Windows 8 Won't Play DVDs Unless You Pay For the Media Center Pack 734
An anonymous reader writes "You may already know that Microsoft plans to sell Windows Media Center as a separate, paid pack, but now the company has revealed that Windows 8 will also stop default support for DVD playback. You'll only be able to play DVDs and Blu-rays if you upgrade to the Media Center pack. 'Acquiring either the Windows 8 Media Center Pack or the Windows 8 Pro Pack gives you Media Center, including DVD playback (in Media Center, not in Media Player), broadcast TV recording and playback (DBV-T/S, ISDB-S/T, DMBH, and ATSC), and VOB file playback. Pricing for these Packs, as well as retail versions of Windows 8, will be announced closer to the release date. To give you some indication of Media Center Pack pricing, it will be in line with marginal costs.'"
In a comment, Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky elaborates: "(marginal is small, honest, and we just haven't determined the final prices yet based on ongoing work but we are aiming for single digit dollars but we don't control the truly marginal costs). We wanted to include Media Player for everyone without everyone incurring the cost even if they don't even have an optical drive."
Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Interesting)
Now I've got to pay for every damned little thing in the OS too.
What's next, is there going to be an extra $5 charge every time I change the BIOS settings? A $2 charge by the firmware when I add RAM?
It's like government. No politician has the balls for raise taxes openly and directly, so instead you get a million nickel-and-dime fees and surtaxes to annoy the shit out of you at every turn.
Just raise the price of Windows if that's what you need to do, MS. I'd much rather a Windows license go from $100 to $120 than to have a window popping up at every turn saying I need to pay for some expansion pack if I want this-or-that little feature to work.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Funny)
How about $100 to get a C compiler, just so that you can write any program that isn't grindingly slow?
Get off my lawn.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Informative)
Noting the "get-of-my-lawn" comment, perhaps the OP was thinking about Solaris.
A long time ago (>10 years), Sun (now Oracle) unbundled the C-compiler from the standard Solaris 2.x package and they started charging extra for their Ansi C-compiler (and it might have been $100 come to think about it)... The theory was that you didn't need the compiler if you were just using Solaris for a workstation running pre-compiled apps (there was an old BSD cc around to recompile the kernel, but it was K&R only), but if you were a Wall-street Quant, you had the money to pay extra for the privilage of writing your own code so they were gonna charge you for the privlage. Of couse the pre-compiled GCC binaries worked just fine on Solaris, so it didn't bother most folks who were tinkering with their own code.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Informative)
$100 isn't too bad. NeXTStep 3.3 and up were $800 for the OS, and $5000 for the compiler.
And without the $5000 compiler you couldn't use GCC, because the header files came with the compiler package.
Pain in the butt.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Informative)
MS is a company in the US. They have to pay MPEG-LA for licenses for things like their h.264 decoder, DVD/Blu-Ray decoder stacks. They can't avoid it. GNU/Linux can, because it's an international effort, and US organizations like MPEG-LA can't do anything outside of the USA - not for lack of trying. MS is within their reach, so MS has to comply with their pricing. Google is in the same boat with Chome.
If you run Linux, then technically YOU are on the hook to get the licenses required if you pull down the av decoders. Ubuntu, for example, isn't packaged with everything you need to play encrypted DVDs or Blu-Rays, but those things are easily added. If you live in the US, just be aware that MPEG-LA could sue you if they find out.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:4, Insightful)
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Multithreading for C/C++ and 64 bit are both available in VS Express.
Multithreading: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb157784(v=vs.100).aspx [microsoft.com]
For 64 bit, you have to install the Windows SDK, but it works.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:4, Funny)
You can get Visual Studio Express with it's C compiler, for free.
You can get GCC through either MinGW or Cygwin for free.
Why would you want to pay $100? If you really want, you can give me $100 and I'll send you any of these on a CD...
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:4, Informative)
There are plenty of ways to get a C/C++ compiler for Windows that you dont need to pay for.
You can download the Visual C++ Express Edition IDE which includes the same compiler as in the paid version (including all the optimization switches and stuff)
You can download various Microsoft SDKs that include the C/C++ compiler
Or if you dont like the Microsoft compiler, there is OpenWatcom, the free version of the Borland compiler and of course various GCC ports. And there are probably others I haven't listed.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Insightful)
This is actually a very smart move. Microsoft has to pay DVD player manufacturers to allow you to play DVDs. Here is the thing.... in the next 18 months you won't see DVD players on most laptops. Heck mine doesn't even have a CDROM. Even my media center does't use DVDs, I just play an avi file or stream from netflix/amazon.
