Wii modding - new Wii's cannot be modded.

[shmokes]

I know this doesn't apply to everyone, cos lots of people don't have surround sound.  But who the hell wants to watch DVDs on the Wii?  It doesn't support 5.1 discreet audio.  It doesn't upconvert.  It costs three times more than a modded Xbox.  Seriously, why?

I mean, if I had any time to play, sure, I wouldn't mind a modded Wii cos I'm unethical and it would allow me to pirate games.  And I can even see getting interested if homebrew opens up.  That could be cool.  But media center?  DVD playback?  Doesn't matter what the software can do.  The hardware is too limited.

[ChadTower]

I know this doesn't apply to everyone, cos lots of people don't have surround sound.  But who the hell wants to watch DVDs on the Wii?  It doesn't support 5.1 discreet audio.  It doesn't upconvert.  It costs three times more than a modded Xbox.  Seriously, why?

I've had three Xboxes... none of them were that good as DVD players.  Lots of skipping and pausing, prone to crashing sometimes when going from one DVD layer to the next.  Great with Xbox discs... not so great with movies.

Lots of people don't have a 5.1 setup to bother with... and few people have a 5.1 setup on every TV in their house.  I know a lot of people who set up their Wiis on a secondary older TV specifically because it's not an HD console and it saves them space on the big TV.

I'm not saying the Wii is any better as a DVD player, of course... but the Xbox is a fantastic streamer, not such a great disc player.

[knave]

The last NIB DVD player I bought was $25 (It was a Coby portable)

My point is, they are not expensive, why even bother playing a DVD in a video game console?

Craig

I for one would love it if my wii would play DVD's.  I don't use our main TV for games. they are in a separate room so even though DVD players are cheap Why should I spend even another $25 if my wii can do even a halfway decent job at playing movies for my kids. I'm sorry but Dora and other kids shows do not need Dolby anything.  

I don't have an xbox or a Ps2 but I hear of lots of folks who use them as DVD players. Especially a few friends with modded xboxes.  

I didn't buy the Wii to play movies but I like options.   I can't wait...

Until then we're just not watching anything on the Videogame TV.  (actually I have some portable units from the car that will work in a pinch.)

[shmokes]

I can't argue with that, I suppose.  I always think that my DVD drive is going out because it's so skippy and terrible with movies.  It always strikes me as strange because my Xbox was bought new and modded within weeks so the DVD-ROM has gotten VERY little use.  It's probably just fine and I just think it's dying cos I only ever use it as a DVD player (rarely -- I usually just rip DVDs and stream them).

Still . . . modding the Wii seems like a gigantic time and money and broken warranty investment for what it gives you right now, unless you're unscrupulous.  Just go buy a $40 Apex DVD player from Walmart.  It'll be even smaller than the Wii, cost for less all things considered.

[ChadTower]

Yeah.  The xbox in my bedroom has very low use on it for a console.  I sometimes get frustrated enough using it as a movie player that I go downstairs and copy the DVD contents onto the hard drive so I can stream it, just to delete it when I'm done.  This xbox has a relatively good drive, too, plays games on most DVDR discs just fine.

[knave]

I guess in a way you are right...if all the mod gave me was DVD playback I would be better buying a cheapie Player.  But hopefully the mod itself would be fun and educational and somedat there might be a homebrew community that makes something interesting for it.  Wiimame anyone?

What I would want is a way to get the wii to play more internet video.  It needs some more plugins.

As for dvd's on the xbox my buddies moded xbox has always played dvd's fine...it's some games that won't run. (that's why he modded it in the first place.) And yes streaming video is cool.

[shardian]

If you want a system that has USEFUL homebrew, get a nintendo DS. It has a frikkin TI-85 emulator which is pretty damn cool. You can run opera browser on it, thus having a fully portable wi-fi internet machine. The DS organizer is pretty cool too.

Hell, I've seen an article where a guy modded a gameboy advance to be a frikkin spectral analyzer.

[ChadTower]

Do you have to mod the DS to get that homebrew running?

[shardian]

Do you have to mod the DS to get that homebrew running?

No.
Most of the homebrew works with just a slot 1 card. For Opera and other GB Advance homebrew, you have to get a slot 2 card. The GBadvance side is where the hardcore homebrew is at. I will eventually get my own DS, as my wife loves the one I got her WAY more than I really expected her too.

[shmokes]

Wow . . . I wish I knew that last January (assuming TI-85 isn't the only calculator it can emulate).  I took a Stats class and needed a TI-83.  A TI-86 or TI-89 would work too, so long as I could install the separate Stats package but I wonder if that would be possible on a version being emulated on the DS.  TI-83 is the bomb for stats, though.  If there was a TI-83 emulator available, and I had known about it, I would have a DS right now.  I could have justified it. 

[lcddream]

just pretend you bought it when you needed it...

 

[shmokes]

I'm too poor now.  If I really wanted a DS, and I could afford it, I'd just buy it.  I can't afford it now.  At the time, I wanted a DS more or less, but was so busy I figured I'd hardly ever play it and I was saving up for a study abroad case.  But I had to spend like $75 or something on a TI-83 calculator for a single class.  I ended up donating that to the library to be checked out by future students who couldn't afford to buy one, since I knew that I would never use it again after finishing my stats class.

But I couldn't buy one now no matter how I rationalized it in my head.  I just don't have the money any more.  I can hardly afford to by food these days. 

[SavannahLion]

Just noticed that Nintendo has a new update for the interface which adds USB keyboard support (ABOUT ---smurfing--- TIME!) some other tidbits. I believe it's up to 3.1?

In any case, did anyone else get the warning about v3.1 detecting "technical modifications to the Wii"?

I thought the current generation of Wii mod chips couldn't be detected by the Wii since they tap directly into the Wii's drive BIOS. Anyone know what's going on with that?

[Samstag]

In any case, did anyone else get the warning about v3.1 detecting "technical modifications to the Wii"?

I thought the current generation of Wii mod chips couldn't be detected by the Wii since they tap directly into the Wii's drive BIOS. Anyone know what's going on with that?

From memory, the warning was pretty vague and mentioned that if you've modified the Wii it might affect operation.  Basically just a heads up that if you have a mod you run some risk when updating.  Since the first update with this warning 3rd-party (ie: Datel) boot disks and modchip firmware update disks don't work anymore.  So they closed a hole in the disk validation, but this doesn't affect pirates at all.  It only affects people trying to run imported Gamecube games and Gamecube homebrew.

Ironic.  Now I need a modchip to run my NES emulator.

[ChadTower]

I thought the current generation of Wii mod chips couldn't be detected by the Wii since they tap directly into the Wii's drive BIOS. Anyone know what's going on with that?

First guess is a checksum of the bios... if you've changed it in any way whatsoever, the checksum would change, and would be detectable.  Second guess would be scanning the bios pointers against a known good BIOS image... if any of the instruction pointers differ, the bios is changed... third guess would be simply doing a functionality check on the specific pieces of the bios that they know have been changed in modded systems.  Nintendo security guys can buy modchips too.