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Entered CNET Catalog: 01/14/2006
SKU: CNETWINDOWSMEDIAPLAYER11
Manufacturer: Microsoft Corp.
CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 05/14/2006
Editor's note: A picture's worth a thousand words. For a closer look at Windows Media Player 11 and Urge, check out our slide show.
Windows Media Player (WMP) 11--which debuted at CES earlier this year and features a visually appealing interface, as well as impressive features and performance--is Microsoft's best jukebox to date. Not that it was a grand feat to improve upon a generally disappointing string of versions, including the somewhat awkward version 10. Still, if Microsoft is ever going to seriously challenge the iTunes music empire, the time is now. With the addition of MTV's Urge, the jukebox's resident music service, WMP 11 (available Wednesday as a free beta download) certainly seems poised for battle.
It's not like Microsoft had trouble distributing any version of WMP; after all, the jukebox comes stock on any Windows system, and in fact, you can't get rid of it. The trouble was the software was never particularly compelling, though it was pretty much essential for users of non-iPod MP3 players. With this beta launch, Microsoft has transformed its omnipresent media player from a state of default mediocrity into a powerful must-have application for music and media. Windows Media faithful will be pleasantly surprised upon installing the revamped WMP 11 for XP; Microsoft has put significant effort into creating a seamless digital media environment for the user, the software, the service, and portable devices.
WMP 11 for Windows XP is at its core the same jukebox you'll experience for the upcoming (but tardy) Vista OS. It all begins with the interface: Microsoft product managers admitted that it needed to be much simpler, more visual, and more like iTunes. Rather than dumbing down the GUI, Microsoft has smartened it up with wise design decisions that open up the desktop without eliminating the powerful features within. For example, the playback controls (at the bottom) are now glossy and inviting, and they include repeat and shuffle options. Additionally, the back and forward navigation buttons (upper-left corner) ensure that you'll never get lost. However, the revamped menu buttons have the most significant impact on the interface. Boiled down to five choices--Now Playing, Library, Rip, Bun, and Sync--each button has its own sub-button that opens up a slew of useful menu items. So when you activate the split menu for Rip, you'll get options to adjust format, bit rate, and so on.
Another noticeable--and welcome--interface change is that WMP's frustrating, ever-expanding left-hand nav tree has been simplified to include only music info by default, thus eliminating the long, scrolling list in the navigation. You can simply click the Library split button to get to the video or photo libraries, which have their own dedicated set of nav-pane options. The main browser window has also been radically altered: no more boring, anonymous text on a dark background. Instead, you get a colorful album-art-driven view of music, thumbnail views of photos, and screenshot thumbs of their video files, all on a light-colored background. This not only makes it easier to locate and manage files but also gives the player some much-needed personality.
We like details such as stacked albums, where groups of albums--based on genre, artist, year, and so on--are sitting on top of one another in a way that allows the user to quickly identify groups visually. Nobody likes missing album art, so we also appreciate WMP 11's ability to track down images (as well as ID3-tag info) and automatically update your library using a new audio-fingerprinting technology that, like many other WMP tasks, takes place in the background.
Another impressive WMP 11 feature is the instant-search tool, which is both powerful and smart. Type in a search item, even part of a word, and you immediately get results broken down by artist, album, and so on. Additional keystrokes will narrow the results. WMP 11 has been engineered with the assumption that your collection of media files will number not only in the thousands but also in the millions, so you're guaranteed to get rapid search results and no delay while browsing through thousands of files. We were downright impressed with WMP 11's file-management performance. The tight integration of the Urge music service benefits greatly from this outstanding performance, as you'll literally search a couple million tracks if you are an Urge subscriber. For more information on Urge, read our review.
Syncing, assembling playlists, and burning have all become much easier as well. The playlist pane (which can be hidden when not in use) on the right-hand side can be filled with songs, albums, and other files via drag and drop, and files can be simply arranged, saved, and edited. We hated WMP 10's confusing sync/burn/playlist pane, which appeared on every view; with WMP 11, you get dedicated experiences that are as clear as any Apple-designed application.
A prime example is the burn bucket, which visually displays how much room you have remaining on a CD-R and demarcates subsequent CDs so that you can manage songs across multiple CDs. The same goes for syncing. Your device--we used both an iRiver Clix and a Creative Zen Vision:M--will appear as a large icon, and underneath, you'll find a gas-gauge graphic that indicates how much room you have to fill up your player. You also have the option to automatically fill up a device to the max with the music of your choosing, whether they're personal selections or based on smart groupings such as artists, genres, and so on. This ability to autofill your device in an intelligent fashion is a huge advantage when you're part of a to-go subscription service, which gives you access to millions of tracks.
This attention to detail--or, rather, attention to the way people actually use their media player--is paramount to our newfound appreciation of WMP 11. Windows Media users finally have their iTunes.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143
User Rating: 
1/10
nothing but problems since downloading WMP 11
Pros: don't like anything
Cons: ever since downloading WMP 11 to replace WMP 10 I've had nothing but trouble. I't won't work and locks up my computer. I've removed the program several time and reloaded but have the same problem. Can't figure out what could be wrong.
User Rating: 1/10
TERRIBLE! No Podcasts, are they serious?
Pros: Easy synchronization with non-iPod MP3 player
Cons: No podcasts, music library display can't be easily customized and takes up too much space, sync options not easy to find
User Rating: 1/10
VERY intrusive program! Do NOT download!
Pros: It's Free.
Cons: Adds files without notifying user.
Changes MP3 files' info.
Moves files to where it wants them.
There in NO notification that it is doing these destructive things!!!!!!!
"Urge" music is a rip-off. Sound quality is low. Selection is poor but the worst feature is that you are NOT buying the song versions you expect. They sell song versions that are not the same as those played on the radio or released on CD/record.
Also, on a personal level, I do not think the program looks good.
There are better free programs out there, notably WINAMP. (Free WINAMP version does not rip, however.) Winamp has better selection of add-ons and and skins, too.
User Rating: 
6/10
Nothing Spacial.
Pros: I like the Interface in the software, I do like the Back Buttons being provided which is the only advantage it has over iTunes, and it seems to rip my music at a decent and constant speed.
Cons: It can be a little confusing when navigating through one's library. It has no easy to use Music Store to speak of such as the iTunes store.
Ease of Use 2
Speed 3
Features 3
Looks 4
Overall this Media Player is nothing special if you just want to back up your CD's to your Computer. However if you want to get music easily then I would Recommend iTunes. It seems to have the edge over Windows Media Player 11.
User Rating: 
9/10
Finally, a nice media player that you'll want to use!
Pros: Easier to use than previous versions. Much faster than iTunes (on Windows XP, anyway). Can import and play Windows Media Audio and MP3! Has the option to put player controls on the taskbar when minimized.
Cons: Doesn't support FLAC, ACC, or Apple Lossless (but those apple formats are stupid).
User Rating: 
4/10
A hit and miss, but mostly misses
Pros: Cleaner interface
Cons: Tree view gone, sort order unintuitive, medium grey font is difficult to see against light grey background
User Rating: 9/10
Levels tha playa's field
Pros: Dis spanning; Collection-like library; stacking; instant search; visual appeal; powerful music tools; multi hardware integration; album-art driven content
Cons: Bit sluggish, bit buggy, boring/cheesy Now playing
User Rating: 
8/10
It is very user friendly
Pros: File organization is much better than WMP 10, and graphics are definately a plus.
Cons: It doesn't run some cd rom/RW at 100%
User Rating: 
3/10
What a crock????
Pros: it is more modern looking, and wow when you go on it
Cons: DVD no sound, CD's wont burn That just two crappy things ?
User Rating: 3/10
Confusing, not intuitive, hard to use
Pros: Looks Pretty
Cons: Very difficult to use
User Rating: 1/10
I use it because I have to not because I want to.
Pros: It lets me stream netflix instant view movies.
