Print - Microsoft Ships Media Player 11.0 for XP: No Surprises

Today, Microsoft quietly released Windows Media Player (WMP) 11.0 for Windows XP, a major update of its digital media jukebox and a preview of a major new feature in Windows Vista. Microsoft says the product's main features are a new, highly visual UI, simpler access to portable media devices, and integrated quick-search capabilities.

But WMP, once the star of Microsoft's digital media lineup, has been marginalized by recent events inside and outside the company. Apple's free iTunes jukebox, which works natively with the dominant iPod portable player, just last month added a visual UI similar to WMP 11.0's UI. And Microsoft's upcoming Zune portable player will eschew the WMP 11.0 UI in favor of its own proprietary interface. If even Microsoft is skipping WMP 11.0, why would other device makers--or users, for that matter--bother?

Microsoft told me last night that Zune is still built on the Windows Media platform and that the company is committed to innovating in this space with WMP, Vista, and other releases. More than 200 portable devices that are on the market work with WMP 11.0, I was told (although all those devices combined represent only about 10 percent of the market). "We're seeing new [Windows Media-compatible] devices released almost every day," Justin Hutchinson, group product manager for Windows Client at Microsoft, told me during a briefing this week. "And we expect that to continue."

There's little doubt that WMP 11.0 is a major improvement over previous WMP releases, and it offers some unique advantages when compared with iTunes and other competing jukebox software. Microsoft is providing ways for online services to integrate deeply into WMP 11.0, and though MTV Network's URGE is the only such service available now, Microsoft says that several other services will soon be jumping on board with similar technologies. Although it couldn't offer any specifics, Microsoft told me that the Vista version of WMP 11.0 will be accompanied by a number of unique new features and third-party releases. It's unclear whether those releases are devices, services, or both.

If you've been using a beta version of WMP 11.0, don't expect any surprises. For example, although a Microsoft representative told me earlier this year that the company was trying to push support for podcasting and other new features into the player, the released WMP 11.0 version offers no functional changes over the betas. Microsoft says it has improved the performance of the player's media library, especially for collections of 10,000 songs or more, and the product's fit and finish since the previous beta release.

Because WMP 11.0 is a free update and is considerably better than its predecessor, most Windows users will want to at least give it a shot. Whether it unseats iTunes on users' hard disks, however, will be determined by one simple thing: Whether an iPod is part of the equation. Like its predecessors, WMP 11.0 is not iPod compatible. And that might be enough to make it an also-ran for the 70 million or so people who have purchased iPods.

I'll be reviewing WMP 11.0 this week on the SuperSite for Windows. You can download the new player from the Microsoft Web site at the URL below.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/11/

Having tried both Windows Media Player 11 and iTunes 7. I prefer WMP. I guess it's just how I organize media. I like the fact that iTunes now allows album art but I don't like the idea that I can't copy/past my own album art to content in the player and I *really* don't like the fact that I must sign up to the iTunes store in order for iTunes to get the actual album art. With WMP, if album art exists, it adds to the player without any problem as soon as the files are brought into the library. No art? No big deal, I can drag and drop any image I want to whatever content I want. Nice. This is especially nice if one of your hobbies is, say, composing/playing music and want to add weird art to your demo tracks for fun... ...shhh, don't tell anyone, but Windows can be fun ;-) Past that, I think both WMP 11 and iTunes 7 are pretty much equal as media players. They both have slick UIs. They both make organizing gigs upon gigs of music very painless. They both play music very, very well. I don't really care about the sync thing - although it is nice that WMP allows so may mp3 players to sync (considering the software that the players themselves come with is usually pretty horrid - hear me Creative?). I don't think this will be a major selling point as everyone seems to want an iPod. That's the way the market flows though :-) Past that, WMP11 is a HUGE upgrade considering that the player was a joke for so long (versions 7-9 ... ugh). The only thing missing is an alarm clock ... but that's what I keep UltraPlayer around for.

