Philips announces support for Microsoft Windows Media in its consumer electronics

Philips and Microsoft have signed some nonexclusive agreements that will see Philips' products utilizing Nexperia semiconductors supporting the Windows Media format. They'll be including support for WMA and WMV, as well as Windows Media DRM 10, in a whole slew of devices like digital receivers, PVRs, portable audio players, set-top boxes and video phones. They also aim to get all of these products PlaysForSure certified, so any download or subscription content from a PlaysForSure service can be easily transferred to any device. This is basically a pretty big wedding between Windows-based PCs and Philips consumer electronics, and a pretty good thing for consumers in general — assuming they can get it all working without the notorious issues that have plagued some of the PlaysForSure systems in the past.
Philips will be following up later in the year by bringing Windows Media support to in-car entertainment systems as well as to the next generation of digital TVs.