Windows 7: Windows Media Player: Here At Last

I'd like MS to add a few more container formats like Matroska but overall their codec coverage is pretty sweet. I have a folder with over 100 movies that represent everything from ancient DivX to the most current h.264 video, MP3 to AAC/AC3 audio, and various packed and unpacked bitstream AVIs, MPEG TS and PS and MP4s. Not only does it play them all fairly well but it even creates the the thumbnails that Vista always refused to. There has been some fourcc code tweaking required for the really whacked-out combinations but I haven't had to install any of those odious "codec pack" nightmares nor ffdshow. So far so good.

yes usually when vista sees an unknow or invalid(unlikely since then it wouldnt play) fourcc code (at least to vista's codec) then it wouldnt create an thumnail....


well for me i wanted to...
it for prefference because i dont want to be tied to the whole protected plataform framework (even though my hardware is compatible, most are)...
i trust Ddshow more that this framework....
call me stubborn
but i love the fact that codecs are there for end users...
OOB is good for enduser (the majority of them)



as for matroska
in my point (i would believe ms's too)
mkv's are not in a large part of videos to be played...
not saying that they are there (the quality in most mkvs are incredible for such a container and its open source.... gotta love that...)
give it a few months and you will see it more widespread
MKV is the future (at least for me)

True, OOB is a good user experience - and that is precisely why WiMP 12 is supporting so many more formats - The M$ teams finally realized that they needed to have a better OOB experience as you neatly stated - but I think it is more than that - they want more users to stick with built in Windows resources and use less and less of outside resources - such as ffdshow, VLC, etc for Video, and XNView or IrfanView for images, and Foobar or WinAmp for music, etc.

"If they're going to pirate somebody, we want it to be us rather than somebody else," he said. "We understand that in the long run the fundamental asset is the installed base of people who are using our products. What you hope to do over time is convert them to licensing the software."