Wii, PS3, 360 - Do the majority of the games support Widescreen?

[OldSchool]

Yo,

I was just reading about how some Wii games support Widescreen... lol... here I am looking for a new Widescreen TV to take over my living room and be my dedicated Console tv... and I read this.

So... am I to expect that I'm going to have edges on the sides of the screen with non widescreen games when played on my Widescreen TV:confused:


I just spent an assload of mula on a Wii (lots of games) and a PS2 (and some games) and now I find this out.
What next :(

[Pulstar]

I don't know about the Wii, but all of the 360 and PS3 games (that aren't remake or enhanced ports sold on XBLA/PSN) support 16:9 resolutions. Both consoles are marketted as HD machines but the fact is neither can pull a true 1080p resolution for "demanding" games, which comprise most of their respective libraries. Which is okay if you don't have a large HDTV, but quite noticeable if you have one of those shinier +40 inchers.

[Knuckle Duster]

What next :(

Herpes. :ok:

[mrbigreddog]

All Wii games (as far as I know) and a handful of PS2 games support 16x9.

[64k]

Have you set the 16:9 option in their respective BIOS?

PS2 I know has it somewhere buired in its menus, Not too sure on the Wii. Also PS3/360 fully support widescreen again if the settings are correct under video options. Affaik all 360/ps3 games are made to support widescreen.

[PimpUigi]

Most Wii games support widescreen, and in addition to that, most Wii games support true widescreen.

360/PS3 games, while all support some mode of widescreen, most are better played in full screen (480p) because 360/PS3 think it's a great idea to cut off the tops and bottoms of the screen to achieve a widescreen viewing effect.

This of course, is not good.

Sonic Unleashed 1 & 2 are great examples.

Sonic Unleashed 1 on the 360/PS3 does not use real widescreen, it cuts off the tops and bottoms of the screen, and thus playing the game in full screen via 480p makes finding different paths and secrets much much easier.

Sonic Unleashed 2 on the Wii, on the other hand, uses real widescreen (no widescreen for the PS2 Sonic Unleashed 2 I'm afraid) you get extra viewing area on the left and right sides of the screen, making different paths and secrets easier to find.

My CRT HDTV is a 34 inch widescreen...and most of the games I play are full screen, while most of the movies I watch are widescreen.

This is another area where PC gaming is generally superior, because you can almost always enable a true widescreen mode for games that otherwise don't support one, or at least play in full screen in HD.
You can't play full screen in HD on 360/PS3, and that hurts games like Street Fighter 4, and Sonic Unleashed.

[gamevet]

I don't know about the Wii, but all of the 360 and PS3 games (that aren't remake or enhanced ports sold on XBLA/PSN) support 16:9 resolutions. Both consoles are marketted as HD machines but the fact is neither can pull a true 1080p resolution for "demanding" games, which comprise most of their respective libraries. Which is okay if you don't have a large HDTV, but quite noticeable if you have one of those shinier +40 inchers.

Uncharted 2 looks just fine in 720p on my 52" set. Sure 1080p may make things look a little more crisp, but it's not a huge loss. My television shows FFXIII to be in 1080p though.

[OldSchool]

Herpes. :ok:

lol... good one, buttmunch :cool:


All Wii games (as far as I know) and a handful of PS2 games support 16x9.

I hope so..


Have you set the 16:9 option in their respective BIOS?

PS2 I know has it somewhere buired in its menus, Not too sure on the Wii. Also PS3/360 fully support widescreen again if the settings are correct under video options. Affaik all 360/ps3 games are made to support widescreen.

I still have my old 27" 4:3 TV... haven't gotten the new TV yet. That's gonna have to come next month, I'm spending boku money this month getting setup with the Wii and PS2. Thks for the suggestion though!


Most Wii games support widescreen, and in addition to that, most Wii games support true widescreen.

360/PS3 games, while all support some mode of widescreen, most are better played in full screen (480p) because 360/PS3 think it's a great idea to cut off the tops and bottoms of the screen to achieve a widescreen viewing effect.

