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CD/DVD Manufacturers To Support Windows Media
Anonymous Coward writes "Seattle P-I story on MS's latest move towards having their finger in every slice of the content pie. Oh, goody. 'Microsoft Corp. plans to announce today that four DVD makers will incorporate its Windows Media Audio technology into their players, enabling consumers to play CDs and DVDs they compiled using that technology. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, DVD makers Toshiba, Panasonic, Apex Digital Inc. and Shinco, a Chinese manufacturer, will announce plans to support Windows Media Format in some or all of their models this year, said Michael Aldridge, lead product manager for Microsoft's Windows digital media division.'" We've mentioned this before, but there are a few more details now.
Rio Volt (a portable CD/CDR/MP3 player) already supports Windows Media format.
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I have a DVD player with progressive out.
I have no need to replace my DVD player with a new one.
DVD standard is MPEG2. Period. The standard is MPEG 2, and it is set in stone.
The problem that I may have is that all of the "extra" features may be in the windoes format. Argh.
I refuse to buy anything with this crap in it. Damnit, why can't people understand that I don't want Microsoft pervasive into my entire life. They want to be a part of everything... i.e. a little kid with their hands in everything, and they don't like anyone else to play. Well, fine, I won;t buy it. And furthurmore, CmrTaco, you should realize that you put money in those 40 billion dollar coffers when you bought that xbox.
Shame on you.
Blah Blah Blah.
This story was posted on /. before... http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/12/12/135723 2&mode=thread
There are gigs and gigs of both pirate and legitimate divx3 and 4 videos out there to be had on IRC, Usenet, FT, and Gnutella.
The only ones who use WMV are corporate entities who don't have anything good to encode anyway...
I'm quite sure you're absolutely right there. Problem is, MS still isn't over the DivX ;-) guy's
ripping of their codec, and go on ranting about
that "pirated and poorly hacked" codec. Just check
out their newsgroups. They go on saying how DivX is
only used for DVD rips and pr0n, and "real" content
providers wouldn't ever use anything but their own
(better, supported) technology (their terms, not
mine). Problem is, the corporate drones actually
believe this. And as compared to Real Media, WM
actually is very cheap.
Unfortunately, I have to work with WM right now. And I hate it, on technical grounds. Try to do anything beyond the most simple A/V streaming stuff, and you have to wade through monstrous inconsistencies and bugs, and no help whatsoever to expect from their newsgroups - I won't have to mention insufficient and hard to find documentation from MSDN. Only good thing: end of february, I'm outta here. And good riddance.
That's even more true now that Ogg Vorbis RC3 is of higher quality than wma and mp3 and mpc, and others, at 128kbit *and* 64kbit.
Yes folks, RC3 is vastly improved over RC2. Give it a try!!
Agreed, even the 'licensed' players are crap. I made the mistake of throwing my Episode I DVD in my DVD player on my WinXP box. Naturally, some crap Intervideo or whatever is installed and all of a sudden, I can't play any DVDs on my Windows box, and naturally, it crashes and as usual, and then throws some bullshit icon in the system tray.
Of course, it STILL wouldn't let me goto the starwars.com link and get the web content 'exclusively for DVD owners.' So I had to get the trailer through Morpheus, go figure.
I'm sick of the failed promise of DVD, special 2-disc versions that cost more and could easily fit one one side, one disc, crappy discs without 5.1, and and all this exclusive web content that doesn't work.
Sigh, Quicktime is fully open (not the source, but it is fully standardized). You can build your own version. In fact, a few open source projects are under way. This only leaves sorenson as a barrier for Linux, which:
1. Is not owned by Apple.
2. Doesn't have to be used. Blame the content-providers for not using an alternative (or the open-source community for not providing a free codec that is a good alternative).
No way you can blame Apple that the content-providers are using a proprietary, closed codec when Quicktime is an open architecture that can easily accomodate new codecs. Why don't you provide and ask content-provider to use a good cross-platform alternative (perhaps Divx 4). This will solve the entire problem.
The Drowned and the Saved - Primo Levi
Assuming you have the right programs, you can use just about any (last I checked, I could use any) MS Windows compatible codec on a Linux box. Even XMMS had the capability of playing back just about any video file that I thre at it, after downloading and compiling the right plugins.
The problem with Windows XP's integrated audio/video encoding is the fact that most users don't quite have the knowlege to make choices about the formats that they wish to use. What do we have here? Microsoft pushes AVI and WMA down the throats of unsuspecting customers. A large user base of portable music player and DVD player users begin to use their formats. Potentially, we have the whole MP3 thing all over again. Give the users some easy and convenient sets of tools and they are basically opening the door to allowing Microsoft to controlthat market. It's the perfect Microsoft model.
I can encode mp3's at 320kbps on my XP box at home. I just use the software that came with my audigy. There are plenty of crippled MP3 programs out there. You just have to find a good one.
You make a valid point, but I have one correction:
The elimination of Netscape-style plug-ins was a security concern. Netscape-style plug-ins are simply DLLs loaded with LoadLibrary(...) that execute code with no protection in mind, such as SSL Object Signing (Microsoft's branded Authenticode). By getting rid of that layer, they closed another hole for crackers to insert potentially harmful code. With ActiveX, users (at least, those that understand signed controls or at least read the dialog that pops up) have the security of signed code, such as the ActiveX wrapper for QuickTime. This way, at least users are "warned" that the control is safe to download. You don't get this option with DLLs with a model like Netscape-style plug-ins.
Just FYI. I do get your point about the other, though. I pray that the SSSCA does not pass. Too few people have too much money already!