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 Can I connect my PlayStation 3, Wii, or XBox 360 to EyeTV 250 Plus?
Solution You can. When switched to Game Mode, EyeTV 250 Plus has a delay of only few milliseconds, allowing for excellent live gameplay. Other EyeTV devices have encoding hardware that causes a larger delay, rendering gameplay difficult to impossible. Game mode turns off EyeTV 250 Plus' hardware encoding.

Next generation systems like PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 can use component or other higher end connections. EyeTV Hybrid can only use composite RCA and S-Video from these systems, and cannot receive HDTV via component or other connections. Nintendo Wii does not feature HDTV, so this platform will be supported just like the current PlayStation 2/GameCube/Xbox consoles.


Limitations


Some Games published on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii Virtual Console might not work on the EyeTV 250 Plus. That's usually only true if the games use PAL 60Hz. PAL 60Hz input is not supported by EyeTV at this time.

Some widescreen content may not be accessible - EyeTV captures video in a 4:3 ratio from composite or S-Video.


Supported Game Consoles


Any game console that has composite (red, white, yellow) or S-Video output as an option can work with EyeTV 250 Plus.

An inexhaustive list of supported consoles would be:

Dreamcast
Gamecube
N64
PlayStation - PS1
PlayStation 2 - PS2
PlayStation 3 - PS3
Saturn
Wii
Xbox
Xbox 360

All of the above have composite and S-Video output. Component, HDMI, DVI, VGA and other outputs cannot be used with EyeTV 250 Plus.

The digital ATSC or DVB-T inputs cannot be used to play video games. Use the analog inputs (composite, S-Video, analog RF) instead.


Reducing the Delay for Better Gameplay


Be aware that if you're using uncompressed video to play games, there is no recording without a delay. If you press record, the encoder will turn on, and then you'll have a 1-1.5 second delay.

When using EyeTV 250 Plus, you can turn off the decoder by turning on Game Mode, in the Devices section of the Preferences, or the Controls menu.  That will mean the live video signal will have a very low delay, which you'll need for effective gameplay.


Recording Gameplay


Uncompressed video has no lag, but is much larger than MPEG (400Mbps vs 8Mbps), so it can't be recorded effectively without terabytes of storage.

You can try this to record your gameplay:

Game Console to distribution amplifier
Distribution amplifier to both the TV (for playing game) and EyeTV 250 Plus (for recording)

In this way, you can play normally on a TV, and record using your Mac. You won't be affected by the delay, since you're playing with the uncompressed output of the game console, before it reaches your Mac.

A distribution amplifier takes a composite or S-Video input, and turns it into multiple outputs of the same type. They can be found at various places, like Amazon.com. These are the opposite of the usual composite or S-Video switches, that take many inputs and only have one output, which you switch between. A switch would not be useful, but a distribution amplifier would.

Another option is to use 3rd party software to capture what's happening on your display - you can isolate the EyeTV video window and record, while you're using EyeTV to play (with Game Mode on).

Many people who share video game recordings made by EyeTV, use either a distribution amplifier, or screen capture software. See YouTube for many examples, including tutorials on how to set things up:

http://www.youtube.com/results?feature=moby&search_query=eyetv+distribution+amplifier&search_type=&aq=f 

Article Details
Article ID: 1203
Created On: 21 May 2008 11:32 PM

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