I recently saw a post on Neowin which said that Vista will no longer allow the use of region-free DVD drives for movie playback; I found this strange considering in some nations region-coding DVDs is illegal as it goes against consumer rights. Neowin also links against an MS developers blog, where he talks about MS lacking any region-free drives to test legacy code on, and this may lead to lack of support for those drives. So where does this leave consumers who have region-free drives? Well you'll be able to still use DVD-data discs you just wont be able to play encrypted/region-coded DVDs anymore.
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Member since:2005-06-29
"The other thing the MS developer mentioned was that Region-Free drives are from before the year 2000, and he said that it is general concensus that DVD drives have roughly a 3yr life, and because as of 2000, all drives have hardware based regioning, it is extremely hard to come by a working drive from before the year 2000. "
MS is spewing bullshit here, I've never EVER seen a CD or DVD drive die after just three years. That's not to say it doesn't happen, but I've still got CD drives in my computer that I've moved over from a 10 year old box and a combo drive (CD-RW/DVD-RW) that's closer to four years old without any problems. I know lots of people who have old DVD drives that still work perfectly. We all know MS has been forcing in DRM like a drug pusher, how could people not know it's just a cover story.
"I personally also find this a bit hard to believe because a local comupter store still sells what it calls Region-X drives."
And for that matter MS should easily be able to buy old stock from the manufacterers, they do have still have some stock of old hardware. And when a customer like MS goes looking for things to buy, it usually finds them.
Member since:2005-07-06
MS is spewing bullshit here, I've never EVER seen a CD or DVD drive die after just three years. That's not to say it doesn't happen...
You are implying it doesn't happen by saying MS is "spewing bullshit". You're trying to backup a foregone conclusion based on anecdotal evidence.
I have had two DVD drives manufactured in 1999 (installed in different systems) fail in some way that warranted replacement. I've also had a CD burner go bad after a few years. It's easy to imagine that the drives in the test lab get used more often than most consumer drives and are subject to quicker failure.
And for that matter MS should easily be able to buy old stock from the manufacterers, they do have still have some stock of old hardware.
I don't think most manufacturers keep significantly old stock. There are cases where manufacturers have gone to MS to repro issues with hardware they no longer have.
And when a customer like MS goes looking for things to buy, it usually finds them.
And how long is MS expected to keep buying and supporting old hardware and devoting resources to testing scenarios which apply to an increasingly smaller number of users each day when they can instead work on scenarios that apply to a larger group? Newer drives will still be able to play content from various regions using software (and likely some firmware) methods. As already mentioned, this issue is being rehashed and overblown, and I'll add, spun with the usual conspiracy theories and FUD without any substantive claims to backup implied motives.
Edited 2006-01-02 19:45
Member since:
2005-06-29
The other thing the MS developer mentioned was that Region-Free drives are from before the year 2000, and he said that it is general concensus that DVD drives have roughly a 3yr life, and because as of 2000, all drives have hardware based regioning, it is extremely hard to come by a working drive from before the year 2000.
I personally also find this a bit hard to believe because a local comupter store still sells what it calls Region-X drives.