Wii U Can Stream MP4 Videos Directly From Your Computer

MP4 streaming. Sounds awesome. I have all my movies as MP4.
Hmmm becoming interesting. And: First!

okay this is actually really cool !!!

can you also watch videos from sd-card or external harddrive plugged into the wiiu?

Wow, unexpected! Will definitely try it out.

Mind = Blown

At about 1 minute into the video he says he's running a media server and he had to type in his PC address. I don't think Nintendo is advertising this b/c the soccer mom's who bought the Wii would have no idea what I said in that first sentence.

Cool though for those who know.

Thanks for sharing! NintendoLife - Would you consider making another post/article (or adding to this one) with written directions on how to set this up? YouTube Videos don’t always stick around forever, and some people may not have access to YouTube (I.e. Workplace, Library, etc).

I have just tried this and it works no problem... So we can take WiiU on the train, play COD on the loo and stream movies straight from PC what's next on the awesome tip.

Just curious, this doesn't actually use up internet bandwidth, does it? Since it's running from your local network, basically all you need is a wireless router (not even a working internet connection — although maybe the browser will not start up without), isn't that right?

This is COOL BEANS!

Awesome news!

@tealovertoma - correct

@tealovertoma: Sounds like an Adhoc network connection. Or similar to it.

Pretty neat, actually. I'm slightly impressed that Nintendo allowed their system to do this.

It's mostly due to HTML5 support in the browser but still this is a very clever find.

Awesome! Though I can just connect my computer to the television through an HDMI cable, but a cool little feature nonetheless.

A great find and neat surprise.

This confirms what i allways expected, that you will be able to make a webbased mediacenter-server that you can run on your computer to access videos, it will even in theory be possible to have the computer convert to mp4 on the fly.

There are actually severall such programs out there, though i expect none of them have wii u- optimized settings or user-interfaces.

Would be cool if some developer is allowed to create custom software for the wiiU for mediaplayback, though.

The GamePad is just full of surprises.

Thats a cool feature but I have no use for it. I have netflix on it already and 3 other consoles and a computer all hooked up to my tv that I can see video files on.

VLC can allow you to do http streaming of any video format, but it will do it in broadcast mode (think of it like watching a single TV channel), and it doesn't just stream but also transcodes, so it will convert on-the-fly (requiring processing power on your computer). I haven't figured out VoD (Video on Demand) with it, and I don't know if it is possible with http streaming, but if someone knows how, perhaps they could set up a media server that uses VLC for deploying the streams, and will only transcode those video files that aren't the right format (which is h264 video + AAC audio).

But honestly, Nintendo should go and make a media app that plays all sorts of formats, and allows such streaming. The Wii U is more than capable of decoding those formats that aren't the right format. They could even go and make it a commercial eShop app to cover the fees associated with it, and I bet people would be willing to pay for it. I know I would. Throw in DVD/BR playback, and you've got a one-in-all media center.

When I plug in my IP address into the Wii U browser, it says cookies are disabled. Any way to fix this problem?

Sweet. I already have a media server shared on my local network, so I'm all set! Only thing I miss about DirecTV was sharing images/videos with my PC. Now I've got the Wii U for that. (Atleast the MP4 part.)

@Discostew There's a media server called Plex that also transcodes...on it's web based front end it DOES support an HTML5 player, but it requires some sort of weird extensions that WiiU doesn't support, unfortunately (far as I can tell the only thing that does are Apple devices, so maybe it's an Apple thing). Maybe they'll find a way around that.

I been doing that on my 360 and PS3.
This is nothing new.

i wonder if it works with streaming sites....which i won't post because of rules and copyrights

Does anyone know how to do the steps cause I cant figure out how
@LordJumpMad : Why are you even in this place if you are just being a jerk to Nintendo!

@Bane Chill, bro, he's just proving facts.

@Bane That's a bit harsh there. Not everyone here has to be a fanboy. Everyone is also allowed to voice their opinion, and LJM's opinion holds a lot of ground.

too bad all my videos are avi.... might be doing some transcoding to fix that...

@LordJumpMad Well, at least this way, we won't have to deal with Sony and Microsoft crap, eh?

About the actual MP4 playback, I've tried multiple programs that remux from MKV to MP4, and they all play fine, except for one detail, which I don't know if it is a limitation of the Wii U, or a problem with the video. It won't allow skipping to other parts of the video. When I try, it restarts to the beginning. Anyone know how to deal with this?

You're welcome

I stumbled on it and thought "hey this would be a great piece of news to tip Nintendolife about" and that is exactly what I did.

Awesome! This is what I have wanted from Nintendo Console for a While.

It gets better... if you have a local webserver somewhere in your LAN you can browse to it by entering the IP number. Now i can browse all the pages and databases on my PC in the attic while sitting on the couch in the living room. Thank you Nintendo, this is like a dream come true!

And all the Gamepad buttons, touchscreen, gyro etc are easily accessible for javascript programmers. Coupled with HTML5 and CSS3 support this will result in some awesome websites.

Does it work on Macs? I'm tying it, it connects but all I get is a page with "It works!" on it 0_o'

Just for the record, you can probably read all your media from the SD card or wirelessly from your computer, Nintendo just won't let you using their Wii U OS. Haha. Where's the hackers?! I'm gonna hack my PS3, so I can use the HDMI ports to connect my consoles all in one, especially for the optical out port the Wii U doesn't have! Just kidding...

Wow thats is awesome sauce for realz

what are the instructions for this? i tried some but nothing works.

now just give us a true DNLA app so we can access any DNLA servers on our network. I have 100GB worth of tv shows and movies ready to be streamed, Nintendo!

@RADencker just enter the IP number in the browser and see what happens... who knows? it's all new territory for everyone.

I'm happily streaming my MP4 movies to the gamepad and/or TV screen through a simple web-based interface...

i get Error Code: 112-1007 when trying this

i get the same error code. what does it mean?

I'VE sorted it now.

There's a great guide on youtube showing how to setup IIS for webserver and all the settings to play from the browser. Guy has a slightly annoying voice but hey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtBFUO9JvJY

cant get this to work any help be great thanks get error code 112-1007.iv followed the guide and just cant get it to work so anyone that can be my hero.

@rjejr

Ugh, yeah - there's a lot of features that devices are able to offer that would confuse the typical "Soccer Mom", but still - you would want to tell your customers about it! I mean, it's bad enough this console is $300 and doesn't play CD, Blu-ray etc.

Hey there, Orla, thanks for the article. Just want to inform all folks who live outside US that Nintendo Wii U is a great media Player. If you want to access Netflix and other streaming stations on your Nintendo Wii U you can use UnoTelly as I do to get around the geo block.