Windows 8 dropping the ability to play DVDs

[Zorro]

Okay, we get it — DVD is starting to go the way of the VHS tape and film reel. But we've still got hundreds of DVDs in our house, and always pack a few in our laptop case for viewing on those long flights. That's why this news is so frustrating: The upcomingWindows 8 operating system (which you can download and preview now) is dropping the ability to play DVD content.

According to Windows engineering team member Steven Sinofsky (emphasis his), "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." In other words: If you want to watch that Bridesmaids DVD on your next plane trip, you're going to have to pay extra for software that will let you play it, even if your laptop already has a DVD drive. And don't think getting Blu-ray is an option — you can't play that straight from the box, either.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/windows-8-dropping-ability-play-dvds-171546904.html

[marmar]

1. The version of media player on my XP OS won't play DVDs......

Luckily I have a Lenovo computer that has its own DVD software installed.

[FredisDead]

45. This Issue may not affect most people

Microsoft believes that if a new PC with Windows 8 has some kind of optical drive installed, it's "most likely" that it would have some kind of DVD software included.

http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-8-dvd-playback-issues-its-all-about-the-money

[Honeycombe8]

51. I wonder what version you have of media player? Mine on old XP plays DVDs.

And the new media player on my laptop Windows 7 plays DVDs, as well. But I can also use just the laptop....the Dell has some sort of DVD player.

[hobbit709]

53. I won't use Windows Media Player for anything-such a resource hog among other things.

If I just want to listen to music(cda, mp3, wav) I use TrayPlay. it's a 37K .exe that sits in your sytem tray and plays music files all day long-works on 2000, XP, XP X64, Vista(32 and 64) and 7 (32 and 64)
Any kind of media files I use VLC.

[Aerows]

62. Exactly

VLC is free and it works very well without being a resource hog, and without having to hunt around for codecs.

[Egalitarian Thug]

2. Will this be enough to wean you from the world's most prolific computer virus? n/t

[fishwax]

3. That's a bit of a surprise, but I never use Media Player for DVDs anyway

"If you want to watch that Bridesmaids DVD on your next plane trip, you're going to have to pay extra for software that will let you play it, even if your laptop already has a DVD drive."

Not really. Free players are (and will, I expect, remain) available.

[Edweird]

4. The reality is that WMP sucks. There are way better alternatives that are totally free.

[FreakinDJ]

5. and this affects watching Porno on-line How ????

[phasma ex machina]

6. Open source MPlayer works for me. nt

[Initech]

7. I have not been a fan of Windows 8 since I first saw the beta preview and the reasons keep growing.

It's more and more looking like Vista with a cell phone interface - if they keep deleting features in favor of that stupid app store no one is going to buy it. We don't want to pay for features, we want them in our OS.

[DontTreadOnMe]

8. Why not just rip the DVD to digital... this is what WMP prefers anyway

Where do you insert the DVD on an iPad? Droid? iPhone?

DVDs are the way of the Dodo.. get used to it.
Next vacation, make sure you pack your LPs too.. for on the plane.

[Lasher]

12. Don't you have to defeat encryption to rip a movie from a DVD to your hard drive?

[Nye Bevan]

20. Yes, but there are many programs that do this for you.

And judges have ruled that it is legal to rip your own DVD to your own hard drive.

[Lasher]

30. Hmm, so there are.

And here I thought DVD Shrink was the only one.

[Ian David]

9. VLC Media Player is free.

VLC media player
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

VLC media player (also known as VLC) is a highly portable free and open-source media player and streaming media server written by the VideoLAN project. It is a cross-platform media player, with versions for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, BeOS, MorphOS, BSD, Solaris, iOS, and eComStation.[5]

VLC media player supports many audio and video compression methods and file formats, including DVD-video, video CD and streaming protocols. It is able to stream over computer network and to transcode multimedia files.[5]

VLC used to stand for VideoLAN Client, but since VLC is no longer simply a client, that initialism no longer applies.[6][7]

The default distribution of VLC includes a large number of free decoding and encoding libraries, avoiding the need for finding/calibrating proprietary plugins. Many of VLC's codecs are provided by the libavcodec library from the FFmpeg project, but it uses mainly its own muxer and demuxers and its own protocols. It also gained distinction as the first player to support playback of encrypted DVDs on Linux and Mac OS X by using the libdvdcss DVD decryption library.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLC_media_player

I use this on all my PCs rather than let MicroSoft extort another fee from me just to do what all their TV commercials says their media player is supposed to do.