Further, you can always use VLC. This really isn't a big deal.
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my media pc has an nvidia (ion1) onboard and I dualboot betwen linux for myth-tv client-side use or win7 for dvd play use.
when playing recording OTA stuff from my myth-server, this has to be linux on the client side as there is no (?) win version.
howevever, video playback is NOT as good as win7/nvidia drivers are. not quite as clean. I'm very sorry to say that but its true.
I'm not so picky these days and I stay in myth-client most of the time; but for really clean video, its reality that MS's video system
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:4, Informative)
>>> their win media player (sigh) is still the best 'free' solution for judder and jitter free playback
Really? I've always found VLC to be better. MS-WMP won't even play mkv files.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Informative)
MS-WMP won't even play mkv files.
In Windows 7 it will. It'll open the container, and if needed, it can go off to the Internet to download the codec. It has no problem at all with the h.264 MKV DVD rips I've been making.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:4, Informative)
Me too. In fact, I find it rare to come across a video that does work with WMP. Also, region locking makes WMP more-or-less useless for playing DVDs. Region-locked players actually aren't even legal here, and for good reason - a DVD player that refuses to play most DVD isn't fit for the purpose for which it was sold.
I'm not upset with this news. If Windows 8 comes with less bundled media software then I consider it an improvement.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:4, Insightful)
I can't be the only one that remembers when Windows didn't have mp3 support because they didn't want to pay the royalties.
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I think you nailed it. MS pays a fortune to MPEG-LA to ensure that it isn't liable for patent suits. Since it turns out that they are liable either way it's not worth it for them to blanket-license their OS anymore.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Interesting)
Additionally, it sounds like they're cutting out the DVD functionality to save the royalty costs, AND that they plan to pass those savings on to customers. Whether that will actually be the case in reality remains to be seen. I'm not a Microsoft fan, but if that is what they end up doing, I have to give them kudos for that.
For myself, I won't miss DVD playback. My home PCs don't even have optical drives installed. I have a USB DVD drive, which I've used probably less than 5 times in the past year, and only once or twice for DVDs.
But besides all that, as you pointed out, there's plenty of free software players out there now. I prefer VLC over Media Center anyway.
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Am I the only one paranoid enough to see this as a long-term mafiaa plan? OS doesn't have DVD support, so the hardware manufacturers stop including DVD drives (which is already happening on many models anyway). 5 years from now, you're completely unable to buy a device with which you can rip DVDs... Which means no more pirates. People pay for the DVD for their home entertainment system, and they pay again for the digital version for their pc and iDevice.
But maybe I just had too much coffee this morning.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Interesting)
Correction:
In the next 18 months Microsoft will strongarm OEM's into omitting the DVD drives on most laptops.
It'll be just like in the mid 1990's when Compaq switched the CD drives in their servers from SCSI models to IDE models because Microsoft told them to. And it'll be just like in the late 2000's when Microsoft started forcing netbook manufacturers to lard up the specs on the previously cheap devices because they needed just enough horsepower to run Windows XP.
Microsoft still has feet over the necks of all major OEM's. Until this problem is corrected, they will still call the shots.
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Strong arm? How many tablets will have a DVD drive? How many phones? Ultrabooks?
Windows 8 isn't just for PCs. If they can remove the cost for devices that don't need, then how is that bad for the consumer?
Or do you think that all windows 8 machines, including your cell phone and tablet, should have the included cost of DVD royalties in them?
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:4, Insightful)
consumers won't ever see the "savings"
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It *would* be a good idea assuming that the cost of a computer with Win8 without DVD playback actually cost less. But I think the chances of that are very slim. So while MS theoretically is doing a good thing here by allowing those who don't need DVD playback to pay less, the reality is that someone (MS, PC manufacturer, retailer, ...) will suck up that little bit of potential savings and consumers will end up paying more to get DVD playback rather than less to not have it.
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Microsoft has to pay DVD player manufacturers to allow you to play DVDs.
Not quite. DVD player manufacturers have to pay royalties to the DVDFLLC (DVD Format/Logo Licensing Corporation) for use of the DVD logos on their players and packaging. Software vendors such as Microsoft then have to pay another lot of royalties to the DVDFLLC for the use of the CSS decryption and MPEG decoding algorithms in their software. Some might call that double-dipping, but that's what happens.
I can understand Microsoft wanting to reduce their costs, but I doubt this will actually save consumers any
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Insightful)
I suspect most manufacturers will do what they do now.
