Wii + HD

Normally, I'd just comment, but this would be a little longer response. One of the reasons I wasn't keen on getting a Wii was due to the low resolution it supported (which I had heard was 480i, but is actually 480p, standby). Once I decided I wasn't that worried about that, I bought it and fired it up to see what I would end up with. I was expecting it to need to be in normal mode on the TV, leaving me with black bars on the sides. No big deal. However, once I started setting it up, I found a few settings that made things a little better.

1) The Wii has a Widescreen mode. The way it works is not very high definition or anything, but it fills the screen without making things out of proportion. It actually keeps the picture at 720x480, but it squishes the picture to fit in that area. Then you can change the wide mode on your television to stretch it out to the right proportions.

You can see how the effect works in the picture above. It definitely does the trick for my eyes, but maybe I'm just not that picky.

This method has varying results. That bowling game is from the "free" game that comes with the console that I didn't technically pay anything for. However, in Mario Party 8, which I did pay for, the menus and animations are all widescreen, but once you get into the game, the game actually has built in bars... kinda lame. Hey, but at least they're nice blue argyle.

2) The Wii supports progressive scan. It's not high def or anything, but 480p is better than 480i. Unfortunately, you have to get a component cable to make this work. It didn't come with the console. So, I don't know if it actually works or not, but the option is there. I'll let you know when I pony up for the cable to see how it works out.