No DVD Playback In Windows 8

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According to this post on the Building Windows 8 blog, Windows Media Center will be an extra-cost option and DVD playback support is being removed from Windows 8 Media Player. :(

Windows Media Player will continue to be available in all editions, but without DVD playback support. For optical discs playback on new Windows 8 devices, we are going to rely on the many quality solutions on the market, which provide great experiences for both DVD and Blu-ray.
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Its probably to try and keep from another lawsuit in Europe by giving a service away for free that you have to buy now like WinDVD or whatever.
 
lol who cares? So many people use XBMC anyway, plus, Windows media player is garbage, use VLC or WMC.
 
For a split second I was all...:mad:

But then, I thought about the last time I played an actual dvd on my pc and used windows media player to view it. Doesn't this also save Microsoft some sort of license fee's from the dvd codec?
 
I think I still use WMP or HP's DVDplay for the occasional DVD I watch. Personally I think the decision is crap, not like it is the best player out there.
 
While I agree with posts above that VLC and other players are better, it's still really bad to lose DVD playback since only WMP comes out of the box with Windows. Honestly, by now it's not even a commodity feature and should be present in all computers. At that rate they might as well get rid of WMP altogether.
 
Meh, no big loss there given the lack of optical drives in modern systems. Not to start a debate with the home theater crowd, but streaming media's already driven discs most of the way to their burial site.

Yes, if you own a decent theater setup, you will generally get better quality out of the Blu-ray, but I doubt that the common person using Win8 on their laptop, tablet, or budget desktop would notice a difference with cheap speakers or headphones on their 1366x768 screen. Even factoring in a potential resolution bump in coming generations of hardware, there probably still won't be a quality advantage realized.
 
I actually like that WMC is going to be a add on you have to purchase. This means that there will be incentive to move the product forward.
 
Yay!! We're going backwards now.. Just like Windows XP!! Pretty lame being VLC is free. Just something for Microsoft to implement so help desks around the world get to hear more.. "MY BRAND NEW LAPTOP IS BROKEN. MY OLD ONE USED TO PLAY ALL MY DVDS!!"
 
I'm on the fence here on this one... when I had broadcast television, Media Center was the best thing to ever happen to my television....

When I ditched cable, XBMC was much more robust, cleaner looking, and faster...

But if I ever turn the cable back on, I'll need media center again and having to pay extra for something that was included free in previous versions, while loosing out on features (like dvd) is rather annoying.
 
SkribbelKat said:
Meh, no big loss there given the lack of optical drives in modern systems. Not to start a debate with the home theater crowd, but streaming media's already driven discs most of the way to their burial site.
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No big loss? I hate to say it, but the most common question anyone asks me when buying a laptop is "can we watch movies on it? oh this will be great on vacation, or the trailer"
 
This is dumb, because unlike past versions of WMP, the newest version is actually nice and can integrate with 3rd party codecs to play pretty much anything vlc/mpc can play.
 
I think its got to do mostly with the fact they ll be using dolby codecs and then they can charge for the app add on and pay the licensing fee ? Nickel and dime baby , nickel and dime!
 
Microsoft would not have removed it if it wasn't highly used by a large majority of users. Remember, they get huge amounts of data on how their OS is used. The only people that care about this are probably the people on this forum. You can make whatever excuse you want..but the fact is we are not even 1% of 1% in terms of their user base.
 
Heh. Windows 8 is nice but I see no compelling reason to upgrade over Windows 7. Since the only reason I'm even running Windows vs Ubuntu on my desktop is for gaming I'm not upgrading Windows unless it's for DirectX 12 (if PC gaming is even alive by the time DX12 comes out).
 
I use a combination of WMC, MediaBrowser and Total Media Theater anyways since Blu-ray is also not natively supported in Windows. This won't affect me. Sucks for everyone else though.

I would hope they offer some support in Professional and Ultimate versions because a lot of companies are going to raise hell when they can't play back company DVDs without shelling even more money.
 
Trepidati0n said:
Microsoft would not have removed it if it wasn't highly used by a large majority of users. Remember, they get huge amounts of data on how their OS is used. The only people that care about this are probably the people on this forum. You can make whatever excuse you want..but the fact is we are not even 1% of 1% in terms of their user base.
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We are the .01%!! :D
 
Azhar said:
We are the .01%!! :D
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Haha, good one!


This is basically a non-issue it seems. I would have to assume that with all the bloatware that typically comes installed on a new PC had a DVD playing solution anyway. And then, anyone upgrading to Win 8 should know better or use one of the many other options available. Amiright?
 
sometimes it feels like the world is going backwards. It should be possible for a hamster to play a DVD and blu-ray now, however, it is getting harder and harder to watch movies YOU OWN...
 
XamediX said:
Haha, good one!


This is basically a non-issue it seems. I would have to assume that with all the bloatware that typically comes installed on a new PC had a DVD playing solution anyway. And then, anyone upgrading to Win 8 should know better or use one of the many other options available. Amiright?
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Depends... OEM dvd players stopped coming with any software since windows 7 did it all, it will remain to be seen if they start shipping us software again when windows 8 becomes the norm, my prediction is... no, why would they want to start paying to ship software with the product again and raise costs.
 
