As well as being a fun and accessible console system, the Wii has racked up quite a collection of games over its lifespan and now, thanks to the wonders of emulation and Dolphin, you can enjoy Wii games, Wiiware, Wii Channels, Virtual Console and Gamecube releases in glorious HD on your Windows or Mac computer. You can even connect multiple Wiimotes and a sensor bar for the full Wii experience, with visuals you never thought possible.

Note: Despite the fact that Dolphin works on the PC & Mac, this walkthrough has been completed using the Windows version and thus contains some advice not applicable to Mac users.

Download & Install

You can download the latest version of Dolphin from the downloads page on the official site. The official system requirements are quite vague, though you’ll need a fast processor that supports SSE2 (the more cores the better) and a graphics card that supports Pixel Shader 2.0 or better.

There are two versions for Windows – 32bit and 64bit (if you’re not sure right click Computer in your Windows menu and choose Properties) – and a single Mac OS X install. The version I downloaded for Windows was packed with 7zip, though there are a host of archive managers that will extract the files.

Once the archive has downloaded, extract it to a location of your choice, and remember where you put it. After extraction you will be able to run Dolphin by double clicking Dolphin.exe. I’d recommend testing it straight away, as you might receive a nasty error or two.

On Windows one of these errors (VCOMP100.DLL not found) is caused by a missing Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package. 32bit users can download this here, and 64bit users here. You will also need the DirectX 9 End-User Runtime if you haven’t already got it. By the time you have downloaded and installed these dependencies, you should be able to launch Dolphin.exe.

Connect Wiimotes

Next you’ll want to connect your Wiimotes so that you can actually play using a real controller. There are other options, though you can’t beat the real thing and this is what we’ll be focusing on here. If you want to use the pointer then you’re going to need to buy a wireless infrared sensor bar and set that up on top or below your monitor, though you won’t need one for every game.

Before attempting to connect your controller make sure Bluetooth is set up on your machine, either via an internal chip or external dongle. On Windows, Wiimotes are connected by right clicking your Bluetooth icon in the system tray and choosing Add a Device. When the dialogue loads, hold the 1 and 2 buttons down on your Wiimote until the LEDs begin rapidly flashing.

Your PC should have detected the Wiimote as Nintendo RVL-CNT-01, select it and choose Pair Without a Code. You won’t need to install drivers or anything – your Wiimote is now Windows ready (you’ll need to pair it with your Wii to use your console again, if you have one).

Next go back to Dolphin and click on the Wiimotes button. Hit refresh and your Wiimote should buzz and assign itself a number denoting that it’s been found. Well done, you can now use your Wiimote with Dolphin. If you want multiple controllers then simply repeat the process.

Playing Games

The exciting bit! Dolphin gives you the option of launching games via your optical drive from original game discs, and from disc image files of games. As always, I must mention that downloading games you do not legally own is against the law. Then again there’s very little wrong with creating backups from your own discs or supplementing your physical copy with a downloaded image someone has already created.

With your Wii game or disc image to hand, launch either by clicking File then Boot From DVD Drive or by clicking Open and choosing a Wii game image on your hard drive. When you’ve made your selection the game will launch, probably windowed if you’ve yet to alter display settings.

You might find that the game you launched is either too slow, too fast or glitchy. Don’t worry, tweaking Dolphin so that it’s perfectly set up isn’t too hard with the performance guide on the official site. This will also give you a few tips about playing games in HD, which basically entails turning the resolution up (if you hadn’t worked it out already).

Naturally, if your PC didn’t handle the standard resolution very well then you’re not going to have very much joy at higher resolutions.

Conclusion

That’s pretty much it! You can find lists of compatible games on the official wiki, which should help guide you in the right direction. I tried New Super Mario Bros, A Boy and His Blob and Muramasa The Demon Blade on my aging Core2Duo with an 8400m. Initially the first two were not operating at full speed, with Demon Blade averaging 70% speed. After a quick performance tweak they’re all up to playable speed, so I’d better stop writing this article and get gaming…

Did you enjoy this how to? Have you tried it yourself? Do you use Wiimotes on your PC for other tasks? Let us know in the comments below.

The only problem is that high-definition content like Blu-Ray movies can put a high load on a notebook computer. A notebook that is not running optimally may end up becoming over-burdened, which will result in stuttering and other video errors. If you are having these issues, or you want to preemptively avoid them, there are a few steps you can take.

