Windows MediaPLayer 11 is out.

Grab it from the link below.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/11/default.aspx

And for bloatware-less enthusiasts or those with common sense.
Grab this instead:-

http://www.videolan.org/

MP 11 is good actually. It looks very Vistary.

Videolan is for people who are jealous that Microsofts WMP11 owns. :)

Great thing about Videolan is that it loads quickly, and seem to play EVERY single file I throw at it.

I've lost count the number of times Media player connects to the internet to get codecs and then fails :(

Plus you can open more than 1 Videolan at once, just like in the good old days of media player when it was good (and non bloaty) allowing split screen and other such useful movie viewing.

Are you attacking me with knowledge of VideoLan I clearly don't have?

I find that a total shame.
When I saw the previews of it running in Vista, it blended with everything else so I was thinking that they'd finally done away with the stupid skinned window thing and used just the default Windows look instead (since it looks better and doesn't cause me to close whatever is behind it when I hit what SHOULD be the X button for Windows Media Player, which is actually 50 pixels below where I clicked on their custom window skin).
Getting rid of the window skins is actually one of the reasons why I switched to Gaim instead of MSN Messenger. Not surprisingly, having a look and feel that is the same for all applications makes things a lot more enjoyable to use.


So... I hope that I can still make it simply be a regular Windows window that blends with everything else... since I use WMP for viewing videos, not interfaces.


Edit:
Is there anything I can't waste time writing about?


Thanks for the reminder :)

And I may look at this VideoLan thing... Does it work to replace WMP as a web plugin, as well?
Can it run Quicktime? (I am getting sick of being asked to pay money for the ability to save a file to the HD which I've already downloaded, especially since I can save it anyway with a bit of annoying, unwanted effort). (Yes, I know about QuickTime Alternative.)

I'm impressed with it so far. It starts faster and doesn't crash when it can't download a codec.

I've always swore by WMP.... but version 11 (which is only a BETA, by the way), seems to suck. Works the same as WMP has always done but its disgusting to look at. Think its been designed by a colourblind masochist spastic, and some of the skins that come with it are simply.... hilarious.

Might have a look at that Videolan thing.

Lol. :)

Well I downloaded it and tried to install but it complained about my windows being non genuine?!?!?! Say what? I have their license key sticker stuck to the bottom of my laptop.

I seem to have had that problem since installing SP2. Ah well I'm due for a reformat after 2 years of junk anyway.

Anyone know if it plays HD videos any better?

*edit*
VideoLAN is excellent and well worth having installed on any PC.

Mind you I'm also a fan of the bloatware RealPlayer. Only because I find online video spooling of RM better quality than WMV.

Phone Microsoft. They'll replace your License Key with a new one.

I like WMP and videolan and use both depending on what I'm watching.

Videolan plays everything but not always as well.

WMP often enhances low quality video better for me. And I prefer it for keeping track of music.

I'm a little surprised no-one's yet mentioned the K-Lite Codec Pack, featuring Media Player Classic, Quicktime Alternative and Real Alternative.

It has served me well lo these many years.

http://www.k-litecodecpack.com/

MediaPlayer Classic works very well, and less bloated, those codec issues in Windows are actually confusing tho.

It has a FireFox plug-in IIRC, but I don't think I've ever come across a place I need it.

Yes. Last I checked it could playback most quicktime codecs.

They won't give you a new sticker tho', so it'll be living on borrowed time anyhow.

Media Player Classic. It's WMP, before it started sucking.

What is it with the obsession with nasty looking skinned applications?

Is it really too much to ask for a plain vanilla window with universal controls? Mediaplayer has been running downhill since the release of version 7, and appears to have gotten progressively worse after that. It doesn't seem to want to stick to the 'classic' skin to save its life...

Personally I switched to MediaPlayer Classic a long time ago, and won't even think of switching back. Look & feel of windows media player 6.4 (No skinning. Ahhhhhh.), and can even play Real and Quicktime (in association with Real Alternative and Quicktime Alternative)

In my experience, it's starting to be pretty rare for an MS application to be better than the 3rd party alternatives...

