Topic: Revolution plays DVDs...?

[UncleBob]

Was it confirmed that the Revolution would play DVDs?

Because according to Nintendo, it does...

[KnowsNothing]

Yeah, there's an "internal attachment" that's going to allow the Rev to play DVD's......I like that, since I don't have to pay for the DVD player if I don't want to.

[wandering]

Well, on the one hand, I like the idea of only getting dvd capability if I want it/pay for it.....on the other hand, sony has blue-ray BUILT IN. So, part of me is thinking Nintendo needs to stop being so cheap, and offer, at minimum, the ability to play dvds out of the box.

[orfanotna]

"So, part of me is thinking Nintendo needs to stop being so cheap, and offer, at minimum, the ability to play dvds out of the box."

DVD player manufacturers pay something like $15-20 per unit in licensing fees to the DVD consortium (I think). You can put a lot of useful stuff in a console for $20. So while the 11 people who are planning on using their Rev for DVD playback would like that feature out of the box, most would prefer if Nintendo spent that on something more worthwhile.

[WindyMan]

I don't expect the Rev to play movies from the get-go.  Just because it uses the media doesn't mean it needs to automatically have the movie functionality.  I would be perfectly fine with needing to buy an attachment or upgrade or whatever to do it, since Xbox owners really don't seem to care all that much anymore about it.

If you want it, you can get it.  If you don't want it, that's great, the system you bought was designed only for games, and nothing else.  Works for me.

[Arbok]

Quote
Originally posted by: WindyMan
I don't expect the Rev to play movies from the get-go.  Just because it uses the media doesn't mean it needs to automatically have the movie functionality.  I would be perfectly fine with needing to buy an attachment or upgrade or whatever to do it, since Xbox owners really don't seem to care all that much anymore about it.

If you want it, you can get it.  If you don't want it, that's great, the system you bought was designed only for games, and nothing else.  Works for me.

Fully agree there, and I assume I'm one of the many that falls into the group of not caring about the system itself being able to play DVDs, as I have numerous DVD players already.

[ruby_onix]

DVD playback presumably makes the Rev $20 more expensive. If Nintendo can make a puny little add-on device for $20 that enables DVD playback, then that just makes all the sense in the world.

I'm sure some people would want Nintendo to just eat that $20 loss and put the unit on every console, but then why not have Nintendo just eat the loss of making the Rev $20 cheaper by itself?

The biggest problem with the Cube's lack of DVD was that Nintendo/Panasonic's choice of alternative media for the Cube was inferior to DVD in storage capacity, and Nintendo underestimated the third-party developers.

Although, one thing I never understood about the Xbox's way of seperating the DVD playback, is that the Xbox used DVD ROM (R) for it's games. They weren't avoiding the fees. They were just making people who wanted DVD pay something back.

I'm betting that the Revolution won't technically be using "dual layered DVDs" for it's games. They'll be using a GameCube-style custom equvalent. Except that this time it won't be a variant on mini-DVD. It'll be a variant on DVD-9.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Quote
Originally posted by: ruby_onix
DVD playback presumably makes the Rev $20 more expensive. If Nintendo can make a puny little add-on device for $20 that enables DVD playback, then that just makes all the sense in the world.

I'm betting that the Revolution won't technically be using "dual layered DVDs" for it's games. They'll be using a GameCube-style custom equvalent. Except that this time it won't be a variant on mini-DVD. It'll be a variant on DVD-9.

If it cost $20.00 to liscense DVD playback, the unit that Nintendo sells would be $30.00 minimum.
They do have to pay for manufacturing and packaging.

and I'm betting that it will be a variant on HD-DVD or Blu-ray. Hopefully Nintendo is gonna go with a blue laser drive, so that they at least have something over X360.

[KDR_11k]

ruby: I think the licensing fee is on decrypting CSS, it's not a DVD player if it doesn't do that.

[couchmonkey]

I don't actually think the size of DVD changed the minds of very many third-party developers about using GameCube.  I think the fact that their games don't sell had a lot more to do with poor support.  I think DVD playback for the other systems came at the right time - quite a few people still didn't have DVD, and even those that did might have wanted it for a second TV or whatever.  It probably won't be that important this generation, but I think it might be smart for Nintendo to have a "deluxe" bundle that comes with the DVD attachment.