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Microsoft PlaysForSure

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Playsforsure logo
Playsforsure logo

Microsoft PlaysForSure is a certification given by Microsoft to portable devices and content services that have been tested against several hundred compatibility and performance requirements. These requirements include codec support, DRM support, UI responsiveness, device performance, compatibility with Windows Media Player, synchronization performance, and so on. PlaysForSure certification will be required for portable media players, network-attached digital media receivers, and media-enabled mobile phones seeking the "Designed for Windows Vista Premium" logo. The PlaysForSure logo is applied to device packaging as well as to online music stores and online video stores.

Microsoft now also makes its own portable music player called Zune, which works only with its own content service called Zune Marketplace, not PlaysForSure. However, Microsoft has said it will continue to support new and existing PlaysForSure devices and services. With the exception of Windows Media Player, all of the PlaysForSure offerings are made or run by 3rd-party companies, while Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division develops and markets the Zune.

Overview

The logo certifies that the device has passed over two hundred performance and interoperability requirements. The most commonly referenced requirements include the ability to play files encoded in Windows Media Audio or Windows Media Video format with Windows Media DRM digital rights management, used by Windows Media Player versions 10 and 11. This means portable devices must implement Janus (WMDRM-PD), and network-attached devices must implement an interface to Cardea (WMDRM-ND). However, other important requirements include time to synchronize a device with a PC, UI performance (time between pressing "play" and hearing music), gapless playback, and so on. Microsoft offers the PlaysForSure requirements from the official PlaysForSure website.

A variety of online stores sell digital media that will play on PlaysForSure certification are able to stream protected and unprotected content over a network from a Windows PC using Windows Media Connect. PlaysForSure-certified content providers can offer audio and video that will play on any certified device as either a purchased download and/or as part of a monthly subscription.

Content Providers that offer PlaysForSure-certified audio

Content Providers that offer PlaysForSure-certified video

Although there exists a PlaysForSure certification for video, and there are a variety of PlaysForSure-certified portable and network video players that could play PlaysForSure-certified video, were it offered, no online store currently offers video that is certified to play on all PlaysForSure video players.

  • CinemaNow is a certified video store that at one time offered portable-definition movies with sync rights, but no longer actually offer anything that will sync to a portable device. Instead, users are told to hook their PC up to their TV using VGA or S-Video cable to watch downloaded and streaming movies in the living room.
  • Amazon.com Unbox video is tested by Amazon.com to sync to a selection of portable video players that are PlaysForSure-certified, but is not itself a PlaysForSure-certified video store and might not play on all PlaysForSure-certified video players.

Hardware Vendors that support PlaysForSure-certified media

A complete listing of supported devices and services can be found at http://www.playsforsure.com.

Software that can stream media to PlaysForSure devices

In addition to Windows Media Player versions 10 and 11, other more feature-rich 3rd-party software has surfaced that you can install on your computer to stream your media to PlaysForSure-certified devices.

  • TVersity is a free application supporting a variety of formats, including vob-files, enabling streaming of DVD-movies which is not currently possible through Windows Media Player. (Their self-proclaimed goal is to "serve any media to any networked device doing all the necessary conversions to overcome the limitations of any given device".)
  • SimpleCenter is another such application. It comes in a free basic version, and a commercial premium version. It boasts of "Expanded support for the most popular digital media devices: iPod, Sony PSP, Xbox 360, Nokia N80, N93, USB mass storage devices, and PlaysForSure devices".

Criticisms

The PlaysForSure logo does not imply anything about the device's capabilities with other formats, such as Ogg Vorbis, or its compatibility with other operating systems, such as Linux or Mac OS X[1] , and does not imply a standard user interface.

A 2005 court case strongly criticised the wording of a Microsoft licensing agreement related to portable devices[2]. The license prohibited makers of portable devices compatible with Windows Media Player from using non-Microsoft audio encoding formats. Microsoft indicated that the wording of their license was poorly written due to an oversight by a junior Microsoft employee. Microsoft quickly amended their stringently worded license agreement at the judge's behest.

In a possibly related decision, iriver dropped support for Ogg Vorbis from their latest H10 portable music player (no longer available in retail) in order to market it with PlaysForSure certification. iriver has since added support for Ogg Vorbis (up to Q10)[3], as well as a non-PlaysForSure service, Audible, to their Clix line of portable media players, which remain PlaysForSure-certified.

Some users report that Media Transfer Protocol in Windows Media Player 10 is not as convenient for some purposes as having the device appear to the host computer as a USB mass storage device. Most current operating systems provide support for such devices without additional software. Furthermore, such a device can be used for alternative purposes such as transferring files or even as a boot device. Windows Media Player 11's MTP driver, however, does allow MTP devices to be used almost identically to a filesystem-based devices.

A stir accompanied the release of the Microsoft Zune when it was revealed that the Zune is not compatible with media from PlaysForSure retailers. Purchased or subscription Zune Marketplace content, however, should work with other PlaysForSure capable applications and portables. This functionality is not officially supported by Microsoft since it is outside of the Zune Ecosystem.

Removal

Tools have been created to strip Windows Media of DRM restrictions. One example of this is FairUse4WM[4].

References

  1. ^ Plays-For-Sure... but only on Windows. Applematters.com. Accessed 3/7/07.
  2. ^ Judge blasts MS bid to monopolize music devices, The Register, 27 Oct, 2005. Accessed 22 Aug 2006.
  3. ^ [1]iriver Clix (2GB)specifications
  4. ^ "Engadget FairUse4WM strips Windows Media DRM!". Retrieved 2006-08-25.


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