Wii HD Component Cable Reviews

• Decent alternative to Nintendo brand Wii component cables

  
  By A37I377QOTELM1 on 2007-01-05
  Although the Nintendo Wii does not support high-definition video (720p or 1080i), the picture quality on my set is noticeably improved when using these MadCatz cables over the composite cable that came with my Wii. If you're not a believer, check out the Composite vs. Component cable comparison of several Wii games here: http://www.gamespot.com/features/6162297/p-2.html
  
  I would recommend these cables as they are solidly built for the price you pay. The Wii cables from MadCatz are 9.8 ft long and are gold-plated. Unfortunately there is no description of what kind of shielding is used, and the package itself is pretty non-descriptive. There are more expensive Wii component cables out there made by reputable companies like Psyclone or Belkin, but you'd have to shell out $60 or more for arguably only a marginal difference.
  
  The cables are color-coded, gold-plated, and have a decent build quality to them. Only giving a 4, however, as component cables should have been included with the Wii in the first place, and as consumers we're still being gouged on a price markup for third-party cables that cost far less to make!
  
  

• Works as Advertised

  
  By A3BFQXYP02D1Z3 on 2007-01-04
  Well, it does what it says it does for $10 less than the official Nintendo cable. The only ding I give this product is that the audio connectors are attached close to the video connectors. The result of this is that you can't, for example, plug the video into a TV and the audio into a receiver unless they are located very close to each other. Perhaps the official cable suffers from the same issue. Additionally, you'll only get a resolution of 480p from these cables, which is not really HD. This is a shortcoming of the Wii itself, not the cable.
  
  

• They work

  
  By A1R7JPP1VAP79G on 2007-03-08
  In short, the cables work. The downside is that in an effort to make the back of your entertainment center more clutter free, they bundle all the cables into one solid cable. Now this would normally be great; the bummer is that they don't split out all the cables until the last 5", this means that if on your receiver (like mine) if your audio inputs are not right next to the video inputs, you may have a problem. They should have left at least the last 8" of cable separated.
  
  

• Extra long just perfect for Hi-Def screens

  
  By AIIHOI3SOYJPT on 2007-01-14
  
  This cable performs just as well as the other more expensive options, save your money and buy this cable for your HD TV. The Wii detects this cable and you can then change the display type to HD in the Wii setup menu.
  The extra long length allows you to place your Wii nearly anywhere.
  
  I love the quick shipping from amazon.
  
  buy this cable now!
  
  
  

• Sturdy cable, hard to tell the difference in qualtiy

  
  By A6MZC8W7K3XLC on 2007-01-14
  The Wii runs in 480i mode when using the included composite cable. Once this component cable is attached, a new menu option appears in Wii Setup which allows you to select 480p mode. I really couldn't tell that much difference between the old and new cable using Sports, Rabbids and Zelda, but I'm going to keep the cable anyway. Perhaps it's just that 480i and 480p don't look much different on a large LCD monitor (which I have) or my set is somehow up-coding it to 480p already. The cable itself is quite heavy and sturdy and this price is about half of what it is offered for on other sites.
  
  
• Big improvement
  By AYSWXOYZT3DV2 on 2007-02-07
  Wow - the image quality greatly improved through the use of this cable. I plugged in the cable, set the output of the Wii to 480p, and was impressed with the results. Images were crisper and there was a noticeable increase in color range.
  
  I have the Wii hooked up to a large (52") HD, LCD projection TV and was not very happy with the original image. Shadows lost details and images had a blur to them. Switching from the included cable to this cable really seemed to improve things. Others noticed it too. I know others have mentioned about banding, I haven't noticed any of this. Highly recommend.
  
  
  
• Good Cable at good price
  By A1CFNOI8BWWK1N on 2007-01-24
  Unlike some other reviewers I definitely noticed a difference switching from composite video to component and changing the Wii setting to 480p on my 16 X 9 TV. While the cable length is good, those who might want to run the audio cables into an amp or receiver might be out of luck as they are no longer than the video cables. If you are just going from the Wii to your TV it's not a problem. Don't be swayed but other Wii component cable offers that cost up to 3 or 4 times as much.
  
  
• Poor Quality
  By A1LMZR6A1ODB0J on 2007-02-08
  Poorly shielded, and the cable I received was defective. It completely washed out the colors in the picture, and anything that was supposed to be gray displayed as pink. Spend a little more money on better cables if you want better picture quality.
  
