Windows 8 Excludes Dolby Technologies

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Dolby Labs has reported that Microsoft has decided not to include Dolby technology in the upcoming release of Windows 8. This is a surprising move on Microsoft’s part considering Dolby is included in Windows 7. Dolby shares fell 18% on Friday on the news.

The absence of Dolby technologies in current Windows 8 builds does not inherently imply that the OS will not support DVD playback or digital surround sound. It is possible that Microsoft will choose to license these technologies from another provider
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That's what specialized hardware and software is for. Microsoft shouldn't have to include Dolby technology in Windows.
 
Exactly what would this prevent me from doing that I could do before?

I'm coming up empty.
 
cant wait for the bandwagon people to whine and complain about this and how MS sucks and windows 8 will suck, similar to .. was it XP that didnt come with DVD ability with out 3rd party software..?
 
So they removed 3D Sound in Vista, barely added it back in Windows 7 and now are removing Dolby sound from Windows 8. I'm sticking with Windows 7 as long as possible
 
I think as long as you have playback software (Cyberlink, etc) you'll be fine. How many people watch DVDs in WMP?
 
ecmaster76 said:
I think as long as you have playback software (Cyberlink, etc) you'll be fine. How many people watch DVDs in WMP?
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I can think of at least 13 family members that I still communicate with regularly that all use Windows Media Player for most of their video watching as it is easily clickable on their task bar. I simply do not understand why Microsoft keeps removing more and more audio features with each new OS release.
 
Why license the tech, when Cyberlink and the likes, will do it for you? A no brainer really. The people most likely to both, notice, and care, are generally not the ones that use WMP.

Sucks for Dolby, not that I really give a shit about them or anyone else sitting on media recording/playback patents at this point. One of the poster child industries for patent reform.
 
GotNoRice said:
Exactly what would this prevent me from doing that I could do before?

I'm coming up empty.
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You can natively decode Dolby Surround channels up to 7.1 currently. You won't be able to do that in Windows 8. If you don't play DVD's, BluRays, or Games that support Dolby Digital, then you won't be affected. Otherwise you'll need to pay for third party support to regain functionality.

Trimlock said:
Nothing
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That's not true. It depends on what one does currently with one's computer as to whether it's an issue, but removing Dolby functionality is certainly not "nothing."

DanNeely said:
Probably most because it's free and it works.
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You have that backwards.
 
I'm looking forward to Windows 8. I think I'll have managed to bypass Vista/Win7 altogether.
 
GORANKAR said:
Why license the tech, when Cyberlink and the likes, will do it for you? A no brainer really. The people most likely to both, notice, and care, are generally not the ones that use WMP.

Sucks for Dolby, not that I really give a shit about them or anyone else sitting on media recording/playback patents at this point. One of the poster child industries for patent reform.
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Because they have enormous market share and can license Dolby for pennies on the dollar instead of passing the cost on to their customers who then have to pony up an extra $100 dollars to obtain what should otherwise be basic, minimal functionality in a modern OS like Windows 8.
 
So they are removing the Dolby codecs. Surely you will still be able to continue doing digital passthrough, to let your Dolby receiver decode, correct?
 
FWIW, I'm far more upset about Microsoft's continued ignoring of Blu-ray. Yes they gambled on HD-DVD, and yes they lost. Blu-ray is still here to stay, for better or worse, so they might as well just implement it and be done with it.
 
MrGuvernment said:
cant wait for the bandwagon people to whine and complain about this and how MS sucks and windows 8 will suck, similar to .. was it XP that didnt come with DVD ability with out 3rd party software..?
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Wait, that did suck balls. You know how much trouble I went through getting anything DVD related to work in XP? Roxio's software blows chunks and I didn't feel like buying a DVD software player. Luckily, the DVD format died for me years ago to even care. Long live bit torrent.
 
Evil said:
So they removed 3D Sound in Vista, barely added it back in Windows 7 and now are removing Dolby sound from Windows 8. I'm sticking with Windows 7 as long as possible
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All they are doing is turning it back over to the OEM's choice. Better articles such as one from Forbes points this out. It make's sense too since they are basically abandoning media center in 8. (it won't go away, but there won't be much of any improvements) OEM's choice was how it was back in the XP days.
 
As long as TMT exists, there's no need to worry. There is ALWAYS a workaround. But why not include it?
 
I guess I'm part of the problem, since for the past 10 years or so, the mention of digital audio brands or technologies has made my eyes glaze over. Always been a weakness of mine, I suppose. "Sound comes at me from speakers" is about all I have ever wanted/cared to understand.
 
Dolby will stay in the Xbox models. While MS tries to make Windows as boring as Apple portrayed it in their commercials.
 
