Many people think that Windows Media Player is gradually losing its popularity, but this is not entirely true. There have been so many updates and additions to the player lately that you can completely customize it to your liking. During playback various types files, you can change the player skin and install various add-ons. While the player has always been a core component of the Windows OS, Windows Media has become a really good one in the last few years. The latest, version 12, contains a number of interesting features that will certainly interest you. We will talk about these features and much more in this article.

Player update

If you have installed old version player, we strongly advise you to update it. Windows Media is completely free and always available for download on the official Microsoft website.

Automatic mode: Open Windows Media Player, press Alt, go to the Help menu, and click Check for Updates.

If you don't want to manually check for updates every time, you can enable " automatic check" To do this, follow these steps:

Step 1

Open Windows Media Player, press the Alt key, expand the Tools menu, and open Settings.

Step 2

In the “Player” tab, specify how often the player checks for updates.

First launch

When you launch Windows Media Player for the first time, you need to spend a few minutes to install primary settings player. They consist of several steps:

Step 1

The Windows Media Player installation wizard will appear, which at the first stage will ask you to choose which type of settings to use: recommended or custom. If you select recommended, the player will automatically set all the settings without your intervention. In this case, skip this section and move on to the next one.

If you want to configure the player yourself, select the "Custom Settings" option and click the "Next" button.

Step 2

The first to open is the Privacy Options dialog box. Check the boxes next to the items you really want to use and click Next.

Step 3

At this point WMP will ask if you want to add a shortcut to your desktop and panel quick launch, and will also offer to mark the use of it as the default. Exhibit necessary settings and click Next.

Step 5

At the final stage, the player will offer to set up an online store to access paid content. Select “Do not set up an online store” and click the “Finish” button.

Always remain anonymous online

When installed, Windows Media Player generates a unique ID for your computer. This identifier is used in many places, including on some web resources. Thanks to it, Windows Media Player can independently request information about media data and exchange service information. Although the developers claim that the player does not transmit any personal information, there are sometimes cases where they can track what you watch. If you do not want your player usage information to be accidentally leaked online, disable this feature. To do this:

Step 1

Hold down the Alt key, then open the Tools menu and select Options.

Step 2

Go to the “Privacy” tab and uncheck the box next to “Send a unique code...”.

Update the codec

After you have installed the new Windows version Media Player, you will also need to install additional codecs to support certain file types. A codec is nothing more than an additional add-on for Windows Media Player that helps identify and play many file formats. We recommend installing the K-lite codec package. It alone is enough to enable support for almost all audio and video data formats. You can download it from the official website of the developer.

It is also worth enabling the option to automatically download codecs by going to the player settings and in the “Player” tab, check the “Automatically download codecs” option.

Adding artwork and visuals to the player

Covers and visuals enhance your player's experience and allow you to customize the look and feel of your player. The only problem is that you can no longer download them from the official Microsoft website, so you will have to search for covers and visualizations on the Internet.

Currently, many media players are emerging for the platform on Windows based. In fact, some of them look very beautiful, but with limited functionality, while others are full-featured, but without nice interfaces. Thus, it is difficult for users to choose a suitable media player with support for all media formats that you want to play easily and with high quality. Here you will find the best solution.

Blu-Ray Disc (BD), Blu-Ray ISO, and Blu-Ray Folder (BDMV Folder) on all popular Windows systems such as Windows XP (SP2 or later), Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. Moreover, as an all-in-one media player, it can surprisingly DVD, VideoCD, MOV, MKV, AVI, FLV, WMV, MP4, MPEG, RMVB, MP3, WMA, AAC, AC3, etc. Aiming to achieve a combination of ease of use and advanced technology, Windows Blu-Ray Player can play all types of media with resolutions up to 1080p and DTS HD Master Audio.

Step 1: Download Windows Blu-ray Player

Install and launch Windows Media Player.

Software that can be easily downloaded and installed on a Windows-based computer. After installation, you can launch it by double-clicking its icon on your desktop.

Smart installations

You can make some presets before playing Blu-ray, DVD, or other video formats: Tools -> Preferences

Step 2:Play Blu-ray Disc or DVD on Windows OS

Insert Blu-ray Disc or DVD into optical drive. After a couple of seconds of loading, it will automatically play the BD or DVD. This will first take you to the disc menu where you can make some settings.

Step 3: Start enjoying the movie

If you click on the play button, you can directly enter the main title and start enjoying the movie.

You can enjoy Blu-ray or DVD ISO with fantastic audiovisual quality when Windows Help Blu-ray Player.

Standard mode

Full screen mode

Video video file format — defines the structure of the video file. There are many formats for encoding and compressing video files, let's look at some of them or almost everything.

As of late 2008, there are three main video file formats: avi, mpg And mov.

Let's look at each in a little more detail.

ASF format(Active Streaming Format) - streaming format from Microsoft.

Commonly used video file extension is .asf.

ASF video files appear with the extensions .WMA or .WMV.

