WiiMC

WiiMC
General
Author(s)	Tantric, rodries
Type	Media player
Version	1.3.4
Licence	GPL
Links
Download
Website
Discussion
Source
Downloadable via the Homebrew Browser
Downloadable via the Open Shop Channel
Peripherals

WiiMC (Wii Media Center) is an open source media player for the Nintendo Wii. The GUI is powered by libwiigui.

Notice: The only working online media on WiiMC as of December of 2020 is SHOUTCast Radio. SHOUTCast TV shut down, and WiiMC servers for YouTube and Xtreme have stopped working.

RiiTube can be used to watch YouTube with WiiMC again.

Features

• Attractive libwiigui-based interface, designed with the Wii in mind
• Picture viewer
• Music player
• On-line media support, including SHOUTcast, YouTube, and Navi-X
• FAT32/NTFS from SD and USB 2.0 (FAT32 recommended)
• Network playback via SMB, HTTP, and FTP
• Multi-language support: Asturian, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazilian), Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Tamil

Wii Channel

wilsoff was gracious enough to create an official Wii Channel. It is found on WiiMC's downloads page.

Prerequisites

• The system must have IOS58 to use this channel. Either upgrade to System Menu 4.3, or use the IOS58 Installer.
• The system must also have Homebrew Channel 1.0.8+ running on IOS58 to run the installer. If HBC is not using IOS58, reinstall it.
• This channel tries load apps/wiimc/boot.dol from SD or USB. WiiMC has to be installed in one of these locations.

Installation

1. Copy the installer files to the SD/USB device
2. Launch the installer from HBC
3. Click Install
4. Done!

Media Playback

• DVD playback, with DVD menu support (newer Wiis have incompatible drives)
• Files with AVC/H.264 video streams (typically .mp4, .mkv or .flv's from YouTube or other sites) with resolutions up to 720x480p usually play correctly.
• Files with MPEG-4 Simple video streams (typically XVID/DIVX .avi's) with resolutions up to 656x352 play correctly.
• Files with MPEG-2 PS video streams (typically DVD rips and TV-DVR recorded .mpg's) with resolutions up to 720x480 play correctly.
• Files with MPEG-2 TS video streams (typically HDTV recorded .ts files) with resolutions up to 1280x720 play correctly.
• AAC, AC3, FLAC, MP3, OGG Vorbis, WavPack, and WAV PCM Audio Streams all play correctly.

Supported File Extensions

Video

3gp, asf, avi, bik, divx, dpg, dv, dvr-ms, evo, f4v, flc, fli, flv, iso, m1v, m2t, m2ts, m2v, m4v, mkv, mov, mp4, mp4v, mpe, mpeg, mpg, mqv, nsv, nuv, ogm, qt, raw, rmvb, swf, trp, ts, vdr, vfw, viv, vob, vro, wmv, y4m (maximum allowed resolution: 1280x720)

Audio

aac, ac3, aif, aiff, amr, ape, apl, asf, au, flac, m4a, m4b, m4p, mka, mp2, mp3, mpc, ogg, ra, ram, raw, rm, shn, tta, wav, wma, wv

Pictures

bmp, jpeg, jpg, png, gif

Playlist

asx, m3u, pls, plx, ram, smil

Limitations

• CD playback: the Wii drive is DVD only
• HD output: even on component cable Wii hardware is limited to 480p or 576i
• 5.1 sound: Wii hardware has only two analogue audio output channels (2.0)
• 720p/1080p playback or downscale: power is not enough to even decode, not to mention downscaling
• Deinterlace: CPU is not powerful enough, and MPlayer filters are not optimized
• SMB and FTP passwords are limited to 14 characters.

Prerequisites

• The system needs to have IOS58 (more info) for USB 2.0 support. It comes with game "Your Shape" and also with System Menu 4.3, or you can use the IOS58 Installer
• DVD playback requires HBC 1.0.8 or the latest official WiiMC channel
• No cIOS is required!

Quick Start Guide

There must be an SD or USB device, even if it is only intended to play over the network. WiiMC's core (MPlayer) requires a scratch area.

