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Nintendo offers Wii Photo Channel downgrade

Published on 14th December 2007 by Joe Martin

Now you can downgrade the Wii Photo Channel to its original, most basic form. Rejoice!

A few days ago Nintendo turned some of its staunchest fanboys against the Wii by issuing an upgrade to the Nintendo Wii Photo Channel which subsequently removed support for MP3 files played from SD cards. It was the first upgrade the channel had received, taking it to v1.1.

The response was so universally negative in fact, with petitions and sites being formed to protest the upgrade, that Nintendo has now offered a downgrade for anybody who wants to play MP3s via the Wii.

The downgrade returns the Photo Channel to v1.0 and is available by navigating to the Data Management section of the console (located in the Wii Settings section). From here select the Channels tab and then choose and delete the Photo Channel in its entirety. The original v1.0 Photo Channel will then become available to you again via the main Wii menu screen.

The best thing is that if you ever have need of the upgraded version then you can upgrade again as usual, switching back and forth between versions as much as you want, according to WiiFanboy.

So, that was nice of Nintendo and all, but it begs the question of why they'd remove it in the new version if it doesn't actually stop you from playing MP3s in the long-run anyway.

Do you use the Wii Photo Channel for MP3 playing, or is it just wasted space on your consoles hard drive? Let us know what you think in the forums.

6 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

BioSniper 14th December 2007, 07:50

Quote:

or is it just wasted space on your consoles hard drive?

It's not wasted space on my Wii hard drive considering my Wii has only 512MB of flash :P
Other than that, I did think it was odd dropping the universally accepted mp3 in favour of AAC in the first place however I never "upgraded" anyway.

Still, at least they listened to the consumers and offered a way to change it back.

The further question there is in the email Ninty sent to all the Wiis originally is that consoles pre-loaded with the AAC only version would not be able to downgrade, so essentially out there somewhere are some crippled Wiis that cant revert back to MP3 abilities.

Furymouse 14th December 2007, 08:17

I actually really enjoy the photo channel. Especially doing a video puzzle with alot of pieces.
I like to see that Nintendo listened to what people had to say.

Why wouldnt they just add support for aac into it alongside the mp3?

p3n 14th December 2007, 09:02

why would you be remotely concerned with media playing ona deivce with entirely removable storage? get an xbox 360 or media center box and stop your complaining :)

quack 14th December 2007, 10:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by BioSniper
The further question there is in the email Ninty sent to all the Wiis originally is that consoles pre-loaded with the AAC only version would not be able to downgrade, so essentially out there somewhere are some crippled Wiis that cant revert back to MP3 abilities.

If you bought your console after December with Photo Channel 1.1 built-in, then you're not exactly missing out on a feature as you would never have had it in the first place! :)

TreeDude 14th December 2007, 13:03

So other than taking away MP3 support, did the update add anything?

SNIPERMikeUK 15th December 2007, 17:25

For many Mp3 is the format of choice but many rippers will easily convert your tracks to your wii AAC, Lets face it u will only have an SD in there so its not like u will be converting much is it? besides u can fit more on in AAC, look at the conversion tables over on Nero (Burning Software) website, its smaller with no difference in sound over mp3.

Your choice really, and yes it is an odd choice on nintendo's part, as many have only gotten the hang of what mp3 is? never mind AAC, these are many casual gamers who don't have the foggiest at the end of the day!....