Status of DVDs, Blu-ray, Codecs, Windows, Sage x.x

[RyanW]

I'm hoping some successful users can help consolidate all of the scattered pieces of information about playing DVDs and Blu-rays in Sage into this thread. Hopefully we can get a nicely formatted post in the end.

First though, for those users playing DVDs and Blu-rays (not rips) on their HTPC, do you use SageTVs player or are you setup to switch over to a 3rd party app? If you use a 3rd party app, why?

What I'd like to get out of this is a way to predict if you've got the stuff to playback DVDs and Blu-rays. So, we need to list the requirements for each of those, as well as how to fulfill those requirements. Please forgive that I'm using loosely named terms. Please fill in detailed names for these features in the 3rd column of the table below. I'm trying to make this as easy to read as possible.

DVD playback requires

DVD playback interface
DVD video codec
audio codec
optional DVD HW accel

Blu-ray playback requires

Blu-ray playback interface
Blu-ray video codec
audio codec
optional Blu-ray HW accel

Next, we need to detail the possible sources of these features. I'll put in what I think I know, please correct me. Also please add more sources to this table.

Source                 Provides Features                           Detailed Feature Names
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows XP             nothing
Windows Vista          nothing
Windows 7              DVD Codec?? (is this true?)
Sage 6.x               DVD playback interface,
                       audio codec??
Sage 7.x               DVD and Blu-ray playback interface, 
                       audio codec??
ATI                    DVD HW Accel (via DirectX)
Nvidia                 DVD HW Accel (via DirectX )
WinDVD(3rd Party)      DVD and Blu-ray video codec, 
                       DVD and Blu-ray playback interface,
                       Blu-ray HW accel
PowerDVD (3rd Party)   DVD and Blu-ray video codec,
                       DVD and Blu-ray playback interface,
                       Blu-ray HW accel
Other? (3rd Party)     DVD and Blu-ray video codec,
                       DVD and Blu-ray playback interface, 
                       Blu-ray HW accel
AC3Filter              audio codec

I'm currently just using Windows Media Player on Vista to play DVDs. I'm still using Vista and Sage 6.x. I evaled PowerDVD and WinDVD and had trouble with both, so I punted. Any tips on getting 3rd party codecs working would be helpful as well.