View topic - Microsofts: Windows 8 won't play DVDs OOB - Windows, Apple, Application, Abandonware and Game Beta Downloads/Repository

longview

In their blog post about how they could possibly not remove Media Center for some business-logic reason Microsoft also implied that Windows Media Player would lose DVD playback functionality, and that only certain versions (Pro, with an addon mind you) would get Media Center:

Making Windows Media Center available in Windows 8

Quote:

Windows 8 Pro is designed to help tech enthusiasts obtain a broader set of Windows 8 technologies. 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.

Based on the table in the linked post looks like they ARE including support for some more future-proof formats like MPEG-4 and H.264 (mvk not natively supported still), but dropping the MPEG-2 support along with the VOB files that DVDs use.
The other day I did in fact play a DVD via an ISO emulator, but I used MPC-HC which has its own codecs for MPEG-2 already, but this will not do much for the user experience for the average consumer who will probably feel cheated when their new super-expensive Windows 8 tablaptop won't even play the DVDs their Win7 system played fine without another $€£ upgrade.

Basically, consumers take DVD playback for granted and the installed DVD-base people like to watch on laptops is huge, Microsoft will get a lot of bad press for this.

FAQ - DVD playback and Windows Media Center in Windows 8

Quote:

Why can’t I just pay for DVD when I need it?
When we have DVD playback capabilities in software broadly like in Windows 7, there is no way to distinguish whether the PC will ever play a DVD disc but still this cost is carried on every PC. While we might think that the best solution is some sort of “just in time” charge back to Microsoft based on telemetry or an “anytime upgrade” this is not how the third-party licensing programs work as described above. So there isn't an approach where you buy Windows or a PC and only “pay as you go” if DVD playback is provided “in the box”. Once it is distributed as a player, a license is required.

What is the Windows 8 Pro Pack and why does it include Media Center?
Windows 8 Pro Pack is an upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 8 Pro. Like we described above, Media Center is only available on Windows 8 Pro. When you acquire the Pro Pack, we make it a single step that takes you to Windows 8 Pro with Media Center. The cost of the Media Center Pack is essentially built into Pro Pack. Again, this is an attempt to add simplicity to the process of acquiring Media Center.

Why doesn't Windows Media Player support DVD playback even after installing Media Center?
Based on the above discussion, it should be clear that we cannot enable DVD playback all the time in Windows Media Player. Given the ongoing feedback to avoid feature overlap and to avoid the complexity of behavior changing for a previously installed component, we only enable DVD playback in Media Center once it is installed.

Microsoft must exist in some kind of special bubble of space where people have the memories of goldfish, another highlight: upgrading from 7 to 8 removes the 7 MPEG-2 decoder.

john11

What was wrong with this thread: http://www.betaarchive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24695?

wkdwilliams

the reason it probably isnt working is because its a BETA..

dans34

not really an issue for some (like me) who dont watch dvd's on the computer

startmenuisgone

Microsoft and there greed. Download VLC media player WHICH INCLUDES DVD SUPPORT RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX and see who is laughing then. *hehe*

I was never able to play a DVD on windows XP back in the day because they tried to charge us like 9.99 for the roxio dvd codec back then. But i discovered VLC and it played DVD disks perfect.

Pwned

startmenuisgone wrote:

Microsoft and there greed. Download VLC media player WHICH INCLUDES DVD SUPPORT RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX and see who is laughing then. *hehe*

I was never able to play a DVD on windows XP back in the day because they tried to charge us like 9.99 for the roxio dvd codec back then. But i discovered VLC and it played DVD disks perfect.

I had to use InterVideo WinDVD back in 2005 to watch DVDs on my Windows XP. :^)

startmenuisgone

Pwned wrote:

startmenuisgone wrote:

Microsoft and there greed. Download VLC media player WHICH INCLUDES DVD SUPPORT RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX and see who is laughing then. *hehe*

I was never able to play a DVD on windows XP back in the day because they tried to charge us like 9.99 for the roxio dvd codec back then. But i discovered VLC and it played DVD disks perfect.

I had to use InterVideo WinDVD back in 2005 to watch DVDs on my Windows XP. :^)

I was never actually able to get that to work. Intervideo and Cyberlink power DVD always directed me to the old media player site to download and PAY for the codec. I use VLC.

Trust me, Windows 8 is gonna flop, hard.

gamelover101

I used K-Lite Codec Pack and I can play DVDs fine. These companies are making profit out of something that can be absolutely free. Pathetic.

danielcarlhaffner

Think Microsoft think... No! No!
You aren't doing it.
Try again.
---------------
Microsoft is really disapointing me with Windows 8. I feel like they are going in all the wrong direction.
Next they will tell us that we have to buy the Ribbon as an addon and then Logging Off and then... You get the picture.
Try to please you customers not alianate them. I wish I could move to Ubuntu completely. {Sigh}

startmenuisgone

Bad news for Xbox fans when the next Xbox comes out... Since most likely they will do the same things to that. They already forced the Metro UI onto the 360 in a recent update...

3155ffGd

startmenuisgone wrote:

Bad news for Xbox fans when the next Xbox comes out... Since most likely they will do the same things to that. They already forced the Metro UI onto the 360 in a recent update...

