Want to watch DVDs on your Wii? Let us show you how!

by David Hinkle { Aug 13th 2008 at 5:25PM }

So, you want to watch your favorite movie or television show on your Wii? It's not as hard as you would think! Thanks to the recent developments in the homebrew community, you only need a few simple files and you're ready to rock some DVDs on your console. So, without further delay, let's get you started!

Click here for our DVD guide >>

Tags: dvd, dvd-on-wii, dvd-playback-on-wii, homebrew, joystiqfeatures, watch-movies-on-wii

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mr Khan @ Aug 13th 2008 5:30PM

Thing is, i'm going to wait a few weeks to see if the speculation about long-term damage to the disc-drives amounts to anything

Since Wii isn't meant to read discs in that manner, like others have said, the drive may be up to it short-term (since i've seen it work like a dog loading scenes from Radiant Dawn), but where does that leave you aways down the road?

JohnnyW @ Aug 13th 2008 7:26PM

http://hackmii.com/2008/08/libdi-and-the-dvdx-installer/
Please go to post 35

The Wii's Disc drive is a fairly standard DVD drive,with a standard DVD laser. Standard DVD lasers do not deteriorate reading DVD's.

Mr Khan @ Aug 13th 2008 7:36PM

Thank you for directing me to that

I'd get on this immediately, except that my free time has been at a premium since i started actually working this summer

steve @ Aug 13th 2008 5:35PM

won't this be bad for the laser?

CalcProgrammer1 @ Aug 13th 2008 7:55PM

MYTH BUSTED like a long time ago. The Wii DVD laser is an ordinary disc drive laser. These things don't just go bad for no reason. It's pretty much an advanced LED anyways, and laser diodes have very long lifespans. The mechanical parts shouldn't wear out playing DVD's, in fact, the read head mechanism probably gets more wear from seeking back and forth across game discs than the linear one-track path it has to take to read a DVD. The only thing that runs longer is the spinning motor (which I'm thinking runs all the time, as you can hear the Wii spinning even when games have finished loading or aren't doing anything) and the laser diode.

steve @ Aug 13th 2008 8:08PM

good to know. might have to give this a try

SyN DracuL @ Aug 13th 2008 5:39PM

now that this has been done on Homebrew, I wonder how long it will take Nintendo to issue an update making it possible...or if they will

Tim Parsons @ Aug 13th 2008 6:00PM

i'll stick to watching videos(movies/shows) on my PS3 upscaled to 1080 stored on my 500GB USB External HDD

James Madley @ Aug 14th 2008 5:10AM

No problem, I'll just watch my movies off SD and DVD (and HDD eventually) upscaled to 1080p on my Wii.

coast19 @ Aug 13th 2008 6:07PM

Ah yes, if there is anything the ps3 is good for it's good for upscaling movies from a external HDD and Dvd's.

ryan @ Aug 13th 2008 7:14PM

But why not just... use a DVD player? Or one of the PS systems that support DVDs?

I think that the idea of this is way cooler than the practice. It's fascinating that this team has been able to unlock and program so many interesting apps that the community really responds to.

It's equally interesting that the big N doesn't make any moves to respond to (or, hello, officially integrate?) any of this Twilight Hack business. The only response that we've seen so far is that one half-assed attempt at a patch that lasted like thirty seconds. Doesn't anybody else find that weird?

NutMac @ Aug 13th 2008 7:36PM

I guess watching DVDs via Wii is sufficient for casual viewers (e.g., bedroom/kitchen), but I would like to have better usability (remote optimized for DVD viewing), discrete digital surround sound, and 1080p scaling. So I will pass.

lonesomefolly @ Aug 13th 2008 7:45PM

cool as this might be, I keep my wii on top of my dvd player :P
and wouldn't this screw up the reader over time?

CalcProgrammer1 @ Aug 13th 2008 8:00PM

>.<

The Wii uses an ordinary DVD mechanism, just like any other DVD reading device. The only real difference is the controller chip that can read the embedded barcode on Wii discs and the fact that it is slot loading.

I'd actually think that playing game discs wears out the mechanical parts more than DVD. While a DVD runs the laser longer, games constantly seek the head back and forth over the disc, reading and re-reading things at the beginning, seeking to the location of a map or model, seeking to game code, seeking back to other things. The head goes back and forth a lot when playing games. On a DVD, it simply starts at the inner part of the disc and slowly advances to the outer edge (assuming you watch the movie from start to finish). It might move back to the start halfway (on a dual layer disc when it switches layers) but at most it will move the full distance twice in a movie, compared to the many many times it will during a game.

aneurysmi @ Aug 13th 2008 7:53PM

BGFTW.

TheOverlord#2 can has Animals Crossing? @ Aug 13th 2008 8:09PM

Although my set-up in my room is:
Nunchuck&CC-Wii-wiimote Charger
VCR
DVD Player,
I'll probably get the homebrew channel tomorrow and with the other apps I chose include the DVD Player...just to see how it's like.

1UPMASTER @ Aug 13th 2008 9:15PM

i keep getting an error message. i get everything working up to the point where i run backwards. when it loads, i get a message saying "No code .elf found, hanging" or something to that degree. how do i overcome this?

1UPMASTER @ Aug 13th 2008 9:17PM

i need help. after i run backwards, i get a message saying "No code found, hanging" or something to that degree. how do i fix this?

sn1per @ Aug 14th 2008 11:13AM

There's a bit of a problem with the twilight hack, in that it doesn't like all SD cards for some reason. Make sure your card is formatted in FAT16, and if that doesn't work, try a different SD card.

Gareth @ Aug 13th 2008 10:09PM

BSG :D

SImpression @ Aug 13th 2008 10:58PM

It works perfectly for me, I'm watching HP5 :P

chris webster @ Aug 13th 2008 11:17PM

works like a charm

taylor @ Aug 13th 2008 11:22PM

done. takes forever to read them though

sp2vwj @ Aug 14th 2008 12:18AM

@1UPMASTER

You need to copy over all the files from the sd to the wii save area and also keep the boot.elf file in the main folder of your sd card.

MasterWolf @ Aug 14th 2008 12:41AM

I used it to play Batman Begins, it worked pretty well, just waited a while for it to load the movie, but I could not figure out how to go into the menu, or if you can.

jackass1 @ Aug 14th 2008 1:54PM

Found a potential problem with this hack. The cooling fan is NOT running during DVD play. My Wii was running EXTREMELY hot after an hour watching a full movie, then I looked at the back and found that the fan was on idle, similar to when you're running a VC game or Internet Channel.

I recommend getting one of those external cooling fans that connects to the USB, just in case your Wii fails due to overheating. I guess there's finally a reason to get one of those things.