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Vista to disallow HD video playback on 32bit processors


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Full story here

props to Neowin for pointing it out

 

The essential deal is that if you're going to run Vista on a 32 bit processor there'll be no HD video for you. They made the concession to remove the feature because they couldn't implement a DRM scheme that would not be hacked on the 32 bit architecture the story says.

 

I'm sorry but if I upgraded my XP (home or pro) to Vista and then were disallowed from playing HD content, regardless of the strength of my system to actually play the video (which many 32 bit systems would have no issue playing HD content), I would be highly upset.

 

This one is a very bad call by MS and may come back to haunt them in future.

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I highly doubt that they will implement this... It is just not a good move... Honestly no good for them could come from this. Lets hope they don't something this stupid.

 

If they do this though... im sure alot of people will start looking at linux / bsd more realisticly as a desktop os.

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First of all, OPs post need clarification. It is not just for any HD content, its for protected HD content, that means commercially released BluRay and HD-DVD movies. Your regular unprotected HD videos are not affected at all.

 

Microsoft posted announcement about this issue on the Vista team blog. They are not disallowing any protected HD content in 32-bit Vista. However, just like XP, it is ISVs that needs to support playback of protected HD content. That means if Intervideo, Cyberlink etc.. provides necessary software to play protected HD content, it will play fine under 32-bit Vista.

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I highly doubt that they will implement this... It is just not a good move... Honestly no good for them could come from this. Lets hope they don't something this stupid.

 

If they do this though... im sure alot of people will start looking at linux / bsd more realisticly as a desktop os.

 

 

No offense, but that statement is far from true. The main public don't know about Linux and won't use it due to lack of user friendliness (that a word?). OSX HAS HD video with iMovie HD and DV Camcorder capture. You can do it on a Mac Mini so people will be more apt to go to OSX.

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In other news, Vista, whether 32-bit or 64-bit, will still suck tho :(

 

Hehe... Well, they have changed quite a few bits of the OS, but I don't think Vista will ever live up to be as good an OS as OS X (86) is.

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Microsoft posted announcement about this issue on the Vista team blog. They are not disallowing any protected HD content in 32-bit Vista. However, just like XP, it is ISVs that needs to support playback of protected HD content. That means if Intervideo, Cyberlink etc.. provides necessary software to play protected HD content, it will play fine under 32-bit Vista.

 

Yeah, they kicked that in this morning. Here's one quote.

 

Later Thursday, representatives in the U.S. said that senior program manager Steve Riley was mistaken.

 

"The information he provided to that audience was incorrect," a representative told CNET News.com. "Playback is possible with Windows Vista in 32-bit."

 

and another with pretty much what Chrysaor reports.

 

"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,"

 

 

And I did mention that the reasoning was because of implementing DRM schemes, which would imply protected content, would it not? The only other common sources of HD content are captured video from your own HD camera, and HD OTA recording through a capture card.

 

I point that out because one of the major things many were looking forward to in Vista is support for QAM and CableCard HD Tuner support in the media center. ATI has been sitting on their CableCard ready tuner for quite a while because of concessions to the industry to not release until Vista is released (because of the stronger DRM schemes and support for HDCP output to monitors, supposedly). Now they're saying the ISV will have to make the call on support for 32 bit chips. Well... Technically its the Media Center Edition of the OS that's controlling the HD Tuner, so wouldn't that be up to MS?

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