During the Tech.Ed. 2006 exhibition in Sydney, Microsoft announced that the 32-bit version of Windows Vista would not standard be able to play drm protected high definition-video at complete resolution. This means that the 32-bit systems will not have full advantage of the play-possibilities of HD-DVD- and the Blu-ray-drives. The 64-bit version of Windows Vista however does play HD-video at complete resolution.
De resolution limitation for HD-video on 32-bit systems has nothing to do with the performances of the 32-systems, but is exclusively been installed under pressure of the big movie production companies. The 32-bit version of Windows Vista will accept not-signed drivers and film producers fear for 'hacked' drivers from which the duplication-security can be removed from the HD-video content. The 64-bit version of Windows Vista will exclusively support drivers with a digital certificate, this way it is theoretically not possible to install 'illegal' drivers. Microsoft spokesmen affirmed that with the limitation it is not possible to play HD-DVD- and Blu-ray-media on a 32-bit Vista-system.
According to Microsoft, at this moment there are not many people that play HD-video on their pc, so that the impact of this measure is limited. 'By the time HD-video is mainstream, everybody has already turned to the 64-bit Vista', according to Microsoft. If this is true is yet to be seen. Intel nowadays sells different fast processors that don’t contain 64-bit extensions but offer enough performance to play HD-video.
