If you ditched your good old CRTs in favor of HDTVs you're very likely in for a sad disappointment when Brawl comes along. Even 480p video signals (the max output of the Wii) are susceptible to input lag when a HD display is used. There are multiple causes of this infamous image delay one should be aware of:
1. Using interlaced video on a native progressive scan display. By default, the composite A/V wires that come with the Gamecube and Wii (the yellow/white/red ones) stream an interlaced video signal. This is the major culprit in HDTV lag when you play smash on an HD display. In order to properly display video on its screen, a progressive display must deinterlace the composite video feed to have all the lines of pixels filled for each frame (instead of only every other line of pixels as in Standard Definition). This process is a relatively extensive one, so a significant input delay is produced, sometimes to the point of the game's sound being desynched. This can be avoided by activating progressive scan mode on a game, which requires component video cables for your Gamecube/Wii and a game compatible with progressive scan. SSBM is such a game. If you're playing the PAL version, Progressive Scan support was axed in favor of 60 hz support. The same was done to most other progressive scan compatible Gamecube games in the NTSC region. Sorry to those in the PAL regions.
2. Upsizing of the game console's video resolution. Both the Wii and the Gamecube are only capable of outputting 480i (480 lines interlaced) and 480p (480 lines progressive) video signals. Since HDTVs have higher native resolutions (such as 720 lines or 1080 lines) it must upsize the 480 lines to whatever your HDTV's native resolution is so that the whole screen is filled. This process is not as strenuous as deinterlacing a composite video signal and therefore will not cause as much lag as deinterlacing would. Some HDTVs can even do this process quickly enough where lag isn't noticeable, but the vast majority of HDTV models create a perceivable input lag from upsizing, and not even playing in progressive scan will eliminate that. Avoidable by playing on TVs with native resolutions at 480i (or 480p), or being one of the lucky (read: loaded) people with instant upscalers in their HDTVs.
3. HDTV response time. This is the amount of time it takes for the individual pixels in your display to change from fully active (white) to inactive (black) in a controlled test environment. It can also be a grey to grey rating depending on the manufacturer's test mothod. While the rated Response Time of an HDTV is not the cause of "lag" that is being brought up, higher response times do cause the undesired effect of ghosting/motion blurring, which is a bad visual artifact for Smash. Plasmas can also experience motion blur in the same manner, but much less than that of LCDs. Beware if you are looking into an LCD type display. Here is a link explaining the fickleness of the LCD response time rating.
http://www.practical-home-theater-guide.com/lcd-response-time.html
It's rather disturbing that game developers and HDTV retailers don't tell you this stuff themselves.
1. Using interlaced video on a native progressive scan display. By default, the composite A/V wires that come with the Gamecube and Wii (the yellow/white/red ones) stream an interlaced video signal. This is the major culprit in HDTV lag when you play smash on an HD display. In order to properly display video on its screen, a progressive display must deinterlace the composite video feed to have all the lines of pixels filled for each frame (instead of only every other line of pixels as in Standard Definition). This process is a relatively extensive one, so a significant input delay is produced, sometimes to the point of the game's sound being desynched. This can be avoided by activating progressive scan mode on a game, which requires component video cables for your Gamecube/Wii and a game compatible with progressive scan. SSBM is such a game. If you're playing the PAL version, Progressive Scan support was axed in favor of 60 hz support. The same was done to most other progressive scan compatible Gamecube games in the NTSC region. Sorry to those in the PAL regions.
2. Upsizing of the game console's video resolution. Both the Wii and the Gamecube are only capable of outputting 480i (480 lines interlaced) and 480p (480 lines progressive) video signals. Since HDTVs have higher native resolutions (such as 720 lines or 1080 lines) it must upsize the 480 lines to whatever your HDTV's native resolution is so that the whole screen is filled. This process is not as strenuous as deinterlacing a composite video signal and therefore will not cause as much lag as deinterlacing would. Some HDTVs can even do this process quickly enough where lag isn't noticeable, but the vast majority of HDTV models create a perceivable input lag from upsizing, and not even playing in progressive scan will eliminate that. Avoidable by playing on TVs with native resolutions at 480i (or 480p), or being one of the lucky (read: loaded) people with instant upscalers in their HDTVs.
3. HDTV response time. This is the amount of time it takes for the individual pixels in your display to change from fully active (white) to inactive (black) in a controlled test environment. It can also be a grey to grey rating depending on the manufacturer's test mothod. While the rated Response Time of an HDTV is not the cause of "lag" that is being brought up, higher response times do cause the undesired effect of ghosting/motion blurring, which is a bad visual artifact for Smash. Plasmas can also experience motion blur in the same manner, but much less than that of LCDs. Beware if you are looking into an LCD type display. Here is a link explaining the fickleness of the LCD response time rating.
http://www.practical-home-theater-guide.com/lcd-response-time.html
It's rather disturbing that game developers and HDTV retailers don't tell you this stuff themselves.
