Microsoft Makes DVD Player for Windows 10 Free for Some

While many mobile devices today don't have DVD Drives built in anymore, most desktop units still do and if you want to be able to play DVD's on you computer it may cost you to do so on your newly purchased or upgraded Windows 10 machine.

You can download Microsoft's DVD Player for Windows 10 from the Windows Store for free unless...

• Your using Windows Enterprise
• If you do a clean install of Windows 10 instead of an upgrade, again you don't get it free

The player app is free only for Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 users that had Media Center on their machines prior to an upgrade to Windows 10. You also need to upgrade during the free period that Microsoft has outlined. Otherwise you will will have to open your wallet and shell out $14.99 in the Windows Store.

If you don't want to pay, try downloading the free VLC media player for Windows. This is an open source product that you can donate to and they currently have a player that supports Windows 10.

What! No DVD Player in Windows 8!

Listening to Windows Weekly this morning I find out that the new Windows 8 coming out will not natively support DVD playback. Referencing a blog entry from Building Windows 8 – Making Windows Media Center available in Windows 8, Steven Sinofsky first discusses their motivation behind breaking out Media Center but he puts one small mention in that Windows Media Player will not support DVD playback.

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Given the changing landscape, the cost of decoder licensing, and the importance of a straight forward edition plan, we’ve decided to make Windows Media Center available to Windows 8 customers via the Add Features to Windows 8 control panel (formerly known as Windows Anytime Upgrade). This ensures that customers who are interested in Media Center have a convenient way to get it.Windows Media Player will continue to be available in all editions, but without DVD playback support. For optical discs playback on new Windows 8 devices, we are going to rely on the many quality solutions on the market, which provide great experiences for both DVD and Blu-ray.

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Microsoft is going to rely on third party programmers to offer applications and CODECs to support DVD playback but will offer Windows Media Center which will have this support as an additional cost through a Windows Upgrade portal. You can purchase this in one of two paths. You will either have Windows 8 (home version) or Windows 8 Pro as a starting point from an OEM build or an upgrade path. You will need to install Windows 8 Pro Pack if you are starting with Windows 8 or, Windows 8 Media Center Pack if you are starting from Windows 8 Pro. The end result will be a product designated as Windows 8 Pro with Media Center. (see graphic below)

You still won’t be able to play DVD’s in Windows Media Player, but you will in Window Media Center. This is a pretty big deal if you consume your movies though your DVD collection or other DVD sources but with the general push these days towards streaming media sources then maybe this isn’t such a big deal. We just need to see these sources offer a much larger collection then it currently does. There are several sources for free CODEC’s that does offer DVD access so all is not lost, but it is just another step that we shouldn’t have to be subjected to.

Lee Mathews writes in his article DVD playback removed from Windows 8? Not exactly 

The Softies cite several reasons, including declining DVD sales and the shift to alternatives like iTunes, Hulu, and Netflix as reasoning for this. There are other considerations at work, too. Manufacturers are going to push Ultrabooks and tablets even harder when Windows 8 arrives, and those tend to ship without an optical drive. If Microsoft stops paying for a playback license you’re probably never going to use, it allows them to shave a few bucks off the price of Windows 8 without any loss of functionality to end users.

If you purchase a Windows 8 system that has a DVD recorder, I would be surprised if it doesn’t come bundled with the required CODEC’s and players to allow you to use it with your DVD Collection. So the only real problem  is going to be for those individuals that are doing upgrades to their own machines or building their own machines and installing an OEM copy of Windows 8 on that new system. If you are doing those things, then you are probably able to also find a solution for this issue as well.

Burn ISO Images Natively in Windows 7

From Windows Experience Blog by Brandon LeBlanc 

We just had a question come internally about this and I thought that it might be interesting to have it available for everyone else as well…

Geeks and IT Pros often have to burn an ISO image (.iso file) to physical media such as a CD or DVD to test out and install software. We have made it easier to burn ISO images in Windows 7 by natively supporting the ability to burn ISO images directly within Windows without the need of a third party tool.

To burn an ISO image in Windows 7, all someone needs to do is simply right-click on an ISO image and choose “Burn disc image”.

This launches Windows Disc Image Burner, giving you the option to burn the ISO image to either a CD or DVD.

If you check “Verify disc after burning”, it will verify the ISO image burned correctly. Choosing to verify a disc you burned will require additional time so if you’re in a hurry, you will probably want to ensure this option is unchecked.

I often burn ISO images to a DVD-RW so I can re-use the media. What’s great about Windows Disc Image Burner is that it will detect that a DVD-RW has content on it already and prompt you asking if you would like to erase the disc and burn new content to it. This ensures you don’t accidently erase and burn over something important that may be on that DVD-RW disc. This is awesome because it lets me re-use DVD-RW media.

If you haven’t already discovered this feature in the Windows 7, you should give it a shot especially if you are burning ISO images quite a bit.

Turn Your PC into a DVD Ripping Monster - DVD - Lifehacker

We get a lot of questions about how to backup your DVD collection to your workstation and make them available for playback. Here is an article from Lifehacker  writer  Adam Pash describing several different software packages to put into your software arsenal to do these functions. A package that I use currently that rips a DVD and converts it automatically on the fly to a .avi file. I then pointed all of media center libraries to this directory and they are now all available to play from my Xbox and Linksys MCE units. Another trick is to add package art to the icon by dropping a .jpg image into the directory with the movie file. Be sure to change the name if the image file to folder.jpg.   Since you can’t have the same file name located in the same directory, I place each movie file in its own folder to contain the files associated with the movie.The program I am using is called Intertech DVD Converter Pro and is not free but isn’t outlandishly priced either.

I also use a program from AudialsOne4 that allows me to capture any screen video to disk and save it in any video format that I choose. This allows me to capture content from video seminars that I need to go back to in the future or that I am not able to watch at the time of the broadcast because of some other commitment. It’s a great little program that also does video conversion from one format to another or almost any kind of digital from one format to another. I use this for a lot of different types of captures and conversions all the time. So hopefully all of these different choices will help you fill out your media library and give your DVD’s a longer safer life. Happy computing!

Turn Your PC into a DVD Ripping Monster - DVD - Lifehacker