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Windows Media Player 10 Beta Debuts

By David Worthington, BetaNews

June 6, 2004, 1:00 AM

Two and a half years after previewing the previous "Corona" generation of its media platform, Microsoft has let loose a technical beta of Windows Media Player 10.

Windows Media Player 10 includes additional access to online music stores, as well as increased support for digital media devices. On the outside, the beta features an improved user interface and an enhanced jukebox mode.

The player debuts Microsoft's next generation digital rights management
technology, code-named Janus, to support inline access to a multitude of
music stores in WMP's "Digital Media Mall." To complement music
purchases with portability, WMP 10 supports a host of media devices and
features a new synchronization technology derived from Microsoft's
Portable Media Center devices.

The interface of Windows Media Player has been cleaned up to provide
faster access to commonly used features. Microsoft has also garnished the
player with a brand new look and feel. Some of WMP's advanced features
are now available in the library, and Microsoft has promised "smart"
jukebox features.

Windows Media Player 10 Beta may be downloaded via FileForum.

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By jakefloyd

edited Jul 8, 2004 - 6:31 PM

It downloaded fine,instaled fine,the interface looked fine, but when i tried to play a music file from the open menu, all hell let loose. The player crashed, I tried again and the same thing happened, third time round a first bluescreen on this lappy ever followed by an instantforced reboot. I like mediaplayer but this is just too buggy to use and it looks like im going to have trouble uninstaling it.
Anybody got any advice how to offload this premature player from my xp pro system and return to normal would be most helpful (Bill-Andover Hydroponics)

Score: 0

By Morsel

edited Jun 10, 2004 - 4:03 PM

Just installed it at work. What a piece of crap! I mean, I know it's still in BETA but whoooh! When a video start it (still!) freezes for like 4 - 5 seconds. This bug was NEVER fixed in version 9. Geez man, this software is really crappy. And the UI...Uglier than ever! Get iTunes for a wicked music app and go download K-LITE with the Mega Codec Pack for viewing videos (http://www.k-litecodecpack.com).
Stay away from WMP10 at all cost!

Score: 0

By PTCRUISER1

posted Jun 10, 2004 - 1:43 PM

I love this player,looks great,easier to operate,and blends in with my Longhorn Theme perfect. I,ll give the 10 a 10.

Score: 0

By cmuehter

posted Jun 7, 2004 - 9:26 AM

I only have one beef... I can't seems to find where my saved radio connection are or were. Other than that all is good. If anyone knows where it's being saved or do I have to save them all over again would be much appreciated.

Score: 0

By nukefixer

edited Jun 9, 2004 - 11:14 AM

I installed this beta program from the Microsoft Media Player web site and now I can't play either the beta version or revert back to version 9. I tried uninstalling it using control panel and also even rolling back a week using system restore with no luck, posted comments on the media player beta newsgroup and have not had any help from Microsoft at all dealing with my problem. Numerous people are reporting problems... Now I don't have windows media player period to use! My advice, Don't install it!

Score: 0

By Fnoctuno

posted Jun 14, 2004 - 10:29 PM

have you found a way to solve the problem?

Score: 0

By csiebke

posted Jul 23, 2004 - 5:18 PM

I finally found a way to unistall WMP 10 Beta and return it to the original Version that came with your Version of WIN XP. Type the following into the command line:

RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\wmp.inf,Uninstall

Score: 0

By leduytien

posted Jun 14, 2004 - 12:54 AM

After installing Media Player 10, there is no way to get back to version 9! I tried to uninstall it (the uninstaller say that it will revert to version 9), but this didn't work. A bug? Luckily, I use GoBack, then...

Comment: shouldn't install it until the final version!

Score: 0

By mysteryn11

posted Jun 7, 2004 - 7:17 AM

It seems to be more compact, less processor hungry and faster. These three points alone seem to be a very good reason to upgrade to it.

Score: 0

By Novaoblivion

posted Jun 7, 2004 - 1:45 AM

I have been using it for a couple of days and I like it. Although it does have a few problems it is a beta so that is no surpise.

Score: 0

By TareqHossain

edited Jun 7, 2004 - 5:06 AM

I think the reason MS is spending money for WMP series is to bind naive music listener to a default player so that they don't feel urge to taste or buy another music player.

Again DRM integration is getting deep and subtle in every new release.

I think I'll stop using this player instead of some good functionality it provides.

Score: 0

By henry14

posted Jun 6, 2004 - 9:56 PM

When you load video files it takes longer to start playing. When you skip ahead or backwards in the video file, the time before it starts playing again is significantly longer than #9.

