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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.
I hope they would make divx playable instead :)
http://www.dvdwriters.co.uk
People who are interested in technology tend to be impressed by good technology and not by good business. Why should people think positive about MS's move? They get more power for their business; power which otherwise could be used for better standards and the support of better technology.
This sig is a true statement, but I cannot prove it.
So, we have DeCSS. Whos up for writing a DeWMA?
Liberty in your lifetime
As I see it, this means extra hardware in the DVD players is required. Probably some form of generic CPU, one fast enough to decode the video. The MPEG2 chip for DVD usually gives you VCD/SVCD/etc for free and MP3 decoding on the side. But WMA/WMV are different beasts that don't use the same schemes, right? (Correct me if I'm wrong..)
So, assuming they put in some form of generic processor for decoding Windows Media formats, what's to stop them (or some other person) from putting in support for all sorts of media formats using that self same processor? Last time I checked my DVD player it didn't have any chips in there fast enough to decode DivX, maybe Microsoft is helping to change that for me.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I know you'll never believe this coming from an anti-DMCA type like me, but I kinda like these news. The reason is this: I think that the RIAA/MPAA/whatever are preparing themselves for a VERY harsh wake-up when they find out that Microsoft cares zero-nilch-nada-nothing about their interests. Microsoft's aim is market dominance and experience shows that it can be obtained much more readily by massive availability of stuff and not massive control. I predict that (obviously) the WMP formats will be cracked (didn't it already happen?) and Microsoft will very gladly look the other way while tons of pirated stuff get exchanged in WMP format only playable on Windows or Microsoft-licensed players. They'll invest 5% of the huge profits they make in PR towards the aforementioned RIMPAA, who will actually learn that Microsoft are the very best in security/content protection and whatever other solution will be worse.
Global result: for the price of a windows license and some gigs of disk the users get unlimited access to (pirated) content. Users are happy. Microsoft is happy. RIAA/MPAA are screwed.
It'll be fun to watch.....
Considering how poorly most DVD players support MP3 CDs, maybe this will be a good thing. We all know how militant Microsoft is about support their feature set fully. I've never seen a DVD player that supports long file names, let alone ID3 tags. Perhaps when Microsoft forces hardware manufacturers to support the WMA format fully, they'll finally write the microcode to display full song information.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
This move isn't about now; it's about the future. MS is betting that the SSSCA (or whatever) gets passed and suddenly manufacturers will be compelled to drop all formats that don't contain DRM. And, since WMA is DRM ready, it will be the natural choice, since the equipment manufacturers will have it licensed already. Likewise, the equipment folks are hedging their bets against SSSCA, licensing WMA now so they'll have it available when the hammer falls.
I'll bet the licensing is a sweet deal too: right now the fee's are either $0 or nominal, which MS can view as a loss leader. Thenn SSSCA passes and whammo - licensing fees skyrocket, and the manufacturer's just start charging $10 more per unit.
Here's the real beauty of the scheme: Let's say some smart guy figures "Hey, I just won't upgrade Media Player to the latest copy-protection-mandatory version. Fine for a while, and then Mr. Smartguy clicks on Windows Update and sees CRITAL UPDATE - SECURITY RELATED!!! and he scrambles to download it. And hidden beside the fix to the security hole of the week is a Media player update. MS previewed this tactic with the IE5.5 "security" update that wiped out plug-ins as well.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
So, if you contact Apple, they will say "Don't talk to us, we don't own it, talk to Sorenson."
And if you talk to Sorenson, they will say "We'd LOVE to license it to you, really we would, but we cannot without Apple's approval, go talk to them".
So why not arrange a three-way conference call among the three legal departments? On most telephone exchanges, it's as easy as click, dial, click, discuss terms.
That is, unless Sorenson is right, and (as rumored) Microsoft is StrongARMing Apple with terms such as "if you release QuickTime for Linux, we discontinue Office for Mac."
Will I retire or break 10K?