That article is dated almost 2 months ago... before the Wiis launch.
the hardware that is availble now is completely capable of playing DVD movies. the only reason it can't is a lack of software. Nintendo could just as easily release software throught the Wii Store to enable DVD playback...
Why would you want to wait a year for the possibility to do something that's probably going to be availble in current hardware, and can definitly be done by hundreds of other cheap hardware.
not to mention the Wii doesn't have digital audio out, which means it sucks for surround sound.