Channel 9 Forums - Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

nektar — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 11:31:07 GMT

From what I can gather Windows Media Player WMP will get a major update to version 10 in a few months. Therefore, now that the development team are preparing for the new release, I think we as users of the product should start making our suggestions.
For me I believe that WMP needs improvements in two areas: Usability and support of more formats.
Usability: I believe that WMP 9 is difficult to use for the average user. Loaded with a great number of icons, little buttons and controls, WMP's interface is not simple to navigate, learn and take advantage of. WMP uses non-standard menus and dialogs and it draws in its own way its controls. I think the interface should be made simpler by grouping commands in standard menus and dialogs, and by streamlining the way that users access the various functions of the player. This might be done by including more wizards or simply by starting WMP in a simpler mode with the minimal buttons (play, pause, stop, etc) on the screen and by including a button let's say called Show in Full Mode, for displaying the more advanced interface.
WMP also needs to improve its accessibility for people with disabilities by providing keyboard shortcuts (that work!) to many of its functions. Currently, the Rewind shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+B never ever works and the Jump Forward command CTRL+SHIFT+F works only for file played from the local computer but not for music played on cds or on the Internet. In addition the CTRL+SHIFT+F shortcut changes the speed of the song instead of jumping forward in it as it should. However, I believe that adding straight forward shortcuts to the player will assist everyone of us, since we would be able to quickly access its functionality without spending time with the mouse. Take example from the old Winamp v2's shortcuts:
z for previous song, x for play, c for pause, v for stop, ctrl+v for stop after current song (something that WMP does not support!), shift+v for fading out (something that is not easy to do in WMP!), b for next song, j for jumping to a song by typing the beginning of its name (very handy!), cursor right for forward, left for rewind, up for volume up and down for volume down.
Support for more formats: Since WMP is provided with every copy of Windows it should by default support most popular formats for streaming, playback and ripping cds and not simply what Microsoft offers. Also developpers would be greatly assisted in their own programs if the standard Windows codex could support most of the major formats for playback. Currently, WMP only supports ripping to WMA. I think it should support wav, mp3, aac and if possible Real Audio. Ripping cds to wav is very useful to my mind and should be added. Since most sound editing programs accept the wav format whilst support for wma is not so high still and if not using lossless WMA the sound quality also degrates, wav should be supported by all means. In addition WMP should playback aac format, Quicktime video, mp4 video and if possible streaming Real Audio/Video in addition to the current support. And if all these formats should appear to some to be very costly for Microsoft, it should be pointed out that Real Player v10 currently supports all of them and even more with extra plugins and it is still free. So, the only reason for Microsoft to continue only supporting WMA for ripping and for streaming over the Internet and not supporting aac, Real Audio/Video streaming, ripping to wav, etc, appears to be to push its own WMA/WMV format. Without saying that WMA is not a good format, since WMP ships with every copy of Windows it should at least support a bit more.
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? What other suggestions should be added for the next Player, especially for developers?

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

ZippyV — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 11:46:17 GMT

I agree with you on the codec stuff. WMP should be able to play: RealAudio/Video, Quicktime (without installing the program from Apple) and Ogg Vorbis.
I know for the encoding part of MP3 that you have to pay for it, but there are other company's like Creative that still give their player away for free with mp3 encoding capabilities.

Also fix the crossfading problem when WMP is playing the last song in a list, starts crossfading with the first song and after the last song ends restarts with the fist one.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

Manip — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 12:09:11 GMT

One thing I would like to see is the ability to pause a film... exit WMP and come back later and re-load and continue where you left off... With video tapes you can do this.. pause turn off the VCR and then come back later and continue, you can even change tapes and then continue watching the original from where you left off. So I am surprised so few media software vendors are adding cool features like this. I thought the idea was to replace VCR and other analogue forms of media ... shouldn't you be replacing their features?

Also, could you have media player draw to the GDI when it detects a screen-print, currently movies can't be seen in screen-prints because it is being rendered above the layer of the screen print...

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

sbc — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 13:17:19 GMT

Control playback with keyboard

Like Quicktime and Media Player classic (which can play many media types and looks a bit like Media Player 6.4) you can use the spacebar to pause and resume playback on a movie. You can also use the left and right cursor keys to go forward and backwards through a movie (rather than using the mouse to drag the movie progress indicator)

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

Jaz — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 14:06:46 GMT

Media Player used to play Real, but i think Real and MS had a falling out.

