[andrew7316]

There is something I have wondered about for some time, even though it doesn't directly effect me: how to hook up video game consoles to one's computer setup.
 
For example, let's say you have an iMac, and hooked up to your iMac you have a USB DAC/headphone amp: all of your computer audio runs through your amp to your headphones. One day you're looking at this big 27" IPS display and you think, "I'd love to run my game consoles through this screen, and the audio through my expensive headphone/amp setup."
 
Now, part of the reason I choose an iMac for this example is because Apple is something of tyrant in the I/O department: I'm guessing you have to have some special device which converts your Xbox or Playstation into mini-display port, but what about your game audio? Do you have to run a separate line from your console to your headphone amp, or can mini-display port carry the game audio through your system and out the USB DAC?
 
Of course, I mentioned Xbox and Playstation which are modern consoles with HDMI-out, what if you are hooking up something old-school like a Nintendo Entertainment System? Can it be done? I suppose you could get something like a capture card, but from what I understand those can have slight delays which could prohibit gameplay.
 
Forgive my ignorance, but it is something which I find curious: I'm not a gamer, but if I were going to hook up a gaming system I would want to use my high-end computer setup rather than spend the money to setup an equally nice system just for gaming. So do any of you run your consoles through your computers? Anyone run old-school consoles through their computers? If so, what is your setup? Can this be done on an all-in-one like the iMac, or do you need to setup separate monitors and run your audio/video streams through half a dozen devices?

 

[oqvist]

I don´t know how it´s with xbox 360 slim or PS3 slim but my fat PS3 does have an optical out. On the Xbox 360 they have the oddest solution they have the optical out on a VGA cable or component cable which you can´t use at the same time as the HDMI.
 
As for the Wii no you only get analogue audio out of that one.
 
I don´t know about the slim models but the Xbox 360 I got is loud like nothing else and the PS3 can be really noisy as well.

 

[Flume]

My friend used to use a card from Elgato called the eyeTV but the company has a few other options. I know there was a "game mode" that he used because it got rid of all lag.
 
Their store is http://www.elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/buy.en.html

 

[NamelessPFG]

Well, here's the thing about consoles without digital outputs: unless you're willing to open up the console and try to mod in at least a basic S/PDIF output, it's already converted to analog. Any external DACs would be completely pointless. Better to just hook your headphone amp straight to it instead of throwing an ADC and DAC into the chain as well, adding yet another needless set of conversions (unless you're recording the console's A/V feed, in which case it's justified).
 
Also, when talking S/PDIF input, things become immensely complicated when those consoles output Dolby Digital or DTS-encoded audio. People have tried to use computers as DAC/DSP boxes for that sort of thing, but nobody's found an acceptable solution yet. Either it just doesn't work at all, or if it does, the latency might be far too high.
 
HDMI might be less of a pain because it has enough bandwidth for 7.1 PCM, but I don't even know of any HDMI capture devices that play nicely with consoles, especially the PS3. (Stupid HDCP...)

 

[oqvist]

All consoles support stereo through spdif so if you use headphones it´s not a problem.
 
I have used dolby encoding software from Creative when I had home theater speakers that required a dolby signal for surround. It´s not how it´s output on PC in general. It does add a bit of latency or lag but not that much that it get really annoying.