This of course, is not good.

Sonic Unleashed 1 & 2 are great examples.

Sonic Unleashed 1 on the 360/PS3 does not use real widescreen, it cuts off the tops and bottoms of the screen, and thus playing the game in full screen via 480p makes finding different paths and secrets much much easier.

Sonic Unleashed 2 on the Wii, on the other hand, uses real widescreen (no widescreen for the PS2 Sonic Unleashed 2 I'm afraid) you get extra viewing area on the left and right sides of the screen, making different paths and secrets easier to find.

My CRT HDTV is a 34 inch widescreen...and most of the games I play are full screen, while most of the movies I watch are widescreen.

This is another area where PC gaming is generally superior, because you can almost always enable a true widescreen mode for games that otherwise don't support one, or at least play in full screen in HD.
You can't play full screen in HD on 360/PS3, and that hurts games like Street Fighter 4, and Sonic Unleashed.

Thanks for the super in depth post, it's very much appreciated :D


Uncharted 2 looks just fine in 720p on my 52" set. Sure 1080p may make things look a little more crisp, but it's not a huge loss. My television shows FFXIII to be in 1080p though.

Thanks for your feedback.



Guys, I super appreciate you taking the time... as always, my hats off to you.
:happygaming:

[PimpUigi]

In reference to PS3/360 widescreen games, I meant to say "many" are better played in full screen, and not "most."

Most could very well be the wrong word.

It's only with the few I've tried.
Sonic 2006 for instance though, is true wide screen.

So is Condemned 1 & 2.
They play in widescreen even in 480p, simply placing black bars at the tops and bottoms of the screen.
This is the way all PS3/360 games should be IMHO...I mean, the whole "designed for wide screen" thing is shot in the foot when full screen gets better field of view (Bioshock and Gears of War)
This whole problem is fixed with 480i/p being wide screen only for those games.

Also, PS3 games often look better in 720p, rather than 1080i...this hasn't been the case for 360, where every game is better in 1080i (CRT HDTV can't do 1080p)

It's extremely annoying having to check every single resolution for every single PS3 game before finding the best one.

I always have to change my resolution for each game too, so it gets really old.

I wish Sony would let you set the resolution per game.
That would be sweet.

[gamevet]

Are you using an HD CRT PimpUigi? (Edit: Yes you are.)

My HD CRT has geometry issues with widescreen media and it's really evident with PS3 and 360 games. The edges aren't cut off on a true Widescreen television though and your 34" CRT probably has the same issues most HD CRTs have with the widescreen images.

[PimpUigi]

Well it would be a lie if I said I didn't take big chunks out of my time to work with that in the service menu of my TV.

BTW PC games look amazing on it.
I played Resident Evil 4 on it (with the community patches that replace all the textures with 1080p designed textures, and much more) and it just blows me away.
I've also played Condemned 1, Gears of War 1, SF4, and watched C&C 3 replays on it. (all PC versions)

It just looks so much better than my 1920x1200 LCD monitor...I assume it's the pixel pitch on the LCD monitor that is the issue. While I wouldn't say the LCD monitor is blurry, or unclear, the HDTV is just in a whole other league of sharpness and clarity.

The only PC to console comparisons I've done are C&C 3 Kane's Wrath, and Street Fighter 4...and while there was almost no difference in Kane's Wrath, PC SF4 looks like an entirely different game compared to my PS3's SF4...speaking of which, I should pick up Super Street Fighter 4.

[kool kitty89]

So some games only offered cropped widescreen for 480i/p, not anamorphic?

[Joe Redifer]

It's extremely annoying having to check every single resolution for every single PS3 game before finding the best one.

Just let each game display in its native resolution. It's always worked great for me. And my Xbox 360 looks much better in 720p than it does in 1080i. It's just a matter of who has the better upscaler, the Xbox 360 or your TV. I have a Sony 34XBR960 CRT TV.

Also, I certainly don't consider the 4:3 aspect ratio as "full screen" because it is anything but.

