More bad news for Windows 8...

[spaceelf]

Its not just about DVD playback though........I use Windows Media Center with Arcsoft Total Media Theatre for Blu-Ray playback, i also use WMC to watch and record TV. Now I'm going to have to pay for WMC when it was previously free.

I was just being a dink heh. I don't care whether its included or not, I just never use it. I suspect MS just can't justify the money the spend on it with no obvious returns on investment, and they've been trying to decide what to do with it for a while.

[migo]

Meh. Can't remember the last time I used DVD playback anyway. Haven't bought a device with an optical drive in years either.

[HawkMan]

I disagree. I see more and more non-enthusiast using their notebooks with HDMI to stream Netflix to their TV. IMO this market is growing and is far from being a niche. With HDMI becoming standard on so many devices this market will only grow.

and that has what to do with DVD playback and MediaCenter ?

[mr.r9]

CCCP+MPC+VLC+J-River Media Center=Hell yeah!

Or just use either KM player or Pot player....

No need for 4 things when 1 is enough...right?

[c3ntury]

Codecs.com > K-Lite Mega Codec Pack > MPC > Job Done

Don't use MC or WMP anyway

Still, the average user is going to suffer due to this I fear.

Surely they could develop an alternate codec in-house and then release it?

[HawkMan]

Does VLC have TV Recording feature with full EPG and Timeshifting support?

Do the myriad of other media players do it?

No. Which means even if you don't want DVD playback you are still going to have to pay for it just to get Windows Media Center.

Media players don't, Proper media center apps do, like Media Portal .

[fenderMarky]

According to Microsoft only 6% of users use Windows Media Center. I would hardly say that's 'TONS'.

With probably one billion Windows users in the world (and there are likely more than that), that would come out to 60,000,000 people using it. That's quite a large number, no matter how you look at it

60,000,000 are not using it... they only launched it. Real stats are:

"only one quarter (25% of 6%) of these people used it for more than 10 minutes per session (individual averages), and in 59% of Media Center sessions (by these 6% of users) we see almost no activity (less than a minute or two of usage).?

[jakem1]

But it wasn't free, it was in the cost of the OS license from the get go. MS has explained this already, officially. You always paid for it, you just didn't know about it or think about it.

That's right. There's also a possibility that MS will be encouraged to actively develop WMC and release regular updates now that it will be a stand-alone app. That would be a real improvement over the situation with the current version where updates have been limited to a three year OS update schedule.

[theyarecomingforyou]

I don't bother with DVDs or Blu-ray, as I find them far too much hassle. I'd rather download or stream my content. I have a Blu-ray drive in my computer but I only used it when I first got it, mainly to test it out. It's exactly the same with video games - I buy everything via Steam or other digital distribution because it's so much more convenient than trying to install hundreds of games manually.

There is no doubt that removing DVD support will impact many users but it most computers and optical drives come bundled with DVD / Blu-ray software players and OEMs will just bundle it themselves. The advantage is that Microsoft gets to cut the cost of licencing, some the majority of users rarely use - if at all. The advantage is that it will encourage Microsoft to actively develop the software, as it will be competing with other companies. I just hope Microsoft doesn't charge a stupid amount for WMC, as that would be completely counter-productive.

[PixilEyes]

and that has what to do with DVD playback and MediaCenter ?

HTPCs are a enthusiast niche market, and not suitable for the average users, and it's a small and stable niche. The only growth in that market matches the growth, of the computer market as a whole, and is far less than the growth of the PVR market, which is really taking off.

I was quoting the post you made. Which had nothing to do about it either.

[Order_66]

WMC was pretty much garbage anyways, there's been far better (and free) solutions available for a long time, if anything it may force your average user to seek out free software and higher quality software.

Unlike metro, the average user will probably not be too bothered by this.

[+DKAngel Subscriber²]

i wouldnt call this bad news to me =]

[Dot Matrix]

Honestly guys take a look at PCs on the market today. With more and more laptops being sold, how many of them still include optical drives? I own two laptops, both circa 2009, and neither of them have any optical drives. This is nothing more than Microsoft killing dying functionality. Most movies today are digital downloads (both legal and illegal, I will add).

[chrisj1968]

well I use windows media player/media center. This is sick.naw, just because I don't like this news doesn't make a person a troll. Metro UI, now this... then charge extra for media center while my win7 install already has it in it? .... greed for profits. split off the features then sell them as add-on features. did they rehire the Vista development team on this iteration of Windows?

[Melfster]

People don't move on from optical media. Its really not the future. I have not used the DVD drive in maybe 3 or 4 years. So much better ways to store information.

[Gerowen]

Windows XP didn't support DVD Playback out of the box, and most Linux distros don't include it because of licensing fees, so I say welcome to the club Windows 8 users.

[HawkMan]

I was quoting the post you made. Which had nothing to do about it either.

