“ WMP ” redirects here. For other uses, see WMP ( disambiguation ) “ Microsoft Media Player ” redirects here. For other uses, see MMP Media player and media library application by Microsoft
Windows Media Player ( WMP ) is a media actor and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video recording and wake images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating organization, equally well as on Pocket personal computer and Windows Mobile -based devices. Editions of Windows Media Player were besides released for authoritative Mac OS, Mac OS X and Solaris but growth of these has since been discontinued.

In addition to being a media player, Windows Media Player includes the ability to rip music from and copy music to compact disk, burn recordable magnetic disk in Audio CD format or as data phonograph record with playlists such as an MP3 four hundred, synchronize subject with a digital sound recording actor ( MP3 musician ) or other mobile devices, and enable users to purchase or rent music from a number of on-line music stores. Windows Media Player replaced an earlier application called Media Player, adding features beyond simpleton television or audio playback. Windows Media Player 11 is available for Windows XP and included in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. The default file formats are Windows Media Video ( WMV ), Windows Media Audio ( WMA ), and Advanced Systems Format ( ASF ), and its own XML based playlist format called Windows Playlist ( WPL ). The musician is besides able to utilize a digital rights management service in the form of Windows Media DRM. Windows Media Player 12 is the most recent version of Windows Media Player. It was released on October 22, 2009 along with Windows 7 [ boron ] and has not been made available for former versions of Windows nor has it been updated since for Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, and Windows 11. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Windows 8 and former alternatively use Groove Music ( for sound recording ) and Microsoft Movies & television receiver ( for television ) as the default playback applications for most media ; As of October 2021, Windows Media Player is still included as a Windows component. Windows RT does not run Windows Media Player. On November 16, 2021, Microsoft announced that it would replace Groove Music with the raw Media Player application, though the bequest Windows Media Player will continue to be included with Windows 11. [ 4 ]

history [edit ]

Media Player 5 The first version of Windows Media Player appeared in 1991, when Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions was released. [ 5 ] originally called Media Player, this component was included with “ Multimedia personal computer ” -compatible machines but not available for retail sale. It was adequate to of playing .mmm animation files, and could be extended to support early formats. [ 6 ] It used MCI to handle media files. Being a component of Windows, Media Player shows the same adaptation count as that of the version Windows with which it was included. Microsoft continually produced new programs to play media files. In November of the follow year, Video for Windows was introduced with the ability to play digital video files in an AVI container format, [ 7 ] with codec support for RLE and Video1, and support for playing decompress files. Indeo 3.2 was added in a former release. Video for Windows was first available as a free accessory to Windows 3.1, and late integrated into Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0. In 1995, Microsoft released ActiveMovie with DirectX Media SDK. ActiveMovie incorporates a new way of dealing with media files, and adds support for streaming media ( which the original Media Player could not handle ). In 1996, ActiveMovie was renamed DirectShow. [ 8 ] however, Media Player continued to come with Windows until Windows XP, in which it was officially renamed Windows Media Player v5.1. [ 9 ] ( “ v5.1 ” is the version number of Windows XP. ) In 1999, Windows Media Player ‘s versioning broke away from that of Windows itself. Windows Media Player 6.4 came as an out-of-band update for Windows 95 – 98 and Windows NT 4.0 that co-existed with Media Player and became a built-in component of Windows 2000, Windows ME and Windows XP with an mplayer2.exe stub allowing to use this built-in rather of newer versions. [ 10 ] Windows Media Player 7.0 and its successors besides came in the lapp fashion, replacing each early but leaving Media Player and Windows Media Player 6.4 intact. Windows XP is the entirely operating system to have three different versions of Windows Media Player ( v5.1, v6.4 and v8 ) slope by side. All versions branded Windows Media Player ( rather of plainly Media Player ) support DirectShow codecs. Windows Media Player translation 7 was a large vamp, with a modern drug user interface, visualizations and increase functionality. Windows Vista, however, dropped older versions of Windows Media Player in favor of v11, which included the removal of the Windows Media Source Filter ( DirectShow codec ). In 2004 Microsoft launched digital music shop MSN Music for new Windows Media Player 10 to compete with Apple iTunes. [ 11 ] [ 12 ] however, MSN Music was discontinued already in 2006 with the establish of Zune music players. [ 13 ] Beginning with Windows Vista, Windows Media Player supports the Media Foundation model besides DirectShow ; as such it plays certain types of media using Media Foundation adenine well as some types of media using DirectShow. [ 14 ] Windows Media Player 12 was released with Windows 7. It included subscribe for more media formats and added new features. With Windows 8, however, the player did not receive an upgrade. On April 16, 2012, Microsoft announced that Windows Media Player would not be included in Windows RT, the note of Windows designed to run on ARM-based devices. [ 15 ]