InorganicMatter said:
FWIW, I'm far more upset about Microsoft's continued ignoring of Blu-ray. Yes they gambled on HD-DVD, and yes they lost. Blu-ray is still here to stay, for better or worse, so they might as well just implement it and be done with it.
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Yes, I agree with this. It will read off blu-ray data disks (it did for me), but wont playback from the film disks. Part of this was the fact that microsoft was on the "other team" (mainly because they didn't get their software included in blu-ray). But that is long since past, and would make windows seem more media friendly.

Though, like dolby sound comes with most soundcards, most blu-ray drives come with blu ray playback software. But it would still be nice to have by default.
 
Honestly Its such a non factor these days that I barely even remembered XP and the DVD fiasco.

I've been using powerdvd in vista for a while now and have yet to see a problem. It seems to want to update everytie you want to watch a blu-ray though :(
 
Ryokurin said:
All they are doing is turning it back over to the OEM's choice. Better articles such as one from Forbes points this out. It make's sense too since they are basically abandoning media center in 8. (it won't go away, but there won't be much of any improvements) OEM's choice was how it was back in the XP days.
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Where did yoi hear wmc is getting nothing much for win8?
 
The eHome team was dissolved and merged into the Windows team, and nothing at all has been said about it as far as improvements. And every leaked milestone shows it as the same as it is in 7. It's been telegraphed for at least a year that they feel the focus is more on online TV than traditional TV so don't expect much.
 
mope54 said:
Because they have enormous market share and can license Dolby for pennies on the dollar instead of passing the cost on to their customers who then have to pony up an extra $100 dollars to obtain what should otherwise be basic, minimal functionality in a modern OS like Windows 8.
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Meh, let Cyberlink, Creative, Intel, Realtech and the like pay it. How many times do we the customer have to have the costs of what amounts to the same license past on to us? An extra $100 my ass. Without Dolby, I get basic functional sound.

Screw Dolby, and screw anyone else sitting on media recording/playback patents.
 
GORANKAR said:
Meh, let Cyberlink, Creative, Intel, Realtech and the like pay it. How many times do we the customer have to have the costs of what amounts to the same license past on to us? An extra $100 my ass. Without Dolby, I get basic functional sound.

Screw Dolby, and screw anyone else sitting on media recording/playback patents.
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I'm not sure if this will make windows 8 any cheaper than 7. I think you know that that wont be the case too.

I kind of agree that licencing costs for things like playback are excessive. But I also don't think they should be free, as research development should be paid for. It pisses me off when you go to author a blu-ray disk/DVD and have to pay dolby to encode in 5.1/7.1 even though you own the licences to playback this sound and so does everyone else who will play it back. Meaning that most smaller producers/home videos are locked out of the surround sound market unless they want to pay a stupid high fee, even though most consumer HD camcorders and some webcams can produce 5.1/7.1 footage. Which kind of means they are severly limiting the market.
 
mope54 said:
Whatever you say...

http://www.arcsoft.com/estore/software_title.asp?ProductCode=TMT5P&dyContent=BUYNOW#submenu

http://www.cyberlink.com/products/p...dSoftware_1_powerdvd&utm_campaign=CL_Homepage
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Wow, that is stupid expensive, but at the same time, the software that came with my Blueray burner lets me play them just fine, and the software that came with my Blueray equipped laptop lets me play Bluerays just fine. Why, again, should MS need to pay the license fee? Though I am not exactly sure why we moved over to Blueray. While Blueray players often use Dolby licensed tech, so does DVD, game, and sound drivers to name some.
There are a ton of ways the Dolby licenses can be paid for. OEMs, sound chip makers, playback recording software makers, etc. I don't see a pressing need for MS to pay it, just to pass it on to us, as well. The decision to let someone else worry about it, or to simply license a different tech, is hardly crippling to the common user.
 
as I recall there was a big fiasco a few years back where a sound card maker disabled dolby for one brand of their cards. Consumers were able to enable it with alternate drivers. This was due to licensing costs, it is not pennies like you might think, but many dollars per card.
 
