I know nothing. Have a question. Can Xbox or Gamecube or whatever be played through a computer?

[leigh6]

Hi all,

I dont game, period. So any help would be appreciated. I just got a phone call from a friend who I built a system for. Is there a way for him to play any of the standalone systems, XBOX, Gamecube, etc. connected to the computer.

He has a crappy TV and a real nice monitor.

Sorry if this is really a stupid question.


Thanks, Leigh

 

[BlueWeasel]

Sure, it's fairly easy to set up. You could do it a couple ways that I know of, and they both involve getting hardware that has video inputs (usually S-video).

You could get a converter box that allows him to watch TV on the monitor (although, I haven't seen much of them lately). The best bet would probably be to get a cheap TV tuner card that has video input. I picked up a Leadtek Winfast card from Newegg a few years ago for $40 that has this feature. That's the way I would go, as the card would do everything the converter box can do plus record TV shows and playback in a window.

As far as sound, he would need to use his sound card's input so the audio would come through his computer speakers.

 

[Tu13erhead]

If he happens to have a Dell 2405FPW, I'd recommend buying the component cables for both systems. It looks very good.

If not, I'd see if you can find VGA boxes for the systems. These VGA boxes hook the system directly up to the monitor, no computer involved. I had one on my Dreamcast and it greatly improved the quality over S-Video. IMO, S-Video or composite inputs (either on a monitor, video card, or tuner card), look very poor, and usually look worse than a normal TV.