Windows 7 Beta 1 and Blu-Ray

Did they get native Blu-Ray support into Beta 1? I am hoping to use Media Center and my Blu-Ray drive to watch Blu-Ray movies. I'm hoping to maintain the media center experience, so I am trying not to rely on third-party software.

Anybody out there know the answer to this one?

This is my first post at this forum, but I think I'm going to be around for a while. My thanks to whoever put this site together.

Maybe there would be good use for a Media Center forum here?

pmcgarr said:

Maybe there would be good use for a Media Center forum here?

Done

Can anyone give a definitive answer to this? I've seen yes's and no's all over the internet.

If they don't include native BluRay support in Media Center, they have shot themselves in the foot big time, as this would have been the best way to seriously capture this market.

People will move away from Microsoft completely if they don't get their backsides in gear!

I certainly won't be upgrading to Windows 7 if this critical feature is missing (what would be the point!). In my eyes, being the center piece of a home theater requires it to be able to support the latest technologies, not lagging years behind!

Thanks for creating a forum for MCE. I'll post questions like this in that forum in the future. I love a forum where moderators actually care.

The reason for my question is that I have an install of Windows 7 Beta 1 and I also have a Blu-Ray drive. I put a movie in the drive an nothing happens. If I click on the drive through Windows Explorer, it opens Windows Media Player, but just says "loading" and never plays. I was thinking I might be missing something, but maybe not.

My experience is that Windows 7 does not natively handle Blu-Ray. I hope it does in the future. If anybody has a different experience, please post.

Mr GRiM said:

As a note, though, Microsoft has not yet confirmed if Windows 7 will include native movie playback for Blu-Ray. This requires extra licensing of the Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and there have been legal issues in the past between Sun and Microsoft on this component

So they include the ability to write to a format that can't be played back? Nice one!

Me buying Windows 7 requires extra licensing (on my part), so if the above is true there will be 'spending' issues between me and Micorosoft.

Would people be happy to pay an extra £50+ for software to make their standalone BluRay player do it's job?

Suppose things like this are inevitable though (Betamax vs VHS and HD-DVD vs BluRay). There should only have ever been one HD format to begin with! On that note, if HD-DVD never came about and it was only BluRay, would Microsoft have never supported the HD format? Interesting question!

ldoodle said:

So they include the ability to write to a format that can't be played back? Nice one!

Me buying Windows 7 requires extra licensing (on my part), so if the above is true there will be 'spending' issues between me and Micorosoft.

Would people be happy to pay an extra £50+ for software to make their standalone BluRay player do it's job?

Suppose things like this are inevitable though (Betamax vs VHS and HD-DVD vs BluRay). There should only have ever been one HD format to begin with! On that note, if HD-DVD never came about and it was only BluRay, would Microsoft have never supported the HD format? Interesting question!

I don't think Microsoft would trash the Blu-Ray thing because of the cost of the license. Maybe they would have to reintroduce "Media Center Edition" and charge a bit extra for it. If licensing holds back the ability for Windows 7 to play back Blu-Ray, you can blame Sony...as usual with Sony.

I wish the technology went the way of HD-DVD because that was open source. I've always hated Sony for this reason.

As a note, though, Microsoft has not yet confirmed if Windows 7 will include native movie playback for Blu-Ray. This requires extra licensing of the Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and there have been legal issues in the past between Sun and Microsoft on this component

Yup i really hope Microsoft find a way or the extra licensing needed otherwise i will be very too

NormCameron said:

Also I don't think Media Center has, or will ever have Blu-Ray support. X-Box uses HD and despite the rumours hasn't abandoned it. I can't see Microsoft ever supporting the opposition.

Come on, media center will support bluray. It already plays the .mt2s files so I wouldn't be surprised if native playback is included in the final retail version of 7.
What exactly do you mean xbox uses HD?