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Windows 8 Start screen/DVD hybrid

With the release of Windows eight and Windows 8 Pro, Microsoft made the decision to remove DVD playback, and forego the inclusion of Blu-ray playback. Whereas with Windows 7 you could slot a DVD into your computer and open information technology in Windows Media Player, that is no longer the case with Windows eight and Windows 8 Pro.

At that place is a very simple reason for this: The codecs required to play DVDs and Blu-rays — primarily MPEG-2/4 for video and Dolby Digital for audio — cost coin. For every copy of Windows 7 sold, Microsoft has to pay MPEG-LA (a patent-property consortium) $2. Microsoft doesn't give the exact figure for a Dolby Digital license, but it'southward probably in the same ballpark. This cost is passed on to the consumer, whether you lot play DVDs or non. For Windows 8, with streaming services taking hold and optical drives dying out, Microsoft basically decided that it wasn't worth paying for the codecs.

If you practise want to play DVDs on Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro, nevertheless, in that location are two very like shooting fish in a barrel solutions.

Windows Media Center

Install Windows viii Media Heart Pack

If take purchased (or otherwise acquired) Windows 8 Pro, you tin obtain Windows Media Center for free until Jan 31, 2013. All you have to do is enter your electronic mail address and a gratuitous license key will be sent to y'all. Later on Jan you lot will have to purchase the Media Eye Pack (it's unlikely to be likewise expensive; $20 maybe).

If you only take the vanilla version of Windows 8, you volition demand to buy the Windows 8 Pro Pack, which costs $70. For that, you get a full version of Windows viii Pro, Media Center, BitLocker encryption, Remote Desktop, and a few other tidbits.

One time you accept Media Center installed, you volition exist able to play DVDs — just just in Media Center, not Media Player. You also gain the ability to watch and record broadcast TV, if you so wish. You won't, however, be able to play Blu-ray discs — for that, you'll need a third-party player.

VLC media player

Install a third-party player

The other option, of course, is to simply install VLC — a free, open up-source media player that will play all of your DVDs and unencrypted Blu-ray discs. VLC will too play encrypted Blu-ray discs, merely that'southward beyond the telescopic of this story.

If you adopt commercial, closed-source software, there's always the infamous Cyberlink PowerDVD , which plays DVDs and Blu-ray discs — just it'll set y'all back around $50. Don't forget, though, that most modernistic computers are bundled with some kind of DVD/Blu-ray actor — and if you lot bought a standalone Blu-ray drive, it nigh certainly came arranged with some software.

Check out more than Windows 8 tips