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Microsoft Striping Features From Windows 8

YeuEmMaiMai said:
gotta be one of the more asinine comments in this thread.....but it is expected from a person that would make this type of comment.

I watch TONS of DVDs on my computer while working nights simply because we are unable to stream Netflix from work........because it is blocked. Also DVDs are nice to have on flights when I have not had a chance to encode them to MP4 files after buying tem
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I must agree with this comment. DVD's are still a lot more convenient and up scaled DVD's can actually look quite good.
 
ManofGod said:
I must agree with this comment. DVD's are still a lot more convenient and up scaled DVD's can actually look quite good.
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Common maybe, but convenient? Negative sir. It is far easier to stream than to fiddle with physical media.

There are some constraints on this, of course; obviously you need a network connection. But provided your constraints are met, I'd rather stream than deal with physical media any day of the week.
 
It was a licensing (cost) choice....take away Mpeg2 and add H.263, and H.264 without a price increase.

Just purchase a windows 7 compatible version of power DVD 10 for $11 problem solved.
 
Every DVD drive comes with DVD software and codecs. All OEM PC vendors will install DVD codecs for you. It's the exact same situation you had in Windows XP and before.

Windows Media CENTER and Windows Media PLAYER are TWO DIFFERENT THINGS.

There's really nothing to be worried about. People are just confused and worrying over nothing.
 
It does not really matter if you think that what they are stripping does not matter. What you need to think about is the fact that MS will be making some portion of the population pissed off. They will be doing that in THE SINGLE most radical change to the UI for a major OS ever. They are already going to be freaking people out with metro itself, why on earth would they want to give their competitors more firepower to bash their system?

Windows media center is the unique product that is very good it is something much like onenote that MS does not play up enough and needs to showcase, not strip it out and make it an add on that everyone will look for a free alternative to.WMP on the other hand is an average media player with sub average codec support.
 
If people have to pay extra for Windows Media Center, hopefully Microsoft will treat it more like a "product" that receives actual updates rather than a "feature" that stagnates and becomes outdated as the OS ages.
 
It must be great to be Microsoft. You can never make anyone happy. They bitch if you bundle in WMP, they bitch if you take it out.
 
Cool...take away the native DVD player and add the Metro UI to Windows 8. I don't know what desktop users are bitching about so much, I always wanted 6" rectangle icons (sorry apps) on my screen!
 
Perhaps MS did their research and realized not many people used MC? that the average joe who buys a dell or HP, most of MS market.. does not use the software...

OR they saw too many people used it so why not charge for it!
 
zipcord said:
I don't know what desktop users are bitching about so much, I always wanted 6" rectangle icons (sorry apps) on my screen!
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Just looking at pictures makes me want to get a mac or run linux, or something.
 
Q1DM6 said:
Unknown-One said:
Aug, I hate VLC, never fails to bug-out on me at the weirdest times.

Installed a couple codecs, Windows Media Player (and Center) work great...
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I have never known it to not work, or 'bug out' at all. Ever.
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VLC does all sorts of random crap. Unresponsive volume controls on some codec types, inability to seek some of my media files, horribly finicky DVD menu navigation, the list goes on...

Just a second ago I tried to play a DVD using it, and it randomly decided to blast the loudest static out of my speakers that it could muster. I'm afraid it might have damaged my sound system.

Close VLC, re-open it, try to play the same DVD... no static this time. It's buggy and random and hard to pin down. It's also the only player that has EVER done this to me.
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
gotta be one of the more asinine comments in this thread.....but it is expected from a person that would make this type of comment.

I watch TONS of DVDs on my computer while working nights simply because we are unable to stream Netflix from work........because it is blocked. Also DVDs are nice to have on flights when I have not had a chance to encode them to MP4 files after buying tem
Click to expand...

And there are still 10 million different ways to watch DVDs in Windows 8.
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
And this just adds to the 10 million different reasons NOT to upgrade to Windows 8
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And upgrades area small fraction Windows sales. What's going to drive Windows 8 sales is new hardware, and much of if will be pretty cutting edge from a consumer standpoint like touch screen laptops, laptop/tablet hybrids, pure tablets that run a full OS and rival the iPad in battery life if we are to believe the rumors.
 
