Ok, windows media player 9 has been out awhile now, any comments?

[Blurredvision]

I hold back on alot of upgrades from windows. So i have not upgrade to wmp9 or movie maker 2 and was just wondering if anyone had anything good or bad that they have found with it? I did a search in the forums and it seems it was brought up when it first came out. ( and I followed all those threads then ) But then it went quiet. I was wondering if anyone has anything new to say/

[riverjetty]

It's faster and cleaner than the previous versions. It doesn't add much in the way of features that I have deduced, and is difficult to configure. I also heard it phones home, so it probably has a future as a copy-protection cop.

I wish there were better options that I was aware of. I only use it for videos.

[Blurry]

WMP 9 adds some annoying shell extensions, but you can get rid of them of course, preferably with a registry cleaner. There's still no option to uninstall once you've updated so there's no turning back unless you've got System Restore or some back-up on. I think you have to go back to version 7.1 to do that.

It still asks you to download updates (every day, week, or month) with no option otherwise, but that's nothing new. I'd just block it with a firewall if it asks without you wanting to. I see no improvements really other than the Nero Fast CD Burning plugin, if you decide to burn with it. I think it's stable and less likely to crash, but that's about all I've noticed (hardly use it, lol).

I never used image capturing/movie programs, and so I have no opinion of the Move Maker series.

Here's a TechTV review of MM2:
http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/p...409266,00.html

[Blurredvision]

Believe it or not I usually use windows media player for watching movies. I have other players but just for different stuff. I love bsplay but it does not like morgam stream switcher and some of my movies will not play right without it. But I still unistall and reinstall morgan. I like powerplayer and wmp6.4 for change filters and settings that for some reason 8 will not let you do. But after I make the changes I use wmp8 to watch. I was just wonder if there were more functions like what used to be on their old players. And the only reason I asked about movie maker isn't because I have used it dirrectly but I think that one of the programs I use called asftools (used for making asf's avi so you can scan through them better) uses the movie maker engine to work. Plus I do alot of re-encoding myself and wondered if it would effect virualdub as far as the drm.
I very rarely use wmp8 for music and do not care for libaries and stuff like that. I uncheck anything that saves anything on my computer.
Well, guys thanks for what you have said so far hopefully more people have something to say. Oh, and before anyone says use the divxplaya. I have on 2 different computers I put together and 2 different versions and they always locked up. The only thing I can think because alot of people love it, is that I used cheap biostar motherboards for both.

[Dr. Avery]

This is going to be a bit long winded, but I would like to qualify my opinions rather than just spit them out with no explainations. Please bear with me.

I would also like to state that while my opinions may be contrary to most in some respects, I am not saying that anyone else here is wrong nor am I attacking their opinions. I am simply stating my opinions in an effort to answer the question at hand. In the end, no one player can serve the needs of all people.

To start off, allow me to say that I am not a fan of Microsoft. I have always been bitter that the DOS platform was entirely abandoned in favor of Windows. However, I am also not a fan of the anti-Microsoft-ism that is so popular these days. To dismiss all things Microsoft as bad before trying them out is to possibly eliminate the best product for the job at hand.

Ok. Everyone hates Microsoft. Ironicly, most of the loudest decriers of Microsoft are running Bill G's special blend as their OS. Almost everyone is running Windows. Probably because being a multi-billion dollar corporation gives you the resources to research and design and produce exceptional software.

Which brings us to windows media player 9.

Does it check in with the mothership? Yes. If you give it permission during the installation. You decide if WMP talks to the MicroShip Galactica. This information is usage statistics. Of course Microsoft wants usage stats. It's market research within the actual product use environment. It is the goal of microsoft to have a large hand in the future of communications and media delivery, media production, and media presentation. By knowing what people are listening to and watching, Microsoft will be better able to build products that are tailored to the needs of the users. Also, thanks to the rating system / auto rating system microsoft eventually will be able to (with a pretty good degree of accuracy) recommend music and movies based on ratings of the music and movies in your media library (past files and present). A few years into the future it will be a fully implemented feature of Microsoft's media presentation framework. There are other features in the works which I am not at liberty to discuss here, as it would likely get my inside source (not to mention good friend) fired from MS, but rest assured that Microsoft has some pretty fascinating things on the way. I digress - back to the present: WMP 9.

I find that the video is noticibly smoother and sharper on WMP 9 vs WMP 8 and the DIVX player 2.0 Alpha.

The audio is superior to Winamp 2 and Winamp 3, but only if you turn off the SRS WOW settings (under enhancements - tool around, you'll find it). SRS can be useful if you have really weak speakers as it does enhance bass using some kind of phase shift in conjunction with what sounds like bass band compression / expansion. I find overall that SRS blurs the audio too much.

