If I knew what was going on, I would be shitting myself.

What I do (kinda) understand, this is an interactive, well, guide that is in normal cable/sattalite boxes today?

It's late at night and I didn't notice the link in the post.

(hate when I do that)

Looks pretty damn cool. When something that badass comes out in Japan, it usually means no other country will see it any time this year :/

Looking at the video you can underline a phrase in ashow description, and it will find all instances of that phrase in any other show and highlight them for you to browse.

Wait a sec... so there is gonna be a box of sorts attached to the Wii? This is like what the PS3 is having soon... sort of... I guess...

Marginally better than the internet channel, since this looks like it might be marginally preferable to looking them up online, rather than being a grossly inferior version of something that's already there.

It's still useless, of course, since most cable boxes already have a less stylized (yet ultimately more useful) version of it, but they're getting closer.

I get a little confused by it, but I guess once you get the hang of it, your TV watching will be HIGHLY EFFECTIVE!

lol someones a fan of hayate no gotoku i see....

I just don't see the need. I only have access to a tv 2 days a week if I go home from the dorm, and in general I have not watched tv on the actual thing for years... gotta love watching every ep of lost and heroes on their respective websites.

That looked cool (although I'm not sure I understand what happened exactly). I especially loved the tune. Nintendo really makes the best elevator music...

@Shijirou: No, this is a Wii channel.

Shame we probably won't get it. Nintendo hate Westerners it seems.

Sorry, but it still comes off as an ugly hack. Nintendo couldn't even be bothered to release a proper IR blaster? I look forward to hearing how badly this "bounce the signal off the walls" system works.

That said, it probably would make an OK replacement for the cable TV Guide channel. But, meh, give me a TiVO or Windows Media Center setup any day of the week.

The only thing that would really interest me is if this worked like the PS3 one did, like a DVR. Now that would be something that would excite me.

@RagingAvatar: More likely, they would have a hard time finding a western company to partner with on this, and it probably wouldn't even do that well here.

.

Personaly, I especially like how its not just a guide, but it allows you to use your Wii-remote to control the TV and seeing what shows your friends are planning to watch.

@brent_w: Also, your Wii Emailing/Texting you reminders about when your shows start is kinda nifty as well.

Before calling this channel the most useful one you might want to consider this other channel I read about at Nintendo World Report.
[nintendoworldreport.com]

Nintendo. Less Wii channels. More online gaming. Chop chop.

While this is all nice and well, I'd rather see Nintendo actually get their online gaming in-gear instead of window-dressing.

Course, I'm not the type of person they're catering to.

The elevator music that is playing is actually pretty soothing.

Cool another neat Wii Channel that we might see in 2 years if we are lucky.

Well, at least I have that spiffy and accurate weather channel.

This is a rather neat feature. Would be useful for me, since I have an old TV that has an antenna port (XD), so it would be a pain to have to switch the cable in order to switch from TV to game. And I'm pleased I recognized a few shows. Too bad we're not getting this.

Well, this is good for, but also slightly useless.
For one, I don't have digital cable, so I don't have a guide, so this is useful for me.

However, the reason that I don't have digital cable is because I never watch TV... hmmm.

Oh well, I might use it to browse the TV listings and reinforce why I don't watch television. (Most shows are shit).

Its not that hard, maybe it'd cost money over here, but get Zap2it on board and your set! They have a very complete lineup of pretty much all the cable companies and regions.
But knonwing nintendo, there will be limited usability to this channel as the weather channel isn't even configurable, if you could at least select a website to get the source of weather that would be great.

Leading me to believe that this service here would be limited to region(instead of town) and not customizable at all.

Ya know, back in the day if I wanted to watch a different show, I would get off my arse and change the damn channel in one easy step. Who needs all this highlight, email, and 3-D menu malarkey!! *shakes cane*

@Shijirou: No. This is just to browse channel listings - not the actual channels.

Kinda like Windows Vista Aero interface; real pretty - real useless.

Waratteiitomo is still going to be on TV in the year 2080. You heard it here.

Atleast it looks cool, dunno how practical it will be though.

This would go great if the Wiimote doubles as a TV remote.

Sadly, only Japan has that

Whats the point in this? I have Sky which has its own guide. So this is useless?

So Nintendo created something that Comcast should have done years ago. What's funny is if this came out on the 360 or PS3, Wii fanbois would be calling it stupid and useless, but since it's on the Wii they think it's brilliant, just like Wii Vote was "awesome".

This is also a great way for Nintendo to sell more marketing info about its "casual gamers"

The Wiimote is now a TV remote in Japan it got enabled last week. [www.engadget.com]

I like that interface it's much faster then the one I have on my dish, that takes forever to scroll through.

