WMP 12 failures

[faithless]

One wonders what on earth the marketing people at Microsoft do with their time. They surely can't be at work very often.

I can understand the need to continually improve - even if only by a little bit - the software. But why on earth do they simply eradicate features that people have grown used to, and may even find indispensable?

I have a large, hi-res monitor, and when I start WMP12 it is tiny - little more than 1½ inches square, in the middle of a 33" screen. Grabbing the mouse, moving the cursor to one of the teeny buttons in order to maximise the program is tedious in the extreme. (My usual practice is to find the file in the Explorer, and double-click to start the video - whereas when I'm going to play music files, I usually start WMP and with WMP11 it would open in the Library.)

All the more so since this was totally unnecessary in WMP11, and would surely have caused the programmers no problem to retain the ability to 'play maximised', even if it required a check box somewhere in the Options menus.

I have tried it with 'fit player to vide'o and 'fit video to player' checked and unchecked (4 combinations) and also with the 'Run' set to 'Maximised' in the Shortcut tab of the Properties box. (As to quite what on earth 'Maximised' running could refer to, when the programme still starts in its 1½" box, one can only speculate.)

Is there a work-around? I'd be grateful for any suggestions.

If not, it looks like I'm going to have to find some player produced by an organisation which, unlike Microsoft, thinks there is some marketing value in giving people what they want and the ability to change it if they choose.

 

[Jacee]

Windows Media Player will open your videos in full screen (if you have it).

 

[faithless]

It's Windows Media Player 12 and it's failure to run maximised, that I'm complaining about!

It now sometimes opens maximised, and sometimes doesn't. Even if there is a way of making it behave the way it should, it's simply wrong that it is this difficult to make a program do what you, the user, want it to do. It beggars belief that the company that produces the most widely used product, bar none, in the entire world can't get simple things like this right. If a hotel was this bad at giving the customer what he wants, it'd be out of business in a year.

I'm thinking about giving up on it as a video player and using VLC instead.

 

[Frostmourne]

VLC can have sync issues. Try Media Player Classic Home Cinema, either x86 or x64. Also, have you tried modifying a shortcut to run maximised? Or tried pressing Windows + Up Arrow to maximize?

 

[faithless]

Thanks, Frosty.

My problem is that my usage of WMP for videos is entirely one of double-clicking the file name, thereby opening WMP to view the video. That's a 'workflow' which has worked perfectly fine for several iterations of WMP. Now Microsoft have fiddled around with the defaults and it just doesn't work. Since I started the thread I've been watching a bunch of training vids, and every time I double click on a file, WMP opens minimised (the 1" x 1½" window) and then immediately expands - to a 3/4 full screen window: the bottom and right hand of the window are flush with the screen edge, but the left margin is only about one-third distance from the left hand and the top margin about one-third distance from the top edge. What's that about!?

Having to open WMP, then use the menus to browse for, find, and then open the file is clearly not optimal. It's unacceptably more mouse clicks (lots of movement on a screen the size of mine) and just too much hassle.

Thanks for the tip about Media Player Classic Home Cinema: I'll certainly have a look.

 

[Frostmourne]

MPC-HC is excellent - I'd still use PowerDVD for Blu-Ray and DVD's. As to WMP it will open to the resolution of the clip - what is your screen resolution?

 

[pat247]

faithless, you can resize the little tiny media player to any size you want and position it any where on screen. It is like any other window. If a caveman can figure it out, I`m sure you will figure it out too. Hint: grab a corner, give it a pull.

 

[Uzi]

I wish I could find a way to resize the font and window sizes in the Win 7 Media Center.

No 'handle's to grab to make them bigger. In particular the Guide. The font is so large it is absurd.
I have a modern LCD 48 inch screen. I dont' need a font that is suited for a 18 inch 1969 Admiral BW
tube set.

I don't have bad eyes despite the use of glasses.

I far prefer the cleanliness of programs like VLC as a counter to the mess Windows MEdia Center is.
MS hires far too many interface experts that can not learn when to stop and say WAIT! WTF are we doing?
They keep jacking with interfaces till they are complex and bloated absurdities.