WMP9 is compatible (or can be made compatible with codec installations) with almost every common media format. It doesn't play qucktime .mov files, so if you spend a lot of time dealing with quicktime (maybe because your office at work runs on apple / mac) you will need a different player for this format.

Microsoft has added plug in functionality to WMP 9. This provides nearly limitless product improvement which is relatively inexpensive to develop products for because developers don't have to make anything not associated with the plugin. This is the same functionality that Winamp 3 lost from its previous version. While there are not many plug-ins available for WMP 9 at this point in time, I am sure that it will not be too much longer before plug in developers start pumping out products left and right. I am sure Microsoft has the funds to offer incentives to programmers if necessary to get the ball rolling - Thus improving WMP9's grip on the media market while promoting (contrary to MS's track record) a competitive market. The folks at MS public relations will be ecstatic.

That said, the plug ins currently available are, um, ok I guess for a first try. Wait - no, that other thing - they suck. Even for a first try. many of the plug ins available are 3rd party, and not free generally

The visualization plug ins included are not nearly as good as the vast selection available for winamp 2, Though the new alchemy plug in included is an improvement over any of the visualizations in WMP 8 (which are still included). This is one area that Microsoft needs to either develop much further, or curry some 3rd-party and "non-party" support. Preferably all of the above. This is the single worst factor of this product. I like screen candy, but I am an audiophile and sound quality is absolute importance to me.

If high quality, high definition, processor intensive psychedeilic screen candy is vital to your enjoyment of music, and you are willing to sacrifice a little sound quality, stick with winamp 2 for your music needs.

The new mathematically lossless format for ripping CDs is a welcome addition for those of us who can hear the quality difference between an mp3 and a CD. It uses a variable bit rate of up to 900-some-odd Kbps and is nice for making a master rip with which to make audio CDs. Of course it has the disadvantage of a much larger file size (still smaller than a .wav).

The auto playlist feature is my favorite feature in WMP 9. There are a few auto playlists included, but you can make custom auto playlists - espescially if you take the time to properly tag your MP3s (windows will do that for you automatically, but will not fill in the mood field, and you may want to set your genres yourself).

You can create auto playlists based on any combination of several attributes including but not even remotely limited to: Rating, Auto Rating, length, mood, genre, total play count, night time play count, day time play count, artist, composer, bit rate, date recorded, date released, and more. Example: Let's say you've made an auto playlist that includes audio (or you could do video or both) from your media library that has a rating of at least 4, AND has a mood of angry, AND excluded any song fitting those parameters that isn't equal to or greater than 128 Kbps bit rate AND excludes any song by (band you hate).

When you play that auto playlist, WMP automatically searches your Media Library (you may need to update your ML from time to time, though WMP usually does this automatically unless you tell it not to) and picks out every song you have that matches all of those criteria and puts them into a playlist. You can essentially create dynamic playlists that grow with your collection, and that cater to exactly what you want to hear - and omits what you do not want to hear. Let's see winamp do that.

There is at least one program that will tag your music automatically, in exchange for mood surveys on songs in your collection, and create playlists for you - but the one I have seen is really slow and not nearly as flexible as the built in WMP9 function. When the auto playlist is selected in windows, it brings up your custom list Lightning fast thanks to the way the media files are indexed in a specialized database - It's one of those hidden files that so many people are so paranoid about.
Microsoft is not out to get you unless you are a mass market profit-making pirate distributor.

WMP 9 in no way interferes with your ability to commit copyright infringement, share / recieve music, unless you ask it to "protect content". Microsoft is fully aware that people are listening to pirated music, and will always listen to pirated music - so they make the best of the situation by making an excellent player - to get millions of dollars worth of nearly free, untainted market research to guide the decisions of tommorow.

My opinion is that Windows Media Player 9 is by an order of great magnitude the best player out there overall, but that there are players which may serve an individual's needs better based on certain factors.

I hope that you find this information useful,

Al

[norsk]

Informative Yes, Info great, Longwinded no. I have WMP 9 as a player but was wondering about the phone line to MS. Your article has explained it fully. Thanks.

[leopold]

Doc - I agree with Norsk; very informative indeed!

It's nice to see someone take time out to really check a product out rather than just say "It's pants" or "It rocks" without justifying it. I don't think you'll get too many complaints if you kept this up (apart from your fingers, of course )

I put WMP9 onto my work PC cos I was fed up of 7.1 being so horrible. I much prefer the interface to WMP8 (which I use at home), it seems much cleaner - maybe the grey and white works better than the explosion of blues on its predecessor. Also, I like the fact the menu appears from the off, rather than having to wave the mouse randomly over the "skin". I never use skins, and this feature was extremely annoying! Maybe it's because of these missing "features" that it feels faster in operation...

