Interesting Links for 05-05-2012

[andrewducker]

• Windows 8 will not play DVDs
  (tags: windows dvd microsoft )
• The fastest way to board a plane (completely impractical for anyone with children though)
  (tags: airplanes efficiency )
• A cat that has clearly seen Raiders Of The Lost Ark too many times
  (tags: impressive video cat )
• Ten alternatives to Samsung's Galaxy S III
  (tags: iphone android

Comments

[bart_calendar]

Won't people just download VLC Media Player?

It's already better then the player that comes with Windows 7 and is free.

[theweaselking]

Also, physical media is dead - so anyone who wants to use in a computer it is a specialist/collector, who presumably then also wants to use software with more features than WMP *anyway*.

[philmophlegm]

Yeah, let's be honest, that's what people have had to do for the last few versions of Windows anyway because it probably had the codec you needed and Windows didn't.

[channelpenguin]

oooh love the icon!

[strawberryfrog]

From TFA it seems that the reason for this is the costs of licencing the codecs (increases the cost of a windows licence). So VLC and the like is the answer.

Does VLC come with codecs needed, or will it need a codec pack?

[khoth]

VLC does come with the codecs. The licensing isn't because nobody else can make a codec, it's because of patents. I'm not sure why MPEG-LA (the evil organistion in question) hasn't tried to do something about it, but I'm guessing it's to do with the legality of software patents not being a settled question in all jurisdictions, and if they try to crack down they have no hope of actually getting licensing fees, but would probably just get bad publicity for the sole result of making people download VLC from a server in a different country.

[bart_calendar]

VLC has all the codecs for free.