Comments on: A Couple of Thoughts and Questions on Windows Media Player 10 http://thomashawk.com/2004/12/couple-of-thoughts-and-questions-on.html Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:09:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Anonymous http://thomashawk.com/2004/12/couple-of-thoughts-and-questions-on.html/comment-page-1#comment-21056 Anonymous Tue, 04 Oct 2005 03:17:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/thomashawk/?p=4547#comment-21056 <i>overall you really have to be impressed by this completely free offering by Microsoft</i><br />completely free is quite a misrepresentation, as far as i'm aware it is only available bundled with a rather expensive operating system.<br /><br />it is also a very poor media player. for the following reasons:<br /><br />1)not being able to encode mp3's without paying even more. - you are forced to use WMA<br /><br />2) DRM<br /><br />3) very poor visualisations<br /><br />4) as you stated, the library management sucks overall you really have to be impressed by this completely free offering by Microsoft
completely free is quite a misrepresentation, as far as i’m aware it is only available bundled with a rather expensive operating system.

it is also a very poor media player. for the following reasons:

1)not being able to encode mp3′s without paying even more. – you are forced to use WMA

2) DRM

3) very poor visualisations

4) as you stated, the library management sucks

]]> By: Peter Near http://thomashawk.com/2004/12/couple-of-thoughts-and-questions-on.html/comment-page-1#comment-21057 Peter Near Mon, 20 Dec 2004 17:57:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/thomashawk/?p=4547#comment-21057 "someone who has more knowledge" is certainly not me, but I've been giving this more thought since doing my PMC review and getting a bit frustrated there.<br /><br />1. Metadata should live with the file. Period. Index that info to make it easier to deal with locally, but the file and metadata are portable.<br /><br />2. Leverage the device synchronization feature to sync content to not only media players, but also to other PCs. Specifically useful for laptops.<br /><br />3. Sync engine should be aware of the capabilities of the remote system and provide media in a format compatible with that device. Similar to sync for portable devices, this new sync for remote devices can discover playback capabilities. If it can only playback WMA, then everything is converted to WMA for that machine. More relevant is an MCX where video contennt can only be MPEG2 or WMP - the transcode and sync service should be able to handle that.<br /><br />The concept of a "media server" is becoming more and more a reality based on the habits of end users, not necessarily due to the market positioning of MS products. I want to be able to have all of my media on one machine, and intelligent ways to make it available to all other machines/devices that might want to connect. There is a system of record that will sync back all changes to files, provide media services, etc. Currently, MCE is the closest thing we have to that.<br /><br />PMC review: http://mcemvp.us/blogs/pnear/archive/2004/12/14/340.aspx<br /><br />Cheers,<br />Pete “someone who has more knowledge” is certainly not me, but I’ve been giving this more thought since doing my PMC review and getting a bit frustrated there.

1. Metadata should live with the file. Period. Index that info to make it easier to deal with locally, but the file and metadata are portable.

2. Leverage the device synchronization feature to sync content to not only media players, but also to other PCs. Specifically useful for laptops.

3. Sync engine should be aware of the capabilities of the remote system and provide media in a format compatible with that device. Similar to sync for portable devices, this new sync for remote devices can discover playback capabilities. If it can only playback WMA, then everything is converted to WMA for that machine. More relevant is an MCX where video contennt can only be MPEG2 or WMP – the transcode and sync service should be able to handle that.

The concept of a “media server” is becoming more and more a reality based on the habits of end users, not necessarily due to the market positioning of MS products. I want to be able to have all of my media on one machine, and intelligent ways to make it available to all other machines/devices that might want to connect. There is a system of record that will sync back all changes to files, provide media services, etc. Currently, MCE is the closest thing we have to that.

PMC review: http://mcemvp.us/blogs/pnear/archive/2004/12/14/340.aspx

Cheers,
Pete

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