Windows 8 Media Center Will Be An Add-On - Page 2

Once JRiver starts cablecard support they have my money.

How can you not see the logic when they did exactly this with Vista (minus the option to pay for WMC in the pro version)?

Plus, aren't they paying for the licensing costs anyway if they include windows media player and dvd playback in the 'home' version of Windows 8?

It does actually make sense.
You can argue that "Pro" users might not necessarily need all the media things, so MS does not have to pay licenses for things the users wouldn't use either way.
Pro is also what MS hopes companys will use, which (if adopted) is quite a lot of licenses.

Licenses are usually paid per shipped copy, not as a big one-time deal. So by not including it in every copy of Pro, MS saves money. And if people then buy the add-on, MS makes money. Win-Win for them.

Nope, I still don't see the logic.

Microsoft has woken up to the fact that they don't need to pay for things like Dolby Digital Pro licenses in Windows 8, so they are moving to charging users for the Media Pack, which they make available to the enthusiasts, who, by Microsoft's thinking, are the ones using Windows 8 Pro.

Microsoft is currently paying for licenses unnecessarily in every copy of Windows 7 Home Premium and up. It makes perfect sense for them to turn WMC into a paid for Add-on. Why should they throw good money away?

It makes even more sense considering 'Ultimate' seems to be getting the boot for Windows 8. So in a way, Windows 8 Pro + WMC add-in = Windows 8 Ultimate. I was one of the Vista users who paid the ridiculous price for Vista Ultimate because I need the Pro features but also wanted WMC. This way it's a lot more convenient; you don't have to buy a completely separate OS just to get both.

BTW, here's a background article from Mary Jo Foley on the fact that Dolby Technology ain't going to be in Windows 8 (except, it appears now, as part of the Media Pack Add-on)

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/...;siu-container

According to MS' own statics, only less than 8% of Win7 users use WMC. It makes sense to ask those 8% to pay for the licesen they actually use. The savings are back to MS' pocket, not consumers.

The current Pro and Enterprise versions of Win7 do not include WMC. So this really reads as Microsoft providing a way for these users to be able to add WMC without upgrading to Ultimate.

Er, that's not what this Microsoft page states:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...s-media-center

WMC is in both Professional and Enterprise, as well as Home Premium and Ultimate, according to Microsoft

All Windows 7 packages except Windows 7 Starter and Home Basic include Windows Media Center.

That number has got to be WAY high. Maybe 8% have started WMC by mistake, which is easy to do. I've personally never met anyone in the real world who has any idea what Media Center is.

This is going to be heavily pirated I have a feeling. No one is going to want to pay for WMC.

I concur. Most people are using/buying notebooks these days and WMC is not something they would likely ever use. When Microsoft was pushing Windows XP Media Center Edition and Windows Vista several years ago, I never once provided any sort of technical support to anyone who was using WMC as connecting your PC to a TV was beyond what most people were doing.

Actually, Microsoft's own telemetry data shows 6% of users have started it. But I think you're right, most people, even if they know about it, just fire it up once to take a look at it...

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2...ns-part-2.aspx

Okay. But I wasn't talking about distibution of the OS but rather the capabilty on MC to nativelly playback BRD and BD-ISO.

While I'm not denying that the number of people who use 7MC daily is relatively low, this '6%' figure MS come up with is only from those users who allow MC to send information back to MS (configured during initial setup). I certainly don't, and I expect most others don't either, so these stats aren't worth much. The numbers could be far higher for all we know.

Even if the real use is around 10% accounting for those that are paranoid I can understand why MS wants to separate WMC from the OS and make it optional.

Its optional now but its baked into the OS.

This make $$$ sense for MS to do this and from that they will really understand the market.

I look at it this way, its a niche market backed up by real numbers then when we ask for things like Blu Ray playback will be honored.

But as with anything like this its wait and see...

Reading that article suggests that Win 8 won't be able to play DVDs out of the box (as that would require Dolby Digital audio decoding for the vast majority of discs - ignoring the odd PCM and European MP2 audio tracks)

We're back to XP... Or do MS want everyone to download video?

So are they taking Dolby out of WMP too? Don't they have to pay for that? Maybe Linux is finally the way to go.

That is your problem. It is the same as allowing the Government to make a statement. Always spreading FUD to make themselves look better.

Doubtful. Who would want this POS. Windows went from being a tool, to now being a toy.

You failed to understand statictics. It is 6% from those who reported and extrapolated to whole population of Win users. It doesn't if you or me don't report back.

They won't, due to they do not want to pay for the licensing. The same reason that they never put out a BD for the 360, and same reason that they never will for the next platform. MS is too backwards thinking, and every technology they come out with, either has died, been retired, or stolen from someone else.

Even if only 1% of Windows users actually used WMC, we're still talking about many millions of users here. That may be small potatoes compared to Office or Windows itself, but still more than enough to justify continued production.

Do as all a favor , and go troll somewhere else, or get a clue what you are talking about. MS was in the HD DVD Alliance with Toshiba when the XBox 360 was released, which had an HD DVD unit it it. Kinda logical they didn`t put a BR drive in it when they were in the other camp.

Well, they are continuing production, but as an separate app, which makes sense.

Why should i pay for WMC on my main laptop or desktop when i don`t use it? Actually, even for my HTPC it`s useless since i use XBMC. I save money this way upon the next upgrade to Win 8, if they do indeed make the Pro version of Win 8 cheaper than the 7th Pro edition

It is more of 1% of 1%. I uninstalled WMC on both machines that I maintain, due to we never used it, even with having a 360 in the house, we do not use it as an extender. The son uses it for playing games, and watching Netflix.

I always chuckle at the flame nonsense that always accompanies speculation.
My personal opinion is that I'm more than OK with having to pay a few bucks more for it. Paying for it implies additional support and continued maintenance.

ghostlobster, if you remember the arguments when 7 came out, I can remember on quite a few forums, that people were at each others throats, due to the speculating got way out of hand.