How is this relevant to game programing? Some of most helpfull guys here posts something happening in his life and gets his posts deleted and MS releases MP that has nothing to do with game development and it's not deleted.

I say delete this since it has no place here, because this is not a tech news website, if you want that go to digg.com ;)

I guess if you aprrove this, we can copy and past every kind of technical news they post on sites like digg.com

Now digg that BR...

> Think its been designed by a colourblind masochist spastic

That's almost being too kind to the person involved.

> How is this relevant to game programing?

Plenty, some idiot at M$ cannot program to save his life. :)

You're right.
It's disgusting how many web sites these days are using ridiculous Flash plugins to embed videos instead of just Embedding The Video.
What is it with Flash these days? I'm seeing Flash in all sorts of places where JavaScript could do better with a smaller download -- and at less cost for the web developer who has clearly bought Flash specifically to be able to do links that change colour on mouse-over (while at the same time making me unable to open them in a new window or new tab).

I hate it plus it doesn't let you add oggs to the library. Nice one M$

Video LAN is brilliant :o)

Which are more often than not, free. Still I don't see Microsoft getting too worried about it, people are still going to want to buy their inferior products, because they are the market leader.

Maybe its just me but I like seperate programs to handle seperate tasks.

For example, I want Winamp to handle my music and VideoLAN / RealPlayer (uber bloaty but I like rm video quality) to handle my vids.

I've never been keen on one app to handle all. The main reason is I want to double click a file type and have the app which handles it up and running as soon as possible. I don't want to double click a 10kb midi file for a massive media player to chug its way into life before playing.

Why do media players take up MB of memory these days? - Isn't it a case of a simple GUI app (approx 200kb at the most) and then it loads in the appropriate codec on top. Or am I just being silly here? :)


It's a cheesy attempt to stop average joe saving video content to their hard drive to enjoy at their own leisure.

Just tried VideoLAN. Pretty ugly, aint it? :/ I don't like how the playlist is in its own window. I want it to be attached to the main one.

VLC was always a good app. You can stream a movie to a friend over the net (or just stream and let others pick up the stream). Plus you can use it to convert from different formats by streaming to disc.

You can skin it if you want.

Well yes.

...And because they pretty much hold your information hostage in many cases, thanks to mediocre support for 3rd party formats and the lack of proper documentation allowing others to interface with their formats.

going to be interesting to see whether or not the european courts are going to force them to release the file formats / API's once and for all...

I love this version of Windows Media Player.

This one's easy. Using WinRAR, extract the exe's contents. Run all the exe files manually, except the 1megish setup exe with an icon. Make sure you run the largest exe last. Do not reset. Run the program. There you go. =]

I like media player a lot, one of the best features is that my MS keyboards media player keys work out the box without any additional software. So I never have to use the UI in media player at all, or find the icon for it.

It has a far better play list than the others, like the new browser that shows the album cover, the tracks with quick links, and the option to buy online with various display configs. New image browser is quite nice not that I use it.

Overall I like this media player. Video lan is great for playing obscure stuff like quicktime, and ogg etc

maybe in an attempt to secure their content... not quite as easy to go to the temp internet folder and copy the mov or wmv if it's flashed at ya...

... or is it?

--Mike

> maybe in an attempt to secure their content...
> not quite as easy to go to the temp internet
> folder and copy the mov or wmv if it's flashed at ya...

I don't see what the problem is, I've had to show 3 of my mates a funny movie on the net, but I've had to download it 3 times. Thus I've wasted more bandwidth for a file that I still don't actually have on my harddrive.

Plus each time I have to wait for it to load, it doesn't rewind or fast properly and should the site go down tomorrow, noone will have a backup copy. And if you're on dialup, forget it!

Streaming is totally stupid, there is nothing good about it whatsoever.