Windows Media Player 11

Infobox Software
name = Windows Media Player 11



caption = Windows Media Player 11 in Windows Vista
collapsible =
author =
developer = Microsoft
released =
latest release version = 11.0.6001
latest release date = February 4, 2008
latest preview version =
latest preview date =
frequently updated =
programming language =
operating system = Microsoft Windows
platform =
size =
language =
status =
genre = Media player
license = Proprietary software
website = [http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/mediaplayer Windows Media Player 11 for Windows Vista]

"Windows Media Player 11" is the most recent version of Windows Media Player. It is available for Windows XP and included in Windows Vista.

History

Microsoft released the first public beta of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP (excluding Media Center editions before 2005) on May 17 2006 and subsequently released the second public beta on August 31 2006. Then on October 30 2006, the final version of Windows Media Player was released to the public. Windows Media Player 11 was included in Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system when it was released in November 30 2006 (for volume-licenses) and January 30 2007 (for worldwide retail availability); the Vista version includes some features not found in the XP version. As a result of a European antitrust ruling, Microsoft will also be required to produce "Windows Vista N" editions which do not include Windows Media Player for the European Union market. [cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4754462.stm |title=Microsoft unveils Vista editions |publisher=BBC News |date=2006-02-27 |accessdate=2006-12-21]

Features

This new version features many changes. The "Media Library" no longer presents the media items (such as albums and artists) in a tree-based listing. Rather, on selecting the category in the left panel, the contents will appear on the right, in a graphical manner with thumbnails featuring album art or other art depicting the item—a departure from textual presentation of information. Missing album art can be added directly to the placeholders in the Library itself (though the program re-renders all album art imported this way into 1x1 pixel ratio, 200x200 resolution jpegs). Views for "Music", "Pictures", "Video" and "Recorded TV" are separate and can be chosen individually from the navigation bar. Entries for "Pictures" and "Video" show their thumbnails. "Windows Media Player 11" also includes the "Windows Media Format 11" runtime which adds low bitrate support (below 128 kbit/s for WMA Pro), support for ripping music to "WMA Pro 10" and updates the original WMA to version 9.2.

Other features:
*"Stacking" - "Stacking" allows graphical representations of how many albums there are in a specific category or folder. The more items there are, the larger the pile or stack is.
*"Instant Search" - Searches and displays results as characters are being entered, without waiting for "Enter" key to be hit. Results are refined based on further characters that are typed.
*"CD Burning" - "CD Burning" now shows a graphical bar showing how much space will be used on the disc.
*"Global Status" - "Global status" shows a broad overview of what the player is doing. The information presented includes status information regarding buffering, ripping, burning and synchronization.
*Improved synchronization features for loading content onto PlaysForSure-compatible portable players. WMP 11 supports reverse-synchronization, by which media present on the portable device can be replicated back to the PC.
*Support for ripping audio CDs to WAV format.
*Media Sharing (via Windows Media Connect) allows content (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 also connect to remote media libraries using this feature; this is not available on the Windows XP version.
*Integrated web-browsing support to browse online music stores.
*"Disc spanning" splits a burn list onto multiple discs in case the content does not fit on one disc.

Removed features

The "License Management" tool available in prior versions of Windows Media Player has been removed since version 11. This prevents users of music download services from directly using Windows Media Player to back up their licenses and restore them to another computer. The user now must depend on the download service being able to assist with re-acquiring that license. Not all services support this so in some circumstances you could lose the ability to play media which you've purchased for use with Windows Media Player 11. e.g. Walmart states: "Important Note: In many cases, we cannot replace song and license files if they are lost. We strongly suggest you back up your music by creating an audio CD or CDs using Windows Media Player 11" [cite web
url=http://musicdownloads.walmart.com/catalog/servlet/HelpTopicServlet?topicIndex=0#5
title=Walmart.com - Music Downloads
publisher=Walmost
year=January 2008
accessdate=2007-01-23] [cite web
url=http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/11/readme.aspx#1608319
title=Backing up and restoring licenses
publisher=Microsoft
year=November 2006
accessdate=2007-01-04]

No longer is one able to change the media player's background to black. Instead, the background is a near-white shade of the color chosen in the color chooser.

The "Quick Access Menu", which enabled browsing the library via a pop-up menu, has been removed. As a result of this, the library cannot be browsed when the player is in toolbar mode.

In previous versions of Windows Media Player, the keyboard shortcut "Ctrl + I" could be used to capture the frame of video being displayed at the time the shortcut was initiated. This feature was removed for windows media player 11.

References