Connecting a Wii/other console to a computer

Irish Halo

I hope this is in the right forum I'd have put it in a general console forum but their aint one.

I have a Gamecube which is in the front room of my flat and a 20" intel iMac in my room. I'm planning to get a Wii and when it arrives I want to move it into my room and use the iMac as the display. Does anyone currently do this or know a (relatively) cheap way of doing this? I can use the gamecube to test out any suggestions and I'd like to have it sorted so I can get up and running as soon as I get the Wii home.

Thanks.

tman

good question actually.
I'll be getting a 19" monitor soon, so that'd be a damn sight handier for Wii action than the sub-14" piece of crap in the living room...

BlitzKrieg

i know you could do it with the Dreamcast (they released the cables for it)

But I havnt heard any other console do it.

zAbbo

Imac have built in screens, so I doubt it, unless it has video in ?

Does it?

limey_tank

Macs don't have video in, it's probably possible with some internal rewiring and a KVM switch, or one of those TV cards that streams video into the mac over firewire of usb.

skywalker

tman wrote:

good question actually.
I'll be getting a 19" monitor soon, so that'd be a damn sight handier for Wii action than the sub-14" piece of crap in the living room...

For your normal monitor its doable alright, its just a matter of finding a common connection (with the 360 for instance its more than likely VGA) Although at the moment who knows what connections the wii will have.

garthv

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=37141&doy=7m9&C=SEO&U=strat15
That should work, providing the Wii has scart.

zAbbo

GaRtH_V wrote:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=37141&doy=7m9&C=SEO&U=strat15
That should work, providing the Wii has scart.

I doubt it, have you seen an iMac 20"



The Screen is built into the Mac with no video inputs.

smokingman

Nintendo have already confirmed you will be able to plug the Wii into a computer monitor - t'was one of the first things they announced about it.

Cardinal

Well no matter how well it connects to computer monitors, it wont connect to iMacs which do not have any video inputs. According to wii.nintendo.com Wii will have "an AV Multi-output port for component, composite or S-video." If you have any kind of TV capture card one of those is boound to work... though to be honest, composite or s-video will probably look like sh*t.
They should stick a DVI output on it IMO.

zAbbo

How is it going to connect to a monitor if it only has component, composite and svideo. It needs dvi or vga

440Hz

Sorry to drag up an old thread but looking for information on this and I'm an absolute disaster when it comes to displays of any kind. Can I take it from this thread that it is possible to connect a Wii to a regular monitor, and if so, what kinda cable do I need to do that?

If I get a SCART to VGA adapter will I be able to pull the audio from that for speakers?

Cheers, and sorry for the stupid (and probably now obvious answer) question.

K.O.Kiki

Should work best with component video cables hooked to a VGA box (available on eBay, Play-Asia or DealExtreme), with the audio phono plugs hooked up seperately.

At least, that's what I'm hoping works, as I've got that setup on-the-way for my PS2

440Hz

Have you any link for what you ordered?

What is the difference between the cables and the boxes, will both work?
eg this versus this ??

Would ideally like to go to a shop in case it doesn't work but also because I want to get it setup asap. Maplin show something on their site but its £60, surely must be something cheaper in a regular audio-visual shop, or Hardly Normals or somewhere??

valleyoftheunos

My mate used to have his Gamecube hooked up to his CRT Monitor thru an RF Adaptor from Maplin for about 40 to 50 euro. Doubt Harvey Norman will be of much assistance but PC world or likewise should be able to help, or Peats maybe.

check out how much a second hand telly might cost you? could well work out cheaper and with much better results.

440Hz

Really? will the quality be crap even if i get it to work? My reasoning for this option was that I have a spare monitor and didn't wanna fork out for a tv! hmmmmm

The_Conductor

440Hz wrote: »

If I get a SCART to VGA adapter will I be able to pull the audio from that for speakers?

No- you'll have to take audio out from the Wii and feed it directly into your speaker system- vga is simply video.

valleyoftheunos

440Hz wrote: »

Really? will the quality be crap even if i get it to work? My reasoning for this option was that I have a spare monitor and didn't wanna fork out for a tv! hmmmmm

There are loads of cheap Tellys about on adverts.ie, ebay or gumtree.ie given the number of cables etc you need to buy it might simply be cheaper to ad a lot easier to get one there. is it a flat screen or tube monitor?

440Hz

valleyoftheunos wrote: »

is it a flat screen or tube monitor?

lcd monitor

valleyoftheunos

I imagine the image would be fine, just a matter of how many connections you'd need to put through.

440Hz

Well I went all over Cork city today and no cable anywhere! Boooooo

Dunno if Im better off chasing a cable online or just saving up for a second hand tv at this stage.

valleyoftheunos

GO with the telly, you might be surprised how cheap and what size is about on line.

weeder

just to clarify it to people, it is possible to connect all current gen systems to a monitor somehow.

ps3, cannot do vga* but can do DVI through the HDMI port if the monitor has hdcp

Wii, vga cable availible
http://www.vdigi.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=2&Itemid=1&vmcchk=1&Itemid

360, capable of hdmi/dvi(not sure if it needs hdcp) and vga through an official or third party cable (i use a third party one myself)


* vga availible via a component conversion box,

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10530


;)

radtjack

Hi everyone,

I would like to share my experience about the use of a ps2 on a lcd HD monitor.
I am sure that many of you who own a ps2, would like to upgrade to HDTV or HD monitor...

When I first plugged in my ps2 via the yellow cable, the image was blurry and colors were washed up. I got a component cable from ebay and now the image is nice, very nice.
Obviously it is not a ps3, but the image is way better than with the single composite cable.

parvus

The wii can connect to your pc using wifi, would that help?