mCable Gaming Edition HDMI Cable

[Goodtwin]

Just hooked up my new mCable Gaming Edition HDMI cable. If you are not familiar, this is an HDMI cable that has a built in processor that applies anti aliasing to the image. This was very attractive to me because so many first party Nintendo games use no AA what so ever. I was also interested in this for playing Wii games. Games like Mario Galaxy and Resident Evil 4 are still good looking games to this day, but the lack of AA can be a bit of an eye sore on modern LCD TV's. Replaying these old games with better image quality was probably the most attractive aspect for me. Switch games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Mario Odyssey are certainly going to benefit as well. I wish I could say that I needed more time to test, but I think this is an example of something that either blows you away or underwhelms. For most people, this is not going to be worth $120-140. Does it work? Yes, it does apply "some" AA to the image, but it does not remove jaggies. It makes an improvement to games like Mario Galaxy, but because those games are very low resolution, the AA can only do so much to smooth out those jaggies.

I will flesh out my thoughts a bit more after playing some more, but right now I would say this is a luxury purchase that only very few will find to be worth the cost.

 

[Goodtwin]

Played around with some settings that are game changers. Took my opinion from a C+ to a B+ rating. I will have some extra pictures, and some additional comments get soon.

 

[Goodtwin]

 

[Goodtwin]

I had to scale the pictures down a ton to get them to fit, and this resulted in some loss in just how dramatic the difference is. My Mii character for example benefited a lot more than the picture suggest, but I think the Metroid Prime Echoes pictures are very clear on just how well this cable works. There are some nuances to using this product. It must have a native resolution feed in order to work at its best. On my Wii U, I had to change my display output to 480p inorder to get good results. Prior to do that, the improvements weren't nearly as positive. If there is anything doing any sort of scaling before the mCable receives the signal, it drastically degrades the results. It also does its best work with games that have no AA, and have a native 720p or 1080p signal. Mario Kart 8 is a great example of a game that it works well with. A native 1080p signal with no AA gives the mCable a nice clean image to work with, and it does what it claims. Same with Rocket League, perhaps the game that I was the most impressed with. The improvements are so visible it felt like I was playing the Xbox One version. Really good upgrade. So the results will be somewhat inconsistent, but overall I really feel like this is a perfect match for Switch, and a fantastic product for those who still like playing Wii and Wii U games. I would give this an 8.5 out of 10, with the only knock being the price. Most people aren't going to pull the trigger on a $140 cable, but I can assure you it does work, and the results range from decent to fantastic.

 

[Juegos]

Metroid Prime looks amazing there.

 

[Goodtwin]

Metroid Prime looks amazing there.

Im not going to lie, it really does, and for replaying games like the Metroid Prime Trilogy and Mario Galaxy 1+2. this cable is a game changer. Yes, the graphics are still dated and look soft due to the low resolution, but its a stark difference in just how much better they look. Nintendo has neglected to implement AA on a ton of their games for a very long time, and this cable works wonders for those raw images. I honestly think they should get this to be an official Switch accessory, and prep this thing for mass market sales. At $60, this thing could sell a ton of units if they marketed it correctly.

 

[mattavelle1]

Some of those pics are drastic the difference.

 

[Goodtwin]

Just to clarify, I meant you need to set your console output to match rendering resolution. So when I set my Wii U to 480p, that was for Wii games. If your playing Mario 3D World, it would need to be set to 720p, and Smash Bros U set to 1080p. You are just trying to avoid any scaling prior to the cable receiving the signal. Raw native resolutions with no AA benefit far more than games using something like 900p with any soft of AA. Doom for example won't see much of a bump because it already uses heavy temperol AA.