Archive: DVD and Microsoft Operating Systems
Updated: December 4, 2001
This article presents information about support available for DVD under the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems.
On This Page
DVD Overview for Windows Operating Systems
DVD Movie Playback under Windows 98/Me and Windows 2000
DirectShow and DVD Support
DVD as Storage Device and Media
DVD and Copyright Protection
DVD References and Resources
For details about DVD driver development for Windows operating systems, see "DVD Drivers" in the Windows DDK, available at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/ddk/default.mspx.
The Windows Logo Program for hardware requirements for DVD storage are defined in Windows Logo Program System and Device Requirements at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463010.aspx. The logo program requirements for DVD-Video Playback are defined at www.microsoft.com/whdc/whql/device/dvdplayback.mspx.
DVD Overview for Windows Operating Systems
Support for DVD from Microsoft is not limited to a new device driver to support DVD-ROM drives. Because DVD encompasses such a broad range of uses and technologies, DVD must be viewed in the context of the whole computer. Microsoft is preparing support for DVD in the following ways:
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Support for DVD movie playback. This support is especially important for Entertainment PCs, but is also important for any multimedia hardware platform that wants to provide good quality support for playback of movies. This support will include the full range of interactivity and quality playback found on a standard DVD-Video player. Because computers are capable of greater image quality than are TVs, DVD on a PC running Windows will enable even better quality than what is available on standard DVD-Video player devices.
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Support for DVD as a storage device. DVD-ROM discs and devices provide cost-effective storage for large data files, and in the future DVD will allow for writable devices, opening a larger range of options.
The diagram in Figure 1 shows the complete support for existing DVD technologies under Windows 98/Me and Windows 2000/Windows XP. White boxes represent software that will be supplied by Microsoft, shaded components are provided by hardware vendors, and ovals represent hardware supplied by IHVs and OEMs. On most PCs that have Microsoft DVD support, DVD will work as a storage device and, if the proper decoding hardware is present, will support full DVD-Video playback.
Note that some components in this architecture will change based on advances in other hardware technologies or improvements in the PCI bus. The only components that will always be present are the DVD-ROM driver, the UDF file system, the WDM Streaming class driver, and the DVD Splitter/Navigator.
Figure 1. DVD Architecture (showing combined MPEG/subpicture/compositing with VPE)
DVD Movie Playback under Windows 98/Me and Windows 2000
Under Windows, the following components comprise support for DVD movie playback:
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DVD-ROM class driver. DVD-ROM has its own industry-defined command set, referred to during development as the Mt. Fuji command set and currently under review by the Small Form Factor Committee (to be published as SFF 8090). Support for this command set is provided in Windows 98/Me by an updated CD-ROM class driver. This class driver supports the full Mt. Fuji command set, including commands for copyright protection. In Windows 2000/Windows XP, support is provided in a new Windows Driver Model (WDM) DVD-ROM device driver. Both the Windows 98/Me and Windows 2000/Windows XP drivers will provide the ability to read data sectors from a DVD-ROM drive.
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UDF file system. Support for Universal Disc Format (UDF) is provided to ensure support for UDF-formatted DVD discs. Both Windows 98/Me and Windows 2000/Windows XP will provide UDF installable file systems similar to FAT and FAT32.
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Windows Driver Model Streaming Class Driver. This is a single binary fully compatible across Windows 98/Me and Windows 2000/Windows XP, written to follow the new WDM support defined by Microsoft. The WDM Streaming class driver supports streaming data types and will support MPEG-2 and AC-3 hardware decoders. Because Microsoft is providing this driver with its operating systems, hardware vendors have to write only a small amount of interface code in a minidriver to ensure that the specific features in their hardware are supported natively under Windows. Because of this, most existing DVD decoders should simply work with Windows without any user intervention. For more information, see WDM Streaming Class Driver later in this article.
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DirectShow. Microsoft DirectShow filters and related support include a DVD Navigator/Splitter, proxy filters for video and audio streams, a video mixer, video renderer, audio renderer, and more. For more information, see "DirectShow and DVD Support" later in this article.
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DirectDraw HAL with VPE. Decoded video streams are huge -- possibly too big even for the PCI bus on a personal computer. Manufacturers have solved this problem by creating dedicated buses to transfer decoded video streams from an MPEG-2 decoder to the display card. Microsoft provides software support for these interfaces using the Microsoft DirectDraw hardware abstraction layer (HAL) with Video Port Extensions (VPE). For technical information about DirectDraw, see the DirectX Web site.
