Wii for Mii
May 15, 2007 by Ross McKillop
Talking about a Wii is a bit out of context for Switching to Mac but in the end I was able to share my photos, music and video from my Mac to the Wii with a little help from Parallels, Boot Camp and Orb.
I’ve been wanting a Wii for a while but tracking one down isn’t all that easy, luckily my day job happens to be visiting Electronic Retail Stores so it was only a matter of time till I came across a store that actual had a Wii.
So why the Wii and not the Xbox 360 or PS3? I already have an older Xbox and to be honest I really don’t use it much for gaming anymore, I guess the classic game controller style gaming has lost some of it’s appeal for me and on top of that I use my Xbox now mainly for playing back my DivX and Xvid flies via XBMC.
Sure the PS3 and Xbox 360 have fantastic graphics. Other than that it’s the same old same old but just with more realistic gore. On the other hand the Wii with its unique motion sensitive controls and interactive screen really caught my eye and when I got the chance to play with it at a friends I knew this was the game console for me and my family. Even my young daughter could use this with a bit of practice.
The Wii is the kind of game system that anyone can just pick up and use without having to learn a bunch of complex button pushing. Everything is very natural and it’s almost as fun to watch someone play as it is to play it yourself!
Another really cool component to the Wii is its multi-Channel design, there are Channels for News, Weather, Player Setups, Internet browsing, Gaming and Shopping. What interested me the most about the Channel design is the fact that adding new Channels is very easy, it’s basically done via the Wii Shop Channel. For example, when I got the Wii it didn’t have the Opera Internet Browser installed so I had to go to the Shop Channel and download it (it’s a free download). As Nintendo comes out with new Channels you have the option to download the ones that you like. Sure some future Channels may actually cost you some money but they may be worth it.
Here’s a thought… What if Nintendo added a Channel that gave you Apple TV like abilities? It would be so cool to not only have a great gaming console but stream your music, pictures and video to your Wii. Personally I think this is a natural progression for the Wii and would be surprised if Nintendo did not come out with an Apple TV type of player at some point. Nintendo has time on their side, they can’t make enough Wii’s as it is, the last thing they want to do right now is have another buying market trying to get a Wii for Media Center streaming too!
Even though there isn’t an official Apple TV like Channel yet, there is a way to turn your Wii into something that simulates an Apple TV like experience. It’s called Orb. Orb allows you to stream content from a Windows PC to any web-enabled media player with streaming capabilities and since the Wii has an Opera Web browser, Orb works with the Wii too. I don’t want to focus too much on this point but did want to mention it as a possibility.
Here is what I have discovered so far using Orb with my Mac to Wii setup for Multimedia purposes:
You need to use Parallels or Boot Camp with the Orb application as it is your link to the multimedia on your computer and only works with a PC. When using Parallels I was able to view pictures but because Parallels sits behind a type of software firewall I was not able to stream my video due to some port access issues. To stream my video I had to boot into Windows with Boot Camp but then was not able to access my actual Mac directory because the Macs HFS formatted partition could not be seen by Windows from Boot Camp. Most of my DivX shows are on an NDAS Network Drive so I was able to access my movies from the PC for sharing with Orb. Opera on the Wii uses Flash for multimedia playback but leaves a little to be desired in the quality category when streaming video. I wasn’t complaining; pictures, videos and music on my Wii for Free! And all without an official Nintendo solution!
I can hardly wait to see what Channels Nintendo may come out with for the Wii in the future. I think this is only the beginning of what is to come. Maybe Wii TV is next? Maybe I’ll hold out a little before getting the Apple TV.
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