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Workaround: Run YouTube Videos in Nintendo Wii U Browser Fix

By Jorge Ba-oh (jb)

17515 on 18.12.2012 at 02:09

Workaround: Run YouTube Videos in Nintendo Wii U Browser Fix on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

Frustrated that YouTube videos have stopped working in the Nintendo Wii U browser? There's a quick temporary fix available, and here's how.

Whilst Wii U owners have a dedicated YouTube app with channels, playlists and accounts, a fair few users opted to use the Wii U browser to surf the video website instead. However with YouTube rolling out a brand new look last week, it's prevented users from accessing content.

The fix, is quick to put in place - all you need to do is change "watch" in any video URL to "watch_popup" this launches the current video in it's own window, where you can continue to play as normal.

For example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci6eppaKNCM

Becomes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=ci6eppaKNCM

It's not convenient, but is a nifty temporary fix whilst YouTube airs out the kinks.

We've put together a quick video showing how this workaround works in action:

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Pete (guest) on 18.12.2012 at 02:36#1

Magnificent! Works perfectly. So thankful for this article.

RudyC3 on 18.12.2012 at 11:13#2

/embed works as well.

On the topic of YT videos in the browser, we need a fix now to view them in HD in the browser. Being limited to 360p is an annoyance on a HD system :/...

Cubed3 Limited Staff :: Review and Feature Writer

Xan (guest) on 18.12.2012 at 13:37#3

Yes indeed - you can change the "watch?v=" to "embed/"

Mr James2t3 on 18.12.2012 at 15:04#4

RudyC3 said:
/embed works as well.
On the topic of YT videos in the browser, we need a fix now to view them in HD in the browser. Being limited to 360p is an annoyance on a HD system :/...

The fix is to click the the little cog wheel, like you usually do.

RudyC3 on 18.12.2012 at 17:28#5

Mr James2t3 said:
The fix is to click the the little cog wheel, like you usually do.

I have 480p videos on my YT account, and only resolutions up to 360p are selectable for those... I suspect it might have something to do with not all videos being available in HD in MP4 format (or at least none of those I tried myself). The Wii U browser reads the MP4 file, not the flv since it doesn't support flash.

Cubed3 Limited Staff :: Review and Feature Writer

Mr James2t3 on 18.12.2012 at 21:09#6

RudyC3 said:
Mr James2t3 said:
The fix is to click the the little cog wheel, like you usually do.

I have 480p videos on my YT account, and only resolutions up to 360p are selectable for those... I suspect it might have something to do with not all videos being available in HD in MP4 format (or at least none of those I tried myself). The Wii U browser reads the MP4 file, not the flv since it doesn't support flash.

Well I have noticed it won't display 240p videos (plays audio but no video), I suspect thats some other file format, but I have been able to select 360, 480, 720 and 1080p since launch. Maybe you need to join the HTML5 trial on youtube?

( Edited 18.12.2012 20:10 by Mr James2t3 )

RudyC3 on 19.12.2012 at 00:47#7

Dunno. It's not like I "need" 1080p videos or anything anyway, since I watch them on the Gamepad Smilie . 480p would be nice though, but I won't bother too much about it Smilie . I just wish everything would work fine, effortlessly.