Vista - Media player 11 won't play video

Is it true that Media player 11 in Windows Vista (Business) won't play video?
Mine does sound but will not do video; for that I must use PowerDVD. Is
this feature omitted for some reason?

On Wed, 2 May 2007 20:17:01 -0700, Russ
<Russ@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Is it true that Media player 11 in Windows Vista (Business) won't play video?
> Mine does sound but will not do video; for that I must use PowerDVD. Is
>this feature omitted for some reason?

It won't play DVD's by itself which are made with MPEG-2 files.

Why not?

BECAUSE MICOROSOFT WAS TOO DAMN CHEAP TO PAY FOR THE REQUIRED LICENSE
that's necessary to legally obtain the rights to use the MPEG-2
decoder (codec).

That's right, those of us that paid $40 more for a Business Upgrade
don't have all the features that the Home Preium verson does.

So what Microsoft says here isn't true:
"If you have Windows Vista, you also have the latest version of Windows
Media Player. Windows Media Player 11 is included as a feature of Windows
Vista and offers great ways to store and enjoy all your music, video,
pictures, and recorded TV. Listen, watch, burn to CD, and sync your
content..."

If, in fact, it won't let me watch or work with videos.

"Adam Albright" wrote:

> On Wed, 2 May 2007 20:17:01 -0700, Russ
> <Russ@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >Is it true that Media player 11 in Windows Vista (Business) won't play video?
> > Mine does sound but will not do video; for that I must use PowerDVD. Is
> >this feature omitted for some reason?
>
> It won't play DVD's by itself which are made with MPEG-2 files.
>
> Why not?
>
> BECAUSE MICOROSOFT WAS TOO DAMN CHEAP TO PAY FOR THE REQUIRED LICENSE
> that's necessary to legally obtain the rights to use the MPEG-2
> decoder (codec).
>
> That's right, those of us that paid $40 more for a Business Upgrade
> don't have all the features that the Home Preium verson does.
>
>

On Thu, 3 May 2007 18:22:02 -0700, Russ
<Russ@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>So what Microsoft says here isn't true:
>"If you have Windows Vista, you also have the latest version of Windows
>Media Player. Windows Media Player 11 is included as a feature of Windows
>Vista and offers great ways to store and enjoy all your music, video,
>pictures, and recorded TV. Listen, watch, burn to CD, and sync your
>content..."
>
>If, in fact, it won't let me watch or work with videos.

Microsoft is playing with words in that statement.

First it depends on which version of Vista you buy. Some versions have
no support for "watching" a DVD movie, for example the business
version doesn't, without installing some third party software.

You can "rip" to a CD or DVD directly without buying anything else if
you limit it to music or use a format other than a compliant DVD file
which requires MPEG-2 as source and of course the decoder/encoder. So
I guess to stretch it you can (ignoring copyright protection issues)
make a CD of your songs, or make a slideshow of your pictures, etc..

You can also "burn" using Microsoft's own WMV format which will
playback on a computer and on some newer set top DVD players. You can
makes video CD (a lower quality video) using MPEG-1, obviously much
lower quality than DVD, but you should be able to burn to a CD and
Vista supports limited data burning. So you should be able to transfer
files to a CD for backup.


>
>"Adam Albright" wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 2 May 2007 20:17:01 -0700, Russ
>> <Russ@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>>
>> >Is it true that Media player 11 in Windows Vista (Business) won't play video?
>> > Mine does sound but will not do video; for that I must use PowerDVD. Is
>> >this feature omitted for some reason?
>>
>> It won't play DVD's by itself which are made with MPEG-2 files.
>>
>> Why not?
>>
>> BECAUSE MICOROSOFT WAS TOO DAMN CHEAP TO PAY FOR THE REQUIRED LICENSE
>> that's necessary to legally obtain the rights to use the MPEG-2
>> decoder (codec).
>>
>> That's right, those of us that paid $40 more for a Business Upgrade
>> don't have all the features that the Home Preium verson does.
>>
>>

What's the playback context? "Video" encompasses a large set of potential
file types and meaning. How specifically is it failing?

--
Speaking for myself only.
See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--

"Russ" <Russ@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:111E389A-790A-4ACD-9B3B-336EA375F131@microsoft.com...
> Is it true that Media player 11 in Windows Vista (Business) won't play
> video?
> Mine does sound but will not do video; for that I must use PowerDVD. Is
> this feature omitted for some reason?