Cons: restrictions, and more restrictions, I don't know where anything is anymore, the feeling that Microsoft has defeated me everytime I use it
User Rating: 3/10
Poor, poor usability
Pros: few if any..some may feel that seeing the Album coves are great
Cons: Less features than 10,difficulty getting back to 10, can only see albums from icons not line entrys
User Rating: 4/10
not so wonderful
Pros: plays basic audio & video
Cons: tedious and non-instinctive
Burning: It's non-instinctive and tedious when trying to get your burn list to show while either displaying your "now playing" list or other audio/video list. It is not immediately clear as to how to show the burn list in order to drag & drop as opposed to right-clicking.
After having chosen over 100 tunes to burn, I had to put in a CD to burn. Upon doing so, WMP11 erased all my "to burn" info. A few hours down the tube.
Working anything beyond basic play can still be frustrating for even those who are fairly well-versed w/ years of working with WMP. Many workings are not straightforward by any means, and the "help" options are of little use.
User Rating: 4/10
wmp 11 corrupts driver
Pros: libray function has some improvements
Cons: It keeps losing the driver and when music is played back after burning a cd, the music has intermittent sound.
User Rating: 
2/10
Stick with 10 unless you like torturing yourself
Pros: Pretty album cover art
Cons: Library difficult to understand; features buried in obscure places; UI an abomination
User Rating: 3/10
Windows Media player 10 was the best player that Microsoft have produced. WMP11 isn't
Pros: Nice visual presentation
Cons: Not in touch with what users want
2) This PC (Celeron 17GHz) isn't fast enough for WMP11. It works fine with WMP10
I uninstalled WMP11 and reverted to WMP10.
Pro: Rollback is easy... almost as if they expected this!
User Rating: 8/10
Very impressive
Pros: can rip at 192kbps WMA- one of the only players that can
Cons: doesn't support many codecs when first downloaded
User Rating: 1/10
Sucks - worst than previous versions
Pros: The interface looks nice
Cons: Doesn't work
User Rating: 2/10
Next to impossible to install.
Pros: unable to observe
Cons: Difficult to install or even run.
User Rating: 1/10
"slick" skin covering garbage code
Pros: Seems to play music OK; adds FLAC support
Cons: Overall performance, especially on video, much worse than 10
User Rating: 9/10
Stylish with handy new features.
Pros: Great GUI, Keeps libraries up to date.
Cons: Missing some features of itunes
User Rating: 9/10
Major improvement to Windows Media Player 10
Pros: Clean navigation, slick look, good for media library
Cons: Sometimes sluggish performance
Pros:
- FREE!!!
- Able to access your pictures, videos, recorded TV, music, burn and rip CD's and sync certain mp3 devices with one program
- Clean, Windows type look
- Easy navigation
- Can make play lists very easy
- Has Urge subscription Music shop built into WMP 11
- SOMETHING THAT'S NOT AN IPOD!!!
Cons:
- Depending on the computer, WMP 11 can run sluggish.
- Album art can be tricky and takes time to learn how it works (at least for me)
Comparing WMP 10 to 11, you can definitely tell an improvement. The best part about WMP 11 is it can actually compete against the ipod god, itunes. (not a big ipod fan...overrated)
User Rating: 2/10
Horrible for managing large libraries
Pros: Looks nicer, listed some features I didn't try
Cons: can't turn off certain "features", escpecially grouping
I reverted back to WMP 10 so I could sort the library they way I wanted to instead of how MSFT wants me to.
User Rating: 3/10
Not user friendly as WMP 10
Pros: Nice to look at
Cons: Harder to use
User Rating: 4/10
A big let-down after WMP 10
Pros: Improved graphics, simpler navigation, improved burn/sync features
Cons: Important features from V10 are gone! Playlist edit more difficult
The loss of the automatic playlists was disappointing, too. Sure, I can recreate them myself, but I liked WMP10's presets.
And why is that version after version of WMP comes out with no ability to export text files of playlists? How hard would it be to export song titles, lengths, CD, and artist info to a text file? This has been a glaring omission for years, now.
I finally found a site describing how to uninstall WMP11, which I plan to do...or possibly invest in a competing product.
User Rating: 
5/10
Aesthetically pleasing! Some functions very difficult to find! Folder searching doesn't find all mp3
Pros: Looks good
Cons: no mp3 finding accuracy despite selecting "watched folders"
User Rating: 5/10
Good in some places bad in others
Pros: The search feature is quicker
Cons: Navigation, change in library structure
The cons, the new album structure is horrible. First off I do not care to browse my music library via album art for many reasons. One, 75% of the time you dont know what is in what album just by looking at the cover. Second because I have never cared what song came from what album, my previous mp3 tags for my music usually omitted albums so now all my music is grouped into one lump unknown album. And yes, you can change the view back to details instead of album art but even when you browse via genre or song, they still attempt to group them into albums and then the actual thing you are browsing by. Even when you try to remove album art/album as one of the columns they do not allow you to as it is a fixed default.
This player has other improvements but to be honest the change in the library structure is a deal breaker and it kills the entire program.
Back to WMP 10 for me.
User Rating: 4/10
Its OK but could be better
Pros: Easy to use and improved
Cons: No VBR for mp3
User Rating: 3/10
Junk...I wish I hadn't installed it.
Pros: Looks better than before
Cons: When you have problems, no one will stand behind the product
Second, my songs are not able to play on my MP3 player in the order that they show up in the player. Don't worry, I didn't bother to try and contact the company...I'm sure they are too busy fixing other more important software mistakes.
I rated it badly, because what good is software if even the company that gives it to you won't back it up.
User Rating: 9/10
Looks "Tight"
Pros: Love the new looks, easy to add music, semi-gapless playback
Cons: Not a huge fan of the whole album art thing but w/e
User Rating: 1/10
Not a patch on WMP 10
Pros: Can be uninstalled
Cons: Everthing else
Ive given it 1 outta 10 cos it wont do zero.
Pants
Updated on Feb 6, 2009Why oh why does it show the CD picture, its just fills the screen with pictures, i know it can be made into a list but its not as compact as 10 or winamp. Why is there a line and gaps between songs in the list, it makes the list so long its a ball ache to scroll down.
If u just hace cd`s ripped then ok, but for a load of ripped vinyl then forget it.
Pants
Updated on Feb 6, 2009The best thing about 11 is the rollback feature.
User Rating: 3/10
BRING THE TREE BACK! HATED wmp11 HAD TO ROLLBACK
Pros: Prettier Graphics
Cons: Difficult to navigate, got rid of left-side menu tree!!!
and thanks to MICROSOFT I can't find a download for Windows Media Connect 2.0!!! they force you to upgrade to WMP11 to stream music! ugh so pissed. I'm in the process of re downloading Zune just for the streaming aspect. Microsoft what were you thinking!? I'd take "uglier" menus with easy navigation over "pretty" menus with difficult nagivation any day. whew it felt good to vent.
User Rating: 
10/10
EXCELLENT UPGRADE !!!
Pros: Cool interface, really easy to use
Cons: no podcast functionality...yet, lack of PlaysForSure support...
The interface has been redesigned and it's really cool. Like its predecessor, you can change the color of the interface which is cool too. The media player is very easy to configure since the options are in the drop down menus of each tabs of the player.On WMP 11, MS got rid of the tree on the left panel which is good because it looks nicer like that. Searching for your media is very easy with the integrated search bar that tracks your media as you type in or search by your album art and etc.
Unfortunately, WMP11 is not compatible with all the PlaysForSure mp3 players... you must wait for a new firmware release of your mp3 player is you want to sync songs with WMP11 and it doesn't have any podcast functionality so I have to launch ZENcast to get my podcasts.
Even the few glitches that I encountered on the player, it's a must-have for Windows users. The design is cool, it's easily configurable and you can search your files very easily ! DOWNLOAD IT NOW !!!
User Rating: 3/10
WMP 11 -- more bloatware from Microsoft
Pros: Pretty graphics
Cons: Pushing MS crap to you even if you don't want it
User Rating: 10/10
Best media player avaible!
Pros: features, look&feel, integration with Windows, plugins
Cons: no cons for now
User Rating: 4/10
PROBLEMATIC & CONFUSING WHEN UPLOADING TO DEVICE!
Pros: Decent playback and catergorization of music files.