I don't believe WMP11 and iTunes7 are on par with each other at all. I keep all my music in one giant directory. Now, on my slightly dated PC running iTunes sniffing through this folder is hell, the little album art slider thing goes to pot. Performance on a overclocked A64 3000+ actually reaches 60% in library mode not visualization. WMP1l's instant search is just that, instant. It has no problem playing with a directory containing 1400 files and I can happily scroll without lag. Another thing is Apple's visualizer, what is up with that thing? It uses more resources than 3D games, does Apple actually know how to write one? It renders visualizations at around 18FPS on a 7900GT in 'fake fullscreen' I call it fake because iTunes doesn't actually have a fullscreen mode. When I'm writing and listening to music, I like to have one of the monitors in visualizer so I have pretty colors to see, hehe. Yet another point on visualizers, is geforce. If nobody has tried it, you really should, soundspectrum makes it and its absolutely the best visualizer period. It works for WMP itunes winamp, the works. Itunes 6 was cool with it, but 7 crashes with it on, and I still can't get a fullscreen. As a fun aside, I tried this when itunes 7 came out, and I'd like anyone else running windows to give it a shot. Try using WMP11 and IT7 at the same time, playing audio. Scroll the volume to 0 (don't mute it) on one while the other is audible and vice versa. Itunes 7 will skip, because it isn't getting absolute priorty of your sound device. WMP11 doesn't have a problem, WMP11 BETA didn't even have a problem. I don't use my media player to buy music, I use stores for that. I use them to play music. And in terms of user experience, WMP11 is king.

"I keep all my music in one giant directory. Now, on my slightly dated PC running iTunes sniffing through this folder is hell, the little album art slider thing goes to pot. Performance on a overclocked A64 3000+ actually reaches 60% in library mode not visualization." One thing I noticed was that with iTunes 7, on first import it finds all the files then brings them into the library. This takes about 3 or 4 minutes for two drives of music (all told about 25 gigs or so). Not bad. Same amount of time in WMP11. Then iTunes wants to figure out the gapless playback thing... FIFTEEN MINUTES!!!!!!!! That's a little on the insane side. WMP does gapless in the player (if not, then it's pretty damn close) Then iTunes want to find ablum art... another ten minutes ... only to find out that it found maybe a quarter of the actual covers and that I'd have to sign up for the store to get the rest. WMP: Import the songs - you have the covers right then and there. I’ve even found that cleaning up the meta tags will reward you with instantaneous album art. Once all my music is installed, I didn't really have an issue with playback - although I noticed that WMP is more responsive with its search - especially under Vista. "Another thing is Apple's visualizer, what is up with that thing?" Visualizers have never turned my crank - with the possible exception of MilkDrop for WinAmp that I used to use a couple of years ago. I do know that the default visualizers in WMP are so out of date it's not funny. It seems that's the only thing MS didn't upgrade ;-) "As a fun aside, I tried this when iTunes 7 came out, and I'd like anyone else running windows to give it a shot." This I have to try, I know running WMP11 and UltraPlayer side by side is no problem at all. Then again, UP isn't all that system hungry.

Windows Media Player 11 has one of the worst interfaces imaginable. Ctrl-P to pause? It doesn't even do podcasts! "And Microsoft's upcoming Zune portable player will eschew WMP 11 for its own proprietary interface." This is the first that I've noticed this...so in other words, WMP11 is already obsolete anyway because Microsoft is abandoning it? Does this company even know what it's doing anymore? No wonder Apple's iTunes is the #1 media player in the world on both Macs and PCs.

Another IE7 flaw that was announced two years ago in IE6: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/103006-microsofts-new-browser-haunted-by.html How do you guys defend this crap?

"This I have to try, I know running WMP11 and UltraPlayer side by side is no problem at all. Then again, UP isn't all that system hungry." Its not even that it taps the system out, its something with the way the audio stream is handled. Its just silly to watch them side by side, iTunes behaving like a drunken bear and whatnot.

I gave it another shot running on the Core2 PC. This time I moved the sound decoding off board through Optical SPDIF to a separate decoder and iTunes seems A-OK with sound decoding. But it could have just been hardware specific with my other box. No weird sound bugs on the new box. However, iTunes is still a bit hoggy for me, http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/xetas/tunesvswmp.jpg I havn't downloaded the release WMP11, thats still the beta. You'll notice the 45% increased memory footprint of iTunes, increased CPU usage, although itunes gets the luxury of using its optimized internal visualizer and WMP isn't getting to use its crappy internal visualizers, its having to run the Geforce API ontop. On a sidenote, you can notice that FF2.0 still has that darn memory leak problem. 140MB+ with about 4 tabbies. Makes no sense. 2960x1050 (3 megapixels) powered by dual 7900GTs... and Apple tells me 25FPS on a 2D-visualization? I know why Apple doesn't make games, you'd need NEC's earthsurveyor to play it.

