- The theory goes that Macs are not good for gaming.
I don't know where people get that idea.
But what if there was some device
that brought console-level gaming to the Mac?
Hey, I'm Jerry.
And yes, okay, so, there is a history of Macs
not having great gaming chops, right?
People can't game on Macs.
They don't come with the right hardware.
They don't come with the graphics cards that people want.
People have just given up on Macs for gaming
and publishers have given up on Macs having the hardware
and the customer base to create games for them.
But none of that matters
if you can just use an existing game console
and connect it to your Mac.
Sounds like a good idea.
A couple weeks ago, somebody left a comment on my channel,
which made me start thinking.
He said, "I wish Apple included HDMI in the iMacs,
and MacBooks, Mac mini, Mac Pro, for PS4, PS5, Xbox One,
and series S and X, and a UHD/Bluray/blah player.
That would have been awesome.
They missed the boat on that.
As for many, this is their only large screen device
in the dorm, or a teenager may not want to take up
the family TV, or play their-
or play their console all the time
or watch UHD movies," whatever.
So, that got me thinking.
Can I connect a console to the iMacs with HDMI IN?
So after a little bit of research,
I came across this Elgato HD60 S+.
This is a little HDMI capture device
that allows you to take HDMI IN,
and then output it via USB to a computer.
There's also another HDMI output on the back,
so you can output to another monitor or display.
But really, this device is made for recording
video game playing or something into a computer
and for live streaming.
Now I'm not interested in live streaming or gaming online
or recording my videos,
because I'm really bad at playing games.
But the idea of a single device to sit on your desk
to be your computer and your entertainment hub
and your gaming hub
all with one single display actually sounds pretty cool.
So, I bought this to give it a shot.
Now I actually used to play quite a bit of games,
mostly first person shooters
and things like Grand Theft Auto
on the PS 2 and PS 3 and the Xbox One.
And of course,
all of the original Nintendos and PlayStations
and Sony Segas.
However, that's not really something
that I've kept up with over the last few years.
So, you know,
cut me a little slack in this game play.
So anyway, let's go ahead and get this thing set up.
We'll connect this to the Xbox One X with HDMI IN,
and then we'll do USB out to the iMac,
and we'll see if we can game on a Mac.
So the first thing that we need to do
is plug in the HD60 S+ into the iMac,
and then also connect the HDMI from the X-Box.
The HD60 S+ does come with a USB-C to USB-A cable
to power and connect the HD60 S+,
but because the iMac only has USB-C and Thunderbolt ports
on the back,
I'm going to be connecting with a USB-C to USB-C cable,
and I'll leave a link in the description below
for a cable if you need to pick one up.
All right, as for the Elgato software,
we're going to go to the elgato.com website.
We're gonna go to downloads.
We're going to select our product,
which is the HD60 S+ for Mac and Game Capture.
That's what we're going to download right there.
Maybe. There we go.
And we're going to save that,
and then we'll go ahead and just install that
like you normally would,
except it's not an install file.
You just need to drag it over to the applications folder.
Great. So, now we should be able to open that up.
And if this is the first time opening it,
you're going to be asked for permission to connect
to the camera and to the microphone.
And now that you've accepted the permissions,
you have the game capture HD window.
We're gonna go ahead and make that full screen,
just to start.
Now, by default, it's going to be wanting to connect
to this Screen Link thing right here,
which is basically a way to send your screen
from your iPhone and iPad
over to this game capture application.
But we're gonna go ahead and change that
to the game capture HD60 S,
which is what the Xbox is connected to.
And look at that.
So, right away you can see,
we have the Xbox interface right here,
and I'm using the controller
to move around and it looks like it's working.
There's a couple of settings you might wanna configure.
So to do that, you're gonna go to the top right,
and click on this little settings icon right here.
And from here, you can select an Input Device.
It's got some predefined configurations
that you can select from, which just kind of change,
I think the colors and maybe a couple of other settings.
So I have an Xbox connected.
I connect the Xbox or I select the Xbox.
We're gonna allow 60 frames per second for video preview.
Now, of course,
this game capture software is there to allow you
to stream to the internet.
So you can stream to different services,
or you can just record your gameplay
and include it in another video later.
However, I'm not going to be streaming
or recording my videos.
I just wanna be able to see what I'm doing.
I wanna be able to connect the device to the iMac
and play it.
And of course, I do want 60 frames per second.
You could also find tune the picture a little bit
if you need to, with Brightness, Contrast,
Saturation, and Hue.
Audio, you can adjust the gain,
and then you can save your profiles
if that's what you want to do.
We're just gonna go ahead, again,
and select 60 frames per second for a video preview.
We have the Xbox selected and profile 1080,
and that should be good for what I want to do.
And click OK.
So now from here,
I should be able to go ahead and start a game.
So we're just gonna go over to "Call of Duty World War II".
And you'll see the screen kind of expand and contract
at different times.
So anytime there's a change in the HDMI connection,
it basically brings up the configuration window,
but after a few seconds,
it goes away and you get the expanded full-screen view.
So, we're just gonna go ahead and resume game,
and you can see I'm definitely
gonna get my butt kicked here.
Oh, yep.
Let's see if I can even get somebody before I get taken out.
Sweet. I got a couple of people.
And what you're going to notice is that besides me
being horrible at this, is that the gameplay is very smooth.
It's actually very good. There is no lag.
It is playing at a full 60 frames per second,
as far as I can tell.