Cons: Constant freezing when syncing to another device, or refuses to sync altogether
I consider myself an intermediate computer user and I find that the navigation is difficult. The syncing of my playlist to another device was pretty much next to impossible with it freezing after only a few songs or not even syncing the playlist at all.
Thinking it was an error on my part, I contacted the manufacturer of my MP3 player.
It ended up that I was doing EXACTLY what I should in syncing the playlist and after some research of Windows Media Player reviews, I discovered that I wasn't the only one having this malfunction!
Microsoft needs to clean the bug and fix the syncing device component. Until then I suggest either just dragging and dropping files and playlists directly into your computer folder or use another player if you can. Unfortunately for me, my MP3 device (Sandisk) refuses to sync playlists from any other player but Windows Media Player...so basically I'm at the mercy of this piece of crap player!!!
User Rating: 3/10
not user friendly
Pros: not much to say here
Cons: too many too list
User Rating: 3/10
Eh, not bad enough to uninstall.
Pros: I was still able to use my old skins
Cons: Virtually all changes.
-Most of my files have been ripped from underground independent and mixed cds, burned , modified, and downloaded over the past 10 years including the old days of Napster and file sharing. Every time a system like this comes along and tries to "organize them" it makes them virtually disappear. Added to this is that I have as many as 15 different little album icons for tracks belonging to a single disc in cases where the sync failed.
--The changes to the drag-drop make it even harder to put things back in order.
-At least my old skin still works and I can view my play lists however I like there.
-I happened to like the straight text playlist for my roughly 10,000 tracks. The pages and pages of icons it adds instead are simply obnoxious. Automatically adding an extra icon for each of these wreaks havoc on space.
-If I knew the upgrades would turn it into horrible Itunes, I would have sold out and bought an overrated Ipod. Windows needs to go back to doing things that work, instead of that look pretty.
User Rating: 4/10
Sound is great! Some functionality lost. Video quality disapeared
Pros: Great sound as always.
Cons: Video quality seems to have suffered greatly.
User Rating: 3/10
Ugly, clunky...
Pros: Changes my file paths if I move a file. Very helpful!
Cons: It just soooo ugly :(
Most of all? I hate the ugly musical note that is the new icon. I miss my little multi coloured circle. Come back circle
User Rating: 3/10
More than I want, less than I need
Pros: Letting the user know how many discs are needed for a burn and how much space is remaining on the disc. Users are prompted to save changed playlists.
Cons: Microsoft's attempt to guess what the user wants and their penchant for placing form ahead of function.
Here are the changes I'd like to see:
1. Eliminate the table headers in library view - they are a waste of screen space and are counterproductive. For example, the artist name gets lost above the scroll if that artist has a lot of songs in a library. It's a hassle to either scroll back up or look at the adjacent songs to determine if "One" is by U2, Johnny Cash, the Cowboy Junkies or perhaps, Three Dog Night. And do we really need headers telling us a song starts with "O" when sorting by song title. Again, a waste of space. Just give me clean list of songs sorted by whatever field or fields I want to sort by - with all the info on each line.
2. Give users the ability to sort by two or more columns. That is a powerful and helpful tool (i.e. sort by artist & song title, or by year & artist, or by artist, album, track number).
3. More flexibility in naming ripped files by adding spaces between characters (i.e. artist - track).
4. More contrast on the control bar - It's difficult to see where the volume is set at a glance (a minor complaint, but I get in enough trouble for unexpectedly blasting my family with loud music - I don't need any additional help). If there's a way to change it, I haven't been able to find it.
I realize it takes time to adjust to new programs, but whenever Microsoft tries to get intuitive, they tend to make it more frustrating. I'll play with this for a few months and see if my attitude changes. As it is, my rating of "3" refers to the so-called enhancements. Overall the rating is higher, but that's due to the remnants from the prior version.
In WMP 10 you could highlight a handful of songs from any screen or window, right click and choose "Add to burn list," then go and start the burn at your convenience. Not anymore (at least as far as this fairly savvy computer user could find). All I could do was choose to burn the entire now playing pane - and it started burning immediately, meaning that I either had to cancel the burn and waste a disc or let it burn with songs I didn't want to burn (and waste a disc). WMP 10 is looking better al teh time.
User Rating: 3/10
once again MS just cant get UI right
Pros: new look and album art
Cons: bloatware. . also hard to use
User Rating: 1/10
Give a little - Take a lot
Pros: GUI simpler, more effective and Definitely more attractive.
Cons: Too much "iTunes" and "iPod" emulation for my taste, more deeply rooted into the system, lacks versatility of older versions.
Then the similarities to "iTunes" started bugging me. (I don't use iTunes and I don't own an iPod. There are far better MP3 players out there).
Here are some frustrations:
- WMP11's "Monitor folder" automatically added folders (to monitor) and persistently turned itself on and re-added folders everytime I tried to add songs to library.(No more Manually adding songs by search folders or by drag & drop)
Really frustrating for people that want to have more than one Library... I can live with that.
- WMP11 added 2 (two) JPG pictures to every folder I had in my music library, and made them system files.(in my case: 245 folders =
490 extra files that NONE of the other players -not even iTunes- ever added to a library). Now THAT's clutter!! Frustrating when you just want to copy your music library folder to your MP3 player... I can also live with that and delete them from the device.
- The thing that made me uninstall WMP11, was trying to play an old manually edited playlist (m3u file) only to get a message that it (the m3u file) is missing digital rights and never played...
Could not find a way to transfer/export/edit WMP11 playlists to my MP3 player.
Bottom line: WMP11 looks, feels and runs Well, but it lacks the "essential" flexibility of its predecessors. It roots itself even deeper into the system while it takes away the options to turn off (Mostly unnecessary, but nice-to-have) features (like folder monitoring and auto-search for updates).
User Rating: 4/10
Don't choose WMP 11, It makes your system slow
Pros: Virtually Nothing
Cons: Makes your system slow
User Rating: 
7/10
Way better than 10, yet I rolled back...Doesn't sync my player properly...No drag and drop?
Pros: Much smoother, faster search, streamlined (does look like mac, which is not a bad thing)
Cons: No drag-and-drop, system-resource-intensive, problems with sync
I loved the new sync view, you could see exactly what was going to be synced and where, as well as what was going to be removed. However, it started to double-sync tracks, mistag tracks, and all-around started to be stupid. I'm not sure if it's my MP3 Player (I have a Sandisk Sansa M260) or if it's WMP, but I have finally just rolled back to WMP 10. I wish I could have kept 11, but it was just giving me too much trouble.
Overall, 11 is very good and I could have gotten past the drag-and-drop problems, but if the syncing doesn't work, it's not worth it to me....
User Rating: 1/10
All My Icons Are Missing
Pros: New Interface For WMP
Cons: Everything to do w/ your desktop
some1 email me fast oheric1994@hotmail.com
User Rating: 2/10
I don't like 11 it sucks
Pros: I don't care for 11 the video media news video is to dark dark dark on the internet
Cons: I don't give a flip about music anyway
User Rating: 3/10
If you are used to Itunes - you'll be disappointed
Pros: Looks better than media player 10- couldn't have been worse
Cons: Where to begin...
Simple tasks in Itunes like 'find duplicates' or importing files from a list are beyond MP11.
The look and feel of the MP11 interface is neither intuive nor simple to use.
I also have occasion to use Sony's Sonic, along with MP11 and Itunes.
If Itunes is a 10, both these challengers are a 3. I've purchased a Gigabeat S on cnet's recommendation and its the only reason I'm trying to use MP11 at all.
If I had know of the hassles I'd have, I'd have bought the IPOD. I'm seriously considering returning the Gigabeat S and getting the IPOD instead just because of MP11.
User Rating: 8/10
Looks great, easy to use.. nice overall player
Pros: Great library system, good search, lots of features
Cons: Can't handle huge library art very well
User Rating: 5/10
Rocking sound...
Pros: Rocking sound... Yes.. bass has been improved much.
Cons: Black interface, which is not customizable like WMP 10
I just found a small problem with the library however.
On inserting a CD/DVD, WMP11 automatically reads the entire contents and prepares a seperate library info(Album, Artist info etc.,) for the entire content. This happens pretty quickly for a CD, but when a DVD is inserted it takes a long time for WMP 11 to index the contents and playing a song from the DVD while it's getting indexed becomes extremely frustrating.
