How to Stream Video to your Wii

This instructable will allow you to stream video on your computer or from the internet to your Wii.

Hopefully, I'll be able to fill a very frustrating void that I've encountered. Many sites claim that streaming video to your Wii over a local area network is easy as pie, but I have yet to see detailed instructions. So, here you go!

Step 1: What you'll need:

A Wii, connected to a home network.
The Homebrew Channel.
MPlayerWii, loaded properly onto your SD card.

On your computer, you'll need to install VLC, a small but full-featured media player.

You'll also need to find the local IP address of the computer(s) you want to stream from.

To do this, open a command prompt and type "ipconfig." This gives you your IP address. Write it down!

Now, open the "mplayerwii.conf" file on the SD drive, and add a line that looks like this:

"stream = http://[your ip address]:8080/"

So, my line would look like this:

"stream = http://192.168.2.2:8080/"

Save that file, put the SD card into your Wii, and load MPlayer from the Homebrew Channel.

Comments

[jdottcom]

I hope this method will work on my Wii.

[pcarreras]

i am following instructions but wii wont look for ip it only gives me options to read from card

[jriley_1982]

I am looking for the file and have a folder called mplayer_ce and then when i go in to it i have many sub folders and ext. on called mplayer which is a conf file do i put the "stream=http://[ip address}:8080/" there or in a ext called input which is also a conf file... Help would be appericated

[mmacintosh1]

You should be using MPlayerWii, not MPlayer CE. ;-)

[jriley_1982]

Why whats the dif.

[mmacintosh1]

While they have almost the same name, they are two very different programs. This won't work with MPlayer CE because it doesn't have a streaming option. The only online media you can use with MPlayer CE is pre-defined, and not very customize-able. Plus, it would be a very different process to go into the configuration files to be able to do such a thing. All in all, it's just easier and more efficient to use MPlayerWii, plus with that, there's a guarantee that it will work. Just make sure your processor is a good one and you have at least 2 or 3 GB of RAM, or else the video, though it does stream, will be in poor quality and very glitchy.

[mmacintosh1]

Here's a little help for the people who keep saying "What version?"

For MPlayer Wii, it doesn't matter. Every version should work. For VLC, he's using version 0.9.6. Hope this helps. ;)

[joblemg]

ok so how do you actually watch the video on the wii? what do you do in mplayer to start viewing the stream?

[bloodykandy]

same question. ive done what you said but have no idea how to open it on the mplayer on wii

[zachjoneshacker1]

what version have you ghot of vlc thx zach

[bloodykandy]

i also need to know the version because i dont see any of those options after selecting streaming

[makeorbreak]

I could not find "mplayerwii.conf" file? Nowhere to be seen!
Any help?

[drmush]

This sounds awesome but port 8080? Is that the only port I can use. That is the default port for a lot of stuff. Any local server ect. Which I run almost constantly. Any way to change that?

[onelane]

You can use whatever port that's open.

[darkan9el]

http://www.orb.com/wii/getting_started.htm easy as A,B, C.

Like all the methods, but this was the easiest for me and probably will be for Mr & Mrs Novice.

;-)

[maxpower49]

can you sream to psp

[Lance Mt.]

 Thats a different sort of set up although that should be easily acquired. However, there are much, MUCH easier alternatives from my experience. Try a simple ftp server and access it through the PSP brower. And tell us how it goes!

 -Cheers, Chris

[Alan9876]

I am not very bright because I can't figure out how to do this...<br /><br />Now, open the "mplayerwii.conf" file on the SD drive, and add a line that looks like this: "stream = http:// [your ip address]:8080/"<br /><br />How do I add a line on the SD drive?

[Lance Mt.]

Don't worry, its quite simple actually. The 'config' file is just a simple text encoding. What you see is what you get, it'll just be like typing in word.

 Ok, now open up the 'config' file by double clicking. Windows automaticly opens said file through notepad. That will be sufficient for this project. Now you simply go to the very end of the text and paste: "stream=http://[your ip address]:8080/"

Save and there you have it!

   -Hope it helps, Chris

[spencer12]

is there another media player you could load onto the wii because the one you suggested freezes up my wii with a error message

[spencer12]

yeah i also need help with adding the ip adress line into the "mplayerwii.conf" file

[baconmaster]

couldnt get this to work, then again m player doesnt seem to play properly on my wii (running ver4.0E) and homebrew (1.6 i think) plus is there any wireless router settings you need to take care of?

[baconmaster]

sorry, ment 1.0.6 IOS61 v19.26

[casey321b]

I don't know which line to put the ip on there are some premade but should i make a new line at the top or what?

[casey321b]

you made my happy self happier by doing this im gonna watch all my TV shows this way by usin hulu or some other site and findin the video file in temp and sending that... TYVM

[daiatlus79]

if you have any issues with video formats convert them.. many free methods... virtual dub is one... a site can do it too like www.media-convert.com

[daiatlus79]

and by the way, tvuplayer will work with this too! i got it working on my wii as well as my psp!

[Bstarms]

I've always found mmsh to be easier, all you have to do is change the url in the conf file to mms://192.168.2.2:8080 or whatever ip/port you use.

[threecheersfornick]

If this works, I will be very happy. Thank you.

[Mongpoovian]

I've only got one caveat to mention - some videos don't stream well at all. I'm trying to figure out which video codecs work best, so if you could let me know how this works for you, it'd be most appreciated.

[lolcat360]

When you find out, tell me if .mov works.