Topic: Wii play Audio CDs?

[segagamer12]

I never thought about this till the other day but if Wii disk based shouldnt it be able to play audio cds?

I havent tried yet and was wodnerign if anyone else has. I know that every disc based system up till now has been able to play audio cds so it seams kinda wierd Wii wouldnt but I haven tried it cuz I dont have any cds left. My friends all do but I havent asked to barrow any to check it out. anyone confirmed if it does or doesn play cds?  

[JonLeung]

Quote
Originally posted by: segagamer12
I know that every disc based system up till now has been able to play audio cds

GameCube?

You can give it a try, but I doubt it.  I think if we could, we'd have heard about it by now.  Or Nintendo would've added the Music Channel on their list of Wii Channels if it really was that easy.

Future updates might allow CD playability and software-based DVD codecs, I suppose...I think we all discussed this at some point.

Now I think people have more .MP3s than what they have on their CDs so a standalone .MP3 player seems likely (we already know it can play .MP3s in the Photo Channel).

[segagamer12]

GC doesnt count int that assesment Cds couldnt even fit in it.

I am going to hunt down some cds and give it a try.

[Arbok]

Quote
Originally posted by: JonLeung
Future updates might allow CD playability and software-based DVD codecs, I suppose...I think we all discussed this at some point.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't one need a different laser to read CDs versus DVDs? If Nintendo didn't put it in there to start with, then it won't be possible with firmware and what not.

[JonLeung]

I could be wrong, I'll admit that.

I was under the impression that a DVD laser would be adaptable to read CDs, since every DVD player I've come across has been capable of reading CDs.

[BranDonk Kong]

It needs a laser capable of reading CDs. It's a negligible cost to use said laser, but I'm gonna guess that CDs don't work in the Wii...mainly because there's no "CD Channel". Also, with MP3 players being as popular as they are, who the Hell cares about (music) CDs anymore?

[couchmonkey]

Quote
Originally posted by: Brandogg
It needs a laser capable of reading CDs. It's a negligible cost to use said laser, but I'm gonna guess that CDs don't work in the Wii...mainly because there's no "CD Channel". Also, with MP3 players being as popular as they are, who the Hell cares about (music) CDs anymore?

Old-fashioned luddites like me!  I still use a cassette-playing walkman, in fact.  But overall, yeah, it's not a big feature.

[Chiller]

Quote
Originally posted by: Brandogg
Also, with MP3 players being as popular as they are, who the Hell cares about (music) CDs anymore?

People who care about how their music sounds.  Of course, you wouldn't be using a game machine to play CDs, anyhow, if you cared about high-quality sound reproduction.  As such, it would be superfluous to have CD-audio capabilities in the machine.  

[segagamer12]

I just thought it was starnge if it didnt cuz every other gaem system can. But Nintendo really is agianst multimedia stuf fon thier systems so it makes sense not being able to.  

[JonLeung]

It's not so much that they're against them on principle...they have the Play-Yan in Japan, MP3 support in Photo Channel (and Excite Truck), movie playback in the Photo Channel, Pokémon episodes are in GBA video format....it's probably moreso a cost thing.  Not that they couldn't afford some things if they wanted to but they know consumers pretty much just want a game machine when they look at Nintendo hardware.  The Photo Channel may go against what I just said but perhaps that's their way of stepping in the right direction.  Or something.  Look, you get video, pictures and music through the Photo Channel, so is it a big deal if it can't play CDs?  So you have to rip the tracks from a CD and put them on an SD card as MP3s...but you can still play the same music, audiophilic pickiness aside.

[ThePerm]

you know the original original model of playstation has super studio quality cd playback

[RickPowers]

Quote
Originally posted by: JonLeung
I could be wrong, I'll admit that.

I was under the impression that a DVD laser would be adaptable to read CDs, since every DVD player I've come across has been capable of reading CDs.

That means every DVD player you've every come across has had two lasers in it.  One set to the CD wavelength, and one for the DVD wavelength.  There is no reliable process out there for refocusing a laser on the fly that is less expensive than simply including a second laser.

[BranDonk Kong]

320kbps MP3 = CD quality

[NeoThunder]

well, the first thing the Wii does is exactly what the gamecube does when you put a cd in....it spins at a low speed to read the special bar-code on the center ring of the disk to know that it's a disk for wii or not.
so you would have to get past that part to even think about reading other types of disk

and i'm sure the laser lens in the wii is a dvd laser, considering it would probley cost a lot more to design and manufacture a costom, pro-prietary laser lens.  Thats basically what blu-ray is, and look how much that drove up the ps3

and last, just want to point out that the mp3 player in the photo channel is a software based mp3 player.  Cause I have mp3's that will play on excite truck but not the photo channel

I think the Wii could play DVD movies if it wanted to, but for a device to play DVD movies you have to pay 20 dollars in royalties to whoever owns the patent on that technology.

[Rhoq]

Quote
Originally posted by: Brandogg
320kbps MP3 = CD quality

Not quite. Even at 320kbps there is still compression being applied though it's nearly inaudible. An MP3 at this bit rate should sound nearly indistinguishable to the source audio, but that is really dependent on the quality of the algorithms being used to apply the compression.

[segagamer12]

I didnt mean to make it a big deal. I just didnt notice it couldnt do it itll now.  

[Rhoq]

Throwing MP3s on an SD card is more convenient than having to change CDs. The Wii needs an audio player interface (Wii Music Channel) and a way to organize playlists. I hate to be playing Excite Truck and go from Kittie to Stetsasonic to Billy Joel to George LaMond to T La Rock to Metallica to Judy Torres. It's a cluster-fu*k to say the least. All I want to do is organize my Wii MP3s by genre.

[segagamer12]

what about mp3 cds?

[Ghisy]

Quote
Originally posted by: Brandogg
.wav = CD quality

Fixed.
And as for a music player on the Wii, I want Wiinamp

[Rhoq]

Quote
Originally posted by: Ghisy

Quote
Originally posted by: Brandogg
.wav = CD quality

Fixed.
And as for a music player on the Wii, I want Wiinamp

.wav or .aif = CD quality

WinAmp? Even if I were a Windows user, I'd still prefer iTunes. iTunes used to be known as SoundJam MP before Apple bought it from Cassidy & Greene. It was one of the most solid audio players on the market with MP3 algorithms which, IMHO, have yet to be matched. iTunes still uses many of the "legacy" features which originated in SoundJam (even the tone you hear when something is finished ripping) and then some...

[segagamer12]

I went through all my cds and I dont have any audio cds except some left over singles I never sold when i still had a record company. I dont want to put them in my Wii cuz I used cd labels for them and dont want to take a chance of hurting my wii. BUT I did find an old MP3 cd I had laying around so I will test that out.

[Rhoq]

CD-Rs are a disposable format and labels only act to speed up deterioration.

I haven't tried playing a factory-pressed audio CD in my Wii because it's not an area of interest for me, but I'm guessing that since there is no audio interface that we know of it will return with a DRE. Also, I'm fairly certain that anything burned onto a CD-R/DVD±R will not be accessible since both formats could potentially contain illegally copied music and/or pirated games. But then again, so could an SD card. Ah nevermind,