For ex, it took more than 5 minutes to index my DVD completely, and I've to wait for the DVD indexing to complete b4 i could play any song. Even if you try to play a song, it skips a lot when WMP is indexing the DVD in the background.
On similar line, the indexer for WMP 10 searches for the files in harddisk and adds it to the library. There is also an option to monitor folders for music files so that the indexer can run in the background to add media to library. Contrastingly, In WMP 11, There isn't a way to forcefully add all the files into library. Only the monitor folders option is available. My advice would be to install wmp 10 if you don't have one, build your library and migrate to WMP 11.
Though the sound quality is astoundingly better, I'll not recommend a upgrade unless you have more than 5GB of songs and navigating your library is difficult in WMP 10.
User Rating: 8/10
Big Improvements and right up there with iTunes
Pros: Much more user friendly than previous versions. Seems to be on-par with iTunes, if not better.
Cons: Some features are not as fluid as with iTunes such as playlist and song organization.
User Rating: 5/10
Performance issues still to be solved
Pros: Excellent design, interface improvements, easy to use
Cons: bad performance, major bugs
User Rating: 6/10
OK but they removed some of the best parts of wmp10
Pros: Shiny new interface is quite good other than that not much different to wmp10
Cons: The navigation tree that cnet claim is confusing is no longer there and i found this very useful in wmp10
The tree previously found in wmp10 has been simplified so much that it is no longer that useful. Also when it is in song mode it displays them in groups by artist yet if you press a letter key it doesnt take you to first artist of that letter.
As someone said previously, if i wanted something as difficult to use as iTunes then i would use iTunes.
User Rating: 2/10
Worse than WMP 10
Pros: Looks nice, but thats about it
Cons: Harder to access playlists. Does not automatically open with the media files your were playing last time. The media player toolbar is not as good either.
User Rating: 9/10
2010 Innovation released in 2006! WOW!!!
Pros: Sleek design and performance!!
Cons: ocassional error messages on right file codec.
User Rating: 9/10
Excellent player. A lot better than WMP10 and iTunes7
Pros: New UI. Low resources use. Runs very smooth. Absolutely no problems
Cons: Needs a decent ID3 Tag editor. Needs party mode. Better playlist control
I've been using WMP 11 since RC1 and I'm very pleased with what Microsoft has done with the player. I used to use iTunes 6.0 over WMP10, but iTunes 7.0 is very buggy software and even if it wasn't, WMP11 is a better overall player. It uses a lot less resources, loads album art very quickly.
Some functions I would have liked to see:
1. Party mode. I would have liked to see a party mode which limits computer use to only the windows media player during a party and does not let others access other files or programs within your computer. I know media center has this functionality, but it doesn't work too well, as a matter of fact, it's just horrible.
2. I would have also liked the functionality to remove duplicate songs from a playlist or prevent a duplicate song from being added to the same playlist. I've actually developed my own program which removes the duplicates.
3. Podcast support would also have been nice, but I don't really use podcaats anyway.
Try the player. I think you would really enjoy it. It hasn't crashed or caused a single problem since I've been using it.
I've been using WMP 11 since RC1 and I'm very pleased with what Microsoft has done with the player. I used to use iTunes 6.0 over WMP10, but iTunes 7.0 is very buggy software and even if it wasn't, WMP11 is a better overall player. It uses a lot less resources, loads album art very quickly.
Some functions I would have liked to see:
1. Party mode. I would have liked to see a party mode which limits computer use to only the windows media player during a party and does not let others access other files or programs within your computer. I know media center has this functionality, but it doesn't work too well, as a matter of fact, it's just horrible.
2. I would have also liked the functionality to remove duplicate songs from a playlist or prevent a duplicate song from being added to the same playlist. I've actually developed my own program which removes the duplicates.
3. Podcast support would also have been nice, but I don't really use podcaats anyway.
Try the player. I think you would really enjoy it. It hasn't crashed or caused a single problem since I've been using it.
User Rating: 3/10
bloated confusing spyware
Pros: it works... kinda... sometimes... if your lucky
Cons: worse than open source players
heh go windows media player classic
User Rating: 8/10
Pretty Sweet
Pros: Nice interface/Looks visually appealing; Library organization is great; Playlists; Very easy to rip/burn; Nice search feature; Multiple online music stores
Cons: Tedious to update media info/album art; URGE doesn't work outside USA
User Rating: 5/10
2 reasons i wont upgrade!
Pros: looks pretty
Cons: 1-no quick access panel, 2-doesnt save now playing list upon restart
User Rating: 9/10
It Simply Works Great
Pros: Ease of use, Seamless integration
Cons: More flexibilty on display would be nice
For what it's worth, I am a programmer who has been burned by Microsoft in the past, lest you think I blindly worship everything coming out of Redmond, WA these days.
User Rating: 4/10
Going in the right direction, but...
Pros: Nice interface, decent mp3 ripping
Cons: Proprietary, have to purchase different codecs, no mp3 vbr
1 - I like being able to put in a CD to rip and bam ripping starts automatically (when initialized) and connects to an internet database and plug in track names, artist, and album cover.(possibly to be a pay service in the future).
2 - decent seemless interface with Windows XP Media Center.
3 - Intuitive - saves files automatically into format of artist folder -> album folder -> title/track
4 - can save to high quality mp3 format.
5 - was able to take a severly scratched cd which would not play in my stereo system and rip it without any error or noticable audio loss. It in fact did this to where the beloved Exact Audio Copy software would not rip the damaged cd. This really did impress me enough to keep media player 11 in my arsenal.
The Bad:
1 - I don't like microsoft products because of their proprietary software business model and highly priced monopolistic software practice. They are good at ripping off other's ideas and making a flashier, not necessarily a better product. Before you flame - read my positive point number 5 above.
2 - could not get lame mp3 codec to work with windows media player. Actually windows xp balked and kept giving errors. In fact could not get any free codecs to work appropriately with it. For example after I installed LAME mp3 codec into windows the program would fail to recognize it. LAME encoding has mp3 vbr encoding.
3- with that the software is proprietary, you have to purchase codecs from microsoft good ol' boys network in order to have other formats to rip your files in.
4 - software does not communicate/lock properly with cd/dvd players - every once in a while about 1 out of 50 songs would complete as an mp3 file and would only play silence.
5 - not enough features for advanced users - almost too simplistic - typical of the Microsoft dumb down to the consumer format. Once you use it and compare features with other well know similar products you will want to use another feature rich product.
Bottom Line:
I will use this software for the decent cateloging ability, but will most likely use other mp3 rippers. I will also use this software for cd's that will not rip with other programs as it has proved itself to me that it is able to rip damaged cd's with good success.
I would have expected a lot more out of such a large company with a total staff devoted to this component of windows. there is richer feature laden software available from single programmers that know how to write good code.
User Rating: 1/10
HORRIBLE wish I never downloaded it!
Pros: Music downloads, but that isn't enough
Cons: It will freeze your active-x & other media functions!
User Rating: 7/10
Improved over WMP10; Some work to do to peel me off of iTunes
Pros: Vastly improved content organization, better device syncing (even my PSP!)
Cons: Difficult to robustly import music (MP3s only) from iTunes
I've been a software developer in the MP3 player space (I designed the PC software for that SoniqCast Aireo Wi-Fi thing).
Windows media player (versions 9, 10 and now 11) have always suffered from two problems: 1) Robust handling of ID3 tags and 2) Poor substitute for Gracenote CDDB (or whatever it's called now).
I have about 60 GB of MP3s I've ripped from my CD collection (about 1K of discs). I've ripped most of it over the years using Musicmatch and I've recently dumped that for iTunes).
When I import my collection into WMP11, I had to remember to change the default settings to a) disable automatic 'updating' of MP3 tags (which sometimes wrong; again, WMPs sub-par tag lookup service) and b) disable the default setting that actually deletes your MP3 file if you remove it from the library (I hope you have a backup of your collection, if you start playing with Windows Media Player).
