Okay, a few days into playing with Windows 7, I fired up and configured Windows Media Center. I popped in a Blu-ray movie to watch. Immediately WMC tells me that I have to install an application that supports Blu-ray playback. You've got to be kidding me!
Blu-ray is not new here. It's been on the market for a couple of years now. Less than a year ago we watched Blu-ray crush HD-DVD out of existence.
So if I can play a DVD movie natively in WMC, without the need for any special codecs, why can't I watch a Blu-ray movie? Some may argue that Blu-ray codecs are patented and have to be licensed. Well, Blu-ray is an OPEN standard.
Point is, WMC comes in Windows Vista Ultimate (and XP Media Center Edition). Obviously, these are editions that Microsoft charges extra for. The Windows 7 beta gives you the Ultimate version to play with, complete with WMC. So when Windows 7 goes to market, if you buy Ultimate, you get WMC. If I have to pay more to get the higher end version of Windows, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that Blu-ray playback will be supported natively, rather than me having to shell out more to get a codec that supports it.
C'mon Microsoft. Don't drop the ball on this one.
~M
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