grandjedi6
Master of the Google Search
This better not be a forced update
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Wii Photo Channel Downgrade Coming in December
- Thread starter laserbeam
- Start date
Nintendo in shock costcutting measures? $99 Wii this December confirmed! 
This is a ridiculous move in isolation, and I strongly doubt there's some brilliant reason* for it behind the scenes, too.
That said, I didn't know I could play MP3s on the photo channel until this thread...
*iPods as officially supported wii hard drives.
This is a ridiculous move in isolation, and I strongly doubt there's some brilliant reason* for it behind the scenes, too.
That said, I didn't know I could play MP3s on the photo channel until this thread...
*iPods as officially supported wii hard drives.
CrushDance
Banned
Excuse me!?scola said:
Nintendo isn't going to drop the price of the Wii ever unless it starts to dip in sales. Then they'll magically be able to finally produce different colour Wii's and so forth. I mean yeah this is a business we're talking about, but I love Nintendo for their quality.
Cutting corners is dangerous. The new DS's left a bad taste in my mouth.
JoshuaJSlone
Member
Not that I know of, but that's pretty irrelevant to this. The Photo Channel update isn't going to sneak onto discs and prevent them from doing whatever they want with MP3s.Morts said:
Though it could be a pain in the ass if, say, Excite Truck and Excite Truck 2 couldn't share the same files because they didn't support MP3 in a sequel.
Barkley's Justice
Member
why IN THE WORLD would you replace mp3s? is this some political licensing shit? or just another move for nintendo to sweat apple even more. man, fuck this.
Not many people use the Photo Channel, let alone play music in it (you can?).
BUT
If removal of mp3 functionality is because they don't want to pay license fees, then wouldn't that mean that other aspects of the Wii would also remove mp3 support? Would this affect games which support custom soundtracks (Excite Truck, Endless Ocean)?
I mean, not that it would be difficult to convert your mp3s to whatever format, but still.
Edit: This is where some gaming journalist should bug Nintendo about it.
BUT
If removal of mp3 functionality is because they don't want to pay license fees, then wouldn't that mean that other aspects of the Wii would also remove mp3 support? Would this affect games which support custom soundtracks (Excite Truck, Endless Ocean)?
I mean, not that it would be difficult to convert your mp3s to whatever format, but still.
Edit: This is where some gaming journalist should bug Nintendo about it.
edwardslane
Member
that's pretty cool for sure. i like how you can personalise your dashboard on the xbox360.
while this doesn't seem as advanced i welcome anything that adds to the experience.
while this doesn't seem as advanced i welcome anything that adds to the experience.
How is this hard to understand? Mp3 playback is a well documented format. This is no different than removing/adding a jpeg, png or mpeg decoder from something.Tempy said:
Why would a seperate program, the Photo Channel in this case, have any affect on retail titles? They're not hardware dependent and that's not getting removed.
This is PURELY licensing for a SINGLE title. You purchase a license to decode it for every program you publish. Just like getting other licenses out of the way. Then once you have the license, you are free to decode it however you fucking like.
How hard is this to understand? I don't see why everyone thinks the Wii is suddenly going to be allergic to mp3s. ONE program loses it because Nintendo is cheap. It's not like they deactivate a NONEXISTENT api which plays mp3s. And even IF they did, they could use one of a million other ones out there to play it back through their a 3rd party api, like FMOD.
Azure Dream
Member
Morts said:
Endless Ocean/Forever Blue.
Excite Truck discs already out there will most likely continue to support MP3s after this update, but it's quite possible that future printings of the game will switch to requiring this format instead. (Or maybe not include the custom soundtrack fea- oh, that's too horrible to even think of...)
They've already modified Wii Sports in the more recent consoles to feature the Wii Remote Bumper on all the pictures, and a new warning for it, after all.
koam said:
Yes. I understand that. I'm in disbelief, too. Look on page 1. What I'm more shocked at is how little people understand about what is actually happening.
People are thinking that suddenly mp3s won't work on the Wii, which is retarded. Nintendo couldn't stop that IF THEY WANTED TO. They have NO CONTROL over what audio formats people use. Excite Truck used their own mp3s playback. It's one of the MOST TRIVIAL aspects of programming to add mp3 audio support. Hell, I did it in my last project I worked on.
