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Windows 8 Won't Play DVDs Unless You Pay For the Media Center Pack
An anonymous reader writes "You may already know that Microsoft plans to sell Windows Media Center as a separate, paid pack, but now the company has revealed that Windows 8 will also stop default support for DVD playback. You'll only be able to play DVDs and Blu-rays if you upgrade to the Media Center pack. 'Acquiring either the Windows 8 Media Center Pack or the Windows 8 Pro Pack gives you Media Center, including DVD playback (in Media Center, not in Media Player), broadcast TV recording and playback (DBV-T/S, ISDB-S/T, DMBH, and ATSC), and VOB file playback. Pricing for these Packs, as well as retail versions of Windows 8, will be announced closer to the release date. To give you some indication of Media Center Pack pricing, it will be in line with marginal costs.'"
In a comment, Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky elaborates: "(marginal is small, honest, and we just haven't determined the final prices yet based on ongoing work but we are aiming for single digit dollars but we don't control the truly marginal costs). We wanted to include Media Player for everyone without everyone incurring the cost even if they don't even have an optical drive."
The headline is trying to incite a backlash, but this is a reflection of the decline of optical drives and the rise of tablets. Apple has also gone down this path by not including optical drives in the MacBook Air. I don't find myself that concerned since it's literally been years since I watched a DVD, and all my movies are digital.
Presumably, the expense that was previously included in the cost of Windows will not be in Windows 8. I say "presumably" because I'm sure Windows 8 will still inexplicably cost over $100 or whatever.
"Sufferin' succotash."
VLC
LMFAO!!!
If anyone said back in the mid 90's that Microsoft would ceed the cell phone market to Android and Apple, hemorage market share on the desktop and lose browser dominance they would be labeled a lunatic. Or Steve Ballmer.
If I have to upgrade to Windows 8 (which I don't plan on doing), then I'll just wait until there's a suitable version of the Combined Community Codec Pack for Win8. Really, paying for media playback is just lame.
This is actually a very smart move. Microsoft has to pay DVD player manufacturers to allow you to play DVDs. Here is the thing.... in the next 18 months you won't see DVD players on most laptops. Heck mine doesn't even have a CDROM. Even my media center does't use DVDs, I just play an avi file or stream from netflix/amazon.
Further, you can always use VLC. This really isn't a big deal.
Get your PostgreSQL here: http://www.commandprompt.com/
The licensing required to play DVDs or Bluray ain't free, and MS has to cover that cost per license of Windows. Including it, especially when a lot of devices lack optical drives anymore, is just a waste of money. I would expect any device sold that includes a DVD drive or Bluray drive to also include the necessary decoders to allow DVD/Bluray playback.
Note, this isn't new. Windows XP couldn't play DVDs out of the box either unless you bought a third-party decoder. Windows Vista/7 couldn't play DVDs unless you had an edition that included Media Center, such as Home Premium or Ultimate. The original XBox wouldn't play DVDs unless you bought a remote control which covered the cost of the license.
Now I've got to pay for every damned little thing in the OS too.
Allow me to introduce you to some operating systems that do not have such a "feature:"
Palm trees and 8
If Microsoft bundles software, that's bad.
If Microsoft doesn't bundle software, that bad.
Is everything Microsoft does wrong by definition?
-Dave
I don't think it's that they are trying to nickel and dime you. I think they were trying to reduce cost of the base OS, by not including the licensing fees for MPEG2.
If so, that may be a good thing if it exposes end users to the patent craziness that is screwing up the industry. As the best way to get rid of a bad law is to strictly enforce it, unbundling the MPEG licenses will annoy end users.
Too bad they are all complete shit on the desktop.
I really dislike Microsoft, I have no need for windows anything, but I dislike MPEGLA even more. As far as I am concerned, its good news that they will no longer be recieving license fees automatically from Microsoft.
Sadly, I'm pretty sure they reduct the cost but not the price. So why exactly should I rejoice? I don't own MS stock.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
In a comment, Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky elaborates: "(marginal is small, honest, and we just haven't determined the final prices yet based on ongoing work but we are aiming for single digit dollars but we don't control the truly marginal costs).
I'm sure these costs will be right in line with the marginal amounts they charge consumers for Windows Recovery media.
I suspect most manufacturers will do what they do now.
Provide you with their own player.
Really, this only affects people who install their own copies of Windows.
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
VLC is unaffected. Buy any version of Windows you like, download VLC in 1 minute, watch all the DVD's you want.
So once again, one division of Microsoft is crippling the marketability of another department's software.
This is how vast monopolistic empires die, not from outside, but from inside.
