Microsoft’s Windows operating system has, over the years, got a good deal better at natively supporting media playback. It’s not perfect by any means – native Blu-Ray support remains a notable exclusion, and many codecs still won’t play without third-party software – but on the whole, media support on Windows has improved.
So news from Dolby Laboratories – disclosed in a post-earnings conference call with investors, and revealed by Forbes – that the company’s technologies have not been included in Microsoft’s new Windows 8 operating system may well raise a few eyebrows.
The proliferation of optical drives in new computers in recent years has so far guaranteed the widespread inclusion of Dolby technologies in PC shipments. Native support for Dolby Digital Plus is currently baked into Windows 7, delivering up to 5.1 channels of high-definition surround sound on playback of HD and DVD content.