• Unzip the archive's contents directly to the root of the SD or USB device (FAT32 or NTFS)
• Load WiiMC via Homebrew Channel.
• SD cards and USB drives will show up automatically.
• Set up network shares in the Settings menu if media is to be played over the network. (optional)
• Set subtitle encoding and language. (optional)
• Navigate and play media files.

Usage

1. WiiMC will start in the Videos area
2. The folder used in the last session is remembered for Video, Music, Pictures, and Online Media. They can be viewed and set to fixed locations in the Settings.
3. Toggle between areas with the 1/2 buttons, or click on the icons at the top. The areas include: Videos, Music, Pictures, DVD, Online Media, and Settings.
4. Browse to the media file to be opened, and select it to begin playback.
5. The application preferences can be viewed and changed in settings.

File Browser

	Action
	Pointer / Change Selection
/	Selection Up/Down
/	Page Up/Down
	Select Item
	Up One Level
	Exit WiiMC
/	Next/Previous Media Type

Videos Playback

	Action
	Show Onscreen Display
	Switch Subtitles
/	Step Back/Forward 30s
	Switch Audio Stream
	Pause/Resume
	Stop Playback or Buffering, Open Menu
/	Decrease/Increase Volume
	Toggle Onscreen Display

1. During playback you can pause, rewind, forward, and change volume level with the Wii Remote keys or with the on screen controls (these appear, if you point a powered on Wii Remote at any part of the screen)
2. You can stop playback and return to the file list with the Home key
3. Here you can select another media file to play, or resume playback with the on screen Resume button (WiiMC can automatically resume and play the file from the last stopped position if Auto Resume is set to yes in the Settings)
4. Files that have been watched, both partially and completely, are indicated with a checkmark.

Music Playback

	Action
	Add Item To Playlist (Music)

1. Music playback stays in Menu so the user can continue browsing.
2. Files can be created and added to the playlist selecting them with the + button.
3. WiiMC can easily play a whole folder, by pointing at the folder and adding its contents to the playlist with the + button.
4. Play mode selected (Continuous, Shuffle, Single etc.) only works if there are files in the playlist - it will not use the folder for playing a music file in (put them into the playlist).
5. The playlist can be viewed and changed with the playback volume with the on-screen button.
6. A TV can be left on while playing: WiiMC has a built-in screensaver which also shows what is playing.

Picture Viewer

	Action
	Show Onscreen Display / Select where to Zoom in/out
/	Previous/Next Picture
/	Zoom Out/In
	Move Picture (when zoomed in)
	Exit WiiMC

DVD Playback

It works as video playback does. The subtitles can be switched on and off and audio can be adjusted with D-pad up and down as well. DVD playback does not work on new Wiis with the internal drive. If this is the case, then it can be removed from the media menu by disabling DVD support in settings. If dual-layered DVDs cannot play on a system, use a lens cleaning kit.

Settings

• Videos - Disabling frame dropping improves performance.
• There is a setting to automatically play the next file in the directory.
• Set the default encoding for the subtitles, and the preferred subtitle language as well (for cases, where multiple subtitles are available). Size and color of subtitles can be changed as well.
• You can change if you want to go to the DVD menu or play the main title at once in Settings.
• You can edit stations for On-line playback in /apps/wiimc/onlinemedia.xml on your SD card, it is not possible from the GUI currently.
• You can set a sleep timer in Settings as well.

FAQ

Will WiiMC ever be able to play HD video?

No. The Wii can't support anything over 480p.

Help! My USB device isn't showing up!

Do you have IOS58 installed? If not, use the IOS58 Installer. Is HBC using IOS58? If not, reinstall it. Finally, check that WiiMC is using IOS58.

Something isn't working right, how do I get help?

Start by reading all of the documentation - the answer you're looking for might be there. If not, search the WiiMC Forum to see if anyone has already asked the same question.

I have a question not covered by this FAQ. Where can I get an answer?

Check out the Forum, your answer may be there. Otherwise, make a new post and wait patiently for a response. Please be aware that it's possible no-one will have an answer to your question.

WiiMC-SS

WiiMC-SS
General
Author(s)	SuperrSonic, DDinghoya
Type	Media player
License	GPL
Links
Download
Source
Peripherals

WiiMC-SS is a modification by Supersonic, which includes new feautures and support.

