Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player was first introduced to the world in the fall of 1991, with the introduction of Windows 3.0 with Multimedia extensions. This happened after Creative Labs added digital-audio sound capabilities to the PC platform with their Sound Blaster series of audio cards.

Since then, Windows Media Player has been a part of the Windows Operating System. When Windows Media Player was introduced, it featured support for only WAV and Audio CD, however today, you can listen to 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound with SRS WOW. Digital Rights Management (DRM) has also been implemented in Windows Media player helping users to rip music and also keep them secure. Windows Media Player started off as an audio player only but has evolved into what its name suggests, a true media player.

The current version of Windows Media Player (WMP) is 11, which is one of the best versions of WMP available to date. WMP 11 has native support for most video and audio formats, however some of the most popular formats such as DivX and XviD are still not supported, and you need to download and install these codecs to enable their support in WMP.

Installing Windows Media Player is extremely simple and you can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en the size being approximately 24.6 MB. You will be asked a few questions during installation pertaining to customizing your player.

Windows Media Player 11

There are a lot of functionalities in Windows Media Player that are available by default which you can use. For instance, every time you insert an audio CD in the player and if you are connected to the Internet at the time, then WMP can retrieve data from the internet for your audio CD. This helps in cataloguing information.

Similar to Winamp, Windows Media Player 11 also has equalizers and visualizations installed by default. However, these are not enabled in the typical installation and you will need to enable these (if you want to) when listening to music. WMP 11 also has SRS WOW support by default, which can be enabled in addition to the equalizers present in WMP 11.

WMP 11 also lets you listen to online radio stations and view the latest movie trailers. The new High Definition support in WMP 11 also lets you view HD trailers in its full glory, provided that you have a good broadband connection too.

Similar to Winamp, you can also download and install visualizations and extensions for WMP 11. Check out www.wmplugins.com for the latest and greatest on WMP 11.

WMP 11 has become an indispensable part of the digital audio revolution that hit PC’s about 11 years ago. For most new users, WMP 11 represents digital media to them, and they are not looking for alternatives. WMP 11 has more than enough to satisfy them!

The Good: Windows Media Player 11 has a simple and visually effective interface; excellent performance, especially with large media libraries; and solid integration with Urge, its de facto music service.

The bad: Windows Media Player 11 has some bugs to work out, though we didn't notice any major ones. Plus, there's no podcast directory yet.

The bottom line: For Windows XP users, Windows Media Player 11 is a must-have upgrade. It's Microsoft's best jukebox effort to date, thanks to a thoughtful redesign, impressive performance, and a ton of useful features.