Features [edit ]

Core playback and library functions [edit ]

Windows Media Player supports playback of audio, video and pictures, along with fast forward, reverse, file markers ( if present ) and varying playback travel rapidly ( seek & time compression/dilation introduced in WMP 9 Series ). It supports local playback, streaming playback with multicast streams and progressive downloads. Items in a playlist can be skipped over temporarily at playback time without removing them from the playlist. Full keyboard-based operation is possible in the actor. Windows Media Player supports wide media management, via the integrate media library introduced first in translation 7, which offers catalogue and search of media and viewing media metadata. Media can be arranged according to album, artist, writing style, go steady et al. Windows Media Player 9 Series introduced Quick Access Panel to browse and navigate the integral library through a menu. The Quick Access Panel was besides added to the mini mode in version 10 but was entirely removed in version 11. WMP 9 Series besides introduced ratings and Auto Ratings. Windows Media Player 10 introduced hold for aggregating pictures, Recorded television shows, and other media into the library. A in full featured tag editor was featured in versions 9-11 of WMP, called the Advanced Tag Editor. however, the feature of speech was removed in Windows Media Player 12. Since WMP 9 Series, the player features dynamically updated Auto Playlists based on criteria. car Playlists are updated every time users open them. WMP 9 Series and late besides supports Auto Ratings which mechanically assigns ratings based on the count of times a song is played. Pre-populated car playlists are included in Windows Media Player 9 Series. Custom Auto Playlists can be created only on Windows XP and by and by. In Windows Media Player 11, the Quick Access Panel was removed and replaced with an Explorer-style navigation pane on the left which can be customized for each library to show the exploiter selected media or metadata categories, with contents appearing on the right, in a graphic manner with thumbnails featuring album art or other art depicting the detail. Missing album artwork can be added directly to the placeholders in the Library itself ( though the program re-renders all album art imported this direction into 1×1 pixel proportion, 200×200 resoluteness jpegs ). There are separate Tiles, Icons, Details or Extended Tiles views for Music, Pictures, Video and Recorded TV which can be set individually from the navigation legal profession. Entries for Pictures and Video show their thumbnails. translation 11 besides introduced the ability to search and display results on-the-fly as characters are being entered, without waiting for Enter key to be hit. incremental search results are refined based on foster characters that are typed. Stacking allows graphic representations of how many albums there are in a specific class or booklet. The down appears larger as the category contains more albums. The List acid includes an choice to prompt the drug user to remove items skipped in a playlist upon salvage or skip them entirely during playback .

Visualizations [edit ]

Windows Media Player 11 running in mini mode ( in Windows XP MCE ) showing the “ Bars and Waves ” visual image While playing music, Windows Media Player can show visualizations. The current three visualizations are Alchemy, which was first base introduced in version 9, Bars and Waves, which has been used since adaptation 7, and Battery, introduced interpretation 8. “ musical Colors ” was removed starting with adaptation 9, but is retained if Windows Media Player was upgraded from interpretation 7 or 8. interpretation 11 and above refrains from having the former “ ambiance ”, “ atom ”, “ Plenoptic ”, and “ Spikes ” visualizations. The “ Battery ” visual image was similarly removed in late editions of version 12. The reason for their removal was that the visualizations do not support full sieve controls ( either the visual image gets shifted to the left while there is a thick blacken bar to the right side of the filmdom, that there are no wax screen controls, or that the visual image have DXE Problems ). More visualizations such as “ BlazingColors ”, “ ColorCubes ”, “ Softie the Snowman, ” and “ Yule Log ” used to be downloadable however, the downloads from Microsoft ‘s web site have by and large been taken down .