The real problem: poor support for tracks ripped with iTunes. The music is there, but items like Album Art are not. Also, many of my 'Albums' were split into multiple copies, with some tracks going into one album and the rest into another. I tend to be very detailed with my the meta data in my MP3s, but I could not see what caused WMP11 to split some albums into 2 or 3 'sections'.
And, like the previous versions, some of my MP3s are just missing tags, although they show up fine in Musicmatch and iTunes.
Something MS has to learn: the ID3 tag specification is not really a specification. It's more a collection of Tribal Knowledge on how popular MP3 tools write them out.
I know MS wants to steal people away from iTunes; if they are going to do that, the cross-grade has to be seamless and robust.
Yes, I said "cross-grade".
So far, I see nothing that falls into the category of "upgrade" (if we are just talking about music), unless you want to use one tool for photos (try Picasa for that), Videos (try Picasa for that, too) and Music.
User Rating: 10/10
This is sooo coool
Pros: New Interface and the organized library
Cons: Wish it worked with my Nano to quit using itunes
User Rating: 9/10
Awesome....
Pros: New sleek look, album art in the library
Cons: Doesn't remember what it played before closing the player last time
User Rating: 8/10
Best in Show ... give 'em a Blue Ribbon
Pros: Powerful, complete, simple, dependable, reliable.
Cons: Haven't found any yet
User Rating: 5/10
Wait for full release
Pros: Visuals, Communication With External Device,
Cons: Still in beta.
If you download this and after a while, you can only get about two minutes of playing be for it has to close, don't say you weren't warned.
Bottom line: Don't waste your time. just stay with WMP 10. I used to think beta tesing was cool. Well after this last adveture (to be nice) I think I will wait for the full release.
The full release is out AND IT STILL SUCKS!
it had so much potential. oh microsoft, must you always screw everything up?
User Rating: 6/10
Still needs work
Pros: Redesigned organization, slick look
Cons: Still has some bugs/function problems
I jumped at WMP11 because WMP 10 is a workhorse on my computer, handling a variety of file types, so I naturally thought that WMP 11 would keep the good and improve on the bad. Also, I loved the slick look and the blue "glow" on the buttons.
However, once I had it up and running, I had problems. It split my albums across five or six albums due to incomplete information on the tag, and without a drag and drop feature, going in and editing the tag of every misplaced track by hand was tedious.
Also, when I ejected a CD and put a new one in to listen to, WMP 11 didn't sense the change and started playing the new one with the old time data; that is, when I skipped forward a track, it skipped forward 3:30 (the time data from the first CD) and ended up halfway in the next track instead of skipping the proper 2:00 (the length of the track on the second CD).
I also wish that it was better at finding album art, which might get easier once it stops splitting my albums up.
When I tried to rip music, however, the program choked up. I decided that I'd had enough of the beta bugs and I rolled back.
Microsoft is on to some ideas with Apple-like intuition; their controls are much simpler and more elegant, and their search function and organization of the music is a relief. However, some flaws still plague the player, which will hopefully be closer to perfection upon release of the final version. Until then, I still use iTunes and the jetAudio player.
User Rating: 4/10
Doesn't manage large libraries well
Pros: GUI is an aesthetic improvement over WMP 10
Cons: Moves sloooowly through large libraries.
User Rating: 3/10
Mostly the same...
Pros: Nice look to it, but I prefer the version 10 one myself...
Cons: Would be nice if the menus could be better customised.
It really irks that I have to look at the name of some music retailer every time I look at the menu.
Come on Microsoft, how about you loose the money bilking part of your interface...
User Rating: 7/10
Its a good improvement, but it does have performance issues.
Pros: Interface has been greatly improved from WMP 10, library has much more functionality
Cons: It definitely needs improvements, especially with performance.
User Rating: 9/10
Overall i think that Microsoft is headed in the right direction with the new player.
Pros: Easy to use, Styleish design.
Cons: Albums for orgnizing music is little messed up. Dosnt organize how it should.
User Rating: 7/10
WMP 11 is thumbs up better than WMP 10
Pros: Nice eyecandy interface, simpler to use, includes URGE, sort of customizable
Cons: Some bugs yet to be corrected (Beta remember), Still resembles WMP 10 more shell related, kind of slow don't now why?, crashed on me several times find that hard to believe
Really like it's interface real eye candy in fact I can change color of the media player to red for example and looks quite good even blue can do this in WMP 10 but the effects are not as nice, simply pick color chooser. WMP 11 includes URGE from Microsoft and MTV not that I use it that much but is very convenient almost the equivalent to iTunes music store.
Some issues I encountered with it was it was a bit slow and crashed twice on me on the day I downloaded it don?t know why but I now it?s a beta but I will tell Microsoft oh and a few bugs but let?s hope they correct that.
I can see some competition going on with iTunes and WMP 11. Don?t have much to say about it though but I am impressed.
Give it 7.8 out of 10.
Plus make sure to reply so I can read your feedback!
User Rating: 4/10
Do NOT install this if you use napster or msn music or any other download service...
Pros: Cool interface
Cons: Gave up some of the simple aspects of 10 and messes you up in the process!
User Rating: 1/10
Seems like more of a hassle, even for a beta.
Pros: I like the black interface
Cons: Urge,hard to remove, DRM, stopped playing after about a month.
The buttons could've been laid out better, with all it's graceful looks, navigation seemed clunky to me. Another thing that bugs me is I can't uninstall the thing. Tried restoring, rolling back , deleting, it's all a no go. Maybe I need to download the WGA first.
Overall, I've found way better media players installed on other OS's. Banshee is a good one to mention. And Helix was nice for the short moment I messed with it. I'd say go back to the drawing board and stop "soft-launching" products that aren't even near completion as beta's. Microsoft is the only company I've ever downloaded a beta from, and have it fail repeatedly.
User Rating: 5/10
Too many bugs...it certainly is a beta.
Pros: Slick Interface, great search
Cons: Crashes, unstable, resource hog
The player crashed with videos all the time, and sometimes with music. Froze my computer and hogged my resources. Long start up times too. Way too many bugs.
You can see it will be a very good player, with a slick interface and the new search functionality was long time coming.
I recommend passing on this until the official version is released.
User Rating: 4/10
Why would WMP11 care if I have a valid version of windows
Pros: Sound's like it's an improvement over WMP10
Cons: Couldn't install - doesn't like my version of windows
User Rating: 3/10
For audio use only
Pros: Improved look and feel.
Cons: Pausing video causes constant crashes.
User Rating: 2/10
i think it is the worst ever windows media player you cant just get the libray and put it on sufffel
Pros: cool visualizations thats all there is to say
Cons: all of it dont downlode it you cant get it off and cant get the better wmp 10 back on
User Rating: 8/10
better than any other existing media player
Pros: library revamped better audio output
Cons: only runs on genuine windows
User Rating: 3/10
Drag and... and... and... no drop? Less functionality.
Pros: Looks, more tabs and menus.
Cons: No drag and drop with the library that I could see.
User Rating: 5/10
WMP 11 is a donkey ready to kick
Pros: Improved format support, Improved library
Cons: Fewer visualisations, problamatic playlists, poor easy of use.
Playing music is not nearly as simple or enjoyable as with version 10 or itunes. Especially with a blank playlist greeting you every time you open the program instead of the last playlist or tracks played.
But once you get past these cosmetic and minor issues, WMP has really being improved. The search function is great, the library very intuitive and easy to use and the various options for ripping, burning and enjoying music increased.
The addition of the URGE music store is a welcome one, but I doubt that without very aggresive pricing it will be able to match iTunes success.
In my opinion, keeping the WMP 10 look and adding the functionality of WMP11 would have been better. This version of Windows Media Player just feels cluttered, rushed and unejoyable to use. If this is the future of WMP, iTunes should thrive.
User Rating: 7/10
Still Needs Major Work
Pros: Great Organization of Songs, Albums, and Art. Great Sound.
Cons: Major Problems with downloading Music from FYE and MSN Music. After contacting MSN, they showed me how to reset the Player so I could download what I bought.
User Rating: 7/10
One step away from being everything itunes is not.
