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Play PS3 through 27" iMac

A

antrobus1990

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 13, 2013
4
0
Herts, UK
Ive been looking into this recently and I'm not having much luck, so I'm hoping somebody here is able to help.

I have a 27" Imac (2010 MODEL) which i want to be able to play my ps3 through instead of having it run on the tele. 1) Is this possible? 2) How 3) How much will it cost?

I've so far only found a few possible solutions to which cost well over £100, but I'm hoping/wanting to know if there is a cheaper alternative that will do the same thing?

On a few of the devices i have found that will achieve this, I have noticed that the resolution is affected when running the ps3 through the Imac screen due to resolution differences, but is there any way this can be avoided?

I'm looking for a reasonably cheap yet effective way of doing this, so any help would be much appreciated! Thanks!
 
J

joe-h2o

macrumors 6502a
Jun 24, 2012
997
445
"Cheap" it won't be - the MDP input didn't last long on the 27" iMac since they switched to Thunderbolt, so the market for the sort of device you want never really took off.

There are some converters but they are limited to 720p input due to the way the video hardware works in the iMac. There was talk that a device would arrive that could input full 1080p, but it never materialised before the swap to Thunderbolt.

I'm afraid you're probably out of luck.
 
M

majkom

macrumors 68000
May 3, 2011
1,854
1,150
Google: Kanex hd - your problem solved, works on imac 27 2010, does not work with thunderbolt macs
 
A

antrobus1990

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 13, 2013
4
0
Herts, UK
@majcom Do you know where one of those can be purchased cheap? e.g second hand, cheapest Ive seen them for is about £120, which seems pretty steep
 
H

HenryDJP

Suspended
Nov 25, 2012
5,084
843
United States
antrobus1990 said:
@majcom Do you know where one of those can be purchased cheap? e.g second hand, cheapest Ive seen them for is about £120, which seems pretty steep
Click to expand...

I have the Dr. Bott Digital Video link for my 27" iMac. I bought it to run my cable system through the MDP through my late 2009 27" iMac. Haven't tried it through my new 2011 iMac with Thunderbolt now that I have a large flat screen. I'll check and see if it works with the newer port. I paid $150 for it 3 years ago. If it does work I'll post the model number and maybe you can find it on Ebay cheaper. That's about the going rate for it though and these types of options are limited so finding them cheap isn't going to be much of an option. I know the "idea" seems like it would be a cheap solution but it's a signal converter and not just a standard HDMI to MDP.
 
EPiCDiNGO

EPiCDiNGO

macrumors member
Sep 10, 2012
73
1
initialsBB said:
That dongle is S-VIDEO, so it's SD - max 576p PAL or 480p NTSC.
Click to expand...

It is impossible to play on that capture card or any for that matter as it does not render the video in real I have Hauppage Hd pvr and it has 3seconds input lag same as other devices, they are ment for recording not playing on the other screen. What you need is a kanex converter that costs around $200 to be able to use the Xbox on the iMac.
 
M

majkom

macrumors 68000
May 3, 2011
1,854
1,150
EPiCDiNGO said:
It is impossible to play on that capture card or any for that matter as it does not render the video in real I have Hauppage Hd pvr and it has 3seconds input lag same as other devices, they are ment for recording not playing on the other screen. What you need is a kanex converter that costs around $200 to be able to use the Xbox on the iMac.
Click to expand...

but it works only on non TB imacs 27 - it will work for OP, but not for those that own 2011/2012 imacs... and it wont work with any 21 incher.
 
I

iHailCarlo

macrumors 6502
Aug 10, 2012
281
1
I use to use a Belkin DVI to HDMi converter. I paid about a $100 for it. This will do what you need it to do.
 
S

steve119

macrumors 6502
Mar 2, 2012
281
1
Scotland, land of the haggis
EPiCDiNGO said:
Dont waste your money there is latency on the input u will NOT be able to play in real time. It is impossible at this time to use the ps3 on the thunderbolt display and play in real time.
Click to expand...

Is that your personal experience with them? I'm not slating you, just wondering how you have came to that conclusion? :)

Can you not get a minidisplay/thunderbolt adapter and use that with the kanex XD?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
W

WilliamG

macrumors G3
Mar 29, 2008
9,922
3,800
Seattle
For the pre-Thunderbolt mini-Displayport 27" iMacs, the best device out there is the Atlona AT-HD620. This provided full 1080p out of any DVI/HDMI device you throw at it. I played PS3/Blu-ray and XBOX 360 through this for several years before giving up my late '09 27" iMac and getting a 2012 27" (and a second display for gaming, - curses!). This devices introduces 0.1ms input lag (or 0.01ms lag - I can't remember!) according to Atlona, so either way you're set. You could play fighters or twitch shooters with ease on this setup, and passes the audio to the iMac as well.
 
L

lg251

macrumors 6502
Dec 3, 2009
369
126
Canada
WilliamG said:
For the pre-Thunderbolt mini-Displayport 27" iMacs, the best device out there is the Atlona AT-HD620. This provided full 1080p out of any DVI/HDMI device you throw at it. I played PS3/Blu-ray and XBOX 360 through this for several years before giving up my late '09 27" iMac and getting a 2012 27" (and a second display for gaming, - curses!). This devices introduces 0.1ms input lag (or 0.01ms lag - I can't remember!) according to Atlona, so either way you're set. You could play fighters or twitch shooters with ease on this setup, and passes the audio to the iMac as well.
Click to expand...

When reading through the website, Atlona mentions that it's working on a Thunderbolt hardware to work with the new iMac's!
Let's cross our fingers it's rather sooner than later.
 
W

WilliamG

macrumors G3
Mar 29, 2008
9,922
3,800
Seattle
lg251 said:
When reading through the website, Atlona mentions that it's working on a Thunderbolt hardware to work with the new iMac's!
Let's cross our fingers it's rather sooner than later.
Click to expand...

It's said that, as far as I recall, for over a year now. I wouldn't expect anything anytime soon. That said, I'm willing (and hoping) to be surprised.
 
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