Provide you with their own player.
Really, this only affects people who install their own copies of Windows.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Insightful)
VLC is unaffected. Buy any version of Windows you like, download VLC in 1 minute, watch all the DVD's you want.
So once again, one division of Microsoft is crippling the marketability of another department's software.
This is how vast monopolistic empires die, not from outside, but from inside.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm no fan of MS, but if this means they shave $5 off their OEM versions cost, Great... I don't even use MS's media player so saves me money hopefully.. Can always download DVD software later
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
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I used to like VLC, until I took an arrow in the...
Wait... wrong story... actually after I found CCCP & MPC (or MPC Home Cinema now) I never looked back. VLC's seeking in any direction is terrible and produces both graphical and sound artifacts for several frames. And MPC handles Hi10p fine with MADFilter (although I guess VLC has Hi10p now?). Not sure how widespread Hi10p is at this point but a lot of anime fansubs are switching over. And there is also some problems with fonts when VLC does subtitl
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VLC works for about 90% of the DVDs and videos I'll download off the Internet. It works well enough for me, well enough that I haven't needed to use WMP to play a video in a long long time.
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VLC rocks
VLC works for about 90% of the DVDs and videos I'll download off the Internet. It works well enough for me, well enough that I haven't needed to use WMP to play a video in a long long time.
IMHO, not only does VLC work just as well as Windows Media Player for Vista, but I find it's actually preferrable to WMP.... so much so that I uninstalled WMP entirely. And like you, I've yet to find a DVD that VLC won't play.
The only thing with VLC is I have to remember to reconfigure it so that the mouse scroll button scrolls the time index of the media rather than the volume.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Insightful)
VLC has had Blu-Ray playback since v2.0
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:4, Informative)
It's rather incomplete though, it doesn't support Blu-Ray menus or either of the HD-Audio codecs. You're also dependent on their admittedly incomplete AACS database, or software like Anydvd to play encrypted discs.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think it's that they are trying to nickel and dime you. I think they were trying to reduce cost of the base OS, by not including the licensing fees for MPEG2.
If so, that may be a good thing if it exposes end users to the patent craziness that is screwing up the industry. As the best way to get rid of a bad law is to strictly enforce it, unbundling the MPEG licenses will annoy end users.
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The countless frustrating hours spent trying to imagine how a document should look, and how it does look are a different story
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Funny)
if it takes Linux 4hrs longer to install vs. windows, its' not cost effective.
Dude, you're doing it wrong.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Informative)
It takes around 25 minutes to install Ubuntu and grab libdvdcss, and w/ 12.04, one round of downloads to patch it to a current state.
It takes around 1 hour to install Windows 7 on the same hardware, and around 6-8 separate and massive downloads (one weighed in at over 500MB) and 4-6 reboots over the next couple of days to get all the updates.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Informative)
Are you just missinformed, right? You are repeating MS's propaganda just because it is the only thing you ever readed, right?
The point is, you don't reinstall Linux. When a new version comes out, you upgrade (that means, you log as root and type aptitude dist-upgrade, or whatever applies to your distro - I know, Windows users have a differenet meaning for the word "upgrade"), when you change your hardware, you simply put your disk on the new machine, when you replace your disk, you simply copy the contents to the new disk.
I can think about 2 exceptions. When Linux switched to 2.6 a few distros didn't upgrade clearly, and when people started to adopt 64 bit distros it was easier to reinstall than to switch everything. Compare that with Windows, that still self destructs after a few months.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:4, Insightful)
Sadly, I'm pretty sure they reduct the cost but not the price. So why exactly should I rejoice? I don't own MS stock.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Funny)
Of course not. It's M$. They are trying to Ten and Twenty you.
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Apple doesn't sell a $30 OS. Apple sells $30 OS *upgrades*. To use them legally, you have to already have a full license for a previous version of MacOS, which you can only get by buying a computer.
No one really knows what a full MacOS X license costs, because Apple has never sold one.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Informative)
No one really knows what a full MacOS X license costs, because Apple has never sold one.
I take it you've only been paying attention the last couple of years...
As recently as 10.5 you could buy Leopard for $129 retail, or roughly $60 if you were an education customer. The "Family Pack" install was $199. This was the model on the previous iterations as well.
Snow Leopard (10.6) was upgrade-only (and $29) IIRC; although the disk didn't seem to actually check for a previous installation.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Informative)
As recently as 10.5 you could buy an upgrade to Leopard for $129, or roughly $60 if you were an education customer. The "Family Pack" upgrade was $199. This was the model on the previous iterations as well.
