Spirit

Didn't know if anyone else was interested in this. I saw that nintendo is releasing a wii with dvd playback capabilities in Japan but the relese on the new system in other teritories is not planned. I saw this on Wikipedia.

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jledesma

I saw that too. Of course at a higher price. Come think of it I don't believe I need a DVD enabled Wii. I have enough DVD players around my home

vagrant

this came from a statement a while back. Noone knows if it is still going to happen, except for nintendo of course.

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ericlewis91

you can buy dvd players for 19.99 or 29.99 on sale like every week so why would i wait for one in the wii...plus the new wii will be more then 300 bucks!

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BlenderWizard

Also, as I've said before, watching movies on game systems, in the past, has been a VERY bad idea. When I used to manage a GameStop, we had people with broken systems come in all the time.

They'd tell us their PS2 or XBOX just quit working. We'd always ask if they'd watched a bunch of movies on it, and 99.9% of the time they'd tell us that they always watched movies on it.

No thanks; I wouldn't chance it. I promptly sold my XBOX DVD playback kit shortly after I started working there.

duancg

Plus you probably want a HD-DVD or BluRay DVD player sooner or later for higher video quality, and Wii is not going to give us that. So just make sure we got a good console.

deity_link

Why do you need a DVD player its a game console sure its convient if you have it but I find my DVD player is alot better than my Xbox or my mates PS2.

Flunk You2

the wii has a dvd drive in it so lets just hope it will be abled soon!!

Dudeman

I have probably a dozen DVD players I ink nintendo assumes that if you're getting a wii you've probably already gotten a DVD player. I'm not saying that a DVD enabled wii wouldn't rock though!

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sracer

Well... Look at what the Wii can already do. Built-in wifi, bluetooth, photo, video, audio playback (files on SD card), email, oh... and it plays games too . Soon it will have a web browser, information portals ("channels").

In contrast to Microsoft's "big splash" noise about making the 360 a multimedia device (and it does a great job), Nintendo is taking a stealth approach to the living room. Depending upon the quality and functionality of the Opera web browser, that feature alone makes the Wii appealing to older non-gamers who simply want access to the web without the complexity of a PC. (The only reason I upgraded my parents to a notebook PC from a WebTV was because the WebTV browser couldn't display many of the latest web pages)

I agree, DVD playback support on the Wii isn't critical, or even very important in the context of a game console. But if Nintendo plans to make it more than "just a game console", then DVD playback is a nice addition.

Flunk You2

so im right that the nintendo wii has a dvd drive?

vagrant

It reads the data off the wii discs in a different way.

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Flunk You2

so am i right that all they have to do is update software and we would be able to watch dvds?

casualimp

[edit - beaten to the punch] So it's not an issue of just releasing a firmware update that will allow the laser to configure to both DVD and Wiidiscs is it?

Oh well... most people have DVD players anyway. Besides, if Nintendo does release a Wii with DVD playback later in `07, they'll probably come out with a new universal Wiimote for you to buy in order to use it like Sony and Microsoft did.

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SLrocket

yes i believe that a driver would make it read DVD movies. 10 bucks on wiishop anyone?

vagrant

Considering it was confirmed that nintendo will be selling a higher priced wii with dvd movie support sometime in the future.

meaning there is no chance in hell they will just have an update that will magically allow you to watch dvd movies on it.

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Supernova

It would be a nice addition, but the Wii really doesn't need a DVD player due to it's currents abilities. Anyway, I already have 2.

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sracer

Not necessarily true. Support for DVD movie playback requires paying a licensing fee to the DVD consortium for each console capable of DVD playback. So part of the reason for the higher priced Wii w/DVD movie support is related to the per-unit fees that Nintendo will need to pay. And Nintendo is simply passing that cost along.

It is in the technical realm of possibility to offer a firmware update to provide DVD movie playback support via the shopping channel. Nintendo would be able to recoup the cost of the licensing via Wii Points.

The issue may be one of security. The DVD Consortium may not be comfortable with the security of Nintendo's online shopping channel. (they may fear that the firmware could be downloaded, ripped, and pirated) But as the shopping channel proves itself, that view will change.

If an internal hardware modification is required for DVD movie playback, then that changes the story entirely.

vagrant

How do they plan to sell a DVD wii for more if you can just buy a normal wii and update it ;/

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sracer

I don't know how Nintendo will market it, but I imagine that they will allow inventory of the non-DVD Wii to dwindle down sometime in mid-07, and release a WiiDVD (or some other name to differentiate it) at a higher pricepoint. I suspect that whatever they did with the DS/DS-Lite and GBA/GBSP, they'll do with the Wii.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a WiiVD selling for $275. $25 more than the current MSRP for the non-DVD Wii. At the same time, they make the DVD Player available for $25/2500 pts. (perhaps less) on the shopping channel.

The net result is that it'll cost us $x more to get DVD playback... either by charging $x on the shopping channel (for existing Wii owners) or by an $x increase on the new WiiVD console.

That is of course if it is available outside of Japan. Initial rumors were Japan-only, then an updated rumor of worldwide, then a correction to Japan-only.

Something makes me think that it is a hardware issue that needs to be addressed to allow DVD-movie playback. (I'd bet that the MPEG-2 decoder chip is not present) Otherwise, Nintendo could simply keep making the Wii as it now is and offer playback for everybody via a for-pay download.