console with macbook

[Oh! My Car!]

wasn't sure to go in console or PC section...

I want to use my macbook as a screen to play my consoles on. Is this possible? To have an adapter for scart, composite or even RF in - via the DVI port?

geniusus needed please!

[EvilBoris]

I think those are to output a picture toa TV.

The only way that I would think of would be to get some kind o video capture card, but the picture quality wouldl leave alot to be desired

[briareos_kerensky]

Yes, an USB video capture card and Dscaler would work fine for you, though I don't know if there's a Mac version of the program, nor if it supports USB capture cards.

[EvilBoris]

You can get PCMIAIAMAMAMAM or whatever they are caled capture cards, do macs have those slots?

[briareos_kerensky]

I don't think they even produce more of PCMCIA cards anymore as USB 2.0 is a more widely accepted standard and (IIRC) has an higer bandwidht.

[NekoFever]

The trouble with USB (and Firewire, for that matter) capture cards is that they're not designed for stuff like gaming and you'll probably get some input lag which will render most games unplayable. There might be some out there that work fast enough but most are just designed for capturing video which isn't going to suffer from any lag.

In any case the MacBooks don't have a PCMCIA port and I'm fairly sure the Pros don't either. The Powerbook G4s have some kind of expansion port but I'm not sure if it's PCMCIA. They seem to be dying out anyway since USB 2.0 is so fast and so compatible.

[Oh! My Car!]

damn technology

[Spooky]

Hey There!

I went down this route with my Powerbook and a Firewire box, but even the smallest amount of latency will drive you insane when playing any kind of game that relies on quick reactions and button presses... so you 'may' be safe playing something like an RTS but even then I'm not so sure...

You could always try this little piece of tech for your Mac from Elgato...

http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetv250

I have one hooked up to my Mini as we have freebie NTL channels piped through our building... and it produces pretty good results... after playing with the settings..., but now invested in a lovely new Asus 22" wide monitor, so everything else is plugged in direct.

I haven't tried it for gaming, so I can't comment on Elgato's claim of 'zero latency' for their GAME MODE...

Though, I could always give the 360 a quick run through it and let you know... if you're interested...

[Oh! My Car!]

cheers for the info. don't think i'll invest in one of those elgato things, probably best to just pick up a cheap telly i suppose :P

[NekoFever]

Maybe. The ?135 that the EyeTV costs (how much do you want to bet that they have to change the name soon?) isn't a bad price but if you want to take advantage of the Macbook screen you really want some way of getting an HD picture on there, which sadly isn't really feasible for external peripherals without some latency. It's not bad for using older stuff or just sticking with SD connections on new hardware, but then again you might get a better picture (and guaranteed no lag) from a cheap CRT.