http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/ Engadget HD Comments for Will there ever be integrated HD media support in Vista? http://hd.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://hd.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/Jan 25th 2008 12:31PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/
In the mean time QAM support in Media Center can be had throgh HD HomeRun tuner. It is awesome. I record all my locals in HD for free (which makes up about 90% of what I watch). I only pay for basic cable.]]>Jan 25th 2008 12:36PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/Jan 25th 2008 12:49PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/Jan 25th 2008 12:52PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/Jan 25th 2008 12:57PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/Jan 25th 2008 1:48PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/Jan 25th 2008 4:45PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/Jan 25th 2008 4:47PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/Jan 25th 2008 1:05PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/“We just don’t see any customer demand in %something%, so we wont support it.”
(replace something with Blu-ray, ODF, Ogg, etc)

They could quite easily enable Blu-ray in their Media Centre, so why not? If they must disable Java outside of MC, it could be done.]]>Jan 25th 2008 12:41PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/Jan 25th 2008 1:06PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/
http://www.arcsoft.com/products/totalmediatheatre/

Before making a post about something out of the blue (er...blu), you really might want to check to see if it is actually correct. :)]]>Jan 25th 2008 1:39PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/No, it isn’t because you said: “ArcSoft has a plug-in for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray playback in Vista Media Centre”

It also costs another $90, yeah, that sounds worth it…

(I believe what the article is getting at is native support)]]>Jan 25th 2008 1:43PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/Jan 25th 2008 1:47PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/
With a plugin, there shouldn't be a loss of flow. It should work within the Media Center interface. I figured that was their issue. :shrug:]]>Jan 25th 2008 1:47PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/Jan 25th 2008 1:55PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/
The majority of my readers (and readers here at Engadget HD) know that you can playback the discs on a PC.]]>Jan 25th 2008 2:12PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/
Does a decoder have to be included with the OS in order for there to be native playback? If so, then even XP and MCE 2005 didn't have native playback. There was no DVD decoder included with XP in any form. Instead, you needed to use a 3rd party codec, just like you need to use a 3rd party system for blu-ray and hd-dvd.

At least the support is included to integrate this 3rd party HD-DVD and Blu-Ray system seamlessly into Media Center's interface.]]>Jan 25th 2008 2:29PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/
The differences between HD DVD and Blu-ray are quite large when you factor in software support using a framework that has already been developed.

Read more at http://msmvps.com/blogs/chrisl/archive/2008/01/25/1480420.aspx]]>Jan 25th 2008 2:45PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/
The main advantage of a HTPC over STBs in my opinion seems to be having a catalog of ripped DVDs and streaming those DVDs. Native support for HD DVD and Blu Ray would add HDM to the DVD library part of Media Center, and that would be awesome, but ripping and hosting content are two things the industry doesn't really want (look at how the DVD Forum treats Kaleidescape).]]>Jan 25th 2008 2:43PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/Jan 25th 2008 4:47PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/01/25/will-there-ever-be-integrated-hd-media-support-in-vista/
#1. The PC is not compliant with HD Deep Color despite what your display's capabilities are. No current PC will support HDMI 1.3 because there is no OS that can handle 36-bit color depths required for Deep Color. No Microsoft OS, including Vista, can accomodate more than 24-bit RGB color.

#2. Newer, HD quality, audio is not possilbe on a PC for 2 reasons. The first has to do with playback downsampling and the second has to do with hardware (see #3). PowerDVD (the only commercially viable playback software for HD and Blu-Ray) downsamples HD audio from both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs to 48KHz / 16-bit (standard DVD quality). When Cyberlink PowerDVD Product Manager, Louis Chen, was asked about this in an interview, he said, "digital output without protection is not possible due to AACS requirement. Digital and analogue output with protection (HDMI) is also not possible due to lack of an internal secure audio path in a Windows PC."

Ben mentions that this "should be just a matter of time." I guess he is referring to the Realtek ALC889a codec that supports HDCP content encryption. Hopefully, Cyberlink will work with Realtek or other companies to come up with a secure hardware/software solution for content protection. While this may be just a matter of time, there is still a big problem left: there is no secure physical connection that has the bandwidth to transmit the digital signal from the PC to the receiver (see below).

#3. There is no way to convey a digital HD audio signal from a PC to a receiver. Even if PowerDVD or another software company decided to forgo downsampling audio or develop a secure mechanism for transmission, you still could not take advantage of HD audio. While HDMI can handle the newest digital HD audio with 8 channels, all current HDMI output solutions on a PC are from a Toslink cable. Therefore, there is no way to get digital HD audio to the receiver. Toslink or Coaxial SPDIF cannot carry a full DD+ signal, DTS-HD HR signal, full 5.1 PCM signal, TrueHD signal or DTS-HD MA signal.

Until there is a protected path for PC HD audio content AND an HDMI mechanism not hindered by the limitations of Toslink or Coaxial SPDIF, the HD HTPC is nice hobby but you are sure missing out on many of the reasons to upgrade to HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. Since audio via an HDMI cable requires a video signal (though a video signal does not require audio), I would imagine that a sound card manufacturer and a video card manufacturer would need to collaborate to come up with a pure HDMI product (that does not take its audio feed from Toslink). Ben, I have a feeling that this is going to be much longer than simply "a matter of time."





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http://www.auzentech.com/site/company/press.php

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