[PoliticAverse]

31. Indeed everyone should have VLC installed anyway as it plays more formats than WMP does. n/t

[bhikkhu]

10. The last Ubuntu release is very, very, good

I have no idea why anyone still puts up with windows - they've been on the wrong side and behind the curve for ages now.

[L0oniX]

24. +1

[2on2u]

11. In a world without walls and fences, who needs windows

and gates?

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/Video-Players/MPlayer-for-Windows-Full-Package.shtml
MPlayer comes with support for 192 video and 85 audio codecs, which is outstanding by all standards. The fact that it can play some of the most popular formats (AVI, MPEG/VOB, ASF/WMA/WMV, RM, QT/MOV/MP4, Ogg/OGM, MKV, VIVO, FLI, NuppelVideo, yuv4mpeg, FILM and RoQ), you can also use it to watch VCD, DVD, SVCD, Blu?ray, 3ivx, DivX 3/4/5, WMV and even H.264 movies, too.

[customerserviceguy]

13. Never get a version of Windows until the first service pack comes out. n/t

[FredisDead]

14. Media Player Classic

Media Player Classic Home Cinema will play DVDs and just about anything else you throw at it.


http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/

[snagglepuss]

15. I am absymally ignorant about computers. I read the link

but can't tell whether this would work on Windows XP. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

[FredisDead]

19. It will work with Windows XP SP3

You need to have service pack 3 (SP3) Installed for XP

http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/download-media-player-classic-hc.html

[snagglepuss]

32. Thanks. I do have SP3:) But just to clarify. By downloading this freeware, I don't

need to buy a separate dvd player. Is that right? And if that is so which of the 4 options would i chose? I did say I was abysmally ignorant. Thanks for your help

[FredisDead]

34. To play a DVD disc

you do need a DVD rom to play a DVD disc with Media Player Classic .


You can use "Media Player Classic Home Cinema" to play many formats on your hard drive.

[Warren Stupidity]

16. You can pay for the DVD media player add on.

Seems a bit stupid to me too, but they have a point: not really important anymore.

[zbdent]

17. I still have trouble getting my 5.25 inch floppy disks

to read in the drive ...

[GeorgeGist]

29. +1

[Speck Tater]

18. I never liked Widows media player dvd anyway.

I use the Cyberlink DVD player. It's way better.

[Iris]

21. No thanks. I'll just read a book on my next plane trip.

[jp11]

22. Fine with me I never use media player.

VLC media player works so much better. Then again I really only boot up XP when I need an original windows environment, otherwise Ubuntu is fantastic. I wish I had started using Ubuntu or some linux version sooner.

Maybe win8 will push more people to macs or to try an open source OS.

[TorchTheWitch]

44. that's what I use, too

The only thing I'm not crazy about is that it always starts set on full volume, and you can't adjust the volume down until the movie starts. Other than that it's way better.

[Make7]

63. Does adjusting the start-up volume in the Preferences not work for discs?

Under Preferences > Audio (with show settings Simple checked at the bottom), there is an option to start the player at a specific definable volume or to keep the setting from the last time you closed it.

I don't use VLC Media Player for DVD's, perhaps it works differently for discs...

[L0oniX]

23. Make the switch to Ubuntu ...play DVD's ...make copies ...etc.

[FredisDead]

28. You cannot play DVDs

or many other formats on Ubuntu without having to first Install the codecs.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats

[HillWilliam]

36. I didn't have any trouble

with Ubuntu. It just worked. I don't remember having to add anything. If I did, it was so totally painless as not to notice (the up-side of Ubuntu, I suppose). So does my wireless-N adapter now. So does the scanner now. Now I did drop back to Gnome Failsafe because unity shits (clumsy, ugly PITA). All in all, I'm happy now.

Fedora OTOH got to be a pain in the ass. I had been running RH-something for about 13 years. Fedora 15 started my dismay with their desktop and Fedora 16 sealed their fate. Switching to Ubuntu was pretty easy. My wireless-N adapter didn't work. Couldn't play movies without a big freakin' tapdance. After RH tried to be more Mac than Mac, Gnome got uglier than home-made sin. I switched and haven't looked back.

[FredisDead]

39. You must have added

the codecs because you cannot play Restricted Formats on Ubuntu without first installing the correct codecs.

The same is true with any free Linux distro, you need to install the correct codecs before you can play Restricted Formats.

[HillWilliam]

59. It was such a non-event

that the operation must have skipped my mind. Everything you can want you can find in the software center. Adding codecs on Fedora was such a painful thing I HATED doing it.

So, you go download the codecs. Whatsa big deal? A couple of clicks and everything works -- and more importantly, nothing breaks.

