WMP7 - Sonic Boom, Visually Impaired. Review on Windows Media Player

Microsoft might be a giant when it comes to developing Operating Systems but that doesn’t mean that it always does the right things. Case in point being its Windows Media Player 7.0 (WMP) that comes as an upgrade to the 6.x version bundled with Windows 98 (FE & SE). Subsequent versions of Windows have come out with 8.x versions and now there’s even a beta version of 9.0 available for free download from its website. I’ll concentrate on Version 7 because that’s the one I’ve used the most on my PC.

1. Beauty or Beast?

The most heartening feature with V7 is that it comes as a two-in-one replacement for the erstwhile CD player and WMP 6.x. It therefore does the double job of playing audio and video files as well. Making useful applications that are aesthetic looking as well has never been a virtue with MS. What goes against WMP7 is its lavish interface. The main screen occupies three fourths of the desktop space when in the 800 X 600 resolution and more than exceeds the screen size when maximized in the 640 X 480 mode.

This compares rather poorly with Real One Player and more recently, Winamp, whose interfaces are comparatively smaller and don’t cramp up on desktop real estate space. On the looks department, WMP turns out to be the corpulent wife of an opulent “Seth”. There are various skins available for download, but without them, it’s a drab affair.

2. Sight & Sound

I was happier with its sonic capabilities than its pretentious optical potential. Let me explain. Simply for the quality of sound playback (in terms of clarity, tone and equalizer settings), I put it on a higher pedestal than Winamp. I’ve experimented with WMP and Winamp by playing songs and listening to both on desktop speakers as well as on BA headphones. While the effect on speakers (300W) is not too variable, the difference is more perceptible on the headphones. WMP comes up trump over Winamp and for that matter even over Real player here. The clarity and changes in equalizer settings are simply too good to be true.

As for the video feature, the less said about it, the better. Suffice to say that it just about passes the muster. Video CD’s that run very well on Xing MPEG Player stutter and splutter on WMP. The picture output is pathetic and there’s no such thing as clarity unless one has a high-end machine. This is probably because WMP is a major memory gobbler needing an average of 20-25MB whenever its run.

3. File Handling Capability & Other Utilities

WMP can handle Audio files, CD audio tracks, MIDI files, Movie files and Quicktime formats. The only thing it can’t handle is Real Player formats and quite understandably so since both are fierce competitors. Apart from that there are no concerns about its playback capabilities.

The “Media Guide” is a major joke. This feature is supposed to search for audio files on the Internet but it seldom does that. I give a search query, say, for a Shakira number and it throws up all results from Britney Spears to Madonna through Gwen Stefani but still no Shakira in sight. Quite simply, nothing to beat “Morpheus” on this front.

The “CD Audio” enables Encoding - the process of copying an audio file from an external source (like a CD) to the hard disk. Though this feature is present in WMP, the all-limiting restriction is that it can copy any kind of audio file format, BUT only as its own Windows Media Audio (WMA) format, which effectively implies that this format cannot be played on any other media player except itself. Considering that the MP3 format is so popular these days, this is a rather severe limitation.

The Media Library is a major development and takes the art of managing audio files on your PC to a totally new plane. It automatically scouts the hard disks for audio files and sorts them according to their artist, genre and music class. This is a great boon and obviates the need to pick and choose each and every file for playback. Take care not to include the “*.wav” files in the initial search or you’ll end up with a major headache later.

There’s one “Radio Tuner Feature” that’s supposed to connect to AM/FM radio stations around the world. I’ve tried using this about half a dozen times with the same result - “This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down”. End of story.

There’s also a “Portable Device” feature that allows recording/copying of songs onto pocket PCs and palm tops. Never tried this – so no wisdom to offer.

4. Other Minor Frills

The pre-installed skins are only four in number and their looks are worse than my universally acknowledged, pathetic dress sense. What’s worse is that these skins only result in squeezing WMP into a “compact mode” which is makes me wonder what’s there to “skin” about in the first place?

It also has some cool “Visualisations” which can be chosen from a pre-installed list and there’s also the provision to download new ones. However, I’m yet to figure a way of turning this off except for putting it in the compact mode. Secondly, there’s a small iconic button marked “Visualisation Properties” which is purely an adornment as it serves no particular function (or does it happen only on MY WMP?)

The “Help” section is fairly comprehensive, in that it covers all the crucial information on using the main features but nothing more. There are no examples, no tips, and even the help rendered is quite reticent in nature and that isn’t saying too much about it is actually capable of.

Thus Spake TiC

Microsoft’s idea of entering the relatively untapped “all-in-one media player” segment is laudable and some concessions can be made for the fact that this was one of the initial versions. The Beta of version 9 was out a few months ago (any idea if the actual release is out?) and though TiC didn’t try it out Himself, He got some very favourable feedback about it.

MS had already made quite a few changes when its version 8 was shipped early last year. A few bugs like those in “Radio Tuner” were rectified and there was also some improvement on the video file management front, though it’s still not what it is capable of being.

TiC was pretty satisfied with WMP7 and is almost on par with its peer (Real Player 8). With Winamp coming out with its own advanced video playback version recently, the battle for the best media player is hotting up. This kind of intense competition surely bodes well for the PC users whose media needs are ever increasing by the day. As for TiC, He’s hell bent on screwing up His PC again – this time by experimenting on the latest versions of Winamp, WMP and Real One Player, all at once.