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Windows Media Player 11 Released

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Mon Oct 30, 2006 11:38 PM
from the progress-without-forward-progress dept.
Microsoft IT
filenavigator writes "Microsoft issued a press release today publicizing the release of Windows Media Player 11. Looks like the major updates in this version are for the Microsoft marketing engine. Features boasted by Microsoft include better integration with media players sanctioned by them, and integration with their new URGE music service. Additionally, and more importantly, this version contains the latest in Microsoft DRM software. Interested parties can download a free copy"
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Windows Media Player 11 Released 25 Comments More /

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  • Can't we wait? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mingot (665080) on Monday October 30 2006, @11:39PM (#16652937)
    Hey, can we wait until the comments before the anti-MS vitrol and fud? Does it have to start right in the article itself? Sheesh.

    • Re:Can't we wait? (Score:5, Funny)

      by 0racle (667029) on Monday October 30 2006, @11:42PM (#16652953)
      Some of us are busy people, we have to get right to the bashing.

    • Re:Can't we wait? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Dahamma (304068) on Tuesday October 31 2006, @01:12AM (#16653683)
      Yeah, it's amazing. Everyone raves about iPod/iTunes but WMP is EVIL!!

      better integration with media players sanctioned by them

      iPod vs 100+ WMA devices...

      integration with their new URGE music service

      iTunes Store vs URGE...

      more importantly, this version contains the latest in Microsoft DRM software

      Fairplay vs WMDRM... one is supported on dozens of devices, the other on 2 (oh, don't forget the crippled Razr, 3!)

      Hey, I have an iPod, but why shouldn't Microsoft be able to add the same "features" Apple has to their media player? (they do that with so many other parts of their OS ;)

          • This still does not make any sense. Can users still play non-drm'd music, such as: music taken off of bt, music from allofmp3.com, and music ripped from cds? If so, what have they accomplished? The only thing wmp11 does differently is that is allows users to play new kinds of drm music. So how does wmp11 have a tighter grip on windows users?

            Plus, how does Microsoft's stock rise from this? Do they own a record label I don't know about? I really don't see how allowing to play new forms of drm music in

      • Re:Can't we wait? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Tim C (15259) on Tuesday October 31 2006, @04:11AM (#16654565)
        It's not what's said, it's how it's said. The same could be said for iTunes, which only integrates with iPods, only integrates with iTMS, also supports DRM (and one that Apple has so far refused to licence to anyone else, I might add), and can be downloaded for free.

        You'd never see it said that way, however. The whole tone of the submission is anti-WMP and anti-MS, in stark contrast to how a new version of iTunes would be reported.

        Just because something is true doesn't mean it isn't FUD; it's all in the delivery.

          • Re:Can't we wait? (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Tim C (15259) on Tuesday October 31 2006, @05:56AM (#16655093)
            So the article is also FUD; my point still stands. Slashdot wouldn't post a description of iTunes like this, and if a similarly-worded article was posted, the summary wouldn't be written like that.

            It's still FUD, even if it is a quote and directed at someone/something we all hate.

  • Apt (Score:5, Funny)

    by Jello B. (950817) <(jellobmello) (at) (gmail.com)> on Monday October 30 2006, @11:42PM (#16652959) Homepage
    I tried apt, but it didn't work. Does anybody have the source packages so I can compile it myself?

  • ?New? features (Score:5, Funny)

    by nighty5 (615965) on Monday October 30 2006, @11:45PM (#16652983)
    Features boasted by Microsoft include better integration with media players sanctioned by them

    I think these guys have got this one covered: http://www.apple.com/itunes/ [apple.com]

  • Slashdot 'em! Quick! (Score:5, Funny)

    by carlmenezes (204187) on Monday October 30 2006, @11:50PM (#16653015) Homepage
    Save the world from WMP 11.

  • What's with the GUI? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Frogbert (589961) <frogbert.gmail@com> on Monday October 30 2006, @11:50PM (#16653017)
    Can someone tell me what the deal is with WMP's GUI? I noticed around WMP 7 that they started breaking every Windows convention in the book. I stuck with Mplayer2 for a long time until I discovered Media player classic. Has the GUI improved? Does it blend in well with Vista's way of doing things and that's why its different? Or is it just poorly designed and confusingly implemented like I expect it is?