  
• Shouldn't This cable Play All Formats? Not Downloaded Games...
  By A3MXO3VFB0MLEM on 2007-01-22
  This cable DOES NOT WORK when you try to play games dowloaded from nintendo wii's site as advertised that it would play all formats. Screen stays black and pauses when you try to use this set of cables, seems only set that works is the one that comes with the wii system. Seems like I was the guinea pig .... Did Not Work. I tried it on Toe jam and Earl and Zelda 1 from NES and Sega Respectively...
  
  
  
• Great cables, excellent price point
  By ATKKOPUI0D4YN on 2007-01-22
  I've seen a noticeable difference in games on my 30" directview HDTV. Also, the Virtual Console games work fine with this--I saw a review stating that they didn't, but I'm not sure why they wouldn't to begin with. Everything about this cable is fine for me. As others have said, the cables split about 1 foot from the end, so if you want to plug the audio into your stereo but your video into the TV, you will need an extension for the left/right RCA ends.
  
  
• One annoying problem...
  By A2Z3M462WFVV3Y on 2007-02-10
  The cable doesn't split out with much separation for the audio/video connectors making it impossible to plug the component connectors to my TV and the audio connectors to my stereo. I had to buy extenders for the audio pair to reach my receiver. Component does look better on my TV (Samsung DLP) so overall it was worth it. It would work fine if you are connecting the audio to your TV or your receiver accepts component video.
  
  
• Works Great!!!
  By A1S3OLD4614O7F on 2007-02-14
  Bought it a week ago from Amazon. It works great with my Vizio VX37L!! Tested it with Zelda, Warioware, Wii Sports, Wii Play, and NFS:C...with no problem.
  
  
• Decent Price
  By A2WM45XB3302MU on 2007-02-22
  That's the saving grace really. The improvement from the 480i to 480p IS actually noticeable. At least on my HD set it is. On a normal TV, I couldn't tell the difference. (I do have a TV that for some reason has component inputs though it can't show me anything other than 480i). Anyway, this was a good price considering 3rd party cables I found that were costing $30+. Amazon and free shipping, I had it in 2 days (yay Prime) without having to find it in a store, cuz the stores are sold out. Except for K Mart but who buys there anyway?
  
  Yes, the BIG downside is that the cables are all wrapped up nice and neat, giving you about 3-4 inches of cable placement at the end. This means that if you hook it up to an HD Set, you probably won't get the audio cables to reach to an audio receiver. I had to use extensions. My HD set does not have digital audio outputs, so all my audio cables go to my amp directly.
  
  So, do I recommend them? Sure, why not. These are only 19$. Don't get me wrong, you're not going to see as big a difference like you would if you switch your PS3 from composite to HDMI, over twice the resolution of the Wii. But then again, that's now why we bought a Wii, now is it?
  
  
• Great product!
  By AFXGAXDS8T66G on 2007-01-11
  The biggest difference I noticed when using this component cable is the difference in clarity and texture quality. It makes a noticable difference. The component picture shows much better definition as well a more vivid color. Well worth the $20!
  
  
• Wii component cable: satisfactory
  By A1PNU1XL4UTYDM on 2007-01-23
  These component cables give a great picture and appear to be of adequate build quality. There is plenty of length to route them to your receiver, although I would have preferred more length separating the audio and video dongles.
  
  
  
• Would probably be better to spend the $$ and get the official Nintendo cable
  By A243QQJCYOYJ4Y on 2007-02-03
  Good packaging, good cable length. I plugged it into my component input and adjusted the Wii to 480p. I noticed something bad. Vertical scrolling from some interference. The cables are just not shielded enough to prevent interference from the back of the TV. I had to rearrange the cables for over an hour to get the verticle scrolling 'waves' to appear as minimal as possible. I was finally able to eliminate them, though at times I still feel like there is a slight shimmer, but whatever.
  
  Would probably be better to spend the $$ and get the official Nintendo cable.
  
  
• don't waste your money on these cables
  By A32G9JGINRF1MZ on 2007-02-04
  I recently purchased these cables and I can tell you that the Wii looks better with the regular A/V cables they come with. I was very disappointed with the quality of these cables and look forward to actually getting another set of component Wii cables from a different manufacturer. These cables produce heavy vertical banding and actually wash out all of the colors.
  
  
• Nice product
  By AMW636ZQYB7MC on 2007-02-04
  I used these with Wii sports, everything looks much clearer and crisper. The water effects in Golf look fantastic! If you own an HDTV I recommend ordering these cables. And I saved $10 off Nintendo's cables.
  
  
• How much will you pay for 480i to 480p?
  By A28BE0HA20BQOI on 2007-02-06
  I got this so I can get the most out of the WII on a HD tv. However, since the WII already outputs 480i widescreen out of the box, going to 480p isn't much of a difference, let alone anything noticable...
  