@aplusjimages: bawww

I think this is dumb and here's why:
-Modern TVs with digital tuners already have integrated EPGs, so why need another?
-And if you don't own a digital TV, then it'll be useless in a few years when the analogue signals are switched off anyway.
-If you're using the Wii, you're not watching TV and surely actually watching a programme is better than reading about it, no?
-And if you actually switch ON your Wii just to check what's on TV...
-Your TV already comes with a remote, you don't need another.
-Most, if not all Japanese mobile phones already come with an EPG app built-in, which also acts as a remote control.
-The page in the newspaper containing the week's programming is still easier to use for technophobes/"non-gamers".
-When this IS made available outside Japan, it will be even less useful on PAL TVs since they have had Teletext for years. Sure, not as pretty, but still very familiar to an awful lot of people. And again, with DTT proliferation, most people already have an EPG in their DT Tuners/TVs.

I find this hilarious. Nintendo REFUSES to let the Wii play DVDs. Stating the following as reasons:
-It's a game console
-You can get a DVD player for under $100

Yet here they come out with all these channels that have absolutly nothing to do with gaming, and you could have done already.

Online anyone? Just go to the TV stations site look at the show guide, see a show you want to watch? Email reminder.

LET MY PEOPLE GO NINTENDO!

I had been doing this with my 360 since I bought it...until it red ringed on Tuesday. :(

Think this is more about expanding basic EPG which is available with most digital tvs, which tend to be crude and not used for much more than seeing whats on tv in the future.

And most TV boxes (cable/satelite receivers) I've used so far, you can't do more advanced scheduling and tv guide programing without losing the tv screen/signal.

On tvs with Picture In Picture, you could switch between Wii TV Guide and what you're currently watching on tv.

So I can imagine this as making the Wii more useful for people that want a bit more than what they get from basic epg you find on tv boxes and built into tvs.

Nintendo's aim for it is obvious, its not to sell more Wii's its in an attempt to ensure the Wii becomes more ingrained in everyday use, as long as people are constantly using it whether its for games or other stuff, it makes the Wii more useful/indispensible to owners.

Makes total sense to me from a marketing, consumer retention view, and usage wise wouldn't be any less difficult/inconvenient to use than basic epg, and in some case more useful especially on tv's with Picture In Picture.

Too bad the video is no longer viewable ; ;

nice. But it would be made truly awesome if the Wii could record programs you select, a la tivo.

I think some of the people bashing this just don't "get it". All the non gaming channels (IMO) are Nintendos atempt at making the Wii a lifestyle benign device.

Weather, news, e-mail for the whole family and now show reminders mean that you can keep the Wii on all day and still stay "at least semi" plugged in to the rest of your life.

It's very true that the services from each channel can be bested by some other full service somewhere ,but no other single device does all of them.

My sat-tv can't get e-mails and my computer can't remind me midgame that my show is about to start.

Do you realize how much House I've missed playing games!?

damn the japanese for having the coolest shit! ~_~

seriously, turning the wiimote into a tv remote is a no-brainer.

@Sailorcancer: But you can't view all the stations' schedules simultanously anywhere, which is what this channel does for you.

That's really cool and all and the music is very nice, but when's that My Nintendo channel coming out here in the US??

@Sailorcancer:
I'm just throwing this out there, but I'm pretty sure it's because this channel doesn't make the console's price jump $25-$50, whereas a built in DVD Player would. On top of that, this channel is optional and a built in DVD Player isn't

But hey, what do I know?

dammit.

why didn't he highlight Gundam 00?

grrrrrr....

Wii Shop Channel is the best, it lets you download old games. I already have a TV Guide built into my Satellite...

It looks VERY IMPRESSIVE as it would be a nice replacement for my built-in TV Guide system (which will probably stop working at the HD-Analog cut-off next in 11.5 months).

I don't know if any of the Cable or Satelite companies (or even a free-lance company, which would probably slap some ads on it to cover operating expenses) would jump on such integration with the Wii with this channel (it would be sweet if they did), but it would be an excellent alternative to their guide systems.

It would be better if there was an english-friendlier version of it, but it looks like the Wii is going to invade households as a multimedia system... if they ever to decide to add DVD support.

@charsuipau:

Personally I love epg, use it all the time. It not only provides a decent scheduling system, but allows me a very quick means to find the programming I want.

Additionally, the digital option allows me to pull up pretty much any info I want on anything from news, to shopping, to weather reports.(I kinda consider it part of the same feature set. Have a new aquos for the record)

Essentially, I dont see the need to use the new wii channel. I got the wii just sitting here, but it cant do half the features I got with standard epg.(Like setting timers to turn the tv on when the show airs, then turn it off when the show is over.)

Switching to the wii channel(turning on an addional device, wasting the electricity to do so, and killing my time searching with an extra remote) just isnt practical for me. If I didnt have a good hdtv with very robust epg features, I might think of it. But the sytem in place right now is just so much better.