I'm in the process of a writing an article that suggests freeware alternatives to Windows Media player. So.. I ask, what specifically do you NOT like about Windows Media Player? Some stuff I've already come up with..
No OGG (or other media file) support
No auto-shut off/timer/alarm
Poor button mapping
Uses a lot of memory
No bookmarking mp3 files
No skinning (at least not until SPB themes came along)
Okay.. GO!!
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Aximsite News Editor and Reviewer
Pros-
I only need it to play WMAs and WMV.
I can save RAM space by not installing something else (at least with WM2003).
Cons-
Lack of playlist management
Not many features
Not flexible
No pause stills with WMV
Can you elaborate on "lack of playlist management". I've actually had little experience with it, but from what I know doesn't it scan your mp3s and put them into groups?
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Aximsite News Editor and Reviewer
Yes, if that is the way you want your playlists organized, it's fine. Otherwise, you're SOL without a separate playlist editor.
Originally Posted by forkyfork
Can you elaborate on "lack of playlist management". I've actually had little experience with it, but from what I know doesn't it scan your mp3s and put them into groups?
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"I'm a perfectionist, but not very good at it yet."
Cannot be removed/replaced without hacking the Axim's ROM
Additional playback formats cannot be added
Over-reliance on having WMP installed on your PC
DRM licensed content can only be transfered via Activesync which is very slow compared to using a card reader
Only the ASF container is supported
The skinning system is (was) poorly thought out, just to cover the most common devices it is necessary to create the same skin 5 times - Portrait QVGA, Portrait VGA, Square, Landscape QVGA and Landscape VGA - removing this from WMP 10.1 was not all bad!
WMP 10.0 searches every directory available looking for skins including network shares which can cause your PDA to lock-up completely, even a storage card with a lot of directories is slow to search, this could have been avoided by specifying a single common location for skins.
Streaming from VideoLAN to WMP Mobile in ASF format doesn't work, this problem is not caused by VideoLAN as versions prior to 9.0 on the desktop version of WMP exhibit identical behaviour.
That's all I can think of at the moment, I may add more later.
Cannot be removed/replaced without hacking the Axim's ROM
Additional playback formats cannot be added
Over-reliance on having WMP installed on your PC
DRM licensed content can only be transfered via Activesync which is very slow compared to using a card reader
Only the ASF container is supported
The skinning system is (was) poorly thought out, just to cover the most common devices it is necessary to create the same skin 5 times - Portrait QVGA, Portrait VGA, Square, Landscape QVGA and Landscape VGA - removing this from WMP 10.1 was not all bad!
WMP 10.0 searches every directory available looking for skins including network shares which can cause your PDA to lock-up completely, even a storage card with a lot of directories is slow to search, this could have been avoided by specifying a single common location for skins.
Streaming from VideoLAN to WMP Mobile in ASF format doesn't work, this problem is not caused by VideoLAN as versions prior to 9.0 on the desktop version of WMP exhibit identical behaviour.
That's all I can think of at the moment, I may add more later.
Wow!! That's quite a list.
Thank you very much!
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Aximsite News Editor and Reviewer
WMP is great! Its one program that I haven't bothered using since it was updated.
Playlist management.
Videos dissapear to blackness o_o
Cant map buttons properly.
Clunky interface.
I have media players that play smoother, look better, and overall works better (gsplayer/betaplayer)
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