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TECH CHALLENGE: Playing Wii on a MacBook Pro

M

MrCanadian

Member
Here's the question - what is needed for one to be able to play their Nintendo Wii using their Macbook Pro as the screen? Are certain parts or software required? Some finaggling?

Looking forward to hearing about solutions...
 
You would need a USB TV tuner. And it would need to be Mac-compatible, which is the real sticking point. Products similar to this. The Wii has composite and S-Video output, amongst other options.
 
And with the USB tuner, you can expect massive lag because of the need to compress before pushing it down to the computer.
 
What about on a normal laptop - would there still be that kind of lag present? Is there any way of overcoming said lag on either OS?
 
Why do people keep insisting that this is possible?

Originally posted by: MrCanadian
What about on a normal laptop - would there still be that kind of lag present?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Is there any way of overcoming said lag on either OS?
Click to expand...

Not a chance in hell.

It's the compression that does it - and pretty much every TV tuner card nowadays boasts hardware MPEG2/4 compression.

- M4H
 
Originally posted by: ViRGE
And with the USB tuner, you can expect massive lag because of the need to compress before pushing it down to the computer.
Click to expand...

Ive seen is done with a USB 2.0 tuner before. I believe you just have to turn off the ability to "pause" live tv otherwise it lags 1-2 seconds behind.

Edit: I have also used my ATI USB Tuner that only used 1.0 of USB and it did NOT lag with my Gamecube.
 
I didn't realize this was a common quest for people - I was just curious as to what possibilities were open for someone who wanted gaming and portability to co-mingle, especially console-wise.

This compression bit is a crisis indeed. Hmm.
 
What I did was get a cheap portable DVD player that lets me use the screen as an input. I can hook up my game consoles directly to the cheap portable DVD player's screen. Very portable.
 
the Wii has 480P it's not even HD total disappointment.

The Xbox 360 has 720P/1080i
The PS3 has 720P/1080P
 
Originally posted by: w00t
the Wii has 480P it's not even HD total disappointment.

The Xbox 360 has 720P/1080i
The PS3 has 720P/1080P
Click to expand...

Who cares? It's not how much eye-candy a system has but how good the games are! Some of the greatest games in the world were text! Remember Infocom? I beleive that of the 3 next-gen systems the Wii will be the most profitable and fun. I personally got a Wii because it has the console games I want to play. Zelda anyone? If I want HD and eye-candy I have a PC that does that.
 
usb tv tuner (make sure it has av inputs or something), mac tv software (hard to find IMO) and if you cant find any, use bootcamp to go into xp and find some there.

there are some external tv tuner devices...so those might be helpful.
 
Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
Originally posted by: w00t
the Wii has 480P it's not even HD total disappointment.

The Xbox 360 has 720P/1080i
The PS3 has 720P/1080P
Click to expand...

Here is the room of those who care.

- M4H
Click to expand...

Originally posted by: Oyeve
Originally posted by: w00t
the Wii has 480P it's not even HD total disappointment.

The Xbox 360 has 720P/1080i
The PS3 has 720P/1080P
Click to expand...

Who cares? It's not how much eye-candy a system has but how good the games are! Some of the greatest games in the world were text! Remember Infocom? I beleive that of the 3 next-gen systems the Wii will be the most profitable and fun. I personally got a Wii because it has the console games I want to play. Zelda anyone? If I want HD and eye-candy I have a PC that does that.
Click to expand...

I should of specified my point that it's going to look bad on a MBP. M4H you can put that in your little room as he may care. I said nothing about the console being bad I stated that it was a disappointment that it did not support HD. I can tell we really have some wii fans in this thread flamming at me for apparently no reason.
 
Originally posted by: w00t
I should of specified my point that it's going to look bad on a MBP. M4H you can put that in your little room as he may care. I said nothing about the console being bad I stated that it was a disappointment that it did not support HD. I can tell we really have some wii fans in this thread flamming at me for apparently no reason.
Click to expand...

Originally posted by: w00t
the Wii has 480P it's not even HD total disappointment.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that totally = "It's going to look bad on a MBP" :roll:

Never mind that any of the three consoles will look like ass going in through a 480i USB TV tuner + compression.

"learn2English"

- M4H
 
Well, with the USB being the problem, I'd guess that there were some PCCard options the OP could go with. I'm far too ignorant to recommend anything though I'm sure somebody knows more than me about such options (or the lack thereof).
 
Originally posted by: Jaxidian
Well, with the USB being the problem, I'd guess that there were some PCCard options the OP could go with. I'm far too ignorant to recommend anything though I'm sure somebody knows more than me about such options (or the lack thereof).
Click to expand...
The MBP doesn't use PC Cards, it uses ExpressCard cards.
 
Do you already have a macbook pro? there is other notebooks that would allow you to do this without a tv tuner.
 
i have the eye tv hybrid and it looks pretty bad.. heh. The main reason was I wanted to play widescreen zelda on my iMac. It did not support it properly for some reason.. it kept stretching the Wii image even though both eye tv and the wii were set for 16:9.
 
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