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[McTaggart]

I really want to move my wii out of the family room and into my room so I can play it a little more. I can't find any screen that take aything other than dvi and those crt inputs and can't afford a good tv at all. Projectors are even further out of my pricerange.

So the last option I can think of is using my laptop screen as the screen for my wii. The problem is that the laptop doesn't have any video in at all, but it has buckets of usb slots and 2 pcmcia slots. I doubt the usb will be any good here but I know you can get pcmcia video capture cards. My question is can you use a capture card to just show the video on the screen at it's full resolution or will it just show it at the resolution it'll record at?

[Scytale]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/23/how-to-make-a-wii-laptop-part-1/

looks like a horrible hack and will void your waranty but have fun...

[McTaggart]

I saw that on hackaday a while ago. It's got nothing to do with what I'm trying to do though. I just want to use my laptop to fill the role the tv normally plays.

[Scytale]

Card with TV-out is probably all you'll need then, don't own a WII so no idea what conncetor it uses to hook up to a screen.

My Macbook came with a DVI to S-video adapter, so I can hook it up to my flatmates amplifier and hence the TV, resoloution is horrible though... No idea if any of that will help though.

[McTaggart]

I can get my laptop to use the tv as a screen easily enough. What I want is for the wii out to show on my laptop monitor. I know I need video in, but I'm wondering if I'll be able to view it fullscreen with little to no quality loss.

[lb969]

Get a PCMCIA TV tuner card and a cheap VCR?

Laptops can play TV on the LCD through a TV Tuner card. Hook up a VCR to it and you can use the VCR's inputs or Coax for the Wii and output to the tuner card. Not sure if the Wii used a coax RF adaptor or component jacks. I don't own one. (if it does use coax, you may just need the tuner card.

[McTaggart]

It uses rgb components or the normal red/white/yellow sound/sound/video rca plugs.

Thanks though. Two weeks sans uni means I should easily have the cance to get it done.

[lb969]

in theory, you need to hook up the VCR to the laptop via a PCMCIA Tuner card. Then you can use the VCR's Input jacks to convert the RCA/Component to a coax signal for the Tuner card.

However I haven't done this with a laptop. I've used it to hook up a Playstation to my desktop though.

I'm not sure, but you may see some lag in gameplay since the laptop/tuner combo may take some time to digitize the signal and then display it on the laptop, depending on the speed of the processor. And don't expect lightning framerates.

[I Am Not Amused]

Um, maybe I'm an idiot and don't understand the situation correctly.

But couldn't you just use a VCR? They typically have the red/white/yellow plugins necessary to plug into and all you need to do is turn on the VCR and play through that. I've done it with my PS2 before and it works perfectly.

[McTaggart]

I don't have a vcr, nor a tv. I don't really have space in my room for a tv and don't have the money for a flat panel.

Things I have to work with: a laptop, a wii, cables. By now I'm pretty sure that it'll work with just pcmcia tuner card if I can find one that takes the yellow rca plug as an input.

(I'm not too concerned about the performance as my laptop is pretty damn shiny).

[lb969]

See, most Tuner cards only have a Coax connector. They don't use RCA jacks because it takes up to much room, especially on a laptop where space is at a premium. But they do make them with other jacks.

But if you want to spend the money, I'd get this one.   Or this one if you want a cheaper option.

(I'm not too concerned about the performance as my laptop is pretty damn shiny).

The problems that the card may make the game slow to play. If you are just watching TV, its not bad since it can buffer ahead, but since the game is interactive, it may make the game lag, or require you to pause to buffer ahead.

I'm not 100% certain how well it will run, but IN THEORY its possible. But I've never done it with a Wii. My old PlayStation was a lot less demanding on graphics, so buffering wasn't a problem. I know guys who play Xbox on their desktops using tuner cards.

[dennis]

It's really unlikely that you'll be able to find a satisfactory (cheap and easy) solution to the problem. Laptops very rarely take inputs. Like people have already pointed out, a TV tuner card is basically the only way.

Here's one at a dealer I use for $40. http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=AA40650

You made it sound like you had other screens you could use it on, but they only took DVI. It's relatively easy to find a DVI to RCA or whatever converter on Ebay or if you go to an electronics store. But maybe I didn't understand what you were saying.