It'd be nice to be able to minimize WMP to the system tray rather than the taskbar however keeping that option available too would be nice.

Opening Folders like in Winamp is a much needed feature, I don't use playlists.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

mvuijlst — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 15:49:01 GMT

Speed improvements with large media collections would be handy too.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

FrankCarr — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 16:01:14 GMT

1. The storage of playlists needs to be more user friendly. Most other media players I've used have had a much more straight-foward way of managing and storing playlists. Look at how MusicMatch, Ultraplayer, WinAmp, and other do it.

2. Random playing needs to be more random and not the same sequence every time. Also, if you choose a different track off the playlist, don't go back to playing skipped tracks. I find this behavior very annoying.

3. Show whats playing on the start bar like MusicMatch does instead of just saying "Windows Media Player". It's very nice to have something like "track (artist)" show up in the tooltip.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

miseldine — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 18:20:14 GMT

Being lazy, I never used to organise my music. Windows Media Player 9 changed that with the Media Library. It automatically found my new music, added album art, categorised it, and even brought up music reviews. Fantastic stuff.

But, in my attempt to remain cool, I've bought an iPod, meaning most of my new music is being encoded in AAC, which while supported through a codec for playback, isn't supported within the media library.

Which makes me very sad

So, single thing needed in WMP? Open it up to different formats natively. WMA is fine and dandy, but give us choice.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

Shining Arcanine — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 18:49:44 GMT

nektar wrote:

From what I can gather Windows Media Player WMP will get a major update to version 10 in a few months. Therefore, now that the development team are preparing for the new release, I think we as users of the product should start making our suggestions.
For me I believe that WMP needs improvements in two areas: Usability and support of more formats.
Usability: I believe that WMP 9 is difficult to use for the average user. Loaded with a great number of icons, little buttons and controls, WMP's interface is not simple to navigate, learn and take advantage of. WMP uses non-standard menus and dialogs and it draws in its own way its controls. I think the interface should be made simpler by grouping commands in standard menus and dialogs, and by streamlining the way that users access the various functions of the player. This might be done by including more wizards or simply by starting WMP in a simpler mode with the minimal buttons (play, pause, stop, etc) on the screen and by including a button let's say called Show in Full Mode, for displaying the more advanced interface.
WMP also needs to improve its accessibility for people with disabilities by providing keyboard shortcuts (that work!) to many of its functions. Currently, the Rewind shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+B never ever works and the Jump Forward command CTRL+SHIFT+F works only for file played from the local computer but not for music played on cds or on the Internet. In addition the CTRL+SHIFT+F shortcut changes the speed of the song instead of jumping forward in it as it should. However, I believe that adding straight forward shortcuts to the player will assist everyone of us, since we would be able to quickly access its functionality without spending time with the mouse. Take example from the old Winamp v2's shortcuts:
z for previous song, x for play, c for pause, v for stop, ctrl+v for stop after current song (something that WMP does not support!), shift+v for fading out (something that is not easy to do in WMP!), b for next song, j for jumping to a song by typing the beginning of its name (very handy!), cursor right for forward, left for rewind, up for volume up and down for volume down.
Support for more formats: Since WMP is provided with every copy of Windows it should by default support most popular formats for streaming, playback and ripping cds and not simply what Microsoft offers. Also developpers would be greatly assisted in their own programs if the standard Windows codex could support most of the major formats for playback. Currently, WMP only supports ripping to WMA. I think it should support wav, mp3, aac and if possible Real Audio. Ripping cds to wav is very useful to my mind and should be added. Since most sound editing programs accept the wav format whilst support for wma is not so high still and if not using lossless WMA the sound quality also degrates, wav should be supported by all means. In addition WMP should playback aac format, Quicktime video, mp4 video and if possible streaming Real Audio/Video in addition to the current support. And if all these formats should appear to some to be very costly for Microsoft, it should be pointed out that Real Player v10 currently supports all of them and even more with extra plugins and it is still free. So, the only reason for Microsoft to continue only supporting WMA for ripping and for streaming over the Internet and not supporting aac, Real Audio/Video streaming, ripping to wav, etc, appears to be to push its own WMA/WMV format. Without saying that WMA is not a good format, since WMP ships with every copy of Windows it should at least support a bit more.
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? What other suggestions should be added for the next Player, especially for developers?

