Wii Media Center - Music Streaming Solutions
This post will give you an overview of the many music and systems available through the Wii Web Browser.
So you may have heard about BrowseAmp which will allow you to browse and control Winamp from a wii compatible webpage. Well there is one step up from that called AjaxAMP
You will also be happy to know that the latest version of Winamp has streaming services built right in. Ben has written an article on how to use Winamp Streaming Services on the Wii
As discussed in a previous post. Orb Streaming Audio definitely works, some people have reported problems with certain video files. Likely that the problem is the Wii can not handle a large amount of data. The WiiCR needs to split video files into pieces and then generate a playlist to work around the problem.
If you are still having problems with ORB, you can also try this tip from one of our readers, David:
ORB streaming problems can be fixed by deleting a registry key. Here are the steps: - run regedit.exe - find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Orb Networks/Orb/OrbStreamer - File | Export (make a backup of this reg folder) - delete the key HQFLASH This modifies the flash encoding to use a lesser-quality which is compatible with Opera-Wii
I suspect the same Windows iTunes streaming tricks that work for PSP will work with the Wii as well, though not confirmed
OSX users, the first solution I found was this article to control iTunes from the Wii, but then MaxConsole pointed out that DOT.TUNES is also Wii compatible and it streams.
Wii Media Center X has software for both PC and Mac, but the software is still in it's Alpha stages and not quite ready for prime-time yet.
If you want to go through the trouble of installing apache, php, mysql, etc.. try one of the web server based solutions below..
You may also take a look at Jinzora which is a web based PHP/Apache/Mysql/Flash Music System. One of the founders, Ben is working on a Wii Compatible frontend skin (not released publicly yet) . There are several actual flash players that you can use with Jinzora and all come bundled with the installation. I've also used Jinzora to stream MP3's to my phone and it has been working great! Definitely check it out if you looking for a customizable PHP based music server platform.
Please post in the comments with your experiences, good or bad with any of the above programs, along with any specific settings you needed to change to get it working on the Wii. Also let me know if there are other programs that you have found to add to this list. Thanks!
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20 Comments:
good guide...
also, ive had a lot of success with radioblogclub.com for music.
I can't get AjaxAMP to work. I can see the website on my Wii but it's not playing on the Wii (it's only remote controlling WinAmp on my computer).
Actually none of those are real solutions.
The winamp ajax plug in does let you control winamp from your wii from the wii, but playback is still on your pc no streaming.
So you need to have winamp remote which looks to be an addon with the orb.com service.
When i browse using the wii and using orb.com/winamp/ i get the same "look and feel" i do with a normal orb account.
However if you browse the same address orb.com/winamp/ on your pc you get a entirely differnt "look and feel" which would be great if you had it on the wii (so my guess is that whom ever created it didnt try it out on opera or the wii yet)
As for orb, I and other continously get a invalid parameters when trying to "play all/shuffle" mp3's when using just the sraight orb service. The only thing you can do on orb is play mp3's solo, just like in the stupid photo channel (all nintentdo needed to do was put in a play mp3 random in there)
Also with orb all the pic are stuck in "thumbnail mode, at least when i try to view my 5 megapixel pics from my camera
As far as the media center goes, yes it's EARLY ALPHA, about the only thing that works is the photo viewing, and it's very cludgy/clumsy at that, the slideshow work even though a message to the contrary that it wouldn't. I just had to use the zoom button and orient the pics otherwise you'll get a large white space to the right as it appears the pics are extremly left justified.
So i wouldn't really call these "solutions" but more experiments at this point.
my 2 cents. (just hopeing to save some people time that i wasted trying all that crap out, just keep waiting folks!)
if orb does not play back video for you on the wii, try disabling the HQ flash player and use the standard one
Open regedit on the PC where Orb is installed.
In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Orb Networks\Orb\OrbStreamer you will find a "HQFlash" key with value 1. Delete this key and restart Orb.
For information this key sets Orb to encode in Flash using a better quality codec whenever possible, and this codec might not be compatible with the Wii Flash version. Removing this key will default to a lesser quality encoder which is more likely to be compatible.
Hey! I've tried Jinzora and it works pretty well.. Not terribly hard to install if you know what you're doing.
The only problem was that it was somewhat difficult to view on the Wii's resolution, but the wii skin that is on the way will help that
So far I used a self-modified version of Appache::MP3 to stream music and play it on the Wii using xspfPlayer (flash mp3 player) but Jinzora looks muuuuuuuuch better. I'll try making a Wii Temp with flash player support.
iTunes streaming tricks DOESN'T work on the Wii also.
... Why havent you posted anything of wii being hacked?
... Why havent you posted anything of wii being hacked?
Because it hasn't been hacked yet.
... Why havent you posted anything of wii being hacked?
Because it hasn't been hacked yet.
...no comments...
I'm kind of surprised nobody has mentioned http://weezo.net yet.
Not only does it also stream music and playlists, it also does videos without a hitch, only need to find a way to make it REALLY full-screen, it's easy to configure, and it has a rudimentary VNC app built in.
Orb is nice too, but why bother when there's better out there?
Jinzora is where it's at, if you're technically competent (I assume most people here are).
If you're unsure about apache and whatnot, check the jinzora forums for an auto-installer; it's quick and painless.
-Matt
Orb is the best IMO. The others just aren't on par yet. If you have problems streaming video/audio in Orb, it's probably because you need to open Port 80 in your firewall - check out http://deanish.com/posts/make-wii-a-media-center-with-orb for more info.
Ok i am new to this and have a few questions. I want to stream music from my PC to my wii but don't like the idea of giving access to my computer data to the world. Is there anyway to get the music to stream locally.
Orb streams locally if it can, then streams via the internet as a secondary streaming method.
Hey guys...I've tried AjaxAMP and it works. Nice stuff! thnx for good guide...!
I found a wii musis player on miimusic.com.
easy to use and install, looks nice
miimusic looks to be the cleanest and simplest way to stream mp3 locally over WLAN to your Wii to your AV amp.
Install the homebrew channel and setup player ce to be a media center.
Note this is the best possible solution for a wii media center as it streams the video as is and does not convert the files to flash.
You do not need to watch using the wii web browser like all the other current wii media center solutions.
1. Install The Homebrew Channel and mplayer ce 0.75
2. Once the Homebrew channel has been installed start it from the wii menu.
3. Share your video/audio directory on your windoze machine. If using Windows 7 you must disable 128-Bit encryption and turn OFF password protection and add "Guest read/write" permissions.
4. Edit the smb.conf in SD/APPS/mplayer ce to point to your shared directory eg.
#Samba share1 (smb1:/)
ip1=192.168.0.3
share1=Media
user1=0
pass1=0
*Note if your shared directory has spaces eg "My Media" you need to have the share in smb.conf in quotes eg.
#Samba share1 (smb1:/)
ip1=192.168.0.3
share1="My Media"
user1=0
pass1=0
The zeros (0) denote no username or password.
Make sure the following options are included in smb.conf
keepalive=0 <----- Keeps connection alive.
cache=16384 <----- Increased buffer
If you are having issues connecting to your shared directory uncomment "debug_network=yes" in mplayer.conf which will debug your network at start up.
5. Start mplayer ce
6. Go to "Open --> File --> SMB --> SMB Share
7. Choose your file to stream.
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