Windows mobile windows media

Windows Media Player Mobile FAQ

May 2005

This document provides answers to frequently asked questions about Microsoft Windows Media Player 10 Mobile for Pocket PC and Windows Media Player 10 Mobile for Smartphone. It also includes some information about earlier versions of Windows Media Player for Pocket PC and Smartphone.

If you do not find an answer to your question in this FAQ, try the following resources:

• For more detailed information about Windows Media Player Mobile, see Windows Media Player Mobile Help. To access Help on a Pocket PC, start Windows Media Player Mobile, tap Start (the Windows logo in the upper-left corner of the screen), and then tap Help. To download the Help file as a Microsoft Word document, see the Help Documentation page.

• To submit a question to the Windows Media Player Mobile newsgroup, see question 1.8.

• To submit a question to the Media Advice Column, see the Media Advice Archive page.

• To find additional support resources, see the Troubleshooting Windows Media Player Mobile page.

• For information about the version of Windows Media Player for desktop and notebook computers, see the Windows Media Player FAQ page.

Tip:  To search this FAQ, press CTRL+F.

General. General questions about Windows Media Player Mobile.

Installation. Questions about installing Windows Media Player Mobile.

Devices. Questions about supported devices.

Synchronization. Questions about synchronizing (copying) digital media files from your computer to your device.

Playback. Questions about playing digital media files.

Library. Questions about finding and organizing digital media files on your device.

Development. Questions about developing software with Windows Media Player technologies and for Windows Mobile-based devices.

Recent Changes to the FAQ. The latest updates to the FAQ.

General

• What is Windows Media Player 10 Mobile?

• How does Windows Media Player 10 Mobile differ from its previous versions?

• How does Windows Media Player 10 Mobile interact with Windows Media Player on my desktop computer?

• How do I start Windows Media Player 10 Mobile?

• How do I access Windows Media Player 10 Mobile Help on my device?

• What are the version numbers of Windows Media Player for Pocket PC and Smartphone?

• This FAQ doesn’t answer my question. Where can I find other support resources?

• Is there a Windows Media Player Mobile newsgroup?

• How do I determine which version of Windows Media Player Mobile is on my device?

Installation

• Where can I download Windows Media Player 10 Mobile?

Devices

• Which devices support Windows Media Player 10 Mobile?

Synchronization

• How do I copy music, videos, recorded TV, playlists, and pictures to my device?

• Can I synchronize digital media files to locations other than a storage card?

Playback

• Which file types does Windows Media Player 10 Mobile support?

• Which codecs does Windows Media Player 10 Mobile support?

• Why can’t I play a file that I copied to my device?

• Can Windows Media Player 10 Mobile play protected files?

• How do I tell if a file is protected?

• Why isn’t album art displayed when I play a song?

• Where can I download music that will play on my device?

• Can I view QVGA video in full-screen mode on a VGA device?

• Can Windows Media Player Mobile play files created by Microsoft Photo Story?

• Which version of DRM does Windows Media Player Mobile support?

Library

• What is a library?

• How do I copy music and video to my library?

• How do I use the library to find and play files?

• My digital media files don’t show up in the library. What’s wrong?

Development

• Where can I find information about developing with Windows Media Player technologies?

• Where can I find information about developing for Windows Mobile-based devices?

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General

1.1  What is Windows Media Player 10 Mobile?

Windows Media Player 10 Mobile is the latest release of Windows Media Player for Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs and Smartphones.

You can use Windows Media Player 10 Mobile to play digital audio and video files that you have copied to a removable storage card or to play digital audio and video files that are streamed over the Internet.

For information about obtaining Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, see question 2.1.

1.2  How does Windows Media Player 10 Mobile differ from its previous versions?

Windows Media Player 10 Mobile features many enhancements, including the following:

Subscription Content. Because Windows Media Player 10 Mobile supports Windows Media Digital Rights Management 10 (DRM 10), it is now possible to rent thousands of songs from an online service such as Napster To Go and play them on your Pocket PC or Smartphone.

New Skin. The default user interface has been updated with a fresh new look.

Library. A library has been added to help you find and play audio and video files more quickly. The library lets you sort content by criteria such as artist name, album title, genre, or actor.

Playlists. Playlist management has been improved. Any playlists that you create with the desktop version of Windows Media Player 10 can be automatically copied to your device when you synchronize.

Queue Up. This new command lets you quickly add individual files, entire albums, or all songs by an artist to the end of the current (Now Playing) playlist.

Album Art. The default skin can now show album art just like the desktop version of Windows Media Player 10 does. The art, if available, is automatically copied to your device when you synchronize with the latest desktop Player.

Content Synchronization. When you synchronize with the desktop version of Windows Media Player 10, your favorite playlists and audio and video files are automatically copied to your device. Filling your device with your favorite content has never been easier.

Performance. File playback has been improved significantly. High-quality audio and video files play back more smoothly than ever before.

New Codecs. You can now play a broader range of Windows Media files, including content that has been encoded with the Windows Media Audio 9 Professional codec, the Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless codec, and the latest version of the Windows Media Video 9 Image codec (used by Microsoft Photo Story 3).

For information about obtaining Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, see question 2.1.

1.3  How does Windows Media Player 10 Mobile interact with Windows Media Player on my desktop computer?

You can think of the desktop version of Windows Media Player 10 as your entertainment hub. You can use the desktop version of Windows Media Player 10 to rip CDs, download music from online stores, organize your favorite songs into playlists, and so on.

If you want to enjoy your favorite songs and videos with you on the go, you can use the desktop version of Windows Media Player 10 to automatically synchronize (copy) those items to your Windows Mobile-based Pocket PC or Smartphone. After you have synchronized your songs and videos to your device, you can use Windows Media Player 10 Mobile to play them whenever you want, wherever you want.

1.4  How do I start Windows Media Player 10 Mobile?

To start Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, do one of the following:

Pocket PC

• Tap Start (the Windows logo in the upper-left corner of the screen), tap Programs, and then tap Windows Media.

  Windows Media Player 10 Mobile starts.

Smartphone

• On the Home screen, select Start, select More, and then select Windows Media.

  Windows Media Player 10 Mobile starts.

1.5  How do I access Help on my device?

To access Help on a Pocket PC, start Windows Media Player Mobile, tap Start (the Windows logo in the upper-left corner of the screen), and then tap Help. Smartphone does not support on-device Help.

To download Windows Media Player Mobile Help documentation for either Pocket PC or Smartphone, see the Help Documentation page. The Help files on this page are formatted as Microsoft Word documents.

1.6  What are the version numbers of Windows Media Player for Pocket PC and Smartphone?

The following is a list of versions of Windows Media Player that have been released for Pocket PC, Smartphone, and similar devices.

All current versions of Windows Media Player for Pocket PC and Smartphone are shipped as part of the Windows Mobile operating system. No versions of Windows Media Player for Pocket PC or Smartphone are available for download from Microsoft.

It is up to each device manufacturer to select which version of the operating system (and, by extension, which version of Windows Media Player) they will include on their new devices. It is also up to each device manufacturer to decide when or if they will allow their customers to upgrade the operating system on their old devices.

For a list of devices that include Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, see question 3.1.

Note   *Microsoft periodically updates the Windows Mobile operating system and makes those updates available to device manufacturers. There have been several updates to Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition.

Some Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition devices might not include Windows Media Player 10 Mobile because only the most recent update (known as Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition Adaptation Kit Update 2 (AKU2)) includes Windows Media Player 10 Mobile.

For more information about the specific version of the operating system installed on your device, contact your device manufacturer or mobile operator.

1.7  This FAQ doesn’t answer my question. Where can I find other support resources?

For information about additional support resources, see the Troubleshooting Windows Media Player Mobile page.

1.8  Is there a Windows Media Player Mobile newsgroup?

If you have a question about Windows Media Player Mobile that is not covered in the FAQ or in Help, the Pocket PC Multimedia newsgroup and the Smartphone newsgroup are good resources for finding an answer. The newsgroups are maintained by a community of knowledgeable users offering peer-to-peer assistance.

When you ask your question on a newsgroup, be as specific as possible. For example, be sure to include the following basic information:

• Windows Mobile operating system version.

  On Pocket PC, tap Start (the Windows logo in the upper-left corner of the screen), tap Settings, tap System, and then tap About.

  On Smartphone, select Start, select Settings, and then select About.

  In your question, include the full version name (for example, Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition Version 4.21 or Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition Version 0.0.1008 Build 0.2.0.0).

• Windows Media Player Mobile version.

  On Pocket PC, in Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, tap Back until the Playback screen is displayed, tap Menu, and then tap About.

  On Smartphone, in Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, press Back until the Playback screen is displayed, select Menu, and then select About.

  In your question, include the full version name (for example, Windows Media Player 10 Mobile for Pocket PC).

• The brand and model number of your device.

• The task that you were trying to accomplish prior to encountering the problem.

• If an error message is displayed, note the error message text (for example, «Windows Media Player has encountered an unknown error»).

• If the problem only occurs when you use a particular file, link, or Web page, provide details about that item.

Please note that the newsgroup is maintained by users such as yourself. It is not an official Microsoft technical support resource. Therefore, Microsoft cannot guarantee that your question will be answered.

1.9  How do I determine which version of Windows Media Player Mobile is on my device?

The method for determining which version of Windows Media Player Mobile is on your device varies depending upon which version of the Player you are using. See the following procedures for details:

Windows Media Player 10 Mobile (Pocket PC)

• Tap Back until the Playback screen is displayed, tap Menu, and then tap About.

Windows Media Player 10 Mobile (Smartphone)

• Press Back until the Playback screen is displayed, select Menu, and then select About.

Windows Media Player 9 Series and earlier (Pocket PC)

• On the Playback screen, tap Tools, and then tap About.

Windows Media Player 9 Series and earlier (Smartphone)

• Although no About command is available from within the Smartphone version of Windows Media Player 9 Series or earlier, you might be able to determine the version number by referring to the information in question 1.6.