GORANKAR said:
Wow, that is stupid expensive, but at the same time, the software that came with my Blueray burner lets me play them just fine, and the software that came with my Blueray equipped laptop lets me play Bluerays just fine. Why, again, should MS need to pay the license fee? Though I am not exactly sure why we moved over to Blueray. While Blueray players often use Dolby licensed tech, so does DVD, game, and sound drivers to name some.
There are a ton of ways the Dolby licenses can be paid for. OEMs, sound chip makers, playback recording software makers, etc. I don't see a pressing need for MS to pay it, just to pass it on to us, as well. The decision to let someone else worry about it, or to simply license a different tech, is hardly crippling to the common user.
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You are saying all this like our operating system purchases are free? I remember paying quite a damn bit for both Vista and Windows 7, so what exactly are people paying $300.00 for then if we are not buying a fully licensed product? With each new release they seem to take more out of the OS so what is the point of continually upgrading to the latest OS when it contains less than the last release? I don't understand people that use the defense that Microsoft shouldn't pay someone else for a license when they charge as much as they do for their OS to begin with. I could easily understand and accept them dropping features and dumping licenses if I paid under a 100 for the OS but they have always charged a inordinate amount for each and every new OS release so I simply don't get why they keep dumping widely used features and expect the end purchaser to keep being happy. I remember everyones total confusion when they dumped 3D sound support in Windows Vista still as even Creative was confused and all the audio sound card manufacturers scrambled to figure out a way to re-integrate it into games and they still have not really ever gotten sound quality back to the quality it was back in the Windows XP days.
 
Sound quality improved since XP, 3rd party sound effects/processing suffered the most.
 
Maybe it's just me, but the last time a 3D sound technology really made me excited was Aureal's A3D. Ever since Creative bought them, I've barely seen any improvements. I play with good headphones but I never see any mention of EAX, or really any audio technology whatsoever, on modern day games. How do most games do 3D sound these days? Software?
 
Evil said:
You are saying all this like our operating system purchases are free? I remember paying quite a damn bit for both Vista and Windows 7, so what exactly are people paying $300.00 for then if we are not buying a fully licensed product? With each new release they seem to take more out of the OS so what is the point of continually upgrading to the latest OS when it contains less than the last release? I don't understand people that use the defense that Microsoft shouldn't pay someone else for a license when they charge as much as they do for their OS to begin with. I could easily understand and accept them dropping features and dumping licenses if I paid under a 100 for the OS but they have always charged a inordinate amount for each and every new OS release so I simply don't get why they keep dumping widely used features and expect the end purchaser to keep being happy. I remember everyones total confusion when they dumped 3D sound support in Windows Vista still as even Creative was confused and all the audio sound card manufacturers scrambled to figure out a way to re-integrate it into games and they still have not really ever gotten sound quality back to the quality it was back in the Windows XP days.
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I am saying no such thing. (Though there are cheaper ways to get a Win license than paying full retail @ $300.) Nor am I even a proponent of upgrading an OS for no real reason. I will not upgrade to Win8 on a current PC. There is seldom much sense in doing that. When I require a new license for a new build or buy a new laptop, I will get the most recent version of Win.

Besides, they are not really dumping the feature. They are merely changing who provides it to you. Instead of MS licensing it, the OEM, or Creative, or Intel, or Realtech and/or the like will be providing it. In the end game, they are not even changing who ultimately pays for it. Us of course.
I can understand if this is a deal breaker for you and Win8. There are alternatives for you in that case. You can stay with Win7. It is unlikely that it will no longer be supported prior to Win9, or whatever they call it comes out, and it is very unlikely Win8 will have some super compelling changes to it that make sticking to Win7 unbearable. You can go with nix, err, or maybe not. Or you can go Apple. Perhaps MS will have re licensed Dolby by then.
 
Gorankar, perhaps this will affect your decision about this:

I don't think you're saying the OS should be free, but the fact of the matter is that the functionality exists to decode Dolby native those of us using Windows 7. They are going to remove functionality, whether you care or not about the ramifications, they are removing actual functionality so they are literally "dumping the feature." It's not as if you can just buy the license and then Windows will play your DVD's. How often do you use the DTS track when playing movies in Media Center?

At over 150 million Windows licenses sales per year, why are they screwing people out of native functionality?

The shortest answer seems to be linked back to their announcement last month that they are teaming up with Netflix to stream content. I feel there's a reasonable argument to be made that they are inappropriately using their market clout to muscle users to consumer their streams.

Even if you find it acceptable that users have to purchase an extra software product to use their DVD's and BluRays, Microsoft isn't going to advertise the fact those features no longer included in the price so that's a problem in my opinion.
 
I can understand that, I hated that they killed off Direct Sound myself. I agree with your reasoning. Feature loss sucks in general, and is a good reason not to buy. All I am saying is that since most Win 8 PC's will still end up shipping with the capability, and all that is changing is the middleman for the license fee, I am just not seeing an issue for the majority, outside of licensing being required at all for tech past a certain age, but my arguments against patent longevity is whole other issue.
 
Trimlock said:
Honestly Its such a non factor these days that I barely even remembered XP and the DVD fiasco.
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Yeah and who cares, it is more or less windows over again no advancements just a lot of hype.
Wondering what other marketing decisions were made by MS to include in windows 8.
 
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