Vista Will Support HD DVD Playback on 32-Bit Machines

re: Vista Will Support HD DVD Playback on 32-Bit Machines

phaze — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 15:31:57 GMT

yes, i know.

but what about Vista?

It would seem to me that Riley "spilled the beans" and Microsoft PR is trying to "clear things up"....

re: Vista Will Support HD DVD Playback on 32-Bit Machines

chrisl — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 15:14:57 GMT

Just a quick note, you can play HD DVD's on 32-bit machines today. Go buy a laptop from Toshiba w/ a HD DVD drive running Windows XP and WinDVD HD. Works perfect. 32-bit.

re: Vista Will Support HD DVD Playback on 32-Bit Machines

phaze — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 07:36:45 GMT

So… first Microsoft’s Steve Riley says:

“This is a decision that the Media Player folks made because there are just too many ways right now for unsigned kernel mode code [to compromise content protection]. The media companies asked us to do this and said they don’t want any of their high definition content to play in x32 at all, because of all of the unsigned malware that runs in kernel mode can get around content protection, so we had to do this,”

And then, after the backlash, Microsoft’s PR states that:

"It is up to the ISVs providing playback solutions to determine whether the intended playback environment, including environments with a 32-bit CPU, meets the performance requirements to allow high-definition playback while supporting the guidelines set forth by the content owners,"

Do you really think x32 will play HD DVD’s??

I think that what Microsoft is actually saying is that I is not their fault: the Content providers don’t want unsigned drivers, and it will be the Media Player software will check and block that content, not the O/S….. I think Riley just did the maths for us.

At this point, I want to hear from the content providers: will they allow playback on a system with unsigned drivers?

re: Vista Will Support HD DVD Playback on 32-Bit Machines

Bob Flynn — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 21:29:36 GMT

More at http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/08/25/microsoft_vista_no_32bit_hd/

and

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3922

and finally

http://news.com.com/2061-10794_3-6109427.html?part=rss&tag=6109427&subj=news

re: Vista Will Support HD DVD Playback on 32-Bit Machines

anonymous — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 04:12:55 GMT

What I would like to know is what is the container format for HD DVD / Blu-ray? Like it's basically .MPG for (*.dat-VCD) MPEG-1 and (*.vob-DVD) MPEG-2. And why aren't ALL MPEG-4 and H.264 implementations compatible with others when MPEG-1 and 2 are!

re: Vista Will Support HD DVD Playback on 32-Bit Machines

dvrman — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 11:06:50 GMT

Microsoft announced that partners Cyberlink,SOnic,Intervideo and Nero would be supporting HD-DVD and some plan support on XP as well. Is that what you meant Chris

re: Vista Will Support HD DVD Playback on 32-Bit Machines

Can't wait for HD! — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 08:12:39 GMT

That sounds great. I hope you have time to explain more soon.

I think that even if it was true it isn't such a big problem anyway. I guess most HD capable machines have 64-bit CPUs that the owner might even not know of.

Even if this the story isn't true, harm has already been done. Anti-Microsoft people will ignore the fact that it is not true and use it as yet an argument that Microsoft and it's software is bad...