As hackers and modders prove time and time again, they can very often provide the features that users want but companies, for some reason, are unwilling to provide.

This time, a team of clever Wii coders have given Nintendo's console what it was so badly lacking - DVD playback.

To make this possible, a small, hidden channel is installed on your Wii that allows your console to read DVDs on unmodified systems. Modded systems can benefit too, but you have to install a patch as well as the basic software for it to work

Once its all installed you'll be able to watch DVDs with the MPlayer appliation, an open source media player. You can even run video from SD cards, but that is experimental right now.

The download is available now, and judging by online reactions, everyone's pretty chuffed with it, save for a few bugs here and there. This is just a PoC as it stands though, so expect a more polished version sometime in the future.

>> News - Modder crafts his own PSP phone
>> Via - Engadget and Hack Mii