WMP 11...What the Competition is up to...

julzcompufreek · Post by **julzcompufreek** » Thu May 18, 2006 4:42 am

Hey, I was surfin around on the internet yesterday when I found the beta release of Windows Media Player 11 on the Microsoft Website. Now I know this isnt much to do with MediaMonkey, but I think it will interest many MediaMonkey users (if you want to move it to the Off Topic section, it doesn't bother me, but I believe it is News and Other Stuff to many MediaMonkey users] . I decided to download it and take a look at it, dont worry, I just wanted to see what the competiton was doing, I'm not going to defect just yet! lol.

Anyway, it looks pretty nifty, you can see that Microsoft is really trying to get back at Apple, which is evident at first glance. It has many new features, especially the way it sorts the tracks into their albums with the album art. I kinda like this idea and it would be great if MediaMonkey could do something along those lines as well. Also, it has improved its searching capabilities, which are now faster and pretty much instant (something that MM came up with long ago...) but I still think that MM's searching capabilities are still second to none.

There are also other various features, which you can see for yourself, but still there is no iPod support, and it doesnt look like there ever will be! Which gives MM a competitive edge over WMP, since that many people who change from iTunes still want to be able to sync with their iPods.

Well, you can download it from the link below if you like, just remember that it IS a Beta version and can have bugs.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... player/11/

Nebbin · Post by **Nebbin** » Thu May 18, 2006 6:14 am

If you like the way WMP11 sorts and displays by album art, then you might enjoy Trixmoto's "BrowseByArt" script. I'm not saying it does exactly the same thing, but it's certainly along those lines, and I for one absolutely love it.

Post by **Lowlander** » Thu May 18, 2006 9:18 am

It looks pretty neat. I was hoping for more or I haven't found it yet and that's the band of album art that you could scroll thru. Anyway, I haven't tested it on a large collection, which is where MediaMonkey shines. All those bells and whistles in WMP and others generally don't work well on large libraries speed wise.

julzcompufreek · Post by **julzcompufreek** » Fri May 19, 2006 4:45 am

Yeah, I also noticed that it lags a bit when scrolling through, I thought it was just my computer, but even on my mates souped up ASUS it was a bit lagy.

And Lowlander, what do you mean by

the band of album art that you could scroll thru

?

Post by **Lowlander** » Fri May 19, 2006 9:45 am

Preview images I had seen would have the album art in band of 3/4 rows which you could scroll thru. Moving the mouse over an album art would bring it to the front. Maybe this is a feature that is planned for the Windows Vista MCE WMP 11 variant and not for the regular version.

ImaLamer · Post by **ImaLamer** » Sat May 20, 2006 2:46 pm

I installed WMP11 the other day and when I started up Media Monkey today the database was gone.

Really, it makes Media Monkey worthless because I've lost all of my playlists and more.

Hey, if you've got a suggestion... I'm all ears. Otherwise I'm just going to sit here and cry. (BTW: I lost my settings and everything!)

Post by **Lowlander** » Sat May 20, 2006 8:09 pm

WMP 11 didn't do anything with me, MediaMonkey still works.

Here is things you need to look out for, that no software deletes the My Music/MediaMonkey folder. That's where both the settings and the database are located by default. Most other media software also use this folder.
So it could be that WMP deleted the MediaMonkey folder but I doubt that. Another thing could be that the default My Music folder was changed in some way.
You could do a search for MediaMonkey.mdb to relocate your database. Note that the database in the Program Files/MediaMonkey folder is an empty database not the one you had before.

rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Sun May 21, 2006 1:36 am

do a system restore on windows and see if it will load the folders back in to the system.

it should not hurt any new software , but if it does mess up wmp so what?

the should be shot for trying to get rid of monkey.

no just a mad statement they should not be shot? maybe make them
write on the white board 700 times i like media monkey

DiddeLeeDoo · Post by **DiddeLeeDoo** » Sun May 21, 2006 1:44 am

Instead of System Restore, I'd suggest the same as Lowlander, search for MediaMonkey.mdb first.. I do not have a loving relationship to System Restore really.

If you want to get rid of WMP11, the best place is Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs, and make sure the CheckBox "Show Updates" is ticked in.

Microsoft Updates tend to Hide from the ordinary Add/Remove Program list, and you need to do that 'Show Updates" tick to see Microsoft stuff...

I think there is very little chance for you MediaMonkey database to be gone... Actually I saw onken_enno made a tiny program that allow you to manually choose where the MediaMonkey database is located.

DiddeLeeDoo · Post by **DiddeLeeDoo** » Sun May 21, 2006 2:01 am

Having a look at WMP11 homepage, (have not tried it yet) it looks good.

Two things I like with seeing WMP11 is the top and bottom and Album Art and Artist view, otherwise it looks like a copy of MediaMonkey...

rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Sun May 21, 2006 2:14 am

well you see monkey is in the game now?

microsoft is trying to copy it. look out monkey the apes are after you.

run little spider monkey run. it wont be long before the other mac ape starts after you.

wallstreetwalker · Post by **wallstreetwalker** » Sun May 21, 2006 5:09 pm

it looks f***ing awesome

it's fast (no kidding) , has everything built in: audio video, lyrics support, album art from microsoft site, tons of plugins (DSP, videoplugins, visualisation, ...)

tagging is improved alot.

yes, microsoft is really making an effort with the competion of google, mac, itunes, (mediamonkey

), ...

i'm actually considering to try WMP to replace MM as soon as the real stuff gets there.

it's just annoying to get used to the prog.

i probably should work with it for a few weeks, to see how good it really is ...

I also have to keep an eye on the CPU usage, as this might become MM 's keypoint in the future,

seeing this i seem to understand why MM doesn't want to add video support ...

i 'm using 5 mediaplayers right now (MM most for audio BSplayer most for video), so i might as well add wmp 11 and see if it will take the place of any or both.

rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Mon May 22, 2006 12:32 am

well looks like they might take you away from monkey.

but i will not leave until monkey gets totaly mucked up like the iriver program did.

but i don't think rusty and jiri are ever going to let monkey get that mucked up.

i use monkey for all music and i use wmp for video or online midi playing.

i only keep the other players on the computer incase i have to do something the ? people in charge ? are not wanting us to do. ha ha so i keep the old versions of the other programs as they are the ones that were not changed to make us not do things..

DiddeLeeDoo · Post by **DiddeLeeDoo** » Mon May 22, 2006 12:49 am

I'm the same, use MediaMonkey for music, and WMP for video... As long as MediaMonkey stay true to music, I think they have nothing to worry about.

Once you go into the Visual arena, it is very easy to get fried, and fried good!

Nebbin · Post by **Nebbin** » Mon May 22, 2006 5:24 am

Good grief. While it was fine with a reasonably small number of tracks, I then decided to try it with a large proportion of my music collection (~24k tracks). Result: For me it became impossibly slow to work with.

I know I don't have the fastest computer on the planet, but a 3ghz p4, with 2gb ram and a 6600GT (256mb) video card should be enough grunt to run a music program ffs. Being "fancy" is all well and good, but only if it's useable.

Back to the Monkey for me. I'll leave this wmp installed just to make me appreciate MM all the more.

WMP 11...What the Competition is up to...

WMP 11...What the Competition is up to...

WMP11 killed my MM install!