Just use XBMC, it's free and worlds better.

If ya want to slap Windows 8 down, do it on the stupid metro UI on server os's.. that's beyond stupid IMHO.
 
Spudsdude said:
Just use XBMC, it's free and worlds better.

If ya want to slap Windows 8 down, do it on the stupid metro UI on server os's.. that's beyond stupid IMHO.
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All the more reason to use Server Core. It's already "good enough" to use without the GUI in 2008 R2.
 
Spudsdude said:
Just use XBMC, it's free and worlds better.
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I've tried using XBMC. Too difficult to set up, can't do live TV, doesn't work with any of my IR remotes properly, and its movie-library features are sorely lacking when compared to Windows Media Center + MyMovies

One major thing that keeps me away from XBMC is the inability to associate multiple videos with a single movie title in the XBMC movie library. With my current setup using Windows Media Center, when I select "play" on a movie, I'm given a list of the video files associated with that movie (if there's more than one). This list includes alternate versions of the movie, special features, behind-the-scenes videos, or anything else I want.

XBMC can ONLY play the movie, it ignores the other videos entirely and has no option for throwing up a selection. I'm basically unable to watch a large portion of my content in XBMC's library-view... If I drop back to file-view, I can see everything, but who wants to use their media center like that?

Media Portal was far better than XBMC as far as getting it set up and functioning went, but it still can't do everything I do on a daily basis with Windows Media Center.
 
Unknown-One said:
You can still install DVD playback and Windows Media Center on the machines where you want it, you know :p
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Whoa, there. That's WAY too much work. Windows 8 is obviously going to fail because it removes stuff from the default install that almost no one uses.
 
Unknown-One said:
VLC does all sorts of random crap. Unresponsive volume controls on some codec types, inability to seek some of my media files, horribly finicky DVD menu navigation, the list goes on...

Just a second ago I tried to play a DVD using it, and it randomly decided to blast the loudest static out of my speakers that it could muster. I'm afraid it might have damaged my sound system.

Close VLC, re-open it, try to play the same DVD... no static this time. It's buggy and random and hard to pin down. It's also the only player that has EVER done this to me.
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I've never seen *any* of these problems.
 
Q1DM6 said:
I've never seen *any* of these problems.
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Dunno what to tell you, VLC bugs-out at random on every system I've ever installed it on. The bugs are random and intermittent, so maybe you're just not using it enough :p
 
Unknown-One said:
Dunno what to tell you, VLC bugs-out at random on every system I've ever installed it on. The bugs are random and intermittent, so maybe you're just not using it enough :p
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Essentially every day for many years?
I click a file, the file plays. Maybe you have some hardware incompatibility causing problems?
 
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Q1DM6 said:
Essentially every day for many years?
I click a file, the file plays. Maybe you have some hardware incompatibility causing problems?
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Nope, like I said, I've installed it on multiple machines, and it never gets any less buggy. No other media players on said systems experience these problems, they're internal to VLC...

Most of VLC's issues seem to be with DVD playback, though. That's what always seems to cause it to blare LOUD static at random. How often do you attempt playing DVD's in VLC?
 
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xpclient said:
Reduced productivity: The menu bar in Windows Explorer has been removed and replaced with the unproductive Ribbon interface.
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I stopped reading after that, not that the tone of the previous was any different. That's a personal preference, not a fact. I know for myself at work the ribbon in AutoCAD and Office has been great for me, no more farting around and adding all sorts of toolbars and figuring out where to place them.

