Review: WODE Jukebox

[PSPSwampy]

Been a while since i posted something more than my opinion or comment on news, but hey here's a nice review for you...

I, like many others, have been eagerly awaiting the production release of the WODE Jukebox Wii UBER mod chip



I'm sure I'm not the first to have received and installed the device, but hope the following helps you decide if you want to go this route, and maybe include some tips that may save you some some frustration.

Packaging / Product quality / Initial Impression:-
Ok, so today a package was delivered from the official UK distributor of the WODE must admit the packaging wasn't too awe inspiring, but once opened a very nicely produced product was found. I've ordered a few mod's in the past and I gotta say, the quality/time these guys have put into their product is by far the best i've seen.
The only downside being that there were no instructions included, but a quick visit to the download page of wodejukebox.com and I'm all set...

Installation:-
Installation is actually very easy once you get into the Wii the instructions are clear and as long as you are careful (see tips 1-3) you shouldn't have any problems.
The worst bit is putting everything back together due to the size of the WODE stand (see tip4).

TIP1: Use a few pieces of paper to keep track of all the screws, or you could end up putting the wrong ones back and ruining the threads.

TIP2: The instructions require you to remove the screw for the 'Battery cover' which is located on the left side of the console at the front bottom - Unfortunately I had real problems removing this particular screw and actually gave up in the end. The mod CAN be installed without too much problem even if this screw is left in. This screw simply holds the metal heat cage, if you've been able to remove all other screws the cage can actually be bent (carefully) out of the way.

TIP3: When you're installing the WODE bridge board inside the Wii, carefully remove one of the black cable 'ties' that are on the power cable to allow it to sit flat.

TIP4: In hindsight I should have opened up the WODE stand and disconnected the main (long) ribbon cable from inside it before attempting toeven open the Wii!

Powering on for the first time:-
I downloaded the latest firmware from the site (v1.25) and extracted this to my SD card and had this sitting in the WODE when i first powered up - The wode sprang into life as expected and started updating itself. The update took a few mins, but went through without a hitch.

Following a reboot, the Wii powered on and booted up to the normal Wii menu, no settings are lost and everything looks fine.

I then setup the WODE options for my console, navigation on the WODE menu is nice and easy move the joystick to the right to select an option, left to go back - easy as pie.

TIP: Make sure you review the user manual for what the individual options actually do - some of them were not what i expected.

Booting a Wii DISK:-
WODE should either be put into FLAT mode manually, or you should change the config to use this as default.
Disks seem to boot up without any issues what-so-ever, as you would expect!

Booting an ISO backup (of a disk you own):-
Insert a USB flash drive / Harddrive or an SD card and use the WODE menu to select a game. Once selected the game will appear in the Wii menu's Disk channel (or will boot automatically if you don't change the settings). Load the game as you would normally.

Future possibilities:-
The WODE team have stated on their site that they are hoping to release an updated firmware that will allow you to make backups of your disks directly from the Wii without any need for Homebrew channel or long processes on the PC - this can only be a good thing!
Because the WODE is linux based, there are huge possibilities for future updates!

'Nintendo Proof':-
Because of the way the WODE works, it is highly unlikely that any future firmware updates to the Wii can prevent it from working. The team claim it is impossible, but I'd say highly unlikely!

Conclusion / Rating:-
In conclusion, so far I'm very happy with the WODE Jukebox and am interested to see what the future for this product holds.
I'd give it a 8/10 rating
The reason this isn't a 10/10 is because of the following:-
1. I've only had it 6 hours and can't claim to have tested it fully or with many games.
2. The stand is nicely made, but I prefer to have my Wii laying flat - which isn't an option anymore. Although it might be possible to run the WODE cable a different route - but obviously you still need to have the stand pretty close to the Wii.

Hope this helps someone out.

PSPSwampy.

[PS3 News]

Thanks for the review PSPSwampy and +Rep! We actually never got our promised review sample, so although it sounds like a decent mod we never got to "officially" review it.

[shummyr]

nice review, you have made me want to buy one now to use

Awesome Review as Always PSPSwampy!

