FlatMii Review

[Malboro]

How long USB cable I can use without any lag or problem?

 

[FAST6191]

@Malboro I would not like to say, if you stick to spec compliant leads you will not get longer than 5m for a single lead.
You could solder a larger section in (it is only 4 colour coded wires) but it is internal "interference" more than external that will be your problem (although I would not discount external sources by any means). I am not sure what level of error correction exists (flatmii is not exactly a conventional device and many manufacturers/driver writers have a fairly loose interpretation of the spec) either.

You could however daisy chain a few hubs and pull off 25m or so for a high speed device (it is a bit longer for 1.1 or HID class devices). I am not sure if you would need a PC/similar at the intervals for signal processing or you could simply power the hubs, equally rate limits and other external factors might come into play.
I am not so hot on signal theory and the limits of USB so I will leave it at that pending further research/playing with equations, that site I link above has some good info for those that do want to play.

regarding my use of "USB doubters" it was not as much "it really does exist" but more USB is perhaps not the thing many have made it out to be.

 

[Lily]

I guess I was just more surprised that someone bought this and then used it to test the FlatMii.

I did not purchase it for the review; in fact, I didn't purchase it at all!

It's a device I borrowed for something entirely different, but thought would be appropriate to test the FlatMii with. I was trying to get the ISO streaming to lag.

QUOTE(Malboro @ Feb 20 2009, 06:18 AM) How long USB cable I can use without any lag or problem?

The length of the cable shouldn't matter. I had a 3 foot cable (didn't reach) a 6 foot cable (worked fine) and 2 6 foot extenders that I daisy chained together, giving me an 18 foot USB cable (worked fine). As long as you're using a quality built cable, I can't see any issue.

 

[SSJToo]

But I really find it surprising that this things is so damn expensive.

@USB Extenders. You can pick them up for around $30 each, but the problem with the cheaper ones are that they only transmit at about USB1.1 speeds.

Edit:

Anyone who does not have their Wii next to their PC and would like to go the extender route, this is the cheapest USB2.0 Extenders i have found.

 

[Trukkle]

Awesome, mine arrived today and I've just finished fitting it.
Looking inside the dongle, it seems that the Wii's usb port is just used as an anchor, no power or data are transmitted through whichever port you plug it into. It'd be trivial to add a female connector to the dongle and make it a pass-through so you can still use memory sticks or chargers.

 

[kristianity77]

rather long winded question but i hope someone can answer. I understand next to no PAL gamecube games supported progressive scan (480p) on the original gamecube. Is this the case with Wii? Or can you force 480P on PAL cube games either with a normal Wii or one that was modded (say with the flatmii for instance)

Im really considering getting a Wii and this device, but dont want my PAL gamecube games looking like dirt on my LCD if it will only output them at 480i

 

[Lily]

rather long winded question but i hope someone can answer. I understand next to no PAL gamecube games supported progressive scan (480p) on the original gamecube. Is this the case with Wii? Or can you force 480P on PAL cube games either with a normal Wii or one that was modded (say with the flatmii for instance)

Im really considering getting a Wii and this device, but dont want my PAL gamecube games looking like dirt on my LCD if it will only output them at 480i

If they didn't support 480p on the GameCube, there's no magic potion that will make them support 480p on the Wii.

 

[doyama]

I was a tad miffed today when I tried to sort of half-ass a way to change the ISO image used via some kind of web page that could be accessed from the Wii. I was wondering where they stored their configuration information since the settings seem to be retained when you close the program. But when you load up things like regmon/filemon the Flatmii exe borks and complains that you have some monitoring tools running.

I just thought that was kind of odd... Hopefully the FlatMii team will have some command line options in their next version so it's a bit easier to get some kind of web page or even home brew app to change the ISO image from the Wii directly.

 

[Trukkle]

It seems to dump a flatmii.ini wherever you open your ISO from. Something I hope they fix, along with toning down the aggressive anti-cracker protection.

 

[kar10]

A modded Wii is free region?

A modded wii matter if they are PAL or NSTC or any other region games?

 

[jd506]

Do the developers have any plans to incorporate the audio streaming fix into their loading software?
Does manually patching these games with FSTfix work?

 

[Bitbyte]

The FlatMii looks awesome but I've heard that there's a chip in development which can boot games straight off of external HDD's? Is it just vaporware or is it really coming out?

 

[ron555]

I received my FlatMii, installed it (tight fit!) and here's my results:

Most of my games play well. There is some lag in the movies on some games. This is directly connected to my USB2.

MY FLATMII IS COMPLETELY INCOMPATIBILE WITH USB EXTENSION CORDS!!!. Dear GOD almighty, this drove me insane. If I have a USB extension cord or have the FlatMii plugged into a (powered or unpowered) USB hub, it basically fucks my entire USB/Bus system, rendering HD inoperable until I restart the computer. I've confirmed this with 3 different brand USB2 extension cords to no avail.


My orange and red lights are gone after installing the FlatMii. The light either shows green (on) or nothing (completely off). The ISO420 review confirmed this behavior.


Also, these games do not work on my FlatMii (brickblocked only):

BLACK SCREEN
Bleach Versus Crusade [JAP] = black screen
Animal Crossing - City Folk [USA] = black screen
Call of Duty - World At War = black screen
Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3.iso = black screen
Need For Speed - Undercover [USA] - black screen
Marble Saga Kororinpa [USA] = black screen
MadWorld [PAL]

Weird pseudo-English/Japanese character across screen
Captain Rainbow = weird characters across the top part of the creen. Game works fine, but sound seems a little garbled. I think this is part of the game though to "replicate" speech




The only game incompatible with FlatMii's "autoboot" (handy!) feature is Super Smash Bros.




