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Windows Media Player 9

Posted by michael on from the more-restrictions,-fewer-features dept.

captainclever writes "The Register has an interesting article about the posibilities for WMP Clients for Linux. Would anyone want to use MS WMP in Linux?" See also a news.com story.

23 of 445 comments (clear)

  1. Yes! by JThaddeus · · Score: 3, Informative

    Just because so much stuff doesn't come in MPEG. And while we're at it, how about Quicktime?

    --
    "Love is a familiar; Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love." --William Shakespeare ('Love's Labors Lost')
    1. Re:Yes! by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 3, Informative

      It would be nice to have the option to run WMP in Linux - this would also be a beneficial step toward desktop use of Linux.

      QuickTime would be damn nice, too. We could start an e-mail campaign (check out their contact QuickTime page and see if it goes anywhere...

      --
      That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
    2. Re:Yes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
      Maybe because it's a nasty, semi-legal hack using MS/Apple binaries.

      I will not install proprietary binaries on my computer.

    3. Re:Yes! by rmadmin · · Score: 3, Informative

      Beacuse of mplayer I will never even try WMP9 if it gets ported to Linux. Its just trouble. Plus, mplayer can play real, quicktime, divx, etc etc... I'm sure wmp can play some of these.. but I know it can't play all the stuff mplayer can :-)

      --


      Can all fish swim?
    4. Re:Yes! by m3000 · · Score: 5, Informative

      It would be nice to have the option to run WMP in Linux

      Crossover does just exactly that. It only runs WMP 6.4, but at least that plays proprietary WMP files. It can also play as well Quicktime files and Shockwave. Well worth the $25 to register. I know I've been extremelly happy with it.

    5. Re:Yes! by someone247356 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Um....

      A fixed point decoder "Tremor" has been released and licensed BSD style. http://www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/hardware.html

      So you no longer need a floating point capable processor to decode .ogg files.

      --
      Just my $0.02 (Canadian, before taxes)
    6. Re:Yes! by Taurim · · Score: 5, Informative

      MPlayer reads all formats, including Quicktime Sorenson 1 and 3, RealVideo, all Windows Media Player formats (WMV 1, 2 and 3) and does not cost anything !

  2. mPlayer by warmcat · · Score: 4, Informative
    Mplayer is the man.


    Microsoft not required.

  3. Why? by tourettes · · Score: 4, Informative

    Other open source alternatives have been paving away for multimedia in linux. Such projects like MPlayer and Xine make it easy to play almost any type of format especially with MPlayer's recent addition of Quicktime codecs as well as Windows Media 9 format. In addition to these, Xine and MPlayer also can support dvd playback, so moving from such an established open source software solutions to Windows Media Player just doesn't seem to be a logical move on the Linux platform. Especially since both projects (among many more I am sure, ogle comes to mind) have been putting there hearts into their releases and deserve the focus and attention of the community.

    This may enter the Linux platform, some people will boo, some people will cheer, but the bottom line is that the hype will die down as quickly as it did when Real Player came to Unix.

    --
    tourettes
  4. Xine - AC3 - DVD/AVI/Divx/etc by linuxkrn · · Score: 2, Informative

    Question again, is why? I have Xine working great. It plays DVDs (LibDVDread,LibDVDNav,LibDVDcss) and I have AC3 Passthrough on my SBLive 5.1 to a DTT3500 DTS Dolby Digital Surround Sound System. It took a bit to get everything compile together but it works great. Got a link on my site for a simple how-to with a screen shot. http://www.linuxlogin.com/linux/emu10k1.php And yes, Xine will play AVIs too, about the only thing I think we are really missing is Quick time.

    1. Re:Xine - AC3 - DVD/AVI/Divx/etc by Majix · · Score: 5, Informative

      Could you please do a favour to the community and pack the system into an RPM and make it available on the net? I just hate having to compile stuff and taking care of the depencies myself.

      Xine RPMs are available from http://freshrpms.net/ with DVD menu support and all compiled in.

      As for WMP for Linux, a year ago it would have been interesting. These days all relevant players do DivX 3-5, Quicktime (_including_ Sorenson codec), DVD playing etc. MPlayer is quite possibly the most advanced player ever, with more post processing and general purpose filters and features than you could possibly need. All WMP has is name recognition.

  5. This would have been nice last year... by Idimmu+Xul · · Score: 3, Informative

    But I'm flying with GStreamer atm and couldnt be happier. Also Xine and MPlayer are top quality too. Especially when used on conjunction with interfaces like Totem, I really couldnt ask for much more! DVD playback is also coming on strong!

    Off the top of my head I cant think of anything (apart from DRM) that WMPlayer can do that any of the above can't do anyway? [conspiracy]Maybe that's the point.. this is a cunning plan to get DRM onto Linux :)[/conspiracy] Anyway, by the time it's available the other Linux media players will have either caught up or be better I expect.

    2003 will be the year for linux \o/

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  6. WMP9 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    One reason to use WMP9 is quality. WMA and WMV are better than MP3 and MPEG4.

  7. Re:Xine! by essdodson · · Score: 3, Informative

    I installed libdvdcss as well as xine-dvdnav-plugin and all was fine, all be it a bit choppy on my lowly Celeron 400.

