I recently visited a friend from college who has two children, the same as myself. He had just gotten a Nintendo WII video game and we were able to play with it during our stay. We had a great time with it and what I really enjoyed was having the kids so involved even at the age of five.

My friend did not have a dedicated HT and I was thinking about purchasing a WII for my dedicated HT. However, I could not entirely understand how the remotes work with the sensor. All my equipment in my home theater is in another room and I use a Hot Link Pro XL to receive and transmit all the IR signals via an ethernet cable. Something tells me I won't be able to use this video game in the same fashion. I just don't know. I suspect the sensor itself might have two sensors on the bar and this may be important for knowing where the controller is.

Can anyone comment if they have a similar arrangement? I suspect the sensor will have to be in the room where the controllers are (the HT room itself) but I can't be sure.

Thanks.
JP

from what I understand the remote is part blue-tooth part IR based. There are a few companies out there that make wireless Sensors for the Wii. You just have to remember to turn it off when finished with it or your battery will drain.

The sensor is reallly kind of misnamed in that it is just an IR emmiter which allows the remote to know where it is in space. It does not "sense" or transmit anything. The cable back to the Wii is only used for power. That is why you see any number of battery/AC powered sensor replacements.
The remote transmits back to the Wii via Bluetooth technology. The good news is that the Wii can then be placed anywhere within Bluetooth range of the remote but it doesn't have to be in line-of-site of anything. The sensor's cable can be spliced and extended if you want to maintain the power connection back to the Wii or you cab just buy a wireless version or adapt the Wii one. There's plenty of info on how to do this and it is simple. It has even been demonstrated that the sensor can be replaced altogether with a couple of candles, which emit enough IR to allow the remote to track where it is.

Thanks JM. I just discovered the same thing with some extensive searching. The product I could really use can be found here:

http://www.videogamebundle.com/

As it turns out the "sensor" bar is nothing more than an IR light emitter so that the control itself has an understanding of where it is in space. The sensor bar does not receive any data from the remote and as a result does not even need to be hooked up to the WII. Very cool concept.

So this only leads me to one final question. Since this appears to be the case what is the connectivity from the remote to the WII? Bluetooth or RF? I hope it is RF because I've had issues with Bluetooth. Finally, has anyone actually had their WII in another room and had good luck controlling it?

Thanks eganov. I think I'm just going to have to buy one to test for the bluetooth connectivity. My own experience in my house with bluetooth has not been good but maybe the WII has something more powerful.

Bluetooth is RF.

My phone bluetooth works well across the house and down one floor without problem, so I have to think it's quite possible that the Wii would work to 20+ feet, but I sold mine (NIB) during the pre-Christmas idiotic bidding over them and haven't had the time to go get a replacement yet.

Hey guys, we got one one for the kids for Xmas and have it installed in my dedicated HT room. The Wii is in the rack in the other room. We use a wireless sensor bar and all works well. I couldn't image playing on a smaller TV after playing it on a 104" screen. The kids have a blast with the Wii sports games and when the family gets together its played non stop.

Bud

With the dedicated rooms, where exactly are you guys placing the IR emitter bar?

Directly below the screen. Check out my post here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12593695#post12593695

Bud

Bluetooth is RF.

My phone bluetooth works well across the house and down one floor without problem, so I have to think it's quite possible that the Wii would work to 20+ feet, but I sold mine (NIB) during the pre-Christmas idiotic bidding over them and haven't had the time to go get a replacement yet.

Weird, I wasn't aware of that. The reason I assumed bluetooth was something different is because I have a Logitech Dinovo Bluetooth Keyboard. The USB Bluetooth adapter it came with doesn't have a very good range going through walls. In the room itself it of course works fine. I did some searching and people said the best thing to do is purchase a powerful third party USB Bluetooth adapter which I did. Keep in mind my equipment is only one room away and only one wall is seperating the equipment from the home theater. There was some improvement but it wasn't perfect. Ultimately, I went back to using my trusty IR Lite-On Airboard Wireless keyboard. As long as I have line of sight to the IR receiver in the home theater it works perfectly and doesn't miss a beat.

Now armed with all this above and given that Bluetooth IS RF why does my XBOX 360 work perfectly when the bluetooth keyboard does not? Ultimately, I know I'm just going to have to buy a WII to try it for myself to see if it works the way I hope.

Hey guys, we got one one for the kids for Xmas and have it installed in my dedicated HT room. The Wii is in the rack in the other room. We use a wireless sensor bar and all works well. I couldn't image playing on a smaller TV after playing it on a 104" screen. The kids have a blast with the Wii sports games and when the family gets together its played non stop.

Bud


Thanks Bud, this is exactly what I was looking for, that is, someone who can confirm the WII itself works well from a completely different room. Now at least I know the WII has a fighting chance in my environment.

I have a Wii in my AV Rack and I use the wireless stick that I picked up at the local Target.

I also keep the sensor bar connected to the Wii and I have that in front of the TV in the bar.

What happens is that one person can be in the HT and another in the bar and y9u can play aaints each other.

Rich

Hey guys, we got one one for the kids for Xmas and have it installed in my dedicated HT room. The Wii is in the rack in the other room. We use a wireless sensor bar and all works well. I couldn't image playing on a smaller TV after playing it on a 104" screen. The kids have a blast with the Wii sports games and when the family gets together its played non stop.

Bud

yup, you haven't really experienced the really Wii power until you've tried it on the big screen!!! it's a whole new level of gaming experience (I move from a 50" hdtv to a 100" screen)!! talk 'bout life like especially if you use the component connection and your receiver could upscale it to 1080p over HDMI!! me and my GF just had a blast the other day!!

My best friend has an old CRT projector and a 10 foot wide screen and let me tell you, the Wii is a hoot and a hollar on it.

He has it on a flat wide table underneath the screen so it's not in a rack.

People fight over being in the "four" in the sports games. Tennis, bowling, everything is darn cool. He does have a few issues with the amount of space the Wii cursor has to cover sometimes, because of where the bar is placed to calibrate the motion control on the Wii, but 95% of the time, it's just fun.

Big scree and Wii = tons of fun.

Richard

Thanks JM. I just discovered the same thing with some extensive searching. The product I could really use can be found here:

http://www.videogamebundle.com/



I have this wireless sensor bar mounted below my 110" screen and it works great. The Wii itself is in my closet to the left of my seating.

Guy