New features of the future Windows Media Player 12

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Microsoft has already confirmed that Windows Media Player will remain the core of its next operating system: Windows 7. Windows 7 will come standard with the new version of the player, Windows Media Player 12, which includes several striking characteristics.

The new version of Microsoft’s media player will have a graphical interface more appealing and lighter than that of his predecessor WMP11. Some elements and buttons on the toolbar have changed their site, but the experience should be very familiar to users of Windows Media Player 11. The first big change was the elimination of the button “now playing” in WMP11 changed the view of the current playlist.This is because WMP12 completely separates the administration of the library media of what is currently playing. To do so,it makes use of two modes / different view: Now Playing and Library.

They have also added a new taskbar miniviewer that works with the new Windows 7 taskbar, and WMP12 includes support for Jump Lists.

Although the operation is very similar to WMP11, there are a number of notable improvements or perhaps better say, tinkering. As such, this preview is automatic, something widespread in Linux, that leaving the mouse over a song, playing part of it without having to open it. Another change is that the library now displays at a time audio, video, TV and pictures.

Arriving at the video playback, we welcome the news that it integrates a huge variety of codecs that support the vast majority of formats that are circulating on the Internet. WMP12 includes support for H.264 video, AAC audio and Xvid both as well as all the DivX format for the previous version of WMP11 series MPEG2, WMV, MP3, and so on.
Remote streaming

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Another improvement is the remote management of libraries, now allows the use of iTunes libraries, although the problem of not being able to play the tracks that have DRM. It’s not just libraries that are improved. WMP12 makes it easier to play back audio or video on remote devices, a feature dubbed

“Play To.”


WMP12 can stream to other computers in your HomeGroup, so, for example, you can browse your library on your laptop but actually play back on the HTPC connected to your sound system

.

As well as streaming to remote PCs, WMP12 also includes support for controlling Digital Living Network Alliance v1.5 devices. These are networked devices with audio and/or video playback capabilities; so, similar to the scenario of streaming to an HTPC, you might be streaming audio to a Sonos box. Each device being Played To has its own playlist and playback settings and is controlled through its own little window.

If a device can’t handle the format being streamed, WMP12 will detect this automatically and transcode it on-the-fly.

It seems that Microsoft has been particularly hard on your media player covering many of the needs of an average user. This attitude represents a hugely refreshing change from the software giant’s past behavior, and WMP is greatly improved as a result.

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  1. Leer eerst ff nederlands schrijven ipv die moslimse achterstandstaal en verder Fu** Microsoft, lang leve Apple

  2. It would be nice if we could ‘play to’ media from network storage to another device. I can’t think of any other use for it apart from this.