A.S.F. is a multimedia container, and does not contain instructions on how the data should be encoded, but only defines the structure of the data stream. In this regard, ASF replaces the AVI media container format.

microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/ru/format/asfspec.aspx

go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=31334 - ASF Specification

AVI format(Audio-Video Interleaved) developed by Microsoft for storing and playing videos, it is a container that can contain anything from MPEG1 to MPEG4.

It can contain four types of streams - Video, Audio, MIDI, Text.

Commonly used video file extension is .avi.

There can be only one video stream, and several audio streams.

AVI can contain only one stream - either video or audio.

AVI does not impose any restrictions on the type of codec used, neither for video nor for audio - they can be anything.

AVI video files can combine any video and audio codecs. AVI uses less compression than similar video file formats.

AVI video files can be played by various players, but the player must support the codec used to encode the video.

Questions often arise: who adopted the avi standard?
or avi standard who developed it. This RIFF media container was first used by Microsoft in 1992 - for reference.

The following video codecs are often used in AVI video files:

DivX codec www.divx.com

Cinepak codec www.cinepak.com

Codec Indeo www.ligos.com

Codec DV

Codec MJPEG

Uncompressed RGB or YUY2 codec

The following audio codecs are often used in AVI video files:

MP3 codec

Codec MS ADPCM (Microsoft Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation)

Codec PCM (Uncompressed Pulse Code Modulation)

DivX format(Digital video express) - Mpeg4 standard codec.

www.divx.com

FLV format(Flash Video) - video files used to transmit video over the Internet. Used by such services as YouTube, Google Video, RuTube, Tube.BY, Movie, Obivu, etc.

FLV video files can be viewed on most operating systems because it uses Adobe Flash and plugins for most browsers, and is supported by many video playback programs that work with DirectShow.

MOV format- Apple Quicktime, can contain any codec, CBR or VBR. They usually have the extension .QT or .MOV.

Because the MPEG4 Group has chosen QuickTime as the recommended format for MPEG4, their MOV video files come with the extension .MPG or .MP4.

MPG format(Moving Pictures Experts Group) - A video file that contains video encoded:

Mpeg1 format— the standard was developed in 1992 taking into account the capabilities of 2-speed CD-ROMs and 486 computers.

• This standard allows you to encode video data at a bit rate of about 1.5 million bits per second (bps). This format was developed specifically for use on Video-CD and CD-i compact discs. Most implementations of the MPEG-1 standard provide playback with a resolution of 352x240 pixels and a speed of 30 frames per second (fps). When using this standard, the image quality obtained is slightly worse than that obtained using a conventional VCR.

Mpeg2 format— the standard was adopted in 1994. Primarily developed for digital transmission of broadcast-quality video. Used in DVD, digital TV and HDTV.

Mpeg3 format- for high-definition television (HDTV), but later became part of the Mpeg2 standard and is no longer mentioned separately.

Mpeg4(short spelling MP4 is common) - the standard is designed for very low data streams for use in video phones, multimedia email, electronic information publications, etc.

MPEG1-2 (MPG)– video and audio storage format with compression and data loss.

MPEG4 (MP4)– a film or video clip compressed in the MPEG-4 standard, usually used for sharing and transferring video files on the Internet,video phones, multimedia e-mail, electronic news publications, etc. This format uses separate compression for audio and video tracks.

MP4 is designed for very low data rates.

The MPEG-4 format is an International Standards Organization (ISO) standard that describes various aspects of multimedia presentation, including data creation, compression, and transmission.

www.iso.org/iso/prods-services/popstds/mpeg.html

Book.itep.ru/2/25/mpeg-4R.htm

However, although compression and containerization of data in a video file are described by two different independent parts of the MPEG-4 standard, many people incorrectly think that they are interchangeable. Thus, it is possible to only partially implement the requirements of the standard and still remain within its framework.
support.microsoft.com/kb/316992

According to the MPEG-4 standard, MPEG-4 video files contain video data compressed using MPEG-4 techniques and audio data compressed using Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) techniques.

Typically, these video files have the MP4 extension. Windows Media Player does not support playing these video files. To play MP4 video files using Windows Media Player, you must install an MPEG-4 decoder that is compatible with DirectShow. Such decoders are included in the Ligos LSX-MPEG Player and EnvivioTV packages.To receive additional information For Ligos LSX-MPEG Player, visit the Ligos website at the following address:
www.ligos.com

For more information about EnvivioTV, visit the Envivio website:
www.envivio.com/products/

MPEG 7 is not a continuation of Mpeg4, but a development by the MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) for the Internet. The specialized language DDL (Description Definition Language) is used.

book.itep.ru/2/25/mpeg_7.htm

Note

Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPG, MPEG, M1V, MP2, MP3, MPA, MPE, MPV2, M3U)

The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) standards were developed by the expert group of the same name. It is an evolving set of audio and video compression standards.

Detailed description and the specification of the standards of this group:

www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/

www.mpeg.org

RealVideo format created by RealNetworks.

RealVideo is used for live television broadcast on the Internet.

RealVideo has a small video file size and the lowest quality.

