“Microsoft revealed today that no 32-bit versions of Windows Vista will be able to play back ‘next generation high definition protected content’ (translation – studio-released BluRay and HD-DVD movies),” Dan Warne reports for APC Magazine.
“By far the majority of PCs use 32-bit processors, because despite AMD’s efforts to push 64-bit CPUs into the marketplace early, Intel’s first widely-promoted 64-bit CPU is the just-released Core 2 Duo,” Warne reports.
Warne reports, “PC users will now have to choose between a PC that can play high definition content (64 bit) versus one that can potentially run older devices that only have unsigned drivers available (32 bit). ‘Signed drivers’ are ones that have undergone a Microsoft quality-assurance process and received a digital certificate that certifies them as stable for installation on 64-bit Windows.”
“Microsoft’s move to drop support for playback of studio-released HD movies on Vista is likely to anger the large number of people who were hoping they could use their existing 32-bit PC with an upgrade version of Vista,” Warne reports. “The surprising disclosure was made by Senior Program Manager Steve Riley during a presentation on Windows Vista security at Tech.Ed 2006 Sydney today.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What a trainwreck. They should’ve kept it “Longhorn,” they butcher it so much. For cryin’ out loud, Windows-only people, what are you waiting for?
Get a Mac. Here have a look at a couple of real operating systems: Mac OS X Tiger Features and Mac OS X Leopard Sneak Peek. Get yourself a Mac – it’s okay, it’s okay, IT’S OKAY, you can run your Windows and Windows programs on it at native speeds. Try out Mac OS X at your own pace. We’ll wait.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Windows Vista Beta 2 plagued by bugs; release date could slip yet again – August 23, 2006
Development approaches of Mac OS X Leopard vs. Windows Vista yield very different results – August 15, 2006
Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard is 64-bit done right, unlike Microsoft’s Windows Vista kludge – August 14, 2006
Gartner analyst: It’s a ‘distinct possibility’ that Mac OS X Leopard will ship before Windows Vista – August 07, 2006
Tech Pundit Kay: Microsoft Windows Vista likely to slip again – August 01, 2006
Microsoft CEO Ballmer prepares analysts for yet another Windows Vista delay – July 28, 2006
Leopard attack on Vista: Apple taunts Microsoft with much faster operating system launches – July 05, 2006
What Microsoft has chopped from Windows Vista, and when – June 27, 2006
I hope HH/Blu Ray takes off, particularly for home theaters, but from what, admittedly little, I’ve read, it seems that there’s a greater chance of Dull going out of business than there is for HD/Blu ray to ever go main stream as current 480ps have.
Of course I meant “HD”. Also, does anyone have any info to suggest that the formats are doing well?
MDN – “Windows-only people, what are you waiting for?”
who the hell are you taking to?
the only people who read this site are the mac zealots (like me) and PC trolls.
you think normal windows users read this on a mac site?
I’ll say they are too busy looking for the next security patch or reinstalling windows.
MDN, your Takes are weird sometimes…
I would bet that Apple will restrict Blu-ray (and/or HD-DVD) to the 64 bit Intel platform running Leopard.
Apple often does things like this to make sure you have a strong desire to upgrade to the latest hardware and/or software.
(It may also be related to the trusted computing module as well.)
If it’s that big a resource hog, it’s entirely possible the drives will start gaining “intelligence” … an embedded processor interpreting the raw signal to something easier for the single-core 32-bit processors to deal with. Macs are nearly all multi-core – they have more head-room for CPU-intensive operations.
Jay,
We’ll know by Christmas after Sony’s PS3 comes out, that is, unless the laptop batterie recall kills them first.
Can budget video cards or intergrated video cards play high-fi HD content smoothly? don’t think so, I think the folks who will get pissed are those that splurged on a tricked out 32bit “Vista Ready” PC, budget ones can’t play shit anyways … but forget about Vista, will XP be able to play HD? HA! And FGS who really gives a shit about HD anyways … Xvid still r0x0rz!!
Do any have or know where I find a list of things or items that was suppose to be in Vista and gotten dump out?…would love to see that…readly bad!!!
Here’s where I admit it: Vista is a horrendous trainwreck.
Four contradictions in terms in this piece folks, count ’em:
Windows Vista
Microsoft quality-assurance process
stable for…Windows
Windows Vista security
I think there’s several things going on here. First, is the hardware capable of playing BR or HD disks. Well, if you have one of those expensive drives, then I suppose you can.
Second, is the software capable, and here, I imagine Leopard should be.
Third, will your monitor play it 1080p, and this is up to your monitor.
Fourth, and most importantly, does your monitor have a HDCP chip? Cause, I think both BR and HD will require a HDCP chip in your monitor before it’ll play full HD, otherwise, it’ll downres to 480p, or so I’ve read.
