Windows Media Player 10 Beta Available

[Jonathon Watkins]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://arstechnica.com/news/posts/1086198655.html' target='_blank'>http://arstechnica.com/news/posts/1086198655.html</a><br /><br /></div><a href="http://arstechnica.com">Ars Technica</a> just put the following story up: <br /><br /><i>"Microsoft today released a public beta of Windows Media Player 10. As it stands now, WMP 10 will be able to do some automatic synchronization of music, video, photos, and other files between a handful of devices and a user's PC. Later, Microsoft's Media Transfer Protocol will control the synchronization process once hardware supporting that feature is released. In addition, the interface has been simplified and allows users greater control over browsing and organizing media libraries." </i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/MP10.jpg" /> <br /><br /><i>"Microsoft's goals with WMP 10 are twofold. First, they want tighter integration between the PC and digital media players. One reason for Apple's success with the iPod has been the ease with which users can move music and data between player and computer. Microsoft is shooting to mimic this aspect of the user experience with WMP 10 and supported devices."</i><br /><br />Now that certainly sounds promising. 8) So, feeling brave or have a scratch computer kicking about for this 'technical beta'? Then head over to <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/mp10/default.aspx">Microsoft</a>, where they will be delighted to send you a stream of electrons that will (as if by magic) be reassembled to become the 11Mb download. (Windows XP only). I'm intrigued to see the new library organisation and the automatic synchronization to device features. However, I am reluctant to commit either of my two 'production' PCs to the cause. :? Bear in mind this warning at the MS download site:<br /><br /><i>"This release is not for production use, and we suggest that you run the software in a test environment or back up your existing data, including music and video files, before you install and run the software on your computer."</i><br /><br />You have been warned! Anyone care to let us know how it goes for them? :wink:

[OSUKid7]

Tried it this afternoon. Nice design for the most part, but I also have the bug with the taskbar tray app is making me want to uninstall it.

[theone3]

I tried this a while back, when it was very buggy. (Stable, but things were in the wrong place etc..) I would not reccomend installing this release unless your computer is in a fairly 'clean' state, and you don't mind having to format to remove it ;).


First Impressions?: A minor update with an interface fix-up. Looking good, but not quite ready yet.

[Jonathon Watkins]

Cheers for that.

I can really reccoment the artist shown playing in the screenshot btw. Andy Hunter is a great Christian techno artist/youth worker in the UK/Europe . I have seen him DJ and have this album, which is superb! You can listen to most of it at Andy's (http://www.andyhunter.com) website.

[Toshi]

Has the codecs been improved?

[sponge]

I'll stick with Media Player Classic (http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/) methinks.

[OSUKid7]

I'll stick with Media Player Classic (http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/) methinks.
or you could just open C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\mplayer2.exe 0X

[ctmagnus]

And just minutes ago, I downloaded WMP7.1. ;)

(but it's for a really, really old machine. People in this family have an issue with paying for technology. :? )

[sponge]

I'll stick with Media Player Classic (http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/) methinks.
or you could just open C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\mplayer2.exe 0X

That works, Media Player Classic adds a whole bunch of new features, Real Player, Flash, and Quicktime support with the proper codecs for one. Play DVDs with menus, etc.

[Gremmie]

I just migrated to iTunes (converted WMA to MP3). I like the integrated iTunes store. I like the WMP 10 syncability, but I use MightySync (http://www.mydocsunlimited.com/html/mightysync.html) which allows me to sync My Music with my Microdrive. I use MediaPlayer classic for QuickTime, Real, WMA, etc.

[Darius Wey]

but it's for a really, really old machine. People in this family have an issue with paying for technology

Haha...I hope you don't mean 'paying' in a monetary context. I'd be worried if you paid for WMP! >_&lt;

I remember from my past WMP9 beta days that it was buggy. Some stuff in it made me want to keep it installed...all the extra bugs wanted me to uninstall it. But what the heck...I'm gonna try WMP10 now. :roll:

[jfreiman]

Well, I too got the email from Microsoft 'inviting' me to try/test WMP 10 and after downloading it I noticed one very scary thing...

Windows Media Player 10, as it stands now, will not sync music to a storage device on your PocketPC, for example, my SD memory card.

Actually, in all fairness, it doesn't even recognise the memory card, but it does recognise my iPAQ File Store... Yuck.

There was a post on the MS beta board from an Axim user with the same issue.