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Installation

2.1  Where can I download Windows Media Player 10 Mobile?

All versions of Windows Media Player for Pocket PC and Smartphone are shipped as part of the Windows Mobile operating system. No versions of Windows Media Player for Pocket PC or Smartphone are available for download from Microsoft.

It is up to each device manufacturer to select which version of the operating system (and, by extension, which version of Windows Media Player) they will include on their new devices. It is also up to each device manufacturer to decide when or if they will allow their customers to upgrade the operating system on their old devices.

Windows Media Player 10 Mobile is preinstalled on select Windows Mobile-based devices that run the Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition operating system. For a list of devices that include Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, see question 3.1.

For release information about previous versions of Windows Media Player, see question 1.6.

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Devices

3.1  Which devices support Windows Media Player 10 Mobile?

Windows Media Player 10 Mobile is included in a variety of devices by default. In addition, a number of devices are upgradeable to Windows Media Player 10 Mobile.

For a list of supported devices, see the Windows Mobile device page.

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Synchronization

4.1  How do I copy music, videos, recorded TV, playlists, and pictures to my device?

Through a process called synchronization, the desktop version of Windows Media Player 10 lets you easily copy music, videos, recorded TV, playlists, and pictures to Windows Mobile-based devices.

All of these synchronized items, except pictures, will appear in the Windows Media Player 10 Mobile library on your device. Note that Windows Media Player 10 Mobile cannot be used to view pictures. Check your device documentation to determine if your manufacturer has installed a picture viewing program on your device.

The following procedure describes how to configure your computer to synchronize content to your Pocket PC or Smartphone. After you complete this procedure, subsequent synchronizations will either occur automatically or with minimal intervention from you.

1. Install Windows Media Player 10 and ActiveSync 3.7.1 on your desktop computer.

   To download the software, see the Windows Media Download Center and the Windows Mobile Downloads and Applications page.

2. On your computer, start Windows Media Player 10.

3. Right-click the title bar, point to Tools, and then click Options.

4. On the Player tab, select the Enable picture support for devices check box.

5. Insert a storage card into your Pocket PC or Smartphone, and then connect your device to a USB port on your computer by using the cable that came with your device.

6. If this is the first time that you have connected your device to your computer, the ActiveSync New Partnership Wizard starts. Click Standard partnership, and then follow the instructions.

7. If this is the first time that you have used your device with the desktop version of Windows Media Player 10, the Windows Media Player Device Setup Wizard starts. Choose a synchronization method:

   • Automatic. With this option, the desktop Player synchronizes content to the device automatically every time you connect the device to your computer or when you change your synchronization settings.

     If there is enough free storage space on your device, the desktop Player synchronizes all of the content in your desktop library to your device.

     If there is not enough free space on your device to synchronize all of the content in your desktop library to your device, the desktop Player synchronizes the highest priority (that is, your favorite) content first.

     Note that automatic synchronization is not available unless there is at least 32 megabytes (MB) of free storage space available on one of the device’s storage locations (such as on a removable storage card).

   • Manual. With this option, you pick only the items that you want to synchronize to your device right now. The next time you connect your device, no content will be copied to your device automatically.

8. (Optional) If you selected Automatic synchronization in the previous step and you want to customize the order in which content is synchronized, select the Customize the playlists that will be synchronized check box.

   The Custom Sync Settings page of the wizard is displayed.

   1. Select the check boxes of the playlists you want to synchronize to your device.

   2. Click the arrows to move playlists up or down; the playlists will be synchronized in the order shown on this page.

9. Click Finish.

   Depending on the synchronization method you chose, the following happens when you click Finish:

   • Automatic. The Player begins synchronizing the content. The next time you connect your device to your computer while Windows Media Player 10 is running, your content will be synchronized to your device automatically (the wizard will not appear).

     If you want to change the order in which content synchronizes at a later time, see Changing the Priority Order.

   • Manual. No items are synchronized. To manually select items to synchronize, see Selecting Items to Synchronize Manually.

     The next time you connect your device to your computer while Windows Media Player 10 is running, the wizard will not appear.

For more information about the Sync feature, start the desktop version of Windows Media Player 10, and then press F1.

The desktop version of Windows Media Player 10 is only available for computers running Windows XP. If you are not running Windows XP on your desktop computer, use the Copy to CD or Device feature of Windows Media Player 9 Series to copy your audio files and video files to your device.

Note that the desktop version of Windows Media Player 9 Series is not as full-featured as the desktop version of Windows Media Player 10. For example, the desktop version of Windows Media Player 9 Series does not support automatic synchronization, synchronization of playlists, synchronization of album art, or synchronization of TV shows recorded by computers running Windows XP Media Center Edition.

For more information about the Copy to CD or Device feature, start the desktop version of Windows Media Player 9 Series, and then press F1.

4.2  Can I synchronize digital media files to locations other than a storage card?

For best results, you should insert a removable storage card, such as a Secure Digital (SD) or miniSD card, into your device and then synchronize to that location. Synchronizing to another storage location, such as to your device’s RAM, can be problematic for certain devices.

If you plan to synchronize protected files (for example, songs obtained from an online store, such as f.y.e. Download Zone or Napster), do so while the storage card is inserted into your Pocket PC or Smartphone. Do not synchronize protected content to a storage card while the card is inserted into a storage card reader. If you do so, the licenses will not copy correctly and Windows Media Player 10 Mobile will not be able to play the protected files.

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Playback

5.1  Which file types does Windows Media Player 10 Mobile support?

By default, you can play files in either Windows Media or MP3 format (this includes files with the extensions .asf, .wma, .wmv, and .mp3). In some cases, your device manufacturer or mobile operator might configure the Player to play other file formats.

5.2  Which codecs does Windows Media Player 10 Mobile support?

High-quality digital media files can require a large amount of storage space. To minimize file size, digital media files are often compressed by using software called a codec (short for compressor/decompressor). To play the file, it must be decompressed by using the same codec that compressed the file.

By default, Windows Media Player 10 Mobile can play files that have been compressed by using any of the following audio and video codecs. In some cases, your device manufacturer or mobile operator might configure the Player to support other codecs. You can determine which codecs a file uses by checking its file properties (Menu > Properties).

Audio codecs

• Microsoft Windows Media Audio codec versions 1.0, 2.0, 7, 8, and 9.

  Although Windows Media Player for Pocket PC supports all the variants of the Windows Media Audio 9 codec (including the Windows Media Audio 9 codec, Windows Media Audio 9 Professional codec, Windows Media Audio 9 Voice codec, and Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless codec), the following variants are only partially supported:

  • Windows Media Audio 9 Professional codec. Multiple channels are combined into a stereo mix during playback. Depending upon the audio playback capabilities of your device, content with an audio sampling rate higher than 48 kilohertz (KHz) might be played as 48 KHz.

  • Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless codec. Depending upon the audio playback capabilities of your device, content with an audio sampling rate higher than 48 kilohertz (KHz) might be played as 48 KHz.

• MP3

Video codecs

• Microsoft Windows Media Video codec versions 7, 8, and 9.

• Microsoft Windows Media Video 9 Image codec versions 1.0 (used by Microsoft Photo Story 1 and 2) and 2.0 (used by Photo Story 3).

• Microsoft MPEG-4 codec version 2.0 and 3.0.

• ISO MPEG-4 video codec version 1.0.

5.3  Why can’t I play a file that I copied to my device?

There are several reasons why you might not be able to play a digital media file that you copied to a Pocket PC or Smartphone. The following are some of the most common reasons:

• You did not use the Sync feature in Windows Media Player 10 to copy the file to your device.

  The Sync feature detects the playback capabilities of your device and, when possible, converts the file into a format and bit rate appropriate for the device. If the file is protected and the license permits synchronization to a portable device, the Sync feature copies the license to the device and stores it in the appropriate location.

  For more information about synchronizing files to a device, see question 4.1.

• You did not synchronize the file to a removable storage card while the card was inserted into your Pocket PC or Smartphone.

  Synchronizing protected files to a storage card while the card is inserted into a storage card reader (rather than inserted into a Pocket PC or Smartphone) can prevent Windows Media Player 10 Mobile from being able to play the file.

  For more information about synchronizing files to storage cards, see question 4.2.

• You are trying to play a file format that Windows Media Player 10 Mobile does not support (such as files with the extensions .avi, .divx, .m4a, .mpeg, .mpg, .ms-dvr, .ram, .wav, or .xvid).

  For more information about supported file formats, see question 5.1.

• You synchronized a protected file that requires you to install a security upgrade on your computer before you can play it or synchronize it properly.

  To resolve the problem, play the file in the desktop version of Windows Media Player 10 and then, when prompted, follow the steps on the screen to upgrade the security components of the Player. (Alternatively, you can install the upgrade by using your desktop computer to visit this Security component update page.)

  After you have upgraded your security components, synchronize the file to the device again. To determine whether a file is protected, see question 5.5.

5.4  Can Windows Media Player 10 Mobile play protected files?

Protected files are digital media files that are secured with a license to prevent unauthorized distribution or playback. The technology used to protect files is called digital rights management (DRM). Windows Media Player 10 Mobile supports Windows Media DRM 10 (previously known by the code name Janus).

The license specifies how you can use the file. For example, a license can specify how many times you can play a file. A license can also specify whether you can burn the file to a CD or synchronize (copy) the file to a portable device. The terms of the license are specified by the person or company that provided the file.

If the license permits it, Windows Media Player 10 Mobile can play protected .wma files that you acquire from online stores, such as f.y.e. Download Zone or Napster, through a la carte purchase or through a subscription account.

To play subscription content on your device, you must use the desktop version of Windows Media Player 10 to synchronize the files to your device.

To determine if a file is protected, see question 5.5. To find out which version of DRM each version of Windows Media Player Mobile supports, see question 5.10.

5.5  How do I tell if a file is protected?

To determine if a file is protected, do one of the following:

Pocket PC

1. Tap Start (the Windows logo in the upper-left corner of the screen), tap Programs, and then tap Windows Media.

   Windows Media Player 10 Mobile starts.

