List of New Features of Windows Media Player 12

Windows Media Player 12 is included in Windows 7 whih have more interesting features. Windows Media Player 12 promises a prettier and better Media Player than its previous version. Some of its features include:

1. Better User Interface

- Some buttons and toolbar items have been moved around, but the experience should be pretty familiar to users of version 11. What does represent a big change is the removal of the Now Playing button, which in WMP11 switches to a view showing the current playlist.

This is because WMP12 completely separates library management from what’s currently playing, with two distinct player modes; Now Playing view, and Library view. Library view contains all the library manipulation features that should be familiar from WMP11. Now Playing view contains the current playlist, visualizations, and videos.

Library View:

Now Playing View with a Video:

Video Playback Controls:

Now Playing Playlist:

Now Playing Visualizations:

There’s also a new taskbar miniviewer that works with the new Windows 7 taskbar, and WMP12 includes support for Jump Lists.

Taskbar Mini Viewer:

WMP’s Jump List includes WMP-specific actions:

There are plenty of small refinements, like automatic previewing (hovering on any song plays a 15-second preview of the song), and the Library view now shows all media types in the tree simultaneously (WMP11 can show audio or video or TV or Pictures; now they’re all on display).

Audio Previews:

WMP12 includes support for H.264 video, AAC audio, and both Xvid and DivX video, in addition to all the formats supported by WMP11 in Vista (MPEG2, WMV, MP3, etc.). With these new codecs, WMP should support the majority of video found on the Internet out of the box.

Libraries is not the only one that had improvements, WMP12 also makes it easier to play back audio or video on remote devices, a feature dubbed “Play To.” WMP12 can stream to other computers in your HomeGroup, so, for example, you can browse your library on your laptop but actually play back on the HTPC connected to your sound system.

Remote Streaming Setup:

WMP12 also includes support for controlling Digital Living Network Alliance v1.5 devices. These are networked devices with audio and/or video playback capabilities; so, similar to the scenario of streaming to an HTPC, you might be streaming audio to a Sonos box. Each device being Played To has its own playlist and playback settings and is controlled through its own little window.

The Play To controller for a network device:

If a device can’t handle the format being streamed, WMP12 will detect this automatically and transcode it on-the-fly.

Its good that Microsoft acknowledge the success of iTunes and rather than ignorin it, they just made Windows Media Playe work well as it can with them. WMP 12 is a great omprovement and is definitely one of many features that will make Windows 7 great. [ARS Technica]

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