Fixed that for you.
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While it works, it is legal only if you use OSX on an original Mac (not a clone), and those are sold with OS licenses attached. So, from a legal point of view, it is an upgrade, because you have to have a license of the previous version of the OS (which came with the Mac when you bought it). On the other hand, I can buy a retail copy of Windows and legally install it to a PC I assembled myself.
The same way Windows is not free even though you can get the install disc (and serial number) on ThePirateBay.
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[Mac clones] just sold worse than the mac did
Eh? On the contrary, they sold better than the Mac did. And it was a better deal for the consumer too - you could get a high end UMAX or Tatung Mac clone significantly cheaper than the equivalent Macintosh. That was Jobs' problem, that the Mac was getting commodized, like PCs had, and that would kill his comparably enormous margins, not that the clones sold badly. It even says so in the link you posted: "high-end clones were cannibalizing sales of their own high-end computers, where profit margins were high
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Think of it this way: A Windows 8 DVD shipped at a nominal cost or freely/low cost downloadable
Contains only the bare minimal OS
You can then pay for the stuff you want
Want Metro, pay for it
Want the games (Minesweeper,etc)? pay for them,etc..
During installation you just select the stuff you want and pay via a credit card accordingly
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Funny)
Want Metro, pay for it
Oh no man, that shit so bad you get it for free...
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Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Insightful)
The licensing required to play DVDs or Bluray ain't free, and MS has to cover that cost per license of Windows. Including it, especially when a lot of devices lack optical drives anymore, is just a waste of money. I would expect any device sold that includes a DVD drive or Bluray drive to also include the necessary decoders to allow DVD/Bluray playback.
Note, this isn't new. Windows XP couldn't play DVDs out of the box either unless you bought a third-party decoder. Windows Vista/7 couldn't play DVDs unless you had an edition that included Media Center, such as Home Premium or Ultimate. The original XBox wouldn't play DVDs unless you bought a remote control which covered the cost of the license.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:4, Insightful)
Now I've got to pay for every damned little thing in the OS too.
Allow me to introduce you to some operating systems that do not have such a "feature:"
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Informative)
Just download VLC already.
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Just download VLC already.
I recently build an HTPC with a Zotac barebone with an NVIDIA ION GPU. The first player I went to was VLC, but I found that it cannot do GPU accelerated HD video. VLC has a checkbox for it in preference, but it doesn't play a 1080p H.264+flac mkv file I have and on a 720p file, CPU usage was high. After much experimenting, I find that smplayer/mplayer and Media Player Classic - Home Cinema will do GPU acceleration right out of the box. Both are free.
Side note. During my experiment, I got so frustrated wit
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Informative)
Thanks to the wonders of the DMCA, and possibly a raft of not-yet-expired MPEG-LA patents, it still costs money to legally ship a DVD decoder in the US, despite the fact that implementations of deCSS and MPEG2 are seriously old news.
Especially for the driveless consumer machines and the business masses, forking over a per-copy fee to the DVD cartel just doesn't make any sense for either MS or their customers...
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No, you won't have to pay for "every damned little thing in the OS". Windows 8 is targeted at tablets and PCs without optical drives, which are increasingly common because movies are in digital download formats today, so it makes sense to not have to include that functionality in the shipping OS. You're not going to be paying for every little feature, and there won't be a window popping up telling you that you need to pay for expansion packs--you're falling for the baiting headline hook, line, and sinker.
Sl
I'm usually quick to criticize Microsoft... (Score:5, Insightful)
...but in this instance, they're making the right decision.
Long ago, Microsoft would drive entire markets out of business with a particular tactic. Every time some innovative software developer produced something new and useful enough to create a whole new market (or sub-market or whatever you want to call it), Microsoft would barge in, create a similar product, and offer it for free with their operating system.
Countless innovative software companies were driven out of business this way. Whole markets dried up and blew away. I and many others lambasted Microsoft for stifling innovation in the software market by doing this, and I still think those complaints against Microsoft were valid. So now people are whining at Microsoft for doing precisely the opposite? Damned if they do, damned if they don't.
So you'll have to take the extra step of installing a free piece of software to perform the same function, a function that is becoming increasingly irrelevant in this new world of digital streaming. You'll survive.
I find it highly ironic that you are whining about not getting something for free given the rightist drivel in your sig.