  
• Virtual Consol Problems
  By A1WQ2J1MTH63PQ on 2007-03-26
  If you wish to play virtual consol games you've downloaded, do NOT buy this, i learned the hard way. It will make the screen blank on older games
  
  
• Not a great product. I prefer the Nintendo brand component video cables.
  By ASLH2JKL9PWBF on 2007-04-06
  I used my SDTV's component video input with my Nintendo Wii connected via this MadCatz cable. Using this cable provided a significant increase in picture quality over the standard composite video cable however, the connectors are a little on the cheap side. The wire itself is also a rather flimsy high gauge. After about a month of use, the Cb cable developed a short. I've never seen a cable fail like this without being tampered with in some way.
  
  This MadCatz component cable is not the best solution available for the Wii. I recommend the Nintendo's own component cable. It's more robust and delivers good performance for the price.
  
  
• Wii Component SCAM
  By A2LG7XZ04EUXDW on 2007-05-09
  Be careful when you order the Wii component by Mad Catz under this item that's under $10. I received a 6 ft-gray no brand name cheaply made cable in a plastic bag, which looks like the one made by HandHelditems cost $0.01. I had ordered this cable before $19.99 through Amazon and it came 9.8 ft-white in a factory sealed box by Mad Catz. I was disappointed with my purchase. I didn't want to exchange for another one because it cost me $4.05 shipping to send it back. Anyway using component, the picture quality improved a little. Make sure to change your Wii console setting to 480p.
  
  
• Excellent quality and value
  By A1TT3CLW537UYP on 2007-05-31
  I bought this A/V cable 2 months before I could find a Wii at retail price! I am very pleased with the quality of the cable and the image quality it produces. I would never know it is not an OEM product, as it looks and feels superior to most OEM products. The price was half what Nintendo was asking for their component video cable. The Wii looks great at 480p and 16x9 on our DLP set.
  
  
• Wii HD Component Cable
  By A3LRPHMOVJTY23 on 2007-02-19
  It's a component cable that works just fine for the Wii. If you want that sort of thing, pick one up.
  
  
• They work
  By A34GG58TJ1A3SH on 2007-03-11
  I was a little hesitant buying these because of a few of the bad reviews, but to my surprise, they work fine.
  
  *If you're thinking of buying cables, go ahead and save yourself 10 bux and get these, they work fine.
  
  *If you're wondering what the difference in picture quality is, I'd say it's slightly noticeable. It does make a little bit of a difference on a game like Zelda, but on the more cartoony games it doesn't. (Gamespot did a comparison of component vs composite)
  
  Is it worth it? - If you have $20 to blow, and you're going to keep your console for a few years, I guess it's worth it, but if $20 means a lot to you, I'd say the cables don't make that much of a difference.
  
  
• go ahead and buy these for 20 bucks
  By A1E5101M7A6SQ0 on 2007-03-22
  their is a nice difference in graphics, in my opinion. and for only 20 bucks why not. thats my two cents.
  
  
• Not necessary
  By A1TP78YKYTQKMP on 2007-03-23
  I was told by the manager in the EB Games store near me that this item was not necessary for my HDTV. He said they had the TV in the store hooked up to the system and it was not a noticeable difference. I don't know if that would be true for other HDTV's but mine works fine without it,,,I just figured it might be even better but i'm not missing anything.
  
  
• Sadly Dissapointed
  By A2J6NTERA5GNFJ on 2007-01-11
  My complaints have nothing to do with the quality of this cable but with the "component" image you receive when turning on progressive scan on the Wii. In my opinion while the image may be a little sharper on my 42 inch 720p capable display it actually looks worse than interlace because of the pixilation you can now see.
  
  
• Cable Specs
  By A3F5Q9NAZP6SWR on 2007-01-13
  Just got mine in the mail... Amazon said they were orginally releasing January 30th, not December so I was a little surprised when the shiped. Just so everyone knows, the cable is 9.8 foot long, and the audio and video cables are bundled into one thick cable till you get about a foot from the connectors. I like this, as it will keep the cables in check. And yes, being bundled can be a disadvantage if your audio hookups are not by your video hookups (but I believe nintendos are like this too). I haven't plugged them in, but I'm not expecting a huge difference, but then again I never thought the Wii looked that bad on my 32" LCD (1080i display).
  
  
• Looks better than standard a/v cables!
  By A3QATFADDHQNMD on 2007-01-31
  Well, my one peeve is that the Wii doesn't support any resolution higher than 480p (yet). This causes some 'jaggies' (jagged edges) when playing games that aren't really designed with HDTV in mind. Other than that, though, this cable is great! I can't wait until Nintendo updates the Wii to support higher resolution (much like Microsoft did with the Xbox 360).
  
  

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