Wii Batteries in multiple remotes, all die regardless of use?

[RichP]

I have a few days off, and I have been heavy into Zelda. The batteries died in remote #1, so I felt lazy and grabbed the set out of remote #2 (which has only seen about 1-1.5 hours of gameplay compared to #1 which was well over 30+) Within an hour, the set from the 2nd remote was dead.

Granted there are a million explanations for this, but I have a feeling the remotes are "on" even when not being used. It would be interesting to see if this was a random occurance or repeatable? Thoughts?

PS. Look at the Wii Remotes carefully; they were MEANT to be rechargeable. They have a groove in the side for guide rails, and in the molds for the plastic they have places where the metal contacts were to go. I guess when you have a DVD drive, bluetooth, wifi, and all that othe Wii goodness for 250, something has to give.

[chibianh]

The batteries that comes with the Wii remotes are crappy and don't last as long. I've thrown them away since they died and the energizer rechargeables I'm using now last 5X as long on each charge.

[Chone]

I have a few days off, and I have been heavy into Zelda. The batteries died in remote #1, so I felt lazy and grabbed the set out of remote #2 (which has only seen about 1-1.5 hours of gameplay compared to #1 which was well over 30+) Within an hour, the set from the 2nd remote was dead.

Granted there are a million explanations for this, but I have a feeling the remotes are "on" even when not being used. It would be interesting to see if this was a random occurance or repeatable? Thoughts?

PS. Look at the Wii Remotes carefully; they were MEANT to be rechargeable. They have a groove in the side for guide rails, and in the molds for the plastic they have places where the metal contacts were to go. I guess when you have a DVD drive, bluetooth, wifi, and all that othe Wii goodness for 250, something has to give.

Yeah not rechargeable is really a bummer and annoying (not to mention its also a punch in the face for the enviroment, imagine 4 million wii owners swapping 2 batteries for 4 controllers every week...) and its not a matter of cost, Nintendo is already stuffing their face with money for every Wii sold, adding rechargeable wouldn't have added much to the cost and they would still be making profits.

[Dagless]

Don't forget the huge power consumptions on the 360 and PS3. Silly Microsoft and Sony not taking into account the environment.

[Counterfit]

They have a groove in the side for guide rails,

Yeah, for accessories (http://67.18.208.172/grimages/967/1147285590/3/1/gr.image.jpg).

[m2mathew@sbcglo]

I thought that the Wii did not have a DVD drive yet. Isn't Nintendo going to put one in starting next year sometime?

[Dagless]

I thought that the Wii did not have a DVD drive yet. Isn't Nintendo going to put one in starting next year sometime?

It has a DVD drive, it just doesn't play DVD-Video discs.

[MacRumorUser]

It has a DVD drive, it just doesn't play DVD-Video discs.

Nope. no where on Nintendo literature are they calling it a DVD drive. To do so would mean they would have to pay the licence - regardless if they included software or not for movie playback.

They are using a high capacity dual optical media drive.

Hence games are not on DVD's. They do not carry the DVD (digital Versatile disc) logo at all.

If they were officially dvd's they would have to carry the logo on the packaging, which they do not.

Remember the term high capacity dual optical media drive. So much catchier than DVD dont you think ;) :) :D

[Dagless]

So they're still pulling that? I read the Wii would use "proprietary 12cm optical discs", thought they would have just settled on a name by now! Suppose it's nice of them to not call them anything, folks still refer to them as DVD but don't have to pay license and it doesn't saturate the market with another abbreviated format.

So would it be physically impossible for a Wii to run a regular DVD?

[SamIchi]

Yea I was playin Zelda yesterday, granted it was a 5 hour run, I had to switch to my other 2 Wiimotes for more power. The first 2 ran out and I believe I had just replaced them. But we have been playin' a good amount. I really need to buy some rechargeables.

[MacRumorUser]

So they're still pulling that? I read the Wii would use "proprietary 12cm optical discs", thought they would have just settled on a name by now! Suppose it's nice of them to not call them anything, folks still refer to them as DVD but don't have to pay license and it doesn't saturate the market with another abbreviated format.

So would it be physically impossible for a Wii to run a regular DVD?

