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Windows

Windows 11 is Getting a New Media Player App You Can Test Today (theverge.com) 77

Posted by msmash from the for-what-it-is-worth dept.
Microsoft has created a new Media Player app for Windows 11, and it's beginning to test the app with Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel today. The redesigned Media Player app will support both audio and video, and it includes a design that better matches Windows 11's UI improvements. From a report: "At the heart of Media Player is a full-featured music library that allows you to quickly browse and play music, as well as create and manage playlists," explains Dave Grochocki, a senior program manager lead for Microsoft's Windows inbox apps team. "The update to the new Media Player will replace the Groove Music app."

The playback view in this new Media Player app includes album art or artist imagery, which will appear both in full-screen modes and the mini player option. Media Player will also support video, which is usually handled in Windows 10 and Windows 11 in a separate Films & TV app. "All your content in the music and video folders on your PC will appear automatically in your library, but you can also tell Media Player where to look for additional content in app settings," says Grochocki.
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Windows 11 is Getting a New Media Player App You Can Test Today More

Windows 11 is Getting a New Media Player App You Can Test Today

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  • Whys (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DarkRookie2 ( 5551422 ) on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @02:36PM (#61993947)
    WinAMP and VLC exist.

    • Re:Whys (Score:4)

      by splutty ( 43475 ) on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @02:40PM (#61993967)

      I have no idea. Literally every popular player out there is better than any of the garbage Microsoft includes in their OS.

      The only people that actually use the built-in stuff are those that simply don't know any better, it seems.

      • Re:Whys (Score:4, Interesting)

        by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @02:56PM (#61994017)
        Not only are WinAmp and VLC both very capable and very available, but I also use JRiver's Media Center ( https://jriver.com/ [jriver.com] ) to manage my media library.

        • Does anyone remember trying to play a DVD on Windows Media Player, and getting told that you need to buy some kind of add-on before it can play actual DVDs?

          VLC FTW.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Rhipf ( 525263 )

            Blame that on the DVD conglomerate (Hitachi, JVC, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Philips, Pioneer, Sony, Thomson, Time Warner, and Toshiba). They didn't want to make the decryption of DVDs free and Microsoft didn't want to pay what they wanted to include it free with Windows. So I guess you can blame Microsoft for being too cheap to pay the fee but it is the DVD conglomerate that is asking for the licensing fee.

      • Re:Whys (Score:4, Informative)

        by mikechant ( 729173 ) on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @03:27PM (#61994103)

        The only people that actually use the built-in stuff are those that simply don't know any better, it seems.

        Not just that, it's also what you use on a PC that's not yours, or on a locked down corporate PC where you have no permission to install better alternatives.

        • Not just that, it's also what you use {...} on a locked down corporate PC where you have no permission to install better alternatives.

          Then there are Portable Apps [portableapps.com]:
          applications (a lot of then opensource) which have been modified in order to run unpriviledged from some arbitrary storage without any prior installation required.

          Short of gluing the USB port shurt, there no required priviledge that a SysAdmin could remove to prevent them for working.

          (And even then, it should be possible to run them from your home folder or download folder)

          • At my former workplace, running unapproved software by any means on company devices was strictly forbidden. Although the USB ports were not glued shut, we were *specifically* told (and reminded annually) that, amongst other things, connecting any non company approved USB device was forbidden. I don't think that's particularly unusual (it wasn't a top secret government setup or similar, but it did involve insurance companies and similar). I never tested it but I think there was software installed to monitor

      • Or only care enough to play their VM recordings and its just not worth the hassle of changing just to play a GSM encoded WAV file.
      • But how will MS harvest and sell your data if you use VLC or WinAmp? Won't you think of the shareholders?

      • The only people that actually use the built-in stuff are those that simply don't know any better, it seems.

        Not really true at all, plenty of us don't really use media on our PC's much, on the rare once in a blue moon I need to play something I am more than happy to use the built in player no matter how sucky it is.

    • Because they are about to take away your options just like the browsers!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Junta ( 36770 )

        But like the browsers, it'll be for the user's own good. It could be a security risk if a user is ever allowed to run a non-microsoft application.

    • Re:Whys (Score:5, Funny)

      by theendlessnow ( 516149 ) * on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @06:52PM (#61994767)
      You need a media player that matches the reliability and quality of Windows 11, that's why.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      And others like Foobar2000!

  • How is the media player different than the old one? It looks different. That's about it as far as I can tell.

  • Will this new media player be able to play Blu-Ray movies I put into my Blu_Ray drive?
  • Will it come with DRM that blocks the playback of pirated media?

    • Will it come with DRM that blocks the playback of pirated media?

      Not yet. This first release just blocks all pirate songs -- and pirate movies rated Arrr. :-)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sconeu ( 64226 )

      Yes, and also blocks anything not purchased through the Microsoft store.

    • Will it come with DRM that blocks the playback of pirated media?

      I'll likely never know since I won't ever use Wine to run it.

  • Who cares? (Score:4)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @02:51PM (#61994009)

    As usual, it will be restricted, hard to use and have lots of other flaws including some severe security problems. It is MS, after all. The company that cannot get anything right if their life depends on it.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The company that cannot get anything right if their life depends on it.

      and even when they do, people like you move the goalposts anyway.

    • My all time favorite was permission escalation execution of code vulnerability in NOTEPAD. Apparently as far back as the 90s someone thought it would be a good idea to let notepad have the ability to execute applications. How no one considered someone would use that maliciously tells me most of their programmers have stuffed unicorns on their desks and were big fans of The Care Bears back in the day.

    • The company that cannot get anything right if their life depends on it.

      The world's most valuable company can't get anything right? Damn I wish I could fail that hard.

      • I would point out that Micro$oft was in a funk for many years. It only really turned around when they began to move towards Linux.

          Coincidence? I think not.

        • I would point out that Micro$oft was in a funk for many years. It only really turned around when they began to move towards Linux.

          Coincidence? I think not.

          Nope. Just you being unable to read graphs. Microsoft's share price started shooting up as did their income back when Azure did *not* yet have Linux support.

          But even if their profit was entirely Linux based, are you saying they got their choice of Cloud platform right? I mean that kind of is my point isn't it. How could a company that "cannot get anything right if their life depends on it" make money?

          • No, you're wrong. It's all Linux.

            • It's all Linux.

              The fantastic part about absolutes is that it's so easy to call you an idiot. It has never in its history been all Linux. At its peak (and definitely not at its start) it was 60% Linux. But don't take my word for it, Microsoft has some nice annual reports in which they go into a lot of detail about their biggest business success. Go read them.

  • I will forever remember where I was and what I was up to when I learned about such momentous, Earth-shattering news.

  • "At the heart of Media Player is a full-featured music library that allows you to quickly browse and play music, as well as create and manage playlists,"

    TRANSLATION:

    "At the heart of Media Player is a full-featured spy tool with telemetry that allows us to quickly pwn your PC and find copyright violations to extort you for"

  • ...Windows 11's UI improvements

    Aaand that's enough reason not to use it right there.

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