Support for the RealMedia, Quicktime, DivX and Xvid without the need of third party codecs/software would be great. The ability to copy my DVDs to my computer (make a DVD version of CD Copy) would also be great as it would enable me to no longer need to find my DVDs when I am going to watch them. Having the overlays off by default would be great (as only one application can use them and this caused problems with ATI MMC until I realized it).

Another thing I would like to see (as it makes my life easier) is the ability to minimize Windows Media Player to a system tray icon (so it isn't on the task bar). That would be a great space saver as I like to listen to music while doing things that require several windows open (e.g. web programming).

The last feature I can think of that would be good to have would be an easier way to take screenshots of video. Currently, I have to use Print Screen, place the screenshot in paint, etc... The ability to simply press a button, get a save as window, and save the screenshot in either TIFF, JPEG, PNG, etc, would be great.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

sbc — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 18:52:51 GMT

I find Print Screen doesn't always work - perhaps due to the encoding (DivX)?

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

me — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 19:16:48 GMT

please make it open to your playlist - not the nutty dhtml page on msn that takes for ever to load - even on 3 meg dsl

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

warren — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 19:22:42 GMT

jamie wrote:

please make it open to your playlist - not the nutty dhtml page on msn that takes for ever to load - even on 3 meg dsl

This is easy enough to do: add /Task MediaLibrary to the command-line parameters in the shortcut you use to launch WMP.

Other command-line parameters are listed here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/wmplay/mmp_sdk/commandlineparameters.asp

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

SMac — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 19:29:21 GMT

If as you say WMP-X is a few months away, then this won't make it in.. but if the media library would use WinFS available in Longhorn, that would be uber-cool.

I've been wishing that the backing store of the Media Player library would be something like MSDE so that we could access the media information though a conventional means.

How cool would it be to have a website up that listed all of your music that you have in your library and be able to stream individual songs or a playlist to whever you are.. (work comes to mind)

Integration with WinFS would supersede MSDE and would allow these types of things as well as the network features that FS provides...

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

Shining Arcanine — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 20:03:18 GMT

jamie wrote:

please make it open to your playlist - not the nutty dhtml page on msn that takes for ever to load - even on 3 meg dsl

That is already a setting but I agree, it should be set that way by default, not like it is now.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

Manip — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 20:06:02 GMT

Shining Arcanine wrote:

That is already a setting but I agree, it should be set that way by default, not like it is now.

Don't be silly, if they did that then how would the new MSN music store sell anything _sigh_

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

Shining Arcanine — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 21:11:07 GMT

Manip wrote:

Shining Arcanine wrote:

That is already a setting but I agree, it should be set that way by default, not like it is now.

Don't be silly, if they did that then how would the new MSN music store sell anything _sigh_

Personally, I find it an annoyance.

By the way, I didn't know that MSN had a music store, where can I find it and how much does each track cost?

Edit: Regarding this article:

http://www.nordichardware.com/interview/2004/ATi_Catalyst/

ATI wrote:

We have hardware acceleration for Windows Media Video coming, but we need Microsoft to provide an update to Windows first. Our code is complete in the control panel option, but the deblocking code is not functional yet, due to the Microsoft dependency. Unfortunately we didn't get all the dependencies we needed, so as of this time it’s just a hidden checkbox which does nothing

I would like to see an update to the Windows Media technologies that would enable ATI to accelerate Windows Media Video. I'm not sure whether or not this would accelerate playing, encoding, or doing both in the Windows Media format but whatever improvement that Video Accelerating Windows Media Video brings I would like to see.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

Catatonic — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 22:01:42 GMT

I wish you could share the media library so everyone on the LAN doesn't have to do a "search for media files".

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

barogers — Mon, 19 Apr 2004 02:51:09 GMT

sbc wrote:

I find Print Screen doesn't always work - perhaps due to the encoding (DivX)?

Most video is drawn in what's called Overlay mode, meaning that the frames are copied directly into a region of the frame buffer on the video card rather than through GDI. Print Screent (the keyboard button) operates at the GDI level.

That said, many other media players have a special Capture Frame button that is smart enough to go find the frame you're looking for and write it into the clipboard. It's a handy feature.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

lars — Mon, 19 Apr 2004 14:47:34 GMT

In my experience WMP doesn't support MPEG2 movies without some form of extra install. MPEG1, yes, but not MPEG2. That just has to change. The only valid reason I can see for overlooking this is licensing problems. But please do try to resolve that. It's a very big source of aggrevation and makes people turn to other players.

