Connecting the Wii to a VGA port (now asking about video capture cards)

AnteCantelope

I just asked in an electronics store for ways to connect composite or component cables to a computer monitor, and they said it couldn't be done. So, I did an EBay search for "wii vga" (my monitor has VGA, HDMI and DVI ports), and found this. Does anyone know anything about products like this? Are they decent quality, do they work well, and is it worth $60?
Edit: What about this one?
Also, should I be posting this here or in H/A?

Thanks for your help.


EDIT: Now asking about specific video capture cards.

maximumzero

You're best off with http://wiinintendo.net/2007/10/31/vdigis-wii-vga-cable-review/

http://www.vdigi.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=2&category_id=3&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1&vmcchk=1&Itemid=1

AnteCantelope

Looks pretty good, except for one thing. They don't support any games that don't run at 480p, which includes a lot of GC games. I still play a lot of GC games. Do you know of anything that would work if I wanted to play non-HD games?

maximumzero

AnteCantelope wrote: »

Looks pretty good, except for one thing. They don't support any games that don't run at 480p, which includes a lot of GC games. I still play a lot of GC games. Do you know of anything that would work if I wanted to play non-HD games?

Well, monitors aren't designed to natively accept 480i signals, so you'd have to go with one of the converters you posted, but oh god it'll look like shit.

AnteCantelope

damn...

But as long as I can actually play games like Resident Evil (I just bought all the GC RE games, a couple of days before I realised that I can'tplug my Wii into my brand new monitor), I can like with jaggies and the like.

Better than just getting a black screen like that cable would give me

Daedalus

the Vidigi cable is the only one worth buying, and yes, it doesn't work with 480i-only games. (RE4 does 480p, but I don't think the others do).

To cram a 480i signal into VGA, it needs to be deinterlaced, which tends to require some significant hardware to make it look good without delaying it for too many frames. Those cheap boxes on eBay will either look like crap, introduce massive output delay (sometimes as much as a full second) or, likely, both.

If you really want to play 480i games on your monitor, you will probably be better off getting a TV-tuner card for your computer and running the Wii through that. DScaler is a great program to use for that purpose.

Or you could get a cheap TV. Doesn't need to be high-def or widescreen, we're talking about 480i here.

AnteCantelope

I can live with some of my games looking like crap (especially since the only computer I have at the moment has a 32MB video card... I'm very used to crappy looking games).

Really, as long as the games are playable, I'll be fine. So hopefully the box I bought doesn't have too much lag.

Daedalus

Well, if it does end up with a lot of lag, grab a cheap TV tuner card (don't need anything fancy, just a composite or, preferably, s-video input) and download DScaler4. It worked really well for me when I needed to run my PS2 through a monitor.

IceBurner

AnteCantelope wrote: »

Looks pretty good, except for one thing. They don't support any games that don't run at 480p, which includes a lot of crappy GC games. I still play a lot of GC games. Do you know of anything that would work if I wanted to play non-HD games?

Nearly all of the games anyone would care about on Gamecube support 480p. I forget where exactly but I know there is a list. Half of them are not marked with 480p support on the box, but they do it just fine; hold B when starting up.

Daedalus

IceBurner wrote: »

AnteCantelope wrote: »

Looks pretty good, except for one thing. They don't support any games that don't run at 480p, which includes a lot of crappy GC games. I still play a lot of GC games. Do you know of anything that would work if I wanted to play non-HD games?

Nearly all of the games anyone would care about on Gamecube support 480p. I forget where exactly but I know there is a list. Half of them are not marked with 480p support on the box, but they do it just fine; hold B when starting up.

REmake, which he specifically mentioned he was interested in, does not support 480p.

Nor does Killer7, off the top of my head.

IceBurner

Some developers make stupid mistakes, unfortunately

Don't throw away your TV just yet.

AnteCantelope

Daedalus wrote: »

Well, if it does end up with a lot of lag, grab a cheap TV tuner card (don't need anything fancy, just a composite or, preferably, s-video input) and download DScaler4. It worked really well for me when I needed to run my PS2 through a monitor.

I don't really know what to look for in video capture cards, so can you tell me if this looks ok? It's got S-Video support, apparently. Would the Wii's standard video cables plug into that, or would I need to buy some new cables?

I also really like the look of this, but it's in Hong Kong, which always makes me a bit suspicious on EBay. I won't have a desktop for a couple of months, so something that I can plug into a laptop, and then a desktop, would be very handy. Would this be decent quality, or should I just stick to the XBox for a few months and grab that first card?

Edit: All my GC games work, except for the ones I bought just a week or two ago: RE 0, 1, 2, 3, and CV. I don't really see the point of buying a cable so that I can play some of my games, but not the new ones.

AnteCantelope

I saw that the site I'm going to buy my PC from also sells video capture cards, so I may as well buy one from them (they are quite cheap and reliable). Can anyone tell me what a good - but not too expensive - video capture card is? Pretty much only for playing Wii. The site is www.auspcmarket.com.au, and for some strange reason I can't link directly to a specific page, but they're under 'Video Cards > Input | Video capture cards / TV tuners'.

I don't know what to look for in video capture cards, but obviously one of the analogue>digital cards, and I would like it to be as cheap as possible; my computer is already over budget. The first one listed, the AVERMEDIA DVD EZMAKER GOLD PCI CARD, looks decent, and cheap. Would this do?

Thanks.