Okay so hopefully I explain this right. Let's say I want to use "Wii Mode" on my Wii U to play Mario Galaxy or something. The Gamepad isn't used at all during Wii Mode right? Now normally the headphones currently available for the Wii U plug into the Gamepad. So my question...is there a way to use headphones on the Wii U, while in Wii Mode? I do a lot of gaming at night so it's important to know if there is a way or not.

That's a good quandry to pose... I don't think it would work because sound comes purely from the speakers of the TV. The gamepad shuts off when you go into Wii Mode. So, as far as I know there isn't a way to do that

It seems insane that they wouldn't allow you to send a copy of the screen out to the controller and play Wii games off that.

Why not plug the headphones into your receiver or TV directly?

The Wii U Gamepad turns completely off while you are in Wii Mode so no, it wont work.

@Chavtheworld said:

It seems insane that they wouldn't allow you to send a copy of the screen out to the controller and play Wii games off that.

That would've been fantastic.

@MikkaQ said:

Why not plug the headphones into your receiver or TV directly?

My TV doesn't have a headphone jack. :-(

@Chavtheworld said:

It seems insane that they wouldn't allow you to send a copy of the screen out to the controller and play Wii games off that.

No it doesn't. If that were the case, you'd still have to reposition the Wii Remote sensor in such a way to line up with the GamePad screen, which is in itself an awkward proposition.

The Wii U's Wii Mode is nothing more than an emulated Wii environment. It behaves exactly like the Wii; nothing more, nothing less.

@kishinfoulux: Then all I can recommend is that you spend 15 bucks or so on something like this and something like this

That way you can plug the Wii U directly into the headphone amp and you get volume control for your headphones. This is assuming the Wii U is as capable as a PS3 in the sense that you can do HDMI video out with RCA audio out at the same time, but let's not kid ourselves, this is Nintendo.

If you're just plugging in via HDMI, then you'll probably have to drop a couple hundred bucks on an HDMI receiver to plug your headphones into. Not really worth it if that's all you want to do with it.

@Chavtheworld said:

It seems insane that they wouldn't allow you to send a copy of the screen out to the controller and play Wii games off that.

it's not about "not allowing" you, it's about how the backwards compatibility works,which is turning the system into a Wii for 100% accurate "emulation."

@kishinfoulux: you'll have to plug your headset into your TV or stereo, depending on where your sound comes from if you're using Wii Mode. like with any other system.

@Hailinel said:

@Chavtheworld said:

It seems insane that they wouldn't allow you to send a copy of the screen out to the controller and play Wii games off that.

No it doesn't. If that were the case, you'd still have to reposition the Wii Remote sensor in such a way to line up with the GamePad screen, which is in itself an awkward proposition.

The Wii U's Wii Mode is nothing more than an emulated Wii environment. It behaves exactly like the Wii; nothing more, nothing less.

What?

@DeF said:

@Chavtheworld said:

It seems insane that they wouldn't allow you to send a copy of the screen out to the controller and play Wii games off that.

it's not about "not allowing" you, it's about how the backwards compatibility works,which is turning the system into a Wii for 100% accurate "emulation."

I didn't mean it was in there and they aren't letting you use it, I mean it's extremely lazy of them not to improve it. If they can do it with NSMBWU which is more technically demanding then it's not impossible to add a layer on top of Wii emulation to add a feature. Have you ever seen emulators on the PC? Generally they improve the experience.

@Chavtheworld said:

@Hailinel said:

@Chavtheworld said:

It seems insane that they wouldn't allow you to send a copy of the screen out to the controller and play Wii games off that.

No it doesn't. If that were the case, you'd still have to reposition the Wii Remote sensor in such a way to line up with the GamePad screen, which is in itself an awkward proposition.

The Wii U's Wii Mode is nothing more than an emulated Wii environment. It behaves exactly like the Wii; nothing more, nothing less.

What?

@DeF said:

@Chavtheworld said:

It seems insane that they wouldn't allow you to send a copy of the screen out to the controller and play Wii games off that.

it's not about "not allowing" you, it's about how the backwards compatibility works,which is turning the system into a Wii for 100% accurate "emulation."

I didn't mean it was in there and they aren't letting you use it, I mean it's extremely lazy of them not to improve it. If they can do it with NSMBWU which is more technically demanding then it's not impossible to add a layer on top of Wii emulation to add a feature. Have you ever seen emulators on the PC? Generally they improve the experience.

Now you go and throw the word lazy around without understanding how things work. I put the word "emulation" in quotation marks because it isn't really emulating things, it is basically the original thing. Which is why there are no extra features. Which is also why there is no Wii U features available in Wii Mode. The system is rebooting when you switch, you're not just starting an emulator from the menu and that's that. Nintendo tends to go for perfect "emulation", rather than just throwing things out there which is also why one of the main reasons why there was no day-1 Virtual Console on Wii U with all the games available on the Wii VC. They have do rework all that stuff to run on Wii U and work with Off-TV Play like everybody wants it to.