2. If you are not on the Library screen, tap Menu, and then tap Library.

3. On the Library screen, tap the Library arrow (near the top of the screen), and then tap the library that you want use (for example, My Device or Storage Card).

4. Tap a category (for example, My Music), tap a file, tap Menu, and then tap Properties.

   The Properties screen is displayed.

5. If necessary, scroll to the section titled «Protected.»

   If the file is protected, the word «Yes» appears beneath the section title. If the file is not protected, either the word «No» appears beneath the section title or the section title is not displayed at all.

Smartphone

1. On the Home screen, select Start, select More, and then select Windows Media.

   Windows Media Player 10 Mobile starts.

2. If you are not on the Library screen, select Menu, and then select Library.

3. If necessary, on the Library screen, select Menu, select Library, and then select the library that you want to use (for example, My Device or Mounted Volume).

4. Scroll to a category (for example, My Music or My Playlists), and then press the Action key.

5. Select the file that you want to check (such as a song), select Menu, and then select Properties.

   The Properties screen is displayed.

6. If necessary, scroll to the section titled «Protected.»

   If the file is protected, the word «Yes» appears beneath the section title. If the file is not protected, either the word «No» appears beneath the section title or the section title is not displayed at all.

For more information about protected files, see question 5.4.

5.6  Why isn’t album art displayed when I play a song?

There are several reasons why album art might not be displayed when you play on song on your device. In order for album art to be displayed:

• The album art must appear when you play the file on the desktop version of Windows Media Player. If the desktop Player cannot display the album art, then the album art cannot be copied to your device.

• You must use the Sync feature in the desktop version of Windows Media Player 10 to copy songs to your device. This ensures that the album art on your desktop computer is copied to the correct location on your device.

• Windows Media Player 10 Mobile for Pocket PC or Windows Media Player 10 Mobile for Smartphone must be installed on your device. Only these versions can display album art.

In some cases, album art might not be displayed correctly if the art is embedded in the file (for example, by using the Advanced Tag Editor in the desktop version of Windows Media Player).

5.7  Where can I download music that will play on my device?

To ensure that the songs that you purchase or subscribe to will play in Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, look for online stores that display the PlaysForSure logo.

5.8  Can I view QVGA video in full-screen mode on a VGA device?

Some newer devices have larger displays that support VGA resolutions (480 x 640 pixels). If you try to use Windows Media Player 10 Mobile to play a QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) video in full-screen mode on a VGA device, depending upon the device and the codec that was used to encode the content, the video might not be scaled to fill the entire screen. It might only be displayed at 240 x 320 pixels.

5.9  Can Windows Media Player Mobile play files created by Microsoft Photo Story?

Windows Media Player 10 Mobile can play files created by Microsoft Photo Story 1, Photo Story 2, and Photo Story 3. For information about obtaining Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, see question 2.1.

Windows Media Player 9 Series for Pocket PC and Smartphone can play files created by Photo Story 1 and Photo Story 2, but it cannot play the video portion of files created by Photo Story 3. Windows Media Player 9 Series for Pocket PC and Smartphone can only play the audio portion of files created by Photo Story 3.

If necessary, you can use Windows Movie Maker to convert Photo Story 3 files into files that will play in Windows Media Player 9 Series for Pocket PC, Windows Media Player 9 Series for Smartphone, and some earlier versions of Windows Media Player Mobile.

Just import the Photo Story 3 .wmv file into Windows Movie Maker, and then save the movie by using one of the movie settings indicated in the following table. Note that you must install the Windows Movie Maker 2 Winter Fun Pack 2003 to obtain the movie settings that produce the highest-quality files for Pocket PC and Smartphone.

For more information about saving movies in Windows Movie Maker, see Windows Movie Maker Help or the Windows Movie Maker FAQ page.

For more information about sharing photo stories, see the Share Your Movies with Photo Story 3 page.

5.10  Which version of DRM does Windows Media Player Mobile support?

Digital rights management (DRM) is the technology used to protect digital media files from unauthorized distribution or playback. Online stores, such as f.y.e. Download Zone and Napster, typically sell protected files.

The following table indicates the version of Windows Media DRM that each version of Windows Media Player Mobile supports. Only Windows Media Player 10 Mobile supports Windows Media DRM 10 (previously known by the code name Janus).

This means that only Windows Media Player 10 Mobile allows you to play subscription content (such as the protected files that you can download from Napster if you have a Napster To Go subscription account).

For information about playing protected files, see question 5.4. For information about synchronizing protected files to a device, see question 4.2. For information about obtaining Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, see question 2.1.

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Library

6.1  What is a library?

The library contains links to your audio files, video files, and playlists. As in the desktop version of Windows Media Player, the library in Windows Media Player 10 Mobile lets you sort your content by criteria such as artist name, album title, genre, or actor.

Unlike the desktop Player, the Pocket PC Player can have multiple libraries. Each library represents an available storage location. For example, if you store some content in the internal storage location on the device (known as random access memory or RAM), the My Device library contains links to those files.

If you also store content on removable storage cards, you will have additional libraries for each of those cards. This includes storage cards such as Secure Digital (SD), miniSD, MultiMedia Card (MMC), or CompactFlash (CF) cards.

On the Library screen, you can switch between the My Device library and any other libraries that are available to your device.

By default, Windows Media Player automatically searches the internal storage location of your device for compatible digital media files. If it finds any, they are added to the My Device library.

Similarly, when you insert a removable storage card into your device, Windows Media Player automatically searches it for content and adds it to a Storage Card library.

If the Player does not detect new files that you copy to your device, you can manually update the library by using the Update Library command.

6.2  How do I copy music and video to my library?

See question 4.1.

6.3  How do I use the library to find and play files?

In Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, use the library to find and play songs, videos, and playlists that are stored on your device or removable storage card.

Pocket PC

1. Tap Start (the Windows logo in the upper-left corner of the screen), tap Programs, and then tap Windows Media.

   Windows Media Player 10 Mobile starts.

2. If you are not on the Library screen, tap Menu, and then tap Library.

3. If necessary, on the Library screen, tap the Library arrow (near the top of the screen), and then tap the library that you want use (for example, My Device or Storage Card).

4. Tap a category (for example, My Music or My Playlists), tap and hold the item that you want to play (such as a song, album, or artist name), and then tap Play or Queue Up.

Smartphone

1. On the Home screen, select Start, select More, and then select Windows Media.

   Windows Media Player 10 Mobile starts.

2. If you are not on the Library screen, select Menu, and then select Library.

3. If necessary, on the Library screen, select Menu, select Library, and then select the library that you want to use (for example, My Device or Mounted Volume).

4. Scroll to a category (for example, My Music or My Playlists), and then press the Action key.

5. Select the item that you want to play (such as a song, album, or artist name), and then select Play (or select Menu, and then select Queue Up).

6.4  My digital media files don’t show up in the library. What’s wrong?

If you have synchronized content to your device but you cannot find the files in the Windows Media Player 10 Mobile library, try the following:

• Verify that you are looking at the correct library.

  Pocket PC

  • On the Library screen, tap the Library arrow (near the top of the screen), and then tap the library that you want use (for example, My Device or Storage Card).

  Smartphone

  • On the Library screen, select Menu, select Library, and then select the library that you want to use (for example, My Device or Mounted Volume).

• Manually update a library to ensure that it has links to any new files that you might have recently copied to your device or to a removable storage card.

  Pocket PC

  1. If you are not already on the Library screen, tap Menu, and then tap Library.

  2. On the Library screen, tap the Library arrow (near the top of the screen), and then tap the library that you want to update (for example, My Device or Storage Card).

  3. Tap Menu, and then tap Update Library.

  4. Tap Search, wait for the files to be added, and then tap Done.

  Smartphone

  1. If you are not already on the Library screen, select Menu, and then select Library.

  2. On the Library screen, select Menu, select Library, and then select the library that you want to update (for example, My Device or Mounted Volume).

  3. Select Menu, and then select Update Library.

  4. Select Search, wait for the files to be added, and then select Done.

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Development

7.1  Where can I find information about developing with Windows Media Player technologies?

The Windows Media Player 10 Software Development Kit (SDK) provides information and tools to customize the desktop version of Windows Media Player 10. However, it also includes information and tools to help you develop background UI plug-ins and skins for Windows Media Player 10 Mobile. In addition, the SDK includes information about embedding the Windows Media Player ActiveX control in C++ programs and Web pages.

Because Windows Media Player 10 Mobile uses the same object model as the desktop version of Windows Media Player 10, a subset of the desktop functionality is enabled in Windows Media Player 10 Mobile.

To download the SDK, see the MSDN Windows Media Downloads page.

7.2  Where can I find information about developing for Windows Mobile-based devices?

For more information about developing for Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs and Smartphones, see the Windows Mobile for Developers page.

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Recent Changes to the FAQ

• 5/4/04:  Updated existing answers about supported devices (question 3.1) and codecs (question 5.2).

• 12/1/04:  Added a new question about digital rights management (question 5.10); updated an existing answer about new features (question 1.2); updated an existing answer about protected files (question 5.4).

• 11/11/04:  Updated existing answer about supported devices (question 3.1).

• 11/3/04:  Added a question about support for Microsoft Photo Story (question 5.9); updated an existing answer about supported codecs (question 5.2); added a question about determining the version of Windows Media Player Mobile (question 1.9); and updated the list of Player versions (question 1.6).

• 10/12/04:  FAQ created.

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This article is about the original version used prior to Windows 11. For its successor, see Windows Media Player (2022).

Windows Media Player Legacy

Windows Media Player (WMP, officially referred to as Windows Media Player Legacy to distinguish it from the new Windows Media Player introduced with Windows 11) is the first media player and media library application that Microsoft developed to play audio and video on personal computers. It has been a component of the Microsoft Windows operating system, including Windows 9x, Windows NT, Pocket PC, and Windows Mobile. Microsoft also released editions of Windows Media Player for classic Mac OS, Mac OS X, and Solaris, but has since discontinued them.