Some players let's you do reverse or fast forward with the scroll wheel on the mouse. I'd like to see that in WMP.

Personally I always run the older mplayer2.exe. First of all because I can pause with the spacebar. Very handy. Second, I don't want any skins. Ever. And I haven't found any way to remove them from the current version. I remember it as harder to get at the codec settings (context menu->properties->advanced) in the newer version. Please don't hide these away!

I see the possible legal problems with supporting Quicktime and Realmedia out of the box. But if it can be done, please do it. The Realone player is awful and one of the most unusable intrusive piece of crap I've come across. Any effort that enables more users to get by without installing it is a contribution to humanity. I would also like to see DivX, Ogg and AC3 playback support. I think http://www.videolan.org/ is a role model in that aspect. It's a great player and the one that WMP have to outshine.

And a final thought about the Windows Media Codecs in general. Alot of people never even consider using windows media for the simple reason that is it virtually impossible to convert FROM it. It's a large effort to ripp and encode your CDs and old videotapes - something you do not want to have to do twice. So people don't even consider Windows Media based on the fear of format lock-in. There are also cross platform issues. But the codec being a one way street is the main reason people never even consider windows media, no matter how good the quality is.

/Lars.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

Jeremy W — Mon, 19 Apr 2004 14:56:46 GMT

Never even consider?

That's a bit harsh. There are dozens of free converters for WMP -> just about everything.

Heck, this search turns up a dozen: http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=wmv+converter&tg=dl-2001&search=+Go%21+

One of them is single-purpose as well: WMV to everything else: http://download.com.com/3000-2194-10283863.html?tag=lst-0-3

Let's be honest. Codec lockin? If it hasn't happened in the last 10 years is it really, really likely to happen anytime in the near future?

Besides, what codecs are available which are widely used, widely supported (tools) and are free of any vendor or corporate ownership? MPEG certainly isn't, nor is Quicktime, Real, VS...

Is .AVI? I'm just curious what all those who are afraid of Codec Lockin are using.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

lars — Mon, 19 Apr 2004 15:38:22 GMT

"That's a bit harsh."

That is what people tell me as soon as I bring up Microsoft Codecs.

I'm not saying it can't be done. In the worst case you can even record the screen and loopback the sound card. But it's a hassle. The "WMV to everything" program is very neat. I was not aware of that application. Thank you. If you have any tips on application that can handle ASF sound files that would be even better. I have a few of those suckers that I want to convert. Still, I have to use a special program to do it. Not just rely on the supplied codec and the codec-aware application of my choice.

"Let's be honest. Codec lockin? If it hasn't happened in the last 10 years is it really, really likely to happen anytime in the near future?"

Tried converting realmedia recently? It's the same story. I know of two programs that can do it, and they are both suck. I feel a very real codec lock in with my ASF files that I cannot convert atm. But maybe this will be relieved by a future post in this thread...

"are free of any vendor or corporate ownership?"

XviD is one. But I don't really care who owns it. I just care about the codec letting me convert/edit with the program of my choice (which in my case is Adobe Premiere and VirtualDUB). For instance, Virtual DUB had ASF support up to v1.2. Then a certain company made sure that support went away...

"Is .AVI? I'm just curious what all those who are afraid of Codec Lockin are using"

AVI is just a container for any codec. I use DivX5. Since that codec happily let's me both encode and decode it doesn't really matter what the DivX company does next, I already have to software to decode. And btw, it was only the v3 codec that was an illegal hack.

Now, is there any Microsoft tools that allows me to convert FROM ASF/WMA/WMV (whatever the difference between them may be).

/Lars.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

sbc — Mon, 19 Apr 2004 16:05:35 GMT

lars wrote:

Personally I always run the older mplayer2.exe. First of all because I can pause with the spacebar. Very handy. Second, I don't want any skins. Ever. And I haven't found any way to remove them from the current version. I remember it as harder to get at the codec settings (context menu->properties->advanced) in the newer version. Please don't hide these away!

You should try Media Player classic - it looks like the old media player and can play other video and sound formats (as long as you have Real Player, Quicktime, DivX etc installed). Spacebar pausing as well.

Some prefer the old version as it is less bloated and don't need the extra features.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

SKG — Mon, 19 Apr 2004 17:30:26 GMT

This may seem like a simple request, but, how about replacing "Sound Recorder" with some feature in WMP that can record straight from my sound card/USB/FireWire?

