Basic vista version doesnt have dvd decoder??

well, It seemed stranged to me.. yea its given that the versions of vista other ultimate and premium home don't have a bulit in dvd decoder. If its true, then shame on Microsoft that its latest operating system cannot handle the dvd movies.. very funny. I found it here.
*microsoftwindowsvista.tv/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3&sid=da6d4d52ae2cd5c01c745786f3836bfe

^^ This is not a matter of shame, M$ is profit oriented company. They want more and more people to take the most expensive of their products. Thats why they have included so less features in Vista's other not-so-expensive models. Moreover these versions are made for the developing countries like ours where most of the people cant afford the top-of-the-line M$ product.

well, people will choose to buy windows xp instead na?? which should be a cheaper version..isn't it?

^^ MS will officially stop the support for WinXP in 2009. See what they did to DirectX10, which is Vista exclusive. And if anybody purchases windowsXP for just 1.5 year, then s/he wont get that value-for-money waala experiance.
Invest some more and get some decent (home premium) version so that you can breath easy for some more years.
Waise you planning to buy one?

but my movies were running fine

You forgot that bundling a DVD decoder with an OS required MS to pay the royality & licensing fees to those who make DVD Standard etc. MS bundles DVD decoder in high end OS cos that is costly. To cut costs they had to remove it in home basic.

You can always use free VLC Player, FFDShow or Paid PowerDVD, nVidia PuewVideo HD to decode videos

cynosure said:
^^ MS will officially stop the support for WinXP in 2009. See what they did to DirectX10, which is Vista exclusive. And if anybody purchases windowsXP for just 1.5 year, then s/he wont get that value-for-money waala experiance.
Invest some more and get some decent (home premium) version so that you can breath easy for some more years.
Waise you planning to buy one?

yea man I knew abt it.. and its not even 2009.. XP support to be stopped by 2008 itself I think. I have seen it somewhere m8..
btw... one secret.. I already have a dell version of vista ultimate...

@ saurav.. yea buddy I knew abt those free decoders..
one doubt. If the software companies pay to those DVD companies for the license, then how come these free players and decoders survive??