In addition to being a media player, the app can rip audio file from compact discs, burn Audio CDs or MP3 CDs, synchronize content with a digital audio player or mobile devices, and stream media over the local network. Originally, it could connect to a number of online music stores, allowing its users to purchase digital music. 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 player is also able to utilize a digital rights management service in the form of Windows Media DRM.

Windows Media Player is a unique component, in that since 1999, each version of Windows came with two or more versions of it side-by-side. For example, Media Player versions 5.1, 6.4, and 8 were all included in Windows XP. Each versions of Windows may bundle several other media playback apps, namely ActiveMovie Control, CD Player, DVD Player, Windows Media Center, and Microsoft Movies & TV.

Windows Media Player 11 is the last out-of-band version of Media Player. It was made available for Windows XP and is included in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Version 12 was released in 2009 along with Windows 7^[b] and has not been made available for previous versions of Windows nor has it been updated ever since.^[2][3] Windows 8 bundled Windows Media Player 12 along two other media player apps, namely Xbox Video and Xbox Music. The latter was renamed Groove Music in Windows 10, and then finally Media Player in Windows 11^[4] which has also been backported to Windows 10.^[5]

The first version of Windows Media Player appeared in October 1991, when Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions was released.^[6] Originally called Media Player, this component was included with «Multimedia PC»-compatible machines but not available for retail sale. It was capable of playing .mmm animation files, and could be extended to support other formats.^[7] It used MCI to handle media files. Being a component of Windows, Media Player shows the same version number as that of the version Windows with which it was included.

Microsoft continually produced new programs to play media files. In November of the following year, Video for Windows was introduced with the ability to play digital video files in an AVI container format,^[8] with codec support for RLE and Video1, and support for playing uncompressed files. Indeo 3.2 was added in a later release. Video for Windows was first available as a free add-on to Windows 3.1, and later 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.^[9] However, Media Player continued to come with Windows until Windows XP, in which it was officially renamed Windows Media Player v5.1.^[10] («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.x 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 98 SE and Windows 2000 with an mplayer2.exe stub allowing to use this built-in instead of newer versions.^[11] Windows Media Player 7.0 and its successors also came with an wmplayer.exe stub, replacing each other but leaving Media Player and Windows Media Player 6.4 intact. Windows Me and Windows XP is the operating systems to have three different versions of Windows Media Player side by side. All versions branded Windows Media Player (instead of simply Media Player) support DirectShow codecs. Version 7 of Windows Media Player was a large revamp, with a new user interface, visualizations and increased 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 store MSN Music which came bundled with Windows Media Player 10 to compete with Apple’s iTunes.^[12][13]
However, MSN Music was discontinued already in 2006 with the launch of Zune music players.^[14]

Beginning with Windows Vista, Windows Media Player supports the Media Foundation framework besides DirectShow; as such it plays certain types of media using Media Foundation as well as some types of media using DirectShow.^[15] Windows Media Player 12 was released with Windows 7. It included support 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 line of Windows designed to run on ARM-based devices.^[16]

A different app called Media Player is the successor to Groove Music (previously Xbox Music) and Windows Media Player. Media Player started to be offered to all Windows 11 users on February 15, 2022, with Windows 10 users following in January 2023.^[17]

The new Windows Media Player can also play video, as part of Groove’s rebranding from a music streaming service to a media player.^[18] Other changes include the album cover view being in fullscreen, and a refresh to the mini player.^[19] Accessibility has also been optimized, with some improved keyboard shortcuts and hotkey support for keyboard users and with other assistive technologies.^[20]

Windows Media Player supports playback of audio, video and pictures, along with fast forward, reverse, file markers (if present) and variable playback speed (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 player.

Windows Media Player supports full media management, via the integrated media library introduced first in version 7, which offers cataloguing and searching of media and viewing media metadata. Media can be arranged according to album, artist, genre, date et al. Windows Media Player 9 Series introduced Quick Access Panel to browse and navigate the entire library through a menu. The Quick Access Panel was also added to the mini-mode in version 10 but was entirely removed in version 11. WMP 9 Series also introduced ratings and Auto Ratings. Windows Media Player 10 introduced support for aggregating pictures, Recorded TV shows, and other media into the library. A fully featured tag editor was featured in versions 9-11 of WMP, called the Advanced Tag Editor. However, the feature was removed in Windows Media Player 12. Since WMP 9 Series, the player features dynamically updated Auto Playlists based on criteria. Auto Playlists are updated every time users open them. WMP 9 Series and later also supports Auto Ratings which automatically assigns ratings based on the number of times a song is played. Pre-populated auto playlists are included in Windows Media Player 9 Series. Custom Auto Playlists can be created only on Windows XP and later.

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 user selected media or metadata categories, with contents appearing on the right, in a graphical manner with thumbnails featuring album art or other art depicting the item. 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 1×1 pixel ratio, 200×200 resolution 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 bar. Entries for Pictures and Video show their thumbnails. Version 11 also 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 further characters that are typed. Stacking allows graphical representations of how many albums there are in a specific category or folder. The pile appears larger as the category contains more albums. The List pane includes an option to prompt the user to remove items skipped in a playlist upon save or skip them only during playback.

While playing music, Windows Media Player can show visualizations. The current three visualizations are Alchemy, which was first introduced in version 9, Bars and Waves, which has been used since version 7, and Battery, introduced version 8. Versions 7 and 8 included with Me and XP respectively includes an additional visualization called «Musical Colors», which is not present in out-of-band releases of version 7 as well as version 9 onwards, but is retained if Windows Media Player was upgraded from version 7 or 8. Version 11 and above refrains from having the former «Ambience,» «Particle,» «Plenoptic,» and «Spikes» visualizations from versions 7 to 10. The reason for their removal was that the visualizations do not support full screen controls (either the visualization gets shifted to the left while there is a thick black bar to the right side of the screen, or that there are no full screen controls). More visualizations such as «BlazingColors,» «ColorCubes,» «PulsingColors,» «Softie the Snowman,» and «Yule Log» were originally offered as optional extras in version 7 and were later made downloadable from Microsoft’s official website, however the downloads have since been taken down. As of today, they can still be found on some websites such as the WMP Goodies site.

The player includes intrinsic support for Windows Media codecs and also WAV and MP3 media formats. On Windows XP and above with WMP 9 Series and later, the Windows Media Audio Professional codec is included which supports multichannel audio at up to 24-bit 192 kHz resolution. Windows Media Player 11 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.^{[citation needed]}

Support for any media codec and container format can be added using specific DirectShow filters or Media Foundation codecs (Media Foundation codecs only in Windows Vista and later). The player will not play MP3 files that contain compressed ID3 headers («tags»), trying to do so results in a «The input media file is invalid» error message. MP3 playback support was built-in beginning 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 menus, titles and chapters, parental controls and audio track language selection 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) and Windows 7 (Home Premium, Ultimate, or Enterprise editions) to allow DVD playback without additional software. However, the decoders were subsequently removed in Windows 8 and Windows 10 due to licensing costs.^[21]

Windows Media Player 12 adds native support for H.264 and MPEG-4 Part 2 video formats, ALAC, AAC audio^[22] and 3GP^{[clarification needed got no codec available for 3GP]}, MP4 and MOV container formats.^[23] Windows Media Player 12 is also able to play AVCHD formats (.M2TS and .mts).^[24]

As of Windows 10, Windows Media Player 12 can play FLAC, HEVC, and SubRip subtitle, and Matroska container formats.^[25] Although the WebM file type is not officially associated with Windows Media Player 12 (the default player is Microsoft Movies & TV), playback of VP9 video in WebM container is possible on Windows 10 version 1809 and later.^[26]

Windows Media Player Mobile 10 on Windows Mobile 6.5 supports MP3, ASF, WMA, and WMV using WMV or MPEG-4 codecs.^[27]

Windows Media Player features integrated Audio CD-burning support since version 7 as well as data CD 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 player. While burning Data CDs, the media can, optionally, be transcoded into WMA format and playlists can be added to the CD as well. Starting with WMP 9 Series, audio CDs can be burnt with volume leveling.

Audio CDs can be ripped as WMA or WMA 10 Pro (WMA 10 Pro in WMP 11 and later) at 48, 64, 96, 128, 160, and 192 kbit/s, WMA lossless (470 to 940 kbit/s) (9 Series on XP and later), WMA variable bitrate (from 40 to 75 kbit/s up to 240-355 kbit/s), MP3 at 128, 192, 256, and 320 kbit/s, or uncompressed WAV (WAV ripping in WMP 11 and later). Since WMP 9 Series, 20 bit high-resolution CDs (HDCDs) are also 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 later 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 track listings can optionally be automatically downloaded from the online Windows Media database when the CD is inserted. Version 11 added support for ripping audio CDs to WAV and WMA 10 Pro formats. With their 2015 implementation in Windows 10, Version 12 also added lossless FLAC and ALAC formats for ripping and playback. For burning, version 11 shows a graphical bar indicating how much space will be used on the disc and introduced Disc spanning which splits a burn list onto multiple discs in case the content does not fit on one disc.

Windows Media Player allows the user to connect, share and sync data with portable handheld devices and game 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 automatically remove their contents. Devices can be formatted using Windows Media Player 9 Series and later. 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 advanced features like setting the clock on the portable device automatically, communicating with the device to retrieve the user’s preferences. Windows Media Player 10 also 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 present on the portable device can be replicated back to the PC. Shuffle Sync can be used to randomize content synced with the portable device, Multi PC Sync to synchronize portable device content across multiple PCs and Guest Sync to synchronize different content 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 song files to a lower bit-rate. This down-conversion function is switched on by default. This is useful for providing low bit-rate files to those portable devices that need them, and to save space on portable devices with smaller storage 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 user 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 also be made. 192kbs is the highest quality down-conversion bit-rate that can be manually selected when the Sync function’s down-conversion function is turned on. Lower bit-rates can also be selected.