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

ChrisL — Mon, 19 Apr 2004 19:01:42 GMT

lars wrote:

In my experience WMP doesn't support MPEG2 movies without some form of extra install. MPEG1, yes, but not MPEG2. That just has to change. The only valid reason I can see for overlooking this is licensing problems. But please do try to resolve that. It's a very big source of aggrevation and makes people turn to other players.

An MPEG-2 decoder costs about $2.50 to ship per copy. A DVD decoder is almost $5 per copy. That's a HUGE cost for a free product like WMP.

---

75% of the reported errors are due to codec issues. So that should be the #1 thing to look at changing. The consumer has no idea what a codec is and tell them to get the 4CC and go download that codec is not the way it should be. Support should be included for DivX, XviD, Ac3, Mp4, AAC. If QT and Real can be supported that great too. If not, it needs to be _documented_ better. If a user tries to play a .RAM clip WMP should know and tell the user it's not supported. WMP should also offer a link to Real's site so they can download the correct software to view the files.

---

Getting more support for portable players is a must. Along with a burning engine that works right _every_ time.

---

DRM support needs to be better documented as well. The user has no idea what DRM is and even why they can't burn the song they just paid for b/c the license doesnt allow it.

---

The common line switchs need to do more. The advanced users would LOVE for WMP to launch fullscreen without ever seeing the GUI and start playing a video or DVD from a CD/DVD.

---

MP3 ripping support should use LameACM. I have failed many times to get it to work but still have not had major success. (Or) better documentation of the licenseing cost's for the FhG encoder. Again, WMP should have a good enough help system to know what the user is trying to do and suggest good ways to fix it.

---

I second SKG's request.

---

Chris Lanier
Microsoft MVP - Digital Media

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

SMac — Tue, 20 Apr 2004 00:51:01 GMT

Here's somewhat of a request from Tim Sneath awhile back..

http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2004/03/25/96036.aspx

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

Shining Arcanine — Tue, 20 Apr 2004 01:28:12 GMT

barogers wrote:

sbc wrote: I find Print Screen doesn't always work - perhaps due to the encoding (DivX)?

Most video is drawn in what's called Overlay mode, meaning that the frames are copied directly into a region of the frame buffer on the video card rather than through GDI. Print Screent (the keyboard button) operates at the GDI level.

That said, many other media players have a special Capture Frame button that is smart enough to go find the frame you're looking for and write it into the clipboard. It's a handy feature.

Overlay mode can only be used by one application which is why it would be nice to see use of it turned off in WMP by default.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

yeep — Tue, 20 Apr 2004 15:23:15 GMT

My ideas:

* A better or clearer media library. I like the one in WinAMP 5, why not 'embrace and extend' that one?
* A very simple, small skin that comes with WMP by default. A skin which I can collapse into a single small bar so I can keep the player out of my precious screen space as much as possible, whiles till being useful. Again, like the WinAMP 5 'WindowShade'-mode.
* Icecast/Shoutcast support by default.
* Threaded GUI. Sometimes WMP does something (like trying to access a network resource, or starting up a CD-ROM), or even opening an AVI file and it just hangs while it waits for some operation to complete or fail. I find this to be a major design flaw. The UI should _never_ stop responding.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

sbc — Fri, 23 Apr 2004 10:34:16 GMT

I have found that if you set another player to open AVI or other video files, the setting is (partially) ignored in folders with the folder template set to videos.

i.e. If I double click a video file, it opens in Windows Media player, yet if I right-click the file and select open it uses the proper player.

Is this a Windows bug?

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

redvamp128 — Fri, 23 Apr 2004 21:37:03 GMT

FOR WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 9 I know it works for me on builds 3xxx and up - The CTL-I (eye key) but does not work when the player is at full-screen- It brings up a capture mode.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this feature-

I would like to see like a play as ghost feature on my desktop similar to that of the Ati Dvd so I can see what song tittle is playing next without it having to overtake what I am working on.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

me — Fri, 23 Apr 2004 21:56:14 GMT

Pie in the sky request:

Make really indepth skin called "Microsoft Stereo" (or something) that runs from Notification area - if i click it - what looks like an entire cool black stereo - slides up from bottom of screen - with tuner, amp, equilizer, tv, speakers.. the whole bit.

If i click the speakers - it opens volume options.. i can maximize TV - or view full screen - or minimize tv - leaving rest of stereo open. There should also be an option for different sizes - and perhaps a "Make floating - or Dock to bottom/top/side option.

