Can the WiiU play any DVDs?...

[dave4shmups]

"Standard" or Blu-Ray? Or none at all?

[shmuppyLove]

Media: Wii U and Wii optical discs.

I'm gonna go with no.

Even the Wii won't play DVD video discs without modding.

[moh]

Media: Wii U and Wii optical discs.

I'm gonna go with no.

Even the Wii won't play DVD video discs without modding.

CUTTING EDGE.

[Krakko]

CUTTING EDGE.

...now we know why Wii U discs are rounded on the edges

[PixelDharma]

Everything that plays DVDs costs a licensing fee from the DVD Consortium, and Nintendo doesn't want to pay it for every unit they sell, when so very few people will need a device for DVD playback.

[dave4shmups]

Everything that plays DVDs costs a licensing fee from the DVD Consortium, and Nintendo doesn't want to pay it for every unit they sell, when so very few people will need a device for DVD playback.

I've heard that the fee is the reason why Nintendo went with the small discs on the Game Cube, rather then with DVD format. What is the DVD Consortium, and why are there fees??

[trap15]

I think the small discs was a different reasoning, but it's possible.

The DVD Consortium is basically the "people who made DVD". They're also a bunch of money-grubbing fascists who want money from everyone who uses DVD.

[antron]

GameCube discs are DVDs, just small ones.

[blizzz]

Nintendo uses DVD and Bluray tech but writes the discs in the opposite direction (from the outside towards the center). That's how they circumvent fees if I understood it correctly. The drive itself can read both directions, just like a few PC drives.

Edit: A Bluray drive costs 9$ license fees, playback software 2$. But don't quote me on that, just what I found on the internet.

[antron]

Pretty sure that backwards thing was a myth.

[trap15]

The backwards thing is a myth and is also incorrect.

[blizzz]

Pretty sure that backwards thing was a myth.

Hm, I couldn't find any reliable source that backs the reverse spiral thing. I guess it's just a myth after all. The only thing I could find were speculations from early 2001 about copy protection and after that people on message boards.

Still a bit weird that only a few PC drives are able to read the raw data from these discs.

[Ex-Cyber]

IIRC, they don't use the standard channel modulation (EFM Plus) and only some drive hardware can be programmed to read anything except standard.

[dave4shmups]

GameCube discs are DVDs, just small ones.

I thought they were something different, called optical discs, that being the reason why some Game Cube games came out on multiple discs.

[nZero]

GameCube discs are DVDs, just small ones.

I thought they were something different, called optical discs, that being the reason why some Game Cube games came out on multiple discs.

Anything read with a laser is an optical disc. That includes CDs, GD-ROMs, DVDs, Blu-Ray, etc. The games that came out on multiple discs did so because there wasn't enough room to fit all of the game data onto one disc.

[theclaw]

Gamecube and Wii used an unauthorized clone of DVD. It is not their official name.
Just so deeply similar almost *everybody* normal calls them DVD in layman's terms.

In no standard Nintendo-approved marketing, packaging, or advertisements, should you find any product for either console referred to as "DVD" in any context.

[dave4shmups]

On the topic of WiiU hardware, why wouldn't an HDMI-DVI cable work on the console? I don't understand why it wouldn't, because it has an HDMI port, and I would think that as long as I could also get some kind of audio cables, I'd be fine.

[papa_november]

I thought the Wii U actually used HD-DVD media.

Might make sense, especially since they probably would've gotten the tooling and licenses pretty cheaply.

[dave4shmups]

So it seems from this thread: http://www.nintendolife.com/forums/wii- ... _with_wiiu That what I'd need is a component-VGA cable, to get the best picture and out of the WiiU on my older HDTV.

[Fudoh]

What are you getting at ? VGA-component cables never work unless the source already outputs your desired format - the connector doesn't matter.

In which scenario VGA or component would provide better quality than HDMI ?

The WiiU doesn't use Dolby Digital or DTS codecs, it uses multi-channel LPCM, so you're limited to Stereo once you use any kind of converter at the WiiU's output.

[orbus]

If you have an HDTV without HDMI, then component is what you want.

(Or maybe SCART and add a SyncStrike to get VGA? I live in the US - I assume RGB SCART can carry HD resolutions, but whether the WiiU would output it in practice I don't know.)

[Fudoh]

No, scart is limited to 15khz signals.

[orbus]

Oh bummer. Component it is then.

[dave4shmups]

If you have an HDTV without HDMI, then component is what you want.

(Or maybe SCART and add a SyncStrike to get VGA? I live in the US - I assume RGB SCART can carry HD resolutions, but whether the WiiU would output it in practice I don't know.)

OK, thanks! With component cables, will I be able to get 720p output out of the WiiU?

[Fudoh]

absolutely, the Wii U even supports 1080p through component.