Welcome to 2000: DVD video playback enabled via homebrew!
by JC Fletcher 
{ Aug 13th 2008 at 11:52AM }
Homebrewer Erant has created a program that allows the Wii to read DVDs. It comes bundled with a media player program that lets you play DVD movies as well as view video files stored on an SD card, without any hardware modifications. You still need to be able to run homebrew on your Wii, but that's done easily enough.The commenters in the announcement post seem to be having mixed success with the program, with results ranging from, at best "Excellent! Works like a charm." to "It doesn't seem to play DVDs on my Wii," to the worst possible outcome, "watching Hackers (1995) right now."
As a sort of proof of concept of the new DVD-reading capability for uses other than video, a patch will soon be available for Nintendo 64 emulator Wii64 to allow ROMs to be read from DVDs.
The homebrew community is doing amazing things with the Wii. Have you read about the app that lets you play games from other regions? What about getting Goldeneye to run on Wii? Or you could just use homebrew to get your cheat on. 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
CJC @ Aug 13th 2008 12:04PM
You have excellent taste in DVDs, JC.
Stan @ Aug 13th 2008 12:15PM
and nintendo said it wasnt possible with just and update ha they just wasted millions on creating that dvd-playback enabled wii lol good job nintendo good job(btw that was sarcasm xD)
zchry @ Aug 13th 2008 7:34PM
It probably isn't the safest thing to do. I'm not an expert--it may be fine--but I'd bet that there are/were too many risks in it to release something like this officially.
I mean, if you do this and wreck your Wii, Nintendo has no problem. If they do it and wreck your Wii, they'll be set back $250/profits and stock.
Stanton Honour @ Aug 13th 2008 10:43PM
ah true zchry i thought about that and maybe there is a reason nintendo said that it would take more than an update to read dvds meaning its not that it couldnt be done but without a proper hardware upgrade it could damage your console. : ^I
megapenguinx @ Aug 13th 2008 12:07PM
Freakazoid!!
Josh @ Aug 13th 2008 12:28PM
Nintendo PR Manager Matt Atwood had previously claimed that DVD playback in the Wii "requires more than a firmware upgrade." http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/confirmed-nintendo-to-release-dvd-enabled-wii-in-2007/69689/?biz=1
I always had a feeling he was lying; now I know for sure.
Dan J @ Aug 13th 2008 2:25PM
Read more carefully in the article you linked...
'...and while Atwood told us that it is a software solution, it "requires more than a firmware upgrade."'
So he admits it's software-only. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo released an official DVD player "channel," probably to the tune of $40.
Josh @ Aug 13th 2008 2:29PM
I read the article perfectly carefully, Dan. Homebrew's DVD solution is software only. It does not require "more than a firmware only."
hvnlysoldr @ Aug 13th 2008 3:01PM
As if enabling homebrew in the first place isn't a firmware update?
Josh @ Aug 13th 2008 3:06PM
"More than a firmware update" points strongly toward a hardware requirement.
WiiFTW @ Aug 13th 2008 4:34PM
The reason it takes a hardware upgrade is because of how game consoles read discs. Wii, 360, PS3 all read data, then stop reading. With a DVD Movie, the DVD is constantly read. I've heard that the Wii's drive is not designed to be constantly reading media. PS3 and 360 have drives able to read in both ways (read and stop & continuous reading)
WiiFTW @ Aug 13th 2008 4:35PM
What I meant was read some data, stop, then read more, stop, etc.
Ethan @ Aug 14th 2008 2:48AM
Xbox had a dvd playback kit with the dvd libraries all contained within. And it connected via the xbox controller ports, which are merely USB with a funny plug. They avoided the royalties, and kept the option in their for users who didn't want a separate box.
Onomah @ Aug 13th 2008 12:33PM
Well colour me impressed. I didn't think it was possible without a hardware update, shows what I know. Maybe one day my wii will flicker blue with the promise of a DVD channel.
