FINALLY: DVD Playback on the Nintendo Wii!

by Bukola Ekundayo on August 13, 2008

in Gaming News

One of the things that frustrates me the most about the Wii is that it won’t play DVDs. I wasn’t aware of this when I purchased the console. You can imagine my shock when my Wii coughed up a DVD without playing it.

My frustrations are over!

A team of Wii coders have developed a solution that will enable the Wii to play DVDs.

By installing a small, hidden channel on a system, this package blesses the console with a libdi file (DVD access library), and allows you to watch your favorite videos with the MPlayer application, an open source media player. – Engadget and Xorsyst

The solution seems simple enough. -1 on Nintendo for not doing this themselves.

UPDATE: You can download the hack on Hackmii.com (Thanks to Nick of bitburo.net for finding it!)

UPDATE 2: NintendoWiiFanboy.com has posted an easy to use Guide to Watching DvDs on the Wii.

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Tagged as: dvd playback, News, nintendo wii

  • Too bad wii is only half of what it can be.
    Lucky for us those guys do a great job.
  • Robin
    Do we really need another object in the house that plays DVDs? I have an 8x12' dorm room with more DVD players than I know what to do with. I have a a 360, a ps3, a laptop, a desktop PC with two DVD burners, a PSP that I can watch movies on, a Cowon player that plays movies, an old iRiver that I hacked to be able to play movies, and a TV with a built in DVD player. the last thing that gamers need is another system (if you can call a wii a system) that plays DVDs.
  • So many devices can play DVDs now. Perhaps, DVD playback is simply a nice -to -have feature? That could be the case. But I feel differently as a consumer. I expect to have DVD playback, especially if I am relying on the Wii for my entertainment [Some people aren't as tech savvy as you are :) .
  • Hey! I very seriously like what you do with your site, because it's the style I'd like to pull in with my blog.

    Great job, and keep it up!
  • Thanks Shaughn. I like what you've done with Geekist. Continue to write about your passions and your audience will come :D
  • Weaver
    I believe you need to pay to royalties for dvd playback, and since Nintendo isn't just some guy working under GNU, obviously did it to keep the wii as cheap as they could, which was their number one priority.
  • BrokenJ
    Why don't you get a cheap dvd player to play dvd movies. The wii is nothing more then a gamecube with motion control.
  • The Wii also have social networking capability. Besides it's cheaper to get the hack then it is to buy a dvd player.
  • MIDItheKID
    The reason Nintendo did not include this is because of their weak DVD lasers. The Wii is not meant to constantly be reading a disc. When a game is in, it spins the disc, loads the data it needs to the memory, then cuts off the laser. Using your Wii to play DVD's puts a whole lot of strain on the disc reader and will severely reduce the life of your console.
  • Then perhaps Nintendo needs to improve the console if what you say is true. It's the only gaming console that doesn't play Dvds. They can do better.
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