Two things 1 hate about Windows there. 1 making you do things there way and 2 the way they charge.

As far as I can make out, Windows 8 does include Media Player but this version does not play dvds. To play them with Windows software apparently needs Windows Media Centre. This is $10 but it needs a pro version. A basic user would have to spend $70 to upgrade to pro first!

VLC player is freely available for Windows as well as Linux.