Advice - using Wii as media player

[mal_k100]

Hi all,
I was planning to buy a small windows based PC to operate as a media player to replace a freecom one I use at the moment but decided to get a Wii for Christmas. It is off eBay and has a 'mod' but the seller doesn't know what sort of mod it is.
What I would like to do is the following:
1. Connect to my wired LAN. My ISP uses PP0E and I have read that the USB to network adapters might not work unless PP0A. I can't see why this should be as the Wii is connected internally to the ADSL router and shouldn't need to know how the ADSL connection is maded surely?
2. Access a linux box to play music and videos stored on the connected hard drive , across the network (wired if possible). I have a fixed IP for the unix bod and my drives are HDD_1_1_1 etc. which can be seen easily by my current media player.
3. When I go on holiday I like to take my media player with me, it has an internal hard drive nd connect to TVs where I stay. I know that some people have connected a USB drive but what do I need to do ? I already have a USB drive that I have used to connect to my PC so I can obviously plug it in but I think I may need some thing else as the Wii doesn't see the drive (if I am correct?).
4. Finally, as I am not sure what the 'mod' is, I'd like to try and identify it. Presumably a screwdriver would help but want to make sure that it is a fairly simple exercise before I start undoing things (I am able to assemble and upgrade my PC so I am at that level)
I'd appreciate some advice from anyone who has actually accomplished the above if possible.
Oh - if PP0E is OK, what should I avoid if there are some that are only PP0A ?

Cheers

 

[mal_k100]

For info - most issues solved
1. Connect to my wired LAN. My ISP uses PP0E and I have read that the USB to network adapters might not work unless PP0A. I can't see why this should be as the Wii is connected internally to the ADSL router and shouldn't need to know how the ADSL connection is maded surely?
---not tried yet as using wireless
2. Access a linux box to play music and videos stored on the connected hard drive , across the network (wired if possible). I have a fixed IP for the unix bod and my drives are HDD_1_1_1 etc. which can be seen easily by my current media player.
---all OK using SMB shares on Wii
3. When I go on holiday I like to take my media player with me, it has an internal hard drive nd connect to TVs where I stay. I know that some people have connected a USB drive but what do I need to do ? I already have a USB drive that I have used to connect to my PC so I can obviously plug it in but I think I may need some thing else as the Wii doesn't see the drive (if I am correct?).
---all OK using USB hard drive with 2 partitions
4. Finally, as I am not sure what the 'mod' is, I'd like to try and identify it. Presumably a screwdriver would help but want to make sure that it is a fairly simple exercise before I start undoing things (I am able to assemble and upgrade my PC so I am at that level)
I'd appreciate some advice from anyone who has actually accomplished the above if possible.
--- I just softmodded and all works so I am ignoring whatever the hard mod is even if it is there !

 

[UnMem]

Soz i wish i could help but i can't

 

[DBloke]

Your best bet for a media player is not a Wii as its very limited as to what it can do (no dvds with out a hack, limited use of internet channel, no saved videos, no downloading vids)

Your best bet is a laptop (you mentioned portability)
These Netbooks are good for a portable media centre (as long as your TV has a VGA input) but I recommend you go a bit up market and get something like this (try to get one without Vista thought as its nasty)

For watching vids I recommend VLC media player
For music Winamp (VLC dose this but its not the best)
For internet Google Chrome wont bog your system down
I dont recommend a external hard drive as a means to carry data round as there big and might break a USB flash drive is a safer bet

Soz i wish i could help but i can't

Well dont spam up the place then with your unnecessary posts

 

[UnMem]

VLC is nasty

 

[mal_k100]

Wel I am finding the Wii ideal at the moment. I have two dedicated media players and the Wii is better to take away as it plays games as well !

Cheers to all

 

[DBloke]

Wel I am finding the Wii ideal at the moment. I have two dedicated media players and the Wii is better to take away as it plays games as well !

Cheers to all

As dose a decent laptop.
(Ok nothing recent unless you get a really high end gaming one)

But its your decision.

 

[UnMem]

a good gaming laptop is about £700

 

[mal_k100]

The reason I went for a Wii is that I wanted the balance board to use for ski and board practice as well as the wiimote for game playing. I already have a laptop with two XBox 360 wireless controllers but couldn't find anything like the wiimote and nanchuck.
If I go for a portable media player I'd definatley go for the ASROCK Ion 330 as it is good enough for anything I want. I used to take my laptop away on holiday and still do if I drive anywhere.

 

[UnMem]

just get an ipod

 

[mal_k100]

I didn't know that ipods are able to use hard drives or are you just trying to be funny ?
I already have a phone that takes 16GB cards and can connect to a TV via SCART and plays games but it is no good as I would need to spend ages converting and would need even more SD cards.

 

[DBloke]

I didn't know that ipods are able to use hard drives or are you just trying to be funny ?
I already have a phone that takes 16GB cards and can connect to a TV via SCART and plays games but it is no good as I would need to spend ages converting and would need even more SD cards.

Nar hes just trying to up his post count
In reality he knows not what hes talking about

One thing I will say to you about the Wii is google "Wii homebrew" there's a few apps that will be handy if your looking to turn it more into a media player, but we cant talk about them on this forum (legality issues)

 

[mal_k100]

Thanks DP.
I have already got it running with some applications. As I am trying to use an external hard drive to store my music and Videos it shouldn't be a problem but I understand where you are coming from.
I am in the process of trying FTP. It can see the SD card but, as yet, not the USB drive. I guess all I am doing is being lazy as I have stuff stored on a Linux server and I want to copy across without taking my Wii USB drive upstairs.
Cheers anyway (and I do find it strange why people post rather odd messages that are no help and mean nothing as they obviously seem to read the thread title and nothing else - not you of course !!!)

 

[rev1]

mal k, How are you using the Wii for media player? I am thinking of getting a NAS unit and thinking of using the Wii to play my mp3's. Advice/help will be appreciated.

 

[mal_k100]

Hi rev1
My setup:
Wii with USB hard drive. 2 partitions 1st is WBFS 2nd FAT32
NSLU2 (aka SLUG) with 4 bay usb drive
GigaNAS server with 2 internal drives (I only use 1 at the moment).
XP laptop

Wii setup:
1st partition must be unformatted in Windows and formatted with WBFS
2nd partition can be NTFS (I have tried it) but I now use FAT32 as FTPii can only see the partition as FAT32 not NTFS.
I can run Filezilla on my laptop and with FTPii running on the Wii, I can copy files (slowly) to the FAT32 partition.
The Wii can be setup using SMB links to the linus servers (only 5 though), using the SMB configuration files - easy to do it is well dcumented here.

I have not been able to map drives on Wii from XP.

End result:
Play MP3 and .avi on USB hard drive (FAT32 partition or NTFS if you don't need FTP) using Mplayer CE
Play MP3 and .avi on NAS servers across a wireless network using Mplayer CE.
Hope this helps. All the setup stuff is doumented. I doubt the NAS are relevant, my guess is that anything running Linux (or a flavour) will work.
Theoretically I guess you wouldn't need a USB drive directly attached to the Wii, you could just stream across your network. I do it so I can take the Wii and USB drive on holidays.
Go for it !