WiiPlayer

I got the Wii hooked up to the Internet. Hmm. Why is life so complicated? No, not the wireless connection (sorted after some human error). Nintendo stars not points? An exchange rate from one schema to another. Both are in-house Nintendo systems. Pah. What rot.

Oh, I forgot, they were ‘out’ of some of the online, mythical, non-real-world ‘cards’. How the p***** can you be out of stock of a ‘card’ that only exists in digital format online? So, I couldn’t exchange all my ‘stars’ for ‘points’. Just 400 stars (stars, maybe as in: “complicated systems can get to ****” ?) for 100 points. But the “internet channel” (sic) costs more ‘points’ than that. So, I end up having to spend 7 quid on the lowest number of points (1000), and accessing the “internet” (sic) costs 500 points, and amazingly, half my Wii’s memory blocks.

So. I get an Opera-based browser. Internet access. And a feeling that I’ve been screwed by the mega-corporation. Off to load up some web pages, my blog (obviously), and then to see what Opera can do on the Wii.

Well, it can’t handle Google Maps. But neither can my Opera on the mobile phone. It can play YouTube, DailyMotion and BBC iPlayer. Well. Here’s the rub. The BBC iPlayer isn’t the same as the one on my PC. On my PC, I can watch BBC Alba. But not on the Wii. Both through the same router. In the same room. I can watch other programmes, but the available shows is strangely truncated. For example, there was only one TV programme in the seven days by BBC Scotland. Following the same sequence on the PC version, I get 5 pages of BBC Scotland programmes. And BBC Northern Ireland – which is non-existent on my WiiPlayer. This is the only way to get regional programmes on the Wii.

Later I catch Radio 4’s “News Quiz”. Before that, I changed the settings so that I can hide the toolbar. I don’t want it interfering with me listening to a radio programme via my television set, now do I.