PC emulators do have a lot of nice features, sure. But the question is can they emulate every game made for the system being emulated with 100% accuracy? No (or very rarely, in case I'm not aware of one that does). (Notice the italicized word)

Regarding your "What?" question to Hailinel, he means that if you emulate a Wii game like Mario Galaxy you need the Wii Remote and using that with the gamepad means you need to use the IR pointer with the GamePad's integrated sensor bar which is technically possible but very very awkward.

@DeF said:

@Chavtheworld said:

@Hailinel said:

@Chavtheworld said:

It seems insane that they wouldn't allow you to send a copy of the screen out to the controller and play Wii games off that.

No it doesn't. If that were the case, you'd still have to reposition the Wii Remote sensor in such a way to line up with the GamePad screen, which is in itself an awkward proposition.

The Wii U's Wii Mode is nothing more than an emulated Wii environment. It behaves exactly like the Wii; nothing more, nothing less.

What?

@DeF said:

@Chavtheworld said:

It seems insane that they wouldn't allow you to send a copy of the screen out to the controller and play Wii games off that.

it's not about "not allowing" you, it's about how the backwards compatibility works,which is turning the system into a Wii for 100% accurate "emulation."

I didn't mean it was in there and they aren't letting you use it, I mean it's extremely lazy of them not to improve it. If they can do it with NSMBWU which is more technically demanding then it's not impossible to add a layer on top of Wii emulation to add a feature. Have you ever seen emulators on the PC? Generally they improve the experience.

Now you go and throw the word lazy around without understanding how things work. I put the word "emulation" in quotation marks because it isn't really emulating things, it is basically the original thing. Which is why there are no extra features. Which is also why there is no Wii U features available in Wii Mode. The system is rebooting when you switch, you're not just starting an emulator from the menu and that's that. Nintendo tends to go for perfect "emulation", rather than just throwing things out there which is also why one of the main reasons why there was no day-1 Virtual Console on Wii U with all the games available on the Wii VC. They have do rework all that stuff to run on Wii U and work with Off-TV Play like everybody wants it to.

PC emulators do have a lot of nice features, sure. But the question is can they emulate every game made for the system being emulated with 100% accuracy? No (or very rarely, in case I'm not aware of one that does). (Notice the italicized word)

Regarding your "What?" question to Hailinel, he means that if you emulate a Wii game like Mario Galaxy you need the Wii Remote and using that with the gamepad means you need to use the IR pointer with the GamePad's integrated sensor bar which is technically possible but very very awkward.

In regards to my lazy comment, I'm sorry but that's just how I see the Wii U. It seems like there are too many areas in which it could have been improved (UI speed, possible Wii improvements) for it to be excusable. Saying Nintendo goes for "perfect" emulation is a very relaxed way to use the word perfect, considering the DS emulation on the standard 3DS. And PC emulators as you say (at least for current systems) aren't often 100% accurate (although if you're willing to consider as far back as the SNES, ZSnes or Snes9X are pretty impressive) but they are all software based. I was using them more as an example of how its not impossible to improve the experience of playing an old game with better hardware, rather than just recreate it. And I don't think the Wii U's Wii emulation being hardware based should be any excuse for that. And accusing me of "not understanding how things work" is unfounded.

And the "what" statement, well I guess it depends what Wii game you are playing, as far as I remember there were a few which didn't need much of the point at the screen stuff. If you didn't want to pick up star bits you can play Galaxy without ever pointing at the TV right?

@Hailinel said:

@Chavtheworld But if you want to play Trauma Center, you have to use the pointer all the time.

Damn! Alright, you win.

@MikkaQ said:

@kishinfoulux: Then all I can recommend is that you spend 15 bucks or so on something like this and something like this

That way you can plug the Wii U directly into the headphone amp and you get volume control for your headphones. This is assuming the Wii U is as capable as a PS3 in the sense that you can do HDMI video out with RCA audio out at the same time, but let's not kid ourselves, this is Nintendo.

If you're just plugging in via HDMI, then you'll probably have to drop a couple hundred bucks on an HDMI receiver to plug your headphones into. Not really worth it if that's all you want to do with it.

Yeah I believe I plug my Wii U in with HDMI.

Is this what you're referring to when you mean an HDMI receiver? http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-TX-SR313-5-1-Channel-Theater-Receiver/dp/B0077V8930/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1357581750&sr=8-5&keywords=hdmi+receiver

Been looking everywhere for an answer to this, and hear it is on my favorite gaming site.

This truly is a bummer. I moved my WiiU to the office to catch up on a few Wii games I bought and never finished. And of course my monitors have no speakers. I have a couple pairs of headsets that work fine for WiiU games, but no sound in Wii mode is lame. I guess maybe they will resolve this with a patch, but with Nintendo's approach to patching I am not holding my breath.