Wii 480p Bug and Revisions?

[nostos156]

Boot the 240p Test Suite, enable 480p modes under options, switch to 480p mixed 480p/240p assets (1:1), select the checkerboard under video tests.

If you get a solid gray screen, the 480p fix is a placebo.

Hmm, did we not come to the conclusion that the 480p bug was never actually fixed with this mythical BU99 chip? Or is it now that the BU99 one is the only one that fixes it, but CPU 40/60 models can have other encoder chips aside from that one so you can't tell unless you run the test suite or open it up?

Latest conclusion I heard is that only one encoder does anything with the 480p fix active, and you're not guaranteed to get it with any particular model. The alternative is an HDMI mod to bypass the encoder.

I did remember reading something like that, which is why people kept talking about the BU99 chip (which was the last one to be made?), but I thought the conclusion was nobody had just tested it at all and it was completely unconfirmed speculation.

I also remember seeing grabbing things like the WIi Sports Resort packs and other such bundles manufactured in late 2010 was probably the best chance to guarantee getting the BU99 models, but that assumes the BU99 was the last chip made and they were going through stocks of older chips before that.


EDIT: I think I misread. You're saying one encoder works with the 480p software fix and the rest don't, right? And none of the other encoders actually fixed it on a hardware level.

[Extrems]

EDIT: I think I misread. You're saying one encoder works with the 480p software fix and the rest don't, right? And none of the other encoders actually fixed it on a hardware level.

That's correct. Only the BU9055 can output proper 480p, and only with some coercing.

[nostos156]

EDIT: I think I misread. You're saying one encoder works with the 480p software fix and the rest don't, right? And none of the other encoders actually fixed it on a hardware level.

That's correct. Only the BU9055 can output proper 480p, and only with some coercing.

How ironic that it is the 6-layer old Wii (that easily suffers from GPU overheating issues over time) is the one with the only 480p fix possible short of a soldered HDMI mod.

Still, I wonder why the guy with the BU99 chip was showing a proper checkerboard pattern on his tests?

[RebeL9]

We urgently need a universal fix for all revisions!!!

[nostos156]

We urgently need a universal fix for all revisions!!!

It was being worked on earlier in the year, but I haven't heard a single thing beyond the initial steps to try and figure out if the functionality for fixing this was still in the newer encoders or removed for cost-cutting reasons.

[legoTG2006]

EDIT: I think I misread. You're saying one encoder works with the 480p software fix and the rest don't, right? And none of the other encoders actually fixed it on a hardware level.

That's correct. Only the BU9055 can output proper 480p, and only with some coercing.

How ironic that it is the 6-layer old Wii (that easily suffers from GPU overheating issues over time) is the one with the only 480p fix possible short of a soldered HDMI mod.

Still, I wonder why the guy with the BU99 chip was showing a proper checkerboard pattern on his tests?

I have a Wii incompatible with the fix, (a BU99 AVE chip just like theirs) so the checkerboard test shows up as a solid grey screen. I can attest that the BU99 is INCOMPATIBLE with the 480p fix.

If you were to accidentally turn off the scanlines, and use the '480p scanlines with 240p scaled assets' setting, which i did mistakenly the first time, the checkerboard appears as it should, (clearly defined black and white squares on screen and NOT a solid grey screen) which is why I disputed BU99 chips being incompatible with the 480p patch earlier, but this is not the proper test. The checkerboard on screen in that resolution setting is 320 x 240, instead of the proper 640 x 480.

this is just a hypothesis

TL;DR

the BU99 is incompatible. the BU90 remains the only known chip to be compatible with the 480p fix.

[RebeL9]

We’ve been going in circles. At this point I’m pretty confident that the only patchable revisions are the launch model Wiis. They are the only one that will give the sharpest output.
In other words. The vast majority of Wiis have inferior video output because the idiots at Nintendo messed it up.
The same way they messed up PAL Wii U that don’t do progressive scan in VWii.
BOYCOTT NINTENDO

[Extrems]

Not sure what boycotting Nintendo will achieve when you're having an issue with long discontinued products.

[nostos156]

We’ve been going in circles. At this point I’m pretty confident that the only patchable revisions are the launch model Wiis. They are the only one that will give the sharpest output.
In other words. The vast majority of Wiis have inferior video output because the idiots at Nintendo messed it up.
The same way they messed up PAL Wii U that don’t do progressive scan in VWii.
BOYCOTT NINTENDO

Only patchable ones *for now*. The 480p bug wasn't even discovered until 2019, so it could take a while for a fix to show up for the other models. I haven't yet heard anyone say definitely that the registers that were fuzzed in the fixable chip have been removed in the newer ones. And, at the end of the day, the 480p bug isn't the worst problem. If anything, it can be a slight benefit on modern HD displays as it adds a bit of antialiasing to the picture. It's still far better than vWii mode on a Wii U with its busted chroma and scaling.

