Windows Media Player 11 Released

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"

Can't we wait?

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?

Some of us are busy people, we have to get right to the bashing.

Re:Can't we wait?

Yep, it can do. WMP10 could as well. And guess what?

It's disabled by default.

Vanilla WMP11 rips to WMA format, but doesn't encode DRM into it. You have an option to do so, or an option to encode straight to MP3. Tools -> Options -> Rip Music

Re:Can't we wait?

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 ;)

Re:Can't we wait?

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?

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.

Its not a bug...

Additionally, and more importantly, this version contains the latest in Microsoft DRM software. Interested parties can download a free copy"

You're saying it like DRM is a feature.

Apt

I tried apt, but it didn't work. Does anybody have the source packages so I can compile it myself?

No thanks

No voluntary DRM for me. Not that I even run Windows anyway...

Slick interface

The big problem is that all the videos that I'm interested in are already uploaded to YouTube.

All the audio I'm interested in is uploaded to BitTorrent.

I prefer to live offline, away from my computer, so all the slickness in the world doesn't mean squat when I'm not going to be sitting in front of the monitor anyway.

?New? features

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]

Free?

"Interested parties can download a free copy" Richard Stallman has a word to say to the submitter.

Slashdot 'em! Quick!

Save the world from WMP 11.

What's with the GUI?

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?

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?

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?

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.

Free ?

Interested parties can download a free copy

It requires a WGA check for installation...
I wouldn't call buying a copy of window a "free" upgrade ;)

Priorities

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.

Get it for codecs

I might install it just to keep things up-to-date with the WMV support. I use Media Player Classic and VLC for most videos anyway, but I still installed previous versions of WMP so that the codecs it installed were complete, and I assume this will have newer codec versions too.

In other words, it's a back-end update for me. It sure as shit doesn't have the functionality/ease of use that something like MPC has.

DON'T Get it for codecs

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.

OK, but ...

I'll wait for the Linux version.

Simple MP3 player needed...

From TFA:
Does anyone out there know of a media player that just plays MP3s, and Wav files without in-your-face advertising for the media companies?

Its a fair question. Does anyone know of a simple player
that just plays the music and gets the heck out of the way.
It just keeps a list of your MP3s and will play and then minimise?

And for you apple fanboys, itunes is no better than WMP in this regard.

Freeamp

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.

Mplayer2

I am sure I am not the only one who still uses mplayer2 (Media Player 6.x) for most stuff.

Bloat just plain sucks and when mplayer2 is no longer useable I am pretty sure I will seek a 3rd party media player because MS players pretty blow.

Oh and another thing, when was the last time the media player codec download actually found the required codec and installed it for you? I do not think I can think of a single time personally.

Is syncing fixed?

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

NTY Microsoft

Nice try M$, but I think I'll be sticking with AmaroK on Gentoo. I'd rather not have DRM pushed down my throat.

Feature, or...

Microsoft may consider their latest DRM a Feature, however I consider it a Bug.

Overzealous use of buzzwords

What's up with the made up terms like 'Reverse sync', 'gas gauge', 'visual navigation' to describe what are very basic features.

Should we start applying them to general computer use too?

'Hey Bob, I need you to reverse sync that report to my computer, so you don't run out of gas, check the gas gauge, and you'll receive a great sync experience.'

Winamp? Hello?

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?

Does it work well with Opera & FF ?

I want to know if the browser plugin will work well with Opera/FF. Any one tried yet ?

WMP

Why is it microsoft can't make a gui that doesn't take more screen space than the actual content?

Still nothing comparable to MPEG-1?

I keep hoping that we're going to see a true cross-platform video format that will just work "out of the box" with the major OSes the way MPEG-1 did. With all the recent advancements in codecs, I sure would like to see something considered a standard that would just work for everyone without needing to download some other player or codec. I was hoping .mp4 might be it, but it looks like Media Player 11 doesn't support it.

Is there really no modern video format that works "out of the box" for all the major OS players?

.ogg anyone?

Can anyone tell me whether this new version will play .ogg files by default? If not where can one grab a plug-in? Thanx.

