Windows 8 no native DVD playback, But Adds Dolby Digital +

[cjmccarthy72]

Yes of course Apple users are too cool for blu-ray, preferring (in the UK) to rent movies for £4.50 a go, wait 20-30 minutes for it to download, then until recently watch it only in 720p. I do rip my media of course but I do prefer to physically own it. Too often I have lost albums, magazines, movies as the drm has expired, company has closed down a service or I have simply misplaced a file and done a reinstall of Windows.

As for "many people" preferring 3rd Party software, I think we are in danger of being in a enthusiast bubble again. Many people do not know anything about non MS software but just expect their PC to just work. The vast majority of people (probably 99%) do not know or care about codecs- and to be honest, why should they have to.

[trooper11]

Yes of course Apple users are too cool for blu-ray, preferring (in the UK) to rent movies for £4.50 a go, wait 20-30 minutes for it to download, then until recently watch it only in 720p. I do rip my media of course but I do prefer to physically own it. Too often I have lost albums, magazines, movies as the drm has expired, company has closed down a service or I have simply misplaced a file and done a reinstall of Windows.

As for "many people" preferring 3rd Party software, I think we are in danger of being in a enthusiast bubble again. Many people do not know anything about non MS software but just expect their PC to just work. The vast majority of people (probably 99%) do not know or care about codecs- and to be honest, why should they have to.

Unfortunately, MS is held to a different standard than other tech companies. While integration is great, too much and MS gets slapped with an anti-trust allegation. They have to walk a tight rope on what is ok to add and what isnt. I'm sure its one reason that they created the live essentials package which pulled movie maker, photo gallery, windows mail, etc out of the OS and offered it as a free add on.

Heck just look at Google and Mozilla throwing a fit over MS restricting apps to only be built in Metro on Win RT tablets.

From a consumer point of view, your exactly right though, simpler is better. The more that works out of the box, is less they have to worry about. Why else would tablets and smartphones be so hot right now? They are built with simple in mind. A pc or mac however is not that simple but most consumers still expect it to be as simple. I guess thats one reason you see both Apple and MS trying to simplify their desktop oses. But then you hear the blow back from some power users, hating the fact that MS would cater to that simplified mantra, so we will see how that plays out.

[cjmccarthy72]

Building Windows 8 team have a new post: Building a rich and extensible media platform
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012 ... tform.aspx [link fixed]

The comments options were switched off after just a few hours.

Good news about how Windows 8 will lower the grunt needed to play media.

Also details about support for 3D capability and support for future tech 4K TVs etc- which are at the moment very minority orientated.

But of course no support for the more mainstream DVDs, Blu-Ray, WTV files, etc. Microsoft's priories do seem a bit skewed. In Windows 8 clicking on a WTV file just plays the audio with no explanation of what the user should do- that will confuse a lot of the general public who care little for codecs. I hope Win8 final release will at least have a pop-up explaining what is going on/what the public need to do.

Also for those who say the future is only one of streaming not optical, I would like to see how you can stream a 4K 3D movie when there are many in the world are still waiting for broadband! I think Blu-ray will still have a future for a little while for those reasons.

[adam1991]

actual link:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012 ... tform.aspx

let's see if the forum s/w lets this one through

[STC]

^ This looks troublesome. Perhaps just a bug:

The new volume thingy breaks MCE remotes, I have a RC6 ir remote and the volume & mute buttons don't work anymore

[adam1991]

well, it's not as if Win7 will suddenly stop working. I imagine that like XP, Win7 will have ten+ years of active use in the world.

That gives MS time to get some things right, and gives us some time to come to accept whatever we end up getting.