CrushDance
Banned
Read the paragraph again.:loledwardslane said:
It was barely used to begin with. I can understand dropping it from the photo channel, as that is a cost cutting measure.
Hell, the existence of the license stops them from implementing it at all, far before the Photo channel and far after. If they would have actually cared about audio support, adding ogg support would be trivial and show at least that they could care enough to do it.
Excite Truck is an anomaly and should not be treated as a norm.
And honestly, as far as these programs are concerned anyway, it all looks the same to them. They just see the decoded wav. The APIs handle all the file issues for them. FMOD is what is powering Guitar Hero 3, Metriod Prime 3 and a lot of other Wii titles. Why don't you ask Retro why Metriod Prime 3 has no mp3 support. The engine's already in there.
Hell, the existence of the license stops them from implementing it at all, far before the Photo channel and far after. If they would have actually cared about audio support, adding ogg support would be trivial and show at least that they could care enough to do it.
Excite Truck is an anomaly and should not be treated as a norm.
And honestly, as far as these programs are concerned anyway, it all looks the same to them. They just see the decoded wav. The APIs handle all the file issues for them. FMOD is what is powering Guitar Hero 3, Metriod Prime 3 and a lot of other Wii titles. Why don't you ask Retro why Metriod Prime 3 has no mp3 support. The engine's already in there.
JoshuaJSlone
Member
Doesn't AAC require a license, too? As long as they're ditching MP3 I'm surprised they didn't go with something completely free. Vorbis or something.
Perhaps I haven't been clear.
If Nintendo are too cheap to license to pay for the MP3 license for the Photo Channel, why would they suddenly feel more generous and willing to pay for the MP3 license for any of the software (that might take user mp3s and play it) they're developing/publishing?
Of course games have a better profit margin than "free" channels (you still paid for the console though), but hey, 75 cents is 75 cents.
If Nintendo are too cheap to license to pay for the MP3 license for the Photo Channel, why would they suddenly feel more generous and willing to pay for the MP3 license for any of the software (that might take user mp3s and play it) they're developing/publishing?
Of course games have a better profit margin than "free" channels (you still paid for the console though), but hey, 75 cents is 75 cents.
I see 2 reasons for this that are perfectly logical:
1) No mp3 playback means Nintendo doesn't have to pay mp3 licensing fees
2) The majority of casual users are the type who buy their digital music from iTunes and Nintendo wants to make playing music on the Wii as user-friendly as possible for them
1) No mp3 playback means Nintendo doesn't have to pay mp3 licensing fees
2) The majority of casual users are the type who buy their digital music from iTunes and Nintendo wants to make playing music on the Wii as user-friendly as possible for them
Visualante
Member
Channels are stupid.
We don't know for sure exactly what types of AAC files will be supported yet. But I'm willing to bet protected iTunes files will be fine and there will be an update for the filenames issue. I think they're trying to make things simpler, not more complicated, or they'd just drop music support altogether.
TheGreatDave
Banned
Visualante said:
WRONG.
Nightbringer
Don´t hit me for my bad english plase
From a technical point of view AAC is better than MP3 and both have the same level of standarization since both of them come from MPEG Audio.
In other words, under the same bitrate AAC gives better sound quality than MP3. I can´t understand how people is attached to the MP3 format, is something that goes beyond me.
In other words, under the same bitrate AAC gives better sound quality than MP3. I can´t understand how people is attached to the MP3 format, is something that goes beyond me.
Visualante said:
That was a mindlessly glib response. Did you care to expound upon it, or should we just sit here and assume you mean that everything on the Wii is stupid, given Nintendo's interface uses the "Channel" nomenclature for all programs run from the main menu?
tetrisgrammaton
Member
Nightbringer said:
thats only true at lower bitrates. go above 128 and you can tell a considerable difference
JonathanEx
Member
REMOVING functionality? What the fuck?
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
You know...
Given that you can add DRM protection to AAC files but not to MP3s... maybe Nintendo are planning on selling soundtracks as DLC and don't want you transferring them off of your Wii.
I can see classic Nintendo tune soundpacks for SSB as DLC for example.
Given that you can add DRM protection to AAC files but not to MP3s... maybe Nintendo are planning on selling soundtracks as DLC and don't want you transferring them off of your Wii.
I can see classic Nintendo tune soundpacks for SSB as DLC for example.