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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.
Nice they grouped up all the DVD players that have this bug in them. Now I know what not to get.
Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
Why is MS so bad for thinking of this first?
Well, for the simple reason that Windows Media will continue to remain a properitary format, and we poor people who cant afford MS Windows XX, or who prefer to use alternate Operating Systems will be left in the dumps. Atleast Real comes with a Real audio player for linux. Apple is as bad as MS, btw. Properitary and closed!
Don't Panic
DiVX (the stupidly-named hax0rd AVI codec, not the ill-fated DVD rental dealy) is shit and only for pirates. Why the fuck would anyone want it?
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Where do trolls like you come from? I can import, edit and export video in ANY format I choose on my Windows XP machine. Natively, you cannot but wouldn't that just draw more ire from the trolls whoo think Microsoft shouldn't include everything? Be realistic here. Pull your head out of your ass.
Microsoft has launched its latest version of Windows, Windows XP (eXtra Proprietary). Tightening its stranglehold on all industries that use computers, Microsoft's XP features are certain to further degrade customer choice, cost/performance and, in some cases, even civil liberties.
One of the most controversial new eXtra Proprietary technologies is Windows Media. In a twist that no framer of the U.S. Constitution could have imagined, Microsoft is using patents to prevent software interoperability with its eXtra Proprietary technologies. Of course, Windows Media has to compete with the immensely popular MP3 format, but Windows XP limits the quality of MP3 encoding and decoding. By intentionally degrading the quality of all competing technologies, and by allowing only Microsoft-approved uses of its own technologies, Windows Media has the potential to create yet another monopoly for Microsoft -- a monopoly that extends from software to content. Such a monopoly would change our entertainment economy from one of unlimited content at limited cost, to one of limited content with unlimited costs.
Let's get out of this vicious trap the way we got in: by controlling what we do with our money. If you are already running Microsoft's products, do the sensible thing and BOYCOTT THE MONOPOLIST. Let Microsoft's latest products sit in warehouses until Microsoft comes to their senses and removes all the eXtra Proprietary technologies they've been engineering over the past several years. Wait until Microsoft offers a level playing field to other operating systems, applications and network service providers.
For those of you who cannot stand still, join a LUG (Linux Users Group) and maybe upgrade to Linux. Aside from saving a bundle on licensing fees (there are none), you'll get unprecedented freedom and control. With thousands of Red Hat Certified Engineers, and millions of Linux enthusiasts, any configuration running on any hardware can be supported at a fair price (determined by a free market of competing vendors) for as long as you want. Suddenly, hardware and software upgrades will be your choice, not a choice dictated to you. Suddenly, money you spend will be on things that you value, not things you are forced to pay for. Suddenly, you will begin to see the engine of growth that Moore's law enables come back to life, and the dividends it pays will be ones you can put in your bank account, not the bank account of a convicted monopolist.
Custer's Revenge: The greatest video
The problem is that, once enough DVD manufacturers have picked up on this (and I believe enough already have), then others will quickly follow suit. Eventually, when the market is saturated with WMF DVD players, People will have a choice between MPEG2 or WMF formats when they burn off a disk, and of course people will more and more use WMF, because congress will ban regular MPEG2 DVDs because they don't have any DRM. Then there will be no other choice.
Proprietary, closed media formats hurt everybody except for stock owners. People only pay because they want to use the technology, not because it is for the greater good, and to get back at evil pirates and hackers.