Been messing around with Media PLayer 11 for two or three days now, and I still don't think I am completely sold on it.... It seems Microsoft are turning into a bit of a Nokia - they make "improvements" that looks nice, but for some reason leave out the simplest things, and make navigation a very un-direct way.......

Simple things tho, like in WMP10 you could go to the colour chooser and tick the box for "use black background in player" - you can't do this in WMP11, which is stupid as the standard skin is the lovely black glass looking player with dark blue buttons etc - then a sodding great bright panel in the middle!

Other simple things like not displaying the ID3 data in the main "now playing" pane - WMP10 would have the album art in the middle, then top left would show you the artists and song title, and bottom right would show the album title - you con't get this in WMP11 which is daft!

The ability to add files from a specific location is also gone - you have to scan a whole directory everytime just to add a new album or couple of songs! And you can't turn of folder monitoring My music is all in a different place than the stock XP location, so I don't want to monitor my documents as the files in there I don't want in WMP!

For some reason it constantly keeps trying to update and change your track data by itself! I keep going back to it to find it has changed track titles, album titles, sometimes even artist!!!! Which is VERY annoying as I then have to go re-do it all one at a time

Navigation is a bit stupid - it's very indirect and much more "round-about-way" of doing things. I miss the expandable fields on the left in the library, which made it easy to navigate to an artist - I used it to scroll though to see if anything took my fancy to play.... Option isn't there anymore tho

It seems very "un-customizeable"(sp) in as far as YOU can't decide wht columns/fields/data YOU want to see/use, but IT thinks IT knows best - not so!

 

Is this another blow for Vista ? I'm looking forward to getting it (or was)

 

Don't get me wrong, I love the layout, and the look of it. The album covers in the library are a nice touch as it makes finding your music by sight a lot easier. The downside is that they take up a lot of room so you do a LOT of scrolling. I quick link list at the left side, like in WMP10, would be good.... But it just isn't as customizable as it could/should be.

And it is available for XP - you don't have to have Vista for it...

 

Use winamp

I only occasionally use Windows Media player for watching episodes of Two And A Half Men and other tv stuff, or the occasional film.

I never ever use WMP for music playback

 

when i had winamp and play music in it, it didnt sound as good as in media player, the difference is like night and day almost to me thats without touching the effects in MP

 

I don't use the effects in WMP at all.... But I just never got on with Winamp - just didn't "click" with it...

I am getting used to WMP11 - I found you CAN turn the auto-updating off and still be able to use the metadata services to download track data, but you have to do it manually (won't do it automatically as you play stuff like in WMP10 - but then, in WMP10 it didn't try to change stuff you already had in there)

The "add to library from specific location" is still missing which is a major fuck up IMO, as is not being able to turn off folder monitoring, and the biggest fuck up is not being able to set the player backround as black for the "now playing" part (and the lack of artist/album/track info on the now playing screen)

 

Whats ur MSN thrush ?

I think i can solve all ur little gripes

 

I don't have MSN - my PC spat it's dummy out when I tired to reinstall it, so I gave up PM me

 

Right click -> tools -> options -> library -> monitor folders -> advanced options

 

Already been there

Best I can get from it is to ignore the "documents and settings folder" but it still won't let me ignore or remove the "rip folder"

 

Just rename the folder that its currently set to be your rip folder.

ie mine is set to rip from K:/Users/Peter Richardson/Music , which is the default u cant get rid off.

Just rename your "my music" folder, problem solved LOL

 

Well, think I am getting used to it. Whilst I still can't turn the montioring off, it's not too much of a problem with it monitoring the rip folder, as I found out that when you move the folders and files, WMP realises this, and renames the filepaths for the items so you don't have to reload them into the library again Still, can't stop it monitoring My Documents tho

The lack of "Add to Library from a Specific Location" button isn't that much of a headace anymore as I realised you can drag and drop a folder or single/bunch of files to add them to the library, which is usefull. Still not as convinient as the above button would be (like how it was in WMP10)

But I still think the now playing interface is pure madness!!!! Not being able to select a dark backround is pony, and the lack of track/artist/album data is stupid!

This is how it looks;

http://i19.tinypic.com/4h7gu4x.jpg

And after 5mins in photoshop, this is how it could look. Changed backround colour, added artist and track data to the left top corner in the main pane, added artist and album data to below the thumbnail of the album cover in the top right pane. then added no. of tracks and total playing time of playlist to a new bottom right pane. Would make it much better IMO...

http://i18.tinypic.com/2ijl10k.jpg

Other than that, I really like the layout in the library, tho navigation isn't as customizable as it should be, and isn't a "direct" as it was in WMP10...

 

I've also been playing with the graphic EQ on it, and with mild tweaking, it's outputting a great mix now! I've always liked WMP as it sounds good even with the EQ turned off, but after spending an hour or two teaking it with different tracks and reference material, it sounds fapping superb now