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Windows Media Player 10 Beta Released
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft today officially announced the public availability of Windows Media Player 10 Technical Beta. These screenshots reveal how Microsoft is integrating music service subscriptions such as Napster and video service subscription from CinemaNow. Is Microsoft trying to start competing with iTunes with this new music service integration?"
torrent link
There are 10 kinds of people in the world; those that understand binary and those that do not.
Or, it could have been there since November 7th, 2003 like they stated. Mac OS has had WMP releases before WMP 9, and Mac OS X, as well.
of couse the donload link only works in IE, on xp
No, sorry but you're wrong - I just grabbed it using Mozilla on XP... so I guess its only XP dependent.
I use bsplayer. It's lightweight (compared to WMP anyways), and it does the only thing I need a freaking media player to do, play videos.
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
Try MPlayer Here It's mainly intended for video but will work with audio as well. I'm not sure how well the windows version works, but on Linux I've found that it works flawlessly, playing things that all other players will choke on, though it will on rare occasions choke on a wmv file (maybe no support for newer or DRMed windows media files? any other slashdotters out there know). ;)
I know there was a big deal awhile ago about some dvd player manufacturer using mplayer code in their software and not providing the source, and well my thinking is that if it's good enough for a video player manufacturer to steal than it should probably be good enough for the average geek
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
WMP 8 and 9 have an annoying habit of scanning EVERY file in a directory every time you open a video (I don't know why). So if WMP is slow for you, you should sort your porn into smaller directories.
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
- Andreas
I've found Winamp 5 stealing 99% of my CPU when it's asked to load a file (any file, MP3, PLS, M3U, anything) from a directory containing a very large amount (1000+) of subdirs and files. It doesn't release CPU until you kill it or hit escape, after which it will take a few minutes for it to close the open diag. The GUI type doesn't matter.
I still use it sometimes, when I want to output something using a Winamp-specific DSP plugin, but Foobar 2000 is MUCH better than Winamp at almost everything except player attractiveness (which I don't care much for). It's the best audio playback program on any OS (this, coming from a Mac OS X and Linux user). For audio, Foobar is the player to beat.
For video on Windows, I stick with Media Player Classic. All you have to do to play almost anything you want is download MPC, ffdshow, Fraunhofer's MPEG-2 codec, QuickTime, RealAlternative, the WMP9 codec pack, and ac3filter. Bam, complete freebie multimedia on Windows without Microsoft's phone-home garbage, and since you're not using the QT Player, there's no reason not to use the official QT download instead of QT Alternative. (It still surprises me that MS can get away with phoning home to a Microsoft server every time you highlight a QuickTime MOV file in Windows Explorer....it's as if it's checking for a codec just so it can display the miniature preview, but WMP hasn't supported direct decoding of the QuickTime format since WMP 6.4. What they really get is the name and filesize of the MOV you're trying to open, even if you're just trying to double-click it from inside a folder so that the real QuickTime Player opens it.)
Yecch, WMP can suck mine twice.
"Mac lags a version behind Windows for WMP support"
The mac version of 9 sucks so bad that you can't claim any kind of platform parity. All it is, is a way for OSX users to play *some* WM9 content. It doesn't work with all of it. But M$ can claim "crossplatform support, just like real and quicktime."
Now will 10 have new codecs? That will leave the mac behind again, and I still don't even have WM9 codecs to compress video on mac.
"I forgot my mantra."
Yup, WMP9 has been out for Macs for ages.
There is a non-redundant part of this post, though. For those who don't want WMP anywhere near their mac, MPlayer is an excellent open source alternative that handles all kinds of video formats, and is overall a great player. Its WMV support is kind of shaky, but most files still play.
And because I'm on the subject, I might as well point out VLC, which in my opinion is the best all-around player for the Mac. It doesn't handle WMV files, though =-\.
If you get nervous, just remember that there are a few billion other people who don't really give a damn.
still lacking ogg support. The 'new' GUI looks more bloated than before, and what's up with this sudden support for Napster?
Also, why do companies think that making an app look like fruitella is better? So far the only reason why i ever installed WMP is because of the stick figure plugin/theme/whateverMScallsIt.
No, if you want a decent media player for windows, then i recommend using media player classic, which has all the (important) features and none of the extras that you can live without.
Use OSS Media Player Classic
No it doesn't. It says
Plays secure content protected with Microsoft Windows Media Rights Manager version 1.3.
That's not the same DRM as Windows WMP9, or even WMP7, it's the first version of DRM, which doesn't offer a lot of the features that music producers want, like expiry from first play and so on. Also the DRM SDK1 was, well, difficult to play nicely with.
And WHO needs MS mediaplayers anyhow...
You can get a lot of people to upgrade if you make it worth their while. The only reason I upgraded windows media player to version 9 was because the Halo 2 teaser trailer would only work on version 9 so that was reason enough for me to upgrade.
Bloated? yes. However the interface is better than WMP9. At least they are making an effort.
Flashing stuff? I have no flashing stuff. Where do I get this? What is wrong the the buttons? They are spaced out nicely and have easy to read text.
There are large play, stop, fast forward, rewind, mute, and volume buttons at the bottom left corner, and are blatantly obvious. If you can't find them, OPEN YOUR FUCKING EYES.
You are an idiot.
WMV v9 is an implimentation of MPEG4. As is DivX. As is xvid. An a normal "mpeg" file is usually MPEG2.
WindowsMedia Codecs aren't hardly "the best" (unless you own MSFT stock, then they TEH BEST!!!)
only reason I upgraded windows media player to version 9 was because the Halo 2 teaser trailer would only work on version 9 so that was reason enough for me to upgrade.
If you were running 7 you shouldn't have needed to upgrade. The WM9 codecs work within MP7 and would have automatically downloaded and installed the first time you played WM9 content.
Foobar 2000 for all your audio needs.
BSPlayer for all your video needs.
Koepi's codec pack for all your codec needs.
I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. -Henry David Thoreau
Windows Media Player has only the most basic features. This and the fact than in XP it sends home the titles of the films, makes it useless for me. Keeping Zoom Player and VLC.
In terms of features it is well possible to innovate over the previous versions of WMP.
But really, are there any significant innovations possible in media players except for infinitesimal interface polishing? (DRM doesn't count as a feature ;) I get a feeling they're almost there.
Random ideas:
* built-in encoders - eg I am watching DVD and it's recording it to xvid on the fly at the same time
* plug-in winamp modules - eg use graphic equaliser on the audio, have visuals going with a dance video, ability to mix in mic so you can speak over documentary/home-vid to audience
* externally controlled mixing of video - my video voicemail app can send video file to currently open video window, requesting to play it picture-in-picture in the top right of the screen whilst and mixing in the audio at 80% volume
I'm sure there are loads more. Anyone else?
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
No, you're the idiot.
MPEG4 specifies the format of the compressed video: it doesn't specify the precise algorithm used to generate it. Different MPEG4 encoders therefore produce different results.
Please get a clue before you post. It's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
The Google Zeitgeist shows XP with a 49% share, Win 98 21%, W2K 18%.
Google is as content and platform-neutral a site as you are likely to find. I suspect XP's share of the media-oriented home market is much greater.
"Actually, with WM9, video quality seems to be consistently better than MPEG or DivX files of the same size. So, yeah, it's very reasonable for someone to use WM."
On top of that, you can send a WM9 video file and just about anybody running Windows can play it. No format has better coverage except maybe MPEG1, but them's not so low-data-rate friendly.