April 25, 2008
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Review: X-OOM Media Center for Nintendo Wii
I seriously wanted this to work. Not just because it turned out to be a $39.99 waste of my money but because the concept was so very cool. Watch any movie, video, dvd, image file, or listen to AAC, mp3, and other audio on your tv by linking your wii wirelessly via WLAN to your PC? Wow! I saw it in the shop, I decided to take a chance on it without first doing an online review check. I got burned.
I, like many other people who have bought this product (see the reviews on the UK amazon site: http://www.amazon.co.uk/X-oom-Media-Centre-for-Wii/dp/3828786979 ), found that it installed alright but that was where the proper functioning ended and the headaches began.
Once I got to the stage where the program began to scan my folders where directed for media files to make available to the wii, the program crashed during the scanning process. It managed to upload about 16 mp3 files (which worked) in total it crashed. Every subsequent attempt at scanning also crashed and the program would shut down. Furthermore, when I attemped to click the “search for updates” option, it gave me an error message and was unable to connect to the x-oom server. The support file included is in Italian (not English) and is merely a rehash of the included manual. Finally, other people who have attempted to contact the company for support have been met with unanswered e-mails. Please do check the Amazon UK site’s reviews; you’ll find many have had similar issues to what I’ve included here.
I have a Sony VAIO laptop, 2.5ghz core 2 duo, with 2GB ram, plenty of HD space, and Vista Business: specs that exceed what is necessary for proper functioning of the program.
Now, here’s the worst insult: The box looks fairly innocuous without any indication that what is included is merely an installation disc for your pc, which never touches your Wii. As a result, you cannot tell that this program is such that it may be installed once and the disc will never be needed again. This means that since the disc is actually unnecessary for proper functioning of the program, MANY RETAILERS WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO RETURN THE PROGRAM FOR REFUND if it doesn’t work (as it didn’t for me), nor exchange it for another wii game (and it has a low buy-back value), nor exchange it for store credit. I include this warning not knowing if it applies to Amazon.com, but that it is the case with many prominent game retailers such as EB Games (I originally posted this review to Amazon.com, but I bought it and tried to return it to EB Games: all they would do is offer me a replacement disc of the very same defective program!). Their justification is that they cannot tell if you’ve simply installed it successfully and decided to return the disc for money, keeping a working install on your computer. My advice: AVOID THIS LIKE THE PLAGUE. Some people have been able to install it and have it work properly, but it’s a roll of the dice whether you will be one of these lucky souls.
That’s $39.99 of hard-earned money down the drain for a useless piece of cyberjunk.
