Windows Media Player: which version is best?

[Tea]

Easy question. Is it worth upgrading Windows Media Player from whatever version is standard with W2K (err .. I just checked, it's 6.4) to 9 or 10?

* What would I gain (if anything)?

* What problems do the latest versions introduce (DRM crap and etc.)?

I rarely use Media Player, but sometimes look at MPGs. That's about all I do with it, but the stupid extra clicks in the file/open sequence bug me sometimes. Should I switch?

TIA.

 

[mubs]

IIRC, all the older versions have vulnerabilities that can be exploited. Safest bet is to not use WMP. FWIW, I'm on W2k Pro, and have WMP ver. 7.10.00.3059.

 

[sechs]

I have whatever version comes with WinXP, but still use mplayer2, which is, ostensibly, WiMP 6.4.

 

[blakerwry]

I use media player classic in preference to WMP.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=84358

 

[Pradeep]

Easy question. Is it worth upgrading Windows Media Player from whatever version is standard with W2K (err .. I just checked, it's 6.4) to 9 or 10?

* What would I gain (if anything)?

* What problems do the latest versions introduce (DRM crap and etc.)?

I rarely use Media Player, but sometimes look at MPGs. That's about all I do with it, but the stupid extra clicks in the file/open sequence bug me sometimes. Should I switch?

TIA.

If you by chance rip CDs, then MP9/10 support variable bitrate WMP, and lossless WMP. As for DRM, things such as "obtain unique ID" and "automatically obtain licenses for downloaded music" can be easily turned off in options. Personally I find the newer versions make it harder to actually playback a file from within the player, unless you have it searching for media files etc. Of course it's all easy if you have MP assigned to playback mpg etc, then you just need to doubleclick the file in Windows Explorer.

 

[Mercutio]

There's no compelling reason to switch. If nothing else, after 6.4, the new versions just get uglier and uglier, on top of the DRM functionality and the native support for ripping only to crappy .WMA format.

 

[CityK]

the stupid extra clicks in the file/open sequence bug me sometimes.

What do you mean Tea?

 

[Tea]

ALT-F O (or mousing the same thing) doesn't bring up a file open box, it brings up a stupid type-it-in box with another button marked "browse" you have to click to bring up the normal Windows file open window. Then, when you have selected the file you want, you come back to that same ztupid type-it-in box again. It's utterely moronic.

Microzoft went through a phase of doing everything that way for a while, back around the time that Windows ME came out if I recall correctly, and you get the same stupidity in various other applets. Unhh .. IE 5.0 was another one, I think. Or possibly it was IE 4.0. Whatever, it sucks.

Thanks all for your tips. Pradeep, I never rip stuff. Mostly I just want to play back an mpg off my hard drive. At present I do it much like you — double click on something from my computer — but sometimes I get pissed off at that crappyMicrosoft interface design and want to just say "file open" and actually get the file open box.

Looks like Tannin is going to buy me a new notebook in a week or so, so I might try upgrading Media Player on my old one now. That way, if I think the new one sucks and it's difficult to uninstall, I can just not worry about it, as the Toshiba Satellite Celeron 2000 is going to belong to Belinda soon anyway and be reformatted.

As for security, Mubs, is that a concern when you are only using it for off-line content? And from behind a hardware firewall?

 

[CityK]

ALT-F O (or mousing the same thing) doesn't bring up a file open box, it brings up a stupid type-it-in box with another button marked "browse" you have to click to bring up the normal Windows file open window. Then, when you have selected the file you want, you come back to that same ztupid type-it-in box again. It's utterely moronic...Microzoft went through a phase of doing everything that way for a while...Mostly I just want to play back an mpg off my hard drive. At present I do it much like you — double click on something from my computer — but sometimes I get pissed off at that crappyMicrosoft interface design and want to just say "file open" and actually get the file open box.

Ahh, gotch ya. I guess, my only advice would be to quit trying to open your files through Media Player, and continue to use the Windows Explorer route. Moronic? Yes. Better than bothering with newer versions of Media Player? Probably.

 

[blakerwry]

I find that explorer is often the best way to open files...

 

[Mercutio]

Part of the license agreement for MP9 was to give microsoft the right to inspect the contents of your hard drive.

Offline content or no, I'd call that a security concern.

 

[Howell]

Some people like the MRU drop down you get with the intermediate window.

Me, I work from a document centric approach and never use file|open. I prefer to keep an explorer window open and right-click open or open-with. The closest I get to file|open is file and then choosing from the MRU list at the bottom of the menu.

 

[Howell]

I started my response at about 8:30 and by the time I finally post it I see I'm in good company.

 

[e_dawg]

I used to use WMP 6.4 with WMV 9 codecs and refused to use the bloated WMP 7+ players. But I have discovered that WMP 9 is fairly decent. WMP 6.x always had problems with random access to a particular time point and FF/RW in the middle of playing a video. WMP 9 is fairly stable and functional for me. I am reluctantly impressed.

 

[Tea]

I'll give it a try then, E_Dawg. I'm going to nuke this drive inside the week anyway, so what harm can it do?

 

[Tea]

Hmmm ... Some things better (such as a fix for the asinine file-open routine), some things worse (wasted scree space, stupid shapes). Probably a bit bigger and slower, but not really an issue on modern hardware.

I bothered starting a thread for an upgrade this underwheming? Tannin is right: As apes go, I'm rather stupid.

 

[Handruin]

Well, at least you informed me with this thread that WMP 10 was available. I didn't know it had been relased, so I downloaded it and gave it a shot. Seems very similar to WMP 9 in regards to options and performace, but with a simplified interface.

So far it works OK, but I can't get DVD captions to turn off (same issue in WMP 9).