Kill Any Processor Intensive Programs

Playing a Blu-Ray or other HD movie is extremely processor intensive. The video on such formats is heavily encoded, and it must be decoded to view. This requires a lot of heavy lifting on the part of a processor, which hogs all of a notebook’s performance for itself. It isn’t unusual to see a processor pegged at 100% when playing high-definition video, particularly if the processor is an older model. This is when the video begins to stutter.

Of course, any other demanding program that is running at the same time as a Blu-Ray or other HD movie is only going to reduce the amount of processing power your notebook can devote to entertainment. An anti-virus program that is actively scanning, for example, can be a problem. You may also experience reduced processing power when performing certain tasks, such as transferring large files between computers or devices.

If you’re not sure how to find the programs that are killing your processor, check out our article about Windows Resource Monitor. This tool can help you track down programs that are hogging system resources.

Download the Latest Graphics Drivers

Many modern notebooks ship with an integrated or discrete graphics chip that is able to assist the processor when it is playing high-definition content. This is known as GPU-acceleration of video. Graphics chips are specifically designed to display video and 3D graphics, so they’re able to take a significant amount of load away from the processor. GPU-acceleration can mean the difference between a video that is skipping frames and a video that plays smoothly with the processor at just 30% of its maximum load.

However, GPU-acceleration is still dependent on software. If the proper drivers are not installed, the notebook won’t know how to share the load of displaying video with its graphics chip. The three major manufacturers of graphics hardware are Intel, Nvidia and AMD/ATI. Downloading the latest drivers can enable GPU-acceleration on your notebook and improve the performance of the graphics chip.

There are some hardware restrictions to this, however. Old notebooks (3+ years) usually don’t support GPU-acceleration of video even with updated drives because the hardware wasn’t designed to support that feature.

Use “High Performance” Power Management

Laptops are very dependent on their power management settings. A desktop computer, being plugged into a wall, doesn’t need to worry about conserving power. Notebooks, however, do have to worry about power because they are often used away from a power socket. Unfortunately, notebooks are sometimes too worried about power. When plugged into a wall socket a notebook should ideally be running at maximum performance, but sometimes the power management settings limit this.

You can check your Power Management settings in Windows by going to the Control Panel and finding the Power Options menu. Alternatively, you can click on the battery icon on the taskbar and access Power Options from there. If your computer is not running at High Performance and you’re having trouble with Blu-Rays and HD video, change the power management to the High Performance setting.

This should change how your notebook uses energy, but some notebooks ship with proprietary power management software that augments or overrides the normal Windows settings. These settings help you go green with your computer, but they can also sap processing power. Obviously I’m not able to comment on where to find this on each unique notebook, but you can usually find the software in a folder labeled with the name of your notebook’s manufacturer.

Conclusion

Hopefully these optimizations will help you play Blu-Rays and other high definition video sources smoothly. The difficult truth, however, is that not all notebooks are going to be cut out for this task. A modern notebook shipping with a Blu-Ray drive should not have a problem, but older notebooks equipped with a  Blu-Ray upgrade or an external Blu-Ray drive may have some problems. Optimization is simply a matter of making your current hardware do more, and sometimes the hardware simply isn’t up to the task no matter what you do.

The solution to this problem is to buy a laptop with an awesome GPU the next time you go shopping.

As with most computer hardware, however, that may be easier said than done. Intel still swears up and down that their integrated graphics are fine, and there are a number of ATI Radeon integrated graphics processors that, while fine from a power savings standpoint, aren’t good enough for a gaming laptop. However, we’re not looking for laptop video cards that are fine or okay – we’re looking for the top performers. Let’s find them.

Nvidia Geforce GTX 400M Series

The brand-spanking new GTX 400 series is Nvidia’s latest line of laptop video cards and boy, do they kick butt. The GTX 480M is currently the top performing laptop video card on the market. It boasts a 3DMark 06 score of about 15,500, which is 2,500 more than the quickest card from ATI. The slightly slower GTX 460M manages a score of about 12,400 as well. There is also supposed to be a middle-of-the-road GTX 470M, but I haven’t noticed it in any laptops yet.

Being brand new, all of the 400M series cards support the latest DirectX 11 graphics. Clearly, all of the 400M series cards are very quick, but the power will absolutely come at the price of performance and heat generation. Any laptop with an Nvidia 400 series laptop video card can be expected to be large, run a little hot, and absolutely demolish battery life. The GTX 480M powered Clevo D901F, for example, drew a maximum of 318 watts of power.

That would be a lot for a desktop computer!

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series

The top performing laptop video cards from ATI at the moment are the Radeon HD 5800 series (the same is true for desktop video cards, as well). This includes the Radeon HD 5870, 5850 and 5830.

