Vista - Can i play blue ray dvd's in windows media player?

I have a sony laptop and it plays dvd's in WinDVD. All the play
options are greyed out in Windows Media player. If I uninstall WinDVD
can I play blue ray discs in WMP? Would I need drivers? If so, who
sells them?

As long as you have the correct CODEC, sure. Not out of the box, stock
Vista.

PowerDVD Ultra supports HD-DVD and Blu-Ray:
http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/produ...n_112_ENU.html

EXPENSIVE, though: $99.95. I'm sure there may be some other software out
there, or in development.

you need 2 things for that

- A Blue ray Drive (buyable / installable if not allready installed.)
- A Blue ray Codec (proberly gonna be downloadable soon if not allready)

So basicly yes.

Just a suggestion, instead of trying to play a blue ray or any HQ DVD
through your computer directly, much better to have a better quality
computer monitor that has multiple inputs like the Dell Ultra Sharp
series wide screen models, (1920 x 1200) resolution and just plug into
it's input, assuming you get/have a set top DVD player. There is a
series of buttons on these Dell monitors that easily switch between
the input from your PC to a DVD player or some other analog or digital
source. Works great for me. You can even do split screen. It just
makes no sense to pay through the nose for a computer based blue ray,
fight with codecs and driver issues, then watch your system crawl
under the load likely resulting in out of sync audio and dropped
frames, even on upper end systems with tons of memory and a very fast
CPU. Better to just totally bypass the computer, unless you plan on
making your own blue ray discs. For that you need very deep pockets,
true HD DVD Authoring software STARTS at around $9K.

Having spent a while looking, I believe the answer is:
Windows Media Player only supports HD DVD. Even then you need a
special graphics chipset to play protected HD DVD discs. The only
machine in the world playing Blue Ray discs is the Sony VGN AR31S on a
custom build of WinDvd. Even if you go out and buy a blue ray disc
player for your desktop you will currently have no way to play
protected content.

Conclusion Sony screws costumers (sony fanboys) once again
Thank god i dont support sony. (directly or intentionly, i know i do
indirectly.)

oh well..

For that you need very deep pockets,
> true HD DVD Authoring software STARTS at around $9K.
>

Completely false. Ulead's MovieFactory ($49) authors both Blu Ray and HD
DVD.

.......

They are still angry about getting aced out with VHS.

I tried that PowerDVD trial but it didn't play blue ray. Maybe the
full version does but I like to try before I buy. Shame