    • Re:What's with the GUI? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by XoXus (12014) on Monday October 30 2006, @11:54PM (#16653065)
      I guess they're doing much the same thing that Apple did with iTunes on Mac OS X. It blends in, but it's full of widgets that simply aren't found anywhere in any other application.

  • Controls as bad as WMP 10? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by quokkapox (847798) <quokkapox@gmail.com> on Monday October 30 2006, @11:50PM (#16653019)
    If it's as bad as Windows Media Player 10, don't bother. What kind of crappy media player doesn't allow you to jump back and forth in the video/audio with keyboard controls? Whose stupid idea was it to make pause be CTRL-P? VLC's controls are the best, you can zip around with CTRL, ALT, or SHIFT- arrow keys to skip one minute, ten seconds, or one second respectively. Plus the space bar pauses and resumes.

    Or maybe you'd rather try to slide a tiny dark slider along a tiny dark track and skip around that way.

    Didn't *anyone* at microsoft take an HCI class in college?

    • Re:Controls as bad as WMP 10? (Score:5, Funny)

      by nighty5 (615965) on Tuesday October 31 2006, @12:04AM (#16653167)
      VLC's controls are the best, you can zip around with CTRL, ALT, or SHIFT- arrow keys to skip one minute, ten seconds, or ....

      It must of been created for users that only have one free hand available - watching porno comes to mind.

  • Priorities (Score:3, Interesting)

    by debilo (612116) <shegez@ g m a i l . c om> on Monday October 30 2006, @11:56PM (#16653077)
    So I have to go through an annoying and possibly bogus WGA check and pray it doesn't result in a false positive if I want to download Windows Defender, you know, a security tool, but I they impose no such checks if I want to download a simple DRM-infested media player? Nice priorities there, Microsoft.

  • OK, but ... (Score:4, Funny)

    by rlp (11898) on Monday October 30 2006, @11:56PM (#16653091)
    I'll wait for the Linux version.

  • Is syncing fixed? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Mike_K (138858) on Tuesday October 31 2006, @12:19AM (#16653289)
    I have a Sandisk Sansa e270. For some reason, I just don't want to buy an iPod Nano. Guess I'm just cheap? This is the next best thing - 6gb of flash, small, similar interface, half the price.

    I used to use WMP10 to sync my files. It wasn't the most convenient method, but it beat doing the sync by turning the Sansa into a USB drive (it reboots forever, updating some databases). Selecting which files to sync up was fairly simple, and the syncing was fast. The biggest complaint I had was that it didn't really understand the concept of syncing on multiple computers (home and office). One has to become the main computer and the other... I dunno.

    I installed the WMP11 beta, because I was hoping that that part of syncing would have been fixed. Well, I regret that decision now. Luckily, I'm going to reinstall this computer soon anyway.

    Basically, syncing is incredibly slow now, the interface much less intuitive and for some reason it keeps uploading copies of the same files. I gave up on getting that sync right. I'm downloading the final version, I'll install it probably tomorrow.

    m

  • Winamp? Hello? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by NineNine (235196) on Tuesday October 31 2006, @12:22AM (#16653315) Homepage
    Sorry, but I think that the PC media player was perfected win Winamp 2.8. Literally. I think it's about as easy to use and powerful as you can ever get. iTunes is impossibly bloated and buggy. Windows Media Player is the most confusing interface I could ever imagine. Winamp is tiny, very powerful (if you want it to be), and *very* easy to use. I don't care how many shiny buttons MS MP and ITunes add, they both just get continueally worse with every version (and admittedly, so did the early Winamp 5.x versions). And really, how many different possible ways do you need to play music? How many iterations of "play" ans "stop" can there possibly be?

  • WMP (Score:3, Interesting)

    by JustNiz (692889) on Tuesday October 31 2006, @12:32AM (#16653405)
    Why is it microsoft can't make a gui that doesn't take more screen space than the actual content?

  • Dear God, what have they done... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Crabbyass (867531) on Tuesday October 31 2006, @02:14AM (#16654059)
    I consider myself pretty adept at figuring out things for myself, especially when it comes to new software, especially when it comes to audio software. After a short ammount of time, I have been able to get advanced, professional audio programs up and running (mind you, on a basic level), even with such daunting software as Pro Tools, Cubase, Sibelius, Finale, etc.