[IDemo]

52. Mint is Ubuntu with the codecs included

http://www.linuxmint.com/about.php

[FredisDead]

55. Mint has two versions for download

http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php
The full-featured standard version with codecs, and without multimedia support and extra applications.

A version which fits on a CD, without multimedia support and extra applications. For magazines, companies and distributors in the USA, Japan and countries where the legislation allows patents to apply to software and distribution of restricted technologies may require the acquisition of 3rd party licenses*.


Restricted Formats
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats

[IDemo]

57. I've always downloaded the Main Edition, no additional downloads or configuration required

http://www.linuxmint.com/faq.php

Why are there so many editions of Linux Mint?

We provide a variety of versions of Linux Mint that are designed to fill different roles:

- The Main Edition is our flagship release. It provides full multimedia support out of the box, meaning that you can listen to MP3's watch DVD's and view web pages that require Flash technology right after install.

- The USA-Japan Edition is designed to be freely distributed in countries which allow software patents. It comes without multimedia support.

[WhoIsNumberNone]

25. there are a buunch of free media players you can get online

CNet is a good place to start:

http://download.cnet.com/windows/

Also try the AVS media player or the SlySoft Virtual CloneDrive (Both freeware)

[HillWilliam]

38. DIVx is free, too

simplistic, but it works fine on Linux and Windows. You can upgrade it for a small fee but I've since figured out it wasn't worth it. The free player did what I wanted it to do.

I do have an XP virtual that I use for ripping. SnowFox is a pretty neat, easy to use, stable ripper. Sadly, it only does DVDs (very well) but not BluRay. There are BluRay rippers out there, but I haven't gone through the rigmarole of downloading and deciding which one actually works. (There's alot of shyte out there.)

[Poiuyt]

26. The day that Microsoft starts making products that don't suck is the day ...

they start making vacuum cleaners.

[Occulus]

33. The Kinect is actually pretty cool

but its best uses are outside gaming at the moment.

[Logical]

37. LOL....fanboy. Brainwashing has worked on you!

[FredisDead]

41. You made a funny

Apple fanboys are often referred to as "vacuum cleaners" because of how they always suck up to Apple.

[Zalatix]

27. Mplayer/Smplayer? Video Lan Client? If these are available in Windows 8

then there is no problem.

[jmowreader]

35. Tell me something...

Why did they choose a movie that bad as an example?

How 'bout Microsoft add something that calls the men in the white jackets if you insist on watching shitty movies?

[Tunkamerica]

47. bridesmaids was good.

and my favorite directors are terry gilliam, harmony korine, and david lynch

[obamanut2012]

54. I think it's one of the funniest movies I've ever seen

Love the script, the acting, the whole dynamic of women and their BFFs.

[dionysus]

40. so download VLC player for free....

[backscatter712]

43. ++! VLC rocks!

Windows Media Player has always been filled with obnoxious misfeatures.

[NYC Liberal]

42. I'm no Microsoft fan, but this is silly. Download VLC (or another one many other programs) for free.

[Tunkamerica]

46. why would you use WMP anyway? lots of better programs out there.

[eShirl]

48. What bull; of course there will still be free, non-Microsoft software to play DVDs.

Just as there is now.

[jp11]

50. Bull?

If you're left scratching your heads, the rationale behind dropping DVD support is simple: It's about the bottom line. Says Sinofsky, "traditional media playback scenarios, optical media, and broadcast TV, require a specialized set of decoders (and hardware) that cost a significant amount in royalties." Windows 8 will allow customers the option to install a Windows Media Center upgrade to allow DVD playback at extra cost, though Microsoft is not saying exactly how high that cost will be.

From the article, they want to save themselves the cost of giving you that ability for free after going to such an effort to have WMP try and be the end all be all media solution for windows operating systems.

The post and article aren't about the fact that there aren't other alternatives or that there are free ones it is about the fact that this formerly available option as part of the OS was removed and put behind a pay wall. Many people/companies will simply choose to pay MS over trying some third party application that 'might not be safe' or MS trusted/approved then have to support it.

[JCMach1]

49. Vlc

Is all you need

[obamanut2012]

56. VLC is free and terrific

[hunter]

58. The movie studios probably dropped fifty tons of legalese on Microsoft's doorstep...

...and Microsoft decided they don't need that shit.

Same way I decided I don't need Microsoft...

[Baitball Blogger]

60. Incredibly backwards.

[Dawgs]

61. VLC Media Player is FREE, FREE, FREE and is already much better than anything MS has created. n/t