"Microsoft revealed today that no 32-bit versions of Windows Vista will be able to play back “next generation high definition protected content”"

This is the opening paragraph for this article over at apcstart.com.  The article talks about how Steve Riley, a Senior Program Manager at MS, gave a presentation at TechEd 2006 about how 32-bit Vista (v32) will not playback HD-DVD or BlueRay content. 

First off, let me say that I don't see how this is possible.  "Next generation" hd content plays in XP, if you have the right hardware and software.  Unless MS is removing some underlying functionality there, I don't see how they could stop it from working. 

If it is possible, and somehow v32 cannot playback protected HD content, this could have a serious impact.  How will will your Best Buy or Dell consumer know that they need to buy their new PC with v64 instead of v32?  What happens when they get it home all excited about their new WMC and find that there's a major feature set difference b/w the two.  The issue with v64 is that only drivers that have been approved and digitally signed by MS will install and run.  And according to Riley, this is exactly the reason why this feature will be missing in v32.

Maybe OEM's will solve this problem by only selling v64 on their WMC line of computers, using v32 in the "Home Basic" line.  But with the upgradablity features built into Vista there could be a lot of "Home Basic" users out there that feel ripped off when they don't get the same Vista experience as the v64 folks.

If the OEMS do go with a v64 approach, will they disclose to their buyers that they won't be able to run hardware that isn't "approved" by MS?  If they don't go with v64, how will they explain to their customers that their brand new PC can't play HD-DVD?

UPDATE:

It looks like this news created quite a stir (as it should), and there have been clarifications and assertions on the topic from some well known and well placed people.

Boiled down, it looks like Vista won't do anything to restrict playback of "next generation" content, but it will be up to the software/hardware makers to make it work.  Perhaps what Riley was driving at in his talk was that the people who need to enable "next generation" content with their offerings won't be offering 32bit versions of the bits that make it go.  Or maybe he was wrong.