Windows Media Player 10 Reviewed 484
An anonymous reader writes "Paul Thorrott reviews Windows Media Player 10 and notes that unlike Apple's iTunes Music Store, which offers music that is only compatible with Apple's iPod portable player, WMP 10 will work with songs from virtually any other online music store. There are more screenshots here with a download link." Reader Thomas Hawk writes "I wrote my Microsoft Windows Media Player 10 Review today the first day the software was released and one of the first reviews on the product. I basically give it good marks but there are definiately some things that they can still improve upon."
An anonymous reader writes "Since I'm somewhat wary of Microsoft's new software (particularly DRM-laden Media Player types,) I was paying attention to the EULA and privacy agreements provided when downloading the software. Ironically enough, the privacy page linked from the installer (at time of writing) merely said "TODO: Privacy policy goes here". Most certainly an honest mistake, but in the meantime it appears there is in fact no policy on privacy (or it has not yet been taken into consideration) in WMP10."
No Privacy Policy? (Score:3, Insightful)
iTMS vs. WiMP10? (Score:5, Insightful)
Wtf does that mean? What does iTunes Music Store have to do with WiMP 10? iTunes (not the music store) can play mp3s, which means it's compatible with almost every other online music store too. It's just MS's WMA format that iTunes can't play, but neither can any other player anyways.
That's nice and all... (Score:2, Insightful)
Ya know... (Score:5, Insightful)
WMP 10... yay... (Score:4, Insightful)
Its not like I need the playlist stuff, Winamp (2.9) handles music, I only use WMP for video, which rarely needs a playlist, and even then, if I need a playlist for video, I do it with Winamp.
I still like iTunes and WinAmp (Score:5, Insightful)
No privacy? (Score:3, Insightful)
"Honest Mistake" (Score:3, Insightful)
Coming from a MegaCorp, I would expect something more like...Whoops, sorry, we accidentally sold your information to interested third parties including the DHS. We sincerely apologize for the honest mistake.
But you're right, this does look like an honest mistake. But it's more like a sign of the future to come.
Re:iTMS vs. WiMP10? (Score:5, Insightful)
They're comparing a Media Player to an Online Music Store
My Stereo is so much better than that music store over there because it plays tapes, cds, minidiscs and vinyl - but the store only sells vinyl.
The good, the bad, the really, really ugly (Score:5, Insightful)
Somebody was commenting on the interface in an earlier thread but I had no idea... MSN's opposing gradients from hell clash with the XP Luna scheme really, really badly.
Go look. [thomashawk.com] Can you read those tabs at the top-right? Music... ra... radio... movies & tv?
Also - find the transport controls! They are hiding in the worst place possible, at the lower-left corner, which is exactly the last place your eye goes to when scanning the sea of text in the main window. This decision probably hinges on simply not making the thing look too much like iTunes.
God, I get angry just looking at this thing.
What is wrong with them? More money than God and they still can't manage to find a visual design that isn't completely retarded. Reversed text mixed with plain. Tabs - which don't look like tabs - separated by an arbitrary hierarchy. All controls with meaningful functions crammed into a too-small area at the bottom of the window, which sits mashed nicely against your taskbar, which is usually crammed with widgetry as well.
To say nothing of how the MSN Music Store works, I can say that iTunes (and WinAMP, and Audion) knock the shit out of this.
Re:"Honest Mistake" (Score:2, Insightful)
i'm sure someone decided that it was more important to release the product than wait for the PP to be finished.
welcome to the prroduct release process in a large company.
Works...? (Score:3, Insightful)
I guess "work" has become a very subjective word.
Re:iTMS vs. WiMP10? (Score:5, Insightful)
not sure about DRM'd Songs though.
