Organize and transfer music and movies to portable media devices with Windows Media Player 10
Published: March 30, 2006
Microsoft Windows Media Player 10 is an evolutionary leap from previous versions of Windows Media Player. Not only does Windows Media Player 10 feature an all-new interface that makes using your favorite features easier, it also contains a lot of new functionality. Windows Media Player 10 catalogues pictures and keeps track of recorded television shows in the Media Library, alongside your music. Windows Media Player 10 also actively monitors items and entire folders in the Media Library to make sure that the latest information about your media is saved.
Based on your viewing and listening habits, Windows Media Player 10 automatically rates items and determines your media tastes. With portable media devices being more popular than ever, Windows Media Player 10 features enhanced manual and automated synchronization support that copies the media that you value most to your portable media device or music player. When a portable media device is connected to your computer, Windows Media Player 10 automatically detects the device and updates it with the most valued media in the Media Library. Windows Media Player even automatically converts music and movies to fit smaller portable media devices.
In this column, I am going to show you how to take advantage of the features in Windows Media Player 10, including intelligent media monitoring, automatic playlists, and enhanced portable media device synchronization.
Let Windows Media Player learn about you
Windows Media Player 10 is more than just a standard media player that lets you view your favorite movies or listen to your favorite music. Windows Media Player is constantly working in the background to find and organize movies, pictures, music, and recorded television. Windows Media Player 10 does this through a series of features:
| • | Watched Folders |
| • | Automatic Playlists |
| • | Automatic Rating |
Watched Folders
Windows Media Player keeps track of folders on your hard drive. It monitors new files, renamed files, deleted files, or moved files. When it detects changes, it automatically updates the Media Library. Windows Media Player watches the My Music, My Videos, and Recorded TV folders by default.
To add or remove watched folders, click Tools, and then select Options. Click the Library tab, and then click Monitor Folders. To add a folder to the Folders list, click Add. Browse to the folder of your choice, and click OK. To remove a folder from the Folders list, select the folder of your choice, and click Remove.
Figure 1 — Configure Watched Folders
Automatic Playlists
Windows Media Player maintains lists from your Media Library that fit particular criteria, such as album artist, album title, or play count. Many automatic playlists are already created and included with Windows Media Player, including four- or five-star rated music, music that is usually listened to at night, and music that is never listened to. You can view a list of available automatic playlists by clicking Library, then expanding Auto Playlists.
To create your own Automatic Playlist, right-click Auto Playlists in the Media Library, and then click New. Name your Auto Playlist, and then select the criteria necessary for songs to show up in the playlist. I made a playlist of all the music that I have rated with five stars, but I limited the playlists total duration to five hours.
Figure 2 — Create an Automatic Playlist
Automatic Rating
Windows Media Player keeps a count of how often you listen to each song in the Media Library. The more you listen to a song, the higher it is rated. To manually rate a song, click Library, right-click the item that you want to rate, point to Rate, and then click one of the ratings, or click Unrated. One Star is the lowest rating; 5 Stars is the highest rating.
The automatic and manual rating of a song effects how it is listed in automatic playlists. If you want to see how often you have played a song, right-click the column header in the Media Library and click Play Count. The Media Library will display the play count for each song alongside the title, artist, album, and other information.
Copy music and movies from your computer to your portable media device
If you have a sizable music or movie collection, you will appreciate the new synchronization features that are available in Windows Media Player 10. Synchronization is a way to make sure that your portable media device has the same Media Library as your Windows Media Player. There are two ways to transfer, or synchronize, Media Library content to a portable media devicemanually or automatically.
Manual Synchronization
With manual synchronization, specific selected songs or playlists that you chose are transferred to a portable media device when it is connected. To select a song for transfer with device synchronization, right-click the song in the library, click Add To, and then click Sync List. You can synchronize entire albums, artists, or playlists the same way.
Figure 3 — Add an artist to the synchronization list
Automatic Synchronization
Automatic synchronization is more intelligent and does not require as much interaction. After a long day of classes or work, you can sit down, connect your portable media player, and Windows Media Player automatically transfers what you listen to most.
Windows Media Player automatically detects when a portable media device is connected to the computer. Devices as simple as a USB Flash Disk or as advanced as a Portable Media Center can synchronize with Windows Media Player 10. When a device is connected for the first time, Windows Media Player starts the Device Setup Wizard.
If you do not want to allow automatic synchronization, click Manual, and then click Finish. If you do want to use automatic synchronization, click Automatic. Automatic synchronization copies the contents of automatic playlists to your portable media device.
To customize which automatic playlists are used for automatic synchronization, click Customize the playlists that will be synchronized, and then click Next. If you do not customize which automatic playlists are copied during automatic synchronization, then Windows Media Player will use a default set of pre-existing automatic playlists.
Figure 4 — Configure Automatic Synchronization
To change automatic synchronization settings later, click Tools, and then click Options. Click the Device tab, and select your portable media device. Click Advanced, and then under Automatic synchronization, click Settings.
A quick note about Portable Media Centers
Portable Media Centers are an entirely new class of device that run Windows Mobile. They usually have 20 GB of storage or more and feature sound/video output. Portable Media Centers may seem familiar because they have an interface just like their perfect companionWindows XP Media Center Edition. For more information about Portable Media Centers and Windows XP Media Center Edition, read Using the New Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Centers with Windows XP by Expert Zone Columnist Barb Bowman.
When a Portable Media Center device is connected to a computer it will enter Connected mode. While in Connected mode, the Portable Media Center synchronizes and copies information from the host computer. You must disconnect the Portable Media Center to use it normally.
Windows Media Player automatically transfers enough media to fill your portable media device when it automatically synchronizes. But some media is just too big to fit on the smaller hard drives and flash memory components that modern portable media devices use. There is only a finite amount of media that a portable media device can fit. If a movie is made to be viewed on a big screen monitor, then copying it to a portable media device with a three inch screen is not very effective or efficient. Windows Media Player optimizes music for listening or movies for viewing on a portable media device using a process called transcoding.
Transcoding is a new technology that helps Windows Media Player during the synchronization process. When Windows Media Player plays a music file or video, transcoding simultaneously converts the old format into a new copy in a different media format. It is still the same song or movie, just in a (likely) smaller file that is optimized for your device.
If your computer is not very powerful then transcoding may take a long time and could slow down other things happening at the same time. You can enable or disable transcoding and control certain parameters that Windows Media Player follows during the transcoding process, such as quality. To adjust the quality of transcoded media, click Tools, click Options, and then click the Devices tab. Select your portable media device, and then click Properties. Click the Quality tab. Windows Media Player detects the most optimal quality level for media. If you want to override this, just click Select quality level and move the slider between Smallest Size and Best Quality. To turn off transcoding, clear Convert files as required by this device.
Windows Media Player 10 offers more than just portable media device synchronization. This column has been a sampling of what it can do for you.
 | Justin Harrison is an Expert Zone columnist and Director of Asteract Studios Limited. In the past he has worked for GE Energy and has worked with the Casual Games team at Microsoft.
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