Format support [edit ]

The musician includes intrinsic hold for Windows Media codecs and besides WAV and MP3 media formats. On Windows XP and above with WMP 9 Series and late, the Windows Media Audio Professional codec is included which supports multichannel audio at up to 24-bit 192 kilohertz resolution. Windows Media Player 11 includes the Windows Media Format 11 runtime which adds low bitrate corroborate ( below 128 kbit/s for WMA Pro ), defend for ripping music to WMA Pro 10 and updates the original WMA to adaptation 9.2. [ citation needed ] support for any media codec and container format can be added using specific DirectShow filters or Media Foundation codecs ( Media Foundation codecs alone in Windows Vista and by and by ). The actor will not play MP3 files that contain compressed ID3 headers ( “ tags ” ) ; trying to do thus results in a “ The input media file is invalid ” erroneousness message. MP3 playback support was built-in get down with version 6.1 and audio CD playback was natively supported with version 7. [ citation needed ] DVD playback features minus the necessary decoders were integrated into Windows Media Player 8 for Windows XP. The player activates DVD and Blu-ray playback functionality with support for menu, titles and chapters, parental controls and sound recording track language choice if compatible decoders are installed. MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital ( AC-3 ) decoders were included beginning with Windows Media Player 11 on Windows Vista ( Home Premium and Ultimate editions only ). [ citation needed ] Windows Media Player 12 adds native support for H.264 and MPEG-4 Part 2 video recording formats, ALAC, AAC audio [ 16 ] and 3GP [ clarification needed got no codec available for 3GP ], MP4 and MOV container formats. [ 17 ] Windows Media Player 12 is besides able to play AVCHD formats ( .M2TS and .mts ). [ 18 ] As of Windows 10, Windows Media Player 12 can play FLAC, HEVC, and SubRip subtitle, and Matroska container formats. [ citation needed ] Although the WebM charge type is not associated with Windows Media Player 12 formally ( the nonpayment player is Microsoft Movies & television ), playback of VP9 video recording in WebM container on Windows Media Player is possible on Windows 10 translation 1809 and by and by. [ citation needed ]

Windows Media Player Mobile [edit ]

Windows Media Player Mobile 10 on Windows Mobile 6.5 supports MP3, ASF, WMA and WMV using WMV or MPEG-4 codecs. [ 19 ]

Disc electrocution, rending, and playback [edit ]

Windows Media Player features integrated Audio compact disk -burning support since adaptation 7 adenine well as data cadmium burning support since Windows Media Player 9 Series on Windows XP and later. Data CDs can have any of the media formats supported by the musician. While burning Data CDs, the media can, optionally, be transcoded into WMA format and playlists can be added to the compact disk adenine well. Starting with WMP 9 Series, sound recording CDs can be burnt with book razing. sound recording CDs can be ripped as WMA or WMA 10 Pro ( WMA 10 Pro in WMP 11 and belated ) at 48, 64, 96, 128, 160 and 192 kbit/s, WMA lossless ( 470 to 940 kbit/s ) ( 9 serial on XP and belated ), WMA variable star bitrate ( from 40 to 75 kbit/s up to 240-355 kbit/s ), MP3 at 128, 192, 256 and 320 kbit/s, or decompress WAV ( WAV ripping in WMP 11 and by and by ). Since WMP 9 Series, 20 bit high-resolution CDs ( HDCDs ) are besides supported, if capable audio hardware is present. audio can be ripped using error correction and ripped audio can be protected with Windows Media DRM. Ripping to MP3 is supported only in Windows Media Player 8 for Windows XP and late if a compatible MP3 encoder is installed. Windows Media Player 10 included the Fraunhofer MP3 Professional encoder. information on CDs such as album name, artist and path listings can optionally be automatically downloaded from the on-line Windows Media database when the candle is inserted. Version 11 added support for ripping audio CDs to WAV and WMA 10 Pro formats. With their 2015 execution in Windows 10, Version 12 besides added lossless FLAC and ALAC formats for ripping and playback. For cut, version 11 shows a graphic legal profession indicating how much space will be used on the disk and introduced Disc spanning which splits a tan list onto multiple phonograph record in case the content does not fit on one phonograph record .

