In a review of Vista
<http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/17992/page2/
Erika Jonietz writes:
My efforts to get Media Center working highlighted two big problems with Vista. <snip> I couldn't even watch a movie: Windows Media Player could read the contents of the DVD, but there wasn't enough memory to actually play it. In short, you need a hell of a computer just to run this OS.
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This is a remarkably uninformed review of Vista.
I say this, not because she misses the product's 'good points' but because her frustrating experience with video playback (an experience she would not have had with even Windows XP - the previous iteration) was not caused by a lack of processing power for content presentation per se but by the fact Vista attempts to enforce Advanced Access Content System (AACS - wikipedia it for more info) rules.
There's a digital rights management encryption/decryption algorithm running that consumes CPU cycles even as the machine is trying to present 'content'.
New Zealand based computer security adept Peter Gutman analyzes this in depth in his paper "A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection"
Exec Summary:
Windows Vista includes an extensive reworking of core OS elements in order to provide content protection for so-called “premium content”, typically HD data from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD sources. Providing this protection incurs considerable costs in terms of system performance, system stability, technical support overhead, and hardware and software cost. These issues affect not only users of Vista but the entire PC industry, since the effects of the protection measures extend to cover all hardware and software that will ever come into contact with Vista, even if it's not used directly with Vista (for example hardware in a Macintosh computer or on a Linux server). This document analyses the cost involved in Vista's content protection, and the collateral damage that this incurs throughout the computer industry.
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Link -
<http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html>
This paper has caused quite a stir in the industry and yet, Jonietz puzzles over why she's having such a difficult time playing a DVD on her (really, not that underpowered) machine. There's not one mention of AACS or DRM (digital rights management - wikipedia it) technologies in the piece which is absurd since these issues have been the primary focus of serious reviews of Vista for many weeks now.
.d.
Aside from that Mrs. Lincoln how'd you enjoy the play?
Harry Shearer ...................... http://monroelab.net/blog/