Re:Bad enough I pay for microtransactions in MMO's (Score:5, Insightful)
Back then it didn't. Legally playing DVD's required (requires?) a licencing arrangement so they didn't do it, windows vista and 7 I think both support dvd playback, but the price for that is baked into the purchase assuming they have to pay at all.
The interesting tidbit here is the blu ray playback. Which right now requires you buy any of a slew of fairly expensive players (software), unless one comes with your drive, but the one with your drive may not play new discs etc. etc. etc. VLC I think has a blu ray player mode, but it doesn't work with all disks. If MS is able to pull this off it's not a bad plan.
Also, they may be decoupling the bundle because of anti trust concerns. The people who sell blu ray software especially would (probably rightly) accuse microsoft of using their monopoly to put them out of business (which would be good for humanity in this case).
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" MS probably still can't get away with giving away for free what other people are demanding money for within the legal framework that exists. I"
this is, false. You completely misunderstand what all the legal issues where about 10 years ago.
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Serious question, here:
Is there a legal way to watch DVDs on Linux yet?
I know there are lots of ways that 'just work'. But I don't know of any ways that don't invove illegally circumventing CSS copy protection.
There used to be a distro that included commercial LinDVD; is that still around? I know LinDVD was never sold on its own.
The way the market has gone (Score:5, Insightful)
The headline is trying to incite a backlash, but this is a reflection of the decline of optical drives and the rise of tablets. Apple has also gone down this path by not including optical drives in the MacBook Air. I don't find myself that concerned since it's literally been years since I watched a DVD, and all my movies are digital.
Presumably, the expense that was previously included in the cost of Windows will not be in Windows 8. I say "presumably" because I'm sure Windows 8 will still inexplicably cost over $100 or whatever.
Re:The way the market has gone (Score:5, Insightful)
it would still be nice to view dvd .iso's ;)
ah well just download vlc. media player is a piece of shit anyways.. and the marginal costs are the license costs.
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So you've had built-in playback support for DVDs before DVDs even existed?
Re:The way the market has gone (Score:4, Informative)
Install from USB? I've seen some Linux distros that might be able to accomplish that, but they're not for the novice.
Ability to boot from a USB mass storage device is in about 100% of modern BIOSes. It is not any different from booting from an internal DVD drive.
And I bet they'll pass those savings on! (Score:5, Funny)
Anti trust (Score:2, Interesting)
Now they can;t be sued but Dvd software companies for antitrust because they give are away there dvd software for free. The courts kept telling microsoft not to bundle apps with there operation systems... so now they are finaly listening.
Three Letters (Score:5, Insightful)
VLC
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2 letters: No.
VLC is a shadow of a once good product.
Media Player Classic for a not-butchered, not awful interface experience.
Re:Three Letters (Score:4, Informative)
how is it a shadow of a good product? it still plays everything. on any system or os i want. it is still portable. it is still small and it is still portable. what has changed? is it the experimental free bluray support? the interface looks the same as always to me. it is still skinable right? it still has a customisable interface right? so what is wrong with it? (other than lack of android support)
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Clearly Media Center has to do more than play DVDs, but the playing of DVDs is the hook to get people to buy the upgrade. This is nothing new. MS has always had an unreasonable number of SKUs. It allows them to give away the basic MS Windows to OEMs so the base PC remains cheap,
VLC (Score:2, Interesting)
If not, I'm happy not to have to pay for those licences as a part of my Windows licence
Not really an issue... (Score:3)
Re:Not really an issue... (Score:4, Informative)
Dell, for one, had the unfortunate tendency to ship 'PowerDVD', which was abhorrently broken in virtually every way and(despite theoretically providing a supported DVD decoder for WMP) frequently managed to munge the system to the point where neither its own interface nor WMP's could handle DVD playback.
It would have been very polite of them to offer a separately licensed 'unobtrusive bundle of the directshow components you need to play DVDs', so that a little less shitware would have been shipped...
Other players (Score:2)
Why not just download the VLC player? It's already much better than almost any alternative; I don't see why anyone would pay for Microsoft's crappy media center.
A bit premature to drop support (Score:2)
Now I know that DVD is an as-good-as obsolete format (my computers do without optical drive for the better part of the last decade), but simply dropping DVD play-back support from your mainstream distribution that sounds a little premature to me!
It's a Feature!!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
LMFAO!!!
If anyone said back in the mid 90's that Microsoft would ceed the cell phone market to Android and Apple, hemorage market share on the desktop and lose browser dominance they would be labeled a lunatic. Or Steve Ballmer.
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LMFAO!!!