portable device synchronize [edit ]

Windows Media Player allows the drug user to connect, contribution and synchronize data with portable hand-held devices and bet on consoles since version 7. Media can be optionally transcoded to a format better suited for the target device, automatically, when synchronizing. When deleting playlists from devices, Windows Media Player can mechanically remove their contents. Devices can be formatted using Windows Media Player 9 Series and late. Version 10 and later support the Media Transfer Protocol and Auto Sync. Auto Sync allows users to specify criteria such as recently added music or highest rated songs, by which media will be automatically synchronized with the portable device and other boost features like setting the clock on the portable device automatically, communicating with the device to retrieve the exploiter ‘s preferences. Windows Media Player 10 besides introduced the UMDF -based Windows Portable Devices API. version 11 has improved synchronization features for loading content onto PlaysForSure -compatible portable players. WMP 11 supports reverse-synchronization, by which media stage on the portable device can be replicated back to the personal computer. Shuffle Sync can be used to randomize content synced with the portable device, Multi PC Sync to synchronize portable device capacity across multiple PCs and Guest Sync to synchronize different message from multiple PCs with the portable device. portable devices appear in the navigation pane of the library where their content can be browsed and searched. Windows Media Player ‘s ‘Sync ‘ function has options that allow it to be set to automatically down-convert ( transcode ) high bit-rate birdcall files to a lower bit-rate. This down-conversion function is switched on by nonpayment. This is utilitarian for providing depleted bit-rate files to those portable devices that need them, and to save space on portable devices with smaller repositing capacities. For high bit-rate capable devices with sufficient storage capabilities, the down conversion process can be omitted.

In versions 11 ( 2006 ) and 12 ( 2009 ), the Quality settings that the exploiter has selected in the Windows Media Player settings for Sync, for that specific portable device, are used to control the quality ( bit-rate ) of files that are copied to the portable device. Leaving the Quality settings to Automatic will often result in 192kbs files being copied to the portable device. manual settings can besides be made. 192kbs is the highest quality down-conversion bit-rate that can be manually selected when the Sync serve ‘s down-conversion serve is turned on. Lower bit-rates can besides be selected. For portable devices that can handle senior high school bit-rate files, the best timbre files are obtained by leaving the down-conversion work switched off ( unbridled ) for that specific device. In Windows Media Player Version 11, switching off the down-conversion function is done in the Quality yellow journalism of the Advanced Options of the Sync settings for the device. In Windows Media Player Version 12, switching off the down-conversion function is done in the Quality pill of the Properties for the device in the Select Settings for the device in the Sync Options menu. When set up in such a way, Windows Media Player ‘s ‘Sync ‘ function can be used to sync unchanged eminent bit-rate song files to suitable portable devices ( i.e. those adequate to of using file formats such as WMA Lossless, mp3-360kbs, and so forth ). For case, some users have created large song libraries on their PCs containing .wma formatted song files using the high bit-rate WMA Lossless ( WMA-LL ) protocol, or using early high bit-rate song file formats. The WMA-LL protocol is selectable in Windows Media Player as an option when ripping songs from CDs. The resulting bit-rates seen on rend WMA-LL files are much 3 to 6 times higher than 192kbs, and can typically fall anywhere in the range of 600kbs to 1200kbs, depending on the quality of the reference file that was give on the certificate of deposit in the beginning place. The heavy timbre is much improved over the default rate, although the file size is larger. At the time that Versions 11 and 12 were released, the capabilities and capacities of portable devices typically necessitate down-conversion of the bit-rates of the files placed on the portable devices. frankincense, Sync down-conversion was turned on by default option. This was to ensure playability of the files and to ensure that the file sizes were modest enough to efficiently fit a sanely bombastic choice of songs on the portable device. In holocene years ( circa 2012 ), portable devices became available that could natively play these Windows Media Player produced high bit-rate WMA-LL files ( and others ), and that have storage capacities desirable for boastfully collections of high bit-rate birdcall files. This made it much more feasible and desirable to use software programs such as Windows Media Player to synchronize previously PC-bound libraries of high bit-rate songs to these new portable devices .