[Rulumi]

And, at the end of the day, the 480p bug isn't the worst problem. If anything, it can be a slight benefit on modern HD displays as it adds a bit of antialiasing to the picture. It's still far better than vWii mode on a Wii U with its busted chroma and scaling.

With evwii a lot of the scaling problems can be fixed, chroma bleed will still be a problem but there are ways to temporarily mitigate it, but a proper way to fully fix it is still needed. For people that really care about 1:1 output resolution and the 480p bug it can be a good enough option, but probably not worth to buy a Wii U specifically just for that if one doesn't own the system yet.

And honestly, the more I look at the newer Wii systems revisions the worse they seem to me apart from the cooler and lower power node shrink CPU and then GPU. They have a cost cutted out simplified power circuitry that required Nintendo and BroadOn to update boot2 and the whole IOS code only for those systems to properly initialize the software, then later ones are 4 layers instead of 6 layers, 4 layers can be easier to work with for some mods or portabilizing proyects but technically is a cost cutting measure and can leave some traces incluiding some voltages ones less insulated and more exposed to outside factors noise than 6 layers.

For video output I have noticed later ones seems to be slightly more saturated (hotter video levels output?) even if I won't say in a good way necessarily, albeit it's mostly very subtle in any case and not completely wrong and bad as something like a 1CHIP SFC and all Wii revisions in general aren't an objectively mess and bad systems revisions like all 1CHIP derived SFC systems are though.

Some specific solid colors large areas also seem like can show easily observable and noticeable analog video noise that early systems would not, but being far that last one could be because of the cost cutting measures and changes that the motherboards themselves received instead of the later AVE chips.

And of course RVL-101 models revisions cut some extra costs to Nintendo by not soldering GameCube ports to the board and some related needed resistors (but traces and lines in the boards are present), as well as a disc drive not capable of taking the GameCube mini discs.

[bobrocks95]

I wouldn't mind a RVL-CPU-60 just to have the switching regulator and reduce the idle power draw. My launch Wii draws 1.6W while off (red LED) which is pretty high compared to my other consoles I've measured. Not a ton on paper of course but every console I have plugged in adds up on the electric bill.

RVL-CPU-30 is the other one to look at I'd imagine. 6 layer board but still the smaller processing node. My launch Wii also has a partially fried GPU from WiiConnect24 so I'm looking to replace it.

[RebeL9]

God for I second I thought this was bumped because we had progress with the 480p bug.

[Xan]

My black Wii is a -40 turns out, the idle savings would be lost on me anyway as I basically haven't used the system at all in the last 10 years. For anyone that doesn't know, the revision can be seen in the battery compartment without taking the unit apart which is nice.

Even though it apparently doesn't have the 480p bug the output still always looked very soft to me, just playing original disc games, so I can only imagine the launch models must be quite bad in 480p. I'm guessing they did the deflickering in 480p to make the dithering less apparent, in some games like RE4 it's quite visible (don't know if that particular game uses it or not in 480p though).

[GameGuru]

Hey everyone sorry to necro post but this seems like the best thread to post in. There's tons of conflicting information on the Internet about the Wii output.

I know as of right now the 480P bugfix only works on AVE-BU9055 encoders, so if we ignore any HDMI mods or bug fixes, which Wii video encoder (if any) has the best factory output?

Does for example an RVL-CPU-01 with a AVE-C8391 output the same as an RVK-CPU-01 with an AVE-BU9955?

Does motherboard revisions even matter or is it just dependent on the video encoder?

Does video encoder even matter if the 480P fix isn't performed?

I'm under the impression that all Wiis have the same output no matter what. There was however pictures floating around showing pretty stark differences between models, so I don't know what that's about.

TLDR:

Does anyone here have some scientific evidence proving that all Wiis no matter motherboard or video encoders are actually outputting the same video when the 480P bug fix is removed from the equation?

[Josh128]

My black Wii is a -40 turns out, the idle savings would be lost on me anyway as I basically haven't used the system at all in the last 10 years. For anyone that doesn't know, the revision can be seen in the battery compartment without taking the unit apart which is nice.

Even though it apparently doesn't have the 480p bug the output still always looked very soft to me, just playing original disc games, so I can only imagine the launch models must be quite bad in 480p. I'm guessing they did the deflickering in 480p to make the dithering less apparent, in some games like RE4 it's quite visible (don't know if that particular game uses it or not in 480p though).

RE4 has a lot of dithering on Gamecube as well. It runs at a lower resolution and possibly color precision than a lot of other games to achieve the level of graphical fidelity.

[Rulumi]

I wouldn't mind a RVL-CPU-60 just to have the switching regulator and reduce the idle power draw. My launch Wii draws 1.6W while off (red LED) which is pretty high compared to my other consoles I've measured. Not a ton on paper of course but every console I have plugged in adds up on the electric bill.

RVL-CPU-30 is the other one to look at I'd imagine. 6 layer board but still the smaller processing node. My launch Wii also has a partially fried GPU from WiiConnect24 so I'm looking to replace it.