For portable devices that can handle high bit-rate files, the best quality files are obtained by leaving the down-conversion process switched off (unchecked) for that specific device. In Windows Media Player Version 11, switching off the down-conversion function is done in the Quality tab 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 tab 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 high bit-rate song files to suitable portable devices (i.e. those capable of using file formats such as WMA Lossless, mp3-360kbs, etc.). For example, 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 other 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 ripped WMA-LL files are often 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 source file that was present on the CD in the first place. The sound quality 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 required down-conversion of the bit-rates of the files placed on the portable devices. Thus, Sync down-conversion was turned on by default. This was to ensure playability of the files and to ensure that the file sizes were small enough to efficiently fit a reasonably large selection of songs on the portable device.

In recent 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 suitable for large collections of high bit-rate song files. This made it much more practicable 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.

Windows Media Player features universal brightness, contrast, saturation and hue adjustments and pixel aspect ratio for supported video formats. It also includes a 10-band graphic equalizer with presets and SRS WOW audio post-processing system. Windows Media Player can also have attached audio and video DSP plug-ins which process the output audio or video data. Video Smoothing was introduced in WMP 9 Series (Windows XP and later only) which upscales frame-rate by interpolating added frames, in effect giving a smoother playback on low-framerate videos. The player supports subtitles and closed-captioning for local media, video on demand streaming or live streaming scenarios. Typically Windows Media captions support the SAMI file format but can also carry embedded closed 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 also be made to use the more advanced YUV mixing mode by enabling the «Use high quality mode» option in Advanced Performance settings. This turns on deinterlacing, scaling and improved color accuracy.^[28] WMP 9 Series introduced native playback for deinterlacing for TV output. Version 9 introduced DXVA accelerated playback. Version 11 introduced improved support for DirectX accelerated decoding of WMV video (DXVA decoding). Up to version 11, it supported static lyrics and «Synchronized Lyrics,” by which different lines of lyrics can be time-stamped, so that they display only at those times. Synchronized Lyrics also 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 auto volume leveling for certain media which includes volume level/gain information such as MP3 or Windows Media. The player also supports extensive configurable privacy and security settings.

The player 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 shell itself, via right-click menu. The My Music folder also includes a separate My Playlists folder where playlists are maintained. When the player is closed and reopened, simply clicking the play button restores the last playlist even if it was not saved. Starting with Windows Media Player 10, the playlist pane is also visible from the Library view. AutoPlay handlers in Windows expose various Windows Media Player tasks.

Up to version 11, it featured a taskbar-mounted Mini-mode in which the most common media control buttons are presented as a toolbar on the Windows taskbar. Flyout windows can display media information, the active visualization 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 later into WMP 9 Series. Mini-mode has been removed in Windows Media Player 12 in favor of controls in the taskbar’s interactive thumbnail preview which lacks volume control, a progress bar and information displayed whenever a new song is played. Despite this, however, Mini-mode can be restored in Windows Media Player 12 by registering the wmpband.dll file from Windows Media Player 11.^[29]

The user interface has been redesigned in Windows Media Player 12 such that the Now Playing view plays media in a separate minimalist window with floating playback controls, and also gives access to the current playlist, visualizations, and enhancements.^[22] Enhancements are housed in individual undocked windows. The library view includes the rest of the media management functions. It also can preview songs from the library when users hover over the media file and click the Preview button.^[22] Windows Media Player 12 can play unprotected songs from the iTunes library. As previously mentioned, taskbar-integrated mini-mode has been replaced with controls in the taskbar’s interactive thumbnail preview (called the Thumbnail Toolbar),^[30] albeit minus the volume control function, track and album information shown whenever a new song is played and the progress bar. The taskbar icon also supports jump lists introduced in Windows 7.

The player has had skinning support since Windows Media Player (WMP) 7 and includes a color chooser since the WMP 9 Series. Not all functions are usually exposed in skin mode. Windows Media Player 10 allows setting the video border color. Color chooser 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. Plug-in support was introduced in WMP 9 Series.

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

Previously, Microsoft had released Windows Media Connect for Windows XP to stream media content with its built-in UPnP media server. With version 11 of Windows Media Player, Media Sharing was integrated and 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 act as a client to connect to remote media libraries using this feature; this is not available on the Windows XP version.

With version 12, media streaming was further improved. While previous versions streamed media to UPnP compliant devices (Digital Media Server role) and could play media by fetching it from a network share (Digital Media Player role),^[31] Windows Media Player 12 can access media from the shared media libraries on the network or HomeGroup, stream media to DLNA 1.5 compliant devices and allows itself (once the remote control option is turned on) to be remotely controlled by Digital Media Controller devices which stream media (Digital Media Renderer role).^[31] Similarly, the Play To feature once enabled for remote PCs, by turning on remote control of the player, allows compliant devices and computers to be discovered and controlled remotely from a computer running Windows Media Player 12 (Digital Media Controller role).^[31] If the devices do not support the streamed format, Windows Media Player 12 transcodes the format on-the-fly. Media from a home network can also be streamed over the internet using an Online ID Provider service, which handles discovery of the computer’s IP address, authorization, security, connectivity and Quality of Service issues.^[31]

Windows Media Player also features skins. Currently, Windows Media Player has two default skins: «Corporate,” which was first introduced in version 8, and «Revert,” which first shipped with version 9. In previous versions of Windows Media Player starting with version 7, there were many usual skins offered, some of which were included in various versions of Windows. A non-exhaustive list of skins included with Windows Media Player from versions 7-10 are «9SeriesDefault,” «Atomic,” «Bluesky,” «Canvas,” «Classic,” «Compact,” «goo,” «Headspace,” «heart,” «iconic,” «Miniplayer,” «Optic,” «Pyrite,” «QuickSilver,” «Radio,” «Roundlet,” «Rusty,” «splat,” «Toothy,” «Windows Classic,” and «Windows XP.” All of these skins were removed starting with version 11, but are retained if the player is upgraded. Some skins such as the ones included in previous versions can be downloaded from the Microsoft website, however they have since been removed. It has been archived since 2016 and is currently available.^[32] The Corporate skin is not deletable.

Microsoft Windows Media Runtime in Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server contained a bug that permitted «remote code execution if a user opened a specially crafted media file». Such a file would allow the attacker to «then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights», if the account on which the file was played had administrator privileges.^[33] The problem was addressed in a critical update issued on September 8, 2009.^[34]

Microsoft has also released versions of Windows Media Player for other platforms including Windows Mobile, classic Mac OS, Mac OS X, Palm-size PC, Handheld PC, and Solaris. These versions are no longer supported by Microsoft. Version 1 of the Zune software was also based on Windows Media Player; later versions are not.

Windows Media Player for Pocket PC was first announced on January 6, 2000, and has been revised on a schedule roughly similar to that of the Windows version.^[35] Currently 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 stereo sound, and the same Energy Blue interface aesthetics also seen in Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. It also supports synchronization with the desktop version of WMP 10, and additionally supports synchronizing and transcoding of recorded television shows from Media Center. Media Player 10 Mobile is not available as a download from Microsoft, distribution is done solely 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.

Version 9 was the final 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 instead of the Macintosh Business Unit and released in 2003. On release the application lacked many basic features that were found in other media players such as Apple’s iTunes and QuickTime.^[36] It also lacked support for many media formats that version 9 of the Windows counterpart supported on release 10 months earlier.

The Mac version supported only Windows Media encoded media (up to version 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 front, it did not prevent screensavers from running during playback, it did not support file drag-and-drop, nor did it support playlists. While Windows Media Player 9 had added support for some files that use the WMV9 codec (also known as the WMV3 codec by the FourCC), in other aspects it was seen as having degraded in features from previous versions.

On January 12, 2006, Microsoft announced it had ceased development 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 other QuickTime-aware applications.^[37]

In March 2004, the European Commission in the European Union Microsoft antitrust case fined Microsoft €497 million and ordered the company to provide a version of Windows without Windows Media Player, claiming Microsoft «broke European Union competition law by leveraging its near monopoly in the market for PC operating systems onto the markets for work group server operating systems and for media players.” The company has made available a compliant version of its flagship operating system under the negotiated name «Windows XP N,” though the product has not been very successful. Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 are also available in «N» editions. However, it is possible to either install Windows Media Player (XP/Vista)^[38] or the Media Restore Pack through Windows Update (Vista) to add the media player.

Prior to the release of Windows Media Player in Windows 98 Second Edition, separate programs, CD Player, Deluxe CD Player, DVD Player and Media Player, were included in old versions of Microsoft Windows for playback of media files. Only Windows Media Player 11 is not available for Windows Server 2003.