All of these cards are among the best laptop video cards on the market today and have shown truly outstanding performance in benchmarks. The Radeon HD 5870 achieves a 3DMark 06 score of around 13,000, while the 5850 and 5830 receive scores of about 10,000 and 7,800 respectively.

The Radeon HD 5800 series video cards have also received high marks for their complete DirectX 11 support and their relatively cool operation. But make no mistake – a laptop video card of this caliber is going to suck down even a large battery like a peanut butter milkshake (Mmmm…good).

Nvidia Geforce GT 335M/330M

Further down the video card performance charts you’ll find the Nvidia Geforce GT 335M and 330M. These older cousins in the Geforce lineup don’t support DirectX 11 and are have much lower 3DMark 06 scores than the big, beefy GTX 400M series. The GT 335M scores around 6,500 and the 300M manages about 6,100. That’s not bad performance, but it’s obviously less than the take-no-prisoners GTX 480M.

What makes these laptop video cards stand out, however, is the inclusion of Nvidia Optimus on some laptops. Optimus is a graphics switching technology that turns off the laptop video card when it isn’t really needed (an Intel IGP takes over when the Nvidia solution is off). This feature can be found in laptops like the Alienware M11x, Sony Vaio Z and ASUS N82Jv-X1.

Optimus makes it possible for these laptops to squeeze out one to two hours of extra battery life that laptops with similarly powerful, non-Optimus video cards can’t manage.

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650

Last, but not least, we have the AT Mobility Radeon HD 5650. This little video card that could isn’t going make you dislocate your jaw, but it does provide surprisingly good performance considering its typical price. It usually scores around 6,500 in 3DMark 06 benchmarks, which means it on par with the Nvidia Geforce GT 335M.

Yet Radeon HD 5650 laptops are usually far less expensive than models equipped with the GT 335M. Both Toshiba and Acer offer multiple models online that have this laptop video card and also cost less than $800. Laptops with the GT 335M are usually closer to $1,000.

The HD 5650 fully supports DirectX 11. ATI does have a switchable graphics technology that competes with Optimus, but it isn’t widely used – as of the time of this writing, I could only find one laptop (an Acer TimelineX) being sold with it.

Conclusion

Obviously, I did skip some other top performing video cards in this article. Options like the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730 or Nvidia Geforce GTS 360M are perfectly fine, but are somewhat redundant. If you’d like a full list of ALL the options available I suggest having a gander at Notebook Check’s mobile graphics card list. The 3DMark 06 figures listed here are approximate. Your performance will be different – faster or slower – depending on the speed of a laptop’s processor and other components.

Also, you do not have to worry about HD video with any of these graphics cards. All of these video cards include GPU acceleration features that can easily handle any HD video you throw at them including both HD video falls and Blu-Ray disks. For more information check out our post What You Need to Play Video Smoothly On Your PC.

It is actually pretty simple, and the steps below are definitely optional. You can use your normal PC desktop, mouse and keyboard while your PC is hooked up to your TV; but the 2 tips below will actually make the viewing pleasurable.

Software Makes the Experience

Sure you can hook up your plain desktop to your HDTV and have a huge monitor. But the UI is what really sets apart your PC from any regular hack and turns it into a true ‘HTPC’, or Home Theater PC.

A few software programs really dominate in this area, they are covered below.

Windows Media Center

I bet you already have this available if you have Windows 7 installed. Any version of Windows 7 above ‘Starter’ and ‘Home Basic’ has Windows Media Center installed by default. Launch it by going to Start -> All Programs -> Windows Media Center.

Windows Media Center, or WMC, has a beautiful 10-foot interface which is just another way of saying that it is readable 10 feet away from the screen. You can view movies stored on your computer, watch Netflix movies from it, and do all kinds of other cool stuff.

Windows Media Center also supports TV Tuners and some other hardware applications.

Boxee

Boxee is an free up and coming application that works as a platform for content publishers and app developers to extend. It includes a great 10-foot interface and a compelling array of television and movie shows. It can stream from dozens of sources online or play local media.

Some Boxee apps include Pandora radio, Netflix, MLB.TV and YouTube. And that is on top of the Movie, Music and TV library. We use it daily in our house and I would highly recommend it. Boxee is based on XBMC which is another piece of great software, if not as ready for prime time as Boxee.

MythTV/SageTV/BeyondTV

These software packages are built to replace a DVR functionality. All three of them record video at set times, have guides built in, and offer different solutions for watching television on a PC.

