Addicted to Digital Media - Windows Media Player Beta 2 (for XP) now available for download

Currently: from Twitter.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

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Windows Media Player Beta 2 (for XP) now available for download

Fortunately everything has propped early so I can tell you about the new toy to play with over the long weekend- Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 w/ MTV's Urge music service, just in time for the MTV Video Music Awards ;).

The Windows Media Player 11 team has just shipped Beta 2 of Windows Media Player 11 via the Web. I've requested a changelist or at least the top 10 fix list but regardless, this is a must-have update for anyone running Beta 1, if even just for the performance improvements. A few more notes on what's changed:

Fixing issues. Fixes have been made for issues that occurred in the first beta release of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP.
Additional online stores are now available. More online stores are available in this beta release of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP. For a listing of online stores that are now available, see Availability of online stores.
Changes to sharing digital media content. The functionality of Windows Media Connect is now integrated into Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 for Windows XP as the new Media Sharing feature, which lets you enjoy the contents of your Windows Media Player library from anywhere in your home. If you have a home network (wired or wireless), you can use Windows Media Player 11 to stream the contents of your library to networked devices such as Xbox 360 or other digital media receivers. For more information, go to Digital Media at Home.

Note that digital media sharing is targeted for home users; therefore, computers that are joined to a domain might experience issues when trying to share digital media.

Download Link (note: Genuine Windows Validation required for install)

posted on Thursday, August 31, 2006 10:31:07 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Comments [17] Trackback
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Tracked by:
"Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2" (shahine.com/omar/) [Trackback]
http://www.shahine.com/omar/WindowsMediaPlayer11Beta2.aspx [Pingback]
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Thursday, August 31, 2006 11:47:17 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Installed without incident (although I don't like having reboot XP Pro to complete it), but now my iRiver clix cannot be found. I've tried various ways of "refresh devices," to no avail. I'm scared to reinstall from the iRiver-supplied PlaysForSure CD, since that's WMP Beta 1. Any ideas?

DLF

Thursday, August 31, 2006 12:07:38 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Since you are in the Media Team, how about fixing bugs (one existed in MP10 for WMA Only) in Beta 2 of Media Player 11 (which will be Mp11 in Vista) ?

*Tracks that have no number show as 0 for MP3 and WMA
*Tracks where you use Advanced Tag Editor to blank a track number out return after pressing OK (Only happened on WMA in MP10)
*Cover art not resized if bigger than Playing Now window, just cropped off.
*Is the GMT date bug fixed yet ? (Release year entered then MP10 and MP11 take one off the year if in GMT (UK) zone eg 2006 becomes 2005 on libray scan or import to another PC and scan.
*Will the Year Released field make it into the Advanced Tag Editor along with Publisher/Label like it should be as its meta data !!??
*MP11 shows the composer names when track is playing by alternating information, except that the separators are show as is between each name if multiple composers eg "Fred A;Fred B"

Just a few bugs....

Anonymous UK User

Thursday, August 31, 2006 12:11:36 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

And Please make Windows Media Connect an OPTIONAL component or one that can be uninstalled from Add/Remove Programs.

Not everyone wants it installed by default - ENTERPRISE ENVIRONMENTS for example not just some jome uers.
Enterprise doesnt just mean Banks, Shops etc It does include broadcasters who use media...

Thank you.

Anonymous UK User

Thursday, August 31, 2006 1:36:14 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

UPDATE TO EARLIER POST
______________________

Here's what I had to do on my XPP-SP2 ThinkPad R40 laptop to get a portable device to be recognized in WMP 11 Beta 2:

1. Restart Windows AGAIN all updates (e.g., to URGE) to WMP installation are complete

2. Start WMP manually with a tab other than Sync open (i.e., do not connect device first and choose it from the pop-up)

3. Wait for WMP to come up, check the DRM and changes in your Library, download URGE catalog, etc. After disc and 'net data activity ceases, connect device.

4. WMP Sync tab displays with device correctly recognized.

DLF

Thursday, August 31, 2006 2:59:20 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

It's also important to note that if you're using MCE you may experience library issues within Media Center after installing Beta of WMP11. Proceed with caution if you need to use Media Center full time.

Corey Gouker

Friday, September 01, 2006 7:22:00 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Corey - I'm not seeing any issues with MCE05 and WMP11B2 on XP. The library shows up just fine.

