Slashdot Mirror
Vista Won't Play With Old DVD Drives
tlhIngan writes "From a developer's blog, Windows Vista will no longer support DVD-ROM drives that do not handle region coding in hardware (RPC1 drives) - thus preventing playback of DVDs that are region/CSS encoded with those drives. Not a big problem, as RPC1 drives haven't been officially manufactured since 2000 (and Microsoft claims their drives are all broken), but for those with hacked drives (RPC2 with RPC1 firmware), or move the RPC1 drive to new computers, well, no more DVD movies for you!"
what about places like new zealand where it is illegal to sell a region coded piece of hardware. does this count as like rpc1? does this mean Win Vista will not run in new zealand? if not then whatever new zealanders do will be able to be used anywhere else to get region free dvd drives on windows. if yes, then microsoft loses new zealand to linux in ten seconds flat.
Why do the big players not get the long tail fact that stopping people from seeing your stuff is suicidal? There is so much other good stuff out there fighting for attention, be it news sites, blogs, podcasts, videocasts, flashfilms, indie films, et bloody cetera.
The money is in editorial branding. And that is because editorial choice is a way of dealing with information overload. It's so freaking obvious, yet none of the majors seem to get it. Even when some english nightclub goes on to form a top selling dance mix brand, just by picking good tunes. This is the way it is done.
Not by making your software even more anti-usable. FFS.
One of my machines runs Win XP with a DVD burner. I recently started to pick up import Japanese Anime which are set to Region 2. When I got my first import, I put the DVD in and ran DVD Shrink. It insisted on changing the RPC-2 H/W Region Code. Of course, there are a max of 5 changes before the it is permanent. I ended up going out to pick up another DVD drive which is specific for Region 2 DVD's. What a pain !
I would like to meet the a-hole, probably a marketing executive, who thought of this Region coding BS.
On DVD Shrink, it is used for my own purpose of making dups of the DVD's i buy. The originals are kept at home and I play off the copies. I am about done with vacation and I recently bought some new Anime. I made copies and took the copies with me to watch when I have time. The originals are at home safe.
I get to spend the day trying to get an ATI video card working in my mothers computer.
My dad calls me and asks if the card would be a good upgrade from the existing card and I suggested he try to see if there was an Nvidia card instead that might be a good deal. There wasn't. So I decide that my bias against ATI is several years old and they have probably fixed their drivers by now. (Which I have been assured by numerous people were all fixed and good since I bought my ATI all In Wonder years ago.).
So I tried installing it the other day and spent god knows how long getting an error message at the end of the install process telling me to install the standard VGA drivers. Of which there does not seem to be any for Windows XP. (No, booting in the VGA mode didn't solve that problem).
Since I had things to do last night for New Years I left before I could figure out the issue but now I have to travel back to my parents place and fix the problem.
As much as hardware for my Mac tends to be more expensive, I'll take the price hit over the GOD DAMN HASSLE of Windows hardware.
I am utterly sick of having to print out pages of information not provided by manufacturers just to install their products on the CURRENT VERSION of a Windows OS.
And ATI is back on my forbidden hardware list.