[kool kitty89]

PimpUigi is talking about how some games provide less viewing area in 16:9 than 4:3, such that it might be preferable to play in 4:3 instead due to it giving a wider view.
I believe he mentioned that Sonic Unleashed shows more top and bottom in 4:3 than 16:9, such that 16:9 looks like it's a clipped version of the 4:3 screen zoomed in and at a higher resolution.

THAT's the problem...

Plus, it can be hard to tell what a game's native rendering resolution is, or if, in fact, it supports various rendering modes (not just hardware upscaling/downconverting). 720p is a pretty safe bet for the 360 though.
If you're using an LCD TV, you're likely not going to display in its native resolution anyway except for 1080p sets running 1080p native games. (720p TVs have to scale, thus losing some detail and gaining fuzziness from antialising --1360x768 or 1365x768 is the real native resolution of such TVs)

I still don't understand how the 360 can tell if it should output 480p or 480i via component as there's only the "480p" setting, yet it most definitely displays in 480i via component video. (and S-video and composite)

[PimpUigi]

So some games only offered cropped widescreen for 480i/p, not anamorphic?
Some games only offer cropped or anamorphic.
Some games only offer cropped.

IMHO no game should offer full screen right now.

I have a Sony 34XBR960 CRT TV
Props.
That's the same TV I have.

Hard to know what a games native resolution is for the PS3.
720p, or 1080p/i...SF2 HD Remix, and Flower look by far and away the best in 1080i, while Metal Gear Solid 4, Sonic Unleashed, and Condemned 2 looked much better in 720p (but I play Sonic Unleashed in 4:3 480p to get the better viewing area, some Sonic Unleashed graphics actually look better in this mode, strangely enough)

Xbox 360 games on the other hand, every single one has looked better in 1080i over 720p so far.
That is, Halo 3, and Gears of War 2.

[Joe Redifer]

Pimpi, if you just let the PS3 do automatic connections via HDMI or just turn on all of the resolutions in the PS3 menu, the game will always play at its highest native resolution. Flower automatically plays in 1080i, Burnout Paradise will play in 720p, etc. The Xbox 360, on the other hand, is very difficult since you set it to one resolution and ALL games display at that resolution. Halo 3 isn't even 720p in native resolution, it's quite pathetic.

Although the CRT is nice, the TV has geometry issues as well as convergence issues. I want to replace this TV quite badly.

One thing that bothers me about the Wii is that I must tell my TV to go to widescreen mode. There is no 16:9 flag in the video. Even the original Xbox sent out the 16:9 flag.

[Knuckle Duster]

The thing that bothers me about the Xbox 360 is that when it's connected to an older standard CRT. The fonts for menus, especially in RPGs are absolutely horrible and tiny.

I don't want to 'NEED' to drop it on an HDTV all the time just for it to be playable.

[64k]

This is a common misconception for having knuckle duster, nobody NEEDS an HDTV to view these menus.

the worst being GTA IV and Dead rising.

I take it your using the crappy component lead that comes with it? if you have a CRT TV that supports full RGB over 27" you could purchase yourself a decent RGB SCART LEAD.

I used to have a phillips 52" 1080p LCD TV which never got used in the end and ended up selling, reason being is I bought for like £5 a full RGB scart and ended up using my old Panasonic 37" CRT TV with the lead.

If you using full RGB you will find a damn massive picture improvment, i MEAN huge to the point that some of my mates mistook the CRT for being HD.

you will be able to see all the menus, writing, fonts etc for little under a tenner, id recommend one muchly so.

yeah its not HD but its just as sharp! the CRT looked better on a side by side (albeit the CRT TV did have noticable stepping and minor detail loss but not too the huge level you think)

I actaully use an HDDVD player on the CRT and can still see a huge improvment over SD stuff on an SD TV.

just make sure your TV supports True RGB and has a decent dot pitch.

[gamevet]

Although the CRT is nice, the TV has geometry issues as well as convergence issues. I want to replace this TV quite badly.




Yeah!