Pros: Intuitive Interface, Dynamic Graphics, Plenty of Features
Cons: Sluggish, Stalls Occasionally, Customer Service is "lackluster" at best
As with most start-ups this venture has some glaring flaws. The program is sluggish at times, and suffers from a rare bug which crashes systems featuring "Windows XP Media Center 2005". Additionally, the Customer Service offered via their telephone support offers little more advice than can be found in the "troubbleshooting" section of any "help" file.
Where this product shines is in its ease of use. The library, as well as the interface in general, has been streamlined to reflect a itunes style simplicity with a flare unique to WMP.
Finally, Microsoft is returning to its old playbook when it comes to portable music. Capatalizing on Apples tendency to make it's software compatable only to its hardware, Microsoft has made WMP 11 and files available on URGE compatable with multiple players. It even offers an online service to help users find a player which meets their needs and price range.
In all WMP 11 features all the potential our teachears use to say we had in high school... let's hope it gets the encouragement to live up to it once testing is done.
User Rating: 2/10
MS just can't seem to get things right
Pros: Good looking
Cons: Non-intuitive, bloaty and over-complicated
This Beta version of the new program is far from ready for general use and won't be until the designers come up with a system thats at least as simple and fast as the one theyre replacing but MS mas failed once again.
By the second day of useage, I was completely fed up after having to wait while the player loaded album covers that I didnt want to see and I couldnt be bothered spending the time necessary to learn a method of play list creation that only took maybe 60 seconds in version 10.
I kicked the program to the curb and moved forward by going back to the old version. If MS wants to serve me, theyre going to have to come up with more programs that run faster, cleaner and use fewer of my systems resources do do their job.
User Rating: 6/10
Great Potential
Pros: Great UI, menus, easy to use
Cons: It killed my MP3 player
User Rating: 6/10
License Management???
Pros: Search and Discovery
Cons: Where is the license management
User Rating: 4/10
Confusing...!
Pros: prettier interface, real-time search
Cons: unbelievably confusing menu navigation, color enhancement too dark, awkward playlist making/maintenance
For one thing, why are there so many ways to do one simple task? In WMP10, I could right click a file to edit its ID3 tags in the "Now Playing" mode--now in WMP11 I cannot. To further complicate this, there's still the "properties menu" which is not editable. Why can't they all (the properties, id3 tags) be in one menu that I can change--tell me the location, the ID3 tags, and every other detail about the file in a pop-up window when I right-click on it--anywhere! And let me edit that menu, PLEASE!
I also spent about 10 minutes trying to get the "List Pane" back into view. I can click the blue arrow to make it disappear, but when I want to make it reappear, I have to go under "Now Playing" to select "Show List Pane." Completely unintuitive! It makes absolutely no organizational sense to my brain that a menu changes places like that!
To move onto more confusing matters: the left-side display area (used for all sorts of "visualizations" such as album art, cool wave-y art, etc.). WMP11 makes this left-side visualization area mandatory (or so it seems--do I need to tinker even more??) just like the top viewing area over the Playlist--which ALSO shows an album art picture--why? That's album art in two areas and I can only turn off the left one to leave a big, black hole! So either have URGE music store loading on the left, album art, ugly visualization waves, or a huge black square. So, can I turn them off, someone? I only want to see my playlist! And if you can turn these both off, why isn't it easier to find?
Clicking on the "play" icon in the bottom left corner of WMP11 allows you to change the icon to that of default "play arrow," "video/music/picture/etc. file type icon," or sometimes a clip still of your video or the album art cover. Why? What a waste of time for me. When you play music, you can select it to show bars, but again, not interested.
The library has a lot of new features, but even being a pretty heavy PC user, I get confused by the overkill and bloat. Again, why can I do the same action in 30 different ways??? Give me ONE simple method.
I am also disappointed that I cannot edit ID3 tags of files that are not inside of a music folder that WMP recognizes. This has long been a pet peeve of mine. Drag and dropping album art is good when you're in WMP11's menu, but right clicking gives you WMP10's outdated "browse to find."
Finally, without a built-in way to handle podcasts from the plethora of sites that are dishing them out, I think WMP11 seems outdated already.
Oh, and I shouldn't EVEN mention making a playlist in this horrible thing and then trying to burn it!
I hope they fix a lot of the organizational problems and make this more novice-friendly. There's no way I can get some of my PC-clueless family members to touch this with a 10-foot pole! iTunes beats this one, hands down.
User Rating: 9/10
Shows promise, but Waiting for Final Product
Pros: Nice Interface, Easy to use. Movies and Music played back just fine
Cons: There are things I'd like to see fixed in the final version.
User Rating: 10/10
IT IS EXTREME!!!
Pros: A pure suncation
Cons: No body ca copy it
User Rating: 9/10
Big step up
Pros: Fast, easy to use, great UI
Cons: No Ipod support.
User Rating: 9/10
Competition for iTunes
Pros: Great Interface, Fast, Easy to Use
Cons: Won't beat the iTunes regin over media players but does take a decent wack at it
User Rating: 3/10
Crashes constantly
Pros: fresh new interface
Cons: crashes a lot (maybe because it's a beta)
User Rating: 10/10
Best Media Player Yet
Pros: Added Enhancememnts
Cons: Havent found any yet
It full of updates.
For all you haters, go buy a mac or bloat about your free linux.
User Rating: 10/10
this is an awesome player!!!
Pros: the new look looks and library managment
Cons: none after i learned the player (which only took me about an hour overall)
User Rating: 7/10
Overall I like it but 2 major killers mite deter the upgrade
Pros: album covers in every view , FAST seach.
Cons: Doesn't play wmas from a mp3 conversion using MS converter, Drag and Drop organization functionality removed.
I have a significant amount of files I converted from MP3 to reduce size and get other Tags. Used the windows converter. The files play w/ WMP 10 and earlier, as well as other apps. But WMP 11 chokes on em, no audio. Trys to play for about 7 seconds then drops it.
Secondly, I used to drag and drop with in the library view to organize everything. Say you wanted to change the genre or add multiple genres. Before U could expand the genre tree and drag files over upon which U were prompted to add or replace the genre. NO longer can U do this in WMP 11. Yes it can be done via the tag editor, but it is not as clean. But where it really becomes a pain is when you have files and go to find album info. You used to be able to drag files to an album that was incomplete in WMP 10, update and boom all files would be associate with that album. No more, now U have to stay in the find info wizard and click over and over again on the album for each track.
This is problematic, cause sometimes the wizard finds two seperate albums, ie the UK version and the US version. This would split the album across two album covers. And to fix that w/o drag and drop is a major pain.
Sad thing is, the new interface would allow for this if the functionality was coded into it.
On to the good. Interface is slick and more visual. You can always see the album art, and the choice of views is better, more like the XP file manager.
The search is phenominal. Superfast and updates as U type. It search base on the view you select, so if U are in artist view it searches artists, song view will search every possible field match (title, artist, etc)
So please MSFT, can U put back in the DnD and allow my converted files to play. This is really a show stopper in my book. I dont want to upgrade if half my collection wont play. And the DnD is pretty important too.
User Rating: 1/10
SP2 NEEDED I USE SP1
Pros: can't download
Cons: can'tdownload
User Rating: 5/10
Not much difference...
Pros: Nice interface
Cons: Not much of an improvement on WMP 10, library is still annoying to use.
The interface has been improved on which is nice, but the core function - playing and selecting music still seems to be fiddly and annoying.
btw, what happens with msn music now - are they just ditching it and moving on? I wonder what it will be after urge...
User Rating: 8/10
Windows Media Player - Sync ...
Pros: Sync's with PocketPC
Cons: Still a bit shaky on displaying pictures from your albums.
Also is a little sluggish trying to view pictures from the My Pictures Folders it shows a few, then simply stops renderring and stops searching for more pictures even though there are a few hundered pictures to search for and display.
Overall a very good 'Beta" from MS. Lets just hope they can imnprove it and keep the functionality alive as well.
User Rating: 4/10
A complicated "upgrade". Drag&drop feature sorely missing!
Pros: Nice look, great graphics, cool to have the album art show up
Cons: Not so great for organizing your music, drag & drop feature missing
I thought that when you released a new version of a program, it was supposed to be better in some way.