Extensions: RM, RA, RAM.

www.realnetworks.com

www.real.com

SWF- ShockWare Flash. SWF video files are created using software product Macromedia Flash.

SWF is also called a format Flash Player.

RealVideo format is designed for storing vector graphics and animation clips that may contain sound.

To view RealVideo, Flash Player and modern browsers are used. You cannot edit SWF video files.

www.half-serious.com/swf/format/

Adobe.com/devnet/swf/
www.adobe.com/devnet/swf/pdf/swf_file_format_spec_v10.pdf

Xvid(previously XviD) is a video compression library of the Mpeg4 standard.
Xvid is the main competitor to the DivX Pro codec (Xvid is DivX backwards). In contrast to the DivX codec, which is proprietary software Developed by DivX, Inc., Xvid is free software licensed under the GNU General Public License.
www.xvid.org

WMV format(Windows Media Video) - Video file recorded in Windows format Media.
Windows Media Video (WMV) files are Advanced Systems Format (ASF) files containing audio, video, or mixed recordings packaged using the Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV) codecs.

Using a separate extension allows you to install several players on your computer and use some of them to play video files with the WMV extension.

*.3gp(short for English) 3 rd g generation (mobile) p hone - third generation (mobile) phones);
video files for 3rd generation mobile phones. Some modern mobile phones(not necessarily 3G) have the functions of recording and viewing audio and video in .3GP format.
This format is a simplified version of ISO 14496-1 Media Format, which is similar to the MOV used by QuickTime.
3gp saves video as Mpeg4 or H.263. Audio is saved in AMR-NB or AAC-LC formats.
Finished video clips in 3gp format are small in size compared to other video formats, but this is reflected in the quality.
www.3gp.com

www.3gpp.org

www.3gpp.org

Windows Media Player is a free video and audio player developed by Microsoft specifically for its own operating systems. It is automatically installed along with the system itself and gives users access to working with media content: watching movies and listening to music. This article describes the two latest versions of the player from Microsoft: Windows Media Player 11 and Windows Media Player 12.

It first appeared in Windows 7. The player received a user-friendly interface and the ability to create your own playlists. It gained quite a lot of popularity among many users and was considered a fairly convenient standard program.

The developers have included in Windows Media Player 11 a set of the following useful features:

Software new version The player appeared with the release of Windows 8. The application absorbed the best features of the previous release and significantly improved its performance.

At the moment, is the most latest version programs. This distribution is preinstalled not only in Win 8 and 8.1, but also in the most modern OS - Windows 10.

The developers have added even more extensive support for media formats to Windows Media Player 12. This player can even work with unprotected songs downloaded from using iTunes, as well as with video camera recordings (Flip Video) without connecting additional codecs.

The appearance has undergone virtually no changes. The interface began to look more modern in order to look good among the stylish G8 and Ten applications, but the arrangement of the elements itself remained the same. If you liked the media player in the "seven", you will love this release.

According to player statistics Windows Media Player used by more than 30% of Windows users. Microsoft has eliminated almost all the shortcomings in the player, released a huge number of plug-ins, covers and visual reviews for it, which improve the audio/video quality, appearance of the player and expand its functionality.

Stay informed! Windows Media Player can only be used if you have a license for the Windows operating system.

System Requirements

• operating system: Windows 7, Windows XP or Windows Vista (32-bit / 64-bit).

Playback
	Play local and streaming media files in the following formats: FLAC, MP4, M4V, MTS, TTS, TTA, 3GP, WTV, MP4V, M4A, MIDI, RMI, MID, MP2, MP3, ADT, WAV, WMV, AVI, MOV, JPEG , JPG, MPEG, MPG, M1V, M2V, AAC, H.264, MOD, MPA, VOB and many others.
	Play files from an audio CD, DVD or VCD video disc.
	View credits, lyrics and captions ( if attached).
	Listen to Internet radio in FM format and watch TV channels.
Recording and copying
	Record media files on CD/DVD discs at a specific recording speed (low, medium, high, very high).
	Copying music tracks from audio CDs in MP3 or WMA/WAV formats without loss of quality. If desired, you can specify the sound quality (from 48 to 192 Kbps) or set copy protection.
Synchronization
	Reception, transmission and playback of media files on portable devices (for example, MP3 players, Windows Mobile Pocket PC, smartphones) new technology data synchronization. You can also use the Format function to delete all digital media files on your device.
	Play, receive and transfer files from local to remote computer or portable device.
Audio and video processing
	Support 10-band graphic equalizer to change the tone of the output sound signals. For example, you can make the composition sound in the style of “Classical”, “Rock”, “Retro”, and also change the balance.
	Change the quality of video images (brightness, hue, saturation and contrast).
	Change playback speed (low, medium or high).
	Changing the volume and normalizing the sound.
Add-ons
	Support for covers and visual overviews to change appearance player.
	Support for additional modules for decoding music and video.
	Support large quantity online stores.
	Download additional codecs. If Windows Media Player is unable to play a particular media format, install codecs

Settings