Quote:
|
Originally Posted by highroller
Our beloved Wii games are DVD discs, and to play them the Wii needs to read the DVD. So a DVD player in my opinion is possible with a firmware upgrade that adds a new channel.
|
Wii game discs are Optical Discs like DVD discs, and they use the same laser and wavelength, however there bit arrangements are different from each other.
What does that mean? It means that DVD format is more than just the laser's wavelength and layers on a disc, it is also means that those engraved notches, those 1's and 0's we call bits, are arranged in a format that the drive controller arranges into "sectors" to be delivered to the calling software. The optical medium is the same, but the bit/byte arrangement is different. Keep in mind that the drive and it's controller is separate hardware from the Wii console, and some sort of medium to communicate between the two, so generally the only way to update a drives controller is by flashing the drive itself. something that to my understand the Wii's optical drive did not include as an option for obvious security reasons.
So why did Nintendo omit true DVD functionality? DVD hardware is cheap as it is overly-massed produced, however the DVD format is patented and requires license to use, that is right, those who invented want compensation for it's usage. To save production costs, the idea was to continue to omit the DVD format, as done with the GameCube, from the drive's controller upon launch of the Wii.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by highroller
You can even make a copy of the dvd game into a blank dvd ( it won't play in non modified Wii's) but it is a DVD for sure
|
Yes, the Computer's DVD-ROM's are optical disc drives, and most modern computers contain awesome flash upgradeable options and advanced calls to there controller to allow almost unlimited functionality.
The Wii's optical drive does not allow such flexibility, as it could be used to pirate software more easily, and it's design intended to make a pirates life as difficult as possible. With that in mind, The Wii mod-chips are soldiered to the drive itself, using a hidden "backdoor" that allows more direct access - almost identical to that of the GameCube. This means that since we have direct access to the hardware we can read the bit arrangements into any sector format the mod-chip can conceive, and thus you have DVD functionality. This is why Nintendo claims to need more than a firmware update to add DVD playback, because access to this "backdoor" isn't easily obtainable by software and requires the drive itself to support the DVD format.
Simple said, same hardware different format, and unless someone can figure out a hack to bypass the limitations of the current drive controller or Nintendo releases Wii with DVD playback built-in - it's just not happening at this time.
Yes, it's the original NES Japanese Power Glove where someone has removed the original code entry joy-pad and replaced it with a matching black Wii-Remote. It's great.
Linear Mode