Best regards-Henry

Score: 0

By jfreiman

posted Jun 7, 2004 - 3:02 PM

I've seen a similar problem on my system.
When I load a video file to play (MPEG2 from a ReplayTV) the audio starts up rigt away, but the video doesn't appear until about 2-3 seconds later.
All the video and audio are there, I can rewind and get back to the first second or two of video - It's just sluggish.
-John
PS. I use Sonic's MPEG2 codec.

Score: 0

By borisf98

posted Jun 6, 2004 - 2:20 PM

So far I found only one flaw in 10.0 release. It does not close out gracefully upon the program exit, so you can not delete media files that you just played. Player still stays in memory and its process has to be terminated manually every time. Otherwise it is a decent and fast player.

Score: 0

By jfreiman

edited Jun 6, 2004 - 1:42 PM

Memory cards (SD, etc) can not be accessed with this latest version of Media Player.
The program will show me the Pocket PC's folders as well as a seperate folder for the "File Store" memory. But not the 256MB SD Memory card where I store my music.
Too bad, because it performs a quicker with my large database of songs. :(

Score: 0

By iamtux

posted Jun 6, 2004 - 12:13 PM

i kinda like it. i like the new interface better than the "Corona" style. it doesn't seem to be as much of a resource hog now though, so that's a plus.

Score: 0

By jrepin

posted Jun 6, 2004 - 11:33 AM

Well I don't like it that mach. The biggest problem is that they still have not included the support for Ogg Vorbis audio format. And it is still quite bloated and has one of the worst MP3 playback quality.

Score: 0

By Kracal

posted Jun 6, 2004 - 11:35 AM

It would be illegal for Microsoft to include such codec. Microsoft would end up being sued.

Score: 0

By jrepin

posted Jun 6, 2004 - 12:48 PM

Hm why would that be illegal. It is totally free and open format so there is absolutely no danger.

Score: 0

By borisf98

posted Jun 6, 2004 - 2:27 PM

Agree. Ogg codec is open-source and is free. However, we all know how Microsoft like to treat open-source project.
This problem is totally avoidable. Just download Ogg direct Show filters and you are in. A lot of codex are not included in most of today media players. So just download them.

Score: 0

By ZJAM

posted Jun 6, 2004 - 9:38 AM

ive heard a ton of negative feedback on the new windows media player but in my opinion i love it i cant wait to see what they come up with for it when serivce pack 2 goes final :)

Score: 0

By FailedCRC

posted Jun 6, 2004 - 5:28 AM

an "improved" user interface eh? that would be a first.

Score: 0

By Briantist

posted Jun 13, 2004 - 4:00 AM

I stated using WMP after that I got sick of that god-damn awful Winamp 3 and it's inserting of silence between tracks taken from mix CDs.

I finally got to grips with it when I stated using Windows XP MCE 2004, where WMP is the backend to the whole media system.

I can see several impovements with WMP10:

1. It automatically finds files that have been removed or moved and corrects the library entries.

2. The interface's animation between tiny/medium size is much better than the idea of the interface "skins". They were all awful and very different to everything else in Windows.

3. Having the tabs across the top is a much more logical layout - it leaves more room for the column data, and removes the interface nightmare of the hide/show tabs.

However, I still have two problems with it. I have about 20,000 MP3s, 95% from my own CDs and other media (there are legit). In my own filesystem, I had to arrange the top-level firstly by their initial letter, because 28 top-level items is easier to look though than several hundred.

For me it would be handy if the navigation lists in the library could be, after reaching a certain level, be divided into A-Z sections first. This would make navigation though thousands of items much easier.

The only other niggle is that WMP does not scale the album cover artwork as Windows MCE does. I have some that are too large for the "Now Playing" window - why are these not scalled down?

Score: 0

By Fubard_Again

posted Jun 6, 2004 - 12:32 PM

i like it much better than wmp 9

Score: 0

By nilst2004

posted Jun 15, 2004 - 5:09 AM

They who says that WMP10 is a NEW version are completely wrong ! It's still VERSION 9 with minor UPDATES - nothing else !

Score: 0

By Dreimanis

posted Jun 6, 2004 - 1:15 PM

because it is :) i like the new one too

Score: 0

By masterchief12990

posted Jun 13, 2004 - 7:56 AM

I reckon I'll wait till the fully operational version of Media Player 10 comes out, because it sounds like there are a few bugs in the beta

Score: 0

By Fnoctuno

posted Jun 14, 2004 - 10:27 PM

This is horrible first i tried to delete it , than i messed it even more up when i tried to follow some online steps to get rid of it. now i get a message of WMP that there has been an internal error. DONT DOWNLOAD IT , ITS HORRIBLE, ITS A NIGHTMARE FOR YOU AND YOUR COMPUTER.

AVOID AT ALL COST.

Score: 0

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