HTPCs have nothing to do with media center now....? Seriously do you even know what we're talking about here?

[George P Global Moderator]

MS's idea behind Media Center was to push the HTPC market, it's not really taken off to the extent you'd think. I personally have a small WD TV Live media player that does what I need (no live tv/dvr stuff in this version but WD does have one with a built in HDD that, iirc, can be a DVR as well). The thing is that Media Center was an early play for the living room, but majority of people don't want a PC box in the living room. The new, and way more successful play for the living room is the Xbox and it's paying off for them. There is just no need for media center at this point and those who still want it will just have to buy it now instead of all of us having to pay for something we don't want or use in the first place.

[chrisj1968]

According to my latest TechRepublic article via ZDnet article. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/microsoft-media-center-not-part-of-the-future-of-entertainment/4944?tag=nl.e064

I've heard people allude to this due to the passing slowly of DVD's. I disagree because we have blu-ray to think about still. This "seems" for all tense and purposes another bad mistake on the part of Microsoft and this is my own opinion and not some rant. according to the article, You can't get media player excuse I mean windows media center with the base windows8 system. You'll be forced to upgrade to Win 8 pro. I think the only legit way around that is to purchase a good OEM laptop/desktop with win8 pro already on it. I just don't get why such a stupid move. Of course probably to squeeze every extra dollar out of us they can but, damn... this leaves about the same taste in my mouth that, Windows vista did during it's short time... I'm just glad my Toshiba laptop comes with windows7 and windows media center already. I'd should think OEM vendors should do just fine. It's those of you who straight up buy a copy of Windows 8 that are getting short changed IMHO.

[HawkMan]

Your opinion is a rant, and it's faulty. You also see to be presuming there will be more skis of win8 than there will be.

I either case you're ignoring the fact that oem's will keep doing what they've always been doing. The computer will come bundled with DVD player software, and if it has bluray, BD player software.

So the only thing that's happening here is the MS is saving 2.5 billion, and those very very few windows users who use media center, will be able to get it. Including media center on every computer never made any sense in the first place, as it is a media center/HTPC software, and started as a HTPC SKU, now it's back to that, where it should be, only as an add in instead.

[chrisj1968]

Your opinion is a rant, and it's faulty. You also see to be presuming there will be more skis of win8 than there will be.

I either case you're ignoring the fact that oem's will keep doing what they've always been doing. The computer will come bundled with DVD player software, and if it has bluray, BD player software.

So the only thing that's happening here is the MS is saving 2.5 billion, and those very very few windows users who use media center, will be able to get it. Including media center on every computer never made any sense in the first place, as it is a media center/HTPC software, and started as a HTPC SKU, now it's back to that, where it should be, only as an add in instead.

forgive me but, I don't understand you logic. You say it saves MS money.. how? because I prefer to use their product?That's like me going to pepsi and they say I can't get their product and that I'll have to switch to coke.Linux has DVD/Bluray playback native. I've always been fond of media center for whatever my reasons are. but be that as it may.

[giantpotato]

forgive me but, I don't understand you logic. You say it saves MS money.. how? because I prefer to use their product?That's like me going to pepsi and they say I can't get their product and that I'll have to switch to coke.Linux has DVD/Bluray playback native. I've always been fond of media center for whatever my reasons are. but be that as it may.

Your analogy makes no sense. You can very easily get 'their product'. It's going to be for sale in the store.

A better analogy would be if Pepsi has an ingredient in their soda that only 6% of the population can taste. For 94% of the population the soda will taste exactly the same if the ingredient is removed. The ingredient costs Pepsi billions of dollars to put in in their soda. Does it make sense to put this billion dollar ingredient in all bottles, or to have a spin-off flavor that the 6% can buy?

And I've never played with DVD in linux, but as far as I can tell, legit distros like ubuntu can't natively play commercial DVD's because they don't have a license to decrypt css and there is no native Blu-Ray playback.

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

Tis a shame - I do watch DVD's using Windows Media Player from time to time, but no reason why I can't just use VLC instead or something.

[HawkMan]

Your analogy makes no sense. You can very easily get 'their product'. It's going to be for sale in the store.

A better analogy would be if Pepsi has an ingredient in their soda that only 6% of the population can taste. For 94% of the population the soda will taste exactly the same if the ingredient is removed. The ingredient costs Pepsi billions of dollars to put in in their soda. Does it make sense to put this billion dollar ingredient in all bottles, or to have a spin-off flavor that the 6% can buy?

And I've never played with DVD in linux, but as far as I can tell, legit distros like ubuntu can't natively play commercial DVD's because they don't have a license to decrypt css and there is no native Blu-Ray playback.

it's far less then 6% though, 6% is the amount of people who started WMC, once. people who actually used it was a fraction of this again.

[Mando]

I wont lose any sleep over it, Ill just install my PowerDVD deluxe for DVD/blu-ray playback like Ive always done in the past........sorted!