Windows Media Player 9 "Corona"

[gonzo2k]

Official Release Date: September 4

Some Screenshots and more!

A pre-release version (9.00.00.2778) has been leaked and can be found- I have it installed and running now!

It has a taskbar player option (when minimized) that sits by the clock. Load in your Mp3 library, set to shuffle and each song/artist appears in a popup for a few seconds... then disappears again. Small footprint with all controls and complete access to media library files! Very cool.

There's a "mathematically lossless" setting for CD copy (WMA Professional) that burns at up to 970 kbps!!!

That's just the tip of the iceberg-what an improvement!


Typical Microsoft- they finally have a service pack coming out that will let me uninstall Windows Media Player(which I ALWAYS hated) and they go and develop a version I want to keep!

 

[wfbberzerker]

i still use media player 6, because the newer ones are way too intrusive.

 

[dlaw]

Nice, hope it won't reboot my computer when I watch Divx.

 

[Czar]

It has a taskbar player option (when minimized) that sits by the clock. Load in your Mp3 library, set to shuffle and each song/artist appears in a popup for a few seconds... then disappears again. Small footprint with all controls and complete access to media library files! Very cool.

cool, kinda like what winamp has had for years

too bad it has this horrible new security feature:disgust:

 

[Lucky]

i wish it had (does it?) smart playlists like itunes 3 does on my mac.

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

And it comes with totally free DRM support too!
And will allow you to rip DVDs! (At least according to a press release I saw earlier, the movie industry will love that feature, especially since Gates told them they couldn't prevent ripping of video films and therefor it would be of no use to build in protection against it)

 

[Nemesis77]

It will be a cold day in hell before I "upgrade" Media Player in my W2K!

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

lucky, that's why we got Winamp on our PC's. It is the DEFINITIVE mp3 player for any OS, hands down, most used most downloaded.

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Originally posted by: Sudheer Anne
lucky, that's why we got Winamp on our PC's. It is the DEFINITIVE mp3 player for any OS, hands down, most used most downloaded.

Wish they'd work a bit faster on that Winamp 3 release though, so we can also play video in it.

 

[kyutip]

I will be really cautious with corona.
I think I read somewhere that MS is going to comply with copyright material.
I wouldn't be surprise if someday while you are listening MP3's on your Corona, RIAA is on your ass before you know it.

 

[Czar]

Originally posted by: Skyclad1uhm1

Originally posted by: Sudheer Anne
lucky, that's why we got Winamp on our PC's. It is the DEFINITIVE mp3 player for any OS, hands down, most used most downloaded.

Wish they'd work a bit faster on that Winamp 3 release though, so we can also play video in it.

thats true, then I can ditch windows media player

for how long has winamp3 been in the beta stage anyways?

 

[Lucky]

Originally posted by: Sudheer Anne
lucky, that's why we got Winamp on our PC's. It is the DEFINITIVE mp3 player for any OS, hands down, most used most downloaded.

wtf? that has NOTHING to do with my remark. Does winamp have smart playlists?

 

[Czar]

Originally posted by: Lucky

Originally posted by: Sudheer Anne
lucky, that's why we got Winamp on our PC's. It is the DEFINITIVE mp3 player for any OS, hands down, most used most downloaded.

wtf? that has NOTHING to do with my remark. Does winamp have smart playlists?

whats smart playlists?

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Originally posted by: Czar

Originally posted by: Lucky

Originally posted by: Sudheer Anne
lucky, that's why we got Winamp on our PC's. It is the DEFINITIVE mp3 player for any OS, hands down, most used most downloaded.

wtf? that has NOTHING to do with my remark. Does winamp have smart playlists?

whats smart playlists?

That's where it looks at what you are playing, and then automatically substracts money from your creditcard for it.

But more seriously, if you play a song you can choose to play more from that genre, and it will pick stuff from your mp3s which is totally unlike what you just played.

 

[Lucky]

Originally posted by: Czar

Originally posted by: Lucky

Originally posted by: Sudheer Anne
lucky, that's why we got Winamp on our PC's. It is the DEFINITIVE mp3 player for any OS, hands down, most used most downloaded.

wtf? that has NOTHING to do with my remark. Does winamp have smart playlists?

whats smart playlists?

smart playlists

its really cool and works perfectly.

 

[Freejack2]

Erm, winamp is owned by AOL/Time Warner. Soon it will be reporting infractions to the RIAA too.

 

[skace]

Lucky,

No offense but smart playlist is about the laziest feature I've ever seen. If you organize your mp3s even the smallest bit you should have them organized by genre. A 'smart' playlist cannot be more smart than you just going in and picking exactly what you want to hear. Plus, if an mp3 has incorrect information in it, that smart playlist is now confused and not so smart.

Futhermore, I don't know if winamp has this feature because I run an id3 tag stripping program on all my mp3s.

Personally, I don't see the usefulness of having a program that allows you to rate your own mp3s. If you have to give an mp3 on your computer a -star rating, why the hell is it on your computer? Everything on my comp would be 5 stars and I don't think that would help the smart player at all.

Guess I'm just in the majority of people who arn't too lazy to simply queue up the mp3s in the order they want them, thus making logical playlists that can be played at a later date if needed. If I want to listen to random crap from a genre, I queue up that genre's directory and throw it on shuffle (3 mouse clicks).

Winamp still has one of the best interfaces for any media program around. I wish more program makers would realize the usefullness of a windowshade mode and multi-window docking.