If anyone said back in the mid 90's that Microsoft would ceed the cell phone market to Android and Apple, hemorage market share on the desktop and lose browser dominance they would be labeled a lunatic. Or Steve Ballmer.
If they could say that Microsoft would cede the market to Android, I would brand them a prescient prophet, not a lunatic, since neither Android nor Google even existed then.
CCCP (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:CCCP (Score:4, Funny)
Incorrect article. (Score:5, Interesting)
The OS won't play DVDs in Media Center-- because it's not included. MS said that they were confident that the PC DVD-playing software market was sufficiently full.
Windows 8 will still play DVDs with third-party-software. There's no reason to have such an inflammatory article.
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There's no reason to have such an inflammatory article.
You've given the "reason" right there.
What? Nobody consulted the Marketing department? (Score:2)
"We wanted to include Media Player for everyone without everyone incurring the cost even if they don't even have an optical drive."
Yes, those people in Ethernopia upgrading to Windows 8 will certainly appreciate those "single-digit" dollar savings.
Meanwhile, the rest of the [non-apple non-linux must-use-for-my-office] lemmings will be screaming their heads off in frustration.
New Coke. All over again.
Microsoft... you shoot yourself in the foot more times than the rest of us want to. Thank you.
E
"So these tw
XBMC FTW (Score:5, Informative)
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Another nail in physical media's coffin? (Score:2)
All the movies I've watched on my PCs/iPhone/Amazon Fire have either been via Netflix or video files of ripped disks I already own. And when I did (occasionally) watch DVDs on my PCs I did it via VLC.
All of the content we've watched off of a DVD were played using our home theatre system; I can't imagine there's too much penetration of media PCs.
bundling (Score:5, Insightful)
If Microsoft bundles software, that's bad.
If Microsoft doesn't bundle software, that bad.
Is everything Microsoft does wrong by definition?
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For years Slashdot complained about the Microsoft tax, that you couldn't get a PC without paying for Windows. When you buy Windows you pay a MPEG-LA tax, you can't get it without paying for codecs but now if they give you the choice not to pay that's wrong too. No, Microsoft can't win.
Could this be good for, eg, VLC & other OSS? (Score:3, Funny)
Perhaps this will boost interest in desktop Linux?
But can VLC do what M$ wants $$ to enable? IF so, M$ might as well give DVD playing away free.
Who's paying for Windows anyway? (Score:3, Interesting)
I know that in general, Windows comes subsidized on computers, and you can bet your ass that manufacturers aren't going to put non-media-enabled versions on there. If the DVD drive doesn't work right, the people who sold the computer are going to get the flak, not the guys who made the mysterious "Operating-System".
The people who will pay for this are the companies who do volume licensing, as usual.
Good. Keep reducing the flow of money to MPEGLA (Score:5, Insightful)
I really dislike Microsoft, I have no need for windows anything, but I dislike MPEGLA even more. As far as I am concerned, its good news that they will no longer be recieving license fees automatically from Microsoft.
I'm not sure it's great marketing (Score:3)
I get what they're doing and it makes sense, but you're going to end up with a lot of angry consumers who don't understand why their DVD drive doesn't work; or maybe they don't have one built into their computer but plug one in, and a dialog box says "Please deposit $5".
If anything, they should make the DVD version the standard, and let savvy folks downgrade and save the cost if they want.
That's why the good lord invented freeware... (Score:4, Funny)
Or in other words, frack Windows Media Center...
Old joke. An interviewer asks a potential new programmer a question, "If you could be any piece of software, which would you be?"
"Windows Media Player, " the interviewee responds, "I like to be left alone."
I Actually Feel a Little Sorry for Windows Fans (Score:3)
For a long time, people could bash Linux, with reason, as an operating system that couldn't even play a DVD out of the box. Pathetic. So what choices did the user have? Either download and install something that would play it illegally, as most did, or pay separately for licensed codecs. Now that Windows users face exactly the same choice, they will feel a certain deflation, a little at a loss, when they argue for the natural superiority of their operating system. It's an uncomfortable feeling, but ultimately healthy.
-Gareth
Re:What the heck, is this the 1980's again? (Score:5, Funny)
Somewhere PowerDVD is wringing it's hands and cackling madly in it's secret lair.
Re: (Score:3)
For the United States the fear would be over the Libdvdcs [wikipedia.org] , as it is how VLC plays DVDs. The library just uses a generated list of possible player keys, and depending on how you look at it could be violation of the DMCA, although it has not been tested in court.
Re: (Score:3)
The only reason VLC gets aw
Re: (Score:3)