Enhanced playback features [edit ]

Windows Media Player features cosmopolitan brightness, contrast, impregnation and imbue adjustments and pixel view ratio for support video recording formats. It besides includes a 10-band graphic equalizer with presets and SRS WOW audio post-processing system. Windows Media Player can besides have attached audio and television DSP plug-ins which process the output audio or video data. Video Smoothing was introduced in WMP 9 Series ( Windows XP and late merely ) which upscales frame-rate by interpolating add frames, in effect giving a smooth playback on low-framerate videos. The player supports subtitles and closed-captioning for local media, video on demand streaming or live stream scenarios. typically Windows Media captions support the SAMI file format but can besides carry embedded close up caption data. The player can use video overlays or VMR ( Video Mixing Renderer ) surfaces, if the video card supports them. In Windows XP, it uses VMR7 by default, but can besides be made to use the more advance YUV mixing mode by enabling the “ Use high quality mood ” option in Advanced Performance settings. This turns on deinterlacing, scaling and improved color accuracy. [ 20 ] WMP 9 Series introduced native playback for deinterlacing for television receiver output. version 9 introduced DXVA accelerated playback. version 11 introduced better support for DirectX accelerated decoding of WMV video recording ( DXVA decoding ). Up to adaptation 11, it supported static lyrics and “ synchronize Lyrics ”, by which different lines of lyrics can be time-stamped, so that they display only at those times. Synchronized Lyrics besides were accessible through the Advanced Tag Editor which was removed in version 12. Since Windows Media Player 9 Series, the player supports crossfading, audio dynamic range ( Quiet Mode ) for WMA Pro and WMA Lossless, and car book leveling for sealed media which includes volume level/gain information such as MP3 or Windows Media. The player besides supports across-the-board configurable privacy and security settings .

Shell consolidation [edit ]

The musician has Windows Explorer shell integration to add files and playlist to the Now Playing pane and other playlists can be controlled from the Windows Explorer husk itself, via right-click menu. The My Music booklet besides includes a separate My Playlists booklet where playlists are maintained. When the musician is closed and reopened, simply clicking the play release restores the last playlist even if it was not saved. Starting with Windows Media Player 10, the playlist pane is besides visible from the Library view. AutoPlay handlers in Windows expose assorted Windows Media Player tasks .
Windows Media Player 11 running in mini mood in Windows Vista and Windows XP respectively. Notice the dispute in the logo. up to interpretation 11, it featured a taskbar-mounted Mini mode in which the most coarse media master buttons are presented as a toolbar on the Windows taskbar. Flyout windows can display media information, the active visual image or the video being played back. Mini-mode was introduced as a shell player powertoy for Windows Media Player 8 in Windows XP and integrated by and by into WMP 9 Series. Mini-mode has been removed in Windows Media Player 12 in favor of controls in the taskbar ‘s synergistic thumbnail preview which lacks book master, a build up bar and information displayed whenever a fresh birdcall is played. The drug user interface has been redesigned in Windows Media Player 12 such that the Now Playing horizon plays media in a separate minimalist window with floating playback controls, and besides gives access to the stream playlist, visualizations, and enhancements. [ 16 ] Enhancements are housed in person undock windows. The library opinion includes the respite of the media management functions. It besides can preview songs from the library when users hover over the media charge and click the Preview button. [ 16 ] Windows Media Player 12 can play unprotected songs from the iTunes library. The taskbar-integrated Mini-player has been replaced with controls in the taskbar ‘s interactional thumbnail preview ( called the Thumbnail Toolbar ), [ 21 ] albeit minus the volume master function, track and album information shown whenever a new song is played and the advancement bar. The taskbar icon besides supports rise lists introduced in Windows 7 .
The thumbnail viewer of Windows Media Player 12 in Windows 7 Home premium

