I’ve been really sceptical about all the naysayers that claim that Vista’s inbuilt DRM is somehow going to destroy the fabric of the universe. Or something.

But, when I come to try and watch a DVD on my new Vista Ultimate box in Media Center or Media Player I am greeted with the informative message that:

"Windows Media Player cannot play this DVD because there is a problem with digital copy protection between your DVD drive, decoder and video card. Try installing an updated driver for your Video card."

After quite a lot of digging it transpires that my LiteOn DVD drive (which is quite old) has RPC1 region free firmware, which is unacceptable to Vista. I have now had to take a retrograde step and enforce my DVD drive to obey regions just to get a legit DVD to play. Yes, obviously, I could use VLC or some other player but I don’t really see the point in spending money on Vista Ultimate if I can’t use all its features.

On top of this, my Casino Royale DVD subjected me to minutes of adverts and PIRACY IS WRONG messages that I couldn’t skip. I just bought the DVD, why am I getting lectured at! Why would anyone want to do things "the right way" I don’t know…

Bah.