Also some way of viewing CDs- perhaps in a jukebox format - that displays all the covers..

- k it wont be easy but if its gotta be big and bloated - go all the way.. MS Stereo (y)

ps - a regular request would be to have Left and Right balance slider ( most tuner skins ( if not all?) omit this..

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

androidi — Fri, 23 Apr 2004 23:29:04 GMT

When in fullscreen ESC changes to windowed state, in windowed state ESC could quit the WMP (in case boss comes).

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

Jaz — Sat, 24 Apr 2004 00:35:54 GMT

from the looks of things, most people would prefer it if you just bought out Nullsoft.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

me — Sat, 24 Apr 2004 00:45:52 GMT

oh ya - one more thing

( and im HOPING to be proved wrong

PLEASE please make a simple page - or download -
that has the following:

A functioning inline tuner with all the functions - working - that you can download - and change to be your own.

Going through the documentation at winmedia.com site is just to complicated.. codecs? licencing? bla bla..

its to show baby videos to my family!

also:

same thing as above for a real - not in browser - winmedia tuner skin,

yes i know - i can READ all about it at ms.com.. but i have found no simple - inline and regular sample versions - that you can download and run - that have it really really easy to customize ( replace all graphics - move stuff around)

hey - make the main template open in frontpage 2003 - help me learn behaviours and layers ( workin on it)

if this already exists.. please tell me WHERE!

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

Shawn — Sat, 24 Apr 2004 03:55:33 GMT

Jaz wrote:

from the looks of things, most people would prefer it if you just bought out Nullsoft.

Too late! AOL bought them out a few years ago.

Good point though. Winamp is the only thing I use for audio files. I use Media Player Classic for everything else.

That being said, it would be really nice to be able to use WMP X to buy music with much like you can with iTunes. Unfortunately, I think that the iTunes client is even more pathetic that the one that Real puts out.

Apple do you really need to install 3 system services and Quicktime AND set all four of them to start automatically when Windows? (Maybe we can call it the most bloated Windows application. Ever.)

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

RicarDog — Tue, 04 May 2004 04:01:22 GMT

Support for M4A/MP4/AAC file types. They are the next generation of MP3 files. Since it's an open standard, it's easier to implement than RealVideo, QuickTime, etc. Some popular players (WinAmp, iTunes) already have support for them.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

jonathanh — Tue, 04 May 2004 04:40:10 GMT

Before we lose another thread of product suggestions, could you all make sure you keep WindowsMediaPlayerFeedback up to date with your ideas? I've thrown in some sample headings, but add or change as you see fit - it's the wiki way...

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

jmutchek — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 15:40:37 GMT

I would REALLY like to see the ability to set equalizer settings through the object model for an embedded player.

Thanks!

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

moofish — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 17:37:13 GMT

This topic is already a year old now and WMP10 was out ages ago, but problems still remain.

I can tell you that I would like to see:

1. Revamp AMG's database entry methods so when Ripping CD's and having to type data into the database allow for custom entries in Genre or at least use the list WMP has (ADV tag editor/genre) look at the selection, now compare this to AMG's meagre list, also allow for extering pictures and some of the entered information takes months to get passed, plus info entered can be half complete or completely unnacruate - so proof checking

2. When Ripping a CD the data recognised and entered should be formattable much like the option in MS Word: Format/Change Case/Title Case, if this is done before they are ripped it saves time doing it twice (file name and song title property field) when they are files on a computer

Att: Robert S. you said you were going to set up an interview with the WMP team. I know you must be busy with the Vista Beta 1 release and PDC, any further progress made **remember that problem list I sent**

Regards,

Samuel, UK

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

Nick Halloway — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 20:38:09 GMT

Better podcast/sync implementation.

It should be possible to have WMP 10 automatically sync new podcasts from a monitored folder on your computer to your device. I know it can do this currently with Autosync "Fresh Tracks" but the implementation is not as good as it could be.

If I use this option, and delete a podcast from my computer, to conserve disk space for instance, it is automatically deleted from my device the next time I sync. I would like to delete the files on my device on my own, regardless of their state on my computer.

I know I can just manually sync the files, but what I am looking for is an automatic copying of all files in a certain directory, and then deleting them from my computer after they have been copied, perhaps using rules or a batch file, whenever my device is attached or at certain time intervals.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

JohnAskew — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 20:44:36 GMT

Support for .flac, .ape?

