Watch videos on Wii U, offline, saved on SD?

[marchrius]

I already searched for this but every thread I found said it wasn't possible or it was a bit complicated, like streaming from PC, replace NSMBU+L video files with custom videos using loadiine etc.

So, I'm asking if a straightforward way to play video files exists on Wii U or vWii. Load files on SD, launch homebrew, play mp4, done. TY

 

[jeffyTheHomebrewer]

Well, WiiMC can be used under vWii to play media off the SD card, I haven't *really* tried it myself but in theory it should work. Only downside is no gamepad controls..

 

[neverends4]

How about grap your phone, any phone, u can enjoy NAS videos under 1080p.

Remember WiiMC is for Wii with 480p only.

 

[jeffyTheHomebrewer]

How about grap your phone, any phone, u can enjoy NAS videos under 1080p.

Remember WiiMC is for Wii with 480p only.

Phones don't easily connect to TVs and Marchrius here might not have a Chromecast; damn things would need a internet connection anyway.

Now, sure, it'd be easier to use some Android TV device, but why not a Wii U?

 

[marchrius]

Phones don't easily connect to TVs and Marchrius here might not have a Chromecast; damn things would need a internet connection anyway.

Now, sure, it'd be easier to use some Android TV device, but why not a Wii U?

Thanks, I'll give WiiMC a try. 480i/p only it's not a problem, my Wii U is connected to an old TV anyway which is 480i. The whole purpose of this is to watch some old stuff that looks better on old TVs.

 

[jeffyTheHomebrewer]

Thanks, I'll give WiiMC a try. 480i/p only it's not a problem, my Wii U is connected to an old TV anyway which is 480i. The whole purpose of this is to watch some old stuff that looks better on old TVs.

See? Not everything in 2024 has to be 8K UltraUHD Oversaturated (OLED) Megashit Terrafart overly-high-quality resolution and too-fast-to-actually-perceive FPS. Sometimes "low quality" ain't so low after all.

 

[marchrius]

I tried WiiMC and it's pretty good. Could be better though, it has a lot of problems running anything long/high bitrate/high resolution meaning I have to basically reconvert everything I throw at it. Still, pretty decent if you have some tool that can convert videos specifically to be played in it, feel free to share!

 

[jeffyTheHomebrewer]

I tried WiiMC and it's pretty good. Could be better though, it has a lot of problems running anything long/high bitrate/high resolution meaning I have to basically reconvert everything I throw at it. Still, pretty decent if you have some tool that can convert videos specifically to be played in it, feel free to share!

IIRC there isn't any specific video conversion tool made for WiiMC, but it shouldn't be TOO hard to figure out the optimal bitrate and resolution settings for a WiiMC-optimized video, and then make a simple script to make FFMpeg do the dirty work here.

 

[marchrius]

IIRC there isn't any specific video conversion tool made for WiiMC, but it shouldn't be TOO hard to figure out the optimal bitrate and resolution settings for a WiiMC-optimized video, and then make a simple script to make FFMpeg do the dirty work here.

As I said, it's kind of inconsistent and still trying to figure it out. A video in 480p was fine, another one in 240p was stuttering and almost crashed the Wii, a 3 hour video was without audio no matter how I compressed it, another one wasn't playing at all in MKV but was fine in MP4...

 

[jack44556677]

The best video player on the wiiu is the internet browser. It handles HD x264 as long as you are using mp4 containers. You just need to serve the files to the internet browser using an http server - ideally on the computer you store the media files on. I wonder if anyone has worked out a "file://" url to access the sd directly without any network connection....

Maschell did compile ffmpeg, so ffplay directly from the sd without any network usage (though the above can be done without internet) is possibly available for x265 for the intrepid/foolhardy developer/hacker.

 

[marchrius]

The best video player on the wiiu is the internet browser. It handles HD x264 as long as you are using mp4 containers. You just need to serve the files to the internet browser using an http server - ideally on the computer you store the media files on. I wonder if anyone has worked out a "file://" url to access the sd directly without any network connection....

Maschell did compile ffmpeg, so ffplay directly from the sd without any network usage (though the above can be done without internet) is possibly available for x265 for the intrepid/foolhardy developer/hacker.

How do you quickly set up a server on Windows for that?

 

[TheStonedModder]

How do you quickly set up a server on Windows for that?

Jellyfin is probably the easiest

 

[V10lator]

possibly available for x265 for the intrepid/foolhardy developer/hacker.

AFAIK The Wii U supports h264 hardware decoding only and the CPU is too slow to software decode anything serious.

//EDIT: Also seeing how old this ffmpeg port is it porbably doesn't use any hardware decoding at all.

 

[Doneyboney]

How about grap your phone, any phone, u can enjoy NAS videos under 1080p.

Remember WiiMC is for Wii with 480p only.

I don't want to grap my phone

 

[SylverReZ]

How about grap your phone, any phone, u can enjoy NAS videos under 1080p.

Remember WiiMC is for Wii with 480p only.

Phones aren't as powerful these days to do about anything.