Extensibility [edit ]

The player has had skinning corroborate since Windows Media Player ( WMP ) 7 and includes a color picker since the WMP 9 Series. not all functions are normally exposed in peel manner. Windows Media Player 10 allows setting the video border coloring material. Color picker has been removed in WMP 12. It supports visualizations and Info Center View ( Info Center View in WMP 9 Series and later ) which displays media metadata fetched from the internet. Full screen visualizations are supported in WMP 9 Series and later. It supports Background plug-ins, window plug-ins and Now Playing plug-ins to control media playback besides DSP and renderer plug-ins. circuit board hold was introduced in WMP 9 Series .

on-line features [edit ]

The player integrates web-browsing support to browse on-line music stores, patronize for music and tune to internet radio stations since adaptation 7. It provides an embeddable ActiveX control for Internet Explorer so that developers can play Windows Media on vane pages. Windows Media Player 10 and later feature consolidation with a large number of on-line music stores and selecting a music store switches the Info Center opinion, radio and early on-line features to use services from that memory. Purchased music from a particular memory appears in a break library node under the respective category .

Media stream [edit ]

previously, Microsoft had released Windows Media Connect for Windows XP to stream media message with its built-in UPnP media server. With version 11 of Windows Media Player, Media Sharing was integrated and allows contentedness ( Music, Pictures, Video ) to be streamed to and from Universal Plug and Play ( UPnP ) AV enabled devices such as the PS3, Xbox 360, and Roku SoundBridge. This includes DRM protected PlaysForSure content. WMP 11 on Windows Vista can besides act as a customer to connect to remote media libraries using this feature of speech ; this is not available on the Windows XP version. With version 12, media pour was far improved. While former versions streamed media to UPnP compliant devices ( Digital Media Server character ) and could play media by fetching it from a network contribution ( Digital Media Player function ), [ 22 ] Windows Media Player 12 can access media from the shared media libraries on the net or HomeGroup, stream media to DLNA 1.5 compliant devices and allows itself ( once the distant control choice is turned on ) to be remotely controlled by Digital Media Controller devices which stream media ( Digital Media Renderer function ). [ 22 ] Similarly, the Play To feature once enabled for distant PCs, by turning on distant operate of the actor, allows compliant devices and computers to be discovered and controlled remotely from a computer running Windows Media Player 12 ( Digital Media Controller function ). [ 22 ] If the devices do not support the stream format, Windows Media Player 12 transcodes the format on-the-fly. Media from a home network can besides be streamed over the internet using an Online ID Provider serve, which handles discovery of the calculator ‘s IP cover, authorization, security, connectivity and Quality of Service issues. [ 22 ]

Skin Mode [edit ]

Windows Media Player besides features skins. presently, Windows Media Player has two default skins : “ Corporate ”, which was first introduced in version 8, and “ Revert ”, which first shipped with translation 9. In versions 7 and 8, there were many unusual skins such as “ Heart ”, “ headspace ”, “ Canvas ”, “ Goo ”, and “ Atomic ”, which were removed starting with translation 9, but are retained if the player is upgrade, although some can still be downloaded from an archive of the Microsoft web site. [ 23 ] In versions 7, 8, 9 and 10 there were many usual skins such as “ 9SeriesDefault ”, “ Atomic ”, “ Bluesky ”, “ Canvas ”, “ classic ”, “ Compact ”, “ sludge ”, “ headspace ”, “ affection ”, “ iconic ”, “ Miniplayer ”, “ eye ”, “ Pyrite ”, “ mercury ”, “ radio ”, “ Roundlet ”, “ Rusty ”, “ splat ”, “ Toothy ”, “ Windows classical ”, and “ Windows XP ”, which were removed starting with version 11. This corporate skin is not deletable .

security issues [edit ]