MythTV is free and primarily Linux based but it is possible to compile it on Windows if you should be so inclined. It is also open source and although it has a lot more flexibility, it is less refined than some other choices.

SageTV and BeyondTV are both commercial software package that replace your DVR and work wonderfully. I have used BeyondTV personally since about 2004, however their last software update was June 2009 and I think they are focusing more on commercial applications. SageTV is a worthy replacement, and I have heard good things about it. If compiling your own binaries are not your cup of tea, then SageTV is worth a look.

Don’t Forget the Remote

The final piece to the puzzle is how you will remotely control your PC. There are a few options in this regard. I personally use the Snapstream Firefly remote which is an X10-based piece of equipment and uses RF which does not require line of sight. Some PCs come with a remote, you can use them as well.

Logitech Harmony remotes are also a great option for your PC. They are expensive, but control not only your PC but also other components and are a good ‘all in one’ remote.

A great free option if you have an iPhone is the Logitech Touch Mouse. You install a server on your computer, and then use your phone to connect to the computer and remotely control the mouse and keyboard. It has worked great for me and I would highly recommend it for anyone with an HTPC and an iPhone/Touch.

The Ultimate PC Streaming Setup

Using your PC to stream video or audio to your HDTV is really pretty simple to do with a little configuration. The media experience you get from an HTPC is much more fulfilling than watching normal television programming, which is mostly a one-way affair. Much content is available online either free or from legal sources such as iTunes or Amazon Video On Demand, and you will find it much cheaper than a cable subscription.

Share your HTPC setups with us, and let us know any hints or tricks you have for setting one up!

In the past, podcasts were something you would listen to, like a mini radio-broadcast over the Internet. Now, there are some high-quality free video podcasts out there and you can even watch them in high definition. Awesome.

In this article, I am going to show you some of the best free video podcasts for geeks that you can watch in HD. I’ll also show you my favorite program for downloading and keeping track of your podcasts so you don’t miss out on anything.

Miro – An Amazing Open-Source Video Player

Miro is still the hands-down champ when it comes to downloading, watching, and keeping track of your video podcasts. It can also be used to download torrents and manage your video collection, but that’s not why we’re here. Besides, uTorrent and VLC Player are still the champs in those respective categories.

I use Miro all the time. In fact, it just pushed out a major update last week I believe. Anyway, I really like Miro’s layout, settings (it can automatically download new episodes for you), and its guide for finding new shows. There are thousands of free HD video shows for you to download on the Miro Guide.

I’d spend more time on this app, but we have some shows to get to. If you want to learn more about Miro, watch this video:

Watching Podcasts In HD

I should mention that a lot of the free video podcasts listed here can also be seen on YouTube, as well as various other ways on the Internet, so if you are on somebody else’s computer and would like to watch one of your favorite shows, you don’t need to install any applications if you don’t want to.

In no particular order, here are some of the best HD podcasts for geeks:

GeekBeat.TV HD

This is probably a good place to start. GeekBeat.TV, starring Cali Lewis, is a show about tech news, gadgets, research, and anything/everything having to do with the latest technology. New episodes are posted almost every day and – like a few other shows on this list – is a great way to stay up-to-date on the latest trends.

TEDTalks (HD)

It’s pretty likely that you’ve heard of TED before, but in case you haven’t, TED stands for ‘Technology, Entertainment, Design’ and is a conference that hosts some of the world’s smartest and most innovative people. Now you can view videos of these geniuses in HD. Updates are pretty frequent, usually daily.

Diggnation (HD)

Diggnation needs no introduction, but I’ll give you one anyway. Featuring hosts Kevin Rose (founder of Digg) and Alex Albrecht (The Totally Rad Show), Diggnation offers an entertaining look at the top weekly stories on Digg.

Diggnation is a Revision3 podcast. If you enjoy it, you should also check out The Totally Rad Show (mentioned previously), The Digg Reel, and Scam School (all in HD).

Hak 5 (HD MP4)

Also from Revision3, Hak 5 features a band of IT ninjas, security professionals, and hardcore gamers. They take on hacking in the old-school sense, covering everything from network security to do-it-yourself (DIY) modding. You can learn a lot from this tech show.

Tekzilla (HD)

This is the last podcast from Revision3, I promise. Tekzilla is another awesome tech show that features product reviews, computer help, and tech tips on everything you can think of. They also feature a lot of DIY projects.