I have a Sony Wega Hi Scan (480i/480p, 720p/1080i) that cuts off the left and right edges on the 16:9 content. It's a 4:3 television (it's perfect for 480p GC and Xbox games) that uses the black bars to make the 720p stuff widescreen. The picture is great, but it's still no match for the Samsung 52" 1080p LCD I have in the livingroom; It's nice to see the widescreen stuff with everything on screen.

I can see where Pimp is coming from though. I'd imagine those games that were intended for the Wii and PS2, and then blown up to a widescreen format, would suffer from the top and bottom edges being cropped. My LCD does that to the standard def television broadcast, when I expand it to 16:9.

[PimpUigi]

Pimpi, if you just let the PS3 do automatic connections via HDMI or just turn on all of the resolutions in the PS3 menu, the game will always play at its highest native resolution. Flower automatically plays in 1080i, Burnout Paradise will play in 720p, etc. The Xbox 360, on the other hand, is very difficult since you set it to one resolution and ALL games display at that resolution. Halo 3 isn't even 720p in native resolution, it's quite pathetic.

Although the CRT is nice, the TV has geometry issues as well as convergence issues. I want to replace this TV quite badly.

Well, letting the PS3 do it automatically just turns out terrible.
From day one I haven't done this...because if I leave it on auto, it forces SF2 HD Remix to 720p (where it looks best in 1080i, it just things p>i) and lets any game capable of 1080i be in 1080i (apart from HD Remix for whatever reason)
This is terrible in the case of Condemned 2 (weird pixelation and artifacts) and especially Sonic 2006 (horrible extra lag) and of course it's not going to just know that I wanted 480p 4:3 in Sonic Unleashed for the extra viewing area.

So yea, every time I get a new game for PS3 (which is rare TBH) I have to check every single video mode to see which is best.
It could be worse...I could imagine having no option for such things.
Like, there's no option for 4:3 1080i or 720p...that would just be nice to have that option. PC has that option after all. Would certainly help Sonic Unleashed and Street Fighter 4.

Regarding your XBR960, please try out the service menu.
On the remote, press display, 5, Volume up, Power, and when your TV turns on, you'll be in the service menu.

At the very least, for Genesis/Super NES/NES games, you'll want to go to entry for "TRAP" (there are two TRAP entries) and change it to 1, from 0. You'll be able to see for yourself that it makes a huge difference for the better.

You'll be able to control tons of sharpness, color, brightness, and contrast settings, and god knows how many geometry/screen size settings.

It's pretty tough though, you don't want to change anything you don't want to change.
You don't want to make any mistakes either.

It's very time consuming, but man oh man, having a properly service menu calibrated TV is beyond awesome.

[OldSchool]

I can't believe how good my Wii looks on my oooooooooold 27" Analog. This tv is 20 years old and the games look pretty damn good on it.


Can't wait to jump into this world of 'hi def' you all are speaking of:D
(whole new ballpark I'm sure)

[kool kitty89]

IMHO no game should offer full screen right now.
I know several people who still only have SDTVs and prefer fullscreen to anamorphic... I personally prefer anamorphic on SDTVs too, except for split screen games. (older/cheaper SDTVs don't support anamorphic though)
I don't like cropped for sure, it just lowers the resolution... Well, except in some cases where the cropping improves framerate. (I think that's the case with some N64 games)

Furthermore, there are cases of playing HD in 4:3, a nice VGA monitor for instance. My friend's 360 looked great in 1080p (and 720p) on our 20" VGA CRT, that's 1440x1080 or 960x720. We played all the way through Portal last summer that way, played MK vs DCU, Fallout 3, and a number of other games.

I could manually adjust the vertical scan to support 1280x720 or 1920x1080 in the proper aspect ratio, but honestly, then the screens getting a bit small.
A major reason for liking anamorphic on SDTVs is the tighter scanlines making a cleaner image, not the case with VGA.



Xbox 360 games on the other hand, every single one has looked better in 1080i over 720p so far.
That is, Halo 3, and Gears of War 2.
Is that in the dedicated 1080i setting, or 1080p converted to 1080i by your TV?

[PimpUigi]

1080i