XamediX said:
Haha, good one!


This is basically a non-issue it seems. I would have to assume that with all the bloatware that typically comes installed on a new PC had a DVD playing solution anyway. And then, anyone upgrading to Win 8 should know better or use one of the many other options available. Amiright?
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That's an awful thing to contemplate. No DVD feature will invite a ton of custom bloated OEM-made alternatives.
 
Most non-computer savvy people I know still use windows media player and only windows media player. I have to take the time to explain that there are other media players out there and unless I change all the file/program associations they will continue to use that as their default player.
 
LordCalin said:
Depends... OEM dvd players stopped coming with any software since windows 7 did it all, it will remain to be seen if they start shipping us software again when windows 8 becomes the norm, my prediction is... no, why would they want to start paying to ship software with the product again and raise costs.
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OEM wouldn't be paying that much for it though. For the longest time HP bundled WinDVD with their laptops (which wasn't so bad, actually) and I'd imagine WinDVD would get pennies on each laptop sales which is millions more than they would have made selling it on their own. It's the ones that bundle PowerDVD that makes me cringe. That was one fucked up piece of software.
 
Dear MS,

Stop being so.... stupid!

Also I don't use XBMC, I think its idiotic that they stopped supporting the system that is in their name sake.

I use GBPVR and its been wonderful. However to loose support is... a loss.
 
Azhar said:
I would hope they offer some support in Professional and Ultimate versions because a lot of companies are going to raise hell when they can't play back company DVDs without shelling even more money.
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This.

It's not that people use their computers to play DVD all the time, it really comes down to that occasional need.
The ability to drop the occasional sales or marketing DVD into your laptop and have it play are important.
Microsoft’s a bit premature to be dropping this.

Looks like another reason to stay with Windows 7 for now.
 
LordCalin said:
I'm on the fence here on this one... when I had broadcast television, Media Center was the best thing to ever happen to my television....
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My family is a heavy user of Windows Media Center (replaced a couple old Replay DVR's). Looks like my HTPC will be running Windows 7 for a long time.
 
LordCalin said:
No big loss? I hate to say it, but the most common question anyone asks me when buying a laptop is "can we watch movies on it? oh this will be great on vacation, or the trailer"
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That's generally a conversational question asked of sales folks because buyers are uncomfortable with interaction and have no idea what really to ask about the product they're about to purchase. You see the same sort of thing happen with new car buyers, people getting insurance policies, and so forth.

What might be a more useful measurement, one that's probably not possible to collect for someone making sales, is to determine how many of those people that ask actually watch movies using a physical disc after the purchase and how frequently they do so. Assuming that Microsoft has better market analysis than we do using guesswork here, I'd wager they don't feel the omission will jeopardize their profits.

Time might be the only answer. If Microsoft sneaks the capability back into the OS using an update or service pack, I'd happy eat crow on this one.
 
Azhar said:
OEM wouldn't be paying that much for it though. For the longest time HP bundled WinDVD with their laptops (which wasn't so bad, actually) and I'd imagine WinDVD would get pennies on each laptop sales which is millions more than they would have made selling it on their own. It's the ones that bundle PowerDVD that makes me cringe. That was one fucked up piece of software.
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When I say OEM I mean the physical drives themselves from LG, Lite-on, Asus, Samsung etc... so while no, the cost isn't much... it does still cost a little to start pressing the CD's again to be included, along with the licensing to windvd/cyberlink/nero
 
XvMMvX said:
I actually like that WMC is going to be a add on you have to purchase. This means that there will be incentive to move the product forward.
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The opposite actually. If it's in Windows they have to support it and deal with supporting various parts of it when it becomes legacy software. Look at how some folders in windows are still called Outlook Express and My Documents and such even though those names were depreciated years ago. It has to be there to allow legacy software to work properly.

Now that it's removed they can simply say Windows 8 is the end of the line on support. It won't be in 9, and I highly doubt they will update it at all past the initial release. It's the new Ultimate Extras.
 
My optical drive is disconnected... I had to plug it back in to install Mass Effect 3 Collector's Edition but after that the PATA adapter went straight back onto my backup drive.
 
I'm privy to Media Player Classic Home Theatre Ed. myself. It may be an awful thing to think about Azhar, but whats another piece of bloatware? Well yea it sucks, I wonder if this will allow some of the better free alternative to get some funding now so the can be included in new systems. Pipe dream?
 
Dark-Colonel said:
lol who cares? So many people use XBMC anyway, plus, Windows media player is garbage, use VLC or WMC.
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except that its not garbage and works perfectly to play blu rays on my win7 htpc

vlc however I would classify as garbage most of the time
 
That - I am sure - will disappoint many that had hoped they would go the other way, and add bluray support.
 
I'm more worried about Windows Media Center.

I want a damn plugin or something, even if its 3rd party to play DVD/BR in WMC.
 
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