Hands on: Windows Media Player 12's surprising new features

[Borimol]

Though many previously bundled applets now will ship separately to Windows 7, Windows Media Player remains part of the core OS. Windows 7 will ship with Windows Media Player 12, which includes some surprising new features.

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The UI itself is brighter and lighter than WMP11. Some buttons and toolbar items have been moved around, but the experience should be pretty familiar to users of version 11. What does represent a big change is the removal of the Now Playing button, which in WMP11 switches to a view showing the current playlist.

This is because WMP12 completely separates library management from what's currently playing, with two distinct player modes; Now Playing view, and Library view. Library view contains all the library manipulation features that should be familiar from WMP11. Now Playing view contains the current playlist, visualizations, and videos.

Library view

Video playback controls

Now Playing playlist

Now playing visualizations

There's also a new taskbar miniviewer that works with the new Windows 7 taskbar, and WMP12 includes support for Jump Lists.

Taskbar Mini viewer

The Play To controller for a network device

Via: http://arstechnica.com

[portauthority]

no WMP12 for Vista or XP? :(

[+Mystic MVC]

Looks fun, can't wait to play around with this.

[Ci7]

no WMP12 for Vista or XP? :(

i bet MS will release them for prvious windows , just like IE8

vista at least since it is new in town lol

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

I've always liked having the library tied-in to the now playing stuff. I'm sceptical as whether or not I'll like this change.

[ViperAFK]

I've always thought windows media player is a very underrated player.

[Rappy Veteran]

no WMP12 for Vista or XP? :(

Vista will probably get a release seeing as its still quite new, XP who knows.

[Smigit]

I've always thought windows media player is a very underrated player.

To be honest it's my favorite player. ITunes I find pretty poor on Windows and I absolutely hate Winamps media library. Other ones I've tried I'm not nuts on too.

[Ci7]

Vista will probably get a release seeing as its still quite new, XP who knows.

XP wont get it , if they release WMP12 after April ,2009 (there will be no component update from here after only security updates ) +i believe +

[jamesVault]

no WMP12 for XP? :(

XP is dead :yes:

[StarLion]

XP is dead :yes:

Sorry to burst your bubble, but Microsoft just cut the last remaining bits of support for Windows 3.11 the beginning of this year...XP will have some form of support for a while to come.

[bluewind.]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but Microsoft just cut the last remaining bits of support for Windows 3.11 the beginning of this year...XP will have some form of support for a while to come.

Say it ain't so! No more support for 3.1?? I must upgrade!

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

Say it ain't so! No more support for 3.1?? I must upgrade!

Windows 95 is nothing but bloat. Has no improvements over 3.11 that I would use. M$ are stupid for putting out that buggy POS.

[/satire]

[Ci7]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but Microsoft just cut the last remaining bits of support for Windows 3.11 the beginning of this year...XP will have some form of support for a while to come.

if they release it after 4/14/2009 when Xp mainsteam support end

dream to have WMP12 or any other windows component/app updates !

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN...=13&p1=3223

[xpgeek]

Looks cool. Nifty new features.

[qdave]

nice new features. doesnt matter much about the look since i use classic skin on it :p

[Rappy Veteran]

Say it ain't so! No more support for 3.1?? I must upgrade!

I hear Windows ME is good (Y)

lawl

[Des]

Cool new features but still not convincing enough for me. I'll stick to Winamp & Itunes.

[Linkinfamous]

Itunes.

As someone who just spent 30 seconds waiting for iTunes to load so I can sync my iPod (Load to the point where I can actually click on anything, I mean), I have to ask: Whhyyyyyy?

I'm debating downgrading my iPod touch to the old firmware just so I don't have to put up with it anymore.

[FreqFace]

Would have to be very good to pull me away from iTunes. I just find it so simple to use and it just works. I'll admit iTunes is a bit slow to open sometimes, but it's never really more than 10 seconds and I do have over 20gb of music in my library, so it doesn't bother me. Once it is open, it's very responsive.

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

iTunes is slow and sloppy on Windows. I wish I didn't have to use it but I have an iPod and an iPhone.

[Smigit]

iTunes is slow and sloppy on Windows. I wish I didn't have to use it but I have an iPod and an iPhone.

Well just use it for syncing and be done with it. I never need it open for more than a minute.

[Unknown_97784568745]

iTunes is slow and sloppy on Windows. I wish I didn't have to use it but I have an iPod and an iPhone.

Aren't there plugins that make it possible to use them with different audioplayers?

I know of foo_pod for foobar2000 and there must be something for winamp too.

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

Well just use it for syncing and be done with it. I never need it open for more than a minute.

That's all I do but I need to set aside 15 mins to do it because it's so slow =\

Aren't there plugins that make it possible to use them with different audioplayers?

I know of foo_pod for foobar2000 and there must be something for winamp too.

I use the calendar/contact syncing too, though.

[BajiRav]

iTunes is slow and sloppy on Windows. I wish I didn't have to use it but I have an iPod and an iPhone.

I am in the same boat. :/ I mainly use WMP for managing my library, playlists etc. I then use MusicBridge to sync iTunes with WMP and then sync iPhone with iTunes.