I think it is foolish on Microsoft’s part to not support HD DVD/Blu Ray on their 32 bit version of Vista. If you are looking to upgrade to the newest OS, wouldn’t you expect it to support the newest technologies? And how many people are going to be using the x64 version that does support it? Not that many. It is not because of any technical limitations, but rather by choice.
What really galls me about this is that it appears that the chief reason they won’t support it is the fear that the use of unsigned drivers in kernel mode could bypass any copy protection scheme used. Damned DRM screwing things up again. And the only thing worse is that Microsoft has decided to kowtow to the media companies that were pressuring them.
UPDATE: The story does say that Microsoft is not supporting HD on Vista 32 bit, and while true, it does not preclude others from developing software to do that. The onus of complying with content restrictions will be on the software developers in this case, and not on Microsoft.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }