News Microsoft adds DVD playback to Windows 10

I think I may even own a DVD, sure someone bought me one for Christmas.

 

vlc.... sorted.

 

MS doesn't really expects you to buy that player tho .

 

I'll stick to VLC thanks...if it was blu-ray then that would be a different story!

 

You can get it free... but only if you upgraded from a version that had WMC installed... My 'rents PC had '8.1 pro with Media Centre' pre upgrade and had this installed already...

WMC on 8.x was potentially an even worse gouge, £8, on top of a potential £50 if you didn't already have 8.x Pro...

 

Back when I still used Windows for my everyday needs (which was around 2007, so I was still using XP at the time) I would just download codec packs for media player. Not that there was anything wrong with stuff like VLC or winamp, but they didn't offer me anything I personally cared about, so codec packs made things easier.

 

Who cares about DVD playback anymore? Well judging by the reviews, two people, who both gave it a one star rating.

A Blu-ray player would have been more interesting. But what we really need is a replacement for the PVR functionality lost with Media Center.

 

Remember that this price is for up to 10 systems using your account.
Also, VLC DVD playback image quality is lower, menu navigation is difficult, VLC is not high DPI aware (meaning on that 3K laptop, or 4K display <= 28inch or 1080p <= 15inch, it looks blurry (assuming you have DPI up, which is by default).

Also, PowerDVD and similar programs are 60$, complete with crap ton of bloatware, you have to use their shitty player that makes Windows Media Player 9 looks good, and have startup crap that for some reason needs in order to work (probably DRM system)

 

Well, quite.

 

@GoodBytes, I thought the quality of playback was more down to how a particular player handles the up-scaling of the default resolution of DVDs.

 

I don't know. At the end of the day, the image quality is better with any paying solution that I have tried, than VLC.

So if you use it for that occasional DVD, VLC is great, but if you have a lot of DVD backups as ISOs, or play DVD's on your system or want the best image quality, not to mention the rest, than teh paying solution is better, especially at 15$ is the cheapest solution around. Increase in value if you have 2 or more systems that you use with your own account as it will be there as well.

 

Or MPC-HC.

Ultimately being a big corp it costs Microsoft money to licence DVD playback and bundling it free is uneconomical. I think the whole system of licensing codecs for mainstream formats is pretty broken from a consumer pov.

 

If it's an ISO then surely it'd be Mount ISO -> ??? -> Profit, If it was an MKV or similar you'd be playing it the videos app anyway

 

Haven't you heard it's illegal to make a backup of any copyrighted works, that includes DVD's, software installed on your PC, and those rascals Apple with its iTunes actively facilitating copyright infringement by promoting a CD-ripping functionality.

 

thanks for link, has been bookmark

 

Here's a question... How does the app know what version you upgraded from? Before I heard about this I upgraded, retrieved the new product key and then did a clean install. I assume there is no trace of my previous installation and so is it logged at their end or is the 'free' app not available to me any more?

 

If you have Media Center in your previous install, when you'll upgrade, you'll have the DVD player app delivered via Windows Update, Not the store.

This allows people with local accounts to have it, and Microsoft have to pay the license fee for 1 computer, and not 10. If you clean install later you'll loose the app. You need to install the old Windows and re-upgrade. If you buy it from the store, you don't have to do such a thing. Clean install, and the purchased DVD player app will be ready to download from the store.