Changes over the original

Enabled ADX audio decoding

Encrypted ADX files such as the ones in NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams are not supported, but can be fixed by first using an external decryption tool, afterwards it will play correctly.

GameCube controller support

Every button from the Wii Remote is currently mapped. Please note: there are still some things that require the pointer.

The option to disable the H.264 deblock filter on a per video basis

To disable simply change the extension of your video to ".dash". Disabling this increases decoding speed a lot, but decreases visual quality, usually if the video has sufficient bitrate it will look fine. The discontinued stream services on Wii (Netflix, Amazon, Crunchyroll, etc.) would make use of this to increase decoding speed. A global override option is also available.

Video shuffle modes

Choose from Through, Loop, Shuffle, and Continuous.

Artwork Viewer for Video and Music modes

Place artwork files on the same directory as the video or audio file, sharing the same filename. ->Song 01.brstm ->Song 01.jpg

• Note: Currently it looks for a .jpg extension, but you can use PNG files as well.

To load descriptions and year/run time info: Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<file app="WiiMC" version="1.3.8">
<image number="5"
       year="2000 - 1h 27m"
       desc="Two Spanish con men win a map to the legendary city of gold, but when they reach El Dorado, things don't go according to plan." />
</file>

• Image number - The amount of artwork that will be randomly selected, normally you only want to set it to 1.
• Year - The first line that can have text, you may put anything here, but it's intended for year and/or run time, it's right-aligned and does not wrap.
• Desc - The rest of the lines which can be used for short descriptions, up to 5 lines, left aligned. Linebreaks are done by adding spaces.

Save the XML with the item's filename.

• Title 02.mkv
• Title 02.xml

The XML must be saved to the "art folder" dir, and will not work on the same folder as the item. You absolutely need to have at least 1 image present otherwise the desc and year line won't appear.

When using an image or multiple images the naming changes slightly (only when using an xml.) The difference is adding "_01, _02" etc. to the file names, this is just to allow using multiple artwork but even if you use 1 you must add _01 to it.

If you use special characters and nothing is showing up then you must save the xml with utf-8 encoding. The "art folder" can still be used without an xml, just for artwork, but then it follows the original naming style. (without _01) A PLX playlist can contain "xml=" to specify desc/year but art is still specified by the "thumb=" argument. The desc/year lines are always in the same area of the screen, so the artwork must have a reasonable vertical size so they don't overlap.

Adding a tunein link to onlinemedia.xml

Add tunein=http://feed.tunein.com/profiles/sNNNNNN/nowPlaying?&partnerId=RadioTime after an 'image=' element. The image is used as a fallback. Where N is the ID, you can get this by going to the stream's tunein page and looking at the url. Code:

<link name="Display name" addr="http://link to radio" image="http://link to default artwork" tunein="http://feed.tunein.com/profiles/sNNNNNN/nowPlaying?&partnerId=RadioTime" />

The same can be applied to a PLX playlist. To enable art from Yggdrasil Radio or ANISON.FM an 'image=' link should be specified.

Adding the interlaced flag to an MKV file

Open mkvtoolnix-gui, select Header editor, open the video file, expand the video track, and select video interlaced flag, check add element, set it to 1. If the video is BFF, you can specify video field order, with a value of 6, (though anything over 1 will use BFF in WiiMC.) Then Ctrl+S to save. The interlaced flag is read as of version 2.0.0 of WiiMC. It works by syncing the video a specific way that allows CRTs and HDTV's deinterlacers to work correctly. This will only work if Enhanced Resolution is enabled in the global settings. These settings are available for DVD Video in Settings->DVD, it applies to physical DVDs and loading ifo or iso files from sd/usb.

Changing themes

Open the included meta.xml in a text editor and change the argument for 'theme=' to: gray(default), red, blue, green, random, dynamic, and blank. - Dynamic will change theme every time you suspend a video, change modes, etc. - Blank is the gray theme with no background image, used for testing quality of tiled rendering.

Other minor changes

• An option to enable the volume normalizer audio filter, set it to "2" to enable volnorm method 2.
• An option to always zoom videos to 4:3 ratio. (Only available if the Wii is set to 4:3 mode.)
• An option to enable deflicker, 480i and 576p/480p supported.
• An option to scale the screen width to 720.
• Support updating the Message Board playlog when launching from a channel.
• An option to switch to 240p mode.

