Which TV do you have? And how far do you sit from it?

Just because a TV is good, doesn't mean the scaling chips are good. There is no reason for an upscaled image to look bad unless you're sitting too close to the screen (in which case you can make anything look bad... a 720p image will also have jaggies if you sit close enough to a big TV).

The reason I said "BS" is because I see these claims all the time... usually coming from people who have tried the Wii on a single TV with bad upscaling.

PS: The fact that you saw little difference with component cables is far from the view of most people... whenever the subject of component cables pops up, most people say it makes quite a big difference (not just for the 480p resolution but also for the color quality).

If Nintendo had made the Wii capable of properly playing 720p games, then the Wii would be on half the marketshare it currently is on

I imagine they will continue to create new controllers for the Wii like with the Balance Board and, now, the Vitality Sensor.

If they went HD, it would be a big step backwards for them. They have had great success this generation by NOT having a high-end system, and instead focusing on the mainstream and non-consumer ends of the market (many of which couldn't care less about HD graphics). The focus of their next console will be on expanding their marketplace even further.

Now they may do that by redeveloping the Wii controller. But, I would bet that their next console will be something suprising that none of us can really imagine right now. It might not even be a console at all!

Investor pressure, no sorry, investors are too smart for that, lol, investors are looking at the bottom line, not at fanboyish stuff, Nintendo is making huge profits as they are right now, a Wii HD would cut into those profits and into sales, investors know this, they aren't going to call for Nintendo to move to HD as long as they keep on selling the most.

Also their biggest shareholders are people like Yamanuchi and I believe even the government of Japan has a stake in the company, they aren't going to push the company towards a Wii HD.

Also, if you're an investor and you see Nintendo selling more than both competitors and bringing in more money, why in the world would you tell them to follow the strategy of the companies that are making less profit and fewer sales? It would be utter stupidity for an investor to do that.

Not to mention, it would split the userbase, and the higher price of a Wii HD would anger consumers, I mean, the whole Idea is stupid in every way, it would make the whole Wii music Animal crossing fiasco look like the launch of Wii fit by comparison

My livingroom isn't very big. The furthest you can sit from the set is about 3m. The norm is about 1.5 metres. The scaling chip in the TV is very good, and has reviewed enormously well. The TV's a Sony KDL-X3500.

Upscaled images always look poorer than native resolution images, especially when the TV is viewed at its optimal distance where the details can be seen. 480p is a hell of a lot less pixels than 1080p. That much stretching of an image never turns out well, obviously. 345,600 pixels is not much when compared to the 2,073,600 pixels it has to fill. It's a truly massive difference. Sure, if you sit far away enough that you can't see the blurriness you won't notice how bad the image is, but what's the point of having a quality set if you can't see the details? The whole point of an HD set is that you can see the enhanced detail, not to force you to sit further away from it so you don't notice that the detail is missing. My TV was specifically chosen to provide the best quality image for my room, and when the Wii was put on it its flaws were obvious, as the flaws could be seen.

That said, I fully recognise that the Wii is the perfect choice for others, especially those with SD sets. However, we weren't part of that target demographic. We gave it a good go (hell, I even made a thread about what games to get and such like here -- I should fish it out, as I was very positive about the machine then), but it just wasn't very good for our circumstances. The Wii's output looked a blurry mess on our set. The graphics, even when the Wii was at it's best, were hardly better than the PS2. Sure, some of the games were fun (after all, I like Nintendo games in general, and have been playing them for over twenty years), but so are games on other platforms, and they don't look a mess at the same time.

And the component cables really didn't make much of a difference. A little, yes, but not much. I'm sure if I'd been on a smaller set (perhaps my 720p set downstairs?), it would have been a more pleasing result, but not on our main set.

Sadly, on the forums were I attend more often than this one, my experiences are the norm, not the exception, as you suggest they are. Then again, the forums I typically post on are full of dads like me who are less willing to accept compromise if it isn't necessary.

What?

A 720p Wii still wouldn't have the horsepower required for running games like Assassin's Creed and Modern Warfare, and these were designed for the classic controller anyways. Wii would have got a downgraded ugly port of Moder Warfare, with tacked on motion controls, and no port of Assassins Creed at all.  

I mentioned in my last post that I'd made a thread about getting the Wii. Well, here it is. Amusingly, you even posted in it, NJ5.

I think it should be obvious from the thread that I really gave it a go, and was initially pretty excited. I ended up with over 20 games (and many more downloadable games -- which I've had to abandon completely due to Nintendo's ridiculous purchasing system) before we decided to give it the boot, so to speak, due to general disappointment. It was fun for a while, but hardly a good console for us. I bear it no ill will, and still recommend it to other people it's appropriate for, and would be very interested if Nintendo released an HD console with a decent online integration (and better online purchasing options).

Just to be clear I wasn't saying you were lying when I said BS. What's BS is the claim that the Wii can't look good on a HDTV.

Anyway you're sitting way closer to your TV than most people, for a TV of that size.

Fortunately I never made that claim. All I said was the the Wii was 'not so fine for people with good HD sets', which it isn't. The Wii is best when viewed at 480p, which isn't HD, and certainly isn't 1080p.

As for how far away I am from my set: well, I sit pretty much exactly as far away from the set as the manufacturer suggests for optimal viewing. If that's closer than other people, then so be it. I'm happy, and that's all I really care about.