Re:No Privacy Policy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Recall that WMP 9 was probably MS's first instance where they started to make people's privacy important. During install, there is an explicit privacy step you have to go through, checking a number of boxes on whether to allow net connections to search for things, whether to use your media player's unique id, etc. And it wasn't set up like Real and all their hidden check boxes visible if you only scroll down. Very much visible and meant to be taken seriously. There's a very clear and visible "Privacy" tab in the options menu.
Re:Not impressed already... (Score:5, Insightful)
I am a Windows Media Player junkie. Having used the program for a number of years I think it is quite simply a brilliant piece of software - a masterpiece developed by extremely talented engineers in so many ways. Even more spectacular is that is free. Microsoft gives it away. If Microsoft didn't give this software away I'd gladly pay money for it. I love it.
Ugh. I feel so... dirty... after reading that.
Mp3 ripping. It's admirable that Microsoft finally listened to their users on this one and gave in. In all of the previous versions of Window's Media Player Microsoft forced you to rip your tunes to WMA. [...] Windows Media Player 10 fully supports mp3 ripping and high quality encoding at that. Kudos to Microsoft.
Something that iTunes has had... lemme see... forever?
The new "Composer" menu on the left hand window is a handy feature. Check it out. It's new and I love it. Want to create a Bob Dylan covers playlist? Select Dylan under the composer menu then sort the window by artist and select all but Bob Dylan as a performer and save it as a Bob Dylan covers playlist. Very simple, very easy.
More gushing + feature stolen from iTunes.
Ratings. WMP 10's rating system is first rate. [...] Microsoft developed a fine ratings system. How does this work? Rate each song you hear from one to five stars with a stroke of a right mouse click. Later when you are relaxing you can listen to only your favorite tracks.
That sounds great! Microsoft really outdid themselves by copying from iTunes^W^W^W innovating this really amazing feature! (end sarcasm)
Crossfading. In the past one of the things I hated most was that long silence between songs. One song would end and then prior to the next one there would be more silence.
WinAMP, iTunes, etc? Nope, it's a Microsoft invention don't you know.
Improved interface. Microsoft provided a much improved cosmetic overhaul to WMP 10. One of the things I like a lot in the libraries is that they color code (light blue and a lighter blue) between lines now making it easier to follow the data on a track across the screen.
Look at the screenshot on the page. It looks like crap. Usable, sure, but definitely not attractive.
Anyway, this "review" just hurts, so I'll stop there. I just wish we could rate this review '-1 Microsoft Leg Humper'.
Re:Testimonial (Score:2, Insightful)
What does WMP have to do with an iPod Mini? Did you realize that there are other portable music players out there- some of which play WMA files? In fact, me and my friends were just talking about one of them yesterday [slashdot.org].
Personally, I use a Pocket PC for my portable music player. A could of 1 gig SD cards, and I can carry plenty of music- while 'jogging through the park'. But then when I am done, I can go to the local coffeehouse and get my e-mail, surf the web, etc. etc.
Not saying the Pocket PC is a better portable player...but I'm just wondering where the heck you come up with your comparison.
Re:Testimonial (Score:1, Insightful)
Yeah, maybe if MS had been toting WMP as in iPod killer or something, than sure. This joke would work. But they didn't. We need to keep our Microsoft taunting at a certain level, guys. I expect more from the things mods rate a 5.
Re:That's nice and all... (Score:2, Insightful)
About 90% of the stuff I run on a computer doesn't run on my Mac. Thats why it sits in the corner next to my Sun and SGI systems feeling lonely.
They are comparing a media player to a music store (Score:3, Insightful)
Is it somehow significant that WMP 10 can play various flavors of music file and the itunes music store sells songs for ipods/itunes?
Are those two things not mutually exclusive?
Re:Anyone? Bueller? (Score:5, Insightful)
Smart playlists, shared music, the native ability to burn/rip CDs, and iTMS come immediately to mind. Not to mention the fact that Winamp has security holes and is in general far more clunky. WA4 pissed me off; WA5 is better, but iTunes is still far and away the sleeker player. I started using WA with version 2, used 5 for a while, then tried iTunes and dumped WA about 2 weeks later.