Very nice. I'm glad to see Microsoft is finally picking up the pace with Windows Media. The sleek black interface looks quite nice and one thing that I noticed was that they finally updated the mini player and the online player. I despised the fact that they left the ugly WMP9 versions of those in WMP10. Also, I'm glad they fixed the online awareness that was messed up in Beta 2 and the bug where a playlist or two would suddenly corrupt. It seems the only advantages iTunes now has over WMP is integrated iPod support and podcasting support. Their user interfaces are pretty close in functionality, the only difference being iTunes uses a pane on the left to organize sections of the library and WMP uses the top. I'd say at this point that if one didn't have a portable media player of choice that it'd be a tossup between WMP and iTunes. Hopefully that'll spark some innovation from both companies and we'll see media players improve exponentially.

"Yet another point on visualizers, is geforce. If nobody has tried it, you really should" I own it and totally agree with you. On my 1920 X 1200 screen, the visualizations are striking.

I still have to find something that beat Winamp out of the box. I use a music player to listen to music. Not to rate songs, not to view album arts, not to view the lasted country band performance. Just simply listen to music. Both WMP and iTunes seem to have forget that.

"Just simply listen to music. Both WMP and iTunes seem to have forget that." I'll agree with you on that point, the only problem for me with winamp is they make playlists a bit too complicated for me. WMP just open and hit play, I haven't messed with winamp in a while, so they might have library integration done similarly so I don't want to criticize heh. But nulsoft's product has to be the lightest player resource out there bar-none. Looking at the giant 30MB+ download for itunes is a stark reminder lol.

Meh. WMP11's interface is still too clunky for me. I think their WMP UI peaked with WMP6.4 Also, the WMA subscription-based DRM is still the worst DRM on the market. Even Microsoft has abandoned PlaysForSure and URGE for the new DRM&store they're using for Zune. @sticknick "..I don't like the idea that I can't copy/past my own album art to content in the player" Um. yes you can. In fact, before the downloadable artwork feature, iTunes users got their album art from WalMart's site and simply clicked once on the song and dragged the image to the blank album art window. Presto. And, if you don't like the iTunes album art, you simply Get Info on the song file, click on the "Artwork" tab, and choose the album art you want displayed (iTunes art or your own). Stop with the FUD. "and I *really* don't like the fact that I must sign up to the iTunes store in order for iTunes to get the actual album art." Oh noes, you have to sign up for a free account. Are you that paranoid about putting in credit card/check card information for an online account? If so, you're in the wrong profession. @will84 "I keep all my music in one giant directory. Now, on my slightly dated PC running iTunes sniffing through this folder is hell,... WMP1l's instant search is just that, instant. It has no problem playing with a directory containing 1400 files and I can happily scroll without lag." Wow, that's just too bad. You see, iTunes for Mac OS X integrates with Spotlight. I can find any song in my library in seconds. But Vista will have WinFS, so you'll be able to do that soon enough.... oh yeah... Microsoft cut WinFS from Vista. Too bad.

"And, if you don't like the iTunes album art, you simply Get Info on the song file, click on the "Artwork" tab, and choose the album art you want displayed (iTunes art or your own)." Oh, now THAT'S intuative! WPM = drag and drop sir. Drag and Drop. And this is after the player has scoured the 'net, without having to sign up for squat. Which brings me to... "Oh noes, you have to sign up for a free account. Are you that paranoid about putting in credit card/check card information for an online account? If so, you're in the wrong profession." I don't give out my information out to anyone unless I choose to. Apple markets the free Album Art up the wazoo and then tells me I have to sign up for the iTunes store to get it? Bah. If I wanted to partake in shady practices I'd sign up for Reals crap. "You see, iTunes for Mac OS X integrates with Spotlight." The key word here is "intergrate". Microsoft "intergrated" their tech and then they got slapped with anti-trust lawsuits. Makes me hope that Apple gains some *huge* market share. They all you weenies with your iTude will have to deal with viri', hackers, and a goodly share of anti-trust court time. And here is the thing: WMP 11 on XP doesn't take half as long as iTunes to find music. WMP isn't "intergrated into Windows XP like iTunes is with OS X. What's up with that? btw: nice name. Admins around here finally banning? They should ban by IP instead.