Below you will find a series of questions and answers related to the upgraded version of the Photo Channel.

When will I be able to download the upgraded version?

We plan to make it available in early December 2007.

When will the Wii consoles being sold in stores begin to come with the upgraded version pre-installed?

Consoles with the new version pre-installed will start to ship around December 2007.

Is it possible to (visually) distinguish between the retail Wii consoles that have the old version and those that have the upgraded version?

No, this is not possible.

Which parts have been changed?

• It became possible to use photos of your choosing as the icon for the Photo Channel in the Channel Menu (Wii Menu)

• For the feature that allows you to play background music of your choosing that is saved on an SD card during slideshows, the supported format for audio data has changed from MP3 to AAC (the .m4a file extension). (With version 1.1, you will no longer be able to play audio data in MP3 format.)

• For the feature that allows you to play background music of your choosing that is saved on an SD card, it became possible to use random playback.

What is required in order to enjoy the Photo Channel?
(Can it be used with just the Wii console and the Wii Remote?)

Because this channel uses image data and movie data that are saved on SD memory cards, an SD card will be required in addition to the Wii console and a Wii Remote.

It appears that the Photo Channel can use image data, but what exactly can it do? Also, which format of image data can be used?

• It goes without saying that the channel can display image data on your TV screen, but you can also draw text and pictures over the top of these images and have fun with slideshows that continuously change the pictures while playing background music. In addition, in version 1.1, it became possible to customise the screen by pasting image data onto the Photo Channel's icon on the Wii Menu screen.

• The formats that can be used are: (1) image data in JPEG format whose size is up to 8192x8192 and (2) image data from the Wii Message Board.

It appears that the Photo Channel can use movie data, but what exactly can it do? Also, what format of movie data can be used?

It can play back movie data on your TV screen. In addition, in version 1.1, you can extract arbitrary scenes as still images during movie playback and customize the screen by pasting them onto the Photo Channel's icon on the Wii Menu screen. (To do so, press "Post" at the moment you wish to capture a still image while a movie is being played.)

The formats that can be used are "QuickTime (Motion JPEG) format (.MOV)" and "AVI (Motion JPEG) format (.AVI)," where the screen size is up to 848x480 (pixels).

It appears that the Photo Channel can use audio data, but what exactly can it do? Also, which format of audio data can be used?

• It can use audio data as background music for slideshows.

• With version 1.0, data in MP3 format can be used.

With version 1.1, instead of MP3, AAC-format audio data (file extension .m4a) can be used.

What is AAC-format audio data?

AAC-format audio data refers to audio files in MP4 format that have been encoded with AAC and have the ".m4a" file extension.

How do I convert audio data to AAC format?

This depends on the environment that you are using, so Nintendo is unable to instruct you with the details.

Is it possible to apply the content that was upgraded in this version while maintaining an MP3 environment?

Unfortunately, the features that were added in the version upgrade cannot be selected and applied individually, so if you wish to maintain an MP3 environment, you must continue using version 1.0.

Nintendo wishes to start providing services in the future using an AAC environment, which makes it possible to achieve higher audio quality, so we hope for your understanding.

Don't you think it's unreasonable that the version upgrade will prevent me from using MP3 data that I had been able to use up until now?

AAC has a higher compression rate than MP3, so in most cases, it is widely known that AAC can achieve higher audio quality than MP3.

Nintendo wishes to start providing services in the future using an AAC environment, which makes it possible to achieve higher audio quality, so we hope for your understanding.

Also, for the sake of those customers who had been enjoying this feature with an MP3 environment up until this point, we have designed the channel update so that it is possible to continue using the MP3 environment without upgrading, and even after the version is upgraded, it is possible to go back to an MP3 environment by deleting the version upgrade information.

I purchased a Wii console that had version 1.1 pre-installed, but I would like to be able to enjoy the audio playback feature with an MP3 environment, so I would like to exchange the console for one with the previous version.

Unfortunately, we cannot exchange consoles with earlier versions.

Isn't it unfair that people who have had Wii consoles since before the upgrade can use the channel in an MP3 environment, whereas people who purchase Wii consoles now cannot?

The circumstances involved a "specification changes after purchasing the product," so in this case, we made it possible for the customers themselves to choose.

For customers who purchased versions with the upgraded Photo Channel pre-installed from the beginning, there was never an issue involving "specification changes after purchasing the product," so we are aware that the specification change does not cause any detriments to the customers.

However, we will listen to any feelings of unfairness engendered by our customers as future issues relating to how to disclose information, etc. We hope for your understanding.

In the games "Excite Truck" and "Endless Ocean," MP3 files can be played within the game. Will these two titles lose the ability to play MP3s during gameplay on consoles that have upgraded versions of the Photo Channel as a result of these changes?

No, they will not be affected. The only thing that has changed is the audio data that can be used in the Photo Channel, so there is no affect on other games.