I could care less about skinning or plug-ins. IMO when developers brag that their apps are skinnable or support plug-ins it tells me that they probably haven't paid as much attention to the core functionality, and have opened the app up to security vulnerabilities and instability. As a general rule I avoid skinnable apps.
Plus a whole bunch of people in my office (including) use iTunes and share their music; I can listen to their playlist with a single click. I've been able to check out music I hadn't been exposed to before when it is convenient for me.
Re:Um. (Score:2, Insightful)
I have 3 DVD players that are capable of playing MP3s. MUCH better IMNSHO, because MP3 is not burdened by DRM.
I bet you a shiny gmail account request that your set top DVD player will have trouble with some of the DRM-laden WMA crapola from Microsoft. Heck, you can't even use MP3 CDs in their shiny green XBox. Talk about vendor lock-in....
If not now, in the near future, we will be hearing the complaints of "why can't I play my WMA files ANYWHERE????" Microsoft will tell you when and where you can play your WMA files.
Re:Anyone? Bueller? (Score:2, Insightful)
Or perhaps its like my experience with winamp 2.xx in XP, which causes a full-stop kernel panic on XP when I eject a CD.
Or perhaps no one really wants to whip the Llama's ass....
Microsoft now licences music? (Score:2, Insightful)
"Microsoft also provides a service that lets you move your own secure content..." Gee thanks M$ for letting me put the content I purchased where I want to
"Unless the migration limit has been reached, a new license will be returned that enables use of the content on your new computer. Microsoft keeps track of the number of migration licenses granted for content that was first licensed on your original computer and allows a limited number of license migrations."
Great so if I move it to my work, laptop and home computer I might not be able to play what I purchased? Furthermore, how does this work since my laptop / home run Gentoo Linux?
I'll be sticking with ANYTHING [winamp.com] BUT [apple.com] THIS [real.com].
Thanks for deciding to licence my music for me, M$ how nice of you. Not even Real does that, come on!
Re:Anyone? Bueller? (Score:2, Insightful)
Some of us like to be able to search our music easily.
Re:ogg (Score:5, Insightful)
It does not and it never will. Infact, I wont be surprised if they totally drop the support for MP3. MP3 encoding has been intentionally crippled to force the users to encode in WMA
Re:Testimonial (Score:5, Insightful)
He got it out of a box called "humor".
Doesn't work with market-leading player and store (Score:4, Insightful)
iTMS sells over 70% of online music.
Who cares if WMP10 works with the wanna-be players and music stores? It doesn't work with ones most people are actually using.
Re:Not impressed already... (Score:1, Insightful)
This isn't Insightful at all. It's blind-eye by a clueless person.
Paul Thruott is an enormous asshole (Score:5, Insightful)
blakespot
Re:The good, the bad, the really, really ugly (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:ogg (Score:5, Insightful)
Or it was to save on royalties that MS would have to pay for every single copy of Windows sold or Media Player that's downloaded.
Re:That's nice and all... (Score:1, Insightful)
How, exactly, my little anonymous friend, is MS "open" when compared to Apple? 'Cos I am totally not seeing it.
Re:The good, the bad, the really, really ugly (Score:5, Insightful)
Nail on the head, there, my friend. This has to be the best example of bad UI design I've seen come from Microsoft.
You need look no further than iTunes on Windows for a counterexample. Apple does a better job of making a UI work in Windows than MS does? Heh. I might agree that iTunes' interface clashes with Windows overall look, but at least it's not as ugly as this, and to me it actually fits in better.
Re:That's nice and all... (Score:3, Insightful)
only 1/3rd of the apps in my dock have a windows port
Re:ogg (Score:3, Insightful)
You have to pay royalties if you include an MP3 encoder (not decoder) with your software. I'm not sure if you mean "shouldn't" as in "the license doesn't say that" or if you mean it like "patents shouldn't be used like that". If you mean the latter, then I'm curious how you think those dudes should fund their research into stuff like that.