Windows Media Player versions^[39]

Version	Original release	Included with	Available for
Microsoft Windows
Media Player (2022)[4]	February 15, 2022	Windows 11	Windows 10[5]
Windows Media Player 12	July 22, 2009	Windows 7 and later Windows Server 2008 R2 and later	—
Windows Media Player 11	October 18, 2006	Windows Vista Windows Server 2008	Windows XP (SP2+) Windows XP x64 Edition Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
Windows Media Player 10	August 25, 2004	Windows XP x64 Edition Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Windows Server 2003 (SP1+)	Windows Server 2003 Windows XP[40]
Windows Media Player 9 Series	January 7, 2003[41]	Windows XP (SP2+) Windows Server 2003 (RTM)	Windows XP Windows Me Windows 2000 Windows 98 SE[42]
Windows Media Player for Windows XP (version	August 24, 2001	Windows XP (RTM & SP1)	—
Windows Media Player 7.1	May 16, 2001	—	Windows Me Windows 2000 Windows 98[42][43]
Windows Media Player 7.0	June 19, 2000[44]	Windows ME	Windows 2000 Windows 98 Windows NT 4.0 Windows 95
Windows Media Player 6.4[c]	September 15, 1999	Windows 2000 Windows Me (hidden) Windows XP (hidden) Windows Server 2003 (hidden) Internet Explorer 5.01 Internet Explorer 5.5 Internet Explorer 6.0	Windows 98 Windows NT 4.0 Windows 95
Windows Media Player 6.1	March 1999	Windows 98 SE Internet Explorer 5.0	Windows 98 Windows NT 4.0 Windows 95
Windows Media Player 6.0	September 1998	DirectX Media 6.0 Internet Explorer 4.01 (SP2)	Windows 98 Windows NT 4.0 Windows 95
Windows Media Player 5.2	July 1998	Internet Explorer 4.01	Windows 98 Windows NT 4.0 Windows 95 Windows 3.1
Microsoft Media Player 5.1	2001	Windows XP (hidden)	—
Media Player 5.0	1999	Windows 2000 (hidden)	—
Media Player 4.9	2000	Windows Me (hidden)	—
Media Player 4.1	1998	Windows 98 Windows 98 SE (hidden)	—
Media Player 4.0 (Unicode)	1996	Windows NT 4.0	—
Media Player 4.0 (ANSI)	1995	Windows 95	—
Media Player 3.51	1995	Windows NT 3.51	—
Media Player 3.5	1994	Windows NT 3.5	—
Media Player 3.15	1992	—	Windows 3.1 with Video for Windows
Media Player 3.1 (32-bit)	1993	Windows NT 3.1	—
Media Player 3.1 (16-bit)	1992	Windows 3.1	—
Media Player 3.0	1991	—	Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extension
Windows Mobile
Windows Media Player 10.3 Mobile	February 12, 2007 (Windows Mobile 6)	Windows Mobile 6.1 Windows Mobile 6	Windows Mobile 5.0
Windows Media Player 10.2 Mobile	?	Windows Mobile 5.0	—
Windows Media Player 10.1 Mobile	May 10, 2005	Windows Mobile 5.0	—
Windows Media Player 10 Mobile	October 12, 2004	Windows Mobile 2003 SE	—
Windows Media Player 9.0.1	March 24, 2004	Windows Mobile 2003 SE	—
Windows Media Player 9 Series	June 23, 2003	Windows Mobile 2003	—
Windows Media Player 8.5	October 11, 2002	Pocket PC 2002	—
Windows Media Player 8.01	July 2002	Pocket PC 2002	—
Windows Media Player 8	October 4, 2001 (Pocket PC)	Pocket PC 2002 Smartphone 2002	—
Windows Media Player 7.1	May 21, 2001	Pocket PC 2000	—
Windows Media Player 7	December 12, 2000	Pocket PC 2000	—
Windows Media Player 1.2	September 7, 2000	Handheld PC 2000	—
Windows Media Player 1.1	?	Palm-size PC CE 2.11	—
Windows Media Player	April 19, 2000	Pocket PC 2000	—
Mac
Windows Media Player 9 Series	November 7, 2003	—	Mac OS X
Windows Media Player 7	July 24, 2001	Mac OS 9	Mac OS 8.x
Windows Media Player 6.3	July 17, 2000	Mac OS 8	Mac OS 7.x
Solaris
Windows Media Player 6.3	July 17, 2000	—	Solaris

• Comparison of media players
• Comparison of video player software
• Groove Music
• Media Player Classic, a media player that mimics the appearance of Windows Media Player 6.4
• Media Transfer Protocol
• Windows Media Encoder
• Windows Media Services

• Official website
• The Vintage Windows Media Player
• wmplugins.com – The place to find and share plug-ins, skins and visualizations.

Автор: Есбол Нургалиев

В предыдущей статье «Офисные программы для Windows Mobile for Smartphone» читатели могли познакомиться с различными приложениями для платформы Windows Mobile for Smartphone, работающими с офисными документами. В данном материале речь пойдет о не менее востребованных у пользователей смартфонов программах – медиапроигрывателях.

Глобальная тенденция, заключающаяся в дальнейшей конвергенции различных мобильных устройств, в данный момент доминирует на рынке сотовых телефонов. Появляются все новые версии так называемых музыкальных телефонов, Music Phone, заточенных специально под потребности аудиофилов; встроенными mp3-плеерами порой оснащаются аппараты нижнего ценового диапазона.
Владельцы смартфонов в такой ситуации оказываются в выигрышном положении. Так, если обычный сотовый телефон является, в общем, закрытой системой, чьи возможности расширяются только за счет ограниченных функционально java-приложений, то обширное количество сторонних программ-медиапроигрывателей для смартфонов позволяет владельцам «умных телефонов» получать все новые возможности. Среди этих возможностей способность плееров работать в фоновом режиме, полноценный эквалайзер и мультиформатность (MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, OGG, AMR и др.) стали уже обыденными.

Если говорить о возможностях проигрывания видео, то здесь превосходство смартфонов над обычными сотовыми телефонами еще более очевидно. У их владельцев нет необходимости в предварительном конвертировании «домашнего» видео в форматы видео «мобильного» (3GP, MP4). Кодеки, которые поддерживают видеоплееры, позволяют просматривать файлы привычных глазу форматов – AVI, MPEG, некоторые программы способны работать с файлами DVD-дисков. Режим полноэкранного просмотра воспринимается как нечто само собой разумеющееся. Ограничения, налагаемые на видеофайлы, все же есть, но они в большинстве случаев аппаратного характера. Как правило, эти ограничения обусловлены сравнительно малым объемом карт памяти и скромными возможностями самих смартфонов (согласитесь, что глупо ожидать комфортного просмотра DivX-файла в максимальном качестве от бюджетного смартфона с 132 МГц процессором).

Позволю себе перейти от возможностей смартфонов вообще непосредственно к платформе Windows Mobile for Smartphone, которая объединяет на сегодняшний день уже несколько версий: MS Smartphone 2002, Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphone, Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphone Second Edition, Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone. Хочу отметить, что ситуация с предустановленным программным обеспечением для воспроизведения мультимедиа здесь лучше, чем с рассмотренными в предыдущем обзоре офисными приложениями (напомню, что среди предустановленных программ в Windows Mobile for Smartphone офисные программы отсутствуют вовсе).
Так, смартфоны на данной платформе, вне зависимости от версии, обладают хорошо знакомым всем пользователям ПК приложением Windows Media Player. Однако мобильная версия данной программы обладает целым набором «детских болезней», поэтому советую владельцам смартфонов воспользоваться для воспроизведения аудио- и видеофайлов сторонними приложениями.
Windows Media Player для ПК под давлением прочих медиапроигрывателей во главе с Winamp постепенно эволюционирует, обрастая новыми возможностями и повышая комфортность работы. Надеюсь, что и с мобильной версией Windows Media Player произойдет то же самое. А пока позволю себе более детально рассмотреть преимущества и недостатки программ для воспроизведения мультимедиа.

Данный материал разбит на две части. Первая из них посвящена программам для работы с аудиофайлами, вторая, соответственно, с видео.
Поскольку некоторые программы предлагают пользователю возможность работы как с аудио, так и с видео, то и рассматриваться они будут дважды, с точки зрения их функциональности как проигрывателей тех или иных файлов.

Аудиопроигрыватели

Прежде всего, обзор стоит начать с предустановленного в Windows Mobile for Smartphone медиапроигрывателя Windows Media Player, поскольку некоторым пользователям, возможно, его функциональность покажется достаточной для удовлетворения их потребностей, и отпадет необходимость в установке сторонних приложений.

Windows Media Player. Данное приложение является усеченной версией проигрывателя, установленного на любом компьютере, работающем под управлением операционной системы Windows, а потому его интерфейс похож на тот, к которому привыкли многие пользователи ПК (со скидкой на различия в платформах Windows и Windows Mobile).

• Разработчик: Microsoft Corp.
• Сайт: http://www.microsoft.com
• Распространение: приложение предустановлено в Windows Mobile for Smartphone.

Наверняка пользователя интересует, какие форматы поддерживает программа. Windows Media Player превосходно проигрывает MP3 с самыми высокими битрейтами, вплоть до 320 Кбит/с, WAV, в том числе и несжатые, и файлы Windows Media Audio. А вот поддержка OGG и других не столь распространенных форматов отсутствует. Справедливости ради замечу, что большинству пользователей будет достаточно проигрывания MP3.

Очень важен такой параметр, как удобство интерфейса программы. Здесь все просто и понятно, наиболее важные при проигрывании элементы расположены так, чтобы пользователю не приходилось лишний раз их искать. В верхней части экрана отображается название композиции, под ней выводится дополнительная информация, почерпнутая из ID3 тэга (исполнитель, альбом, жанр, битрейт). В нижней части слева направо располагаются: указатель времени (в параметрах проигрывателя можно настроить отображение прошедшего или оставшегося времени композиции), кнопки перемотки и паузы, указатель уровня громкости. Середина экрана в режиме воспроизведения музыки остается пустой, нет ни намека на какую-либо визуализацию процесса. Возможно, кому-то это покажется несколько аскетичным. С другой стороны, среди владельцев смартфонов, уверен, найдется гораздо больше любителей слушать музыку в фоновом режиме и одновременно работать с другими приложениями, нежели поклонников наблюдения за мельтешением картинок на экране в такт музыке.
Если кому-то из пользователей покажется недостаточным набор управляющих элементов, то замечу, что все действия плеера можно назначить на цифровые клавиши, а также закрепить за отклонениями джойстика (или навигационной клавиши) из меню плеера.

Также в настройках проигрывателя можно указать, будет ли приостановлено воспроизведение музыки во время работы с другим приложением или во время телефонного разговора. Кстати, воспроизведение может осуществляться в случайном порядке либо циклически.

Радует поддержка ID3 тэгов. Причем, как и для компьютерного аналога Windows Media Player, они служат основой для сортировки аудиозаписей в пункте меню «Библиотека». В зависимости от информации, содержащейся в ID3 тэгах, композиции группируются по следующим подразделам:

• Исполнитель,
• Альбом,
• Жанр; отдельным пунктом значится вся музыка (видимо, чтобы пользователь не слишком заморачивался).

