Using Imac with Wii

[mjar98]

I am a Mac novice, so apologies if this seems dumb...

I have an iMac and was wondering if I could use it with a Wii (which I am interested in buying.) Is it possible to use the Mac as the VDU for the Wii - without using a TV or monitor screen?

 

[Antares]

Theoretically with a video capture device and program...but nothing that I know of which would be practical. I would worry about a minute lag with gaming. Not so much when using the iMac screen simply to watch or record something from an outside video source.

For those who have tried it, is there truly a lag that you notice?

 

[dolphin842]

I have a Canopus DV bridge and the delay is too much (about 0.25 sec). I've yet to find a way hook up a console to Mac for playing (though I use it for recording footage from time to time)

EDIT: The Elgato EyeTV Hybrid claims zero lag for gaming, but from what limited reviews I've seen, it achieves this at the cost of picture quality.

 

[GFLPraxis]

More accurately, the EyeTV achieves this by not having an onboard decoder, so the computer it's hooked up to has to do all the decoding.

So if your machine is powerful enough, you should have perfect quality and lag free. I think a Core 2 Duo iMac should have no problem; an iMac G5 might revert to lower quality.

This is all IIRC though.

 

[spyker3292]

I get lag free (and low res) gaming on my iBook G4 with an EyeTV! But it does work better on my Al iMac, but the quality still isn't that good, but it's livable.

 

[NAG]

My eyetv hybrid on my imac works great with my wii and xbox (although it isn't hd but meh).

 

[applekid]

Lag free with EyeTV? Most definitely not. Guitar Hero II says I get about 30-90 ms using the lag calibration option. That is on my MacBook Pro 2.16 GHz using an EyeTV Hybrid. Now the lag even with Guitar Hero II, a rhythm game where accuracy is important, I can still say it's unnoticeable. So, yeah I guess EyeTV is your only option.

The picture quality is only bad if you don't use any of EyeTV's image enhancement options (which only makes lag worse) and the fact the video input the EyeTV provides are non-HD. S-Video is noticeably sharper than composite, so use S-Video if possible.

 

[spyker3292]

Well... I'm sure that Guitar Hero isn't the right game to play... the lag isn't noticable on games like Battalion Wars, Melee, VC. Anything not music beat related 😀.