PlayStation2 on my Mac

[Faizaan]

I want to play my PlayStation2 on my iMac (G4 1gHz). The thing is, i dont know how!! Please, has anyone got any possible ways in which i can achieve my goal? Thanks

[Stike]

Originally posted by Faizaan
I want to play my PlayStation2 on my iMac (G4 1gHz). The thing is, i dont know how!! Please, has anyone got any possible ways in which i can achieve my goal? Thanks

1. One thread is plenty enough
2. It will not work, no matter what you do.

[Faizaan]

i've heard that u can watch TV on your Mac, so thier should be a way in which to connect my PlayStation2 to my Mac... its very unlikely though. Very very unlikely

[Stike]

Originally posted by Faizaan
i've heard that u can watch TV on your Mac, so thier should be a way in which to connect my PlayStation2 to my Mac... its very unlikely though. Very very unlikely

Oh, THAT solution. Well, the image quality will probably not be as good as if you would use a TV with RGB-Scart connection. And most probably the TV picture is larger than the iMac´s anyway ;)

You could use a Formac Studio/TiVo/EyeTV style device. I have the Formac Studio, but don´t know much about the alternatives.

[Westside guy]

Connectix used to make a product called Virtual Playstation (I think that was the name, anyway). It let you play Playstation games on the Mac. I remember we bought my brother a copy for a birthday or Christmas back then.

Sony successfully sued them, so they were forced to halt shipping.

[FuzzyBallz]

1) You'll need a TV card w/ video input. ATI's All-in-Wonder comes to mind. Seeing how you're british and all, I have no idea how you people hook up devices to the TV.

2) However, since the AIW's pretty pricy, I would rather save the money and get an actual TV.

[Paenis]

There's a piece of software called eyeTV that requires a broadband connection to watch the tv through the net. Obviously this doesn't help you emulate a playstation 2, you could try a search on the connectix site but becuase its not interlaced on a computer monitor, and its probably 3x the resolution it will look real sketchy (in full screen mode).

[whocares]

Originally posted by FuzzyBallz
1) You'll need a TV card w/ video input. ATI's All-in-Wonder comes to mind. Seeing how you're british and all, I have no idea how you people hook up devices to the TV.

It usually involves a pair of pliers, 2 screw-drivers, tape, some wire and a hammer... Us "people" use scart or composite video to link stuff to the TV :rolleyes:

Maybe you're confused with the PAL/SECAM stuff? That's the video format (like NTSC). A part from that, European (as well as any other part of the world) TVs are rigourously the same as US TVs ;)

[maluscanis]

I use something called a Viewsonic nextvision N5 to occasionally play my gamecube. It works very well... in my opinion and I have compared it to how it looked on my televison...the picture quality is better using my mac.

You can get one for around a 100 on eBay.

[pinto32]

Sega sold a VGA adapter for the Dreamcast....does anything similar exist for the PS2?

[oldschool]

he just wants a playstation 2 emulator to play games on his computer.


All the current PS2 emulators are either for linux or windows.

[amnesiac1984]

Its amazing how wrong a whole bunch of members can be. SOme of you have the right idea but don't know any details and some of you missed the boat completely.

Okay here we go, you want to do either 1 of two things.

A) You have a playstation 2 and want to play it using oyur iMac as a screen.

B) You want to emulate a PS2 on your mac so you don't need a PS2.

a) This is easy, and this is what I do! I have a powermac so I have a PCI TV card called a Televio (www.televio.com) and it works beautifully. I also have my VCR and my Freeview box plugged into this. You, however have an iMac, you cannot put any PCI cards into it (goodbye ATI all in wonder), You can get a number of Firewire or USB solutions. But, AND ITS A BIG BUTT, USB solutions introduce a delay in the video and sound, ie you will turn left on your playstation one second and the thing you are controllng will turn left a second later, not good, although it could be interesting in those easier games. A Firewire device may not have this but I have never tested so I don't know.

b) No emulators exist for the mac, however there are some for linux and windows, I am not sure how good they are but if they work then there's the hope that one day one of them might be ported to the mac.


Helpful? Probably not

:p

[manitoubalck]

Originally posted by pinto32
Sega sold a VGA adapter for the Dreamcast....does anything similar exist for the PS2?

They also sold a serial cable,
I want one (hangs head in shame)

More to the point I was in at the Aple Centre Adelaide today and saw exactly what you were after. It was an Anologue to Firewire converter. Can't remember the name but it was right thier.

[Nermal]

There's at least one open-source PS2 emulator. It's not good enough to play any games on yet, but once it gets there, somebody should be able to port it to the Mac. But you're asking about connecting your real PS2 to your Mac, just get an analogue to FireWire converter, like manitoubalck said.

[amnesiac1984]

Originally posted by Nermal
There's at least one open-source PS2 emulator. It's not good enough to play any games on yet, but once it gets there, somebody should be able to port it to the Mac. But you're asking about connecting your real PS2 to your Mac, just get an analogue to FireWire converter, like manitoubalck said.

But is an analogue-firewire converter realtime? Thats pretty crucial for a console.

ALso they cost a lot, a lot mroe than a pretty big TV.

[Nermal]

I've seen realtime ones, but I've got no idea how much they cost. The price will, of course, be ever-decreasing.

