Nintendo Wii Fanboy

At least on all currently new Mac versions of iTunes, the default is AAC out of the box for ripping CDs. Plus its easy to convert using iTunes from mp3 to AAC.

Reply

whatever. Who honestly uses a Wii as a music player. I am much more happy to have the photo channel be more useful for... you know, photos.

They should institute a way to take screenshots in the Virtual Console, also. That would be awesome, for high score bragging and whatnot.

Reply

Agreed, removing functionality seems silly. I guess there's not enough memory in there to support both.

I use the Photo channel regularly. My camera uses SD cards. It is very nice to take a bunch of pics, pop the card into the Wii, and show the pics (and video) to the grandparents or whoever. Very handy.

Reply

Why get rid of a format? Why not just add AAC as a supported file type instead of replacing MP3? Nintendo hasn't been doing many smart things recently.

Reply

Yeah, screen shots would be great, otherwise, the channel is virtually useless. Personally, I've never used it for music. Thats why I have 5.1 surround in the living room with cd, lp, and tape players attached.

Love the picture of Captain Picard, btw.

Reply

As long as I can still use MP3s in games...like...Excitetruck.

Reply

I moved the Photo Channel all the way over to the left so I don't have to see it. I have never used it.

Reply

Picture of the year.


I've only ever used the photo channel channel once and I cared little for it then: so, no big loss.

Reply

I use the photo channel ALL the time. The support for SD camera cards is phenomenal and the video playback works like a charm. Almost eliminates the need for me to buy photo albums.

Reply

I, like many others here, have rarely used the Photo Channel anyway. If they allowed support for USB Flash/Hard drives (not just for VC games), then it might see a little bit more use. As it stands now, there's no reason.

-racecar
http://everybodyvotes.blogspot.com

Reply

LOL@ Picard

Typical Nintendo. Doing somethign that neat and then at the same time doing something that doesn't make any sense.

An easy way to get MP3s to AAC/MP4 files is to "acquire" Xilisoft.

Reply

Where did I leave "Facepalm.png"?

This is Nintendo we're talking about. They're too cheap to pitch in for a dvd license per Wii...

Reply

Two things here. iTunes plus has recently changed to 99 cents per song, so there is no more increase in price. Second, @ 4, Doesn't Nintendo have to pay someone to use either format? If that's trule, then it would make sense that Nintendo only pays once. Otherwise, maybe it just has to do with resources and memory. You save more if you only use one, and if I remember correctly the Wii doesn't have that much to go around.

Reply

All of my music is in unprotected AAC format. This is a great thing for me.

Reply

Actually, I think the license fees for MP4/AAC are significantly less than MP3, higher quality aside. And yeah, keep in mind that unprotected iTunes files are now no more expensive than normal files.

Reply

Also if you've downloaded the protected iTunes songs, you could always burn the songs to cd and re rip them back into an unprotected aac file. And if you're really computer savvy, you could just burn a disc image, mount the image, and rip the songs without even using a blank cd!

Reply

Re-ripping burned songs from the itunes store from a CD drastically lowers the sound quality. This is because each time an audio file is compressed (using AAC or MP3 or whatever) data is lost. For the first compression, this is fine because most people cant hear the difference, but if you compress them again (say by burning compresed music onto CD then ripping it again) data is lost again, and this time you WILL notice it.

Back on topic: Consider how many millions of people own itunes. Nearly all of them will be ripping music from CDs (a recent survey showed that most people own about 4 or 5 itunes store songs at most so they must be ripping). iTunes default ripping format is AAC, and most people won't be bothered to change that. So really in terms of appealing to a large consumer base, this isnt a bad move. MP3 is really outdated in compression terms now anyway. AAC takes up less file size for higher quality songs. Much better.

Reply

MP3 is by far the more universal format David. Still, this is kind of symbolic. Nintendo has been becoming more and more like Apple every year. Preventing us from making our own format decisions is a 'feature'. Lucky us.

Reply

I wonder if it would be possible to remove the photo channel altogether?

Reply

This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Why the hell would they be concerned that much about sound quality? What happened to their stance on simple fun over graphics/sound/etc?

Aside from the fact that the difference in quality is barely (if at all) discernible coming out of your TV speakers. Do they assume all Wii owners are also Mac/iPod lovers as well since it matches their white scheme? MP3's are anywhere and everywhere... where the fuck am I gonna get AAC's unless I want to re-buy my songs on a format that won't work with 90% of music players? They could have just switched to a LAME decoder if they wanted quality and hope that users would only use 256kbps MP3's but still support slower bit rates. If they remove MP3 support from games I'll be really pissed, otherwise it really doesn't matter since the Photo channel is fairly useless without a HDD.

Reply

It's a silly move by Nintendo, but it's a pretty lame channel anyway.

Also, non-DRM iTunes songs ARE NOT more expensive.


The wild-theorist in me says that this is a start of a partnership with Apple, and we'll soon see the iTunes channel ;)

Reply

www.erightsoft.com
go through all the large text screen and you will find a fantastic freeware converting programme which will solve this issue and also do so much more
its called Super(c) has regular updates and takes a huge number of file formats.

Reply

Sure, going exclusive with AAC format is a pain, but there are several solutions. First, just re-encode whatever you want to use to AAC using iTunes, it's that simple. Also, iTunes plus tracks now cost $.99, just like every other song.

Reply

After 5 minutes of search I got a converter that converts MP3s to AAC files. No big deal to me.

Reply

"Where did I leave "Facepalm.png"?"

In the Photo Channel, apparently.

Reply

I've used the Photo Channel several times. It's a great way to show off pictures, such as recent vacation photos, to family and friends on a big screen. My Grandfather was really impressed with the simplicity and ease of use of simply inserting the SD card and watching the slideshow.

It's a lot easier than the old method of having to hook up my laptop to the TV.

I am disappointed though with the drop of MP3 support - all my music files are in MP3 format.

Reply

Maybe MPEG-4 support will come as well. That would be good. The only problem would be I would encounter a lot more competition in the video converter market (look up Motion JWii).

Reply

Pookieman has it exactly right

Nintendo: Doing things that are both cool and nonsensical since 1981

Reply

Ugh. This post is so bad. So many inaccuracies and insinuations. AAC is better than MP3. MP3 is more proprietary than AAC (believe it or not). iTunes rips CDs by default to AAC. iTunes+ no longer cost extra. Can somebody please man-up and fix this post to reflect these facts?

And finally: what POS music player are people using that *doesn't* support AAC at this point: iPod: iPhone, PS3, PSP, Zune, etc... they all support AAC.

Sure if you got a bunch of MP3s this is a pain but we NEED to drop MP3 as a whole so we need to start somewhere.

Reply

Perhaps there's a licensing issue at the heart of this -- it would be nice if they would say so, if it is, instead of leaving us to only speculate at the cause. (Of course, I'd rather see them use the freely available OGG format, but hey...)

Reply

Maybe this is a slip on Nintendo's part. Maybe Apple will release an officially supported iTunes channel for the Wii? I can dream can't I?

Reply

Forget jerkface MP3s and AACs.. Nintendo should be pushing OGGs.

Reply

If you "convert" MP3 to AAC using anything you will end up with crap.

Lossy format to lossy format = TERRIBLE AUDIO

But then many people are happy with 128kps audio as well so they probably wouldn't notice the difference.

Anyhow while both would have been nice I have to admit I left MP3 for AAC years ago.

Would be interesting if this is a foreshadowing of an iTunes Channel or even a program from Apple and Nintendo which allows you stream your collection to the Wii.

Reply