Photo Channel Update, sort of

[Dark Jaguar]

http://wii.nintendo.com/photo_channel.jsp

Seems like Nintendo is adding AAC format music support to the photo channel. Interesting. Also they are taking out MP3 support. Hmm? That's kinda dumb. I wonder why? Did they run out of space in the firmware rewritable flash or something? I was actually hoping they'd add a proper MP3 player mode to the thing instead of taking it out completely. In fact in my secret dreams I had hoped for XBox style music replacing in games with MP3s. Or, with level editing those could be imported into custom levels along with images for texture files. Those are the duller dreams though, because to be honest I almost never use that feature anyway, and I play my music on my PSP or PC, not my consoles.

All in all, a bit of a shame, and a kinda bizarre move on Nintendo's part, but really I never used MP3 playback in that form anyway. Partly because I never really use the photo channel... that thing looked a lot cooler in video but then I realized it isn't actually a game and moved on to Twilight Princess.

[A Black Falcon]

AAC... wha? Normal AAC, I hope, and not Apple's DRM-crippled version of the thing? Why though... MP3 is so much more popular... and if you want something cheaper use like Ogg or something... but a music player without MP3 support really is pointless.

[Dark Jaguar]

Eh I never used the thing anyway. I mean it was awkward to begin with as it was accessible only as a "special option" in the photo gallary during "slideshow". It's just weird that they would remove support. Apparently it is the standard kind though as I haven't heard Nintendo seal any deals with Apple lately.

Oh well, an odd and technically "bad" move but not something I really care about.

[etoven]

There cutting out MP3 file support and requiring that you use a larger more bloated file format instead....

Well that's just stupid....

They must have gotten in trouble with the mpeg group

[Dark Jaguar]

Mpeg group? Isn't MP3 an open format?

[A Black Falcon]

No, it isn't.

[DMiller]

There cutting out MP3 file support and requiring that you use a larger more bloated file format instead....

Well that's just stupid....

They must have gotten in trouble with the mpeg group

AAC results in smaller file size than MP3. I converted all my music to AAC because of that.

[Dark Jaguar]

I'm just worried that converting an already lossy format to another one would result in some data lost. Eh, not like they take up that much space. Adding extra file support is nice but it is a little odd to remove MP3 file support.

[DMiller]

Yeah, that's the part I don't understand either. Removing MP3 support is a really dumb move since it is much more ubiquitous than AAC.

[Dark Jaguar]

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/12/13/downgr...ying-mp3s/

So apparently Nintendo's "version 1.1" doesn't even replace the old photo channel code in the Wii's flash memory, it's a seperate program alltogether. That seems wasteful... Further, they are giving instructions on how to "downgrade", which literally means just deleting the new version so the old version takes over.

That just makes me wonder why they couldn't support both formats. They really don't seem to have a problem maintaining MP3 support at all, with this official endorsement of a downgrade. It's all very confusing. It's still a very minor issue though, as I messed with the photo channel for all of 3 minutes and never bothered with it again, nor did I bother downloading the "upgrade".

It does make me wonder though. If Nintendo wants a totally seamless user friendly experience with this, so that grandma and grandpa aren't frightened, wouldn't it just make more sense to just never ever remove any features ever for all eternity?