And it feels really good.
There's no delay at all between moving the controls around
and what's happening on the screen.
So you're not getting any kind of added delay
through this game capture card, through the HD60 plus,
S plus, whatever.
You know what it is.
Now, although the Xbox One X can play in 4k,
this capture card will only do 60 frames per second in HD.
Oops, that's my guy.
Don't do that. And I'm dead.
And even though you're not getting 4k or a full HDR
playing through this iMac, you do get a good experience.
You get full 1080p at 60 frames per second, gaming,
which is pretty much all you really need, right?
I mean, I'm not a real gamer, but I'm content playing this.
I have no issues.
I do get annoyed if there's any kind of lag or stutter.
Like playing online.
Like, I tried the Xbox Cloud, the X Cloud system,
whatever it is.
I tried playing it on the iMacs and on my iPad,
and it was awful.
Just any little movement, there was that bit of lag
or actually sometimes a lot of lag.
And that drives me insane.
So, if there was lag on here, I would definitely notice,
and I would tell you.
Now don't make fun of me.
I have this game called "Super Lucky's Tale"
and I got it for my daughter.
And it's actually a really good, fun game.
It's a very good family game.
Now, of course, I grew up playing Nintendo,
and Mario 64 was my favorite Mario game of all.
And this one is very reminiscent of Mario, right?
You just go through levels.
A lot of them are side scrolling,
but then there's these little different types of levels
and worlds you need to go into
that each have different challenges.
Now, one of the things you're probably wondering about
is sound and yes, the iMac, of course,
has its built in speakers.
The HDMI coming from the Xbox to the iMac has sound.
So, let's crank up that music,
and look at that.
So the iMac can do, obviously, sound and video,
and you get pretty good gaming experience.
It's actually not bad.
Let me go back to the other game real quick,
because it's probably a little bit more interesting.
All right, so let's check out the audio
using "Call of Duty" real quick.
And of course the iMac has those built-in speakers,
which actually do sound really good.
They may not be the basiest speakers you've ever heard,
but they're very clear and they do pretty well for,
you know, multi-dimensional audio coming from these games.
And again, playing online, there's no lag in the movements.
Let's see if I can get anybody.
No, those are my guys.
I'm terrible at this.
(game shooting)
Oh, oh.
(game shooting)
And I'm out.
So as you can see, audio and video wise,
it actually looks really good connecting to an Xbox One X
or probably just about any console to the iMac.
You get great 60 frame per second, 1080p video,
and you get good audio coming out of it
that you can control up and down with the keyboard.
It's a pretty good little system.
So, I know a lot of people are going to ask,
what about a Nintendo Switch?
And yes, you absolutely can
Tokyo drift your way through "Mario Kart"
if that's what you wanna be doing,
using an iMac as your display.
And it works just like it does on the Xbox
with full 1080p, you know, video
and very good sound as well.
So you're not gonna have any issues,
it looks like, connecting any console to the iMac,
which is pretty awesome actually.
And so now you might be wondering, how far can you push it?
Can you connect something like a Roku or a Firestick,
or an HD DVD Bluray player or something like that
to the iMac?
And that answer is yes,
you can connect pretty much anything with HDMI
through the HD60 S+ into the iMac.
However, you are probably going to run into some issues
with HDCP.
So, for the most part,
it looks like it's going to be just fine.
But if we go ahead and just find something to play,
or eventually we're just going to be getting
this HDCP error.
So, whether that's a Roku or an Apple TV or Amazon Firestick
or Bluray player,
or some other thing that uses HDCP and enforces it,
you're going to run into issues
and you won't be able to play that protected content.
Now, I was able to play Netflix from the Netflix app
on the Xbox to the iMac without any issues.
So there's no HDCP handshake error there for some reason,
but I do get it using a Roku.
And just because I know that a number of you
are going to ask,
yes, you can of course do this on a MacBook Pro
or MacBook Air, or any other Mac.
I've tried this on my Intel iMac as well.
So, this HD60 S+ is pretty darn cool
and definitely allows you to play games on your Mac.
So Macs maybe aren't so bad for gaming.
I mean, Macs are better for gaming
than I am at gaming on Macs, but you know.
All right. So. I guess that's pretty much it.
This Elgato HD60 S+ can absolutely allow you
to game on your Macs,
using any connection or gaming connection,
or gaming console that uses the HDMI.
It works pretty darn good.
It gives you a good 1080p, 60 frame per second video
and great sound coming from the built-in speakers
on the iMac or the MacBook Pro.
And of course, you should be able to add additional
external speakers or external monitors
for a bigger display or more sound
if that's what you want to do.
But by themselves, you can absolutely game,
console game on a Mac.
Using things like a Roku or Apple TV,
or some other kind of video player?
Your mileage will probably vary,
and probably just mostly just veer off the road
because it's just gonna have HDCP issues.
However, like I said,
I was able to get Netflix from the Xbox
streaming to the Mac without any issue.
So, that's always a potential option
if you're looking for more of a video console thing.
And to answer the original question from the comment
on my channel, yes, the iMac can be your only screen
for computing and entertainment needs.
Anyway, I'm curious what do you guys think?
Is this something that you guys wanna try
or are there better options for video capture cards
that allow you to do the same thing?
Let me know below.
If you're interested in anything Mac-related,
definitely check out some of my other videos on my channel
and I hope you subscribe.
Definitely hit the thumbs up button if you liked it.
And I'll see you next time.