Connecting Your Wii to HDTV Using HDMI Cable

If you are the proud owner of a Nintendo Wii game console, then you must surely be interested in acquiring a cable to play your Wii games on a HDTV (High-Definition TV) with HD (High-Definition) output. All LCD and LED TV sets are capable of producing this type of output, and the crisp and clear picture quality that they offer is far better than our old color TV sets which offer Standard Definition.

Before you go ahead and buy this type of cable from someone, you must know that directly connecting a HDMI to the Wii and to a HDTV set is not possible. HDMI stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface, and this type of cable is used to connect a device that is capable of directly producing HD output to a TV set. Sadly, the Wii produces analog content and the HDMI cables only generate digital content. Due to this reason, there is no standalone Wii HDMI cable that you can make use of.

The Wii comes with a standard Audio-Video (AV) cable, and this can be used to connect the console to your TV set. This is the standard cable that has three ports at one end, two for audio output, and one for the video output. The Wii was released in the year 2006, and since then there have been no new releases for this console.

At that point in time, HDTV sets were still in their nascent stages, and it was not economical to make video game consoles compatible with them. Today, this has changed, and the Wii competitors (the Sony PlayStation 3 and the Microsoft Xbox 360) are compatible with this type of content, and they can generate HD images with the help of a dedicated HDMI cable.

So now the obvious question arises about connecting Wii to HDMI ports. The first solution is to connect the regular AV cable to the TV set, but this will not generate HD content. This will be provided in the box of the Wii itself, and this is the way most people play on the Wii video game console.

But most modern TV sets only have one standard AV (component) port, which may already be in use by some other device. In order to connect the Wii in such a scenario, you will need a Wii HDMI cable adapter or a converter box.

On one side of this converter box you will find the standard component or composite ports, wherein the AV cable connected to your Wii will be plugged in. On the other end of the converter is the HDMI port, and this will connect the box to the TV set with the help of a cable.

People who claim to sell such devices conveniently forget to mention the fact that you also need to purchase the converter box.

Please note that these boxes cost around $200, and they could deteriorate the quality of audio and video that you see on the TV while playing your Wii games. Hence, this method is not recommended even though it may work fine for some people.

The Wii console does not support HDMI output, so a cable for it does not exist. Nintendo has confirmed that the new model of the console will support this port and output. Unfortunately, no further information is available about the new release as yet, but it is expected to be out sometime in the first quarter of 2011.

Almost everyone has a HDTV in their home now, and it is absolutely necessary for Nintendo to provide HDMI ports in their consoles. The high quality images and graphics that it generates improve the gaming experience by leaps and bounds.

If some retailer or online seller is claiming to offer a cable you must not fall for that, since it just does not exist. You should settle for the regular AV component connection for the time being, and hope that the new Wii console be available soon.