    --
    scott
  8. Re:It's interesting... by Eccles · · Score: 2, Informative

    the Windows taskbar is flawed in that the bottom pixel of the screen doesn't represent the task a pixel above it

    Not in XP it isn't. If you have a one row task bar, the task bar buttons don't extend all the way down, but the click region does. The quick launch icons also extend the click region; only the tray and clock don't.

    Sorry, one good Mac rant has been removed...

    --
    Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
  9. Re:Xine! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    try some of these,or search google for 'xine libcss'

    http://dxr2.sourceforge.net/projects/xine-plugin /
    http://cambuca.ldhs.cetuc.puc-rio.br/xine/
    htt p://kenny.sabarese.net/articles/linux-dvd.html

  10. Definition of standard. by dmaxwell · · Score: 3, Informative

    The engineer definition of standard is different from the business/joe user idea of standard. To an engineer, a standard specifies everything that is needed to implement the widget in question. To business/joe user, standard just means "what everybody uses". Well, 12 years ago the standard in office documents by that definition was WordPerfect. Reading those documents could be difficult since there wasn't an engineer's standard to go along with the vernacular standard. It can be reverse engineered but the devil is in the details. Anything can happen and it is possible that Office could become what WordPerfect is today. Since there is no engineer's standard for Office, that data will decay faster than newsprint in a compost heap.

    To us, it just isn't a standard unless we can implement it. The fact that enough clueless people use it to make it a defacto standard of sorts is absolutely of no help when trying to archive data or communicate with someone.

    Needless to say, we also don't like it when someone takes an engineer's standard like an RFC and Embrace 'n' Extends it into a hairball non-engineer's standard. Defacto standards shift like quicksand. There is a reason why say weights and measures are defined precisely and reproducibly. You can never tell when you may implement them on your own and same applies to data interchange and communication.

  11. why not just give Mplayer your love? by GweeDo · · Score: 5, Informative
    Head on over to mplayerhq.hu and get the latest Release Candidate. I am running the CVS version and watch all the quicktime, windows media player 8 and 9, MPEG 4, DivX, ect ect that I could possibly want to.



    Here is the list of codecs their website has listed:

    # The most important video codecs: MPEG1 (VCD) and MPEG2 (SVCD/DVD/DVB) video
    # MPEG4, DivX ;-), OpenDivX (DivX4), DivX 5.02, XviD and other MPEG4 variants
    # Windows Media Video v7 (WMV1), v8 (WMV2) and v9 (WMV3) used in .wmv files
    # RealVideo 1.0, 2.0 (G2), 3.0 (RP8), 4.0 (RP9)
    # Sorenson v1/v3 (SVQ1/SVQ3), Cinepak, RPZA and other common QuickTime codecs
    # Intel Indeo codecs (3.x,4.1,5.0)
    # VIVO v1, v2
    # MJPEG variants, HuffYUV, ZLIB/MSZH, ASV2 and other capture/hardware formats
    # FLI, RoQ and other old/rare animation formats

    # The most important audio codecs: MPEG layer 1, 2 and 3 (MP3) audio
    # AC3/A52 (dolby digital) audio (software or SP/DIF)
    # WMA (DivX Audio) v1, v2 (native codec)
    # WMA 9 (WMAv3), Voxware audio, ACELP.net etc (using x86 DLLs)
    # RealAudio: COOK, SIPRO, ATRAC3, DNET (using RP's plugins)
    # QuickTime: Qclp, Q-Design QDMC/QDM2, MACE 3/6 (using QT's DLLs)
    # Ogg Vorbis audio codec
    # VIVO audio (g723, Vivo Siren) using x86 DLL
    # alaw/ulaw, (ms)gsm, pcm, *adpcm and other simple old audio formats

    Now...why would you want to run WMP9 when it doesn't support any where near that many codecs? Oh...you want more you say? What about these output options:
    # General: x11:X11 with SHM extension
    # xv:X11 using overlays with the Xvideo extension (hardware YUV & scaling)
    # gl:OpenGL renderer
    # gl2:Alternative OpenGL renderer (with multiple textures)
    # dga:X11 DGA extension (both v1.0 and v2.0)
    # fbdev:Output to general framebuffers
    # svga:Output to SVGAlib
    # sdl:SDL >= v1.1.7 driver (supports software scaling, and versions >=1.1.8 even support Xvideo, thus hardware rendering)
    # ggi:similar to SDL
    # aalib:Textmode rendering
    # vesa:display through the VESA BIOS (also needed for Radeon TV-out)
    # directfb:DirectFB support

    # Card specific: vidix:VIDeo Interface for *niX
    # xvidix:VIDIX in X window
    # mga:Matrox G200/G400 hardware YUV overlay via the mga_vid device
    # xmga:Matrox G200/G400 overlay (mga_vid) in X11 window (Xv emulation on X 3.3.x !)
    # syncfb:Matrox G400 YUV support on framebuffer (not tested, maybe broken)
    # 3dfx:Voodoo 3/Banshee hardware YUV support (/dev/3dfx) (not yet tested, maybe broken)
    # tdfxfb:Voodoo 3/Banshee hardware YUV support on tdfx framebuffer (works!)