If you want the minimum power I would just go with the later revisions I guess, even if technically somewhat lower quality, RVL-CPU-30 would be more of a middle point since it's 6 layers, albeit with already simplified power circuitry, but while you get the node shrunked CPU, the GPU is still in a higher nm node. I personally disconnect my systems from power when not using them and never really had interest in WiiConnect24, but I understand to other people this may not be the case.

Hey everyone sorry to necro post but this seems like the best thread to post in. There's tons of conflicting information on the Internet about the Wii output.

I know as of right now the 480P bugfix only works on AVE-BU9055 encoders, so if we ignore any HDMI mods or bug fixes, which Wii video encoder (if any) has the best factory output?

Does for example an RVL-CPU-01 with a AVE-C8391 output the same as an RVK-CPU-01 with an AVE-BU9955?

Does motherboard revisions even matter or is it just dependent on the video encoder?

Does video encoder even matter if the 480P fix isn't performed?

I'm under the impression that all Wiis have the same output no matter what. There was however pictures floating around showing pretty stark differences between models, so I don't know what that's about.

TLDR:

Does anyone here have some scientific evidence proving that all Wiis no matter motherboard or video encoders are actually outputting the same video when the 480P bug fix is removed from the equation?

I did my own view and capture a while ago to this, I was actually doing tests and capture from different systems including a BU9055 AVE-RVL one, later but still 6 layers, and later 4 layers like the RVK, internal XFB digital capture through debugging, as well as Wii U with evWii with and without a temporal fix to improve the chroma shift as I was testing some of the reproduceable situations when the chroma shift isn't that bad and kind of fixes ups. Only thing I didn't do is an oscilloscope view as I don't have the equipment for it but some people have done before I think and you can see compared to something like a GameCube or a BU9055 with the software fix for 480p that the output in 480p is bandwidth limited because the incorrect LPF applied, I was planning to write a more in detail proper fully explained comparision and conlusion here for people interested here, but I have been busy lately, maybe eventually when I have more time for this.

But from what I saw and tested I can tell you that apart from some extra noise in some solid colours large areas that's more pronounced on some of the later revisions that I was able to notice a bit even in a CRT, but I think are more related to the motherboards reivisions cost cutting measures than the encoders themselves. For most people and in general, the video quality will be the same unless you have a BU9055 and apply the 480p bug fix, then you would be able to see a noticeable difference in various cases. Only difference would be a Wii Mini, but that's because without modification it only outputs composite.

I'm not sure where the origin of later revisions supposedly fixing it or having better video output comes from, I do know though that it's still widespread by some out of date sites that haven't been update, evident by when I created this thread that people with the later revisions didn't test it against the 480p bug fix compatible units even and didn't notice it was never fixed, it's just that it doesn't work in later AVL-RVL revisions but the bug is still present. With almost full certainty I can tell you that it isn't true that later revisions have better vide output, and I tested like 4 different time frame systems (early RVL-CPU-01, late RVL-CPU-01 so doesn't have BU9055, RVL-CPU-60, RVK-CPU-01, and the Wii U of course as an extra).

[GameGuru]

Thank you so much for that response Rulumi. As I mentioned in my last post, I believe the origins of this tall tale were the screenshots floating around of 240p Test Suite with supposed old Wiis and new ones. Never once did they mention any variables like encoders or motherboards, but there was differences between the photos nonetheless. This was long before the 480p bugfix was even known about too so I'm curious as to what could've caused such stark differences in those original captures. Perhaps failing capacitors in the older system? I would love to see a through technical analysis from you in the future on this subject. If there's any way you could post your findings here with raw captures from component cables with an OSSC or a Retrotink of all the various models/revesions you've tested it'd be greatly appreciated. Maybe we can finally put to bed the rumor of newer Wiis having any "better" video output once and for all.

[bobrocks95]

I wouldn't mind a RVL-CPU-60 just to have the switching regulator and reduce the idle power draw. My launch Wii draws 1.6W while off (red LED) which is pretty high compared to my other consoles I've measured. Not a ton on paper of course but every console I have plugged in adds up on the electric bill.

RVL-CPU-30 is the other one to look at I'd imagine. 6 layer board but still the smaller processing node. My launch Wii also has a partially fried GPU from WiiConnect24 so I'm looking to replace it.

If you want the minimum power I would just go with the later revisions I guess, even if technically somewhat lower quality, RVL-CPU-30 would be more of a middle point since it's 6 layers, albeit with already simplified power circuitry, but while you get the node shrunked CPU, the GPU is still in a higher nm node. I personally disconnect my systems from power when not using them and never really had interest in WiiConnect24, but I understand to other people this may not be the case.

Does seem like 60 or bust for me, gonna see if the black Wii at my parents is a 40 or a 60 tomorrow. I like keeping everything plugged in since my (quite large) power strips are behind the entertainment center and hard to get to.