“It’ll be much better than Windows XP, trust me…”

Somehow, Mac’s advertising campaigns always hit the nail on the head.

“It’ll be much better than Windows XP, trust me…”

Somehow, Mac’s advertising campaigns always hit the nail on the head.

What is the expected lifespan of Windows 7? If industry experts are predicting that Blu-Ray will overtake DVD within the next 18-24 months, then Microsoft’s OS in its prime will be incompatible with the prevailing disc format.

I have no problem watching the individual files on a Blu-Ray disc, since Windows supports the format. But I can’t watch it with menus, etc. Ironically, the DRM in Windows 7 is so overblown that if I want to watch a legitimate HD disc on my BD drive with licensed software, it ends up giving me a message about the resolution being cut down due to DRM and I lose the HD. There is software that fixes that problem. The ironic part is that its primary purpose is to bypass the copy protection, so DRM has the opposite of its intended effect for users like me. If they had native Blu-Ray support, presumably this issue never would have come up.

The other question is why they left out HD-DVD. People with collections have as many discs as before, and the number of discs is increasing as old inventory gets sold. The software is static, unlike BluRay which will need ongoing patches, so there’s no ongoing development cost for HD DVD.

You are probably thinking that HD-DVD is dead. I thought the same thing. Good Blu-Ray drives read HD-DVD also, and companies would have to spend money to drop hardware/firmware support. When I bought a drive, I didn’t give any thought to HD-DVD. I later realized that HD discs are now $5 each wish shipping, so I’m not going to spend more for the DVD or Bu-ray. It would be nice to have HD integration into Media center and I doubt it would cost them much.

What is the expected lifespan of Windows 7? If industry experts are predicting that Blu-Ray will overtake DVD within the next 18-24 months, then Microsoft’s OS in its prime will be incompatible with the prevailing disc format.

I have no problem watching the individual files on a Blu-Ray disc, since Windows supports the format. But I can’t watch it with menus, etc. Ironically, the DRM in Windows 7 is so overblown that if I want to watch a legitimate HD disc on my BD drive with licensed software, it ends up giving me a message about the resolution being cut down due to DRM and I lose the HD. There is software that fixes that problem. The ironic part is that its primary purpose is to bypass the copy protection, so DRM has the opposite of its intended effect for users like me. If they had native Blu-Ray support, presumably this issue never would have come up.

The other question is why they left out HD-DVD. People with collections have as many discs as before, and the number of discs is increasing as old inventory gets sold. The software is static, unlike BluRay which will need ongoing patches, so there’s no ongoing development cost for HD DVD.

You are probably thinking that HD-DVD is dead. I thought the same thing. Good Blu-Ray drives read HD-DVD also, and companies would have to spend money to drop hardware/firmware support. When I bought a drive, I didn’t give any thought to HD-DVD. I later realized that HD discs are now $5 each wish shipping, so I’m not going to spend more for the DVD or Bu-ray. It would be nice to have HD integration into Media center and I doubt it would cost them much.

Microsoft is marketing this OS as more than just an OS, but as an integrated Media Center. Using the flawed logic of not including DVD in XP is wrong as then it was Gaming/Productivity. Now it is a Media/Gaming/Productivity OS.

Microsoft already sells Vista in tiers (eg. Ultimate), and should do the same for those users who plan on using Blu-Ray. I for one, do not want to have extra software on my computer, and despite what the majority of the world thinks, I have far more confidence in Microsoft’s ability to provide a stable product than I do in some 3rd party developer who will not bother to integrate it into Media Center.

Without the integration, I will continue to use my PS3 as a media center instead of my preference to use a Media Center PC.

Microsoft is marketing this OS as more than just an OS, but as an integrated Media Center. Using the flawed logic of not including DVD in XP is wrong as then it was Gaming/Productivity. Now it is a Media/Gaming/Productivity OS.

Microsoft already sells Vista in tiers (eg. Ultimate), and should do the same for those users who plan on using Blu-Ray. I for one, do not want to have extra software on my computer, and despite what the majority of the world thinks, I have far more confidence in Microsoft’s ability to provide a stable product than I do in some 3rd party developer who will not bother to integrate it into Media Center.

Without the integration, I will continue to use my PS3 as a media center instead of my preference to use a Media Center PC.

Also they should be concerned with keeping the OS costs down as low as possible.  Apple can make their money back on marked-up hardware but Microsoft only licenses software and needs to sell as many copies as they can.

Also they should be concerned with keeping the OS costs down as low as possible.  Apple can make their money back on marked-up hardware but Microsoft only licenses software and needs to sell as many copies as they can.

Also they should be concerned with keeping the OS costs down as low as possible.  Apple can make their money back on marked-up hardware but Microsoft only licenses software and needs to sell as many copies as they can.

There is no need to charge an additional USD$ 30 to all the users that doesn’t have blu-ray.

There is no need to charge an additional USD$ 30 to all the users that doesn’t have blu-ray.