    # Special: png:PNG files output (use -z switch to set compression)
    # jpeg:JPEG files output
    # gif89a:Animated GIF files output
    # yuv4mpeg:yuv4mpeg output for mjpegtools
    # pgm:PGM files output (for testing purposes)
    # md5:MD5sum output (for mpeg conformance tests)
    # null:Null output (for speed tests/benchmarking)

    I love Mplayer...it loves you...why use something from MS when you don't have to? ...goes off to watch more Quicktimes of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker...

    --
    Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
  12. Re:No by Gheesh · · Score: 2, Informative

    It *is* easy to install. Just add

    deb http://marillat.free.fr/ stable main

    to your /etc/apt/sources.list, do an update, and install MPlayer with:

    apt-get install mplayer-686

    Note: '686' can be subsituted for '486' or 'k6', depending on your processor

  13. Re:It's weird by tempest303 · · Score: 4, Informative

    You make some great points, but fortunately there are some answers coming to your questions.

    Where are the good GUIs for the video players (yes, GUIs, not skins) ?

    Nice that you made the distinction. :)

    For a totally sweet Xine GUI, check out Totem! It's a really slick, super-easy to use GNOME 2 app for video and DVD. Good stuff, very nice attention to usability.

    Where is high quality Real Media playback ?

    Real Player 8 works fine on my box! Plus, with Helix going all OSS/Hippy on us, we'll have a (mostly) OSS and completely legal Real Player for Linux this year.

    Where is high quality Quicktime playback ?

    Shoved up Apple's ass... stupid, politicking bastards.... *mutter*

    But really... Totem can do Quicktime, if you get the proper codecs installed for Xine.

    Where is .ASF/.WMV/QT streaming support ?

    Still not the greatest solution, but Crossover Office and Crossover Plugin do a great job of running WMP and QT right on your desktop.

    Yeah, these aren't perfect, but there's obviously some serious progress being made in these directions.

    --
    The Free desktop that Just Works
  14. Re:DRM subverted by kernel by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 3, Informative
    DRM or not, any application has to talk to the hardware at some level. Unless microsoft ship binary only sound/video drivers that can't be hacked to write video/audio data out through network or unix domain sockets, or /proc devices, then anyone can access protected content digitally, before it gets to the output device.

    They have done. It first appeared in XP, and is called Secure Audio Path. The data passes encrypted into the kernel, where it's decrypted before being passed to the drivers. That kind of thing is hard to work around easily, one solution being to host Windows inside VMware and use that (but how many people can really be bothered? it'd have to be damn compelling content).

  15. A little OT by vex24 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I noticed the other day that installing WMP 7.1 (which I despise for reasons that are my own), and then uninstalling it leaves behind the codecs to decode the more wacky Windows formats that WMP 6.4 can't do. Hence, once you uninstall it and go back to 6.4, you've got all the codecs you need to view movies made in silly MS formats. YMMV of course.

    --

    People shape laws. Not the other way around.

  16. the WMP9 license grants MS _evil_ rights by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative
    Here's why I didn't install it. From "Additional Rights and Limitations":
    * Solely for the purpose of preventing unlicensed use of the applicable OSSoftware, the OS Components may install on your computer technological measures that are designed to prevent unlicensed use, and Microsoft may use this technology to confirm that you have a licensed copy of the OS Software. The update of these technological measures only occurs through the installation of these OS Components. The OS Components will not install on unlicensed copies of the OSSoftware. If you are not using a licensed copy of the OS Software, you are not allowed to install the OS Components or future OS Software updates. Microsoft will not collect any personally identifiable information from your computer during this process.

    * The OS Components may include the Microsoft .NET Framework. You may not disclose the results of any benchmark test of the .NET Framework to any third party without Microsoft's prior written approval.

    * Content providers are using the digital rights management technology contained in the OS Components ("DRM") to protect the integrity of their content ("Secure Content") so that their intellectual property, including copyright, in such content is not misappropriated. Portions of the OS Components and third party applications such as media players use DRM to play Secure Content ("DRM Software"). If the DRM Software's security has been compromised, owners of Secure Content ("Secure Content Owners") may request that Microsoft revoke the DRM Software's right to copy, display and/or play Secure Content. Revocation does not alter the DRM Software's ability to play unprotected content. A list of revoked DRM Software is sent to your computer whenever you download a license for Secure Content from the Internet. You therefore agree that Microsoft may, in conjunction with such license, also download revocation lists onto your computer on behalf of Secure Content Owners. Microsoft will not retrieve any personally identifiable information, or any other information, from your computer by downloading such revocation lists. Secure Content Owners may also require you to upgrade some of the DRM components in the OS Components ("DRM Upgrades") before accessing their content. When you attempt to play such content, Microsoft DRM Software will notify you that a DRM Upgrade is required and then ask for your consent before the DRM Upgrade is downloaded. Third party DRM Software may do the same. If you decline the upgrade, you will not be able to access content that requires the DRM Upgrade; however, you will still be able to access unprotected content and Secure Content that does not require the upgrade.