Yes. Because the drive isnt a 'DVD' rom. Therefore I cant see a simple software solution going to change the fact that the hardware hasnt had the licence fee paid. They would open themselves up to being sued by Philips if they suddenly change the definition of their 'high capacity dual optical media' drive.


So that's why the talk of software ceased and they announced the DVD playing wii will be released next year.

I'm betting the new version also allows for 54g wifi speeds too and multi-colours, just to add incentive for a lot of wii owners to upgrade.

I still think it was nothing to do with price, but simply to get hardware out there ASAP.

I'd take any bet next years lite version wont cost any different to the current model.

And ironically I was playing the wii over at relatives. A group of 7 people (all over 25 - with 3 over 50) and only me the gamer, and all of them were hooked on wii sports.

I thought I'd turn it on for half an hour and they were on for about 5 :) but....... when I asked would they buy one they asked "could it do anything else like play dvd's?" I replied "No" and I could see it did put them off a little. If it had DVD it would have justified the indulgance to them to pick one up and replace the ugly box under the TV.

My cousin said she would buy one next year if it either came down in price or includes DVD playback.It was a great craic, and they all loved it and very impressed, but need that extra incentive to actually pay for one.

[aidanpendragon]

Granted there are a million explanations for this, but I have a feeling the remotes are "on" even when not being used. It would be interesting to see if this was a random occurance or repeatable? Thoughts?

I've read somewhere that all remotes within signal range are turned "on" when the console powers up, and stay on for at least 5 min. If so, there would be a minor battery drain whether or not you used remote #2+. Presumably they would power down after a time, just as a remote does with Zelda when you let it sit for a while and get the "contact was lost" message.

But, this is unconfirmed; it shouldn't be enough to drain one entirely; and personal exp. with 2 remotes (and duelling with my wife to be player 1) suggests that they aren't recognized until you hit a button & the blue indicator light comes on.

[seenew]

I keep having trouble getting certain remotes to sync.. like instead of all 4 LEDs flashing, only the left two do. And it never syncs, even when I replace the batteries and restart the system and try resyncing.. it's annoying.

[JackAxe]

I keep having trouble getting certain remotes to sync.. like instead of all 4 LEDs flashing, only the left two do. And it never syncs, even when I replace the batteries and restart the system and try resyncing.. it's annoying.

My friend has that issue with his second remote, where as mine syncs everytime. He also had issues with wireless mice, so I'm thinking that something is causing interference.

<]=)

[Chone]

Nope. no where on Nintendo literature are they calling it a DVD drive. To do so would mean they would have to pay the licence - regardless if they included software or not for movie playback.

They are using a high capacity dual optical media drive.

Hence games are not on DVD's. They do not carry the DVD (digital Versatile disc) logo at all.

If they were officially dvd's they would have to carry the logo on the packaging, which they do not.

Remember the term high capacity dual optical media drive. So much catchier than DVD dont you think ;) :) :D

Hmm really? So what is the capacity of this Wii optical media? 4.7gb as well? That seems an awful lot like a DVD, maybe Nintendo is cheating and trying to avoid license fees?

[Krevnik]

Hmm really? So what is the capacity of this Wii optical media? 4.7gb as well? That seems an awful lot like a DVD, maybe Nintendo is cheating and trying to avoid license fees?

Uhm... that is what that post said... ;)

[Chone]

Uhm... that is what that post said... ;)

I thought it said the drive in the Wii won't ever play DVDs (not even through a software update) because its not really a dvd-rom drive but rather just another optical media by Nintendo or something like that...

But then again maybe my reading comprehension skills are not up to the challenge right now... :o

[Krevnik]

I thought it said the drive in the Wii won't ever play DVDs (not even through a software update) because its not really a dvd-rom drive but rather just another optical media by Nintendo or something like that...

But then again maybe my reading comprehension skills are not up to the challenge right now... :o

It pretty much is a DVD-ROM drive, but the license fees for the logo use and things like that aren't cheap for DVD players. Nintendo wants a cheap console, and DVD playback isn't supported, so why not avoid the license fees attached by not calling it a DVD drive?

Although, they do have some custom bits in the slot-loader to handle GC discs correctly.