CJLopez @ Aug 13th 2008 12:39PM
I'd rather like a working n64 emulator than a patch to load roms from dvd. there are a lot of games on 64 i wanna play and are not in VC (Goldeneye and Perfect dark anyone?)
pather @ Aug 13th 2008 12:50PM
I'm not personally running homebrew right now, but it's about freaking time.
Sisyphus @ Aug 13th 2008 1:14PM
lol, how long until a patch renders Homebrew deceased again, shortly followed by the announcement of a DVD channel ($5)?
CalcProgrammer1 @ Aug 13th 2008 1:38PM
When was it ever rendered deceased? Sure, they may have blocked the Twilight Hack, but by then everyone had installed the Homebrew Channel, which was unaffected by the update. Not to mention the Twilight Hack was fixed in no time at all. The only thing truly "broken" was the signing bug, and that only affected modchip users and the Freeloader.
I would hope that they'd get a clue though. Homebrew points out that users actually do want this stuff. Since Nintendo decided to be lazy and put them off as unimportant, the users simply went ahead and made it themselves. Hopefully Nintendo does release a media channel, but if it's just some low end DVD player, I won't be buying it, not after I've seen that mplayer/Geexbox can play DVD, MP3, MPEG, tons of other formats, stream from Internet/network, USB devices, etc. Homebrew has set a high standard for a Wii Media Channel, now it's up to Nintendo to meet or exceed that standard if they want people to buy it.
Sisyphus @ Aug 13th 2008 5:01PM
The fact that people use it to play emulators and ROMs is the reason Nintendo, just like everyone else, refuses to play nice with hackers. Hackers are just enablers for cheap people.
PhoenixGeek @ Aug 13th 2008 1:22PM
I've often wondered how long it would be before Nintendo released a Movie channel as a $10 download. Looks like the homebrew community beat them to it.
Also:
As far as I know the reason DVD playback wasn't built into the Wii initially (other than keeping it gaming centered) was to keep the cost down, as including the DVD player feature would have forced Nintendo to License the technology. Same reason I expected a DVD channel to be released for $10 (or however much it costs to obtain the license to play movies plus a bit of profit).
Garu @ Aug 13th 2008 1:30PM
Freakame! Freakayou!
CalcProgrammer1 @ Aug 13th 2008 1:33PM
I knew it was possible all along to implement a DVD channel. I knew they were lying. Wii discs ARE DVD's, they just have a special etched barcode around the base (some kind of encryption key I guess). Brawl was one of the first games to use a dual-layer DVD. The only thing preventing DVD playback was software. Nintendo was just trying to profit off of consumers' lack of information by making a "DVD enabled" Wii.
The reason they didn't include DVD playback probably had to do with some licensing nonsense. However, we clearly see that it can be done, and it can be done for free. DVD playback is great, though the mplayer port doesn't have good navigation controls yet so I kept getting stuck at the menu (no ENTER button mapping for some reason).
Nathew @ Aug 13th 2008 2:00PM
not only that, they also spin slower than regular DVDs.
James Madley @ Aug 13th 2008 4:52PM
1. Wii discs use a different file system to regular DVDs
2. MPEG-2 playback costs money
3. MPlayer uses a reversed engineered codec for MPEG-2
4. If Nintendo were to implement MPEG-2 encoding without consent they'd lose whatever kerfuffle they'd get into
CalcProgrammer1 @ Aug 13th 2008 5:06PM
MPEG 2 playback *using a licensed decoder* costs money. This is why a for-sale or commercial distribution of DVD software costs money. If Nintendo did it, they'd have to pay. Luckily, some open source enthusiasts figured out how MPEG 2 worked and wrote a free decoder. Since the legality of said decoder is questionable in some areas, commercial distributors tend to stay away from it.
