[Tutorial] Watch Local Video Files on Your Wii U

Date February 19, 2016 Author Catherine Category Video Tips, Wii

The Nintendo Wii U is a great little game console which is also a quite capable photo viewer. But what is most interesting, at least for this website, is Wii U’s video playback capabilities. But some people may meet local video playback issue on their Wii U like this: 

“As a new Wii U owner (and Mario Kart 8 addict) I tried to search the web, but couldn’t find much. Is there any app or something that would let me stick a USB drive with a movie into the Wii U and watch it on TV?” – from reddit.com



Nintendo’s Wii U has apps for watching Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, and all kinds of other streaming video. But Nintendo doesn’t offer an app that will play media files from an external drive or media server. So you won;t be able to play your local video files on your Wii U via USB external drive or media server. 

But here we can introduce you a little trick that will let you stream local videos from your home network to your TV with your Wii U. This trick works thanks to the Wii U’s web browser, which includes support for streaming MP4 files. With a media server app on your computer, and you can use your Wii U to play videos back on the TV or gamepad.

Part 1: Install Plex on Your Computer for Playing Video on Wii U

First, you’ll need to install a media server program such as Plex on your computer. Plex provides a nice web interface that you can access not just from the Wii U, but from your other computers, as well as apps for your smartphone, tablet, and streaming boxes like the Roku. 

Download and install the Plex Media Server to your computer. Then you should create a free account and go through the basic setup process. Point Plex at your media library — in other words, the folder on your computer containing all those local video files you want to watch on your Wii U.



Part 2: Stream Local Videos From Your Wii U’s Internet Browser

Step 1: Grab your Wii U’s gamepad and tap the Home button to head to the home screen. Tap the “Internet Browser” icon to load the web browser — it’s that blue, globe-shaped icon at the bottom of the screen, in the center.



step 2: Tap the “Enter URL” field at the top of the screen and enter to the following address: plex.tv/web

Despite the web address, your connection won’t really be going “through” Plex’s servers. You’ll be taken to the Plex sign-in page and, after you sign it, you’ll be pointed at your local media server. The videos will stream entirely over your local network, from your PC to your Wii U, and won’t use any Internet bandwidth.



Step 3: If you don’t have an internet connection, you can also directly connect to the PC running Plex. You’ll need to check your computer’s local IP address to do this. Once you have, you’ll type an address in the form: http://[IP address]:32400/web

So, if the IP address of the computer running the Plex server is 192.168.0.100, you’d type:
http://192.168.0.100:32400/web

However you connect, Plex’s web interface will appear on your screen. You can browse your media library from here. Tap a video to see more information, and then tap that video again to start playing it.



Step 4: While watching a video, you’ll get touch controls on your gamepad. The video will appear on your TV, too, of course. You can choose to either mirror the video on the gamepad or just look at controls on the gamepad.

The gamepad makes a capable remote and will let you easily control playback on the touch screen, which helps make up for the lack of an official Plex app – -something PlayStation and Xbox consoles offer.



After the operation, when you want to watch a local video, just put it on your computer in the library folder monitored by Plex. As long as your computer remains on the entire time, you can head to your Wii U, open the web browser, and visit your Plex server at that address. You can then watch those local videos and stream them over the network without messing with any USB drives or SD cards.

Note: For easier access in the future, you might want to Bookmark your Plex server’s address in the Wii U’s Internet browser.

Generally, Plex can automatically transcode all your local video to the MP4 format the Wii U supports, so you don’t need to worry about converting your movies to a compatible format — Plex will do all the heavy lifting automatically. But it sometimes will bring the video stuttering issue. Besides that, if your local videos are MKV containers, you may only play videos but no sound on Wii U with Plex. So for more smooth video playback on Wii U, you are suggested to make sure all your local videos MP4 files for Wii U playback.

Best Video Converter to convert local video to MP4 for Wii U

Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate <Mac version>is an all-in-one media solution that can convert Blu-ray/DVD and MKV/AVI/VOB/M2TS/FLV, etc video to H.264 MP4 for playing on Wii U with Plex. It can compress 4K video to 1080p, 720p MP4 video to play on Wii U. It also has deinterlacing video and display aspect ratio adjustment functions. Batch conversion is also supported. You can learn more functions of Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate in its review.

Free download and install
          

Other Download:
– Pavtube old official address: http://www.pavtube.cn/blu-ray-video-converter-ultimate/
– Cnet Download: http://download.cnet.com/Pavtube-Video-Converter-Ultimate/3000-2194_4-75938564.html

Simple Guides on Convert Local Video to MP4 for Wii U

Step 1: Click “File” > “Add video/audio” to load your local video to the app.

Step 2: Navigate to “Format” > “HD Video” > “HD MP4(*.mp4).



Tip: Press on “Settings” to open the window where you can adjust A/V parameters.

Step 3: Click “Convert” to start to convert local videos to MP4 for Wii U.

Put converted local videos on your computer in the library folder monitored by Plex. Then head to your Wii U, open the web browser, and visit your Plex server at that address. You can then watch those local videos on your Wii U with Plex.