This setting can be found in the global section, under the name of Double-Strike.

• Added Screen Burn-in Reduction support. To enable go to Settings->Global, it will dim the screen if the screen saver is active after 4 seconds. This setting requires AHBPROT disabled.
• The option of using an alternate font for subtitles, your video file must include an attachment with the MIME type for fonts. The font must be named "monospace.ttf" alongside the regular subfont.ttf file.

The purpose of this is to seamlessly switch between a monospaced font and a regular font, hence the filename.

• Backported BRSTM demuxer and THP fixes.
• Night Filter setting.
• M3U playlists can include a link for artwork.

For features you can only enable by editing settings.xml: -Setting the debug option to '2' will enable an on-screen display for currently dropped frames. Increasing this number will add more info. (3=used memory, 4=fps, audio info) -Setting the shadow option to '0' will turn off all the shadows in ASS/SSA subtitles styles, it will also force outlines to '1.7'. Changing it to '2' will remove shadows and outlines for an "opaque box" background. -Setting bold will force the subtitles to use the bold style.

Changelog

1.3.4 - November 23, 2013

• SMB support for Synology DSM 4.3

1.3.3 - March 31st, 2013

• Fixed YouTube (thanks jhb50!)

1.3.2 - January 1st, 2013

• Fixed YouTube (thanks jhb50!)

1.3.1 - September 18, 2012

• Fixed YouTube (thanks jhb50!)

1.3.0 - July 1, 2012

• Recompiled with SMB changes reverted to fix incompatibilities

1.2.9 - June 16, 2012

• Fixed incompatibility with NAS devices

1.2.8 - June 10, 2012

• Synced to MPlayer r34991 and ffmpeg 44c10168cff4
• Greatly improved SMB file browsing speed

1.2.7 - May 24, 2012

• Fixed crash caused when leaving the Music area
• Synced to MPlayer r34946 and ffmpeg 307562be98b4

1.2.6 - April 20, 2012

• Fixed USB support

1.2.5 - April 19, 2012

• Fixed stability issues
• Fixed YouTube (thanks jhb50!)
• Synced to MPlayer r34869 and ffmpeg 74e4bb691254

1.2.4 - March 17, 2012

• Synced to MPlayer r34805 and ffmpeg 8fbf825ecc32
• Fixed a bug with 4KB sector drives
• Added padding below subtitles
• Fixed display of non-latin characters in 1.2.3
• Fixed freezing issue in 1.2.3
• Fixed online media issues in 1.2.3

1.2.3 - January 14, 2012

• Synced to MPlayer r34780 and ffmpeg 83c418e68ee5
• Compiled with latest libogc and devkitPPC r25
• Improved network initialization
• Improved music playlist sorting - now it is per-folder (patch by entropy)
• Added playlist reset with minus key (patch by entropy)
• Added a new "Through" setting for music playlists (patch by entropy)

1.2.2 - March 3, 2012

• Fixed YouTube search

1.2.1 - January 14, 2012

• Synced to MPlayer r34540 and ffmpeg a9bd29e15e8d
• Fixed HTTP bugs that made YouTube unstable
• Added thumbnails for YouTube
• Improved video resizing granularity (thanks eric!)
• Translation updates
• Other minor bug fixes

1.2.0 - September 4, 2011

• Synced to MPlayer r34053 and libav 5938e0218543
• Adjusted DVD drive ID detection – fixes drives that stopped working

1.1.9 - August 26, 2011

• Synced to MPlayer r34002
• New YouTube scraping code (thanks jhb50!)
• Fixed problem with some subtitles not appearing
• Added support for subtitles over FTP
• Added chunk support in HTTP protocol
• Added Bulgarian translation
• Other minor bug fixes

1.1.8 - May 17, 2011

• Synced to MPlayer r33269
• Added Danish translation
• Clicking on a browser file already loaded will now resume instead of reload
• Faster loading of online streams
• Fixed a bug with some MMS streams
• Improved network initialization – now you can unplug/plug USB ethernet
• Fixed a potential crash caused by the audio code
• Improved memory management
• Other minor optimizations and improvements