However, it's been around for a long time. I've been using DVD players and libdvdcss in Linux for a few years now. As far as I know, nobody has bothered to go after this unofficial DVD software. In reality, it works just as well, so even if Nintendo doesn't ever release a DVD program (which I doubt they will), we got the homebrew implementations. I'd think that eventually someone will write a homebrew media channel with DVD support and a nice GUI. That will be just as good as any Nintendo-made player.
Now I'm wondering if it can do audio CD's. I've heard mixed responses on this. I thought that the GameCube was capable of reading both DVD and CD formats, though someone on HackMii said that the Wii drive can only read DVD due to optical limitations. However, I'm pretty sure that the old Datel GameCube products (Action Replay, SD Media Launcher, etc) were CD media and not DVD, and those worked on the Wii up until last August's update (forget the number).
splazzatch @ Aug 13th 2008 1:54PM
I think this will force nintendo's hand to release a "firmware update" that will allow a dvd playback channel and kill homebrew then release the dvd channel for a few dollars....
BTW: I don't homebrew....I don't want to risk it.
CalcProgrammer1 @ Aug 13th 2008 2:08PM
At this point, I feel that Nintendo's hopes of "killing homebrew" are all but dead. Homebrew has come a long way in the past few months, and soon someone will find a way to patch the Wii Menu to prevent future updates. There are two ways to update the Wii Menu (and possibly destroy homebrew): First is choosing to update when you get a Wiimail from Nintendo or using the Wii Menu options and second is a forced update from a new game. The first option is ...well, optional, so you can ignore it. The second can be avoided by not playing any new games, but since this is usually unfeasible, homebrewers may try to find the hook in the menu that triggers the update and destroy it, possibly allowing the game to copy a new IOS but not allowing it to update the current menu. That way, the menu will be unaffected while the game will still play.
As of now, I'm on 3.2. I chose not to update to 3.3 unless absolutely necessary. My Wii is used more for homebrew than gaming these days, so I saw no reason to update.
Metayoshi @ Aug 13th 2008 2:09PM
Nice! I love the Homebrew scene... It consists of people who actually want to use the Wii's potential! Not to say official developers don't (The Conduit is a prime example of a developer who wants to utilize the Wii's potential), but this is pure awesome!
I just tested out the software, and it worked perfectly fine with my Wii (US firmware 3.3). I put in Batman Begins since it was the first DVD I could grab, and it worked perfectly fine. It played pretty smoothly as well. I haven't tested watching a full length movie yet, but this is in pretty good shape as it is!
Rocketboy @ Aug 13th 2008 2:12PM
Sorry, did I just stumble on WiiHateBoy.com?
Dig @ Aug 13th 2008 2:40PM
???
Color me confused.
Rocketboy @ Aug 13th 2008 3:34PM
"Welcome to 2000: DVD video playback"
Ian @ Aug 13th 2008 2:14PM
Sooooo.. next up is external USB hard drive storage for saves and WiiWare?
Taedirk @ Aug 13th 2008 2:51PM
They already have USB drives working, which is more than you can say for anything official.
andy @ Aug 13th 2008 2:54PM
I'm not entirely sure what to do to install this. What I think I should do is move the installer.dol file to a folder in the apps folder of my sd card and rename it boot.dol, and then run it through the homebrew channel. And then with the mplayer folder in my apps folder, just go ahead and run the mplayer boot.dol from the HBC menu. Is this the right way to do this? I guess I'm just confused because I've never had to run an installer first, and I'm a little hesitant because this is new and I don't want a big ol white brick next to my tv (which fortunately doesn't seem to be the case)
CalcProgrammer1 @ Aug 13th 2008 5:10PM
It's easy to install.