!!!!!!! QUESTIONS FOR FLATMII OWNERS !!!!!!!!!!!

1) Can you guys test the aforementioned games and confirm/deny that they work? The reviews state all games work

2) Lily already said he/she uses his FlatMii with a USB extension cord so I am baffled. Mine simply doesn't work with a USB extension cord.

3) Can you tell me what games do not work with Autoboot w/ the FlatMii?

4) Do you guys experience the disappearing red/orange light as stated above?



I have Wii 3.2U + Starfall + TheHomeBrew Channel (but not loading any of them).

 

[ron555]

Bump. Anyone have any answer to ^^^^

 

[Nyebodnye]

I have a PAL Wii and a FlatMii. All PAL games work, including MadWorld.
Only one I have so far with black screen is NTSC Build Trade Destroy.
I have updates off and region forced to PAL.
I have all lights - red, yellow, green.
I still have DVD drive in the Wii with no ModChip.

 

[3DPiper]

I just got mine installed.. Works great! I'm restoring and scrubbing roms to my hard drive now. This is a just what I need, my 3 kids (and neighbor kids) have destroyed countless DVDs..

However: I can't use mine over a USB2 extender (I have this one: http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=2648 ).. No biggee, I'll just put it by my computer and run longer video cables..

Also: How do you get the "Allow WII Remote ISO Browsing" to work? Does that do what it says it will, allow you to surf the ISO directory and choose an ISO from your Wii without going back to your PC?

-Matthew

 

[Sayargh]

I just got mine yesterday, have to say, the thing rocks. The only thing I could complain about is the 4pin connecter, its quite confusing at first glance, you always put the blue side up for the other cable, but the pins have to be up for this cable, luckily i guessed right first time XD

And to answer the guys questions above albeit late, might as well:

1) "Can you guys test the aforementioned games and confirm/deny that they work? The reviews state all games work"

All games from your region should work, all Pal ones work for me, the ntsc ones are hit and miss- even with regionfrii, something like the gamma backup loader will work with the ntsc ones that don't boot. Its not a problem for me I just been using PAL game images.

2) "Lily already said he/she uses his FlatMii with a USB extension cord so I am baffled. Mine simply doesn't work with a USB extension cord."

Have you though about buying a longer Micro-USB to Usb connector? mine is pretty long, it doesn't need an extention cord in fact.


Skipping 3... don't know the answer.

4) Do you guys experience the disappearing red/orange light as stated above?

I've noticed it, it doesn't seem to hinder much though,


My overall review: Flatmii is great for the things it does right, it isn't 100% perfect but it suits my needs quite adaquetly

 

[Lily]

1) Can you guys test the aforementioned games and confirm/deny that they work? The reviews state all games work

All the games you listed work fine. I'd suggest that you have bad copies/backups of said titles. I don't know if you've softmodded/downgraded/messed with your IOS files in some way--Animal Crossing is one game that needs a particular IOS upgraded to play, because of the Wii Speak peripheral.

2) Lily already said he/she uses his FlatMii with a USB extension cord so I am baffled. Mine simply doesn't work with a USB extension cord.

(She) did in fact use the FlatMii with a USB extension cord. A few different ones of different lengths. I believe I stated in the review that when I first hooked up the FlatMii to a USB port (using an extension cable or not), I had to remove all other USB devices plugged in to the same hub/controller. After the FlatMii sets up for the first time, it doesn't matter, you can have other devices plugged in. In fact, the FlatMii even works fine with 2 USB extension cords daisy chained together.

3) Can you tell me what games do not work with Autoboot w/ the FlatMii?

I don't know if someone has made a list. There aren't many that don't work with it.

QUOTE(ron555 @ Mar 8 2009, 09:27 AM)

4) Do you guys experience the disappearing red/orange light as stated above?

No actually, I didn't experience that. Maybe it's an installation issue--pinched cable, pinched FlatMii board, etc?

 

[Lily]

Do the developers have any plans to incorporate the audio streaming fix into their loading software?
Does manually patching these games with FSTfix work?

They don't appear to have any plans to add the audio streaming fix, unfortunately. ISOs that have been patched appear to work. (1080 snowboarding works when patched, for example.) You'll have to experiment. There aren't many GC games of note that use streaming audio anyway.

 

[Lily]

I just thought that was kind of odd... Hopefully the FlatMii team will have some command line options in their next version so it's a bit easier to get some kind of web page or even home brew app to change the ISO image from the Wii directly.

The FlatMii software was already updated to include this functionality. You still need the FlatMii software open on your PC, but they included a remote ISO selector that you can use from the Wii.

A modded Wii is free region?

A modded wii matter if they are PAL or NSTC or any other region games?

If your wii is modded, it doesn't matter, the FlatMii chip and software work independently of your modchip. The FlatMii software allows you to force the region of game that you're using though, so you're still "region free" using the FlatMii.

The FlatMii looks awesome but I've heard that there's a chip in development which can boot games straight off of external HDD's? Is it just vaporware or is it really coming out?

It was vaporware, published to hurt sales of the FlatMii.

QUOTE(3DPiper @ Mar 27 2009, 03:53 PM)

Also: How do you get the "Allow WII Remote ISO Browsing" to work? Does that do what it says it will, allow you to surf the ISO directory and choose an ISO from your Wii without going back to your PC?

You need to install the FlatMii Remote ISO Selector WAD (included in the download) to your Wii using the Homebrew Channel. Then you check the "Allow Wii Remote ISO Browsing" in the FlatMii software. Then you can remote select ISOs from the Wii.