297[/URL']http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=118297"]http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=118297[/URL]
 
Now, I'm in no way trying to advertise this item by way of this thread, I just wanted to create some conversation on its possible merits.  I went ahead and took a risk and ordered the item, which is expensive for my taste but I figured what the hell.  As soon as it arives, I'll provide my impression of its quality and would be happy to field some questions any of you may have. 
 
For the time being though, can anyone with a little more know-how explain how this works and if the results could be considered decent?  I know that HDTVs already have upscaling features standard but I've heard the quality is not the greatest and that there is some lag.  Here's hoping this doesn't fall into that category.

[BlackNMild2k1]

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=26293.msg595758#msg595758

[Mannypon]

dam, shouldn't have been so quick to make the thread then lol.  Well, mods close this thread out then, I'll post my impressions on that thread when I recieve the item.  Thanks for the heads up.

[BlackNMild2k1]

We do look forward to you impressions though, so please test it out as best as you can. Try and get the best pics you can from it and post them here.

[Mannypon]

Alright, I'll keep this thread alive then once the item arrives.  Any pointers on how I should take a picture of a screenshot on my tv?  Is it as simple as just pointing the cam and snapping a shot?  I've always thought the light from the tv would make the shot look somewhat blurry or unclear.

[vudu]

If you have a means to do direct-capture it'll get you the best results.  I'm sure MegaByte can direct you to a good one if you're interested.

Well, mods close this thread out then, I'll post my impressions on that thread when I recieve the item.

It's probably best for this to have its own thread, so I'm going to keep this one around.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I only linked him to the other thread because he asked "can anyone with a little more know-how explain how this works and if the results could be considered decent?"

[Mannypon]

I'll look into the direct capture and see if its something I can get around to doing (and wont cost too much money lol, I'm already 85 down on this experiment)  If not, I'll resort to regular pics and zoom in on any areas I see of interest or notice a change in quality.
 
 

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

HDMI direct capture?  Sure!  That'll be $350 for a PCIe addon card, like the one I don't use, yet.

[Mannypon]

Would you be able to do it to a pc graphics card with an hdmi connection?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Not at all, totally different world.  That's only for displaying your PC graphics on an HDMI-compatible screen.

[Kytim89]

Believe it or not, I actually predicted a device like this would come forth about a year ago. I must be pyshic?

[Spinnzilla]

exactly how much different would Wii games look in HD?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Believe it or not, I actually predicted a device like this would come forth about a year ago. I must be pyshic?

They've been around for at least 2 years already.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

exactly how much different would Wii games look in HD?

If you stand another 8 feet (varies with eyesight) away from the WiiHD image, the difference disappears, if you're a TV gamer.

People playing Wii's on their desktop computer monitor... are in a disadvantageous situation.

[Kytim89]

Believe it or not, I actually predicted a device like this would come forth about a year ago. I must be pyshic?

They've been around for at least 2 years already.

You ruined my fun. Thank you very much.

[Mannypon]

Looks like Kotaku has a review of for said item.  It seems like the item is questionable and not exactly worth the investment for most.  Looking at some of the pictures gives me mixed feelings. If you look at the Zak and Wiki title shot, the background image seems to get darker and almost blurred out but the title seems to be more detailed in HD, especially the treasure chest which seems to have a gleam to it on its right side thats not in the standard def picture.

Well, I'm still awaiting the arrival of mine in the mail so hopefully I can give some further feedback on it at that later date. Hopefully Dcemu's review comes up soon to get a second opinion.
 
My bad, forgot to post the link
http://kotaku.com/5505009/wii-upscaler-review-can-the-wii-really-do-high-definition

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Using digicam shots are pretty much weak evidence for the review, but there were a few words of worth:

"Some of these devices are pretty good. Others, not so good. And most completely irrelevant, since many TV sets and console already do the upscaling for you."

BINGO.  It's more of a question of which device do you want to do the upscaling?  The TV, or the converter dongle?

As for the color differences in the digicam shots:  The the converter is an analog device, that has its OWN interpretation of the color/brightness/etc. settings in the analog video feed (someone else's opinion on "optimum color settings"), affecting what's fed to the TV, and the TV will interpret that feed afterwards using its own settings in the menu.  So in a sense, the $70 dongle is probably doing 2 things the TV already does.

[D_Average]

Just checked out the Kotaku review.  Why so many menu shots, and jeez, the biggest gaming blog can't afford a capture card?

Looking forward to your impressions.  If this thing works well on games like Galaxy I just may have to partake.

[Mannypon]

Since you want to see Galaxy with this thing, I'll use it for some of my comparison shots when I get it in.  I can't do direct feed shots but hopefully the images I take are good enough to tell a difference.
 
I also have Madworld, HotD: Overkill, Zelda:TP, and Okami among others.  Aside from Galaxy which other game should I use for comparison shots?

[D_Average]

Awesome!  I'd be curious how Okami fairs on it, thats a game that would really shine in silky smooth HD.

[Mannypon]

Well it looks like my item has arrived but I won't be able to pick it up today and probably won't be able to really test it till Saturday night or sometime Tuesday.  For the time being though, I've found some video of the upscaler in action.  2 videos are camera footage and the other 2 are direct footage it seems.  Here are the links for the videos.
 
Cam video 1
http://www.wiinintendo.net/2010/03/30/vdigi-vd-w3-wii-hdmi-upscaler-processor-test-1/
 
Cam video 2
http://www.wiinintendo.net/2010/03/30/vd-w3-wii-hdmi-test-on-new-super-mario-bros-wii/

Direct video 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0BNjheY_EM
 
Direct video 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6foeBxAHTso
 
I'm no expert but I guess you can see some type of difference in the comparison videos.  From what I can see, the colors seem to be darker and some lines seem to be smoothed or blurred out.  Anyway, I'll leave others more knowledgeable put in their thoughts on the videos. 

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

One thing I forgot to add, many HDTVs will remember settings for different inputs, independent of other inputs.  If you're going to compare the two input ports, you have to make sure that both have the same menu settings; you can't just plug them in and take your pictures and go "a-ha, they are kinda different!"; duh, they were different before you plugged anything in.  I doubt any of the "reviewers" remembered to calibrate.

I see no difference in clarity.  The darker images look oversaturated, maybe due to the converter's crazy opinion on color settings; oversaturation is a bad thing in the feed because it destroys native texture details, like other "extreme" settings do:  in contrast, brightness, etc.

At best, here 1080p describes the signal, or the potential of the video feed.  The Wii source content it's trying to translate hardly reaches this potential.  Take your 0.3 MP webcam image and resize it to 5.0 MP -- not too hot.

The rule of thumb for video conversion is:  "trash in, trash out"

[Mannypon]

I'll have to keep the source settings in mind when I get around to taking some pictures.  I can't really tell much from these feeds so I don't have too much faith in how much I can get out of snapshots in my bedroom lol.

[BranDonk Kong]

Manny, your video URLs are completely messed up. You can figure out the wiinintendo ones, but the YouTube ones don't work at all.