1.1.7 - April 16, 2011

• Fixed a bug that caused a crash if Aspect Ratio was not set to Auto

1.1.6 - April 14, 2011

• Synced to MPlayer r33122
• Fixed an issue with music playlist queuing
• Fixed an issue playing a music playlist with a picture slideshow
• Fixed a bug that caused some MMS streams not to work
• Fixed a bug that caused WiiMC to crash with a malformed restore_points file
• Added a setting to write a debug log to SD - set "debug" to "1"
• Video rendering corrections and optimizations
• Translation updates

1.1.5 - March 25, 2011

• Synced to MPlayer r33036
• Fixed Inactivity Shutdown feature
• Fixed plain playlist support
• Added support for encrypted DVDs for USB DVD drives (thanks clava!)
• Fixed network initialization for some USB LAN adapters
• Other minor changes

1.1.4 - March 4, 2011

• Synced to MPlayer r32994
• Fixed crash in Online Media area
• Fixed crashes on ogg and mp4 files
• Fixed YouTube support
• Added Inactivity Shutdown setting
• Added separate settings to change backward/forward skip
• Improved memory management
• Other minor changes

1.1.3 - February 19, 2011

• Synced to MPlayer 32866
• Fixed crash for some USB drives
• Added option to change screensaver delay
• Fixed incorrect warning about picture sizes being > 6MB
• Improved network initialization routines
• Improved subtitle scaling calculations
• Improved shutdown - if WiiMC fails to shut down within 5 seconds, shutdown will be forced
• Experimental USB DVD drive support (thanks clava!)
• Other minor optimizations and improvements

1.1.2 - January 29, 2011

• Synced to MPlayer r32815
• Fixed broken audio/subtitle switching
• Fixed "Exception (Alignment)" crash
• Changed from mpg123 to ffmp3 (fixes some audio-related problems)
• Added ext 2/3/4 support
• USB compatibility improvements
• Improved performance (enabled 64-byte fetch mode for the L2 cache)
• Large file (> 4GB) support
• Fixed relative playlist paths
• Paired-singles enhancements (thanks Extrems!)
• Added IOS whitelist - a warning will now appear if you are not using IOS58 or IOS61
• Disable dvdnav over SMB (it's too slow!)
• Added Tamil translation (thanks dpandian!)
• Other minor optimizations and bug fixes

1.1.1 - December 16, 2010

• Synced to MPlayer r32709
• Fixed image stuttering and audio sync issues
• Fixed pointer alignment on DVD menus
• Added ISO/IFO DVD playback, with DVD menu support
• Added screen resizing while watching a video via the Wiimote. Just hold down B and use the arrow keys (thanks clava!)
• Performance optimizations using paired singles (thanks Extrems!)
• Improved USB compatibility
• Added support for playlist files in the Videos and Music areas
• Enable negative subtitle delay values
• Replace libmp3 with libmpg123. Fixes a number of MP3 audio bugs
• Added a setting to change the starting area
• New JPG scaler for the Picture Viewer (thanks puddles!)
• Display artist and song on separate lines for SHOUTcast (thanks jhb50!)
• Added settings for YouTube quality and caching for online media
• Subtitle autoscaling
• Added a delay on startup so those with slow USB drives are not bumped back to the main browser list
• Shifted all GUI elements inwards to fix left/right cropping occuring on 16:9 for some people
• Fixed a Picture Viewer crash
• Fixed lowercase bug for NTFS
• Many other minor fixes and improvements

1.1.0 - October 8, 2010

• Synced to MPlayer r32341
• Fixed a crash that happened if your router was turned off
• Fixed "blank listing" issue for SMB
• Improved memory management, resulting in improved performance
• Improved USB compatibility and speed
• USB bug fixes
• NTFS bug fixes
• Fixed audio sync regression from 1.0.9
• Change YouTube default to 480p
• Fixed "vanishing pointer" issue when watching CPU-intensive videos
• Improved shuffle for music
• Channel updated (improved USB compatibility)
• Other miscellaneous bug fixes/improvements

1.0.9 - August 18, 2010

• Fixed a bug that caused NTFS drives not to show up

1.0.8 - August 17, 2010

• Improved USB mounting and updated channel. Should hopefully help those who are receiving the “Could not find a valid SD or USB device” message
• Improved network initialization

