Wii Warm Up: Top or bottom?

by David Hinkle { Aug 19th 2008 at 8:00AM }

We were thinking about another Wii Warm Up recently, when the idea to ask about the sensor bar popped into our head. Personally, we're fans of sticking the thing under our TV, but what about you? Do you have your sensor bar placed above your TV. Do you have it below the screen, just as we do? Is it on top or the bottom?

Tags: bottom, sensor-bar, sensor-placement, television, top, tv

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Ray Ray @ Aug 19th 2008 8:03AM

I like it on Top

Dylan F @ Aug 19th 2008 8:04AM

Ever since I had gotten the Wii, I always had it on top. Mainly because that's the way it was in the commericals :p.

Bill @ Aug 19th 2008 8:19AM

I have mine under the screen.

Adrian @ Aug 19th 2008 8:21AM

I believe it works better below the screen. My TV is huge and placing it on the top forces me to lift my arm way too high.

EricLMcCormick @ Aug 19th 2008 8:21AM

I have a 50" TV and both top and bottom kidna suck because there is no way to do an advanced calebration which would be awsome if that was something implimented. However, the bottoms seems to give a better 1:1 ratio then having it on top.
Because of how it currently is, I have bought parts (currently in the mail) to make my own wii bar.

afuturepete @ Aug 20th 2008 5:09PM

I agree completely. I recently bought a much larger TV, and I've had to retrain myself on using the wiimote.

When i installed the new screen, I first tried moving the sensor bar to the bottom position because there is no place for it to sit on the top. With my couch being fairly low, to get the wii cursor to the bottom of the screen meant bending my wrist down so far that it was actually painfull. Of course, standing up made it work better, but that's not an option for playing most games. Also, the relationship between where the cursor is on the screen vs. where the wiimote is actually pointing is very different than what I was used to.

I moved it to the top by constructing a little place for it to rest out of cardboard and double-sided tape. Now I don't have the problem with getting the cursor to the bottom of the screen, but I have cardboard on my brand new LCD. :) Not actually noticeable, but annoying. And still, I'm not at the aforementioned 1:1 pointing ratio you mentioned.

I think Nintendo could help eliminate the crummy cardboard contraption by letting me configure a vertical offset on the pointer placement. Obviously I may be wrong about the simplicity of that, 3D projection and all.

Don't some games allow you to do this? I seem to remember Metroid letting me do that.

afuturepete @ Aug 19th 2008 2:24PM

Also, could you let us know how the custom sensor bar works out? Where did you pick it up from?

meist3r @ Aug 19th 2008 8:24AM

Because my TV is pretty far elevated above my couch I place it on the bottom.

ObiBen @ Aug 19th 2008 8:35AM

I put mine on top because I was tired of my dog walking in front of the sensor while I was trying to play Metroid Prime 3.

Charles @ Aug 19th 2008 8:36AM

top, again because of the commercials :P

Brucie B @ Aug 19th 2008 8:43AM

Can Only have it on the Top.
(Got the Kids Fence up, so they can't get to my Home Theater Set up)

SuperChuck @ Aug 19th 2008 8:44AM

On top. It blends in with the glossy black bezel.

il_duce620 @ Aug 19th 2008 8:44AM

Top on my 25" CRT, bottom on my 32" LCD...

Jayenkai @ Aug 19th 2008 8:54AM

Above.
I like to sit on the floor to play games (so sue me!!), but the TV has a slight ledge on the top. The Wii sensor bar, when pushed right back, can't be picked up whilst sat on the floor. Instead, you have to push it forward so that it sits on the edge, as opposed to being right back in the ledge.
..
And, annoyingly, everyone in the house seems to keep doing that "Ugh, messy! It's on the edge! Push it back!" thing, so you need to keep pulling it out everytime you play!

Char6296 @ Aug 20th 2008 4:18AM

Yeah, I always put mine to the edge on top of my TV. Everyone leaves it be, so it's always my self appointed job to straighten the bar.

CalcProgrammer1 @ Aug 19th 2008 9:04AM

Bottom, my TV is on top of a shelf, and putting the sensor bar on top makes it way up in the air and hard to aim. In my new setup, I put the bar underneath my monitor (don't have a TV in my dorm room) and it seems to work pretty well there too.

Alistair @ Aug 19th 2008 9:07AM

Below. It gets pulled out and thrown around a bit by the toddler, but if I put it above, the Wiimote gets confused because there's another IR source a few inches further up (a remote control repeater).

Erwos @ Aug 19th 2008 9:08AM

I keep mine on top, but I've seriously been considering moving it down. The Wiimote's IR pointing gets a little wonky when it's at the bottom corners of the screen, and I suspect that's because it can't see the IR LEDs. I have a pretty large (55") TV, though.

samfish @ Aug 19th 2008 9:10AM

Oh, honey, I am a SUCH a top!

Ian @ Aug 19th 2008 10:23AM

Samfish -- Call Me!!!

gayboyDS @ Aug 19th 2008 9:11AM

I tried it on top but I find I'm much more comfortable as a bottom.

Wait, what are we talking about?

Alex @ Aug 19th 2008 9:45AM

Hah...was waiting for something like that from someone :p

I prefer it on the bottom but when my guy plays he puts it on top.

Matt Paliga @ Aug 19th 2008 9:18AM

Mine is on the top, I tend to sit kind of far away at a lower point then my TV and it just works better on top.

