Minna no Theater will allow Japanese Wii owners to stream television shows, anime, and movies on their Wii consoles. The downside is that the software alone will cost 500 Wii Points to download and then an additional cost for each program.
We'll have any further information on this unique service if there is ever any word of a release in the US or European regions. Although it's not likely to happen, with Nintendo and the Wii you just never know.
Source: Nintendo Wii Fanboy
Comments 30
DAMN THE JAPS!
Don't get me wrong: they're nice and cool (and hot), but when it comes to electronic entertainment they're just too showy. The pricing doesn't sound too good on this one though.
Anyways, here in the UK we can stick with BBC TV and radio streaming via BBC iPlayer (now with a new Wii optimised interface - although for legal reasons Heroes is only playable on the PC edition) on the Internet Channel (with a seperate, free, channel promised for the future.)
Do you Americans/fellow Europeans/other people have anything similar.
I could have sworn Japan already had this....
They got an EPG, but not an actual telly-watching channel.
Why dont you just watch TV on your TV instead, I mean seriously your Wii is connected to it. On the other hand if DSi had it...
@-0: You might as well say the same about the programmes on the iTunes store, then. I have a PVR (or whatever they call them these days) and so just use that (for Freeview channels, at least)
Well we are getting the TV Guide Channel so they may see that as being good enough for us. Who knows.
Damn, They realy need to find a way we can get Hulu on our Wiis.
Got to agree with Zero. iTunes is for computer, so it isn't a good comparison. You could theoretically not have a TV and use iTunes to watch shows. I don't understand why else you'd use it.
Yeah, no offense... but paying more money to watch TV... on a wii on your tv? Ridiculous
you can do the same thing go to www.orb.com you can strem videos that r on your computer and pics too!!!
Japan gets this, Europe gets tgat BBC thing, AND WHAT DO WE AMERICANS GET???
This could be interesting...but TV shows would probably be at LEAST 40MB...usually when I get them they are 100-200MB each, so they'd even be heavily condensed at that size. Plus, I don't know about others, but I wouldn't pay more than 200 pts for an episode, and the thing should come with something for 500 pts.
EDIT: Saw the word "stream" Well now it COMPLETELY sucks because the Wii's WI-FI is way too slow to watch anything wihout constant interruption of loading.
Well we are getting the TV Guide Channel
Where did you hear this?
Yeah, I used to try to watch shows on the browser at first, but I don't think theres even enough temporary space on the wii to watch anything over like 10 minutes. Be nice if there was, since I watch stuff on my computer in an uncomfortable chair, but I don't care for actual cable TV or commercials. Streaming stuff well really is the future of broadcast entertainment. Hulu would be nice to watch on a Wii or something like it. Paying for each show, though, is crazy.
Japan gets this, Europe gets tgat BBC thing, AND WHAT DO WE AMERICANS GET???
I don't watch TV programs that much, so this kind of service doesn't really interest me.
Nonsense, we pay enough for the satellite TV, besides, If you want to watch an specific TV show, why not download it from a torrent?, it's free and you can get almost anything.
We have 'Uitzending gemist' over here. An internet channel run by the Public Broadcast Network on which you can watch all their national programs, even from months back. Great service but too bad the Wii internet channel can't play Quicktime or Windows Media Player files. I demand an update!!
BBC iPlayer works completely fine. There's no lag, no interruptions and no memory issues. Granted, the picture quality could be improved, but that's expected anyway.
@Adam: I said "like", meaning it's "similar to". I'm sort of on the fence about the whole thing.
Japan gets this, Europe gets tgat BBC thing, AND WHAT DO WE AMERICANS GET???
You Americans get everything else
This seems pretty pointless since you can get exactly the same thing that is broadcasted from what Nintendo's little white fridge is connected to
Just to clearify, only Brits can do the BBC thing in Europe
Other countries get an message saying "not available in your region" ...
A real shame because i like a lot of BBC comedy shows but i never seem to remember when they're on ... (except for buzzcocks thursday at 10 woohoo)
@WiiMan192: It's most likely old TV shows on this channel (as with many other On Demand services) - not live broadcasting.
well if it came to america,it'll be nice to watch JAPANESE TV with subs of course
Wow. What a rip off. IDK why people want this to come state side when they will most likely do a complete 180 and bitch about it.
with the opera web browser and a little bit of research you can already watch movies and shows on the wii (I just watched saw v) so although something like that would be good in the states it definitely is not necessary
@ttplayer92: absolutely correct, there. Still, it would be nice to see them at least put in the effort of releasing a western version.
@Megabyteme: 'Cos that's legal.
wow
I'm sort of surprised if Nintendo won't even consider putting this out in the US. I don't know anyone who really has said they wouldn't like to use this channel or any other channel they already have in Japan. Why is renting TV programs and movies on the Wii terrible, but why is it good on Xbox Live Marketplace??
Why is everyone saying Nintendo should. This is FujiSoft trying an on demand service. The Wii is likely to be but one of the platforms for this.
But personally, just like the TV guige channel outside of Japan it probably won't happen. Why? Cable TV boxes, freeview boxes and the like offered what the channel would anyway. On demand content is kind of similar.
Besides, Nintendo is a small company and it should not stretch itself into crazy ventures that stray from their core of toys.
Why is renting TV programs and movies on the Wii terrible, but why is it good on Xbox Live Marketplace??
Quality. Xbox and PS3 have hard drives and can output in HD and so the quality of on-demand stuff will far outstrip what the Wii is capable of streaming.
The videos on the Nintendo Channel look just fine though...
yea xbox has HD movies but it take a long time do download one it rented a HD movie and took some hours to download it
Tap here to load 30 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...