As for HDCP-compliant monitors, there aren’t that many, yet.
I might have missed something here but there is an awful lot of talk about the mac platform not being able to play back Blu-Ray-quality media.
Does anyone here think that you have to have a Blu-Ray drive or HD-TV drive, or the 64-bit version of Leopard to watch high-definition television?
My QT7 is capable of playback of both these standards even on my lowly G4 but only at the 480i aspect. The 1080i overwhelms.
H.264 is an extremely scalable video codec, delivering excellent quality across the entire bandwidth spectrum—from high definition television to video conferencing and 3G mobile multimedia.
I could have sworn I read somewhere that the next free version of Quicktime Player WILL allow for full screen playback. I believe Apple was going to add this because it was a top request. Can someone help me out here with a link if this is true?
“OS X users can’t even play standard definition videos in full screen mode. We have to buy QT Pro.
No you don’t. A one line AppleScript will do the trick.”
I’m too lazy to find out myself. What is the one line?
C’mon guys. It is well known.
Anyway, you can even use an app for that:
http://www.macparc.ch/mirror/QT_Full_Screen/
Everyone’s perception, real or imagined, may differ, but I have read several sources in a position to know, that the human eye is simply not physically capable of telling the differance between 480p, and certainly 720p, and 1080p on screen sizes less than about 50″. Something about your eye light rods/cones (?) being overwhelmed.
I said discerning the differance, not having the equipment to play it. I have a 1080i 20′ LCD monitor. It’s rated to play “HD” quality discs, but a HD-DVD supposedly would not appear any sharper/clearer/better than a regular 480p DVD since it’s a very small screen.
First, Apple joined the Blu-ray Disc Association:
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/mar/10blu-ray.html
Second, you could already buy Blu-ray drive for OS X. It means OS X already NOW supports it from the sw point of view:
http://www.hdtvuk.tv/2006/08/logitec_produce.html
and it supports both single and dual layer.
Current line does not have YET Blu-ray compatible drivers but the limitation is not on the OS just on slamming a driver in the case.
Blu-ray will be BTO in January 07.
For critic:
tell application “Quicktime Player” to present movie 1
MDN Magic Word: Control (Control Quicktime Player without going Pro.)
Jeff –
“OS X users can’t even play standard definition videos in full screen mode.”
Aside from the above-mentioned VLC, Apple’s free DVD Player provides full-rez, full-screen playback of commercial DVDs.
You’re either the most clueless Mac user ever, or a PC troll talking through his hat.
OS X users can’t even play standard definition videos in full screen mode. We have to buy QT Pro.
However, playback can be done on OS X.
Imagine this: What if Leopard didn’t support QT Pro? Or better yet, what if only certain versions of several Leopard releases supported QT Pro? Apple would be the laughing stock of the industry.
Yet MS does the same with an OS that’s several years LATE, and people still take MS seriously. Incredible.
This is not a software issue but a licensing one: the studios want Microsoft to guarantee nobody will be able to intercept and decode the HD content via a signed drivers policy. The problem is, they’ll require Apple to do the same. Apple has no signed drivers policy AT ALL!!!
And that’s just the software side of things. There’s the hardware one: HDMI i/O with HDCP copy protection, which means no current Mac or PC is allowed to play HD DVDs if the studios keep on negating full HD output if there is not a full HDCP-able chain of devices in place.
Actually, Microsoft is doing the right thing announcing the issue, as it forces all parties involved to take a hard look at all this nonsense. Apple ought to do the very same thing. Gates said HD DVDs will be the last phisical format for video content distribution ever, online replacing it real soon now. So guess who the ones being pressured here are, really.
Yet another biased, slanted commentary from MacDailyNews. This is not because Vista is having coding problems — this is a rights fight between Microsoft and Big Media, and unfortunately Big Media won.
MDN is absolutely useless.
The best thing Microsoft could do is tell them: “You know what? We won’t even support your silly decoders in Vista64. Hope all these blue laser diodes your fabs are so constipatedly ejecting into the market are edible, bye”
“Mac Guy: “You just buy a Mac,” as he takes the disk from the guy with the suit and tie, pops it in the player on the Mac. The video comes on and the Mac Guy hands the PC suit some popcorn and suggests, “Let’s watch.””
Mac Guy: Hang on a minute, nothing’s happening.
Windows Guy: you just put a Blu-Ray disk in your DVD drive you turkey.
Mac Guy: What’s Blu Ray?
Windows Guy: Don’t worry, it’ll be available on a Mac some day.
For a far better description of the issue, go read http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060824-7590.html and the discussion following it.