Windows Vista: No Blu-ray/HD DVD support out of the box

By Asher Moses on 24 August 2006

The version of Windows Media Player that will ship with Windows Vista won't include playback support for either Blu-ray or HD DVD movie titles.

"In box we have the Microsoft VC1 decoder...but in order to do playback [of Blu-ray and HD DVD titles] you will need a third-party player such as...PowerDVD from Cyberlink," Mark O'Shea, OEM Systems Engineer for Microsoft Australia told CNET.com.au.

Windows Media Player 11, sans next-gen DVD playback capabilities

VC-1 is a Microsoft-developed video codec adopted by many movie studios as the video standard for their commercial HD DVD and Blu-ray titles.

At present, neither Cyberlink nor any other video playback software developers have made available HD DVD or Blu-ray players for retail purchase. Rather, the only players available are those that come pre-installed on Blu-ray/HD DVD equipped computers.

Microsoft's O'Shea is confident that the appropriate third-party playback software will be readily available by the time Vista officially launches in Australia, which is currently slated for early next year.

When asked to confirm whether or not Microsoft would ever build playback support for the two formats into Windows Media Player, O'Shea declined to comment, stating that Microsoft hasn't announced any such plans as yet.

Topics: dvd, vista, vc-1, 11, hd, player, media, windows, blu-ray, blu ray

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Comments (4)

  • DanteLA commented on 18/09/2008 23:59 Report abuse

    If they add playback for these formats someone will get a hair and on try to bring a class action suite against Microsoft because this built in ability is preventing customers from purchasing third party apps. If I were MS I would avoid all of this - make the option available (you an turn it on) but leave the option off by default - this way the people that want it built it can use and those that do not can spend more money on a third party app. As for cost a new version of Windows cost about the same as a new version of MacOS - and with MacOS you have to purchase a new version everytime you upgrade your hardware - were Windows is generally much more backward compatible.

  • Sunday Ironfoot commented on 25/08/2006 04:44 Report abuse

    They could bundle BluRay/HD-DVD playback in Vista and get being sued by companies like Cyberlink and Intervideo. Just as they were sued by Netscape for bundling Internet Explorer, and by RealNetworks for bundling Windows Media Player.

  • TechCF commented on 25/08/2006 01:58 Report abuse

    But for all the $$$ windows costs they could have included dvd playback. Software players retail for $12. I don't know the licence cost for BD/HD-DVD, but I know Vista will be expensive

  • CDRLabs commented on 25/08/2006 00:53 Report abuse

    And you're surprised by this? The current version of Windows Media Player doesn't let you play standard DVD movies without 3rd party support either. It's not like they can give away the MPEG-2 codec.

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