Wii noob - video signal problem, please help

Ravenlord

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First of all, let me just "Hello" to all of the community, and thank you for taking the time to read my post.

A couple of years ago my little brother was really excited about the videos showing people playing on the Wii, but we never purchased one, as I thought he was too small to handle the controller and nunchuck responsibly. A few days ago I got hold of a used Nintendo Wii from someone who owed me money, it came with 2 controllers, 2 nun-chucks, lots of accessories and games, plus the WiiFit board.

Now here's the problem I'm facing... From the back of the Wii (btw I believe it's a PAL Wii as it was purchased in the UK), from the AV multioutput, I have wires which can give me either 3 RCA jacks (red, white, yellow), or SCART. The things is I don't have a TV, I only have 2 computer monitors, and my plan was to set-up on of them with the Wii in my brother's room; both monitors are identical, Samsung 2232 LCD, they have inputs for VGA and DVI.

I am very tech-savvy when it comes to computers, but I have little to no experience in fiddling around with video signals and adapters. So I did the most obvious thing, I bought a cable with 3 RCA jacks on one end , and VGA on the other. The cable cost less than 10$, and it seems pretty solid; since I have male RCAs coming out from the Wii and also male RCAs on the cable end, I also purchased an adaptor, with 3 female RCAs on each end (exactly like this : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/3902...ICEP3.0.0-L&ff14=122&viphx=1&ops=true&ff13=80).

I connected the whole setup properly, and it doesn't work. So I did what I always do, I googled around for answers from people with similar problems, and I guess in the end it all led to me being even more confused. There are people saying that a cable just like my own is enough to do the job but only for some TVs and LCDs, there are others who are saying that you absolutely have to purchase one of those video-signal-converter-boxes (which I really hope I don't have to do, since they cost as much as I spent on the Wii), and there are others who are saying that I just have to buy an older TV, which accepts 3 RCA inputs. Oh and also, I found lots of cases where people only had to connect the wii to a TV THE 1st TIME, change a video setting (from 480i to 480p), and after that it will work with adapters or adapting cables.

I am SURE that the cable I bought is NOT one of those which have a video converter incorporated, those are the more expensive ones, and obviously I tried the cheaper alternative first; but if I have to, I might have to buy one of those fancier cables, from what I've seen online most people were very satisfied with the Vdigi one (http://www.vdigi.com/index.php?opti...=flypage.tpl&product_id=18&vmcchk=1&Itemid=53). It is also worth mentioning that the Wii outputs red+yellow+white RCAs, the cable I bought had red+blue+green RCAs ! I have since learned that one of them is called COMPOSITE and the other one COMPONENT, and I'm not sure if they're compatible or if they work together, it thought they should work since they use the same jack, but I'm not sure that the signal is "processed" in the same way.

So I connect the Wii red+yellow+white cable into the 3way female-to-female RCA plug, and then further connect the plug into the red+blue+green, and then the VGA end to my Samsung LCD. You can see the whole setup here : http://pasteboard.co/19i1CFkx.jpg (yeah, I'm the next Picasso, i know). IN THIS WAY I AM UNABLE TO OBTAIN AN IMAGE ON MY LCD MONITOR.
I tried switching the RCAs around, and I noticed one thing: in all combinations, the monitor acts like if there is no video signal input, it switches back and forth searching for signal between analog and digital ( im guessing VGA and DVI, respectively), and then displays "Check signal cable" for a few seconds, and then it goes to standby; EXCEPT !!! when I hook the yellow RCA coming from the Wii to the green RCA of the cable ; when i do that, the monitor stops searching for video input, as if it "found" something, but the screen stays pitch black for hours, it doesn't go to standby, it just hangs, which leads me to believe that it is detecting some sort of video signal. Also, from what i've read only, it seems that only the yellow RCA carries video signal, the red+white are for the left&right audio channels, is that correct ?
I've read somewhere that the Wii can only output 480p @50Mhz ; the lowest resolution that my Samsung LCD can accept is 1024x768 @60Mhz, does that mean it cannot be used with the Wii ?

