Microsoft's Windows Media Player 10 - Providing Some Pointers
by Andrew Ku on September 19, 2004 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
Skin Development and Support
Almost all of the little and big things that we tend to pay attention to in multimedia software reviews can be mended easily by the development and support of skins for programs like SageTV 2.0, BeyondTV 3.X, Forceware Multimedia, Meedio Essentials, Multimedia Center, etc.
Click to enlarge.
And while a few of these titles already have skin support, it would be great to see a better move to backing/push for the development of skins and producing them on a wider scale than what we already have seen (e.g. SageTV 2.0 only has a few skins out there). SnapStream is considering our recommendation for skin deployment when we had last spoken to them. As for the two GPU makers, we haven't seen any skins from NVIDIA or any online developer for FWM, other than the two skins bundled with the title; and ATI still has a way to go to provide such a wide berth of skin options like Microsoft.
Simply put, these various skins help quench everyone's taste for design and features (assuming the backend is there for feature-support), and in the end, that is the real aim for both the software developer and end-user.
A lot of what we have recommended can be picked up by freeware multimedia software developers (i.e. a low profile design and skin deployment). This will go a long way in the end to provide more options for those looking around for something with a better UI than VLC player.
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Mgz - Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - link
WTF?No word from the new Windows Media 9.1? No word from the new FhG ACM MP3 Encoder 3.0.22?
Mgz - Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - link
mbhame - Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - link
Where's the "Pornability" factor in this review? :PAquila76 - Monday, September 20, 2004 - link
I think skins, and desktop themes for that matter, are the biggest amounts of MS bloat. How many of us have seen the systemwide impact that occurs by turning on 'Active Desktop' and other so-called appearance features (animated cursors and icons, etc.)?What I like about WMP 9 & 10 is that it can be minimized to a seperate toolbar (or to the system tray if you get the bonus pack) to be completely non-intrusive. What I don't like is the skins that you are forced to install with WMP7 and up.
SKiller - Monday, September 20, 2004 - link
I really don't get the obsession with appearances of a video player. If I'm watching a movie, it's full screen and I don't want to see any controls. All standard manipulation should be done via keyboard shortcuts. For all other times, a simple, clean interface like MPC provides is all that's needed. The really important part of a media player is support as vtech mentioned.Gholam - Monday, September 20, 2004 - link
Cramming both audio and video playback into a single program doesn't work. To quote Skull (http://www.pvponline.com) - It's a football _and_ a telephone!Separate solutions are so much better... I use Winamp for audio - even though it tries to be a video player as well, it's lousy for that; and BSPlayer for video - nothing better exists. Media Player Classic for realvideo clips, when I absolutely can't avoid them.
Avalon - Sunday, September 19, 2004 - link
I use WMP because it's not Realplayer.Glassmaster - Sunday, September 19, 2004 - link
MPC forever!!!Glassmaster
vtech - Sunday, September 19, 2004 - link
I don't understand why anybody uses this crappy player. Subtitles? Deinterlacing? Cropping? Aspect-ratio changes? Nothing. Just few megabytes of lousy skins.leohuf - Sunday, September 19, 2004 - link