Lag is a combination of your TVs responce time and the cables. You MUST use component cables, the colors and details are superior, but the most important thing is the lag. I have my Wii connected to a 26" HDTV with 8 ms responce time, useing compsoite cables, the lag was horrible. Useing component cables, it was just like my old CTR tv,

Component cables, use them.

The components are night and day, seriously. I know my stuff on this one. Night and bleepin day. Get em.

Would such a thing happen with older systems that don't have component options?

I would say so. Useing compsite cables (or anything 'worse' than it) on an HDTV creates lag. Your TV has to process the analog signal into digital, adding to your TVs responce time.

That's true if and only if your HDTV has a crappy scaler.

I have played the Wii on a Sony 32'' inch LCD and the image looked exactly the same as on my 32'' CRT which supports 480p natively.

Mine looks just fine on my 500$ 32 inches HDTV

any standard a/v cables will look like crap on an hdtv. get the component cables.

When I first plugged in the Wii with the normal cables a few years back the games looked terrible, I don't own a SDTV so I thought it might have been the Wii, but when I got the componet cables the next day the games looked flawless. Mario Galaxy looks really good on my 52inch Samsung lcd. I have no ghosting or lag on my screen. I own both the Wii and the PS3 (using hdmi) and I can switch back and forth between consoles just fine, without noticing a huge drop in graphic quality!!

I used component cables, changed to widescreen mode, ect. It looks the same as a regular TV, but bigger. :)