[bennetsaysargh]

i loved using connectix vga on my old imac. it was fun. we even got the usb playstation controller and everything. i hope that there will soon be a PS2 emulator because then i couold just buse my neighbor's PS2 games without having to buy a PS2:p

[Makosuke]

amnesiac1984 laid it out quite clearly.

There are a number of products that convert video (and audio) into a firewire DV stream that a Mac can display, and although there may be some lag (I've never tried playing a game with mine, so I'm not sure), it won't be as bad as a USB solution.

The ones I'm familiar with are the ADS Pyro, Formac Studio, Pinnacle Studio MovieBox DV. I own a small sony box that does the same stuff, but it was discontinued years ago.

These all cost in the $200-300 range, and for example, this site sells several:

http://www.firewire-1394.com/converter-analog-to-dv-video-input-export.htm

[Bran]

amnesiac1984 laid it out quite clearly.

There are a number of products that convert video (and audio) into a firewire DV stream that a Mac can display, and although there may be some lag (I've never tried playing a game with mine, so I'm not sure), it won't be as bad as a USB solution.

The ones I'm familiar with are the ADS Pyro, Formac Studio, Pinnacle Studio MovieBox DV. I own a small sony box that does the same stuff, but it was discontinued years ago.

These all cost in the $200-300 range, and for example, this site sells several:

http://www.firewire-1394.com/converter-analog-to-dv-video-input-export.htm

So does any one know if DV viewing off Firewire from an anologue source is with or without delays?

[Stike]

So does any one know if DV viewing off Firewire from an anologue source is with or without delays?
Usually there IS a delay, but it is under 1 second. Its not ideal for gaming though...

[briankonar]

Usually there IS a delay, but it is under 1 second. Its not ideal for gaming though...

Their is a delay (2-3 seconds according to El Gato) they expressly say it is capable of gaming but the delay is pretty impairing, unless you're playing something like FF. Why would you want to game on a computer screen? You have to be practically sitting right next to the thing.

Get wireless controllers, sit back, and relax.

[Stike]

Their is a delay (2-3 seconds according to El Gato) they expressly say it is capable of gaming but the delay is pretty impairing, unless you're playing something like FF. Why would you want to game on a computer screen? You have to be practically sitting right next to the thing.

Get wireless controllers, sit back, and relax.
Of course its not so great when trying to play a game that way, but it was asked for the delay... and my combo of Analogue Source to Formac Studio to Mac over FW provides a delay of under 1 second.
Good for some games, not good for Action games or shoot em ups :)

[tdhurst]

You know what would be a lot easier...buy Mac games and play them on your mac, or play your ps2 games on your ps2. Different hardware exist for a reason...

[amnesiac1984]

You know what would be a lot easier...buy Mac games and play them on your mac, or play your ps2 games on your ps2. Different hardware exist for a reason...

This isn't right, he has a PS2 and he wants to use his lovely mac screen to play it on. This is what I do and it is the only feasible option. I'm a student and I can't afford a Mac and a TV, actually I probably could but I have no space to put it in my Room and my 17" studio display is much better than any TV. Does anyone know if there is a TV card like mine (Televio or alchemy TV) that supports 60hz signal input and has better picture quality? I mean the ps2 looks REALLY pixelly on my Mac at full screen, even when sitting back from it.?

[Bran]

You know what would be a lot easier...buy Mac games and play them on your mac, or play your ps2 games on your ps2. Different hardware exist for a reason...

I dont have room for a TV. If I buy a TV i'll probably have to get it home somehow... TV is hard to move around. I kinda like to see decent games running off this ibook LCD, even if it's only a firewire pass thru :P .

I guess the next option for me is to get a monitor plus some sort of VGA-anologue converter.

[wPod]

I dont have room for a TV. If I buy a TV i'll probably have to get it home somehow... TV is hard to move around. I kinda like to see decent games running off this ibook LCD, even if it's only a firewire pass thru :P .

I guess the next option for me is to get a monitor plus some sort of VGA-anologue converter.

i have to agree with bran here. . . somewhat. i would prefer not to have a TV, it just takes up too much space. i have a 19" monitor i hook up to my PB and watching DVDs on that size is fine. its not like i am having 15 people watch at the same time and need a HUGE screen. The formac device sold in the apple store should do the trick. i have been planning on buying one for a while for this reason once i scratch up enough cash.

[tdhurst]

I highly doubt it's possible to run the ps2 off any mac with a built in screen ('book, emac or imac), BUT, since I can see my iMovies off my digital camera, there could be a software/hardware solution out there. Have you thought about analog to digital converters (the ones you would use to digitize vhs tapes)?

[Bran]

Yea that's what Formac's device is, essentially a DV capture device. What also works if you have a DV camcorder with S-video or some sort of inputs in the camcorder itself, you can then hook the camcorder up to your mac. I have already tried a borrowed panasonic DV camcorder and hooked the PS2 up to the S-video in/out port on the camera, there's a slight delay, i'd say less than half a milisecond between action and displaying on my ibook screen. I think it's good enough for most games, especially RPG/adventure games. But I dont know how games like Metal Gear Solid are going to work out. Racing games?

I dont know if all DV devices have this slight delay, i've only tried the camcorder.

The software I used was called Vidi. (macupdate)