Windows Media Player 11 

Windows Media Player הוא נגן מדיה אשר יצרה חברת מיקרוסופט התומך בהשמעת מוזיקה וצפייה בקובצי וידאו מבית. התוכנה יצאה גם בגרסה המותאמת למערכות ההפעלה Pocket PC ו-Mac OS ודחקה למעשה את נגן RealPlayer מבכורתו, כאשר חברת מיקרוסופט הפיצה בחינם את הנגן במערכות ההפעלה שלה, כאשר חזרה על מודל הפעולה של הפצת דפדפן האינטרנט אינטרנט אקספלורר.

הנגן מנגן פורמטים רבים ושונים וגם קבצים בפורמטים של מיקרוסופט WMA‏ (Windows Media Audio) וקובצי וידאו WMV‏ (Windows Media Video). לנגן יש אפשרות לשמור מהתקליטור לדיסק הקשיח במחשב קובצי אודיו בפורמטים שונים כולל Mp3, אך לא כבררת מחדל.

"Windows Media Player" הוא למעשה גרסה חדשה לנגן המדיה המיושן "Media Player" שהיה פועל על מערכות ההפעלה Windows 95 וWindows NT.

לWindows Media Player, קיימים נגני מדיה מתחרים נוספים כמו: RealPlayer ,Winamp ,QuickTime ו-iTunes

צירוף התוכנה למערכת ההפעלה חלונות עורר מחלוקות רבות בטענה כי הצירוף מדכא תחרות ומעודד מונופול של מיקרוסופט גם בתחום נגני המדיה. בשנת 2004, קיבלה חברת מיקרוסופט הוראה להפיץ באירופה ובדרום קוריאה גרסה של מערכת ההפעלה נטולת הנגן, אך מיקרוסופט בחרה להתעלם מההוראה ונקנסה על כך.

נכון ל-2007, גרסת הנגן העדכנית היא 11. החל מגרסה 10 ומעלה, הנגן אינו מסוגל לעבוד במערכות ההפעלה Windows 98 ומטה.

לנגן מספר מוצרים משלימים למשתמשים ולמתכנתים המופצים בחינם, והמאפשרים בין היתר קידוד של קובצי מדיה לפורמטים שונים, עבודה עם פורמטי המדיה של מיקרוסופט, ושידור חי של קובצי מדיה ברשת.

Windows Media Player (WMP) is a digital media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices. Editions of Windows Media Player were also released for Mac OS, Mac OS X and Solaris but development of these has since been discontinued.

In addition to being a media player, Windows Media Player includes the ability to rip music from and copy music to compact discs, build Audio CDs in recordable discs and synchronize content with a digital audio player (MP3 player) or other mobile devices, and enables users to purchase or rent music from a number of online music stores.

Windows Media Player replaced an earlier piece of software simply called Media Player, adding features beyond simple video or audio playback.

The default file formats are Windows Media Video (WMV), Windows Media Audio (WMA), and Advanced Systems Format (ASF), and supports its own XML based playlist format called Windows Playlist (WPL). The first generation Zune software (but not the current second generation software) which actually is a modified version of Windows Media Player, additionally supports AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) audio, MPEG-4 and H.264 video formats out-of-the-box.

The player is also able to utilize a digital rights management service in the form of Windows Media DRM.

History

 

ActiveMovie was the immediate ancestor of Windows Media Player

Windows has had a media player since version 3.0 with MultiMedia Extensions (Media Player). The original Media Player application used MCI to handle media files. In 1996 Microsoft released ActiveMovie, a new way of dealing with media files and streaming media (which the original Media Player couldn't handle). A wrapper was provided for users in the form of the ActiveMovie Control, allowing users to play media files on their computer.

ActiveMovie morphed into DirectShow and a new Media Player was created, known internally as Media Player 2. This player was an evolution from the ActiveMovie Control, providing a richer and more intuitive user interface. Media Player 2, like its predecessor, was also a wrapper - this time around DirectShow. Version 5.2 was the first version of this new Media Player, with version 6.x becoming widespread.

 

Windows Media Player 10 for Windows XP

Version 6.4 was the final version of Media Player 2, by now known as Windows Media Player. Version 6.4 was included with Windows Me, Windows 2000 and Windows XP, but was dropped in Windows Vista.

After Windows 2000 was released there was another large revamp with version 7, with a new user interface, visualisations and increased functionality. WMP7 came with the WMA and WMV codecs. With version 7.1, it was being called as a part of Windows Media Series, a collection of tools and codecs to create, serve and play media.

Features

 

Windows Media Player running in mini mode showing a visualization.

• Allows the user to connect and share data with a Playstation 3, Xbox 360 or Xbox
• Playback of audio, video and pictures, along with fast forward, reverse, seek and time compression and dilation.
• Supports local playback, streaming playback and progressive downloads.
• Support for any media codec and container format using specific DirectX filters.
• Full media management, via the integrated media library, which offers cataloguing and searching of media. Media can be arranged according to album, artist, genre, date et al.
• Video Smoothing which upscales frame-rate by interpolating added frames, in effect giving a smoother playback on low-framerate videos.
• Includes 10-band graphic equalizer and SRS WOW audio post-processing system. Windows Media Player can also have attached plug-ins which process the output audio or video data.

