Nintendo Switch

Right below is one of those horrible blue light cut filters for sale. Oh the irony.

As the day comes closer when Iā€™ll be a Switch owner, Iā€™m starting to think ahead to how Iā€™m going to hook it up.

Letā€™s see, I need internet, and HDMI connection to the TV.

My Google Fiber box near the TV has four wired outputs:

  1. Xbox One
  2. PS4
  3. Apple TV
  4. MOCA 2.0 device that goes to co-ax cable ā†’ upstairs another device ā†’ my computers upstairs.

So the Xbox 360 sits there, using the 360 wireless adapter. 360 is only used for Rock Band 3 these days.

HDMI current connections, my Sharp Aquos had 4 HDMI ports.

  1. Xbox One
  2. PS4
  3. Apple TV
  4. Xbox 360.

My Xbox Series X is connected upstairs to my computer monitor, as are two computers. Eventually I do want to move the Series X downstairs to the big TV too, once my son gets a little older.

I canā€™t remote play the 360 or play Rock Band 3 any other way, so that stays.
I canā€™t watch Live TV off the antenna with 30 minute pause without Xbox One, so that stays.
I watch pretty much everything else on Apple TV these days so that stays.
I havenā€™t played the PS4 ā€œin personā€ for years now, I remote play it from my PC upstairs.

So, letā€™s see, new plan:
Disconnect the PS4ā€™s HDMI, connect the Nintendo Switch.
Then use the Switchā€™s wireless connection to connect to internet. OR buy a new switch (small s) and some more ethernet cables, and hook up the wired Switch. Hmmm.

Hopefully the PS4 doesnā€™t require the HDMI cord to be connected to play remotely.

If it does, you still may be able to use a cheap ā€˜headless ghostā€™ type plug to fool it into thinking thereā€™s a screen attached.

This is completely fine unless you specifically want to play highly competitive real time multiplayer, like fighting games. Iā€™ve run exclusively on wifi for years and itā€™s fantastic for day-to-day stuff.

Nice! Thatā€™s good to hear. I had nightmares of the Nintendo Wii wifi and watching Mario go across the screen over and over and get coins while Iā€™m downloading a small game from the Nintendo store.

Same, butā€¦ Iā€™m sure itā€™s not the wifiā€™s fault, but Iā€™ve found downloading Switch games excruciatingly slow on a fast connectionā€¦ :P

I mean nba 2k took forever but itā€™s also 40gbā€¦most switch games arenā€™t huge in my experience

I installed Minecraft for the kids over the weekend, I think itā€™s only a gig or so. Took about 15 minutes.

In the same time on Steam I could have installed a 30GB gameā€¦

If you need more HDMI ports or just want to keep everything connected, have you tried one of these HDMI switches?

I use one to switch between displays for my two desktop computers and it works really well. That is only if you want to keep that PS4 connected with everything else for any reason. You can use it to switch between three devices so can free up even more of your ports if you need to.

I bought a set of NetGear Powerline adapters and installed one in the living room, where the Switch and PS4 reside, to have a more robust and faster connection to the net (main router on a different floor) since the living room is a deadzone for wifi. But even before that, the Switch connected fine for most gaming; downloads were painfully slow, though. Depends on how well the wifi works for your setup.

Hey is that exact same switch I use for my two computers and my Switch on my terrible(but cheap) monitor!

I recently bought a switch like that, but with only two inputs, that can switch between my Series X and my computer. Quite expensive though, little things like that add up, I donā€™t want to buy another one.

Just unplug all the other consoles šŸ¤ŸšŸ¤¤

I said it numerous times, but it took 40 years for Nintendo to turn me into a fanboy, here I am!

I went through a string of these HDMI switches after buying a TV with only two available HDMI ports (and a third thatā€™s occupied by audio out.) If you go that route, know that they can be finicky. Some will refuse to work with certain devices at specific framerates/resolutions, and the ones that have auto-switching capability may switch at inopportune times when a noisy device sends its wakeup signal.

Weā€™ve been using this one for a year or so, and it occasionally requires switching to a different input and back when switching to older devices on wake, but is otherwise working great:

That just sounds abnormal. Smaller games download and install in a couple minutes for me. Are you installing to an SD card? Does Minecraft have to do a ton of patching on first install?

That particular install was to the SD Card, a newer Evo+. It did some patching later I think, but the time I refer to was just waiting for the download bar to creep slowly across the screen.

Maybe I exaggerate, and it was closer to 5-10 minutes, when it should have taken 30 seconds. I guess I need to factor in the SD write-time for 1GB*.

I donā€™t recall it being that bad in the past, maybe their servers had a bad day. Not sure if they use local Au data centres.

*edit which should be around 10 seconds on an Evo+

Switch: Hey, a new arcade racing game! Cruuuuuisin! Sing it!

Me: Got several, havenā€™t even gone deep with Fast RMX or Burnout yet.

Switch: Itā€™s over the top, just the way you like it! Crazy like Excite Bots!

Me: Iā€™ve seen a few reviews, theyā€™re mediocre.

Switch: Ah cā€™mon, reviewers could not see a good arcade racer if it bit them on the ass.

Me: Not buying, do you see the backlog? I should avoid buying anything for 6 months.

Switch: Horrible attitude. I havenā€™t mentioned the killer feature.

Me: Iā€™ve seen the dinosaurs. Fun but itā€™s notā€”

Switch: Eugene Jarvis & his arcade nut friends wrote it!

Me: GODDAMN YOU (goes to e shop)

Cruisin blast? i watched an online friend play it, and it looked really great, like the Burnout 3 even more over the top sequel we never got.
It ended on my wishlist immediately.
And yes, apparently paid reviewers donā€™t enjoy it not having a 60 hours campaign or something.

Cruisinā€™ Blast is in arcades so if youā€™re on the fence, seek out an arcade near you. They definitely sold a lot of them as Iā€™ve seen it often in my travels and yes, it is very good.

I had zero idea, definitely getting it some day.

Weā€™re getting a lengthy Nintendo Direct tomorrow: