Using Windows Media Player 9 Series
Published: December 9, 2002
By Sharon Crawford, Windows XP Expert Zone Community Columnist
Editor's Note: Past articles by members of the online community are archived for your use. The information may become outdated as technology changes. For the most current information, please search the Web site or post a question in the newsgroups.
It has taken me a while, but I finally realize the potential of putting music on my computer. Recently, I started using Windows Media Player 9 Series. My conclusion—the more your music means to you, the more you'll want Windows Media Player 9 Series.
Many of the best features in Windows Media Player 9 Series are available only when running the Windows XP version. If you have an earlier version of Windows, you'll miss the Mini-Player, instant-on video, volume leveling and other cool features available only for Windows XP-based computers.
Installing and Uninstalling Media Player 9 Series
Before discussing the new features of the player, let's take a look at how to install and uninstall Windows Media Player 9 Series. This column is based on my experience using the release candidate for Windows Media Player 9 Series. Before you download and install the player, check the 9 Player Series Release Notes.
It's not difficult to remove Windows Media Player 9 Series as long as you plan ahead. Before installing Media Player 9 Series, use System Restore and create a restore point. Here's how you do it:
1. | Click Start, and then click Help and Support. |
2. | Under Pick a task, click Undo changes to your computer with System Restore. |
3. | Click Create a restore point. |
4. | In the Restore point description box, provide a name for the restore point, as shown in Figure 1 below. Windows XP will automatically add the date and time to the name. |
5. | Click Create.  Figure 1 |
Install Windows Media Player 9 Series and should you become disillusioned with it (and I'm betting you won't) you can return your computer to that restore point. Just return to the System Restore entry in Help and Support. Click Restore my computer to an earlier time, and then click the restore point you created, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2
Windows Media Player 9 Series is removed and the previous version of the Player is restored. Any CD tracks copied to your computer will remain, and the previous version of Windows Media Player will be able to play this audio content.
Mini-Player Mode
You can shrink the player to the Windows taskbar. Just right-click an empty spot on the taskbar, point to Toolbars, and then click Windows Media Player. When you minimize Media Player, the Mini-Player, shown below, takes its place in the taskbar, providing you with quick access to basic playback controls.
Mini-Player
Click the Restore button to get back to the full Media Player interface.
Focus on Privacy
When you use Windows Media Player 9 Series to gather information about your media content, Windows Media Player sends information about your music and sometimes about your computer over the Internet. To give you control over how much information you share, the first time you run Windows Media Player, you'll be asked to set privacy options. Read the Windows Media Player 9 Series Privacy Statement for a detailed explanation of the types of information collected or used by the player and the privacy options you can specify.
To review your privacy settings or to make changes later, on the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Privacy tab.
Better Sound and Smaller Files
Windows Media Player 9 Series improves on what was already an outstanding audio codec. In Media Player 8 for example, a 64-bit Windows Media Audio (WMA) file sounded at least as good as a 128 Kbps MP3 file. The new version of the player has even better compression and audio quality.
For those storing music to a hard drive, Windows Media Player 9 Series squeezes audio files to less than half their MP3 size without compromising fidelity. So if you've been encoding songs at 128 Kbps, you can probably drop down to 96 Kbps. If you're using 64 Kbps, you can likely switch to 48 Kbps and possibly even 32 Kbps. This may not impress those with giant hard drives but if you have a portable device, you can double the amount of music you can carry around if you use WMA files.
Video compression is so improved that even full-screen movies started streaming within seconds of being clicked on and didn't drop a frame even when I started downloading a 20-MB file.
Crossfading and Volume Leveling
It may seem minor to some, but I really like crossfading. Turning on this feature is like hiring a virtual DJ to fade one song into another so the music flows without jarring transitions. To turn on crossfading so the end of one song fades into the beginning of the next one:
1. | On the View menu, point to Enhancements, and then click Crossfading and Auto Volume Leveling. |
2. | Click Turn on Crossfading and adjust the slider for how many seconds of overlap you want. You might have to fiddle with the overlap setting to best fit your music. |
Even better, you can also turn on volume leveling, which adjusts the volume of each song so you can hear the quiet pieces without getting blown away by loud songs, especially important when listening on headphones. This is one of the cool features available only on computers running Windows XP. Volume leveling works both when you're playing back music from your PC and is also applied when files are transcoded to a CD that you burn.