 

Windows Media Player running in mini mode in Windows Vista and Windows XP.

• Features a taskbar-mounted Mini mode in which the most common media control buttons are presented as a toolbar on the Windows taskbar. Flyout windows can display media information, visualization or the video being played back.
• Can use video overlays or VMR surfaces, if the video card supports them. XP versions use VMR7 by default, but can also be made to use the more advanced VMR7 Mixing Mode by enabling the "Use high quality mode" option in Advanced Performance settings.
• Version 11 introduced improved support for DirectX accelerated decoding of WMV video (DXVA decoding)
• Features integrated CD-burning support for audio as well as data CDs. Data CDs can have any of the media formats supported by the player. While burning Data CDs, the media can, optionally, be transcoded into WMA format.
• Audio CDs can be ripped as WMA or WMA 10 Pro at 48, 64, 96, 128, 160 and 192 kbit/s, WMA lossless (470 to 940 kbit/s), WMA variable bitrate (from 40-75 kbit/s up to 240-355 kbit/s), MP3 at 128, 192, 256 and 320 kbit/s, or WAV uncompressed. 24 bit high-resolution CDs are also supported, if capable audio hardware is present.
• Features synchronization support with many hand-held devices. Media can be optionally transcoded to a format better suited for the target device, automatically, when synchronizing.
• Includes intrinsic support for Windows Media codecs which support multichannel audio at up to 24-bit 192 kHz resolution.
• Supports subtitles and closed-captioning, if present in the media.
• Features "Synchronized Lyrics", by which different lines of lyrics can be time-stamped, so that they display only at those times.
• Windows Explorer shell integration to add files and playlist to the Now Playing and other playlists can be controlled from the Windows Explorer shell itself, via right-click menu.
• Provides an embeddedable ActiveX control for Internet Explorer so that developers can play Windows Media on web pages.

Other versions

Microsoft has also released versions of Windows Media Player for other platforms including Windows Mobile, Mac OS, Mac OS X, Palm-size PC, Handheld PC, and Solaris. Of these, only the Pocket PC / Windows Mobile edition continues to be actively developed and supported by Microsoft.

Windows Mobile

 

Windows Media Player 10 Mobile on Windows Mobile 6 Professional.

Windows Media Player for Pocket PC was first announced on January 6, 2000, and has been revised on a schedule roughly similar to that of the Windows version. Currently known as "Media Player 10 Mobile", this edition (released in October 2004) closely resembles the capabilities of the Windows version of WMP 10, including playlist capabilities, a media library, album art, WMA Lossless playback, support for DRM-protected media, video playback at 640x480 with stereo sound, and the same Energy Blue interface aesthetics also seen in recent versions of Windows XP Media Center Edition. It also supports synchronization with the desktop version of WMP 10, and additionally supports synchronizing and transcoding of recorded television shows from Media Center. Media Player 10 Mobile is not available as a download from Microsoft; distribution is done solely through OEM partners, and is typically included on devices based on Windows Mobile.

The latest version of Windows Mobile (6.0) includes a copy of Windows Media Player 10 Mobile but with a similar (but not quite identical) theme as Windows Media Player 11.

Zune Software

Version 1 of the Zune software was a modified version of Windows Media Player. Unlike Windows Media Player, which requires third-party DirectShow filters for playback of AAC, MPEG-4 and H.264 media, the Zune software comes with additional free DirectShow decoders for AAC (Low complexity) (.mp4,.m4a,.m4b,.mov), MPEG-4 (.mp4,.m4v,.mov) and H.264 (.mp4,.m4v,.mov) and thus natively supports playback of these media file types out-of-the-box. Version 2 of the Zune software is no longer based on Windows Media Player.

Mac OS X

 

Windows Media Player 9 for Mac OS X

Version 9 was the final version of Windows Media Player to be released for Mac OS X before development was canceled by Microsoft. WMP for Mac OS X received widespread criticism from Mac users due to poor performance and features. Developed by the Windows Media team at Microsoft instead of the Macintosh Business Unit and released in 2003, on release the application lacked many basic features that were found in other media players such as Apple's iTunes and QuickTime.^{[citation needed]} It also lacked support for many media formats that version 9 of the Windows counterpart supported on release 10 months earlier.

The Mac version supported only Windows Media encoded media (up to version 9) enclosed in the ASF format, lacking support for all other formats such as MP4, MPEG, and Microsoft's own AVI format. On the user interface front, it did not prevent screensavers from running during playback, it did not support file drag-and-drop, nor did it support playlists. While Windows Media Player 9 had added support for some files that use the WMV9 codec (also known as the WMV3 codec), in other aspects it was seen as having degraded in features from previous versions.

On January 12, 2006 Microsoft announced it had ceased development of Windows Media Player for Mac.Microsoft now distributes a third-party plugin called WMV Player (produced and maintained by Flip4Mac) which allows some forms of Windows Media to be played within Apple's QuickTime player and other QuickTime-aware applications.Mac users can also use the free software media player VLC, which is also able to play WMV-3 / WMV-9 / VC-1 Windows Media files

source en.wikipedia.org