Chaos Reigns

Over at the We Got Served blog (a blog devoted to all things connected with Microsoft’s Windows Home Server operating system), Jim Clark pens a despairing plea about the sorry state of competing media formats. I have to say that I agree, it feels like a minefield out there.

For example, I’ve just built myself a new desktop PC. For the motherboard, I chose the ASUS M4A78-EM, which has the capability to support Full HD and HDMI, along with 7.1 channel audio. Terrific, I thought. I also added a Blu-Ray capable DVD drive, the LG GGCH20L, so that I would be able to play Blu-ray discs on the system.

Then the fun began (I use the word “fun” in an ironic sense, of course).

First, Windows 7 does not currently have the capability to play Blu-ray discs natively; it is necessary to add a third-party application to do this. OK, the LG drive came with a version of PowerDVD, which is supposedly capable of playing Blu-ray discs. I duly install it, and, yes, I can now play Blu-ray discs on my new system.

If only I had been satisfied at that, I would have carried on in my innocence.

But no, I decided that the graphics capabilities built into the ASUS motherboard, while reasonable, would not suffice if I wanted to play some of the more modern games on the system; Spore, for example. Yes, Spore would run on the system, but in a rather disappointing low resolution – I wanted more from the system than that. The answer was to add in a dedicated graphics card, the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850. So I acquired and installed the card. Result? – Spore runs in high resolution and works perfectly. Additional result? – playing Blu-ray discs no longer works. PowerDVD falls over. OK, thought I, let’s try an alternative third party application: Arcsoft Total Theater 3. Result? – still can’t play Blu-ray discs; now the software complains that my display is not HDCP-compliant.

Curse the hardware and software industries to Hell. Between their attempts to build in anti-piracy technologies and their desire to differentiate themselves from their competitors, they are making life for the average consumer worse, rather than better.