RCA to DVI or VGA?

[The Mutericator]

Here's the deal, OCR: I've got a nice 20" monitor with a native resolution of 1680x1050 (16:10), and I think it would be the coolest damned thing to be able to hook my Wii up to it and play in widescreen right at my desk (notably, Super Mario Galaxy is what made me start thinking this). The problem is, I need some way to convert from my Wii's current output - RCA composite, the "Red-White-Yellow" cables, to something my monitor can take in - DVI or some form of VGA (I don't actually know what kind it is, I just know it's one of the larger blue monitor inputs that everyone seems to use (NOT the small, 15-pin blue inputs).

I know there are converters out there to perform this task for me, but they cost anywhere from $200-$300, and I'm not really that anxious to play Galaxy and Brawl in hi-def. I notably don't own a HD TV of any sort (that I can use - there's a small HD in the living room, but I can't set up shop there), so my monitor is sort of the perfect spot.

I've also heard things about a device made by Hauppauge that allows you to change from RCA to USB, along with software to run on your computer that takes the incoming image and makes it show up onscreen (the device was intended to record and play back things off satellite, or basically to make your TV imitate a TiVo), but I've heard complaints of lag, and I don't think $140-ish is worth it to end up with any screen lag.

Also, I'm not afraid to buy Wii component output cables if that will make things cheaper. I'm willing to pay up to about $100 to make this setup work, maybe a little more. Absolute max of $150 if it works flawlessly.

Thanks for the help, OCR! I'm hoping someone can help, anyway...

[Airwalker]

Get the Wii Component Cables, http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-10z-49-en-70-1rch.html

Connect that to a Female-Female component adapter

http://www.pccables.com/cgi-bin/orders6.cgi?action=Showitem&id=ID3019390&partno=01782&search=COMPONENT&rsite=&rcode=

Then attach it to a component-VGA adapter http://www.eforcity.com/pothvgargbx1.html?efprcnetatxt071015=POTHVGARGBX1

And connect that to your monitor.

And a set of speakers that connect to the Red-White speaker portion of the component cables. Or you can get this and plug it into a cheap pair of computer speakers. http://www.shopdit.com/Rca-3-5mm-Y-adapter-MM35Y.php

I've never tried it, but those seem to be the right connections. Oh, and the best you'll ever get out of the Wii is 480p. I don't think you can really call that high-def.

[The Mutericator]

Perhaps I mispoke when I used the term "hi-def" - rather, widescreen on a beautiful monitor like this will more than suffice. That and I've seen the component versus composite output from the Wii before, but I'm curious how doing three conversions to the signal before outputting will look.

Regardless, Airwalker, you have just made this considerably easier and far, far cheaper than I ever expected to be able to make it. Thank you very, very much.

[Airwalker]

The best thing would be own a Wii cable that goes to VGA. But nothing like that exists, even from third parties. The Xbox is the only console that has cables like that.

Oh, you may be able to forgo the female-female component adapter by getting a male-vga female-component cable. http://www.amazon.com/Female-Shield-Component-Adaptor-Computer/dp/B000I21Y9G

It may help in the quality department with one less part.

In any case, it all depends on the quality of the cables you get and whichever one is the weakest link.