Re:Ya know... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The good, the bad, the really, really ugly (Score:3, Insightful)
Millions upon millions of people have used Windows Media Player. They have had the transport controls in the lower left for at least a couple of versions now (read several years). Why should they arbitrarily move it around now?
Plus, you seem to be assuming that the primary way that people get a song to play is to click the "Play" button, but since this is running on a Windows PC the user has presumably been conditioned to launching things by double clicking. In this case that is a heck of a lot more convenient than single-clicking a song/movie/whatever, then *moving the mouse* (regardless of whether it's up, down, left, or right), and click on a Play button.
The rest of the interface looks pretty similar to previous versions to me. The main change seems to be the move of the section navigation from left tabs to top tabs. I'm not sure why they made that change, but it doesn't seem all that drastic.
I hate Apple's brushed aluminum, but... (Score:2, Insightful)
Like many long-time Mac users, I'm not happy with the brushed aluminum Apple is using for so many of their apps, including the Finder.
But, my God, WMP 10 is just awful in comparison.
Next time I find myself getting annoyed with OS X's faux-metal theme, I'm going to force myself to crank up my PC and launch WMP 10.
It's always important to remind yourself that things could be worse even on my minor, inconsequential matters.
Sheltered life (Score:3, Insightful)
Jeez, I can think of many many programs that "Spectacularly" for free, are even more "Amazing" and they really are free, you even get the source code! If you want to see some really spectacular stuff that comes for free, why not try one of the many great linux distro's that are out there!
Where has this guy been the past few years? Seriously though what is so "Amazing" about Microsoft giving the program away? It would be "Spectacular" if they were giving away a product that were truly free, and free from DRM mechanisms, and isnt aimed fair and square at attacking the iTunes brigade.
Re:Testimonial (Score:5, Insightful)
Absolutely correct. Unless of course you are one of the ~90% of the people out there who do run their PC on Microsoft products.
But for that OTHER 10%- you hit the nail on the head.
Too bad 90% is just a niche- what the heck are they thinking when they release products to support that 90% niche?!?
Why bother (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's take the typical Windows Media Player user and say they want to play some ogg files.
1) serach for ogg on google and you find vorbis.com. "Cool, I can't wait to play these ogg files I legally obtained."
2) Try figure out where the "ogg" codec is and then click on the "vorbis" link.
3) Select OS and to come to a page which doesn't list WMP and only seems to have some old versions of winamp and some media players they have never even heard of.
4) Click "other software" because you can't find anything that will just let you play ogg files on WMP.
5) Scroll through through over 30 programs and then give up because you can't find what you need. Those with more patience will keep scrooling till they find "OggDS Direct Show Filters" which is something like the 40th program on the page. Install the codec and then realize that WMP doesn't support ogg very well and avoid ogg files in the future.
For whatever reason the people at Vorbis do everything in their power to keep people from using ogg in WMP and your asking why Microsoft doesn't do a better job at supporting ogg? Its a two way street.
The link to the DirectShow version of the Format should be 2 clicks away from the front page listed right under playes. If the Vorbis people want to see ogg marketshare grow among enduser they need to do a much better job at A)enabling them to play ogg files in WMP and B) adopting and advocating a GUI win32 encoder and c) explaing why ogg is better than mp3. Saying its not patent encumbered and saying its as good or slightly better than mp3 is't going to cut it. I don't envy them for that hard a task but I'm also not the one putting out the software.
I've said many times in the past that ogg is great for content producers. That does't change the fact that for all intended purposes ogg is very much a solution in search of a problem with regard to the idea of replacing the mp3 with consumers.
Choice is good, as long as you choose Microsoft (Score:3, Insightful)
John Gruber unspins the inanity [daringfireball.net] much better than I can.
This "choice" nonsense that Microsoft is FUDing is shamefully disengenuous.