According to an article on BetaNews you will never ever be able to play HD-DVD or BluRay movies on a Windows Vista 32-bit edition. The reason is simple: in the 32-bit editions of Vista it is possible to install unsigned drivers at the Kernel level and this could allow a smart developer to create a workaround to copy these protected movies. In the 64-bit edition of Vista every driver has to be signed.
This is imho a stupid move of Microsoft because I estimate that it will take less than 2 weeks after Windows Vista is shipped before you can download software to copy protected content. This is also stupid because I had to revert from 64-bit Windows version to 32-bit Windows version due to the lack of drivers, no drivers for my HP printer, no drivers for my wireless card, no drivers for my S-ATA card and so on. The lack of drivers is especially a pain in the butt when you build your own PC. The lame excuse of Microsoft was also that by the time that HD-DVD or BluRay are widely adopted the standard will be 64-bit computing which again I doubt that it will happen in 2007 due to the lack of drivers for 64-bit Windows.
Cross-posted from
The .NET Aficionado