Все это было плюсами программы. Однако Windows Media Player обладает целым ворохом недостатков, которые могут смазать положительное впечатление от детища компании Microsoft. Из мелочей, помимо уже отмеченной нехватки визуализации, отмечу отсутствие поддержки плейлистов (не только в формате *.m3u, но и собственно списков воспроизведения Windows Media *.wpl) и каких-либо звуковых эффектов.

Что действительно вызывает дискомфорт, так это отсутствие элементарной кнопки выхода из приложения, из-за чего смартфон может самым серьезным образом зависнуть.

Ну и самый главный недостаток Windows Media Player – это полнейшее отсутствие эквалайзера, что приводит в недоумение, поскольку на сегодняшний день эквалайзерами оснащается подавляющее большинство встроенных MP3-плееров обычных сотовых телефонов. Именно по этому показателю Windows Media Player проигрывает многим своим конкурентам из числа сторонних программ. Действительно, тот владелец смартфона, который собирается использовать его для частого прослушивания музыки, естественно, хочет подстроить звучание «под себя», и такой важный параметр, как наличие эквалайзера, является для него критичным.
Остается посмотреть, какие же сторонние плееры может предпочесть Windows Media Player владелец смартфона, и по каким причинам.

VITO Audio Player. Простой функционально плеер, который, тем не менее, отлично справляется со своей главной обязанностью – воспроизводить музыку. Плюсами данного проигрывателя по сравнению с Windows Media Player является поддержка формата OGG, ну и, кроме того, наличие кнопки выхода из приложения.

• Разработчик: VITO Technology.
• Сайт: http://www.vitotechnology.com
• Распространение: Shareware, 9,95 $.
• Демонстрационная версия программы ограничена 14 днями.

Окно программы выглядит, пожалуй, несколько перегруженным элементами – при первом знакомстве она создает впечатление некоего мультимедийного монстра.

Приложение поддерживает форматы MP3, WAV, OGG. Поддержки WMA или AAC нет.
VITO Audio Player может воспроизводить аудио в нескольких режимах: одиночный файл, аудиокнига, папка и папка с подпапками. При воспроизведении на экране отображается название композиции, время, а также информация о файле (частота, разрядность и битрейт). Поддержка ID3 тэгов отсутствует, равно как и поддержка плейлистов.
Возможно проигрывание в случайном порядке, повтор, функция усиления басов (Bass Boost), но других эффектов нет, как нет и эквалайзера. Контроль за действиями плеера осуществляется навигационной и софт-клавишами смартфона – нельзя закрепить те или иные функции за цифровыми клавишами.

В целом, VITO Audio Player является простым плеером, без изысков. Вряд ли он может служить полноценной заменой стандартному Windows Media Player, поскольку поддержку OGG нельзя считать таким уж явным преимуществом. Впрочем, если владельцу смартфона требуется только слушать музыку и не мудрить с настройками, то данное приложение может удовлетворить его потребности. Тем же, кто ищет нечто большее, стоит присмотреться к другим проигрывателям, благо выбирать есть из чего.

Simple Tunes. Прежде чем перейти к «тяжелым» плеерам, позволю себе рассмотреть еще один «облегченный» функционально проигрыватель.

• Разработчик: Visual IT.
• Сайт: http://www.visualit.co.uk
• Распространение: Shareware, 19 $.
• Демонстрационная версия программы ограничена 3 днями.

Козырем программы Simple Tunes является его интерфейс, благодаря которому плеер одновременно является очень простым в управлении и вместе с тем явно свидетельствует о причастности к MP3-культуре. Достаточно посмотреть на навигационное колесо в середине экрана, как сразу приходит на ум Click Wheel от Apple. Хотя больше всего оно похоже на навигационное колесо, примененное в некоторых телефонах Samsung, в частности, Samsung X810 и смартфонах Samsung i3x0.

Поддерживаются форматы MP3 и OGG, что немного, но достаточно для многих пользователей. Зато отображаются ID3 тэги. Навигационное колесо, если к нему приноровиться, существенно облегчает процесс управления. А с помощью скинов можно разнообразить оформление экрана.

Возможно проигрывание как в случайном порядке, так и в режиме повтора, что является стандартной функцией для всех рассмотренных в данном обзоре проигрывателей.
А вот эквалайзер и какие-либо дополнительные эффекты отсутствуют, равно как отсутствует поддержка плейлистов. Таким образом, у программы Simple Tunes нет никаких явных преимуществ перед Windows Media Player. Она подойдет для тех пользователей, кому опять же достаточно простого плеера, без изысков, но не обремененного интерфейсом с массой элементов, как, например, VITO Audio Player. Самым существенным недостатком Simple Tunes является цена – она чересчур высока. Проигрыватель VITO Audio Player со схожей функциональностью стоит намного дешевле, а Windows Media Player и вовсе предустановлен в Windows Mobile for Smartphone.

Настал черед полнофункциональных проигрывателей, с максимальным количеством возможностей и характеристик.

PocketMusic. Интерфейс программы оставляет приятное впечатление, не создавая видимости излишней простоты или, напротив, чрезмерной усложненности процесса управления.

• Разработчик: Pocket Mind Software.
• Сайт: http://www.PocketMind.com
• Распространение: Shareware, 19,95 $.
• Ограничение демонстрационной версии: программу можно запустить только 10 раз.

Проигрыватель поддерживает форматы MP3, OGG, MP2, MP1. ID3 тэги отображаются на экране вместе с названием композиции бегущей строкой. Большим плюсом программы PocketMusic является то, что можно как создавать свои плейлисты, так и загружать их.

Проигрывание возможно как в случайном порядке, так и в режиме повтора. Интересной функцией является возможность запуска плеера по расписанию. Таким образом, PocketMusic может исполнять роль будильника, что наверняка будет востребовано многими пользователями. И напротив, доступно также автоматическое выключение плеера после определенного промежутка времени.
Из других возможностей отмечу наличие закладок, что будет хорошим подспорьем для любителей аудиокниг. В настройках можно отрегулировать шаг прокрутки в диапазоне от 5 до 180 секунд. Там же, в настройках, можно назначить действия плеера на цифровые клавиши и отклонения джойстика (навигационной клавиши).

Есть функция увеличения басов Extra Bass, однако главным достоинством программы PocketMusic является наличие отличного 10-полосного эквалайзера с 18 предустановками, что является очень сильным решением, которое наверняка будет востребованным у аудиофилов.

Благодаря такому обширному количеству предустановок отпадает необходимость в ручной настройке эквалайзера – достаточно выбрать нужный режим. Доступны следующие предустановки: User defined (пользовательский режим, если он кому-нибудь потребуется), Classical, Club, Dance, Default, Full bass, Full bass and treble, Full treble, Headphones, Large hall, Live, Party, Pop, Reggae, Rock, Ska, Soft, Soft rock, Techno, Lyrics. Комментарии, пожалуй, излишни.

Таким образом, PocketMusic является отличным проигрывателем с мощным функционалом, который превосходит стандартный Windows Media Player по всем параметрам. Однако и у такой замечательной программы есть конкуренты.

Mini Lyrics Magic. Еще один аудиоплеер, функционально не уступающий рассмотренному выше PocketMusic и обладающий кое в чем превосходством над ним.

• Разработчик: Mycnknow Inc.
• Сайт: http://www.mycnknow.com
• Распространение: Shareware, 14,95 $.
• Демонстрационная версия программы ограничена 14 днями.

Внешний вид данного проигрывателя очень похож на знакомый подавляющему большинству владельцев ПК Winamp, отчего освоение плеера Mini Lyrics Magic происходит значительно быстрее, чем остальных плееров, рассмотренных ранее. Субъективно интерфейс программы выглядит гораздо более сбалансированным, чем у других проигрывателей, кажется, что лишние детали отсутствуют вовсе, а те элементы, которые представлены, обладают оптимальным размером и расположением. Хотя, может быть, все эти впечатления – следствие многолетней преданности Winamp вашего покорного слуги.
Как и с внешним видом, с функционалом у проигрывателя также все в порядке — Mini Lyrics Magic поддерживает форматы MP2, MP3, MPA, OGG, RMP, WAV, WMA. Также программа позволяет создавать плейлисты либо загружать их.

Наличествует поддержка ID3 тэгов. Доступно как проигрывание в случайном порядке, так и в режиме повтора. Аналогично рассмотренной выше программе PocketMusic есть функции запуска плеера по расписанию, выключение по таймеру; также доступны закладки.
Подобно программе VITO Audio Player, в данном проигрывателе имеется визуализация процесса воспроизведения музыки.
Mini Lyrics Magic обладает 10-полосным эквалайзером, функциональность которого повторяет примененный в проигрывателе PocketMusic (вплоть до предустановок, которых здесь также 18). Однако стоит отметить гораздо более приятную прорисовку эквалайзера у Mini Lyrics Magic.

Особенностью плеера и его главным достоинством по сравнению с рассмотренным выше PocketMusic является наличие эффектов, которые могут быть применены при воспроизведении музыки. Пользователю доступны следующие эффекты:

• Bass Boost;
• Reverb/Echo;
• Surround/3D Effect.

Видно, что данный проигрыватель схож по функциональности с PocketMusic и в чем-то его превосходит. Но отличия не настолько значительны, чтобы можно было говорить о явном превосходстве Mini Lyrics Magic. Решать в конечном итоге пользователю, но остался нерассмотренным еще один проигрыватель.

The Core Pocket Media Player (TCPMP). Это единственный бесплатный медиапроигрыватель из числа рассмотренных в данном обзоре сторонних приложений для воспроизведения аудио, наследник программы Betaplayer. Но если кто-то из читателей посчитает, что бесплатность плеера свидетельствует о не самом высоком функционале, то спешу разочаровать его – TCPMP является мощнейшим инструментом, который нельзя однозначно причислить к категории аудио- и видеоплееров.

• Разработчик: CoreCodec, Inc.
• Сайт: http://www.corecodec.org
• Распространение: бесплатно.

Выглядит проигрыватель неброско, даже аскетично, но это как раз тот случай, когда простота оформления вовсе не подразумевает простоту функциональную.
Об этом лучше всего свидетельствует перечень поддерживаемых форматов.