    So I downloaded WMP11, and I suddenly found myself staring at the screen, not having a friggin' clue where to even begin. It was literally the first time I felt like I had been stumped by a seemingly simplistic piece of software. Yes, there were all sorts of pretty buttons, some of which I REEEEEEEALY wanted to press - but all I actually wanted to do was play some fucking Zeppelin. Clicking on those fancy buttons only made things worse...I got lost and actually gave up. This has to be the worst GUI I have ever seen. I can't WAIT for my father to download this, a man who has to be reminded every time he touches the remote to press the CBL button, or he'll change the channel on the TV rather than the Cable Box.

    It brought back a memory I thought I had repressed, when after almost 20 years of piano training, I began playing the organ which includes a four-octave keyboard to be played by your feet. I felt like a 5 year old all over again, my co-ordination just vanishing. My ego took a huge beating then, and it's taken another one just now.

    I stick with iTunes because I like the "browser", which filters the songs by Genre, then Artist, then album. Yes, I know it's bloated, but I've managed to forgive them for that. Meanwhile, I found JetAudio to be a pretty good plyaer, and am downloading Media Player Classic as I type.

    I'm still searching for the one player that "gets it right". Any more ideas? Send'em my way...

  • Is it just me? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Qbertino (265505) on Tuesday October 31 2006, @03:50AM (#16654437)
    Is it just me or do other people also consider the WMP one of the shittiest pieces of Bundleware we still have to put up with? A bloated memory and performance hog, long outrun by it's free and shareware equivalents, a relic of the nineties with features bolted on left, right and center and a performance as bad as ever, despite computer power having increased ten-fold since back in the days.
    WinAmp and VLC could do things years ago that this sorry excuse of 'convienienceware' will ever be able to do. No?

    • Freeamp (Score:5, Informative)

      by Animats (122034) on Tuesday October 31 2006, @12:34AM (#16653425) Homepage

      Freeamp, which is now called Zinf [zinf.org] due to complaints from the Winamp people, is what you want. No ads. No phoning home. No DRM. No nonsense. Open source. Runs on Windows and Linux.

    • MPEG-4 is just as standard and cross-platform as MPEG-1 was. Blame Microsoft for not supporting it because they want you to use the hilarious "WMV" format for everything.

    • DON'T Get it for codecs (Score:5, Insightful)

      by RareButSeriousSideEf (968810) on Tuesday October 31 2006, @01:39AM (#16653889) Homepage Journal
      Not only should you not get WMP11 intentionally, the fact that there's a RTM for it should make you think about turning off Windows Update (if you haven't already). At least make sure you have a disk-image backup before installing it, or you'll probably be kicking yourself down the road.

      From http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/play er/11/readme.aspx [microsoft.com]:
      "Windows Media Player 11 does not permit you to back up your media usage rights (previously known as licenses)."
      "Digital media files must be in stored in monitored folders for media sharing to work properly in Windows Media Player 11."
      "Content that is protected with media usage rights cannot be played in Windows Media Player 10 if a computer already has the Windows Media Format 11 Runtime installed."

      The following issue from the Beta release isn't mentioned in the official release notes, but the fact that it appeared in the beta indicates that MS was preparing their DRM platform for a new time-limit "feature" that can be applied to recorded TV on their Media Center products (at the request of broadcasters, of course):
      "Recorded TV shows that are protected with media usage rights, such as some TV content recorded on premium channels, will not play back after 3 days when Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 for Windows XP is installed on Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. No known workaround to resolve this issue exists at this time."

      At time of posting, this could still be found at:
      http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:Eah4zybQy4sJ:w ww.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/11/re adme.aspx [72.14.203.104]

      I'm not pulling that speculation out of my butt, either. They already add more restrictions to DVD playback than any other software or consumer DVD player does. DVD playback is prohibitied in Media Center Edition when your display device is set to > 640 x 480 resolution (as is the case for HDTV use):
      http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894323 [microsoft.com]

      Even today, as of Rollup 2, Media Center Edition renders recorded TV unplayable after two weeks when the broadcaster requests it:
      http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/rss.aspx?ForumID= 49&PostID=144193 [thegreenbutton.com]

      I would be extremely surprised if down the road a bit we don't discover that WMP11 is a trojan horse for a slew of previously unheard of content restrictions.

      By day I'm a developer on the Microsoft platform. By night I'm an XP Media Center Edition user who's scared & angry enough to invest research time I don't have into MythTV & [Ubuntu || Mandriva || Fedora]. As far as home usage goes, I'm sorry, but this former Redmond fanboy / apologist is done with MS.

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