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240p Virtual Console Games On Newer HDTV's, Do They Work?

post #1 of 5

9/29/12 at 8:41pm

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80 Posts. Joined 9/2012
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I'm looking to buy a HDTV, but they only show support for 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080p. They does not show any support for 240p, which is the resolution that most NES and SNES games run at on Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console.

If I buy this HDTV, I would use the Wii's Component Cable, and set my Wii to 480p under the options menu. HOWEVER, I've "heard" that the Wii does not upscale the old 240p Virtual Console games to 480i or 480p (whether this is true or not, I don't know). If this is true, then the HDTV will probably not display those games, at all.

For all of you old-school gamers out there, can you guys confirm to me whether or not I will be able to play these VC NES-SNES games on this new HDTV? I would hate to be forced to stick to old CRT technology forever. So guys, let me know!
Edited by nintygaming - 1/23/13 at 2:47pm

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post #2 of 5

9/30/12 at 5:18am

1,520 Posts. Joined 2/2007
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Most of the VC emulators (Not sure about all) will only output the original resolution when set to 480i. When progessive scan is selected, the games are upscaled to 480p (And the N64 emulator apparantly renders the graphics at that resolution).

But just because it's not listed doesn't mean it wouldn't be displayed. No television even in the pre HD age would've ever listed the resolutions a classic console would display as supported. But the vast majority of HDTV's will display a picture of varying quality through at least some of the inputs on the television (Component seems to be the one that most often will struggle with something less than 480i/p). Many HDTV's will even display things like Atari 2600 games despite many not doing a good job back then at respecting the NTSC standard (Some official releases are almost even PAL, like GCC Millipede which was so far away that it even had rolling issues on many SD CRT's despite CRT's being far more lenient to out of spec signals than a modern HDTV).

And since you're moving to a HDTV, keep in mind that widescreen on the Wii's dashboard doesn't affect Virtual Console games since they have no widescreen mode to switch to. So all you'll have to do to keep playing your Virtual Console games in 4:3 is to tell your tv via a press of a button on the remote to stop stretching the Wii display to fill your screen.Then it will pillarbox the signal so your games will still be in the correct aspect ratio.

Don't get fooled into thinking that you need to change the Wii's settings to 4:3 everytime to play 4:3 games. The setting only affects Wii releases that have an anamorphic widescreen mode available. So all Virtual Console games are unaffected by that setting (as are widescreen GameCube games since they relied on the player changing a menu setting in-game to turn on anamorphic widescreen when it was available).

post #3 of 5

9/30/12 at 11:21am

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80 Posts. Joined 9/2012
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Quote:

Originally Posted by Leo_Ames

Most of the VC emulators (Not sure about all) will only output the original resolution when set to 480i. When progessive scan is selected, the games are upscaled to 480p (And the N64 emulator apparantly renders the graphics at that resolution).
But just because it's not listed doesn't mean it wouldn't be displayed. No television even in the pre HD age would've ever listed the resolutions a classic console would display as supported. But the vast majority of HDTV's will display a picture of varying quality through at least some of the inputs on the television (Component seems to be the one that most often will struggle with something less than 480i/p). Many HDTV's will even display things like Atari 2600 games despite many not doing a good job back then at respecting the NTSC standard (Some official releases are almost even PAL, like GCC Millipede which was so far away that it even had rolling issues on many SD CRT's despite CRT's being far more lenient to out of spec signals than a modern HDTV).
And since you're moving to a HDTV, keep in mind that widescreen on the Wii's dashboard doesn't affect Virtual Console games since they have no widescreen mode to switch to. So all you'll have to do to keep playing your Virtual Console games in 4:3 is to tell your tv via a press of a button on the remote to stop stretching the Wii display to fill your screen.Then it will pillarbox the signal so your games will still be in the correct aspect ratio.
Don't get fooled into thinking that you need to change the Wii's settings to 4:3 everytime to play 4:3 games. The setting only affects Wii releases that have an anamorphic widescreen mode available. So all Virtual Console games are unaffected by that setting (as are widescreen GameCube games since they relied on the player changing a menu setting in-game to turn on anamorphic widescreen when it was available).

Just out of curiosity, when the Wii upscales VC games to 480p, does this create lag? (thanks very much for your answers thus far!)

post #4 of 5

9/30/12 at 4:24pm