windows 7 & DVD playback

[0iD]

Does anyone know whether any of the three versions of Windows 7 offer native DVD playback?

[pauldarkside]

Just popped the Ratatouille DVD in Windows 7 RC and it plays through Media Player without any additional software. About bloomin' time

[0iD]

Cheers Paul

[kalniel]

Does anyone know whether any of the three versions of Windows 7 offer native DVD playback?

Yes, you can either play back with media player (default), or start up the Windows Media Center and play with that instead (which is quite snazzy).

[scaryjim]

indeed, AFAIK all version of Windows 7 from Home Premium upwards support native DVD playback. And, indeed, not before time. Works very nicely too Dunno if they support HD formats / hardware decoding acceleration though...

[kalniel]

indeed, AFAIK all version of Windows 7 from Home Premium upwards support native DVD playback. And, indeed, not before time. Works very nicely too Dunno if they support HD formats / hardware decoding acceleration though...

I think they do - perhaps not as efficiently as third-party apps, but it's there. (h.264)

[Paul Adams]

BD video playback support is not there out of the box, but BD media is supported for data, as I understand it.
(I installed Total Media Theatre straight onto my Win7 HTPC so I can't positively state it's true.)

[megah0]

I'm using PowerDVD 7 for my bluray playback on Windows 7, mainly as it also supports HD-DVD too unlike its more up to date brethren.

Total Media Theatre failed spectacularly to work on windows 7 for me. Refused to even load.

[Paul Adams]

I'm using PowerDVD 7 for my bluray playback on Windows 7, mainly as it also supports HD-DVD too unlike its more up to date brethren.

Total Media Theatre failed spectacularly to work on windows 7 for me. Refused to even load.

I moved from PowerDVD 7 because it started to behave oddly on Vista ("no disc in drive" after resuming from sleep during playback).
TMT3 has just worked from day 1 and handles my HD-DVDs too.
My HTPC setup is fairly simple though - pretty much just a silent PC in an HTPC chassis and an LG BD/HD-DVD drive - no TV tuner or whatnot to confuse matters.

[megah0]

Oddly, you just reminded me why I scrubbed it from my system, for some reason it took exception to my LG BD/HD-DVD drive and buggered up the drivers to the point that windows no longer recognised the drive.

Removing it fixed the problem and I've no desire to try their products again.

Having said that I'm not sure why I bother with PowerDVD, my PS3 is connected via an HDMI switching box to the same monitor I watch films on, I suppose there is no need really!