Jake Ludington Looks at Windows Media Player 11 Beta

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.jakeludington.com/digital_lifestyle_report/20060520_windows_media_player_11_beta.html' target='_blank'>http://www.jakeludington.com/digital_lifestyle_report/20060520_windows_media_player_11_beta.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Microsoft releases a new version of Windows Media Player about once every two years. This beta release of WMP11 both improves on features of WMP10 and bridges the gap between what we've come to expect from the current version of WMP and what we can expect to see when Vista finally ships. The biggest changes are in navigation of media, searching and the addition of more media types to the player interface. The new layout for Windows Media Player took a few visual cues from iTunes, most notably placing the playback button in the center of the application window. Sure iTunes has the buttons at the top and WMP11 places them at the bottom, but the similarities are still there. Granted there are only so many places you can put the playback buttons and centering them is likely better for usability. The biggest annoyance with button positioning is cutting off track information displayed because there isn't enough room to the left of the buttons to fit all the details unless the player is in full screen mode."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/wmp11_screen1.png" /><br /><br />A nice walk-through of the Windows Media Player 11 beta, along with some of the new features and, unfortunately, some of the annoyances. Overall Jake seems to like the player though, having installed it on his primary machine. I haven't been that brave yet, I keep beta software on test boxes only. Have you tried the beta yet? What do you think of it so far?

[Neil Enns]

I have it on my machine at home, and I'm just confused. 90% of the time what's going on in my head is "ooooh, I think I should listen to some &lt;insert crappy girly-teen-pop band here>". How freaking hard can it be to build a UI where I can easily figure out how to do that?

The new album view is pretty, and maybe I'm just stupid, but it doesn't seem to help me find the music I want to hear :(

Neil

[Timothy Huber]

I've installed it on my primary machine and have switched over to URGE for my "to-go" subscription service. True, it's beta software, but it already works better than any other music player/service that I've tried (and I've tried many - MusicMatch, WinAmp, Yahoo! Music Engine/Unlimited, Napster To Go, MSN Music, Rhapsody - to name a few).

In particular, sync'ing to my Creative Zen Vision:M works smoothly and seamlessly. I can drag and drop directly from URGE and WMP11 will download in the background while it syncs. I'm also able to set up automatic sync of certain playlists (including URGE playlists/feeds that get updated by their online columnists) and still manually add and remove songs as I desire.

All in all, I'd say MS and MTV have hit one out of the park.

[ale_ers]

I've installed it on my primary machine and have switched over to URGE for my "to-go" subscription service.

How easy was it to switch?

I have been playing with WMP 11 and Urge on my laptop, but I have waited to switch over from Napster completely. Switching will require putting it on my Media Center Computer where I sync all my players. My biggest worry is how hard it will be to find the subscription songs (I probably have around 3 to 400) and switch them to Urge songs. I have made Auto Playlists of all Napster tracks (477), but that also includes tracks I have paid for (therefore, I don't need to re-download them). I need to weed out the paid from the subscription, but it doesn't seem possible via auto playlists.

All in All I love WMP 11. While I liked WMP 10, the new UI seems like it will pass the wife factor; requiring very little help from me if she wants to download a song. I have not had any considerable problems other than a program shutdown, which worked fine once I restarted WMP.

However, I hope they plan on adding some tools when the final release is out. It still needs support for Podcasts, and more Auto Playlists would be nice. I also would like to be able to send playlists via email without 3rd party apps (it may have something like that in Urge...I just haven't found it yet).

[Timothy Huber]

I've installed it on my primary machine and have switched over to URGE for my "to-go" subscription service.

How easy was it to switch?



I had to redownload any tracks that I had previously downloaded from Yahoo, which of course took a bit of time. The integration with WMP11 and the ease of syncing has been well worth it, however.

BTW, I too would love to see some podcast integration. I'm doing it manually right now, but that's a bit of a pain.

[Damion Chaplin]

How freaking hard can it be to build a UI where I can easily figure out how to do that? The new album view is pretty, and maybe I'm just stupid, but it doesn't seem to help me find the music I want to hear :(

If it's any consolation, I think I must be stupid too, 'cause I have this exact problem. Complete with the freaking part. :wink:

I have in fact installed it on my main machine, and it for the most part works just like the previous version. There is one thing I would like to gripe about: They took the audio 'bars' at the bottom below the slider away. This isn't really a big deal, but I will often process video and won't have a chance to check it until the wee hours of the next morning. I liked the 'idiot bars' because they told me quickly whether there was audio information in the video file or if I was going to have to do it again. Now I have to try to turn my speakers on the lowest volume possible at 5 in the morning just to check a video file. :evil:

[ale_ers]

I had to redownload any tracks that I had previously downloaded from Yahoo, which of course took a bit of time. The integration with WMP11 and the ease of syncing has been well worth it, however.

But how easy was it to find the tracks to re-download. Did you just have to try to play them, or did WMP 11 tell you they were 'broken.'

I don't mind re-downloading them, I just can't go through every track to figure out what needs to be downloaded and what doesn't.

I have visions of having people over with music on in the background, and me running to the computer because everything stopped muttering, "must have missed that one."

[sojourner753]

I just downloaded the WMP11 and its definitely prettier. I'll have to play with it more to see how I like the overall experience.

Off the bat, the media info search is junk. I guess I'll have to stick to MediaMonkey for that.

I also wish they would add support for RSS enclosures (or podcasts as some know them).

URGE looks really nice, and so far the artists that I search for are there.

Question1:
Does anyone know how I can modify where URGE purchased music go? I keep my music on a network drive and would like to keep everything together.

Question2:
I know it found my music library because its listing all of my music, but I can't find any reference to the path in the options. Its not even in the Library tab.