Homebrew WiiMC-SS - GameCube controller support and more

[HandsomeJack]

Still, dead app.

https://github.com/SuperrSonic/WiiMC-SSLC/commits/master

There are still commits taking place recently.

 

[MeXen]

https://github.com/SuperrSonic/WiiMC-SSLC/commits/master

There are still commits taking place recently.

Is this only for developers? or anyone can leave suggestions or bugs reports?

 

[russianjoint]

Thanks alot for this. I actually use my Wii to watch shows on, from time to time. It's just convenient.
Wanted to give this fork a try but it instatly freezes at launch.
As soon as the UI shows up on screen it completely freezes the Wii.
I have a european Wii mini and am using a USB stick. Original WiiMC works fine, never had this issue there.

 

[HandsomeJack]

Thanks alot for this. I actually use my Wii to watch shows on, from time to time. It's just convenient.
Wanted to give this fork a try but it instatly freezes at launch.
As soon as the UI shows up on screen it completely freezes the Wii.
I have a european Wii mini and am using a USB stick. Original WiiMC works fine, never had this issue there.

Use MKV files.

The maximum resolution a Wii supports at all is 576p. You need to downscale video files using a tool like Handbrake ('Very Fast 576p'). Modern graphics chips have hardware encoding of H.264.

https://handbrake.fr/docs/en/latest/technical/video-vcn.html

https://handbrake.fr/docs/en/latest/technical/video-qsv.html

https://handbrake.fr/docs/en/latest/technical/video-nvenc.html

Once enabled, you'll need to select the hardware encoder from the Video drop-down list. In the first instance, try to use H.264 High Profile.

 

[russianjoint]

Use MKV files.

The maximum resolution a Wii supports at all is 576p. You need to downscale video files using a tool like Handbrake ('Very Fast 576p'). Modern graphics chips have hardware encoding of H.264.


Once enabled, you'll need to select the hardware encoder from the Video drop-down list. In the first instance, try to use H.264 High Profile.

You misunderstood me. The app freezes immediately at launch. This fork of WiiMC (WiiMC-SSLC) immediately freezes, as soon as the UI shows up on screen.

This happens on my european Wii mini, using a USB stick. Original WiiMC works fine, never had this issue there.

 

[HandsomeJack]

You misunderstood me. The app freezes immediately at launch. This fork of WiiMC (WiiMC-SSLC) immediately freezes, as soon as the UI shows up on screen.

This happens on my european Wii mini, using a USB stick. Original WiiMC works fine, never had this issue there.

Possible config file conflict.

 

[MeXen]

Possible config file conflict.

Nah the app is just legit broken man. sorry

 

[Arnold101]

delete

 

[RetroGen]

please put ntfs support again i want to play dvd movie iso from sd/usb and fat32 isn't good for that

The most recent version works on my NTFS drive. Have you tried it?

 

[Arnold101]

The most recent version works on my NTFS drive. Have you tried it?

yeah i tried after posting. good

 

[HandsomeJack]

https://github.com/SuperrSonic/WiiMC-SSLC/blob/master/other/onlinemedia.xml

There is an example for what to put in onlinemeda.xml.

 

[russianjoint]

The most recent version works on my NTFS drive. Have you tried it?

Wait, what? What about the guy saying it's broken? And me, where it just freezes at boot?

Possible config file conflict.

Do you mean it checks for configs in /apps/wiimc/ as well as /apps/wiimc-ss/ and that could be causing an issue?

 

[HandsomeJack]

Wait, what? What about the guy saying it's broken? And me, where it just freezes at boot?

Do you mean it checks for configs in /apps/wiimc/ as well as /apps/wiimc-ss/ and that could be causing an issue?

Yes.

 

[russianjoint]

Yes.

You were right. As soon as I renamed /apps/WiiMC-SS/ to /apps/wiimc/ it worked. Thank you!

It does seem to be a bit unstable and prone to crashing, though.
For example, it doesn't seem to like some of my music's cover art.
Switching back and forth between different videos also seems to make it crash.

That Mexen fellow does seem like an unhelpful troll. The app does work, it's just not very stable.

 

[HandsomeJack]

You were right. As soon as I renamed /apps/WiiMC-SS/ to /apps/wiimc/ it worked. Thank you!

It does seem to be a bit unstable and prone to crashing, though.
For example, it doesn't seem to like some of my music's cover art.
Switching back and forth between different videos also seems to make it crash.

