Well folks, we’ve been wanting it for a while and today Microsoft have blogged about changes in the upcomming release candidate (RC) of Windows 7. The full post is here, but a couple of highlights:
21. Improved playback support for video content from digital camcorders and cameras
Customers loved the increased range of formats natively supported by the Windows 7 Beta, but noticed areas where they wanted broader support. For example, one was unable to seek to a specific spot in the video in Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center for AVCHD content that was imported from a digital camcorder. We’ve addressed this. Also, while the support for video from some digital cameras worked great, we also got feedback about supporting a broader set of devices out of the box. We’ve since added support for Windows Media Player to natively support the .MOV files used to capture video for many common digital cameras.
That’s rather good to see, increased codec support already. I wonder if that means Windows Live Move Maker will be able to edit them too?
23. Filtering content that cannot be played
Media Player’s library view is designed to surface and showcase one’s content. However, in some cases items were displayed that couldn’t be played. For example, Apple’s lossless .M4A or .H263 MPEG-4 content would be shown in a library even though Media Player could not play them. In RC, this content will no longer appear in the library view so that there is better expectation of what is supported by the player.
This is pure genius, it’s just such a pain when there’s a file that won’t play, of course MediaInfo can always be used to find out how to play it.
15. Internet access feedback
The new network experience from the taskbar’s notification area makes it much easier to find and connect to networks. People seem to also really like the wireless signal strength that is available at a glance. In our effort to simplify the experience we removed indications for some advanced scenarios. Based upon feedback, we’ve decided to introduce a new overlay icon which now reveals when there is a local connection without internet access.
I’ll actually be taking this icon out of my hidden area again now!
What do we think? Also as a side note, “enthusiast” is mentioned 3 times.
Posted by Simon May, follow me on Twitter or if you like email me
2 thoughts on “Feedback from Microsoft about what’s changing in the Windows 7 RC”
Added .mov is great my Nikon digital camera creates movies in that format. MS please we need support for the MKV container as well! I’m sure we will be waiting till Windows 9 for all the features we want but least they seem to be going in the right direction just too slowly it seems.
cw-kid, I’d like that too, here’s a thought though….
Is MKV evolved enough yet? Most of the other codecs are pretty solid (old) now, there’s not much innovation going on there, but there still is in MKV isn’t there? Would it be right of MS to actually bundle an MKV codec, or would someone slap them with anti-trust case? Is there more work to do on MKV before it’s ready for mainstream, would inclusion of a codec now stop any innovation?
I don’t really know either way. I’d prefer if they did, it makes it easier for me.
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Added .mov is great my Nikon digital camera creates movies in that format. MS please we need support for the MKV container as well! I’m sure we will be waiting till Windows 9 for all the features we want but least they seem to be going in the right direction just too slowly it seems.
cw-kid, I’d like that too, here’s a thought though….
Is MKV evolved enough yet? Most of the other codecs are pretty solid (old) now, there’s not much innovation going on there, but there still is in MKV isn’t there? Would it be right of MS to actually bundle an MKV codec, or would someone slap them with anti-trust case? Is there more work to do on MKV before it’s ready for mainstream, would inclusion of a codec now stop any innovation?
I don’t really know either way. I’d prefer if they did, it makes it easier for me.