The volume leveling feature supports files that are in Windows Media Format (WMF) or MP3 format and that contain a volume leveling value. When you copy a track from a CD, Windows Media Player 9 Series automatically adds volume leveling to the file. Because earlier versions of Media Player didn't have this feature, music files on your computer won't have volume information values. You can add values by following these steps:
1. | On the File menu, point to Add to Media Library, and then click By Searching Computer. |
2. | In the Look in box, choose the location of the Windows Media or MP3 files to which you want to add volume leveling values. |
3. | Click Advanced Options, and under Advanced search options, click Add volume leveling values for all files. |
4. | Click Search, and click Close when completed. |
Media Player checks the volume level in each of the files, adds the appropriate volume leveling value to each file, and then adds the files to Media Library.
Advanced Tag Editor
If you're running Windows XP, you'll have access to the Advanced Tag Editor in the player. Media information, such as details about the artist, lyrics, band, group, album, genre, and producer, is also known as metadata or tags. Windows Media Player 9 Series can automatically gather media information from the Internet, depending on how you've configured your privacy settings. You can also manually enter or edit the information for an item. Media Player 9 Series has the best tag editor, bar none. To add your own information, right-click a title, and then click Advanced Tag Editor, shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4
The Tag Editor allows you to get incredibly detailed about your music, letting you add more than 35 different items of information. For example, in addition to the usual artist and composer tags, the editor supports conductor, lyricist, orchestra or band, original artist, and original lyricist tags under the Artist Info section. You can even enter lyrics for later use as subtitles for karaoke (just don't invite me over).
Info Center and Auto Info
Both of these features are available only in the Windows XP version of the player. In the Info Center view, you can view album art and other artist information while playing music or a DVD. And if you're running Windows XP, you also get links to a free online service that will match your songs or albums with a database of information such as discographies, artists' Web sites, band photos, and cover art. To open the Info Center:
1. | Click Now Playing, and on the View menu, point to Info Center View. |
2. | Specify whether you want it to Always Show, or Show Only When Detailed Media Information Is Available. |
The Auto Info feature is set to automatically search the Internet for information about your media, unless you cleared the Update My music files (WMA and MP3 files) by retrieving missing media information from the Internet check box the first time you ran the player. Auto Info sends anonymous details about your music to WindowsMedia.com in order to download the media information to your computer. You can manually run Auto Info for a particular album by right-clicking the album in Media Library, and then clicking Update Album Info.
Create Auto Playlists
I also like the new ratings feature. You can rate songs on a five-star scale: five is the highest. Or let Media Player automatically apply ratings that are based on how often and when you play songs. To rate a song yourself, display the song either in the Now Playing or Media Library views, right-click it, point to Rate Selected Items, and then click the appropriate number of stars.
The ratings feature is useful on its own, but when combined with the newly enhanced Auto Playlist feature, it's great. Opening the Auto Playlists folder in the Media Library, as shown below, reveals a variety of automatically created and updated playlists, including a number of playlists that include only songs with four or five star ratings.
Auto Playlists
If you're running Windows XP, you can create and edit these Auto Playlists. For example, you can have the player automatically add all songs by a particular artist to a playlist. To edit an Auto Playlist:
1. | Click Media Library. |
2. | In the Contents pane, expand Auto Playlists, and then click the auto playlist you want to edit. |
3. | Click the Playlists button, and then click Edit Auto Playlist. |
4. | Change or select the criteria for the auto playlist, and then click OK. |
Each time you open it, the auto playlist is updated. If you don't want automatic updating to continue, right-click the auto playlist, and then click Save as New Playlist. Give it a name and it's saved as a regular playlist in your Playlists folder.
Windows Media Player 9 Series makes it easier to find, organize, and play music on your computer. Wonder how it stacks up to other media players? Read Comparing Windows Media Player 9 Series to Other Media Players. To see some of the features I've covered in this column in action, check out the Do More with Music and Video with Windows Media 9 Player Series video.
And there're so many other features I haven't touched on, including the video and radio functions and the improved CD burning features. If you're running Windows XP, you can use the player to create data CDs. To experience all the new features, you'll just have to take Windows Media Player 9 Series for a spin yourself.
Sharon Crawford is a former editor now engaged in writing books and magazine articles. Since 1993, she has written or co–written two dozen books on computer topics. Her books include Windows 2000 Pro: The Missing Manual, Windows 98: No Experience Required, and Windows 2000 Professional for Dummies (with Andy Rathbone).
