Hacking Blu-ray and dvd playback on wii u

[erikas]

From what i read, the reason wii u doen't play movies is so they don't have to pay patent fees. However, wii u discs are clearly blu-ray based, and it can certainly run dvd's since it reads wii discs. I wanted to ask, with the upcoming iosuhax, would it be possible to make wii u play movie discs, or is the hardware incompactible?

 

[tech3475]

IIRC the reason why DVD playback was possible on the Wii was because some commands were left in which enabled it.

If a similar command exists in the Wii U then it may be possible, although BDs are more difficult by default because of e.g. AACS.

 

[nxwing]

The Wii U doesn't support Blu-ray movies and the discs are not officially Blu-ray discs (in the same way that Wii, Xbox, and Xbox 360 discs aren't officially DVDs). The only difference (in all cases) is the logical structure of the discs - physically they're identical. This is enough of a difference to make the disc technically not a Blu-ray. The fact that it's technically not a Blu-ray also means that Nintendo don't have to pay license fees, while at the same time, they get all the advantages of Blu-ray (good capacity, good read speed, established production system, cheap unit cost).

The downside is that Nintendo can't use the Blu-ray logo on any packaging, and can't call their discs Blu-rays (so they haven't, which is what causes topics like this). On the console side, the lack of licensing means that although they have a Blu-ray drive, they can't call it that, can't use the logo, and can't play Blu-ray movies. These are, I think most people would agree, relatively minor disadvantages from Nintendo's perspective.

 

[erikas]

From that i understand that the hardware side should allow for this.

 

[Insidious611]

That seems to imply that were one able to control the optical drive at a low enough level it should at least be theoretically possible?

 

[lordelan]

It would be possible with an IOSU exploit only and even then I would not recommend it because the laser isn't meant to read movie discs every now and then.

 

[Bedel]

It would be possible with an IOSU exploit only and even then I would not recommend it because the laser isn't meant to read movie discs every now and then.

It really is not a different type of disc, so it won't waste the laser more than a game do. That should not be the problem here.
It should be possible, but difficult. Let's just w8.

 

[erikas]

on this topic, would it also be possible to write wii u games to blu-ray discs?

 

[nxwing]

on this topic, would it also be possible to write wii u games to blu-ray discs?

It shouldn't be possible at this moment.

 

[Dvdxploitr]

I know this is just a question of "can it be done"..but my question is "why would you? In 2016, I figure everyone would have a DVD player or a Blu-Ray player whether it be in their computer, another game console or a stand-alone player. Yea, more home-brew is always welcome, but as slow as the Wii U is, would you really want to wait on the thing to boot, then load up the app that plays the DVD/Blu-Ray? It could even be a matter of loading up Homebrew Channel and then a player which would take even longer. I've owned (and still own) many game consoles that have movie playback and just never seem to use 'em for that function....going all the way back to the Sega Saturn with the VCD card (which enhanced some games FMV)

 

[lordelan]

It really is not a different type of disc, so it won't waste the laser more than a game do. That should not be the problem here.
It should be possible, but difficult. Let's just w8.

It's not that simple.
For a game the laser has to read "a little bit from here, a little bit from there" and so on.
While playing a movie the laser is permanently reading the spinning disc.
That has been discussed a lot when softmodded Wiis started to make DVD playback possible.
I never used that "feature" in order to keep my Wii "as fresh as possible".