Он настолько обширен, что нет смысла приводить его здесь полностью, позволю себе перечислить только аудиоформаты, в первую очередь интересующие владельцев смартфонов: WMA, OGG, MP1, MP2, MP3, ASF, AIF, WAV, AMR.
Как видно из списка, поддерживаются даже форматы GSM AMR-NB и GSM AMR-WB (AMR), а значит, владелец смартфона сможет прослушать свои диктофонные записи.
Поддерживаются плейлисты (PLS, M3U), ID3 тэги, которые служат источником подробной информации об аудиофайле.

Как и в любом другом плеере из рассмотренных в данном обзоре, доступны функции случайного воспроизведения и повтора. Само собой разумеется, наличие эквалайзера (правда, без предустановок) и назначение действий плеера на цифровые клавиши и отклонения джойстика (навигационной клавиши).

Помимо собственно музыкальных функций, программа TCPMP обладает уникальной возможностью – тестом производительности смартфона как в режиме воспроизведения аудио, так и в режиме видео. Данные этого бенчмарка могут служить объективной оценкой возможностей смартфона, на котором установлено приложение TCPMP, что может пригодиться для гораздо более серьезных целей, нежели для простого воспроизведения музыки.

После этого мелочью кажется регулировка скорости воспроизведения (нормальная – 100%, диапазон регулировки – от 10% до 200%), а также скорости и интенсивности перемотки, вывод информации о смартфоне. А вот что действительно интересно, так это возможность настройки аудиоканалов (стерео, моно) и способность изменять объем буфера. Такие функции, по моему мнению, гораздо больше влияют на качество звучания и работу проигрывателя в целом, чем различные эффекты.
Обзор возможностей программы TCPMP по части воспроизведения видео представлен ниже, но уже сейчас видно, что данное приложение является самым грамотным и профессиональным проигрывателем, предлагающим пользователю наибольшую функциональность. Впрочем, если кого-нибудь из владельцев смартфонов не устроит интерфейс этой программы, приложения Mini Lyrics Magic и PocketMusic также станут отличными решениями для проигрывания музыки.
Теперь стоит перейти к обзору программ для воспроизведения видео, что является для смартфонов не менее актуальным.

Видеопроигрыватели

По части проигрывания музыки отставание обычных сотовых телефонов от смартфонов на платформе Windows Mobile for Smartphone, по большому счету, не такое уж заметное. Многие решения, позиционируемые производителями как музыкальные телефоны — Music Phone — предлагают пользователю лучшее качество звучания за счет аппаратного превосходства. Из представленных сегодня это серия Walkman от Sony Ericsson, ROKR E2 от Motorola, новые Symbian-смартфоны от компании Nokia.

А вот ситуация с проигрыванием видео выявляет слабости обычных сотовых телефонов, которые пасуют перед проигрыванием привычного пользователю ПК видео (воспроизводя видео специальных мобильных форматов, таких как 3GP и MP4, гораздо худшего качества, наполненных всевозможными артефактами и стробированием, требующих предварительного конвертирования). Вдобавок не все телефоны способны воспроизводить видео во весь экран, отчего комфортность просмотра значительно снижается.
Смартфоны на платформе Windows Mobile for Smartphone выгодно отличаются от обычных сотовых телефонов – кодеки, использующиеся в программах-проигрывателях под эту платформу, позволяют смотреть на экране смартфона видео в привычных форматах (самым распространенным из которых является AVI), а все вопросы с предварительным конвертированием возникают в связи с аппаратными возможностями конкретного смартфона. Правда, и здесь возможны свои особенности.

Обзор видеопроигрывателей позволю себе начать с Windows Media Player, программы, которая является предустановленной для платформы Windows Mobile for Smartphone. Кому-нибудь из пользователей могут оказаться достаточными те возможности, которые предоставляет данное приложение, и тогда отпадет необходимость в установке сторонних программ.

Windows Media Player. С интерфейсом данного проигрывателя читатель мог познакомиться в первой части данного материала, поэтому сразу перейду к возможностям воспроизведения видео. Windows Media Player поддерживает следующие форматы: 3GP, MP4, WMV.
Негусто, учитывая, что видео воспроизводится на смартфоне, а не на обычном телефоне. Поддерживаемого набора форматов достаточно для просмотра снятых непосредственно камерой смартфона видеоклипов где-нибудь в дружеской компании, но о комфортном проигрывании видео речь, естественно, не идет.

Из дополнительных возможностей отмечу наличие режима полноэкранного просмотра.

Хотелось бы сказать о возможностях Windows Media Player, как видеопроигрывателя, еще несколько слов, но обнаружил, что сказать-то, в принципе, больше нечего. Данное приложение является наименее функциональным для просмотра видео среди представленных в этом обзоре, а потому следует установить сторонний проигрыватель, чтобы не быть привязанным только к форматам мобильного видео 3GP и MP4. Ведь формат Windows Media Video вряд ли стоит рассматривать как равноценную замену AVI или MPEG. Прочие настройки Windows Media Player были рассмотрены выше, так что не буду повторяться, и перейду к обзору других, более интересных программ для воспроизведения видео.

PocketTV MPEG Movie Player. Данный видеопроигрыватель наряду с TCPMP относится к числу бесплатных приложений, предлагая неплохую функциональность.

• Разработчик: MpegTV.
• Сайт: http://www.pockettv.com
• Распространение: в течение 7 дней предлагается бесплатно зарегистрировать программу.

PocketTV Mpeg Movie Player поддерживает только два формата – MPEG (*.mpg, *.mpeg) и VideoCD (*.dat). Это немного, но следует вспомнить, что файлы MPEG являются следующими по распространенности после AVI. В любом случае, PocketTV выигрывает у Windows Media Player функционально (хотя следует признать, что оформлен он более грубо, прорисовка деталей проще). Помимо режима полноэкранного просмотра, который можно настраивать – поворот на 90° или на 270°, доступны также настройки аудио (можно осуществлять манипуляции с каналами – стерео, моно – правый/левый канал), а действия плеера по воспроизведению видео можно назначить на клавиши смартфона. В режиме воспроизведения на экране, помимо битрейта, отображается также такой важный параметр, как частота в кадрах (чем слабее процессор смартфона, тем меньше будет значение частоты).

Помимо перечисленных функций, проигрыватель PocketTV обладает еще парой примечательных возможностей. Это тест производительности (также как и в TCPMP), который, правда, выдает гораздо меньше информации по производительности смартфона, а также функция сохранения кадра как картинки, что может пригодиться, если пользователь захочет сменить «обои» на рабочем столе своего смартфона или просто сохранить красивый кадр.

В целом, проигрыватель PocketTV оставляет впечатление добротного продукта, чьим главным недостатком является скудный набор поддерживаемых форматов. Это обстоятельство мешает ему стать полноценной заменой Windows Media Player.

SmartMovie. Данная программа состоит из двух частей – собственно плеера и конвертера, который устанавливается на компьютер (SmartMovie Converter) и позволяет сохранять видео в формат AVI, разделять файл на части. Помимо того, можно установить дополнительные кодеки.

• Разработчик: Lonely Cat Games.
• Сайт: http://www.lonelycatgames.com
• Распространение: Shareware, 19,99 $.
• Демонстрационная версия ограничена 60 часами.

Данный проигрыватель поддерживает только один формат видеофайлов, но, пожалуй, самый востребованный — AVI. Возможно, кому-нибудь из пользователей этого будет достаточно, однако разнообразие не помешало бы.
Интерфейс программы сильно смахивает на оформление java-игры, во всяком случае, устойчивое впечатление остается все то время, пока работаешь с меню проигрывателя.

Присутствует режим полноэкранного просмотра, к тому же можно настроить ориентацию экрана: горизонтальную (альбомную) и вертикальную (книжную). Можно настроить отображение времени прошедшего или оставшегося.

Из интересных особенностей стоит выделить настройку яркости экрана (очень полезно), поддержку кодеков DirectShow. Однако в целом SmartMovie не создает впечатления сильного продукта, все-таки один-единственный формат – это очень скромно. Ну а полноэкранный просмотр предлагает и Windows Media Player.

Как читатель мог догадаться, последним идет обзор наиболее функционального проигрывателя видео среди представленных. Речь вновь пойдет о TCPMP.

TCPMP. Я не буду повторяться и приводить здесь выкладки по различным параметрам, просто скажу, что все те настройки, которые рассматривались в обзоре возможностей TCPMP по проигрыванию аудио, доступны и при воспроизведении видеофайлов.

Если говорить о поддерживаемых форматах, то здесь можно сказать одно: проигрываются все востребованные форматы. Судите сами: AVI, WMV, MPEG, MP4, 3GP. Такого набора хватит даже самому взыскательному пользователю.
Из возможностей плеера стоит отметить режим полноэкранного просмотра, а также интересную функцию настройки пропорций экрана – стандартные 4:3 или «киношные» 16:9, к тому же для каждого из применяющихся стандартов (PAL, NTFS).
Все это вкупе с остальными возможностями, которые были рассмотрены в обзоре TCPMP как аудиоплеера (тест производительности, настройка каналов, настройка буфера) и могут быть применимы при просмотре видео, позволяет говорить о том, что данный проигрыватель является лидером в воспроизведении как аудио, так и видео. Необходимо учесть еще и то обстоятельство, что TCPMP – это бесплатное приложение.

Итоги

В заключение обзора можно сделать вывод: медиапроигрыватели для платформы Windows Mobile for Smartphone сторонних компаний на данный момент превосходят стандартный Windows Media Player. Надеюсь, что такая ситуация послужит толчком к дальнейшему развитию последнего, превращению его в полноценный многофункциональный и мультиформатный проигрыватель. А пока пользователь может выбирать аудио- и видеоплееры из большого количества сторонних приложений. И мне очень хочется надеяться, что данный обзор в какой-то мере поможет владельцам смартфонов на платформе Windows Mobile for Smartphone сделать этот выбор.