Vista & Playing DVDs

I have read somewhere that all but the newest DVD drives in a PC will not be
able to play DVD movies on a Vista system. However, any will be OK reading &
writing data DVDs. Can anyone confirm or deny this & if its true how can I
tell what ones should be fully compatible?

There does not yet seem to be a proper HCL.

Well, not entirely sure but I see what you mean. In XP, you couldn't
ordinarily watch a DVD in Media Player 10 because it didn't have the codecs
there - you actually had to buy or download a DVD player. Only then could
you watch them in Media Player if you wanted to because the codec was there.

Reading and writing DVD's are different - they don't need codecs at all. The
only reason you need a codec (compressor-decompressor - similar wording to
"modem") is because the video/audio stream is all jumbled up and you need a
bit of software for XP/Vista to see it properly.

Hope that explains it relatively OK )

--
Zack Whittaker
» ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk
» MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org
» Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk
» This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not
of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we cleared
that up!

--: Original message follows :--
"Keith French" <keithfrench@btconnect.com> wrote in message
news:sp-dncfwj95RRu3ZnZ2dnUVZ8s6dnZ2d@bt.com...
>I have read somewhere that all but the newest DVD drives in a PC will not
>be able to play DVD movies on a Vista system. However, any will be OK
>reading & writing data DVDs. Can anyone confirm or deny this & if its true
>how can I tell what ones should be fully compatible?
>
> There does not yet seem to be a proper HCL.
>

I read that Vista won't support any dvd drives that don't have the dvd
region hardcoded into them in firmware. All dvd drives have had this for
about 6years, so it shouldn't be a problem.

"Zack Whittaker" <admin@zacknet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:O8SLHBYfGHA.4880@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Well, not entirely sure but I see what you mean. In XP, you couldn't
> ordinarily watch a DVD in Media Player 10 because it didn't have the
codecs
> there - you actually had to buy or download a DVD player. Only then could
> you watch them in Media Player if you wanted to because the codec was
there.
>
> Reading and writing DVD's are different - they don't need codecs at all.
The
> only reason you need a codec (compressor-decompressor - similar wording to
> "modem") is because the video/audio stream is all jumbled up and you need
a
> bit of software for XP/Vista to see it properly.
>
> Hope that explains it relatively OK )
>
> --
> Zack Whittaker
> » ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk
> » MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org
> » Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk
> » This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and
not
> of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we cleared
> that up!
>
> --: Original message follows :--
> "Keith French" <keithfrench@btconnect.com> wrote in message
> news:sp-dncfwj95RRu3ZnZ2dnUVZ8s6dnZ2d@bt.com...
> >I have read somewhere that all but the newest DVD drives in a PC will not
> >be able to play DVD movies on a Vista system. However, any will be OK
> >reading & writing data DVDs. Can anyone confirm or deny this & if its
true
> >how can I tell what ones should be fully compatible?
> >
> > There does not yet seem to be a proper HCL.
> >
>
>

I think I know what you probably read Keith, Vista won't natively support
(Sony Blu Ray DVD's), support will have to come from third party vendors, on
the other hand existing generic DVD-ATA will be supported and the Microsoft
backed HD-DVD will also be supported natively in Windows Vista.
--
--
Andre
Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com
Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com
Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta

"Keith French" <keithfrench@btconnect.com> wrote in message
news:sp-dncfwj95RRu3ZnZ2dnUVZ8s6dnZ2d@bt.com...
>I have read somewhere that all but the newest DVD drives in a PC will not
>be able to play DVD movies on a Vista system. However, any will be OK
>reading & writing data DVDs. Can anyone confirm or deny this & if its true
>how can I tell what ones should be fully compatible?
>
> There does not yet seem to be a proper HCL.
>