Why is it that WMP is the only media player that can't do MP4?

We know that the IE team was disbanned, but was the WMP tean sent home, too?

... Oh right, wait 'til Vista.

I had to use the Real player for f-sake. QuickTime says my player expired, but won't install the new version. Real, I said! I feel so dirty.

Use Media Player Classic or The Core Media Player, both are good alternatives without the need for you to even touch anything named "real".

I filed support for the MP4 container, ASP, AVC and AAC as issue on the Vista betatest, but it's not like we can expect something to be done.

Thanks for the tip. But neither one could play this MP4 I've got. Apparently, the video was encoded with "Apple Video Media Handler". Back to Real

Tom Servo wrote:

I filed support for the MP4 container, ASP, AVC and AAC as issue on the Vista betatest, but it's not like we can expect something to be done.

You mean WMP in Vista doesn't support MP4 either? Yikes!

I do think it is kinda dumb that WMP doesn't support certain codecs that are pretty easy for them to support.

No-ones really expecting support for competing closed formats, but when it comes to MP4 or OGG - the lack of support is a bit poor.

If Microsoft wants their media player to be used as the primary 'go-to' media player on Windows, then it needs to reduce the number of occasisions where one might need to download an alternative player (and lets remember that allot of codec packs out there come with bundled players and in some cases spyware).

Microsoft?  Can we have some real advancement here, not just repeated interface overhauls?

I swear by the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack. Never use Quicktime, Real, or WMP again.

Well, you won't see Microsoft supporting formats of the "competition" unless there's a public uproar, though there were rumors that Vista will support HDDVD out of the box, which requires at least support of AVC.

Other than that, there are DShow modules out on the net that allow WMP to play anything MPEG4. The 3ivx.com site is a good start, aslong you just want to play things back. Otherwise, Nero will install all sort of MPEG4 codecs including AVC. If the burning application doesn't, they're definitely with Nero Vision Express.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm

This is the best for playing anything that is apple. it also supports the HD videos.
on that site you can find also an alternative for real player.

Best thing you can do with the HD videos of Apple is to buffer them, save them to disk and then play them with alternative players that have their own codecs. Quicktime7 sucks royally at decoding AVC content, it's chewing up CPU cycles like chocolate here, resulting in half-frame rate on 480p videos (P3-933) while VLC plays things just dandy at full framerate.

MPUI is portable (i.e. can run of an external drive, no installation required) and does not require any codecs to be installed on the host machine.

It's all about Media Player Classic. It can play practically anything without installing any codecs. It has the added benefit of being able to DISABLE THE BUILT-IN CODECS if you happen to wish to download and install different ones or updated ones from the web. As far as I know, no other media player does this and starts in < 2 seconds or takes up only 600 k of disk space, and dosn't trash my system with a multitude of hacked codecs, spyware, and modified system settings.

Shmuelpro wrote:

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm

This is the best for playing anything that is apple. it also supports the HD videos.
on that site you can find also an alternative for real player.

RealAlternative is a great package too. Play any real-encoded file from within windows media player (or media player classic).

Tom Servo wrote:

The 3ivx.com site is a good start, as long you just want to play things back.

I just bought the 3ivx m4v decoder for WMP. $7 to not have to use Quicktime again to play video podcasts was worth it to me. Finally, borderless full screen video.

Phostenix wrote:



Tom Servo wrote: The 3ivx.com site is a good start, as long you just want to play things back.

I just bought the 3ivx m4v decoder for WMP. $7 to not have to use Quicktime again to play video podcasts was worth it to me. Finally, borderless full screen video.

You paid $7? It's free as part of CCCP and other distros.

Yeah I wish Windows Media Player Supported MP4 video and audio. I wish the shell supported it as well. I cannot see any tags with .mp4 audio. Someone needs to work on this. MP4 is a nice standard....

At least Zune Player supports it, but the shell still does not . And even then, it doesn't support all variants of mp4.

Tom Servo wrote:

I filed support for the MP4 container, ASP, AVC and AAC as issue on the Vista betatest, but it's not like we can expect something to be done.

I asked for Ogg Vorbis support and they said: Talk to the codec team!
But I don't know how to get in touch with the "codec team".

ZippyV wrote:



Tom Servo wrote: I filed support for the MP4 container, ASP, AVC and AAC as issue on the Vista betatest, but it's not like we can expect something to be done.

I asked for Ogg Vorbis support and they said: Talk to the codec team!
But I don't know how to get in touch with the "codec team".

Is there a Codec Team at Microsoft? If Microsoft adds support for this stuff in their OS, it will truly be amazing.