Too many formats, you have to rule them all.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

me — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 21:47:56 GMT

fast forward and fast reverse (as lars mentioned)

doing some video stuff last few days and its a drag moving the slider (ha)

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

Mike Dimmick — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 22:11:47 GMT

jamie wrote:

fast forward and fast reverse (as lars mentioned)

Works for me in WMV files in WMP10 - the 'fast' buttons are located at either end of the position slider. Doesn't work too well when streaming.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

me — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 22:26:10 GMT

ha - youre right. i never noticed those before

still - they dont seem to go fast enough

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

jsrfc58 — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 00:42:45 GMT

Media Player 10: one time I was in the middle of playing a song, and I right-clicked on the file in explorer. I then clicked on the license tab, and whammo, my computer rebooted. It went right to the BIOS screen. Twice.

Today, I had media player playing a CD, and plugged in my USB digital camera. I then attempted to download my photos. The entire screen went black.

Yup, completely black.

The monitor was fine, the computer was still running, although I couldn't get rid of the blank screen. I shut down and rebooted and everything was fine.

I don't know if that was Media Player's fault or a buggy camera driver. Or something with the video card (thanks Compaq!).

Jamie wrote:

ha - youre right. i never noticed those before
still - they dont seem to go fast enough

If you click once on the fast forward button, it will take you to 1.4X the normal speed. If you click on it again, it will go 2X normal speed. If you click on it yet again, it will go 5X the normal speed.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

me — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 00:52:00 GMT

jsrfc58 wrote:

If you click once on the fast forward button, it will take you to 1.4X the normal speed. If you click on it again, it will go 2X normal speed. If you click on it yet again, it will go 5X the normal speed.

thanks jsrfc58 -
i did that - but option a) is too slow - b) is too slow and c) is like a fast stop frame... its a computer.. cant it play smooth and fast like an old vcr can?

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

jsrfc58 — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 01:08:40 GMT

Probably not...although that would be really nice (ask Larry Osterman...maybe he knows?). My guess it is the ol' analog/digital thing, but that still doesn't seem right:

vinyl records, cassette tapes*, 8-tracks, VCR tapes = analog
CDs, DVDs, computer video/audio formats = digital

I would think it would be theoretically possible...it is sort of akin to speeding up graphics animations. All the steps are still there, but you just go through them faster.

Slightly off-topic: What's funny, though is that people like my dad still swear up and down that they can tell a difference between the quality of vinyl records and CDs (he has a lot of audio equipment from all different decades). I think he even has a couple of vacuum tube amplifiers around (the ones with the glass tubes that glow orange), a reel-to-reel recorder, and a bunch of other stuff.

In fact, when I was a kid he showed me how to splice reel-to-reel audio tapes together. :O

* whatever happened to the DAT (digital audio tape)?

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

typhoon121 — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 17:27:28 GMT

How about not redoing the interface every version. Also deploying updates to the program like the drm updates and the video accelarion through the built in updater instead of microsoft/windows update.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

DevilsRejection — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 17:48:18 GMT

can you not bump threads this old?!

for the love of god!

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

W3bbo — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 18:04:58 GMT

See these images I uploaded a while ago.

Obey cleartype settings!

And other stuff.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

NeoTOM — Wed, 17 May 2006 01:23:56 GMT

I'm still upset about this. Does the WMP team seriously read that wiki? I'm getting a sort of "that's nice, kids" vibe.

Can anybody provide a link to the WMP team blog? Do they even exist?

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

harumscarum — Wed, 17 May 2006 02:32:22 GMT

Don't forget this thread. Since WMP is embedded with the OS they are allowed to be arrogant and deliver whatever they feel is needed. If a media player was not delivered with the OS I wonder if itunes would be on the majority of pcs.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

intrepid — Wed, 17 May 2006 03:17:15 GMT

I definately want it to play rm and quicktime file. Just pay them out Microsoft! And make it (un)FairPlay compatible... at least it'd keep all the idots with iPods happy.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

yogaman — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 21:17:29 GMT

WMP does allow 3rd party codecs to be installed and will play the associated files, yet will not list the playable files in the Media Library.

It's been more than three years since this reasonably trivial feature addition was requested.

Sheesh.

Coffeehouse - How should Media Player be improved?

Scott.Esbrandt — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:23:18 GMT

I would chuck the whole UI, no one wants a big bulky media player, and keyboard controls would definitely help. Take a page from winamps book.