Too bad, I'd really like to download some new music tonight. :(

[Darren Behan]

I can't seem to find the radio tuner. Maybe I'm missing something since it does provide a menu item for your stations (but did not bring over my stations from v9). That's a deal breaker for me since it's mainly what I use it for. Used system restore and everything is back to normal. Definitely not ready for prime time IMHO, particularly if it can't recognize a storage card as mentioned above.

db

[Paladin27]

...I noticed one very scary thing...

Windows Media Player 10, as it stands now, will not sync music to a storage device on your PocketPC, for example, my SD memory card.

Actually, in all fairness, it doesn't even recognise the memory card, but it does recognise my iPAQ File Store... Yuck.


I noticed the same thing. It sees the Ipaq File Store, but not my storage card. That sucks... I was looking foward to finally having a simple way to put media onto my Ipaq without dealing with a bunch of conversion programs and using memory readers and such. Oh well, maybe next build.

[DavidHorn]

Installed it on my tablet, and so far it's fast, stable, pretty and it works. It's far faster at browsing my mammoth media library now anyway.

[guinness]

It works fine for me, nothing is really all that different from WMP 9, the codecs are the same (for now), just a new full player layout and when you minimize the player to the tray and enable the video display, when you hover your mouse over it, it will show a small seek bar underneath the video.

But I've been using iTunes for Mp3's for the past few months, I only wish it supported more audio formats.

[yawanag]

...I noticed one very scary thing...

Windows Media Player 10, as it stands now, will not sync music to a storage device on your PocketPC, for example, my SD memory card.

Actually, in all fairness, it doesn't even recognise the memory card, but it does recognise my iPAQ File Store... Yuck.


I noticed the same thing. It sees the Ipaq File Store, but not my storage card. That sucks... I was looking foward to finally having a simple way to put media onto my Ipaq without dealing with a bunch of conversion programs and using memory readers and such. Oh well, maybe next build.

I don't know if this will work in this case, but once when I was having a problem downloading an app. to the SD Card, I read that some apps don't recognize anything but the MyDocuments Folder. If you go to New Folder on your SD Card and name it MyDocuments it will install.
Wish you luck!

[jfreiman]

yawanag,

As it turns out, there is a My Documents folder on my storage card courtesy of WMP9 - and the card isn't recognised.

[Jason Dunn]

I'll say this much for it - it's much faster at polling the tunes from my server. Now hopefully they fixed all the network bugs...

[isilver]

I would like to see some more supported file formats. I am getting tired of it not supporting Ogg files. It is the main reason why I am forced to use winamp to listen to music. Because most of my music is in ogg format.

[Jason Dunn]

I would like to see some more supported file formats. I am getting tired of it not supporting Ogg files. It is the main reason why I am forced to use winamp to listen to music. Because most of my music is in ogg format.

Microsoft will never support OGG - they support MP3 because they have to, but unless OGG suddenly becomes much more popular, they have no reason to support it. They want people to use WMA, period.

[isilver]

Maybe I just hang out in a Ogg format group but most of my friends choose ogg as their prefered music format.

I have even been seeing comparisons between wma, mp3 and ogg formats. This leads me to believe that support for it is growing. If a survey was released on what media format is preffered I wonder where Ogg would be placed.

[Ed Hansberry]

Maybe I just hang out in a Ogg format group but most of my friends choose ogg as their prefered music format.

I have even been seeing comparisons between wma, mp3 and ogg formats. This leads me to believe that support for it is growing. If a survey was released on what media format is preffered I wonder where Ogg would be placed. Realistically - very few will have even heard of it. Most people don't grasp that their iPOD uses something other than MP3, they just download from iTunes and go. I know Windows users that think they have a bunch of MP3 files from their CD collection only to find out WMP was used and they are WMAs.

[Darius Wey]

Does anybody else have the same problem?

If you click the WMP shortcut to open up the program, well...it doesn't open. You have to click it like 2-3 times before it'll open.

Hmm...thank goodness I can rollback to WMP9 if I need to.

[Steven Cedrone]

If you click the WMP shortcut to open up the program, well...it doesn't open. You have to click it like 2-3 times before it'll open.

Are you sure it's not just taking a really long time to load? :wink:

Steve

[Darius Wey]

Are you sure it's not just taking a really long time to load?

Nah...it's not. It really does take a couple of clicks for it to load.

And with a P4 2.8GHz 800MHz FSB with H/T and 1GB of RAM, freshly formatted a week ago..I really doubt I'm using all the processing power to crack open WMP! :wink:

It's just prolly a bug that only affects some computers :p