How Do I Hook Up... my Nintendo Wii? Newsletter Signup

February 9th, 2008 by Joe Chianese Page 1Page 2 Page 3

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Connect the Wii to Surround Sound

So your TV speakers don't cut it for your Wii gaming needs? Understandable. Whether your have surround sound or even a stereo receiver (just two speakers), you can connect your Wii to external speakers.

The one problem doing this is that the cable you use for audio and video from the Wii is one cable. The audio is connected to the video. The easiest way to deal with this is to connect both to your receiver. That means you need a receiver with video inputs and outputs. You're going to connect the red and white audio cables along with either the yellow video cable or red, green, and blue component video cables. If your receiver doesn't have video inputs, keep reading - there's a solution. Once you've connected the cables to your receiver, you will need to run a matching video cable (composite or component) from the receiver's video output to your TV's input.

If you still want Wii audio from the TV, you'll also have to run another pair of red and white composite audio cables from the receiver's outputs to the TV's input. Don't have video inputs on the receiver? You'll need go to the store and by composite cable extensions.

RCA Cable Extenders

These extensions or extenders I'm talking about are cheap but useful. They let you plug your red and white cables into one end and another pair of red and white cables into the other end. This will let you run a separate pair of audio cables to your receiver while you just continue to run the yellow or red/green/blue video cables to the TV. Simple fix, but can't be done without "extending" the length of the audio cables.

Turning on the Wii Surround Sound

Now that you're all connected, make sure to switch to the correct input on your receiver so that you can hear the Wii. If you also connected audio to the TV, mute your TV when using the receiver. There's usually a delay between the two and you don't want to hear that. And don't forget that you still need to switch to the correct video input on your TV to actually see the Wii!

...and that about does it. Connecting a Wii is extremely simple, and if you have trouble, just go through this How-To from front to back very carefully. Either way, I hope you have found this Wii How-To both enjoyable and useable! Thanks for stopping by.