Windows 7 has no native Blu-ray support
Blu-ray is a format on the move, gaining support on all sides - slowly but surely. But don’t expect Microsoft to be one of those climbing on board the bandwagon. Windows 7 is confirmed as not having native Blu-ray support, with a third-party media suite being required for Blu-ray playback. Cheapskates.
There’s no doubt that Blu-ray is increasing in prevalence as a format. DVD is still king when it comes to disc sales but Blu-ray is starting to take bigger bites out of its market share. There’s an argument that digital downloads are the real future for movies and televisual content, but for now, Blu-ray is where it’s at.
Despite this, it’s now been confirmed that Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 7, will not feature native Blu-ray support. Instead, the installation of a third-party media suite will be required to use the format on PC running Windows Seven.
Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president for the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, confirms the news himself. He responded to a question on the subject, the email reply of which was then exposed on windows7center.com.
He said:
Blu-Ray support will be provided by PC makers or BRD drive makers. We have new extensibility in media center for those that provide BRD playback to support integrated playback. We do have support for burning BRD data discs.
This is similar to the situation with Windows XP, which only supported DVD when a media suite such as WinDVD and PowerDVD was installed. These two pieces of software now support Blu-ray and one or the other is likely to come bundled with any Blu-ray drive-enabled PC you may buy, but that’s not the point. Why can’t Microsoft just suck it up and support the current format of choice straight out of the box?
One can only assume it comes down to cost. Each individual Blu-ray license costs $30, and Microsoft clearly doesn’t want to add this figure to the already likely-to-be overpriced OS. It’s also important to remember that Microsoft backed HD DVD in the short-lived high definition format war won by Blu-ray. Maybe there’s still some hard feelings there.
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March 7th, 2009
Obviously a business decision that MS has made to NOT pay for a license for every copy of Win7 sold when so few will use. Why should they? Come on Dave, that’s just dumb. They don’t even give you free dvd movie playback with its much cheaper license. Face it, maybe YOU want it for free but not many in the big picture will want to pay the extra cost. You really make yourself look cheapskate when you keep writing articles here that say thia or that you shouldn’t have to pay for or should get a price cut. Write something original about Tech why don’t you, instead of using this forum to show the world how cheap you are. Honestly, nobody cares what YOU think should be free in an OS or how much more per console YOU think Sony should lose or whatever.
Companies sell products to make a profit, not to please Dave Barrack with their pricing.
March 8th, 2009
Why would anyone want to watch a Blu-ray movie on a cramped 19″ computer screen anyway?
And in this economy, the money is now less likely to go for “frills” like a expensive Blue-ray movie anyway when things like paying the rent, gas and electricity is far more important.
DVD is less expensive and more titles are available anyway. I’m not a huge MSFT fan by any means, but I agree with Microsoft on this decision.
October 2nd, 2009
Wow. Just wow. Both of the replies above show a clear misunderstanding of how Windows is used and/or how it should be marketed. DavidB: Instead of not supporting Bluray natively, if *MS* is that cheap, they should at the least sell a BR version that is so many dollars more. It just makes setting up an HTPC/media center that much more of a cleaner, seamless setup instead of dealing with 3rd party crap software (which is a problem I’ve run into). And yes Ralph, people actually do build HTPCs with Windows and they even hook it up to their TVs.