With the advent of the Internet the whole world suddenly became connected to everywhere. A little after and before (most probably) media formats were developed for computers. These allowed things such as short movies and music to be viewed at home over the Internet with ease. Probably the most famous of these formats has been mp3, which has caused the music industry to re-think how it does business. Also mpeg (a format that allows video as well as sound) has become quire popular and you now get movie trailers over the Internet, this has also been used with the DVD Video format.
Anyway enough of the brief introduction, I am going to talk about the Windows Media Player (version 7 or so ). With all of media content available to you on the Internet which media player do you choose? This is a good question, there are loads that you can choose from such as Winamp, QuickTime and other players, which may just specialize in one format. It is hard to say this, but the Windows Media Player is actually quite a good bit of software. Arrgghhhh! There I've done it, I have praised a Microsoft program! But with good reason, please read on
** How to get it? ** Just like
Internet Explorer this is a free bit of software, just what we like to hear! The windows media player does come bundled with all versions of Windows from as far back as Windows 3.1 if I remember correctly! Over those years as you can imagine it has changed a lot, both in the formats it plays and how it looks. Any way back to how to get it
If you want the latest version of Windows Media Player you can download this off of the Microsoft Website. This can be done from the Windows Update Website located at: windowsupdate.microsft.com. Or the Windows Media Player can be downloaded from the Windows Media Player Website located at: www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia.
The latest version is Windows Media Player version 7.1, this is for Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows Me, and Windows 2000. There is a different version for Windows XP, but I will not be going into that. The only problem with downloading the Windows Media player is that it is about 10 MB in size, which takes a long time to download if you have a slow modem (in fact Microsoft estimate that at 28.8 kb it will take 49 minutes to download). I didn't have this problem, as I use Windows Media Player at work it downloaded in about 2 minutes, tee hee!
** System Requirements ** Minimum Microsoft Windowsฎ 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows 2000, or Windows Millennium Edition Pentium 166 megahertz (MHz) processor 32 MB RAM 28.8-kilobits per second (Kbps) modem 16-bit sound card 256-color video card
Recommended Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows 2000, or Windows Millennium Edition Pentium or AMD Athlon K6 266 MHz processor or faster 64 MB RAM 56-Kbps modem 24-bit true colour video card
** What can it play? ** So you have the Windows Media Player or may be you don't? So what you want to know is what formats does this media player actually handle? Well if you read on a little you will be informed, here I go the formats that the Windows Media Player can handle are:
Windows Media File Windows Media Audio File Windows Media Audio/Video File Video File Audio File Movie File (MPEG) MIDI File Indeo Video File AIFF Format Sound AU Format Sound CD Audio Track (it can play CD's)
Along with being able to play these formats the Windows Media Player can also be tuned into Internet radio. This is very easy to tune in as Microsoft nice as they are provide you with a website to search for radio stations over the Internet. Once you have found one all you have to do is to double click on it and it will install into your media player, this makes it easy to get to the next time you want to listen!
** Ease of Use ** This is a very easy bit of software to use, if you want to listen to a CD when the CD is inserted then the Windows Media Player will automatically load and start to play the CD. If you are browsing the Internet and you start to download an mp3 or an mpeg then the Windows Media Player will automatically take over the download of the file and start to play it when it gets a big enough buffer for it to do so. It is easily customisable and the program even checks for it own updates on the Internet for you, although this can be quite annoying if it actually finds an update (this can be disabled though). This is as easy a media player as you will find to use, everything is clearly labelled and you can't get lost using this hopefully!
** Other Features ** Well apart from playing all of these formats the Windows Media Player can also be customised quite a lot. You can choose a new skin for the program, this idea most probably stolen from the Winamp program (which I don't use as it crashes my work PC), which is highly customisable and came up with skins a long time before the Windows Media Player. Any way back to skins giving the Windows Media Player a new skin changes the interface to the player. You can make the player look different, you could give it the classic Media Player look or you could make the Media Player an anime look, if you wanted. My self I have chosen the most compact skin that I can find, which sits nicely in the corner of the screen causing no harm to anyone! The ability to change the appearance of the Windows Media Player although completely useless is quite nifty, I think at least!
Another thing that you can do to customize the Windows Media player is the visualizations (probably also stolen from Winamp) that it displays. A visualization is displayed when playing music be it mp3 or from a CD, it is an electronic representation of the music that is playing. There are numerous different visualisations available all of which are very cool. I find them quite relaxing if taking a short break from doing work as they appear differently depending of the song that is being played. The different types of visualisations that you can have are: Ambience, Bars and Waves, Particle, Plenoptic and Spikes. Within these groups there are numerous different effects that you can have displayed. You can also download new visualisations for the media player to use.
** My Thoughts ** The Windows Media Player is just as good as any player that you can use to play music or videos on your computer. Perhaps the download is a little too large at 10 MB it is quite big, where as the full Winamp is only 1.6 MB. The Windows Media player does what it is meant to do very well and if you are not fussed that you can customise Winamp more than the Windows Media Player then you might as well use this. At home I wouldn't use the Windows Media Player only because the download is just too big, I couldn't be bothered to wait an hour for the download.
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many Windows XP productivity programs in Windows XP Mode and recover data easily with automatic backups to your home or business network. You can also connect to
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including the ability to run many Windows XP productivity programs in Windows XP mode. For added security, you can encrypt your data with BitLocker and BitLocker To Go.
Postage & Packaging:Free Delivery Availability:3-7 days
Windows 7 Ultimate is the most versatile and powerful edition of Windows 7. It is ... more
including the ability to run many Windows XP productivity programs in Windows XP mode. For added security, you can encrypt your data with BitLocker and BitLocker To Go.
Postage & Packaging:Free Delivery Availability:3-7 days
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many Windows XP productivity programs in Windows XP Mode and recover data easily with automatic backups to your home or business network. You can also connect to
Postage & Packaging:Free Delivery Availability:3-7 days
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favorite photos, videos, and music. You can even watch, pause, rewind, and record TV. Get the best entertainment experience with Windows 7 Home Premium.
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Postage & Packaging:Free Delivery Availability:3-7 days
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favorite photos, videos, and music. You can even watch, pause, rewind, and record TV. Get the best entertainment experience with Windows 7 Home Premium.
Postage & Packaging:Free Delivery Availability:3-7 days
Jan 31st, 2002
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