I was notified by CNET download about this product and I downloaded the 7MB file (a trial version). This amazing product zapped me, but my PC crashed (not because of WMP) and later as I replaced my HDD, the first product I installed after Windows98 was Windows Media Player 7 and that too, is not a trial version.
Now what is so amazing about it?
To play music (mp3) – I had windows media player, which comes with Windows98 and Winamp and real player.
To play CD – I had creative infra media player, Real player would scream saying this software is not available for this.
To play video – I had Zing player and movie player that ships with Windows 98.
To play streaming audio and video – I had real player
To copy music from CDs (cda format) to HDD – No software
To copy music from HDD to CDs – No software.
To organize music files as lists – Winamp (but not flexible).
To do all of the above – Just one software – Windows Media Player 7. Now you will realize why I found it so amazing. But there is something more to this player – Skins! Great looks on PC!
Firstly for the in depth tech-savvy people, this player rips CDs to form files with extension wma (windows media audio) and not mp3. A little monopoly from Microsoft! Though this is not so creditable in terms of flexibility, versatility and portability, I like this format because I find it more clear and crisp than mp3 and file size is also marginally lesser than mp3, which relates to more savings in disk space.
Greatest features:
Versatility: This is all-in-one software (great trend, see ACDSee that is another all in 1).
It is a music player basically that also plays video and streaming medias too. It can copy music from CDs to hard disk (subject to music anti-piracy laws and corresponding support by the CDs). It can copy music from hard disk to CD-R which can be played on any CD player and to CD-RW, which can be played only on computers. It has media library for music organizing as described below.
Media Library: This is what is great about Musicmatch Jukebox too, but I can sort my music irrespective from where I pick it up, i.e. from any folder on hard disk, radio stations, CDs. Again I can classify into several categories like Genre (pop, rock, classic), artist name (Lata Mangeshkar, Michael Jackson), album name (History, MTV Hits). I can also create play lists by a few clicks.
Great music player: It plays nearly all audio formats (au, aiff, wav, mid, mp3, wm, snd) besides its own wma. Streaming formats are also played but HOLD IT!! Rivalry on net! It does not play the ram files, which is streaming format for Real Player. It has graphic equalizers giving a perfect control over the vocals, bass, treble and has special settings called true bass and WOW effects that enhance the music further.
Great video player: Plays mpeg, avi and windows wmv. The resolution is pretty good. However, on full screen initially the movie advances like frame by frame. I do not know whether this wmp’s fault or video file was bad.
Visualizations: These are amazingly designed graphical displays, which seem to be synchronized with the music. There is an entire gamut of these like waterfall, smokey circles, smokey lines, random, swirl. I like the ambience category featuring water, bubble, dizzy. The spikes – amoeba as well as firestorm and ocean mist amongst bar and waves category are my favorites.
Skins: This is a wow feature and I have whole lot of them installed from wmp’s site. The headspace that comes with the software is by far the famous but there is a similar smaller female android like face in “cerulean”. I would recommend the cool blue “Faith Hill” (great babe!), “pharaoh” – its fun to discover where the buttons are hidden on this skin. “Roundlet” also looks cool while “toothy”, “ducky”, “optik” are wacky.
What I do not like:
Though these skins look good they restrict some functionalities and the default big screen has to be resorted time and again. Besides, most of the time, the music is often preferred in background while you do some other work (such as write an article). Hence the window is better minimized than apply a skin. (Winamp’s tiny toolbar is much better and occupy negligible space).
There is this “search computer for media files feature” which is a hopelessly non-useful feature. It searches and just gives statistics as to how many files were found. The search results are not displayed at all. A bug I suppose!
But ever since this player is installed I have not switched to any other player except when ram files are automatically opened in real player (which is why its still present on my system).
Psst...For all those who feel that it is wonderful product but needs improvement...Windows Media Player 8.00 Beta testing is under way