Using laptop monitor to play Wii
 

Hello FFR community. I've been looking for ways to use my laptop monitor as a screen for a Wii. The reason is that as a college student, it's quite a lot of hassle transporting and setting up a TV. Do you have any suggestions?

Keep in mind that I'm not very tech-oriented, so if you have any detailed explanations, I'd be grateful if you would keep the vocabulary at a level that the average technology user could understand.

I have done a bit of Googling. I believe what I might be looking for is a Wii VGA cable or a component to VGA cable. I have also heard of other methods involving capture cards (whatever those may be).

The main thing I'm looking for is reliability. I'm okay if the picture quality is a little fuzzy. However, every product I have found so far has had quite a number of negative reviews, with the exception of one product (the VDIGI VD-W2 Wii VGA cable), which unfortunately seems to be discontinued.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Re: Using laptop monitor to play Wii
 

The only real way to use your laptop monitor like a TV is to use a capture card, since these monitors only offer output, not input.

Capture cards tend to have a 0.5-5 second delay, which is unfavourable for gaming. You're better off buying a small TV instead of dealing with something that might not work.

Re: Using laptop monitor to play Wii
 

It is possible, however you will need a good bit of knowledge of pinouts and be able to do custom modifications. I would not suggest it. Do as supermousie says and buy a cheap screen.

Here are some HDMI ready LCD's with built in speakers. Pretty cheap compared to TV's Some have VGA puts so you can use it with the laptop as well. I do not own any consoles so you might NEED a tv instead. Do research before buying!

Re: Using laptop monitor to play Wii
 

I once played Megaman X2 from a Super Nintendo connected up through a multimedia-capable computer using the computer's monitor to output the screen output in a tiny resizable window within Windows using the component cables (the particular multimedia computer had inputs for component video cables builtin and you can use component video cables with the SNES). I don't remember there being any lag.

Since your laptop likely isn't made to be a multimedia machine, you could buy something like a video capture cable or device to do the trick. I see several component video and S-Video -to-USB type devices on tigerdirect, the cheapest being around $20. There may be lag introduced with any specific such device, I don't know.