The MP 11 (Polaris) is not better than the 10. It is in fact a bit worse.
Ok, it has nice graphics, but graphics are not everything and the sooner MS figures that out, the better.
I have always used MP and never found i-tunes all that great, but now I'm suddenly thinking about giving i-tunes a try.
I miss the drag&drop feature of the 10. I miss the left hand menubar, even though it was a nuscanse some times to have to scroll up and down, at least I had an overview of what I was doing and wanted to listen to.
Also, I download alot of music, from various artists and sometimes the album info for songs of the same CD are not the same... then you could just drag&drop them into the right album and volá, the media information would automaticly change.
This lovely d&d feature is no more, and I really dislike that.
MS went from fine to bad with Polaris.
I'm not impressed.
User Rating: 4/10
Um... doubt it.
Pros: Microsoft are at last thinking about UI
Cons: Microsoft are the ones thinking about UI
User Rating: 10/10
Superb job by MS!
Pros: Upgraded interface, multiple music stores integration, URGE, Tons of compatible mp3 players, smeter features
Cons: beta version is still a little buggy but that is understandable.
User Rating: 3/10
Too Little Too Late
Pros: it's better
Cons: it's not good enough
My entertainment library was too important to sit around waiting for MS to come up with a 1/2 decent product, I left them behind years ago when they failed to provide the features I needed to manage my music, and they still haven't caught up!
I've been using JRiver Media Center for years (as of today version 11), it cost me $25, a fair price considering how much time it has saved me in managing my music. It's fast, supports podcasts and internet radio, cover art, every audio and video format you could want and every function you'd expect from a world class media jukebox (rip, burn, tag, copy, move, rename, broadcasting, whatever you need I bet it has it). Not only does it make Windows MediaPlayer look like an antique, it kills iTunes too. Not to say that iTunes isn't good but if you're not using an iPod then iTunes is just not a best in class media library.
If you need to manage a LARGE media library, you owe it to yourself to try Media Center 11 at http://www.jriver.com/
Non-disclosure: I am in no way affiliated with JRiver, I just believe it's a better product.
User Rating: 9/10
Wow, this is great
Pros: MUCH faster when it comes to library usage... and the interface is amazing
Cons: Minor bugs, as mentioned before, but they'll be worked out! Also urge is a little expensive compared to Yahoo
User Rating: 9/10
One of the best media players ever
Pros: Uncluttered, easy to use, lots of options
Cons: Its still in beta, so expect a crash or two (but still very usable)
User Rating: 7/10
WARNING!!!
Pros: streamlined interface, very fast searches, a great update for an aging media player
Cons: Buggy installation... read on...
HERE'S THE WARNING:
I had to call Microsoft to get help installing it on my 2nd computer, a Dell XPS desktop. The system exceeded the programs requirements but would not install. Thats when Microsoft told me that since I am using Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2, WMP 11 may or may not work because I was installing a beta on a beta. They said if my computer wouldn't install it, it was "strongly recommended" to wait for WMP 11's next beta build version, due in June, or risk errors with Windows XP's module library. So, I will wait until the next build and use it on my one computer for now.
Microsoft: Hurry with that next build! (and warn people about beta compatability!!)
User Rating: 5/10
Dissapointed
Pros: Full screen mode looks nicer. New album art display is a nice idea.
Cons: Nothing much is new. Looks more childish. My music is perfectly fine tuned and organized in a manner that I like which I don't want to redo in WMP11,
-neto
User Rating: 10/10
Pretty Cool!
Pros: Its prettty cool. Not much to touch it. Hope they wipe Ipods off the map.
Cons: Users of legacy OSs like Linux and Windows 98 cant run it
User Rating: 4/10
Not as good as itunes
Pros: i guess the features are nice and its the only thing that works with my pmc
Cons: its really ugly and slow
User Rating: 1/10
Horrible it doesn't work
Pros: None that i have found
Cons: I can't even install it
User Rating: 9/10
Awesome improvement. The iTunes drones are just anti-Microsoft, not anti-player
Pros: Album art everywhere is fantastic. Urge integration is amazing. Sync works so much better.
Cons: Perf still a bit too slow, could be more responsive.
User Rating: 2/10
I'm sure I would be impressed if I could actually get it to do anything.
Pros: None that I can see.
Cons: It doesn't work?
So when I heard that WMP 11 was supposed to be as good as Itunes I quickly downloaded the beta.
However, I can't get the program to do anything.
It loads and runs.
It has a nice looking interface.
But it insists that my music library contains songs it does not and when I click on these songs it gives me errors.
I eagerly looked forward to trying the Urge option but when I click on it, nothing shows up and the screen remains blank.
So I close it down and bring up Itunes.
It may not be MS and it may have its own quirks that annoy... But it does work.
User Rating: 1/10
Still Doesn't Beat iTunes.
Pros: Good Range of devices
Cons: User Interface Bad,Not compatible with ipod, Not as good as iTunes, Unsupported for macs, Looks terrible, Huge download size, Slow to load on average pc, Need Windows Vista for best experience.
User Rating: 10/10
BEST MEDIA PLAYER YET
Pros: everything is great!
Cons: library not as good as winamp yet
however i still think winamp's library system is better, but at least wmp11's library system is MUCH better than wmp10
worth the download!
User Rating: 9/10
Best media player yet
Pros: Great improvement in navigation
Cons: Some UI changes may take some getting used to
User Rating: 1/10
Does not work with windows 2000
Pros: Who Cares.
Cons: Does not work with windows 2000
User Rating: 8/10
A great start. The best Windows media player out there.
Pros: Great interface. Lots of information. Easy to use.
Cons: Crashes. Downloads to players use 98% CPU utilization!
It does crash here and there, and every time I quit, it sends an error report to Microsoft event it if didn't crash. But, hey, it's beta.
One thing they must address right away is the CPU usage during file transfers to mp3 players. When you do a tranfer, the PC grinds to a complete halt. Minimal screen refreashes even within the WMP11 application. And forget using your computer outside of WMP11 during the transfer. Then the transfers end, and all is just fine again.
Since no other music service suffers from this slowdown, I know it can be fixed.
Otherwise, an impressive start. Once they add podcasts and video, they will have a strong weapon against Apple.
Of course, if Apple ever offers subscriptions, it may all but over for the non-Apple camp. The one "advantage" of plays for sure players will be lost.
User Rating: 5/10
Windows Media Player 11
Pros: New Interface, Uncluttered, Nice color scheme
Cons: Performance Issues in some areas
I was very impress with the new look and uncluttered interface. I loaded mymusic without many issues. At first I could not get some folders to load music and it took several tries before it work. The real problems came when I loaded up my photos into the player. I have about 1840 photos taken and the system would freeze everytimeI switch from music to the photo tab.
When I say freeze, it would last anywhere from 20 seconds to 2 minutes before I was force to alt-del to shut down the program.
I have a Gateway computer with AMD duo 3800 processors and 3 gigs of memory. But no matter what, everytime I open the photo tab instant freeze.
I have an Apple Laptop with a G4 processor running at 1.67 and 1gig ofmemory and in I-photo not once instant of freezing or any other issue at all. I -tunes with 3000 plus songs runs like a champ and songs are imported with such ease.
While I thinkMicrosoft hascome quite a way with the interface and new look it still needs to work seamless. I do understand this is a beta so work is still being done but there is a reason I-Photo and I-tunes are the programs to beat. They are simple to use and they work without freezes.
I like Micorsoft alot and have use all products since windows 3.1. I just hope thye can iron out the bugs and make it easierto use as their counterpart Apple.
User Rating: 7/10
iTunes Killer, maybe. If the final version includes podcasting.
Pros: Beautiful Interface
Cons: No Native Podacasting
User Rating: 9/10
So much better than WMP10, on par w/ itunes
Pros: easier to navigate, FANTASTIC search function, much more aesthetic than WMP10, integrated w/ URGE
Cons: Does not contain anything that itunes already dosen't have, but for windows media rebels it is a gigantic leap to a similar playing field
User Rating: 4/10
Couldn't find some favorite features
Pros: attractive interface, lots of information on music library
Cons: couldn't find some favorite features
User Rating: 9/10
superbly designed
Pros: instant search, no problems during scrolling for large albums
Cons: customizations are very minimal, some features hard to access. opressively slow media search
Those of you who are mp3 based, Media Player 11 is a definitive option for you.
