New channels

[Wii2000]

A demo channel would be amazing.

yes it would

 

[KrisKhaos]

i read in a magazine that the wii had the neccesary hardware to play DVD's but that a channel would have to be released first.

I still like the mp3 and online minigame ideas though

Same hardware, different format. Since the Wii optical drive is not firmware upgradeable to my knowledge means that the drive will require hardware modification or a dirty hack to bring DVD support to the Wii.

(Not posting a monster comment on this topic again. )

 

[Elfman]

To stop the rumors about that DVD channel. The Wii DVD laser would burn itself out by playing dvds. The end.

 

[Skippy]

To stop the rumors about that DVD channel. The Wii DVD laser would burn itself out by playing dvds. The end.

That's the most rediculous thing I have ever heard.

 

[Link_of_Hyrule]

I have done much research on the Wii's drive and it is a DVD drive it can play dvds with out burning its self out the only reason the wii cant play dvds is because nintendo didnt want the royalty costs for the dvd name included in the price of the wii the Wii in its current state is fully capable of playing dvds with a software modification homebrew already allows it to be done also a movie channel would be possible if nintendo updated the firmware to allow usb hard drives for extra space and possible better codec compatibility for movie play on sd cards

 

[twigs232]

I also think a game hints channel would be awesome

 

[MRCOOLGH]

I have done much research on the Wii's drive and it is a DVD drive it can play dvds with out burning its self out the only reason the wii cant play dvds is because nintendo didnt want the royalty costs for the dvd name included in the price of the wii the Wii in its current state is fully capable of playing dvds with a software modification homebrew already allows it to be done also a movie channel would be possible if nintendo updated the firmware to allow usb hard drives for extra space and possible better codec compatibility for movie play on sd cards

Link is totally right. Nintendo made the wii capable of doing so many things but their being cheap right now sucking as much money as possible from the VC games. they wii can play DVD's its just that a slight moddification has to be made to the Wii Drive with software or HomeBrew. If Nintendo did a firmware update to allow USB hardrives then people could buy the Maxdrive from codejunkies or something similar. because 512 or actually 450MB doesnt cut it for the kind of stuff that could be used so Nintendo needs to step it up now or they may face problems later on.

 

[wii7036]

I also think a game hints channel would be awesome

this would come in handy for me. i cheat. lol

 

[Elfman]

Seriously. The laser will burn up eventually, just playing Wii/Gamecube games. But it will burn out alot faster on streaming media. Like DVDs.

everything wears out over time, and some parts do need to be regreased occasionally, the heat in the laser diode is the main cause of failure, but the laser diode dies out the same way as a light bulb, a quick google on something onlong the lines of "laser diode failure" will bring up plenty of articles (mainly about the PS2 laser diode).

So fück you.

 

[kirkwood973]

i was thinking maybe an external harddrive channel. were if u were to plug in a usb flash drive and you could view the contents of your drive.

 

[zxzxander]

I think that there should be a chat channel that you can access at any time. Maybe put it in the "Home" key function so that you can go back and forth between game and chat. Thats kind of how it is with some DS games and it's a great function. Still gotta go with the demo channel though. There is just so much potential there.

i will not chat with the wii keyboard:crazy:

 

[zxzxander]

i think there should be a VC channel that groups all your games together to make space for all these new channels. my channel space is getting kinda full.

 

[Link_of_Hyrule]

i will not chat with the wii keyboard:crazy:

you do know you can use a USB keyboard with the wii right? well at least it can for the Wii messages but not the internet channel but im sure it could easily be updated for everything to use it

 

[Skippy]

Seriously. The laser will burn up eventually, just playing Wii/Gamecube games. But it will burn out alot faster on streaming media. Like DVDs.

The drive mechanism itself (the mechanical parts responsible for loading/unloading the discs and spinning them) would break down FAR FAR sooner than a laser diode burning out. It's not like you've got a plain old 100 watt light bulb in there. Diodes can last for decades at constant use. The laser diode diode burning out will be the last thing that breaks down in a Wii (unless it was defective from the start).

And don't make the mistake in thinking that when you play a game it just loads the data off the disc and sits there dormant while you play. Most games have very frequent data access going on as you play (Metroid 3 being a good example, you can hear the drive head moving all throughout the game as it reads in more data. And that's puts much more wear and tear on your system than just the laser being on).

 

[KrisKhaos]

Don't understand why people insist on arguing about DVD support.

Sigh... The hardware is compatible, however it would require an update to the drive controller to enable compatibility with the DVD due to it's design. The Wii optical drive is a much more closed peripheral, and Nintendo has made it clear they require a hardware update (not firmware) to enable DVD playback support.

Just keep in mind that DVD and the Wii discs share the same hardware however there encoding format is slightly different from each other. If the Wii drive controller allows direct sector reading of the Wii disc, which I doubt without a dirty hack, then it would be possible to flip the byte arrangement and create a drive controller wrapper that would enable DVD playback. While the Wii does allows direct disc reading, enabling it requires a hardware hack (aka mod-chip), to allow this "back door" to be software accessible. The chances of any kind of direct disc access via software calls is slim to none, for obvious security reasons, so just hope and pray that some clever programmer can find a suitable work-around.

I've always said that hope is not lost, there could still be a dirty software hack that could allow the controller to dump raw data, but I cannot give a solid answer on how possible it is as this time. Once WiiWare is readily available to low-end developers then getting a hold of this data and answer will be much easier. Likewise until then either YOU or NINTENDO is going to have to modify/hack the drive controller to enable DVD playback.

Sorry guys...