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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."
Now I've got to pay for every damned little thing in the OS too.
What's next, is there going to be an extra $5 charge every time I change the BIOS settings? A $2 charge by the firmware when I add RAM?
It's like government. No politician has the balls for raise taxes openly and directly, so instead you get a million nickel-and-dime fees and surtaxes to annoy the shit out of you at every turn.
Just raise the price of Windows if that's what you need to do, MS. I'd much rather a Windows license go from $100 to $120 than to have a window popping up at every turn saying I need to pay for some expansion pack if I want this-or-that little feature to work.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
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."
I'm sure that Microsoft will be generous and actually pass on these savings to the consumer, right? I mean, they wouldn't just cut out a feature to save some money and then keep that money for themselves, would they?
VLC
Are they going to ban VLC and other 3rd party players?
If not, I'm happy not to have to pay for those licences as a part of my Windows licence
Vendors will supply their own software to play them with the added crap that comes with windows. System Builders will use readily available codec , and tablets without DVD drives wont need it any way. XP did not come with a way to play DVD's unless you purchased software so this is not much of a change.
Why not just download the VLC player? It's already much better than almost any alternative; I don't see why anyone would pay for Microsoft's crappy media center.
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.
The OS won't play DVDs in Media Center-- because it's not included. MS said that they were confident that the PC DVD-playing software market was sufficiently full.
Windows 8 will still play DVDs with third-party-software. There's no reason to have such an inflammatory article.
On top of all the VLC comments above... if you want a *Free* media center alternative... XBMC is the way to go.
There Can Be Only One...
Now they can;t be sued but Dvd software companies for antitrust because they give are away there dvd software for free. The courts kept telling microsoft not to bundle apps with there operation systems... so now they are finaly listening.
If Microsoft bundles software, that's bad.
If Microsoft doesn't bundle software, that bad.
Is everything Microsoft does wrong by definition?
-Dave
Perhaps this will boost interest in desktop Linux?
But can VLC do what M$ wants $$ to enable? IF so, M$ might as well give DVD playing away free.
I know that in general, Windows comes subsidized on computers, and you can bet your ass that manufacturers aren't going to put non-media-enabled versions on there. If the DVD drive doesn't work right, the people who sold the computer are going to get the flak, not the guys who made the mysterious "Operating-System".
The people who will pay for this are the companies who do volume licensing, as usual.
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.
Somewhere PowerDVD is wringing it's hands and cackling madly in it's secret lair.
I get what they're doing and it makes sense, but you're going to end up with a lot of angry consumers who don't understand why their DVD drive doesn't work; or maybe they don't have one built into their computer but plug one in, and a dialog box says "Please deposit $5".
If anything, they should make the DVD version the standard, and let savvy folks downgrade and save the cost if they want.
Or in other words, frack Windows Media Center...
Old joke. An interviewer asks a potential new programmer a question, "If you could be any piece of software, which would you be?"
"Windows Media Player, " the interviewee responds, "I like to be left alone."
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Does VLC pay those licensing costs? Is there some sort of "free software" exemption?
For the United States the fear would be over the Libdvdcs , as it is how VLC plays DVDs. The library just uses a generated list of possible player keys, and depending on how you look at it could be violation of the DMCA, although it has not been tested in court.
...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 missed a cost though, and an important one. DVD technology is patented, with the patents held in part by MPEG-LA and in part by the DVDCCA. In addition, playing DVDs without breaking CSS (Which VLC does, but as a big company MS couldn't get away with) requires a licenced CSS key from the DVDCCA. Both the patent licence and the key licence incur a per-unit cost to those two bodies, and it is that fee that MS is trying to avoid by not including DVD functionality out of the box.
The only reason VLC gets away with playing DVDs is that the DVDCCA long ago gave up on enforcing their control.
Are you familiar with the concept of royalties? That is, the true marginal cost for including the playback is the cost of including the few extra megabytes + royalties to the patent holders of the media codecs in question. In this case, royalties >>>> cost of a few extra megabytes.
For a long time, people could bash Linux, with reason, as an operating system that couldn't even play a DVD out of the box. Pathetic. So what choices did the user have? Either download and install something that would play it illegally, as most did, or pay separately for licensed codecs. Now that Windows users face exactly the same choice, they will feel a certain deflation, a little at a loss, when they argue for the natural superiority of their operating system. It's an uncomfortable feeling, but ultimately healthy.
-Gareth
Why would anyone choose Microsoft's Media Center over XBMC?
Microsoft has proven they suck at just about everything.
XBMC is far better than any other media player Microsoft has ever released.