Put your SD card into your PC, open the Apps directory, and make a new folder. Call it whatever you want, say, "dvdinstaller". Then put the install.dol file in this folder and rename it to "boot.dol". Also copy the mplayer folder to the apps directory. Now pop in the SD card, load up Homebrew Channel, and run the dvdinstaller. You'll get a text console with options of "Basic" "PatchMii" (or something like that), and "Advanced". If you have an unmodded console, just use Basic. If you have a modchip, use Patch. Don't use Advanced. It will install, then pick Exit to go back to the Channel. Now open mplayer, pop in a DVD, and select play DVD.
Ethan @ Aug 13th 2008 3:28PM
I want a gorram channel.
Mr Khan @ Aug 13th 2008 4:55PM
Could be the driving force to inspire me to install homebrew channel, as it's exactly what i was waiting for.
CaptainBoosh @ Aug 13th 2008 4:58PM
How can people still not get this? It's a simple licensing issue. Just because a homebrewer added it for free does not make it legal. You have to pay a royalty or license fee to enable MPEG playback (what DVD video does), and the cost to Nintendo would not be worth it because who even frickin cares about DVD playback on the Wii?
Even if the license was a mere $10 (and they usually charge per device), that would already hit Nintendo's bottom line for a sweet $200 million (just thinking about the 20 million consoles sold so far). Is that worth it so a handful (literally) of people can watch movies on the system?
Look at Microsoft getting hit and losing over a billion $$ lawsuit with Alcatel Lucent over MP3 playback and encoding. they had even paid the licensing fees to the company who held the rights to MP3 at the time but because of company buyouts and a bad patent system, they still had to pay up. Ninty knows what's best for the bottom line, and useless features that cost them millions aren't worth it.
CaptainBoosh @ Aug 13th 2008 4:59PM
How can people still not get this? It's a simple licensing issue. Just because a homebrewer added it for free does not make it legal. You have to pay a royalty or license fee to enable MPEG playback (what DVD video does), and the cost to Nintendo would not be worth it because who even frickin cares about DVD playback on the Wii?
Even if the license was a mere $10 (and they usually charge per device), that would already hit Nintendo's bottom line for a sweet $200 million (just thinking about the 20 million consoles sold so far). Is that worth it so a handful (literally) of people can watch movies on the system?
Look at Microsoft getting hit and losing over a billion $$ lawsuit with Alcatel Lucent over MP3 playback and encoding. they had even paid the licensing fees to the company who held the rights to MP3 at the time but because of company buyouts and a bad patent system, they still had to pay up. Ninty knows what's best for the bottom line, and useless features that cost them millions aren't worth it.
Wiiboy @ Aug 13th 2008 5:05PM
Um, I have this pop up in my HBC menu, and I can start it, and I can click on "Play DVD" but, when I do.....nothing happens. Am I just not being patient enough?
andy @ Aug 14th 2008 1:38PM
Be patient. It takes over a minute to load for me. The first time I did it, I pressed play, but nothing happened, so I went back to my computer to go bitch about it on the interwebs, but before I could I heard it playing in the other room.
Garst @ Aug 13th 2008 6:47PM
I loved that show! But I never got to watch it much because of church. Who puts great shows on Sundays anyways?
aznstorm @ Aug 13th 2008 9:16PM
I was under the impression that Wii64 can't emulate at full speed (yet)... it'd be nice if the DVD-read functionality was implemented into something more global, the Homebrew Channel.
bug frawg @ Aug 17th 2008 8:06PM
I'd rather nintendo issue an official update to allow dvd playback than take a chance that ninty might disable the unofficial player.
Andreas @ Aug 18th 2008 4:16AM
The proper thing to do for Nintendo would be to release a revamped Wii console with HD output and BluRay movie support. To release a DVD player in 2009 seems like a very odd idea. And I hope that's why the DVD Wii project has been stopped.
Even though the drive is designed to read data and not movies it seems strange for me that there are drives that could be damaged by reading constantly for 2 hours at a time. What kind of drive developer would develop a drive that is not capable of reading constantly? Any computer drive would be designed for this since people play music and movies on computer nowadays. What is the Wii drive any different?