Eternityx @ Aug 19th 2008 9:19AM

On the HDTV its on the bottom below the TV. In my room its on top because it would block the aux input for the Wii signal if it was on the bottom.

Don-Don @ Aug 19th 2008 9:26AM

I actually use a dual sensor setup.

I use a wireless sensor bar on the bottom and the original wired bar is meant to stay on top of my LCD TV. It stays there so I never have to take it off, since its a pain to route every time I bring my Wii somewhere (which is why I have the wireless).

Sitting on the couch, the TV is body level, so both sensor bars work well depending if you like to keep your arms up high or down low. And when standing up, the top sensor bar takes care of that.

Aiming really isn't very 1:1 with the screen, but its hard to get right when you're less than 8 feet from a 42 inch TV anyway. You just follow where the cursor is rather than where you're aiming in respect to the screen (and if you don't like that, I really don't care). Zapper games should really be calibrated for the specific setup (futzing around with calibration screen until the cursor moves fast enough compared to your arm movements, esp. Ghost Squad).

Adam R @ Aug 19th 2008 9:31AM

I have mine on top. I would rather have it below but then my 2yo would run off with it (wireless).

Lianne @ Aug 19th 2008 9:48AM

Top. My boyfriend is tall.

(Wow that sounds really bad :P)

aneurysmi @ Aug 19th 2008 1:08PM

That was your intention, no? To make an innuendo? I don't know why you should be surprised.

Lianne @ Aug 19th 2008 1:12PM

Actually it wasn't my intention. Its the truth...he's tall and my TV is low to the floor so it won't work any other way (I tried because I'm shorter :P)

I just reread to spellcheck before hitting submit and realized how it sounded.

Geoff @ Aug 19th 2008 9:50AM

Top. My toddler dictates top.

Orion @ Aug 19th 2008 9:51AM

For me it works better with it on top. With the settings for bottom and it sitting on the bottom, my hand just has to arch down a little bit too much. Where it is atm works great for me with how my hand naturally sits on my leg when playing.

Michael @ Aug 19th 2008 9:54AM

I have a 56" screen TV that sits on its own projection base, so I have to have it up top. It's about five feet off the ground though. I do notice some jitteriness in the controls, but I'm not sure if that's just how it is or something about where the sensor bar is.

Michael
michaelandchrissy.com

Kir3LLehC @ Aug 19th 2008 10:05AM

Depending on the setup of the tv and depending on the tv itself. I have a 32" Sony Bravia and its switches are on the center top of the tv so I really have no choice to put it on top. But putting it on the bottom seems to works fine as a have been putting it on top before I got this tv.

Nate @ Aug 19th 2008 10:11AM

We put it below the TV screen for the first sixty seconds and had issues. Then we put it on top of the TV and it's worked fine.

vidGuy @ Aug 19th 2008 10:15AM

My tv tends to sit a little down from my couch or bed, so I generally have the bar on top, level with my hands, so I don't have to point downwards.

Tsubasa @ Aug 19th 2008 10:40AM

On my old DLP Sony it was on top but since then we've switched to a 40inch Sony LCD so its on the button now since it won't fit on top.

DarthKegX @ Aug 19th 2008 11:01AM

I sit on the floor to game and my TV is like 3 1/2 ft off the ground, so I have to use bottom. It used to be on top but the accuracy was horrible.

Thanatos @ Aug 19th 2008 11:30AM

Top

terryjr91 @ Aug 19th 2008 11:52AM

Mine is under. My TV Produces to much heat causing the remote to not respond properly if I keep the sensor bar on top.

Sonic_13 @ Aug 19th 2008 12:03PM

My sensor bar has been on top for the longest time although I think I originally had it on the bottom.

Garrgamel @ Aug 19th 2008 12:29PM

tucked away in the closet with the rest of my wii

envisionboy @ Aug 19th 2008 12:37PM

Bottoms. My TV wont support it on top anyway...

jbc @ Aug 19th 2008 12:38PM

Like others; mine is on the bottom because the TV is elevated. The only thing that is kinda neat about my setup is that the sensor bar is resting on top of the center speaker of my cheap-ass Sony combination home theater receiver and dvd player.

The only reason I mention it is because it is almost as though they were made for eachother. They are only a couple millimeters from being exactly the same width; and as such the sensor bar pretty much disappears into my setup.

The only unfortunate thing is that the room is very long; if you're sitting on the opposite couch you're around 20' away from the screen. IR controls can get a bit jittery that far out. I may eventually bite the bullet and make my own.

Phizzy @ Aug 19th 2008 12:39PM

On top of a CRT, below an LCD or Plasma.

Hamster @ Aug 19th 2008 1:07PM

On top.

SoshiKitai @ Aug 19th 2008 1:17PM

Mostly on top.
But if I go to different houses, it depends how the place is set up.

My gf's is always moving though... sometimes it's ontop, sometimes taped to the bottom, sometimes laying ontop of a VHS sticking out of the VCR-portion of the TV. :P (and all the kids are all like "WHAT'S A VHS?!!!")

shadow1w2 @ Aug 19th 2008 1:28PM

I keep mine under the screen as I'm usually too close to use it properly on top.
Honestly though, I'd rather have two just to cover all angles.
Considering all I need is atleast two IR lights, some wires, and a power source, its really not that hard.
Though they don't look all that nice taped to the sides of a TV or laptop screen. Still works though.