Need some help on AV, specifically, using my monitor as a TV

[Luke -Jr]

On Tuesday 15 April 2008, Andrew Thoreson wrote:
> For example, hook up my Wii, and then have the video from that show up
> in a window (or fullscreen), so that I can use my monitor instead of my
> TV, and I can take screenshots of it. If this is possible, what kind of
> hardware would I need to take a video-in signal, and what programs would
> be able to have it stay in a window and/or run it in fullscreen? Also,
> potentially, record video.

If you want to use gaming consoles... be sure that you do NOT get a "TV tuner" 
card or such, especially if they advertise hardware compression of any sort. 
The overhead from the compression (usually not optional) will delay the video 
and give you a "lag" effect, even if you aren't playing online. I believe the 
kind of card you need for this is called a "frame grabber" or similar. Even 
still, I'd check reviews to be sure it doesn't have a significant delay.
If you want to take screenshots, you also need to be sure that you have 
hardware acceleration disabled, as this can interfere with the screen grab. 
With mplayer, this would be "-vo x11"