[gluteus maximus]

From ars technica

The UI itself is brighter and lighter than WMP11. Some buttons and toolbar items have been moved around, but the experience should be pretty familiar to users of version 11. What does represent a big change is the removal of the Now Playing button, which in WMP11 switches to a view showing the current playlist.

This is because WMP12 completely separates library management from what's currently playing, with two distinct player modes; Now Playing view, and Library view. Library view contains all the library manipulation features that should be familiar from WMP11. Now Playing view contains the current playlist, visualizations, and videos.

The area of WMP12 that has seen the most work is how it works with networked resources. WMP11 has the ability to browse the libraries of other users on the local network, as long as they're using WMP, too. WMP12 extends this to allow browsing not only of WMP libraries, but also of iTunes libraries. With the aforementioned H.264 and AAC support, WMP12 can play most iTunes media. It's only "most" because, of course, Apple won't license its FairPlay DRM to third parties, so WMP is unable to play DRM-protected iTunes Store tracks.

Read more here: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...-features.html

[GHERDEZ]

Originally Posted by gluteus maximus

From ars technica



Read more here: Hands on: Windows Media Player 12's surprising new features

Hello Maximus,

I wonder how bad is the latest incarnation of Windows Media series. I haven’t updated mine in years. The trend on the late 10 & 11 versions is getting DRM-heavier.

Microsoft Media Player shreds your rights - The INQUIRER

Windows Media 12 looks pretty on the pictures…

Greetings…

GHERDEZ

[johnnydoen]

Originally Posted by GHERDEZ

Hello Maximus,

I wonder how bad is the latest incarnation of Windows Media series. I haven’t updated mine in years. The trend on the late 10 & 11 versions is getting DRM-heavier.

Microsoft Media Player shreds your rights - The INQUIRER

Windows Media 12 looks pretty on the pictures…

Greetings…

GHERDEZ

I wouldn't even dream about using windows media player. Mediamonkey rules superior.

[gluteus maximus]

Originally Posted by johnnydoen

I wouldn't even dream about using windows media player. Mediamonkey rules superior.

Hi johnnydoen

Gosh, don't people love to hate WMP?

For me, WMP10 works well as a simple media player with library, using the 'Stick' skin so that it takes up very little space. Like most recent Micro$oft products, the WMP11 interface is hideous. But I may try WMP12 for its streaming capabilities.

I have no DRM music, and I never let WMP connect to the internet, and I have no mp3 player to synch to, and I don't use it for ripping or burning, so for me it is problem-free; it just works for general listening. For more complex tasks, I use other players.

gm

[Nightfly]

Originally Posted by gluteus maximus

Hi johnnydoen

Gosh, don't people love to hate WMP?

For me, WMP10 works well as a simple media player with library, using the 'Stick' skin so that it takes up very little space. Like most recent Micro$oft products, the WMP11 interface is hideous. But I may try WMP12 for its streaming capabilities.

I have no DRM music, and I never let WMP connect to the internet, and I have no mp3 player to synch to, and I don't use it for ripping or burning, so for me it is problem-free; it just works for general listening. For more complex tasks, I use other players.

gm

Gm,

At one time there was media that was specifically made for WMP
and could not be played without it.Is that the case anymore.
Because I haven't seen WMP pop up for media played in a long time.

Thanks,

[Ashleyj]

Originally Posted by gluteus maximus

Hi johnnydoen

Gosh, don't people love to hate WMP?

For me, WMP10 works well as a simple media player with library, using the 'Stick' skin so that it takes up very little space. Like most recent Micro$oft products, the WMP11 interface is hideous. But I may try WMP12 for its streaming capabilities.

I have no DRM music, and I never let WMP connect to the internet, and I have no mp3 player to synch to, and I don't use it for ripping or burning, so for me it is problem-free; it just works for general listening. For more complex tasks, I use other players.

gm

I'm with you GM.

I use WMP11 to manage my Creative Zen mp3 player and it works fine - better than the Creative software that came with the player.
I have used it to rip CDs and again it works well, but now I tend to use Exact Audio Copy.
I have not used WMP to download anything as I try to get my album art when I download the music, and like you I have no DRM files.

I do use Media Monkey but only because WMP has no codec for Flac files.

All in all I probably use WMP more than any of the others.

[gluteus maximus]

Originally Posted by Nightfly

Gm,

At one time there was media that was specifically made for WMP
and could not be played without it.Is that the case anymore.
Because I haven't seen WMP pop up for media played in a long time.

Thanks,

Hi Nightfly

I think that might only apply to wma files with DRM, but I'm not sure - I just don't do DRM. Every time you install a different media player, it will try to hijack all the file types for itself; I suspect that is what you are seeing.

Originally Posted by Ashleyj

I'm with you GM.

I use WMP11 to manage my Creative Zen mp3 player and it works fine - better than the Creative software that came with the player.
I have used it to rip CDs and again it works well, but now I tend to use Exact Audio Copy.
I have not used WMP to download anything as I try to get my album art when I download the music, and like you I have no DRM files.

I do use Media Monkey but only because WMP has no codec for Flac files.

All in all I probably use WMP more than any of the others.

Hi Ashleyj

I grew up buying singles, so I never made that physical connection with album covers. Album art leaves me cold. I also grew up listening to (pirate) radio a lot, and I usually just use WMP on random play like a radio station. It is possible to add codecs to WMP - I once managed to get it to play RealMedia files - but very fiddly as I recall. I really like the 'Stick' skin; it's small enough to fit in an application title bar if you're working full-screen.

gm

[Ashleyj]

Originally Posted by gluteus maximus

Hi Nightfly

I think that might only apply to wma files with DRM, but I'm not sure - I just don't do DRM. Every time you install a different media player, it will try to hijack all the file types for itself; I suspect that is what you are seeing.




Hi Ashleyj

I grew up buying singles, so I never made that physical connection with album covers. Album art leaves me cold. I also grew up listening to (pirate) radio a lot, and I usually just use WMP on random play like a radio station. It is possible to add codecs to WMP - I once managed to get it to play RealMedia files - but very fiddly as I recall. I really like the 'Stick' skin; it's small enough to fit in an application title bar if you're working full-screen.

gm

Ahh the good old days of pirate radio, Radio London was my favourite.

Like you I grew up with singles as together with a friend I ran a mobile disco for a few years at the end of the 60s into the 70s and that was pretty much all we played. I have to admit though all I tend to listen to now is complete albums with the occasional random play.

The album art is useful in WMP as it gets transferred across to my mp3 player when I sync it which helps with identifying albums. I suppose if you don't use an mp3 player it is a bit redundant.

I have added a couple of codecs to WMP (one to play AVI files) but I did not find one to play Flac files which is why I use Media Monkey for them.

[Nightfly]

Originally Posted by gluteus maximus

Hi Nightfly

I think that might only apply to wma files with DRM, but I'm not sure - I just don't do DRM. Every time you install a different media player, it will try to hijack all the file types for itself; I suspect that is what you are seeing.






gm

I haven't had a drm file neither,(I hate DRM that's why I'm here) in quite a while.I use winamp for years and sync all files to that.But I am switching to
MediaMonkey, so many users seem to be happy with it.

Thanks for the reply

[gluteus maximus]

Originally Posted by Ashleyj

Ahh the good old days of pirate radio, Radio London was my favourite.

RNI and Caroline for me. I used to love the RNI programs on short wave about the history of pirate radio.

For anyone who's interested, Caroline is still going strong on Sky channel 0199 in the UK, and still playing great music - "Europe's First and Only Album Station". They can also be found at http://radiocaroline.co.uk with live streams.

gm