Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I suspect the reason is that which has already been stated: that DVD drives are increasingly rare on modern laptops (I don't have a DVD drive on any of my three current laptops), and hence paying a licence fee for the DVD codec on every copy of Windows is money that's largely wasted.
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I was just quoting what Microsoft have stated that they believe, I am in no position to challenge the veracity of their claim as to their reason.
Their comment was that they believe that the predominant usage of Media Center was to play DVDs i.e. the other functionality was not much used. You are welcome to believe that they are likely telling porkies and that their real reason for dropping Media Center is actually the decreasing provision of DVD drives on notebooks.
However if it were to be so that they were likely telling porkies, as you claim, then one would have to wonder why they are bothering providing a DVD solution in lieu of Media Center; that is they actually are dumping all the parts of MC that they said are least used but are keeping only that functionality, DVD playing, which you claim they actually believe is not needed and is the "real" reason for their decision to dump MC
).
Regarding the codec, yes, that is why I stated that I would not be surprised if there was a small charge for the DVD solution just as there has been for Media Centre. However, Media Center has from time to time been offered free, so who not privy to Microsoft's future pricing policy would know what they have in mind on that?
I am lost regarding your claim about Microsoft not wanting to pay for the codec on "every copy of Windows" as having something to do with their dropping Media Center, for many years now Windows has not come with the codec unless one paid for it e.g. by purchasing Media Center.