Can't play dvd's on a nintendo wii

[NixPlayer]

Hello! It's me again. Now i have problems with another piece of homebrew: Watching dvd's on a wii.
Everytime i try to play every movie that i have (i've tested around 50 dvd's) on every single media player that i know (WiiMC, MPlayer CE AND EVEN usb lOADER gx) it just says "unsopported dvd" or "unsopported format".
Now, i know that the wii doesn't play some dvd's, but HOLY COW, 50 dvd's?!
I searched online for tutorials in case i missed something, i readed articles from dvd converter copanies, and even tried installing dvdx (wich btw is discontinued)! But nothing...
So.. if i missed something like installing a cIOS (i've installed some for usb loader gx) or installing a particular homebrew app, PLZ LET ME KNOW!!

ps: I DON'T WANNA PAY FOR AN EXTERNAL DVD DRIVE CUZ at that point i could just use a pc to convert thoose films (event thought i consider it a last beach cuz it takes like 2 hours depending on the film)
and not spend 20$.

PLZ REPLY

 

[SylverReZ]

You need a Wii with a disc drive chipset of DMS to D2C in order to use DVD playback.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Neogamma should be able to tell if your drive is old enough to support normal DVDs. Of course this is not a movie player, but it can load burned games if standard DVDs are supported.
Newer drives will reject anything but genuine Wii/GC discs in drive firmware. Nothing homebrew software can work around.

I wouldn't recommend using the Wii drive for DVD video playback in practice. It does work on oldest Wiis, I even watched a double layer mini DVD-R (pretty obscure thing), but wearing down the drives of a console out of production with movie regular playback isn't such a great thing.
Dumping DVDs with a PC drive is a much more practical approach. Stand-alone DVD players in used condition are considered to be "obsolete old junk" and can be found for almost nothing.
==========

Some things that immediately show there is no chance for DVD playback:

• Non-white Wii
• Model RVL-101 or RVL-201 (Wii Mini)

For white RVL-001 it depends. You'll have to look which drive board is present.

 

[NixPlayer]

I have a white wii rvl-001. But i think it's a newer model cuz i cannot install bootmii as boot2

 

[r1vver]

I think it also (was) possible to find it on the website by the serial number
https://www.wiidrives.com/identify

 

[KleinesSinchen]

I have a white wii rvl-001. But i think it's a newer model cuz i cannot install bootmii as boot2

This isn't a good sign. Any Wii with the old boot1 has an old enough drive. A few consoles with the new boot1 preventing the boot2 modification still support DVD.

I think it also (was) possible to find it on the website by the serial number
https://www.wiidrives.com/identify

Forgot about this. Good idea!

 

[NixPlayer]

nah. il'l try with neogamma. I don't wanna to flip upside down my entire setup cuz
A: cables are a mess
B: i don't know where the duck is the serial number on a wii (sorry dude, i recieved this at christhmas 2022)

EDIT: found the serial number

Post automatically merged: Jan 30, 2023

duck me up plz. The wii chip database does not recognise my serial number. It just says they don't have it in thei database.
Maybe it's because i have a european version of the wii (PAL) cuz i'm italian (btw i don't eat pasta all day like some of you americans think)

 

[nmac101]

I have a pal version too and it recognises. Check if you wrote the SN correctly.

 

[NixPlayer]

i wrote it correctly

 

[TheStonedModder]

Neogamma should be able to tell if your drive is old enough to support normal DVDs. Of course this is not a movie player, but it can load burned games if standard DVDs are supported.
Newer drives will reject anything but genuine Wii/GC discs in drive firmware. Nothing homebrew software can work around.

I wouldn't recommend using the Wii drive for DVD video playback in practice. It does work on oldest Wiis, I even watched a double layer mini DVD-R (pretty obscure thing), but wearing down the drives of a console out of production with movie regular playback isn't such a great thing.
Dumping DVDs with a PC drive is a much more practical approach. Stand-alone DVD players in used condition are considered to be "obsolete old junk" and can be found for almost nothing.
==========

Some things that immediately show there is no chance for DVD playback:

• Non-white Wii
• Model RVL-101 or RVL-201 (Wii Mini)

For white RVL-001 it depends. You'll have to look which drive board is present.

Out of curiosity how would playing DVDs (if supported) wear down your drive more than playing games normally ?

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Out of curiosity how would playing DVDs (if supported) wear down your drive more than playing games normally ?

Some people are convinced continuous video would be more stress than gaming with occasional loading sequences. The drive (motor spinning) is active in both cases all the time and the optics have to actively keep on track in both cases. Game loading makes the drive more active with the optical pickup moving back and forth depending on where data has to be retrieved (if arranged well this doesn't happen too much).

My point is simply: Using the drive more. Movies and gaming.
Many GBAtemp members tend to not use the drive at all… After all USB loading is faster and more convenient.

I use the drives sometimes to make sure the mechanical parts are moved regularly, but avoid heavy and permanent usage.