CNET.TV Loaded HD

Next up on the list is CNET.TV Loaded HD. With CNET you generally know what you’re getting. This show covers all of the latest products that are out, focusing on features and reviews of the latest technology that’s available. New episodes are posted almost every weekday.

Doctype the show

“Doctype is the show for people who make websites.” This is a very interesting podcast that can teach you a lot about web design. They show you how to do cool things with CSS, Javascript, JQuery, HTML – you name it.

Mac App Guide (HD video)

The Mac fan-boys (and fan-girls) among us should like this podcast. On the Mac App Guide, hundreds of amazing, free applications for the Mac OS X are covered and reviewed. They feature apps you never knew existed.

Ubunter

New to Linux or just looking for some tutorials on how to use Ubuntu or other open-source software? Ubunter is the podcast for you. This podcast shows you how to do some pretty interesting stuff with your version of Linux.

MAKE Magazine

Rounding up this list, MAKE is a quarterly publication from O’Reilly, and it features “life-hacking” technology. If you like to tinker with, disassemble, recreate, or invent new uses for technology, you’ll find this DIY series interesting and useful.

Conclusion

There are plenty of other great free video podcasts out there also. There are podcasts on GIMP, eco-living, Internet memes, video games, outer space, and even HD video itself. Suffice it to say, there’s something for everybody. Be careful, because once you start looking for and watching podcasts you might wake up and find out it’s next year already.

What are your favorite online shows? Can you watch them in HD? Leave your thoughts, ideas, and comments below!

Libox has several different functions. It acts as a means of syncing your media files across several computers, and and allows you to easily access your files remotely and share them with other Libox users. Libox offers unlimited storage, and allows you and your friends to access your files at any time, at the caveat that your computer has to be turned on, but you do not need to leave the application itself running.

The first step in setting up Libox is importing your files by selecting specific folders on your computer to watch. Navigate to the folders on your computer that contain the photos, videos and audio files that you would like to access from anywhere and they will be imported into your Libox interface.

Once your files have been imported, there are several ways you can browse through your media. The home tab displays all of the files that have been imported. You can either browse through all of your media files, or you can browse through your latest activity which includes recent imports and recently shared files.

You can also browse through each media type individually. Photos can be browsed by date, country and by albums, or you can also choose to browse all imported photos.

Videos can be browsed by date, country or playlist.

And lastly, music can be browsed by tracks, albums, artists, genres or playlists.

While you can play audio and video files directly within Libox, you can’t skip forward or rewind.

When it comes to sharing your files, you can either share an entire folder of videos, photographs or audio files, or you can share individual files.

To share a file or folder, click on it, and at the top of the window, click the “Share” button.

This will open up an email like window, where you can see your attached files, and fill in the email address and subject for your message. If you want to share media from more than one place in Libox, you can continue to add files to the message by clicking on “Add files.”

Once your message is ready to be sent, type in the email address, after which you will be prompted to add the person to your contact list, if you haven’t already. You can create groups in your contact list to easily share files with entire groups of people at the click of one button. You can share your files with up to 40 different contacts.

Libox is a little bit restrictive in its sharing method. You have to add email addresses to your contact list in order to send them any files, and unfortunately, they cannot access the files without signing up for an account, and downloading the software onto their machines. For tech-savvy friends and family, this isn’t a big deal, but this definitely puts Libox out of the running if you’re just looking for a quick and easy way to share media files with your less than tech-savvy friends. If that’s what you’re looking for, you’d be better of using DropBox, Drop.io or ZumoDrive.

After you have shared, or received an invitation to share files from another Libox user, the files will show up in the respective folder, as well as on the home page displaying your latest activity.

Shared photos can be commented on, exported to your computer and shared with other users.

Shared music and video files can be played but cannot be saved to your computer. If you’re accessing your own account remotely, you should be able to download any of your files.

You can also create collections of media files by clicking on the Select button.

You can then begin to select files one by one to add to your collection.

If you are selecting photos only, you will be prompted to add them to an album,and give it a title of your choice.

If you are selecting audio or video files, you will be prompted to add them to a playlist. If you choose to delete a collection, the files in it will not be deleted from Libox.

If you’re away from your computer and want to access your files from anywhere – you can do so with a mobile phone or any web browser. Simply go to the Libox home page and log into your web-based account. Accessing Libox from any regular browser is a similar experience to using the software. Accessing it from the mobile website is surprisingly pleasant and easy to use, allowing you to play back files, browse photos, and share your files with your contacts. The only drawback is that you cannot add new contacts to your Libox account from the mobile version of the site.

How do you share your high definition media files with your friends and family? Let us know in the comments.