So if anyone can answer my question or just provide some help please do, I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE IT. I really wanna get this thing set-up and working for my little brother's sake, and ideally I would like to not have to spend 40$+ on a video-signal-converter-box, I thing I could just be better off buying one of those old TV sets with a tube, or maybe an old CRT monitor.

THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ THIS, ANY ADVICE IS WELCOME !
HAVE A NICE DAY!
 
First of all welcome. It sounds like you'll need something specific to connecting a Wii to a monitor, something like THIS. Ultimately though, your best bet is to get a HDTV that has component, and getting the component cables for the Wii, but I know it's not the ideal situation ($$$).
 
TY for your answer, Hyrule Chicken.

I've been researching this like a maniac today, because I promised my brother he'd be able to play this evening, and it's already 4PM here. The only thing left to try is to hook it up to my neighbor's flatscreen CRT TV when he gets home from work and try to change that setting from 480i (EDTV) to 480p (HDTV), although I'm NOT expecting that to work; and if I'm correct and it doesn't, I think I will purchase one of those big screen CRT TVs, I've seen some that are selling for 30$...
 
Time is working against you! Hahaha. Yes, even with the adapter I linked you to, it seems like you'll still need to find a way to change the setting to 480p. It could work, maybe the TV will recognize the signal that way. Keep us posted, I'm curious to hear about your potential solution, even if it means buying a new TV.
 
Well, you're actually better off purchasing a CRT TV for the Wii. It's the most practical solution if space isn't a problem. The Wii was designed with older tv sets in mind. However, you will get the optimum picture quality on an LCD TV with component cables. Particularly if you want your brother to enjoy Wii titles in their widescreen mode.
 
So I changed the display setting to 480p, and my VGA-input LCD monitor still wasn't picking up the video. I mean it was still acting like it would detect video signal (it wouldn't switch back and forth between the VGA and DVI inputs, it would "stay" on VGA and blink every 30 seconds or so, as if it was a refresh rate issue), but it was unable to display actual images or color.

I resorted to buying a cheap 32" Toshiba wide(&flat)screen CRT for 20GBP, locally. It has built in speakers and came with a bonus TV stand, and my little brother is happy with the image quality.

@Damien Lee : The above-mentioned TV displays all the games that I currently have in widescreen just fine, it was never an issue.

@Hyrule Chicken : Someone on another Wii forum suggested a rather elegant solution, which I now wished I had gone for : Wii 2 HDMI converter + HDMI 2 DVI cable + simple 3.5mm-jack cable for the audio. Cheap, effective, and would have saved me a bit of space. On the other hand, I still quite like my old Samsung2232BW LCD monitor, even if I couldn't get it 2 work with the Wii. So if my little brother will one day decide to NOT put on the Wiimote bracelet (and I'm sure he will) and will end up throwing the Wiimote at the TV, I'd much rather it was this cheap old TV rather than my old Samsung, which I'm kinda sentimental about (we've been through a lot together and it's been serving me perfectly for 8+ years, no dead pixels or anything).


TY for reading my post and for your suggestions!


P.S.: Oh and just in case anybody else reads this looking for the same answer as me, here it goes:
In order to have an older Wii (not WiiU) work with a LCD monitor that has digital video inputs (VGA, DVI), you ABSOLUTELY need to buy one of these things :
1. stand-alone video signal conversion box OR
2. expensive component-to-VGA cable with converter incorporated OR
3. the solution mentioned 2 paragraphs above, with the Wii 2 HDMI + cable + audio cable.
 
I'm glad you found a solution, even if it wasn't necessarily the one you were hoping for. Thankfully you found a TV for not too expensive. I'd still consider plugging the Wii in with component cables eventually as you do get the best graphic quality that way. :)

Regardless, your younger brother has a fun console to enjoy! :)
 

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