Topic: MP3 Playback on Wii

[TheYoungerPlumber]

Nintendo reveals that Wii has native support for MP3 playback in Nintendo's latest translated entry of "Iwata Asks."

Nintendo continues to reveal delicious nuggets of Wii information in its long-running Q&A series with Iwata and his underlings.  In the latest addition Iwata talks with Kouichi Kawamoto, most recognized for directing Brain Age for Nintendo DS.    

In the interview, Kawamoto explains the history and motivation behind his Photo Channel.  While Iwata and Kawamoto mentions entertaining features such as drawing graffiti, most surprising is its support for audio playback: when viewing a slideshow, MP3s stored on the SD card will play in the background.  Kawamoto also mentions video playback, though it seems to be fairly limited.    

While Nintendo's built-in MP3 playback looks to be confined to the Photo channel for now, game developers will likely be able to offer similar MP3 playback in their own software, not unlike the custom soundtrack feature Microsoft offers.  Wii's SD card slot opens many new possibilities—MP3s and digital images could just be the beginning.    

If you missed earlier episodes of "Iwata Asks," be sure to read up!

[Requiem]

That's straight baller status.

[IceCold]

If the video playback supports MPEG-4, I'll be in heaven!

EDIT:

Quote
I thought from the outset that we would have to make it possible to watch videos. Almost all digital cameras now can record videos, so we needed to accommodate that. Another major motivation was that I wanted to watch clips of my own children babbling on Wii! (laughs) At present, we plan to make the Channel compatible with the MotionJPEG format.

Hmm.. it seems less likely now, but hopefully it's added.

[KDR_11k]

They can afford MP3 buit not DVD playback?

[Shift Key]

For each console sold which has DVD playback capabilities, the manufacturer has to pay the DVD Consortium a licensing fee ($20 or so, correct me if I'm wrong).

There is no such requirement attached to the MP3 format that I am aware of. It is a software algorithm used to convert digital data into analog sound information.

[capamerica]

It doesn't cost anything to do MP3 playback, Its MP3 encodeing that requires a fee.
I'm really hoping that developers alow custom soundtracks in games, Its one of the features I really like on the Xbox.

I also hope that the Movie playback is open to a lot of formats like Divx. Moive File playback is 10000x better then DVD playback.

[Ceric]

Yeah file playback be more interesting to me then DVD.  I already have DVD players.  I could really use a player that would play files on my TV.  Though I think for a commercial use Divx, WMV, H.264(I think thats right) has a fee associated with it.  I'm sure if Nintendo doesn't provide a channel we could use some third party will.

[BiLdItUp1]

Third parties can supply channels? boy have I been out of the loop...

[Galford]

MP3 playback is good,  but why MotionJPEG for movie playback?  
Is that going to be Nintendo's official codec for movies on the Wii?

With all this non gaming stuff added to the Wii, why doesn't Nintendo just add a keyboard
and DVD playback to make Wii the ultimate all-in-one unit?

[Shift Key]

I'm hanging out for the ability to send music to the Wii using WiFi and turning it into my personal jukebox. But I expect to have to get a SD reader instead. And yes, custom soundtracks would be awesome.

[JonLeung]

Seems like Nintendo is relying more and more on others' technologies this time around.  Not that it's a bad thing necessarily.

Besides the IBM and/or ATi chips or whoever, you've got a variant of DVDs for media, you've got a slot for SD cards, which apparently can have .JPGs, now .MP3s, probably a couple supported video formats, a couple USB slots, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi which is routed through a PC...(oh, and also a general Apple-like aesthetic, for hardware and for its OS).  And I'm probably missing something.

EDIT: Yeah, I forgot the Opera browser.

Anyway, the .MP3 support is kinda cool, if somewhat unexpected.  I also would've thought DVD support would've been easier, but apparently not.  

[Arbok]

Quote
Originally posted by: JonLeung
Anyway, the .MP3 support is kinda cool, if somewhat unexpected.  I also would've thought DVD support would've been easier, but apparently not.

Shift Key had it exactly right. It has nothing to do with how easy it is to develop DVD support, but more to do with if its really worth the extra licensing fee to add it. That whole licensing fee is also the very reason why Sony and Toshiba are ready to kill each other for the "next generation" of the movie format: they both want those fees headed their way.

Anyway, this is great news. I don't think I would ever use it, but it's always nice to have another feature that third parties could use if they wanted to.

[Acefondu]

Hey, have you guys heard that the Wii malfunctions in sunlight? Gamepro posted an article about it. Wondering what you think.

[Pittbboi]

With all these non gaming things Wii will be able to do, you have to wonder why they chose to stick with such a small storage medium. I already see that flash memory being stretched to the max...

[JonLeung]

Not necessarily.  I mean, sure, the onboard flash memory could have more capacity, but the photos, music, and videos will be on the SD cards.

[Pittbboi]

Yeah, I don't see it being a major problem, just annoying that it's becoming more and more apparent that I'm going to need to purchase more than one SD card.

Or I could get a card reader, and store stuff on my computer...but then that'll just be a different annoyance resulting with me having to constantly go back an forth between my computer and Wii....

[AnyoneEB]

MP3 is patented, and you can be sure that Nintendo will be paying license fees for every Wii ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3#Licensing_and_patent_issues ). Fraunhofer does not tend to go after software decoders, but they do collect fees on hardware like the iPod.

[KDR_11k]

Acefondu: Most likely because sunlight causes a lot of IR noise that makes it impossible for the Wii controller to spot the IR tags on the marker bar so you should avoid direct sunlight shining on the bar.

[Shift Key]

Guess what, Nintendo are licensed to do this according to Fraunhofer. At 75 cents per unit I'm sure that they won't mind putting a hardware decoder in there to let people play their MP3 files.

I can't be bothered finding the DVD Forum's fees, because their site is a lot more complicated to search for

Quote
With all these non gaming things Wii will be able to do, you have to wonder why they chose to stick with such a small storage medium. I already see that flash memory being stretched to the max...

There's a project going to get GNU/Linux running on the Wii. After that it could be a straightforward process of plugging in an external hard drive and loading up an OS with its own MP3 player and just about any other software. I'd love to plug my wireless keyboard and mouse into a Wii and piechat over the Wifi connection. Sounds like there's a lot of promise with the homebrew software community and I can't wait for them to get their hands on some units.