They'd lose to Sony if they did that, and I highly doubt that Microsoft wants to risk losing their newly gained position in the game console market. You don't know how many people buy a game console just to watch DVDs (as opposed to computers, even)!

hounsell

startmenuisgone wrote:

Microsoft and there greed. Download VLC media player WHICH INCLUDES DVD SUPPORT RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX and see who is laughing then. *hehe*

Microsoft don't care if you use VLC to pay DVDs. The issue here is that the cost of the codecs (since for obvious reasons, Microsoft has to play the patent game by the book) no longer outweighs the benefits of including them as their use has fallen in favour of more modern "internet" codecs, such as H.264.

It's a shame they don't seem to want to add Matroska support, considering it's an *open* *container* format.

startmenuisgone

3155ffGd wrote:

startmenuisgone wrote:

Bad news for Xbox fans when the next Xbox comes out... Since most likely they will do the same things to that. They already forced the Metro UI onto the 360 in a recent update...

They'd lose to Sony if they did that, and I highly doubt that Microsoft wants to risk losing their newly gained position in the game console market. You don't know how many people buy a game console just to watch DVDs (as opposed to computers, even)!

Yea but who knows. There were *RUMORS* of them dropping disk drives from the next xbox.

linuxlove

startmenuisgone wrote:

Yea but who knows. There were *RUMORS* of them dropping disk drives from the next xbox.

>RUMORS

Do you people take everything you read seriously? ._.

Gligar13

Here's what's going to happen.

OEMs will as usual pre load a generic commerical DVD codec, like PowerDVD or WinDVD, and most end users won't have to deal with this.

john11

danielcarlhaffner wrote:

Microsoft is really disapointing me with Windows 8. I feel like they are going in all the wrong direction.

Im beginning to think that too, first focussing on touch screen tablets, rather than desktops (which is where I think most of their OSs are on), and now removing DVD support.

danielcarlhaffner wrote:

I wish I could move to Ubuntu completely. {Sigh}

Too bad most of us probably can't. Although I still think Windows 8 is better than Windows 7, and Windows 7 is better than Ubuntu 12.04.

Pwned wrote:

I had to use InterVideo WinDVD back in 2005 to watch DVDs on my Windows XP. :^)

Ah WinDVD, I thought that was a great program (although I didn't really care what program I used back then).

startmenuisgone

linuxlove wrote:

startmenuisgone wrote:

Yea but who knows. There were *RUMORS* of them dropping disk drives from the next xbox.

>RUMORS

Do you people take everything you read seriously? ._.

What do you mean "you people". Lol.

I usually tend to let rumors go, but knowing microsoft and how people keep hacking there systems it would not surprise me if it happened.

longview

As hounsell pointed out and as Microsoft wrote in the blog posts, it costs them about $2 per copy of 7 to license the DVD decoding stuff. The smaller codec makers are either based in various countries where the MPEG group can't get them or too small to care about. Microsoft can't just ignore the patent laws and licensing restrictions (although a 10 year EOL on software patents would be nice), they'd be sued into oblivion -- we're talking billions of dollars here.

I though the fact they seriously considered having people pay for the license the first time they play a DVD was the stupidest thing in both posts, that's is an atrocious user experience they considered creating.

wkdwilliams

you can also put the iso on a usb flash drive instead of burning to DVD discs.

Windows XP

Pwned wrote:

startmenuisgone wrote:

Microsoft and there greed. Download VLC media player WHICH INCLUDES DVD SUPPORT RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX and see who is laughing then. *hehe*

I was never able to play a DVD on windows XP back in the day because they tried to charge us like 9.99 for the roxio dvd codec back then. But i discovered VLC and it played DVD disks perfect.

I had to use InterVideo WinDVD back in 2005 to watch DVDs on my Windows XP. :^)

Really, WMP requires a compatible encoder. VLC is really good, but I had to use PowerDVD DX on my school's PCs to watch DVDs since VLC sometimes plays up with the earphones.

But at home, I have 2 computers, a DVD player and a PlayStation 3. Do I really need DVD suppor--*notices my copy of Scum* YES. (I'll use VLC or PowerDVD anyway *hehe*

)

Gligar13 wrote:

Here's what's going to happen.

OEMs will as usual pre load a generic commerical DVD codec, like PowerDVD or WinDVD, and most end users won't have to deal with this.

I remember PowerDVD. A neat program that was, just played your discs. I can see this happening.

Apollo

No problem for me. I never used Media Center. VLC media player always worked perfectly for me.

LMZR

This is easily one of the most disappointing features in Windows 8.

Masterm1nd

longview wrote:

As hounsell pointed out and as Microsoft wrote in the blog posts, it costs them about $2 per copy of 7 to license the DVD decoding stuff. .....

One of the reasons they took it out could have been to keep the cost of the upgrades as cheap as they are. Even so, DVD drives are standard hardware on virtually all desktops and laptops, and have been for a long time. However, it's by and large designed to work with tablets/touchscreens, and tablets don't have optical drives. A more sensible option would have been to make a "Tablet Edition," which among other things would have no native DVD support, and a "Computer" edition with DVD support and designed with less emphasis on touch input.

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