The great new features include, not in order to usefulness, album art based display, new layout, glossier ?Aero? style interface, instant search feature THAT ACTUALLY works, and burning-transfer features.
I suggest the upgrade to anyone who hasn?t ? it will appear officially on the 17th of May 2006, but is easily available leaked via a quick Google search.
One of the most fantastic things (in my mind, the only really NEEDED advancement) was the improvement of memory usage by MP, in order to allow massive album of one or more gigs. MP10 was suffering to scroll and search.
My only complaint is that many of the features are not customizable. For example, I want to be able to control every little detail, such as what appears on the sidebar, and what appears in the toolbar. I guess I cannot have it all. At least the music experience has become a lot simpler, happier ? especially for those who depend on their laptop as their media center.
User Rating: 7/10
Expected a little more but generally satisfied, Future is still promising
Pros: I had some fun with the graphics, for awhile, in the end it's the presentation and quality of service that counts
Cons: Choice of radio and other formats seems limited at this time, that can change momentarily though as the service matures some
That's why I'm having a hard time investing further in the Apple format over the couple of $25 cards I've invested in that format until now. I've had more usage of the radio station selection of the iTunes than the limited library I currently have available on that format.
Back to WMP11. It was a little harder to find some of the "tweak" functions.. I like to tailor the EQ slightly to my personal tastes, which has been shown to be extremely accurate, in the installation of many professional audio systems of merit.
I can only give first impressions, still much left to explore before pontificating too much.
The sound quality is ultimately the real consideration of ANY audio system, whether with video synced or not. By my ear, I hear only slight differences between equivalent streams of 128mbs of iTunes and WMP11, and with slight differences, they are nearly indistinguishable, and either one is of excellent quality, with little dropouts (I am on the low end of cable broadband, certainly not I've had in thoughtput before, and it has had few dropouts and rebuilds over all with either format.
While I predict that the Microsoft player and MP3 format will dominate the market (regardless of what is better... remember VHS vs. Betamax?), by being a little quicker on their feet, once again Apple has captured a large percentage of the market, but so many alternatives to the iPod are showing up, and they all don't run Apple format.
I try not to judge a computer by it's cover, in the end, it's what you get done with them that counts, not what you have.
Right now, Apple has the edge, but Microsoft has the URGE!
User Rating: 9/10
Easy and fun to use
Pros: Great interface, fast, feature-rich
Cons: beta version a little buggy
User Rating: 4/10
very disappointing
Pros: nice looking
Cons: library and now playing displays now worthless
I'm going to roll back to WMP 10, although perhaps when it's out of beta I'll take a second look and see if they've made any changes.
User Rating: 10/10
fantastic upgrade
Pros: improved UI, improved tagging and search
Cons: takes a while to get used to UI
User Rating: 4/10
Sad commentary on MS that all they can muster is a weak copy of Apple interface
Pros: almost Apple
Cons: Locks up your system if you are running multiple programs
User Rating: 9/10
iTunes ... what?
Pros: GUI, seamless transition and integration.
Cons: A little slow in processing.
User Rating: 5/10
Improved UI????
Pros: Same easy to use interface.
Cons: Songs spaced so far apart in the window.
User Rating: 6/10
Big improvments, but its been done before
Pros: Sleek new user interface, cool album art intergration...
Cons: Nothing really new, just a new skin really...
User Rating: 9/10
Looks like in done with Itunes
Pros: Great information, Plenty of viewing options, Good servies, Easy to use.
Cons: Like alot of Windows products it likes some RAM
User Rating: 8/10
Windows Media have Improved
Pros: Sleeker Style, Faster Play Response of mp3s, Runs Faster than Media Player 10, More Options for Burning, Ripping, Sync, etc.
Cons: Performance of Playback music can be interrupted by everyday vigorous use of comp. system, Lack of toolbar., Requires more of the Right-clicking activity,
However, it depends on your system of course...
With all these Upgrades from Windows Updates and what not, it's one of the problems that's causing a messy playback performance of mp3s. I'm not surprised, since systems today are facing massive security upgrades and software updates that would sacrifice a lot of the cpu's memory, and leading to a small portion of space for the media player to handle. So this definitely calls for an upgrade for all those 512 RAM users out there with P4 HT Tech...
Organizing your library is a lot easier and more common to use compared to Media Player of today where you rely a lot on the taskbar on the left hand side. Now the organization of music is so much easier to use, straight forward, and more direct, SIMPLE.
Search Bar is easy, fast, just in case if you forget what song you want in your Media Library.
We do have the occasional settings, such as the Equalizer, Bass Boost, Wow settings, Color Settings, etc. such as our present WM10. However, a good upgrade on those would be most appreciated by Microsoft.
This player is probably the next iTunes, excluding the fact that iTune's Enhanced Playback System is 20% better than the WOW system of today's Media Player. Hopefully Microsoft will diverge into a new Media Solution to make songs more lively besides paying for Plug-Ins from 3rd Party sites such as DFX.
Performance wise of the player is about 50% faster than our current WM10 which is very outstanding, however, once again, playback quality against usual sound use of today is kind of sketchy and interruptive. And I know for a fact that extreme Comp. Users hate the fact of not updating their OS for Security sake.
Other than that, it's the same'ol player with cooler graphics and faster performance with a bad tweek of sustaining that performance.
Oh by the way, it lacks Visual Enhancements, but that's not really an issue.
User Rating: 3/10
This is your father's media player
Pros: Clean, better interface design and quicker media search
Cons: No podcasting support
Microsoft had an opportunity to crush to iTunes with this version by simply putting together a podcast directory FOR 97% OF ALL PC's. Most people listen from a computer anyway. And get the podcast they do it from their pc's. So why leave the door open to a competitor? There is nothing to gain by releasing this player with out a podcast client.
I hope that it is in the future for this player, because without it I won't use it and will continue to recommend iTunes and other apps that don't have moss growing all over them.
Oh yeah, just to frustrate you more . . . once installed it will add your non-DRM files to the library. Which includes all the podcasts that you downloaded with iTunes.
User Rating: 8/10
iTunes should be worried
Pros: Clean interface, album art, finally a few good devices
Cons: Playlist bugs, still a little bloated
User Rating: 4/10
Is CNET insane?
Pros: Visually appealing
Cons: Not as intuitive or intelligent. Lacks depth of music. No iPod integration
User Rating: 10/10
This Looks Great hope it do's well
Pros: Great looking and has great things to do on
Cons: None that I can think of
User Rating: 6/10
looks good
Pros: nice design simple
Cons: not available yet
User Rating: 7/10
Do the looks match the performance?!
Pros: Intergrates in Windows better, nice library and album information
Cons: Apple Rip Off (as usual)
User Rating: 4/10
WMP has never been as easy to use as iTunes, crossing fingers for a change.
Pros: Works will 100 different MP3 players.
Cons: 90% of those are crappy players that people will falsely blame false fault on WMP.
I always opted for Musicmatch, although I didn't like it too much better, but when iTunes came out, it was easily the easiest way to do all my music in one, and now it adds video into the mix. I hate to admit that H.264 codec for Quicktime is superior to anything.
I am starting to see why all them Mac fans out there are Mac fans, and I see myself slowly converting into one.
User Rating: 9/10
WMP looks Great, Finally no more iTunes
Pros: Interface looks great
Cons: Have no cons at this time
User Rating: 10/10
Great new verion of media player, leaves iTunes in the dust behind it!
Pros: Great interface, no other media program that has such a great interface. As a previous iTunes user i think this is muth simpler to use
Cons: No very good ipod intergration features
User Rating: 6/10
Can someone say iTunes RIP-OFF??
Pros: Its more like iTunes?
Cons: Its completley UNoriginal
User Rating: 6/10
Finally! A current generation player for a next-gen OS
Pros: Smooth operation, decent UI
Cons: iTunes has performed better and had the search features for years!