 

[Lucky]

No offense but smart playlist is about the laziest feature I've ever seen. If you organize your mp3s even the smallest bit you should have them organized by genre. A 'smart' playlist cannot be more smart than you just going in and picking exactly what you want to hear.

Sorry, I like having random mixes and not having to pick song by song what to play. What good would it do to have to pick a new song every 5 minutes?

Personally, I don't see the usefulness of having a program that allows you to rate your own mp3s. If you have to give an mp3 on your computer a -star rating, why the hell is it on your computer? Everything on my comp would be 5 stars and I don't think that would help the smart player at all.

I wouldn't give every single one of my DVD's five stars, but I dont throw those away. Similarly I have plenty of storage and pretty much keep any MP3 I download, rip, or whatever. I use my computers as part of my home entertainment system and when throwing a party its nice to have music available on request, even If I dont personally like it and wouldn't give it 5 stars for my personal playlists.

Guess I'm just in the majority of people who arn't too lazy to simply queue up the mp3s in the order they want them, thus making logical playlists that can be played at a later date if needed.

It has nothing to do with laziness. Instead of throwing out insults how about you actually try the program? Since you've admitted that you haven't, I dont even see why you are attacking the program.

If I want to listen to random crap from a genre, I queue up that genre's directory and throw it on shuffle (3 mouse clicks).

And that's the beauty of the smart playlists. If you do something like that and there are songs in that folder that you dont particularly like or want to hear often, then you give it one star.

Winamp still has one of the best interfaces for any media program around. I wish more program makers would realize the usefullness of a windowshade mode and multi-window docking.

Interface is something personal to each person and debateable.

 

[Lucky]

Furthermore, I doubt you read the apple page but I'd be glad to know if winamp can have playlists like this:


Classic Rock
Genre is Rock and Year is in the range of 1960 to 1979


Never Been Listened
Play Count is 0


Absolute Favorites
My Rating is five stars


Forgotten Tunes
Last Played is not in the last six months


New York Times
Song Name contains NYT and Genre is Spoken Word


Flavors of Mozart
Composer contains Mozart and Genre contains Classical


New Releases
Year is 2002


Love Songs
Song Name contains Love or Album contains Love


100 Newest
Limit to 100 songs selected by Date Added

 

[skace]

Sorry, I like having random mixes and not having to pick song by song what to play. What good would it do to have to pick a new song every 5 minutes?

The good that is total control over exactly what is playing. Randomizations will never pick EXACTLY what you want to hear.

I use my computers as part of my home entertainment system and when throwing a party its nice to have music available on request, even If I dont personally like it and wouldn't give it 5 stars for my personal playlists.

If I was holding a party and people continually requested music I didn't like, I would create a subdirectory called Party. In there I would store all the mp3s that I personally hate, but people keep requesting. This would be far easier than rating all 7 GB of my mp3s. If you host parties a lot and are a makeshift DJ, perhaps you should create your own DJ playlists with crossfading / etc.

It has nothing to do with laziness. Instead of throwing out insults how about you actually try the program? Since you've admitted that you haven't, I dont even see why you are attacking the program.

I don't use a Mac and the software doesn't seem to be available for Win2k (based on the downloads site). I wasn't attacking the program, I was discussing a feature you decided to bring up. You kept talking about it like it was the best thing since sliced bread, so I figured I would comment after reading the website.

And that's the beauty of the smart playlists. If you do something like that and there are songs in that folder that you dont particularly like or want to hear often, then you give it one star.

I do not have anything that I would not want to hear. Often times if I want to suprise myself I will queue up my entire mp3 directory and randomize it.

Interface is something personal to each person and debateable.

Debateable, yes, but it is hard to deny when something has a good interface that many many people enjoy. Certain characteristics of an interface make it much easier to work with and much more user friendly. Most everyone I know enjoys using the winamp interface as it has the ability of being very big and bulky and also very very small without any additional skins.

 

[alareau]

you should have them organized by genre.

i don't know, i would rather have them organized by artist name, since i just use random all the time

 

[Gujski]

Skace, what is windowshade? I use Winamp and never used this (at least i think i dont)

 

[Lucky]

You kept talking about it like it was the best thing since sliced bread, so I figured I would comment after reading the website.

Hardly, I said I wished winamp had it, and then when czar asked I gave him a link.

The good that is total control over exactly what is playing. Randomizations will never pick EXACTLY what you want to hear.

Well, I often dont know exactly what I want to hear. When you have 40-60 gigs of MP3's you often have not heard many songs. The beauty of having that much music is constantly discovering new artists or rediscovering old artists that I have forgetton about.

If I was holding a party and people continually requested music I didn't like, I would create a subdirectory called Party...

Great, so we prefer to do things our own ways. Neither way is wrong.

 

[LordJezo]

Originally posted by: Gujski
Skace, what is windowshade? I use Winamp and never used this (at least i think i dont)

Double click on the title bar of the program when it is running (the very top of the winamp window) and it will minimize into a small strip. Turn on the "always on top" option and you can just leave it docked on the top of your screen and it will never get in the way but it is always visable.

 

[Gujski]

Originally posted by: LordJezo

Originally posted by: Gujski
Skace, what is windowshade? I use Winamp and never used this (at least i think i dont)

Double click on the title bar of the program when it is running (the very top of the winamp window) and it will minimize into a small strip. Turn on the "always on top" option and you can just leave it docked on the top of your screen and it will never get in the way but it is always visable.

ah thanks lordjezo