Vista To Support HD DVD Playback (Not Blu-ray)
Vista
May Not Support HD DVD at Launch (CE Pro) | CE Pro posted a piece last week
about Vista and HD DVD/Blu-ray support. Julie e-mailed me the article and quickly I
knew that something was wrong. I went to
a few sources of mine to try and figure out exactly what Microsoft’s plan is
regarding HD DVD playback support within Windows Vista. I had been under the impression from the
start that Vista would support playback of HD
DVD’s out-of-the-box and that Blu-ray playback would be completely left to
third parties. The story at CE Pro said
otherwise, quoting a Microsoft spokesperson saying that Vista will recognize HD
DVD and Blu-ray, but plans for Media
Center support were
unknown.
As I have said various times before, Vista
will support HD DVD and Microsoft is working to make a complete solution. Amir Majidimehr, Corporate VP of the Windows
Digital Media Division had the following to say when I asked him about the
subject. “Microsoft is hard at work in developing native HD DVD playback in
Windows Vista.
We have a large, dedicated team working with our hardware partners,
optimizing our software infrastructure, and ensuring compliance with copy
protection measures so we can stay on target for providing HD-DVD playback on
Windows Vista this year. Finally, as we have mentioned time and time
again, Microsoft has no plans to provide native Blu-ray playback functionality
in Windows Vista. Such functionality will be provided by third
parties, similar to the way DVD playback is offered today.”
I hope the above will clearup any uncertainty around the issue.
Update: Microsoft decided to leave out native HD DVD support from Windows Vista. Support will be left to third parties.
