Windows 8 to ship without DVD or BluRay support

http://www.osnews.com/story/25910/Windows_8_to_ship_without_DVD_Blu-ray_support

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While it's technically a regression, and while it will surely make those of us who remember having to install DVD support on Linux from third-party repositories smile, it's still a major change and a sign of things to come: Windows 8 will ship without support for DVD and Blu-ray playback.
Back in the day, you had to manually enable DVD playback after installing Linux. Distributions based out of the US were unable to include the required libdvdcss (or libdvdcss2), so users had to manually install the package afterwards. Smaller distributions, or those based outside of the US, were more liberal with including libdvdcss. The end result was loads of articles on the web detailing how to enable DVD playback support on Linux. It was a ritual of some sort.

In a way, it's kind of poetic justice that Windows users will now have to jump through the same hoops. To cut costs, and since its use was declining anyway, Windows 8 will ship without support for DVD and Blu-ray playback. To enable it, you have to buy/install Windows Media Center, or rely on one of the many third party solutions. The same also applies to support for DBV-T/S, ISDB-S/T, DMBH, and ATSC.

"Globally, DVD sales have declined significantly year over year and Blu-ray on PCs is losing momentum as well. Watching broadcast TV on PCs, while incredibly important for some of you, has also declined steadily," Microsoft details, "These traditional media playback scenarios, optical media and broadcast TV, require a specialized set of decoders (and hardware) that cost a significant amount in royalties."

This should reduce the cost of a Windows license, and considering Windows 8 has a tablet-focus, it makes sense not to force OEMs to pay for something tablets won't have anyway (optical drives). It's a good thing for me - I haven't had an optical drive in any of my PCs for years, and I wouldn't be surprised if the same applies to more of you. Just ask yourself: when was the last time you really used your optical drive?

It's also a sign of something larger within Microsoft: the company has become incredibly willing to cut cruft from their operating system, even when it comes to support for hardware. This is a good sign, since if there's one thing that's held Microsoft and Windows back, it's that.

As far as the entire industry goes, it's obvious that optical media are on their way out. Apple never even supported Blu-ray to begin with, and with more and more laptops being sold without an optical drive, it only makes sense to start phasing it out. Let's face it - it's never been a particularly good storage medium, in terms of capacity, reliability, and speed.

So, raise a cup of coffee, and good riddance, I say.

That was an interesting read. I think the biggest loss will be to the Home Theater PC (HTPC) users... most of the rest of us have at least a console with dvd support. I guess there will be a big market in 3rd party software for bluray playback.

IIRC didn't XP ship with no built support for DVD playback. WMP would only play a DVD after codec installation (not as painful as linux but still annoying for the novice trying to put a dvd in their new XP machine).

The HTPC people will be able to buy Media Center in the app store, and get DVD support that way, plus the features of media center, if they happen to use them. I forget the metrics on it, but something like less than 5% of people ever even opened media center when they had it. The joke was also made that a good % of them did it by mistake. I actually do use media center, not on my PC, but I use it to stream my media content to my 2 TVs that both have an xbox 360 hooked up.

Contrarty to popular belief, it is easier to get dvd support in linux, using versions of ubuntu as they automatically download and install the files needed to play a media file they dont have yet.

And Windows XP shipped during a time when dvd's were not standard and were still expensive for the main users.

I just think its interesting that while technology is moving away from DVDs and even some BluRay sales & support that Microsoft would take a retro step away from supporting an established norm of media that most people that I'm aware of use consistantly.

Now for myself, I rip all my movies and put them on a NAS which I can view from any location, at any time, on any device that has enough specs to play back the formats I use AVI, MP4, and MKV.

The only part that would annoy me is I may not be able to rip from my windows system if I update to Windows 8 any more and may have to build another, older system or find a good work around to keep this process in place.

It all comes down to $$. To my knowledge blu-ray support never existed in Windows without 3rd party codecs. I have a blu-ray drive on my PC, but I don't think it can actually play blu-ray discs, and I am running Win 7 ultimate. MPEG2 support for DVD was included in home premium versions of Vista and 7 (and maybe in XP MCE).

A license for both DVD and BluRay need to be obtained from the patent holders for every single copy of windows that includes that support.

I know MS has accused Motorola of gouging on the patents they hold related to h264 video playback.

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Microsoft accuses Motorola of asking for $22.50 USD per laptop for its fifty h.264 patents alone, versus the $0.02 USD that the holders of 2,300 other h.264 patents charge.

As long as the price in the app store to get the support for the playback is not crazy, it might actually be better for consumers, as they might get more choice. Bottom line though, anyone buying a retail machine with a blu-ray drive in it, will come with WinDVD or some software for playing those discs. The ones left out will be the custom builders.

Yeah there is no native Blu-Ray support in Windows 7... mine came with my Blu-Ray drive through PowerDVD.

Something to also consider is that DVD's and Blue rays may not last much longer. With all the smartphones and other media devices everything will go to DLC and windows 8 is a step in that direction. So even though everybody has dvd's and "hard" disc's of their favorite movie the DLC route will quickly overtake this since DLC's can be DL'd to many devices and as many times as you need. Personally I think this is good, but it would be nice to have something compatible with all my silver looking frisbee's

This will be the new "Blu-Ray/DVD Player" ....its only analog but thats what makes it fun PUULLL!!!....I mean....Plaaay!!

I dont know why so many people panic when something changes in an OS, or there device didnt automatically come installed.

There are plenty of free alternatives for blueray playback that can be found after a simple good search