That Mexen fellow does seem like an unhelpful troll. The app does work, it's just not very stable.

Video in MKV container works better than MP4 container. You can swap container format using ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vcodec copy -acodec copy output.mkv

Switching videos does make it crash, yes.

Videos needs to be downscaled to 576p for stability ('Very Fast 576p' in Handbrake, High Profile H.264).

 

[russianjoint]

Video in MKV container works better than MP4 container. You can swap container format using ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vcodec copy -acodec copy output.mkv

Switching videos does make it crash, yes.

Videos needs to be downscaled to 576p for stability ('Very Fast 576p' in Handbrake, High Profile H.264).

Thanks!
I usually use MKVToolnix for getting things to MKV and FFmpeg for converting stuff.

I could be wrong, but I'm under the impression WiiMC/WiiMC-SS doesn't like h264. Wether it's 576p or 480p. Frame drops are common and noticeable.
Xvid is a lot smoother, and can look just fine with a good codec (libxvid).

 

[HandsomeJack]

Thanks!
I usually use MKVToolnix for getting things to MKV and FFmpeg for converting stuff.

I could be wrong, but I'm under the impression WiiMC/WiiMC-SS doesn't like h264. Wether it's 576p or 480p. Frame drops are common and noticeable.
Xvid is a lot smoother, and can look just fine with a good codec (libxvid).

I'm running it overclocked on a Wii U, so there's never any frame drops.

OK, Xvid might be better.

Post automatically merged: Dec 7, 2023

Thanks!
I usually use MKVToolnix for getting things to MKV and FFmpeg for converting stuff.

I could be wrong, but I'm under the impression WiiMC/WiiMC-SS doesn't like h264. Wether it's 576p or 480p. Frame drops are common and noticeable.
Xvid is a lot smoother, and can look just fine with a good codec (libxvid).

PS: Audio codec might also influence performance: AAC vs MP3.

 

[MeXen]

That Mexen fellow does seem like an unhelpful troll. The app does work, it's just not very stable.

Buddie are your standards that low?, if it crashes constantly due to not being very stable, then it doesnt work.

 

[russianjoint]

Buddie are your standards that low?, if it crashes constantly due to not being very stable, then it doesnt work.

Sorry for calling you a troll. I can see that english isn't your first language, so it is forgiveable that you are loose with your definitions.

For future reference: "unstable" and "doesn't work/is broken" are not the same thing.

 

[HandsomeJack]

Sorry for calling you a troll. I can see that english isn't your first language, so it is forgiveable that you are loose with your definitions.

For future reference: "unstable" and "doesn't work/is broken" are not the same thing.

I suspect if this app was updated to the most recent version of the underlying PPC Linux libraries it's using and compiling with a more up-to-date toolchain, it would work better (the switching files thing is likely a memory leak, deallocation not taking place in C / C++).

Thing is, given the CPU was a budget CPU in 2006, using this app at all is going to be about figuring out a target format for 576p which is stable. I suspect that's figuring out Xvid downscaling settings and using MP3 rather than AAC for audio. AAC takes more CPU to decode and is a more complex audio codec. There's likely a sweet spot for MP3 which uses little CPU, probably MP3 VBR.

Once those optimal parameters are figured out, it would like be more stable to use. The best way to document this would be as an example ffmpeg command, something like:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 output.avi -vcodec xvid -qscale:v 4 -c:a libmp3lame -vf scale=960:576

In principle, these optimal settings should only need to be figured out once. I also suspect the defaults in ffmpeg are more likely to be in the sweet spot for this app.

The fact that it's even possible to get a Wii playing 576p video at all without dropping frames is pretty good given it's a feature Nintendo never wanted.

Post automatically merged: Dec 9, 2023

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/h264-vs-divx-xvid.1746319/

I've been trying to find anyone who did objective testing on H.264 vs Xvid on low end CPUs and found:

"laptop test - as far as cpu usage goes, the x264 version used approximately 30-50% utilization on a p-m 725 series 1.6GHz Dothan core that according to cpu-z 1.31 clocked itself down to 600MHz while the xvid version used approx 4-15% cpu utilization, again with cpu-z reporting 600MHz for the p-m 1.6GHz Dothan core cpu."

This would explain why 576p encoded with Xvid is more stable than H.264 in this app.