Wii DVD? 720p?

Not that its a big deal or anything cause it wasn't their intentions in the first place, but considering the Wii already has a DVD drive, wouldn't it be possible for someone (or Nintendo themselves) to go ahead and put a DVD player software in the Wii via firmware? Just thought it would be interesting since I have the Wii in the bedroom and we dont have a DVD player in there...

Also, after picking up a component cables and testing it out last night, the progressive scan mode did make the visuals look nicer with the Wii (and it even upgraded some of the Gamecube games too!). Which then lead me to wonder, wouldn't it also be possible for the Wii to potentially output at 720p? Its not like it doesnt have the power to do so....or does it...?

I think Nintendo didn't add DVD-playing featrues because the licensing for using DVD videos would make the WII more expensive. But yes, I read the Wii is perfectly capable of playing DVD movies, although the feature is sort-of 'disabled'.

DVD player will be a Japan only channel announced for this year, i doubt firmware will ever fix the 480p maximum resolution.

If you can change your location to japan to download it like you can to pick up various games not available in your own region westerners I suppose might get a look in, doubt it.

while i agree that it would be 'neat' for my Wii to play DVD's, it really is not that big a deal. I can pick up a DVD Player for $19.00 that will do that trick (or a nice upconvertor DVD player with HDMI/Divx/blah...etc. for $99.00)

I just got the Wii a few days ago and boy am i impressed!

the graphics are better than I expected. Zelda, Rayman and even Wii Sports look great. I pulled up Blitzbasic.com on my old CRT with the Opera browser. very nice.

The best thing about the Wii is that my wife, my 5 year old, my 2.5 year old and me were all shooting plungers at 'Rabbids' and having a great time. something that never happened with PS2, Xbox or Gamecube. We also played a round of bowling (i lost).

First thing that happened is that I lost the wiimote for about 3 hours while my wife painstakenly created our entire family's Miis

I'm sold!

It wouldn't surprise me if, at some point a couple years down the road or so, when it's cheap, they released an updated version of the Wii with a faster GPU capable of doing those HD resolutions.

But as for the current Wii hardware goes, some news site claimed to talk to someone inside Nintendo who said the current hardware could output that res, (Though he seemed to imply it would require a change to the hardware?) but it would run choppy, so it doesn't.

You can't, your continents respective Wii is limited to the regions of respective area.

Anyways, if the Wii's drive is sincerely capable of running DVDs (it appears to be a modified DVD-rom drive anyhow), I can't see why a new channel (available on Shop Channel via Wii Points to cover the licensing costs) wouldn't be an issue.

It is not possible to change your location to download games from Japan is it? Sorry if you have just said this Genexi2, I`m a bit confused now.

Is this possible as it would be great for some of the games that we will no doubt never see over here.

Jason.

Me is disapointment at zelda.. not nice gfx at all. looks like old Nintendo 64 zelda.

verry bad intro too. verry ugly loks kind of written in blitz3d or somthing :)

i mean no nothing. Just textures.
No Bump map. no physics... no Hell gates from oblivion :)

To clarify, you can't.

The Wii of your region will only allow you to choose locations within said region, for instance, my Wii is a North American build, and it allows me to select Canada, United States, & Mexico only.




N64


vs Wii

(ganked from Sswift's little post on a different thread >.>)


You know, speaking of which, Ocarina of Time coming out on Virtual Console this Monday apparently.

I recall there was a special Gamecube loader disc that will allow you to play games from different regions on any Gamecube. Perhaps something similar can be done with the Wii?

In New Zealand we can change our region (system settings) to UK and purchase extra games not available in our region, people have been known to modify region setting to purchase cheaper wii points, currency conversion skills required. Will check if Japan is in our region group.

As for zelda, never played the game but having to listen to the same sound effects (have they changed at all?) for hour after hour while each family member plays through the latest version is not my cup of tea.

Zelda is a beautiful looking game. There isn`t a game made in Blitz 3D that rivals the N64 best, Banjo Kazooie or Conker for example let alone Twilight Princess.

Prove me wrong.

Jason.

Yes, for a Gamecube game. And thats all it really is, just a very good GameCube game with Wii controls tacked on. I don't consider it the pinnacle of Wii capabilities.



Well...there was a particular game called "Juno Nemesis" written a while back which I thought is still one of the best looking Blitz3d, let alone, indie game i've ever seen.

I agree that Blitz 3D has the power to make some nice looking games especially if people with talent like the author of Juno Nemesis are using it but it is leagues apart from Twilight Princess which is understandable as that had a large team working on it for quite some time.

The Wii is surely capable of better graphics as you say the game was made for the GameCube but it has some fantastic art direction nontheless and I simply cannot see how anyone could call it ugly.

Jason.

Lol, i thought we were comparing Blitz3d and N64? Not Blitz3d and GameCube - I can't make any case for that argument...!

2 things:
1. Zelda Twilight Princess is a Wii Launch Title. admittedly, it is a retooled Gamecube game with Wii functionality 'tacked on'

regardless of this, I think it looks fantastic, plays well, sounds great and above all, is smashingly FUN!

I think we can reasonably expect Wii Titles to take advantage of the controllers even more as developers learn more.

2. the Wii is a huge commercial success. Wii games will look better as time goes on. personally, I do not care too much. One of the biggest drawbacks that I see with the PS3 and XBOX360 is this.

The graphical horsepower and sheer complexity of these systems REQUIRE that games made for them meet a certain graphical quality threshold. otherwise they will not compete. It now takes huge teams to create the game assets for these systems. It is expensive and time consuming.

Developers for the Wii on the other hand, while living in a similarly competitive environment, are forced to compete on innovation and gameplay (i.e effective use of the Wii Controllers)

Graphics will always be important but it is refreshing to see how successful the Wii is proving to be.

Yes, thats why I'm eyeing Metroid Prime 3....supposely its going to actually make some good use of the Wii capabilities.


So was the GameCube when it first came out (not that I'm saying it was a bad system...)


Yet they're still making games and making money, somehow.


Well, innovation is one thing, but making it better is another. Is waving the remote around neccessarily better? All the kiddies, mothers, sisters, and girlfriends think so, but not all the gamers.


Well successful is a relative term. Ninty is always going to make money on their products no matter what, so all of their products can be considered "successful". I think the main question is will they dominate this console generation. Who knows, they just might (only if Eternal Darkness 2 comes out for it...lol)

Just noticed that on wikipedia under modchip entry that WiiXT modchip promises DVD playback and homebrewn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modchip#Wii

Otherwise the WiiCR sourceforge project aims at transforming your Wii into a media center, not quite like DVD playback, but no modchip.

http://wiicr.org