1.0.7 - August 15, 2010

• IOS 202 support removed
• USB 2.0 support via IOS 58 added - requires that IOS58 be pre-installed
• WiiMC channel updated - requires IOS58 and does NOT require a cIOS to install (Thanks to megazig and svpe for help with this)
• DVD support via AHBPROT - requires latest HBC or latest WiiMC channel
• Synced to MPlayer r31961
• YouTube support (thanks to lukegb and ataraxis for some help)
• Picture zoom, rotate, pan, auto-rotate via exif data (thanks ataraxis!)
• Fixed seeking for local FLV files
• Fixed black-screen video issue with videos having widths over 1024
• Fixed playback of MKV files
• New YUV->RGB conversion in TEV for videos up to 720p (thanks sepp256!)
• Restrict video loading to 720p (1280x720)
• Enable caching of DVD CSS keys. They are written to the 'css' folder (created automatically).
• Fixed playback of files with mono sound
• Fixed issue with HTTP over-buffering
• Other minor improvements/corrections

1.0.6 - July 21, 2010

• Reverted USB2 changes
• Synced to MPlayer r31761
• Fixed display of radio stream information
• Other minor changes

1.0.5 - July 14, 2010

• Synced to MPlayer r31641
• Added volume control in Music area
• Added option to hide DVD functionality from the UI
• UTF-8 SMB support
• Ability to use both USB ports (requires IOS 202 installed with installer v1.1 – WARNING: older versions of IOS 202 are NO LONGER supported)
• Increase max SMB shares to 9
• Fixed sleep timer
• Added “Now Playing” to screensaver
• Disable screensaver while slideshow is active
• Increased video auto-play limit from 20 to 50
• MMS support (thanks denper!)
• Improved online stream display (thanks gazstone!)
• New SHOUTcast support (WARNING: updating will overwrite your onlinemedia.xml to install new links – backup your old links if necessary)
• Audio language setting
• Jump to and highlight folder when going up one level
• Highlight file when returning to menu
• Save settings when power button is used
• Added option to use static folder locations
• Display parent directory beside Up One Level
• Improved restore points behavior
• Other miscellaneous improvements/corrections
• Language updates

1.0.4 - June 3, 2010

• Subtitle color/size adjustment
• Added checkmark next to viewed files
• Added sleep timer
• Improved device mounting
• Improved stability
• Fixed artifacts issue with online media files (VP6 codec)
• Synced to MPlayer r31303
• Added option to auto-play next video
• Add GIF image viewing
• More codepages added
• Thumbnail support for online media (Navi-X)
• Hide folders beginning with '.' and '$'
• Added screensaver
• Add ability to view PNG's over 1024x1024
• Added theme color options
• Add more seek time options
• Language updates

1.0.3 - May 12, 2010

• Fixed issue with browser reloading
• Fixed freeze on seek issue
• Fixed a back-to-menu freeze
• Changed stereo downmixing
• Added codepages
• Translation updates (and added Hungarian and Polish translations)
• Other minor changes

1.0.2 - May 8, 2010

• Significant changes to improve stability
• Significant improvements to video performance
• Frame dropping now disabled by default (see Settings)
• Corrections to device mounting code (fixes crashes on startup)
• Translations to the following languages: Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean, Romanian, Estonian, and Brazilian Portuguese
• Video scaling issues fixed
• Audio static bug at EOF fixed
• Fixed issues with radio streams
• Fixed DVD issues
• Improvements to settings loading code
• FF/RW time is now configurable
• Friendly names now shown for playlists
• Radio stream information now shown in the now playing area
• Allowed file extensions list expanded
• ASS subtitle file support added
• Added settings for subtitle language and codepage
• Other various bugfixes and improvements

1.0.1 - April 18, 2010

• Fixed NTFS crashes
• Fixed Navi-X search, audio files work in Navi-X now
• Added Down button to switch audio stream, Up is now to switch subtitles
• Added FTP port setting
• Fixed potential picture viewer crashes
• Fixed some pause/resume issues
• Fixed some cache issues

1.0.0 - April 16, 2010

• Initial release