King_Corduroy wrote:You know, I don't think I'm ever going to buy a blue ray disc. There really is no reason to keep switching to the next format with the advent of the internet. That doesn't mean I won't grab the occasional DVD still though. 🤣
I also I must agree I've never had problems playing dvd's on windows Xp and up. I also don't have any problems playing DVDs on linux either though. 😜
I'd agree with the "advent of the Internet" as far as media distribution goes - digital download looks like it will be the future for most everything (for better or for worse). It generally seems to have the upside of being more platform independent, but it raises its own ethical/practical concerns in the process. Personally I'm bummed that BD-ROM or HD-DVD-ROM never took off for software/storage, because I like the ability to work offline, but I will agree that the whole "HD formats" thing has been a total mess as far as implementation beyond native players goes. I can imagine things being worse under Linux than under Windows/OS X simply because of the DRM associated with newer formats (some of the features of Blu-ray/HD-DVD, like AACS, don't lend themselves to FOSS implementations).
As far as BD itself goes - I like the improved hardcoating on the discs, but the whole "let's run everything lossless and eat up 50GB" jag really does nothing for me. Would not be surprised if "they" will be pushing some new format in the next 3-4 years (DVD ran for nearly 10 years before BDV (1997 to 2006), and BDV is itself almost 10 years old) as part of 4K-mania. The whole thing is just a means of pushing people onto a carousel of constantly upgrading and re-buying the same media (you know, because everyone needs yet another doctored copy of ANH or LOTR).
Jorpho wrote:
I think you mean PowerDVD.
PowerDVD, MediaSuite, Media Player, etc etc. Tons of "variations on a common theme" kind of bundles - easier to just say "Cyberlink DVD" or what-have-you. Some of them I've never bothered installing, and honestly I'm not intimately familiar with the differences between every version.
There's also probably some InterLink/Corel CDs in there, again, absolute accuracy isn't a big factor for the sake of discussion. The only bundled/add-on DVD player that's ever really stood out to me was the nVidia one (not the Windows Media Player plug-in); I remember using that with my GeForce FX 5900 on an nForce 2/Soundstorm system and it worked very well (and did most of the decode/playback with hardware acceleration). No idea if I still have the CD for that, not that it's supported under modern operating systems (and I don't even know if it'd work with more modern GeForce cards either).
On the Windows 8 + DVD thing, thanks for clarifying. Not actually surprising that Microsoft had to dump it for cost reasons; reminds me of Creative and DTS-Connect a few years ago. It's mildly frustrating for desktop users I'd suspect, but for the bulk of Windows 8 devices (tablets, laptops, etc) that don't even have optical drives, I doubt it's even noticed. I'd be curious if they don't "bring the feature back" with the next version of Windows though (given that they're already "on the hook" for bringing back other Windows Vista/7 features that were removed from 8/8.1).
I was surprised to learn that there is apparently no freeware application for playing Blu-Rays yet that supports Blu-Ray menus. You'd think that wouldn't be a problem because Blu-Ray menus use Java and free Java VMs are abundantly available. Anyway, both Linux and Windows are in the same boat as far as that goes.
That's actually not all that surprising - it isn't so much the BD-J support that's the "gotcha" as it is that Blu-ray/HD-DVD require AACS which doesn't exist (at least legally) as a freeware component. There's greymarket applications/work-arounds that can extract the audio/video content from a disc, but as with DVD these are very murky waters (even if the extracted content is stored in an encrypted manner). My guess is that content providers and software makers are happier to move to digital distribution like UltraViolet or Netflix and be rid of all of the back-and-forth over which kinds of duplication are and are not acceptable fair-use.
Also, aside from a very few Blu-rays that I've seen over the years, you aren't missing much with the menus - there's still a number of releases that lack interactive menus altogether, and the majority of "interactive" discs are just like DVDs; very basic looped audio/video. I can only think of a few discs that really take advantage of all of the improved hardware/software features behind Blu-ray for the menus.