More anti-MS FUD from Slashdot.. big surprise

How about - in the link about the new features - actually talking about the new features? Instead of just a blogger bashing Media Player?

How about someone try it out and see if the "audio fingerprinting" works? That seems like a VERY useful feature, IMO!

ruined my metadata

I just tried installing the new media player, and i want to remove it before it causes any more damage. It seemed to want to eat all the metadata tags from my mp3 files and replace it with something else. For some reason, it wants to change all the artist and title info from a correctly labeled Al Green album and wants to replace it with Connie Francis. If i relabel it correctly and have it rescan the files it tries to label it incorrectly again, even though i have the option to only add missing information and not the overwrite all media information setting to get information from the internet. It is weird. I i go to play the song, a picture of Connie Francis shows up, even though it says the artist name is Al Green. And Al Green only has three songs but Connie has the rest. Same with my Beatles Abbey Road album. It has three songs but cant find the rest even though the tags are all correct in the correct folder. Also it is MUCH slower searching through my media files for changed things now. It definitely needs to go away and i will use something else!

Sorry, not in the FreeBSd ports tree...

... or available on the Mac. - I can neither .DaMaGe [read .dmg] it nor make install it. - I don't even use windows - I can't use it - As it is, I don't care Thus M$ sucks. Hence proved.

Using it for 6 months

Man, I thought the one "marked-WMP!11!" I got from Limewire 6 months ago looked alot like WMP10 !

Chief reason for using it?

From Microsoft's marketing department:

"You see, most blokes will be playing at 10. You're on 10, all the way up, all the way up...Where can you go from there? Nowhere. What we do, is if we need that extra push over the cliff...Eleven. One more."

C'mon, it's just begging for an allusion to This is Spinal Tap [imdb.com].

Can they now?

I can certainly download something that claim to be a copy of WMP11, but all I get is a pop-up complaining about WGA. Now, mind, I've got a license of windows. I can't find it. So I downloaded Windows XP. HELO Fair Use. Of course MS doesn't want me to see Media Player 11 because other people have stolen Windows from them.

In fairness, let me say that I have one Windows machine, and it exists almost entirely for Yahoo Music Player streaming into my living room, and for Counter-Strike on occasion. My other computers are all Ubuntu boxen, save the mac mini I got last week.

WGA = DRM = record players that won't play everyone's records. My Fair Use rights are being violated and no one will make it stop.

While I'm ranting, let me talk about the Angels & Airwaves CD. I had just explained DRM to my uncle for the first time when I picked up this album. On first seeing the actual disc, I was greeted with some 'SoundTone' or some such nonsense logo by the FBI warnings the media companies think I want cluttering up CD art. Knowing that RedBook is RedBook, I could only assume this had less to do with Sound or Tone and more to do with Fucking My Shit Up Because The Companies Know They Can. Sure enough, I popped it in and it wouldn't play.

When I bought that CD, I bought what was advertised as a RedBook disc. What I got was a $20 coaster that I can't use (because seriously, if I'm listening on my computer I'm not going to go searching for the disc). I have since vowed to download my music, because downloading leaves me feeling less like I got 0wned. I had stopped downloading music (remember the Yahoo Music mention?), and now they've reminded me why I should.

Dear God, what have they done...

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...

License

What about its license? I haven't bothered with WMP since version 9 because of ridiculous requirements. Something along the line of having to allow MS to scan my HD, I think. Until they release a version of WMP with a less intrusive license, I'll stick to MPC, thankyouverymuch.

Geez - Hold off with the bias already.

I'm not a microsoft fanboy at all but WMP11 is a hell of a lot better than your article makes out, and certainly a lot better than WMP10. Stop with the bias already! Is it too hard for Slashdot to be unbiased about product??? Honestly, I've enjoyed Slashdot in the past, but it really sucks quality wise at the moment.

drug dealers?

this version contains the latest in Microsoft DRM software. Interested parties can download a free copy

Why does that sound so much like "here, take a free sniff of this crack line" to me?