Sean Alexander

Friday, September 01, 2006 1:18:50 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Sean, Media Player 11 is NOT ok with Media Center unless you do a workaround.

Basically if you have a FOLDER.JPG in each album folder that forms part of your ALBUM view using covert art in MCE or MP11, when you scan for audio tracks for library, Media Player 11 (read NOT MP10!!) trys to be intelligent by generating a cache of your artwork using 200x200 dimensions. Trouble is, it has been badly coded in this area, and grabs RANDOM cover art from inside your music tracks or from the internet.

I have 3000+ tracks, each folder with a generic FOLDER.JPG that depicts the artist eg NO DOUBT without any album title or song name on the covert art. This is because I list all songs under the artist.

To workaround this bug, you need to finish the scan of the library letting media player churn out its local cache, and then go into the ArtCache and delete the contents from here:

Documents and Settings {username} Local Settings Application Data Microsoft Media Player ArtCache LocalMLS

Then you get your FOLDER.JPG shown as it should be !

An annoying bug

Anonymous UK User

Friday, September 01, 2006 5:37:57 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Fair enough Fred- I'll pass that along to the teams.

Sean

Saturday, September 02, 2006 1:13:16 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

It's getting better! WMP 11 still gets the bitrate wrong on all my LAME MP3 VBR files though - still a bug since WMP 10. It also can't read MP3 files that have ID3v2.4 tags. (foobar2000!) That sucks since I need to convert to ID3v2.3. The new media sharing is better than WMC by leaps and bounds for my Xbox 360. I'll need to test more. There is some funky/buggy stuff while editing tags in the library like renaming full albums. I already got it confused 3-4 times.

Any idea why 11 shows Album Artist instead of Artist while playing? The text part in the lower left, where it cycles between Title, Artist, (first) Composer, Copyright, Album Name.) This sucks for Various Artist albums or Soundtracks. The funny part is if you minmize WMP 11 to the task bar, it shows the correct first Artist while playing and not Album Artist. Not everyone on the same page?

[sb]

sonicbox

Saturday, September 02, 2006 12:49:06 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Hey Shaun,

I downloaded beta 2 for XP:MCE. The issue I am having (something I want to find the solution to for my community) is that my Xbox360 is seeing the music, but is unable to access it.

It will build the playlist, then give the red circle with the line through it showing I can access it. When I click to play it gives me an error code of "19-04-80070032".

Thanks,

Matt, Xbox MVP

Matt, Xbox MVP

Sunday, September 03, 2006 12:12:39 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I won't be able to install it until tomorrow. So one question: Is there finally podcasting support? RSS! Please! Georg

Georg

Sunday, September 03, 2006 6:38:48 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Another Bug !

On MP10, when entering details that the online metaservices could not identify, you could change the LABEL/Publisher field.

On MP11, this field has been deleted from the Data Entry screen on the RIP MUSIC function. One bug that has been fixed though, is remembering the composer details after you have manually entered them (MP10 just let you enter them and forget the details being written to file if in manual metadata entry mode.).

MP11 is great - could be fantastic; but theres too many holes appearing. It's what makes people use iTunes - because its meta data handling is correct. At the moment I have to use Zortam MP3 Media Studio to get my meta data entered and stored correctly.

Anonymous UK User

Tuesday, September 05, 2006 6:23:16 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Where's the podcasting support? What a gaping omission. Come on guys

jeclarke@gmail.com (James Clarke)

Tuesday, September 05, 2006 12:59:27 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

So I'm not the only one who is wondering where podcast support is, if this thing ships without I won't install it at all :D. I just got my full HD TV (very nice 1920 x 1080), will Windows Media 11 provide full HD support ? And will there be PMP's that support full HD output to a TV ? (Yes the TV's are out , where is the rest of the food chain ?)

nojetlag

Thursday, September 07, 2006 4:29:30 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Lack of podcast support is a major oversight guess I will still have to use third party products to manage podcasts. I can see why the iTunes Ipod combination might be my next purchase.

d49

Friday, September 08, 2006 7:02:30 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Now that Media Connect is being baked into WMP11, will that allow me to play protected WMA content (stored on my Windows XP PC) on my Xbox 360? Previously, my Xbox 360 (which is connected to my home entertainment system) could only play unprotected content. I don't have an MCE PC.

Chris

Saturday, September 09, 2006 9:47:31 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

trying to download it. thank you for the info :)

kelly

Comments are closed.