I got fed up with WinAmp crashing all the time. WMP9 does everything I need from it (play music and video, basically) and it seems more stable than WMP8. I'd recommend it.

[Crazysah]

It's the best

WMP 9 is the best version out there

download it now- Blurredvision

[berks]

i have it on my home computer but i really don't ever use it. When i do use it it works great for me. I use light alloy for video and winamp 2.81 and musicmatch for audio.

[jackofall]

Originally posted by leopold
Doc - I agree with Norsk; very informative indeed!

It's nice to see someone take time out to really check a product out rather than just say "It's pants" or "It rocks" without justifying it. I don't think you'll get too many complaints if you kept this up (apart from your fingers, of course )

got to agree there especially the fact that you have taken the time to spell out your arguments i think you may open a few eyes to people who just hate somthing because its M$

btw Doc i apologise for any bad grammer and spelling in my reply

[Dr. Avery]

No apologies Jack - Spaling iss jes so duddez Kan Tel yoo wat tawking shuude sapost too Bee!

Somewhat related COMPLETELY TRUE STORY from my life:

Back when I was 18, I used to be an editor / writer for a very small monthly newsletter with a very small circulation (600 give or take). One of the writers (in this case I use the term writer not loosely, but with reckless abandon) was an individual whose spelling and grammer could peel paint from walls. He had this incredible knack for turning what I can only assume was supposed to be English into some foul beast of his own creation.

Sometimes he would spell his own name wrong.

His name was Asa

Now my grammar and spelling are by no means perfect. My favorite grammatical vice is the run-on sentence (You probably noticed that in my last post in this thread ). Asa had me beat. He could construct a run on sentence fourty words long - yet in the whole thing there would be no subject, no predicate, and absolutely no clues for the unfortunate reader to determine what exactly a "WIUMS" was.

A subspecies of aardvark perhaps?

Or perhaps it's a variety of aftershave.

Maybe it's some kind of double sided mallet one would use to beat the living gravy out of someone like Asa (or SAa as he would sometimes spell it).

Our little paper was a federally funded program to help homeless youth in Portland find their way off the streets, and into respectable society. Because of a condition in the grant, firing Asa was not an option. With the exception of the two senior staff, the whole operation was run by homeless youth. Naturally when my boss saw Asa's writing she did the only logical and right thing she could do. She sent Asa's masterpieces to me for editing.

I asked her how I was supposed to edit these errors that went well beyond typographical gaffs or reflexive pronoun traps. "Just use your judgement," She smiled. Sometimes, even during the most violent of winter storms, I would wish that I were freezing to death under a bridge instead of trying to decipher Asa's sadistic notes. I would end up writing the article for him by interviewing him, ("WHAT THE F**K ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY HERE, YOU STONED SACK OF S**T?!?") and I always tried to capture the delicate nuances of texture he carefully wove into is stories. (Asa: "Wut?")

Whenever one of my bosses would send my rewrite back to me for further revision, I'd threaten them with the original. They caught on quickly and would leave me free to do my job. In retrospect I should have taken the relative vacation of revising my stuff.

In his defense he could sometimes tie his own shoes without hardly any help at all.

After six months of not only reading Asa's fine literature, but translating it into a human language, I developed a bit of a psychosis around matters of spelling and grammar. To this day I can't read a love letter without mentally correcting the misspellings.

Online though, I only spell check people who edit me I always intend it as a joke, and not to chork the editor's proverbial monkey. Besides - you couldn't ever be as bad as Asa was. If you were I would have beaten you with my WIUMS.

Al

[jackofall]

Originally posted by Dr. Avery

:rolf: makes me glad im not an editor or teacher for that matter. we have a similar national project in the uk called The Big Issue which often contains articles not found in the mainstream media

btw joke was taken as intended

[Dr. Avery]

I think Asa uses Winamp 3

[Blurredvision]

Thanks for all the info guys. And a big thanks to you Dr. Avery. I like the new avatar also. And as far as spell guys I total such. i am one of those people that keep trying to come up with smaller word that I think I might be able to spell to replace the ones I know I have no clue one how to spell

[Dr. Avery]

Yeah, always glad to spew forth my endless fountain of wisdom (wisdom = Bull S**t ). Sorry If I got a little wacky there, I hadn't slept for about 40 hours and got a little gabby with the keyboard.