Microsoft Windows Media Runtime in Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server contained a bug that permitted “ distant code execution if a drug user opened a specially craft media file ”. Such a file would allow the attacker to “ then install programs ; view, change, or delete data ; or create newly accounts with full user rights ”, if the account on which the file was played had administrator privileges. [ 24 ] The problem was addressed in a critical update issued on September 8, 2009. [ 25 ]

other versions [edit ]

Microsoft has besides released versions of Windows Media Player for other platforms including Windows Mobile, classical Mac OS, Mac OS X, Palm-size PC, Handheld PC, and Solaris. Of these, only the Windows Mobile edition continues to be actively grow and supported by Microsoft. Version 1 of the Zune software was besides based on Windows Media Player ; late versions are not .

Windows Mobile [edit ]

Windows Media Player 10.3 Mobile on a Windows Mobile Professional device Windows Media Player for Pocket PC was first gear announced on January 6, 2000, and has been revised on a schedule approximately alike to that of the Windows version. [ 26 ] presently known as “ Media Player 10 Mobile ”, this edition ( released in October 2004 ) closely resembles the capabilities of the Windows version of WMP 10, including playlist capabilities, a media library, album art, WMA Lossless playback, support for DRM-protected media, video playback at 640×480 with stereophonic sound, and the lapp Energy Blue interface aesthetics besides seen in Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. It besides supports synchronism with the desktop version of WMP 10, and additionally supports synchronizing and transcoding of read television shows from Media Center. Media Player 10 Mobile is not available as a download from Microsoft ; distribution is done entirely through OEM partners, and is typically included on devices based on Windows Mobile. Windows Mobile 6 includes a copy of Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, but with a similar ( but not quite identical ) theme as Windows Media Player 11 .

Mac OS X [edit ]

version 9 was the final examination version of Windows Media Player to be released for Mac OS X before development was canceled by Microsoft. It was developed by the Windows Media team at Microsoft rather of the Macintosh Business Unit and released in 2003. On spill the application lacked many basic features that were found in early media players such as Apple ‘s iTunes and QuickTime. [ citation needed ] It besides lacked support for many media formats that version 9 of the Windows counterpart supported on unblock 10 months early. The Mac version supported alone Windows Media encoded media ( up to interpretation 9 ) enclosed in the ASF format, lacking support for all other formats such as MP4, MPEG, and Microsoft ‘s own AVI format. On the user interface presence, it did not prevent screensavers from running during playback, it did not support charge drag-and-drop, nor did it support playlists. While window Media Player 9 had added support for some files that use the WMV9 codec ( besides known as the WMV3 codec by the FourCC ), in other aspects it was seen as having degraded in features from former versions. On January 12, 2006 Microsoft announced it had ceased exploitation of Windows Media Player for Mac. Microsoft now distributes a third-party plugin called WMV Player ( produced and maintained by Flip4Mac ) which allows some forms of Windows Media to be played within Apple ‘s QuickTime Player and early QuickTime-aware applications. [ 27 ]

european Commission sheath [edit ]

In March 2004, the european Commission in the European Union Microsoft antimonopoly subject fined Microsoft €497 million and ordered the company to provide a interpretation of Windows without Windows Media Player, claiming Microsoft “ broke European Union competition law by leveraging its approximate monopoly in the market for personal computer operating systems onto the markets for work group server operating systems and for media players ”. The company has made available a compliant translation of its flagship operating system under the negotiate name “ Windows XP N ”, though the intersection has not been very successful. Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 are besides available in “ N ” editions. however, it is possible to either install Windows Media Player ( XP/Vista ) [ 28 ] or the Media Restore Pack through Windows Update ( Vista ) to add the media player .

Visualizations [edit ]

  1. Alchemy
  2. Ambience
  3. Bars and Waves
  4. Battery
  5. Particle
  6. Plenoptic
  7. Spikes

Release history [edit ]

anterior to the secrete of Windows Media Player in Windows 98 Second Edition, separate programs, CD Player, Deluxe CD Player, DVD Player and Media Player, were included in previous versions of Microsoft Windows for playback of media files .

See besides [edit ]

References [edit ]

foster reading [edit ]