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Copyright Protection. Copyright protection for DVD is provided by encrypting key sectors on a disc and then decrypting those sectors prior to decoding them. Microsoft will provide support for both software and hardware decrypters using a software module that will enable authentication between the decoders and the DVD-ROM drives in a PC. For more information, see "DVD and Copyright Protection" later in this article.
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Regionalization. As part of the Copyright Protection scheme used for DVD, six worldwide regions have been set up by the DVD Consortium. Discs are playable on DVD devices in some or all of the regions according to regional codes set by the creators of the content. Microsoft will provide software that responds to the regionalization codes as required by the DVD Consortium and as part of the decryption licenses.
For information about the WDM streaming class driver, see the Windows DDK.
DirectShow and DVD Support
DirectShow API provides support for many DVD playback capabilities, including:
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Standard DirectShow interface, which lets any application fully control DVD playback, including nonlinear video playback and user interactivity
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Interlaced video media types
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New MPEG-2, AC-3, and DVD subpicture decoder filter interfaces for applications that require low-level control
The following DirectShow filters are provided by Microsoft with Windows support for DVD:
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DirectShow DVD Navigator/Splitter FilterThe DVD Navigator/Splitter filter provides the intelligence for playing DVD movies. It is able to interpret the programming language embedded in DVD movies, parental control, and multiple languages, and it processes most DVD-specific data structures. This filter reads the DVD stream directly from a DVD disc and produces individual media type outputs, such as audio, video, and subpicture. The filter reacts to commands in the stream and handles all user input.
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DirectShow Proxy FilterThis filter converts DirectShow interfaces to WDM connection and streaming architecture properties. It creates (that is, instantiates) a device object for each data type to be decoded in hardware, such as audio and video data types. This filter supports plug-ins that allow expansion for new interfaces.
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DirectShow Closed-Caption Decoding FilterThis filter converts the closed-caption data that might be included in a DVD video stream into text images.
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DirectShow Video Port Overlay Mixing and Rendering FiltersThese filters enable playback of video using hardware video ports, and provide support for overlaying low-bandwidth video streams, such as the closed caption decoder output stream.
Note: Microsoft does not provide MPEG-2 or AC-3 software decode filters with Windows 98. Vendors must supply either a DirectShow-compatible software decoder for each required stream, or provide a WDM streaming-compatible DVD minidriver to support their DVD hardware decoders.
Microsoft DirectShow provides filters and samples as part of the Microsoft DirectX Media Software Development Kit (SDK). For information about filters, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/archive/default.asp?url=/archive/en-us/directx9_c/directx/htm/sampledirectshowfilters.asp.
DVD as Storage Device and Media
Under Windows, DVD can be viewed as simply a large storage medium, much like CD-ROM today. To enable DVD-ROM as a read-only device, Microsoft is providing DVD-ROM device support, as well as support for the Universal Disc Format (UDF) version 1.02 as installable file systems. This support is completely independent from DVD-Video movie playback, copyright protection, and other issues. Using these drivers, a DVD-ROM drive is treated as another peripheral, following industry-defined methods for accessing DVD discs and handling encrypted content.
Microsoft plans to provide support for writable DVD discs at a later date.
DVD and Copyright Protection
Microsoft is in favor of technical and legal methods for protecting copyright holders' rights and has been involved in the DVD Copyright Protection meetings since their inception. Microsoft worked with the multi-industry Copyright Protection Technical Working Group (CPTWG), which announced in November 1996 that its DVD technology subcommittee proposed solutions for preventing unauthorized copying of filmed entertainment from prerecorded DVD-Video. The subcommittee proposed controls using a scrambling scheme first proposed by the DVD Consortium for encrypting disc content and licensing the decryption technology.
Microsoft provides software that facilitates the authentication process required by this scheme, allowing a DVD-ROM drive to authenticate and transfer keys with a DVD decrypter. Microsoft has no current plans to ship a DVD decrypter, and instead is providing operating system code that will act as the agent to allow either hardware or software decrypters to be authenticated.
For more information, contact the DVD Copyright Protection information source, James Riley at Matsushita Electric Corp. of America, (201) 392-6867.
For complete information about the guidelines for the"Designed for Microsoft Windows" logo program, see http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winlogo/default.mspx.
DVD References and Resources
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