[Starlight]

Nice review on this for the wii, but never owned a wii and not sure if i will but my sister has one, maybe use it as a guinea pig.. hehe.. she would kill me if that happened.

[plains203]

Given the ease of the softmod and the cost of the WODE I think it will probably not be that popular. They will need to make a way for you to easily rip your own games to storage as well or it won't be very appealing. Also how does it go with games that use the BDA code for protection?

[PSPSwampy]

Re Ripping - latest news from their forum is that a firmware update is VERY close to allow this.

Re BCA - there are instructions on their website, basically you need to create a 64k .bca file (from the image) with the same name (bar the extension) and put it on the storage device in the same location - job done, easy as pie. Can't remember the full instructions right now, but it's pretty straight forward.

[dorienasder]

Nice Review, but I think I prefer the softmod, too. The biggest drawback of the wode is that you have to get up and select the game manually on the tiny screen. With a softmodded Wii I can switch games from the sofa using the Wiimote, with some awesome looking loader like wiiflow to boot. That and I also prefer my Wii lying flat.

[darker70]

Hi there,

Well i've gone and bricked my Wii took it from 3.2e to 4.1e useing Wanikoko's upgrader, but i did install bootmii to IOS,but stupidly not preloader that was next on my agenda but i had to have a fiddle and bam!! she bricked before i sort semi bricked proofed my Wii,oh yeah backed my nand as well.

So am i right in assuming that Wode will sort out my bricked hard modded Wiikey2 Wii. as i'm not getting anything to load even though savemiifrii method gets me to the firmware screen, Now if i could just autoboot discs. i'm sure i'll be free of my banner brick useing Zelda, indy, nand restore etc.

Sorry if this is off track or if too many this seems obvious and hopefully will sort out my Wii,and to boot have a really cool mod that is to all purposes futureproof and brickproof any help greatly appreciated as i'm just about to order one before they run out of stock.

Thanks again.

[dorienasder]

Well i've gone and bricked my Wii took it from 3.2e to 4.1e useing Wanikoko's upgrader, but i did install bootmii to IOS,but stupidly not preloader that was next on my agenda but i had to have a fiddle and bam!! she bricked before i sort semi bricked proofed my Wii,oh yeah backed my nand as well.

So am i right in assuming that Wode will sort out my bricked hard modded Wiikey2 Wii. as i'm not getting anything to load even though savemiifrii method gets me to the firmware screen, Now if i could just autoboot discs. i'm sure i'll be free of my banner brick useing Zelda, indy, nand restore etc.

Sorry if this is off track or if too many this seems obvious and hopefully will sort out my Wii,and to boot have a really cool mod that is to all purposes futureproof and brickproof any help greatly appreciated as i'm just about to order one before they run out of stock.

Err, no, WODE will not unbrick your Wii. The WODE just emulates the Wii Disc Drive, it can not restore your Wii's software if you destroyed it. Your mistake was not to follow a current guide. Every current guide will tell you that since the 4.2 update, Nintendo serves a stubbed IOS60 from their update server. And thus using old tools like waninkoko's 4.0/4.1 updater or IOS60installer brick your Wii because IOS60 is the system IOS for 4.0/4.1 and if it's stubbed your Wii is bricked for good unless you can restore a NAND backup. Preloader wouldn't have helped you, it needs a working system IOS too.

... Okay, I see the merit of WODE now. Of course, if you don't know what you're doing and don't inform yourself beforehand, both softmodding and installing a hardware mod chip can be dangerous, but botching up the Hardware installation is less likely than accidentally following some outdated, dangerous guide you found somewhere on the net.

[darker70]

Thanks for the reply

So as i can not boot am i well and truly stuffed,could i use the recovery mode to update to 4.2 useing an original region disc this is my last resort. as my Wii up to bricking was running 4.1 flawlessly i just thought i'd used a bad wad which then gave me the banner brick?

So would a WODE allow me to do this as in get to recovery mode then would it emulate the drive image/game/disc and update firmware? Or is this a viable option in my situation as i have nothing to lose as i'm bricked anyway?

Or is a nand restore my only hope as it was boot2 CIOS is that a full and viable backup if i could get it restored somehow?

any help appreciated.