Sigh.

 

[faithless]

faithless, you can resize the little tiny media player to any size you want and position it any where on screen. It is like any other window. If a caveman can figure it out, I`m sure you will figure it out too. Hint: grab a corner, give it a pull.

Surprisingly, as someone who has been using Windows since version 3.0, I have in fact discovered how to resize windows. I might even know ways of doing it that you don't. Sarcasm much appreciated, however, thanks muchly.

I do apologise, however; I thought that I had made it clear that my complaint and request for assistance is in respect of WMP 12's sudden failure to open maximised - when it was 'maximised' when closed - when you implement the programme by double clicking on a file name. This has been the default behaviour of WMP for several versions - now, Microsoft have altered things so that not only is this not default behaviour, but you cannot even reliably switch this behaviour on.

No doubt you only gave the thread a cursory read, hence your doltish post.

 

[Capt.Jack Sparrow]

Well i have a workaround for you becuase i seen most cases WMP 12 is not remembering the size

Open an MP3 file, Press Ctrl+3 to go to Now Playing view, Resize the window what ever size you want, then close WMP. The next time you double click a movie file, the window opens at the size set while playing the MP3 file

Hope this helps

 

[derekimo]

Well i have a workaround for you becuase i seen most cases WMP 12 is not remembering the size

Open an MP3 file, Press Ctrl+3 to go to Now Playing view, Resize the window what ever size you want, then close WMP. The next time you double click a movie file, the window opens at the size set while playing the MP3 file

Hope this helps

This worked perfectly for me, thanks Capt.

 

[Capt.Jack Sparrow]

Well i have a workaround for you becuase i seen most cases WMP 12 is not remembering the size

Open an MP3 file, Press Ctrl+3 to go to Now Playing view, Resize the window what ever size you want, then close WMP. The next time you double click a movie file, the window opens at the size set while playing the MP3 file

Hope this helps

This worked perfectly for me, thanks Capt.

Your Most Welcome Derek
Happy New Year

 

[derekimo]

Well i have a workaround for you becuase i seen most cases WMP 12 is not remembering the size

Open an MP3 file, Press Ctrl+3 to go to Now Playing view, Resize the window what ever size you want, then close WMP. The next time you double click a movie file, the window opens at the size set while playing the MP3 file

Hope this helps

This worked perfectly for me, thanks Capt.

Your Most Welcome Derek
Happy New Year

Same to you my friend.

 

[c22600]

This worked perfectly for me, thanks Capt.

Your Most Welcome Derek
Happy New Year

Same to you my friend.

Wow, tks

I have had the same issue and a constructive response has resolved this.....Tks...

 

[faithless]

Didn't work for me. Well, it did once - but the next time, it opened at the 100% viewing size again - i.e., titchy.

I've now discovered (after encountering a problem and reading a thread at Microsoft Tech boards) that the Advance Tag Editor has been dropped.

Some poor schmuck from Microsoft has defended this move on the grounds that the WMP11 ATE was 'broken' because it was 'old code' and it would have had to be re-written from scratch.

Well, what the hell else did they have to do with their time? There are no fabulous new features in WMP12 to blow our socks away. It - erm - looks almost identical to the old one. The only difference is - it's far less intuitive to use, doesn't work properly and sucks big time. So far as I can see, if the ATE code was broken, MS would have been better off leaving everything about WMP11 alone and simply re-writing the ATE. Then at least we would have something useable.

One contributor made a telling point. He mused whether the WMP team see their customers as being content providers, rather than Windows users. So what they are concerned about is building improved protection for copyright holders into WMP - 'cos that way they get to sign up $multi-million contracts with Sony and Warner, as opposed to simply providing a serviceable version of something that an awful lot of Windows users don't require. Sounds plausible.

Not a programmer, never have been - but surely coding an improved ATE would have been not more than one man-week of work for a competent programmer who is already familiar with the area...? Right click, display pop-up box, allow editing of contents, save the file.

This weekend I intend to follow instructions elsewhere on these forums to downgrade to WMP11.