Business/App ideas are like arseholes: everyone's got one, they're mostly shit, but very rarely they contain a diamond
I can't be the only one that remembers when Windows didn't have mp3 support because they didn't want to pay the royalties.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
No, you won't have to pay for "every damned little thing in the OS". Windows 8 is targeted at tablets and PCs without optical drives, which are increasingly common because movies are in digital download formats today, so it makes sense to not have to include that functionality in the shipping OS. You're not going to be paying for every little feature, and there won't be a window popping up telling you that you need to pay for expansion packs--you're falling for the baiting headline hook, line, and sinker.
Slippery slope arguments are almost always bogus because you can turn practically anything into a "what's next" statement that exaggerates the original situation and makes it seem worse than it actually is.
"Sufferin' succotash."
I have no empathy for Windows users. They are self-made suckers, ever mocking and deriding GNU/Linux, a powerful free OS that they should all have switched to years ago. Now the poor little lambs are whining about how their corporate overlords keep fleecing them! Oh, woe to the poor little babies!
Free yourselves from tyranny instead. Only buy games that run on GNU/Linux. Demand that the major game labels make the transition. Better yet, grow up and stop wasting so much time playing games. Get a life. Create wealth and culture instead of just consuming it. Use Scribus, Gimp, and Inkscape instead of Photoshp. Use PostgreSQL instead of Oracle, Use gcc, python, or perl instead of .NET or Visual Studio. Use Firefox or Chrome instead of Internet Explorer. Use LibreOffice instead of Microsoft Office. If you're not willing to change, then just grab your ankles and shut your eyes really tight. Just like you always have. Suckers.
...but in this instance, they're making the right decision.
Long ago, Microsoft would drive entire markets out of business with a particular tactic. Every time some innovative software developer produced something new and useful enough to create a whole new market (or sub-market or whatever you want to call it), Microsoft would barge in, create a similar product, and offer it for free with their operating system.
Countless innovative software companies were driven out of business this way. Whole markets dried up and blew away. I and many others lambasted Microsoft for stifling innovation in the software market by doing this, and I still think those complaints against Microsoft were valid. So now people are whining at Microsoft for doing precisely the opposite? Damned if they do, damned if they don't.
So you'll have to take the extra step of installing a free piece of software to perform the same function, a function that is becoming increasingly irrelevant in this new world of digital streaming. You'll survive.
I find it highly ironic that you are whining about not getting something for free given the rightist drivel in your sig.
You can code multithreaded applications with Visual C++ Express, and you can develop 64-bit applications with Visual C++ Express. So, you're a troll, ignorant, or both. You are correct that profiling requires a (seriously expensive) Visual Studio edition, but profiling is an advanced compiler feature, not a "I need this to develop useful stuff" feature. I do think it would be nice if it weren't locked away in an expensive VS edition, but, it's hardly something you need to code your apps.
Back then it didn't. Legally playing DVD's required (requires?) a licencing arrangement so they didn't do it, windows vista and 7 I think both support dvd playback, but the price for that is baked into the purchase assuming they have to pay at all.
The interesting tidbit here is the blu ray playback. Which right now requires you buy any of a slew of fairly expensive players (software), unless one comes with your drive, but the one with your drive may not play new discs etc. etc. etc. VLC I think has a blu ray player mode, but it doesn't work with all disks. If MS is able to pull this off it's not a bad plan.
Also, they may be decoupling the bundle because of anti trust concerns. The people who sell blu ray software especially would (probably rightly) accuse microsoft of using their monopoly to put them out of business (which would be good for humanity in this case).
VLC has had Blu-Ray playback since v2.0
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Strong arm? How many tablets will have a DVD drive? How many phones? Ultrabooks?
Windows 8 isn't just for PCs. If they can remove the cost for devices that don't need, then how is that bad for the consumer?
Or do you think that all windows 8 machines, including your cell phone and tablet, should have the included cost of DVD royalties in them?
I've seen it choke before on high-definition video and iirc they only added Hi10p playback recently. WMP with K-lite codec pack does not ever choke, and Smplayer is the best way to go on Linux. VLC is probably good enough for most people, but it has its technical flaws.
consumers won't ever see the "savings"
Or you could just get a free player like VLC or mplayer instead of over reacting. You know, you could do that even before MS starts charging money, since WMP can't properly handle anything.
Rethinking email
I'm not clear on whether you need Microsoft's "pack" only to actually load up and watch a video, or also to rip it. If you ask me, which you didn't, the best practice is to put in the DVD, rip it to a file, put the DVD into a box in a closet, and watch the file as many times as you like. I do this specifically to avoid the commercials, especially that annoying commercial for the FBI. This works well for Netflix: receive DVD, rip it in about 45 minutes, put it in the mail the next day, watch the video from the file without commercials, delete the file (or keep it if you wish). I get about two DVDs per week that way, or about 8 per month, which is the only way Netflix is worth the monthly cost.