Windows 7 Media player will not play back BluRay disc's

why are people so suprised?

Microsoft backed the wrong pony! HD-DVD.

also though, powerdvd isn't multi channel to the best of my knowledge. pretty pointless for bluray if you ask me!

I to was very suprised to and quite dissapointed . I just built a new core i7 rig soley for the purpose of running windows7. I installed a high end graphics card, 8 gig of ram, on a very powerful motherboard and yes I included blu-ray. I wanted to use this system to run my home media center,home theatre,  50" plasma  etc,etc......Well imagine my surprise after gathering the family around for an evening of blu-ray movies....fortunately my mb came with power DVD9 I had to dig out the dvd and install it.Very dissapointed microsoft..

It is well within Microsoft's capabilities to add native BluRay support to Windows Media Player. Why havent they? Cost. BluRay data disks are supported by Windows, because the technology needed to read a BluRay data disk doesn't have any licensing issues associated with it. The technology to play a BluRay movies on the other hand require a "license". Every company that makes a standalone BluRay player bought the rights to use the technology, as did every (legitimate) company that makes a BluRay movie playing software. The costs for these license is recovered by the company when they sell you the player/software. Microsoft could, of course, also by the rights to include native BluRay movie support, but they would then have to pass on the cost to you. In your case, this would probably be fine, but think about all the people that don't watch BluRay movies on their PCs... BluRay drives are still rare to find in computers, and even those who have BluRay hardware, don't always want to watch movies on their computer. Why should they pay $20 for Windows for a "feature" they never use? Unfortunately you are in the minority at present. As soon as that changes (meaning that a significant portion of Windows purchasers have the hardware ability and desire to play BluRay movies), you can bet support will come with Windows.

The rep is suggesting that as a way to do what you want, you should look into third party software. He is however also cautioning that since it is third party, any problems you have will need to be resolved by contacting the third party.

Michael's correct, back when DVD movies were just starting to grow in popularity on PC's, Windows, even with Media Center, did not include native DVD playback. The Blu-Ray situation at this point isn't much different.

Both PowerDVD and TotalMedia Theatre which have been recommended are both fully capable of providing a great Blu-Ray movie playback experience in their stand-alone application or integrated with Media Center.

Unless I'm mistaken there's currently no OS available which provides native integrated Blu-Ray movie playback, including Windows, Apple's Snow Leopard, or Ubuntu.

It's entirely possible that in the future Windows and other OS's will add support for it in future releases, I imagine a lot depends on how popular Blu-Ray becomes during the Windows 8 product planning and development cycle. I couldn't comment either way.

Senior Support Engineer -- Microsoft Platforms Global Escalation Services -- http://twitter.com/MicrosoftGES