Digital Home Thoughts: Audio & Video Improvements Galore in Windows 7

"Windows 7 will ship with a new version of the Windows Media Player. This is somewhat surprising, given Microsoft's complete neglect of the Media Player since Vista's release and its emphasis on the Zune PC software, which has its own playback and organizational features. But apparently Microsoft has realized that native playback of digital media within Windows is too important to force people to download an application separately. This is not the case with some other applications--for instance, Windows 7 will not come with Mail/Outlook Express, Photo Gallery, or Movie Maker--instead, users will have to download Windows Live versions of these applications. (Or PC makers will have to pre-bundle them.)"

It looks like there will be a lot of good things coming related to audio and video on Windows 7. Some of the highlights? Better Bluetooth support for speakers and headsets, a new version of Windows Media Player, native support (finally!) for h.264/MPEG video files and AAC audio files, improvements in networked music, intelligent routing of the right kind of audio to the right kind of device, and more. I think Vista is quite a capable operating system when it comes to media, but I'm definitely looking forward to the features in Windows 7 that will make the experience even better.