Is it just me?

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?

My opinion

Right, well I decided to download it anyway. It requires a validation check but it's very easy to bypass with a little research. After installation it requires a restart, which amused me somewhat how a simple media player installation would require a reboot, but anyway. The player itself looks Vistafied as you'd expect, basic functionality is unchanged from previous versions. A nice things about it is the updated codecs it installed fixed a bug where viewing most .wmv files in a player other WMP (such as Media Player Classic). I found myself normally having a 2-byte file called "dxva_sig.txt" dumped into the same folder as the file being viewed, but that no longer happens in 3rd-party media players when WMP11 is installed. Apart from that, the player is pretty basic. Don't give a crap about the online stores or other functions apart from the player.

In other words, you won't miss much.

Xbox 360 video streaming

WMP11 does have at least one useful feature, which is that it will stream video to an Xbox 360... up till now you'd need to have a Windows Media Centre to do this.

Is it possible to offline install it?

Some of my friends don't have internet, so i am just asking.

ipod management

When I tried an earlier beta, there was an iPod icon in WMP 11. But it didn't seem to be working. Did anyone try that?

Songbird

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Songbird [songbirdnest.com] here. Its still a ways away from final release but looks like a pretty promising alternative to iTunes bloat and MS DRM. Plus, its built from Mozilla, available for Linux/Mac/Win, and open source.

Interested parties?

Nobody here but us chickens.

Why iTunes?

I don't know about you guys, but I don't understand why people would prefer a media player that can't even let you sort through your library by artist, genre, etc. I find it horribly confusing to use iTunes with this limitation, especially with a large media database.

As another user posted, I think the Winamp developers got the media library interfact perfect. It was simple, organized, and efficient. Even though they have also gone off to the wayside with lots of unnecessary bloat [winamp.com] [winamp.com], at least they got the concept right.

Why Use It?

What I can't figure out is why anyone uses WMP other than the fact that it comes with Windows. I explicitly uninstall the thing and then use the K-Lite Codec Pack [free-codecs.com]. It comes with every codec known to man and most importantly Media Player Classic [free-codecs.com]. I've tried others, including WinAmp [winamp.com], but nothing comes close to the sheer speed of MPC [free-codecs.com]. Admittedly, for ripping MP3s, I do tend to use WinAmp [winamp.com]. But that and Internet Radio and Internet TV are the only things I use it for. If I want to listen to MP3s, watch any form of video file, or watch DVDs, the K-Lite Codec Pack [free-codecs.com] and Media Player Classic [free-codecs.com] are the way to go.

Billy: For a crap-free mp3 player

Billy has to be the simplest no-crap mp3 player out there. Its very light and takes up very little memory even if you like to play 500+ mp3s in your playlist. I have been using it for about 3 years and can't even imagine going back to anything else (including winamp 2.98 which was the best version IMHO) No fancy shit. Total keyboard control.

Download it Here [sheepfriends.com] They have some other nifty goodies which you may want to check out too.

Windows Media Player 11

I stick with Version 9 which still allows me to play 'some' of my Streaming Radio stations. I upgraded to version 10 at one time and none of my links would work... So I went back to version 9 and everything works again.

Re:What is this doing on the first page anyways?

Since there have been only 2 stories posted in the last 5 hours, it would seem that you are absolutely correct.

Re:Integration with Vista

From TFA, it's only for WinXP.

Re:RAM?!

I'm currently using a beta of WMP11 on Windows Vista RC2. I've got the artist view open, which has lots of album art shown, I'm playing a song, and paging around the library. It is using less than 13 megs of ram. When I minimize WMP 11, the ram usage immediately drops to under 6 megs of ram.

That's a half of a percent of my available ram... and my machine is getting dated.

Can you really not spare it?

Re:Not for Vista, apparently

Perhaps because, Oh, I don't know, maybe Vista hasn't been released yet, and WMP11 comes with Vista, so there is no need for a user to download it?

Wow, thanks!

I was wondering how the hell I could play movies.. mystery solved! Thanks Anonymous Coward!