Other uses rather than gaming

Psd99

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Hi so other than gaming what other uses do your switches have?

I have seen people installing linux on there
But what do you use it for? It would Be interesting to know
 

randy_w

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Emulators: modded switch makes a good portable retro gaming handheld, the build quality and control feels much better than those chinese devices. You can run everything up to SNES/Genesis smoothly, ps1/psp/n64/ds emulation is a hit or miss, as switch isn't very powerful to begin with.

Streaming: paired with skynx and chiaki, you can stream your pc/ps4/ps5 games to switch. There's a bit of lag even on 5g wifi so keep that in mind if you want to play competitive games with it.

Media player: I once used my oled switch to watch tv shows in bed before sleeping, the 7 inch 16:9 screen is much better than modern smartphone screens (in terms of size and aspect ratio). The problem is that switch can't really handle high bitrate video decoding, iirc max it can do is about 1080p h264, any h265 or 10bit video makes it lag like a slideshow. Also iirc the dev of pplay said homebrews can't use tegra x1's hardware video decoder so everything's done on cpu.

Android tablet: If you really want you can use it as an android tablet. Since it's running off sd card things can be a bit laggy and unresponsive when something's accessing storage (like when google play is installing apps, game's loading). It's really not a good experience so I removed it after trying it out for several hours. On the plus side you get better game compatibility with android build of ps1/psp/n64/ds emulators, and you can run some dreamcast/gamecube/wii/ps2 games as well. Also media players can use hardware video decoder in android.

Linux: You can use your switch as an arm64 linux computer, don't know who would find it useful but you can do general computing stuff on it.
 

Psd99

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Thanks that is useful

In your opinion is the switch or the wii u better at emulation? I am a personal fan of the amiga 500

I am yet to fully play around with the amiga emulator on the switch though

Good to know about the slowness of the linux os.
 

randy_w

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I'd say switch since it receives way more attention from devs and has more emulators ported to it. But in terms of games that can run perfectly on both consoles, there aren't too much difference afaik (both can run genesis/snes/gba games smoothly, struggles with some ps1/psp/n64 games).

However, don't forget about virtual consoles on wii u. Afaik wii u can run many ds/n64 games smoothly with virtual console injection. Also wii u is backwards compatible with wii and gamecube.
 

Psd99

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I got a virtual console on the wii u for the switch
It is golden eye that i have a deep love for

The game works ok on there
But not quite managed to get it to work or play on the switch

Is there a central place on this site where all emulators are referenced with tutorials?
 

SylverReZ

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U can play japanese version of games to help learn japanese
Watching anime with English subtitles can also be useful.
Post automatically merged:

In your opinion is the switch or the wii u better at emulation? I am a personal fan of the amiga 500
Switch
 

nWo

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PS1 games are already almost 100 % playable on Switch. Also there has been a good update on N64 ones.

In terms of emulation, Wii U is better at the moment of writing this, but of course, it is not portable. So, even with all the still-upgradeable emulation on Switch, the portability is a big plus. Wii U was my favorite console before Switch, so that tells you something.

I use two homebrews to watch movies on SD card or from USB HDD on docked mode, it is good, but as the fella was saying, on high definition videos the Switch makes kind of a mess for the bitrate, but all in all is a good and quick alternative for watching your videos.

And well the homebrew store is a good place to browse for some minutes, some neat things here and there.
 

Psd99

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Why would you watch movies on the switch out of interest? Is there like some type of app that lets u download latest films
For example?
Post automatically merged:

Interesting points

It does look like the wii u handles emulation much better
I instantly noticed that on the amiga 500 emulator on the switch. Could it be the hardware? A bit unsure
 
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SylverReZ

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nWo

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Why would you watch movies on the switch out of interest? Is there like some type of app that lets u download latest films
For example?
Post automatically merged:

Interesting points

It does look like the wii u handles emulation much better
I instantly noticed that on the amiga 500 emulator on the switch. Could it be the hardware? A bit unsure
In my case, whenever I eat I like to see something. I'm more of a classic shows man. I got Netflix and Amazon video, but sometimes you just want to drop and watch something, and browsing through the library of said platforms is a bit time consuming. I have al my favorite shows on my HDD, so I just like to pop up my switch on the dock, put the HDD, open the homebrew and select one of my favorite shows. Or I put from time to time my favorite movie or show into the SD, and trust me there would be times on portable mode that you are grateful to have something to watch on the console.

That way is easy and fast to me. But to each their own.
 

randy_w

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But what makes you want to watch films on the switch specifically?
For me as I said before I like the size of switch. It's bigger than most smartphone screens and the aspect ratio is 16:9. Also the oled screen is pretty vibrant. It's also smaller than tablets so it's not too uncomfortable holding it in bed.

I cancelled all my subscription services this year since I don't like any new series and their shitty upcoming changes (like adding ads and restricting your account usage iirc), and used the money to add another 8TB of storage to my NAS. Been pirating like a king since. If I want to watch anything, I can add it to torrent queue and stream it right from my NAS later.

I use two homebrews to watch movies on SD card or from USB HDD on docked mode, it is good, but as the fella was saying, on high definition videos the Switch makes kind of a mess for the bitrate, but all in all is a good and quick alternative for watching your videos.
Yeah I also tried to use switch to watch movies/shows on my tv but switch can't handle 4k or h265 encoded videos even in docked mode with overclocking so I gave up. Ended up putting together an HTPC for 4K video playback with a passive cooled gtx 1650 video card. Have to keep my tv offline otherwise it will show ads everywhere. Never gonna buy any samsung product in the future.
 

deathblade200

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In my case, whenever I eat I like to see something. I'm more of a classic shows man. I got Netflix and Amazon video, but sometimes you just want to drop and watch something, and browsing through the library of said platforms is a bit time consuming. I have al my favorite shows on my HDD, so I just like to pop up my switch on the dock, put the HDD, open the homebrew and select one of my favorite shows. Or I put from time to time my favorite movie or show into the SD, and trust me there would be times on portable mode that you are grateful to have something to watch on the console.

That way is easy and fast to me. But to each their own.
such a massive waste of space on switch I just have a android tablet with a huge SD and a case to stand it up for stuff like that. not to mention you don't waste the switch battery on tv shows/movies
Post automatically merged:

Have to keep my tv offline otherwise it will show ads everywhere.
or just use a DNS to block the ad servers
 

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