Please either revise your list or re title it to personal opinion.
 
chinesepiratefood said:
Did you even read that list? You could easily make an argument that nobody uses ANY of those "removed" features.
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It doesn't even account for features that have been replaced by analogous ones. For example, Flip 3D is listed as removed, when it was simply replaced by something more resembling the Metro UI paradigm. The same functionality exists by pressing Win+Tab, it's just not "Flip 3D" anymore. You might as well say that Internet Explorer 9 is a "removed feature" since it has been replaced with IE10. Anyway, the removal or addition of specific features has little to do with the "success" of Windows 8. It's far more important that Microsoft market it properly and get developers on board creating Metro apps ASAP.
 
CEpeep said:
I stopped reading after that, not that the tone of the previous was any different. That's a personal preference, not a fact. I know for myself at work the ribbon in AutoCAD and Office has been great for me, no more farting around and adding all sorts of toolbars and figuring out where to place them.

Please either revise your list or re title it to personal opinion.
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The ribbon has been around five years now, has been in the two best selling versions of Office ever and is now in tons of other applications.

At this point hating the ribbon is nothing but arguing against success. I lost count of the number of posts I read that predicted that if Microsoft didn't offer the option to switch to the classic menu system that Office 2007 would be a huge failure and people would switch in droves to Open Office.

Sounds pretty familiar.

One problem with Microsoft these days is that even when they are tremendously successful, somehow it gets reported as a failure. Windows 7 is a phenomenal success but it's largely seen as irrelevant because of the rise of tablets and smart phones. So to counter that Microsoft now has an OS that can be everything. But the tiles are too blocky.

So my guess is that Windows 8 will blow the doors off sales numbers but will be considered a failure by many tech pundits because the tiles are too Fisher Price.
 
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Numan said:
It's far more important that Microsoft market it properly and get developers on board creating Metro apps ASAP.
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Agreed. Microsoft will have no problem with filling the Store with apps. There's simply too many Windows 8 machines that will be sold for developers to ignore. Microsoft's problem will be in getting apps through approval quickly without too many issues.
 
Numan said:
I stopped reading after that, not that the tone of the previous was any different. That's a personal preference, not a fact. I know for myself at work the ribbon in AutoCAD and Office has been great for me, no more farting around and adding all sorts of toolbars and figuring out where to place them.

Please either revise your list or re title it to personal opinion.
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I would argue that it is a fact that the ribbon is MORE efficient.
 
In that list, the only one of concern to me is this:
The command line tools, DiskPart.exe, DiskRAID.exe, and the Disk Management GUI are being deprecated and replaced by the WMIv2-based Windows Storage Management API with the Storage PowerShell command line utility.
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I certainly hope Microsoft intends to replace the Disk Management app with something at least as capable once it's removed in the future. I have absolutely zero interest in using a command line to work with disks.

Also, I sure wish I could have seen Tawnos' deleted comment.
 
wonderfield said:
In that list, the only one of concern to me is this:

I certainly hope Microsoft intends to replace the Disk Management app with something at least as capable once it's removed in the future. I have absolutely zero interest in using a command line to work with disks.
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On the contrary. I hope they put more effort into fleshing out PowerShell's ability to completely administer the system. Server Core MUST be the future of MS's approach to server operating systems if they want to stay relevant. Strong PowerShell utilities are the only way they're going to get there.

heatlesssun said:
Agreed. Microsoft will have no problem with filling the Store with apps. There's simply too many Windows 8 machines that will be sold for developers to ignore. Microsoft's problem will be in getting apps through approval quickly without too many issues.
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Why'd you put Numan's name on a quote I said? :confused:
 
PowerShell is a fine option (although I generally despise PowerShell). It should not be the only option, however.

I've mostly abandoned the use of the command line at the same time I abandoned DOS in 1993. The way forward is not backward :)
 
Unknown-One said:
Nope, like I said, I've installed it on multiple machines, and it never gets any less buggy. No other media players on said systems experience these problems, they're internal to VLC...

Most of VLC's issues seem to be with DVD playback, though. That's what always seems to cause it to blare LOUD static at random. How often do you attempt playing DVD's in VLC?
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I have over 500 retail dvds. I just haven't seen these problems. Name some and I'll try whatever I have. A couple years old is probably better, I haven't bought any in awhile.
 
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