This is neat: DVD playback on the Nintendo Wii.  Of course, it comes by means of homebrew, which in the case of the Wii, is much easier than it should be.

One thing I’ve noticed in the case of both setting up the Wii Homebrew channel and, now, DVD playback: Available instructions suck.

What I never found anywhere regarding the Homebrew Channel is that if the first Zelda save game freezes your console, reboot, launch the game, and try the second savegame.

Instructions for DVD playback are even more nebulous.  The MPlayer provided alongside the DVD playback installer is very similar but not identical to the MPlayer provided in the Wii Pack Generator.  I assume that the DVD playback installer works only in conjunction with this particular version of the MPlayer.  In any event, both versions of the MPlayer are installed in my Homebrew Channel.

For that matter, why did I have to download two files, then execute one before executing the other?  How about one file, one program?

The DVD player functionality, while certainly interesting, froze while I was watching Braveheart.  The amount of polish on some of the Wii Homebrew software tells me there’s enthusiasm here, and that leaves me optimistic that the DVD player will receive bugfixes over time.  Still, the Wii hardware is capable of only 480p output.  It won’t be taking over DVD duties from my 1080p-capable Xbox 360.  Ever.