Windows Media Player questions

[GA Russell]

I find myself listening to my CDs on my computer recently. I am using Windows Media Player.

1) Is there a better free program to use to play the CDs?

2) It used to show the track list and the album cover on the right side of the screen. Yesterday I clicked on an arrow and that went away. How do I get it back to the way it was without downloading the program over again?

[Chuck Nessa]

Rarely use WMP. Isn't there something else loaded in your machine?

Don't know about your problems.

[wesbed]

I use the VLC Media Player. It plays all the different media. In my opinion VLC has much better sound quality than does Windows Media Player.

http://www.videolan.org/

And, yeah, it's free.

[GA Russell]

Welcome back wesbed! Long time no see! I'll try your suggestion.

Chuck, I also use something I picked up at Walmart called PowerDVD. It seems to work well, but provides no disc information.

[GA Russell]

Wow! wesbed, your VLC Media Player sounds like I've upgraded my speakers!

[wesbed]

Wow! wesbed, your VLC Media Player sounds like I've upgraded my speakers!

VLC doesn't 'look' as nice as Windows Media Player. I mean, to me, it's not as aesthetically pleasing. But, the sound quality ... quickly makes me not care too much about its aesthetics. My takeaway is that there's more to getting a good sound from your computer than only the sound card and the quality of the speakers. Good software is required too.

On a side note -- VLC installs with most all of the CODECs you will need to play MANY of the available audio and video formats.

I'm glad you're enjoying your new VLC.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Unfortunately, Windows Media Player is the only freebie player I've found that includes a graphic equalizer. What's more unfortunate is that it defaults to "on" and if the settings are wrong, you can get terrible sounding music. Still, I use it more often than other players because I like the way it manages my music and I use the EQ often to compensate for poor headphones.

FWIW, if the software is playing a CD and not mp3 files, it should sound the same no matter which program you use unless they purposefully mess with the bitstream. The application is not "playing" the CD, the computer is. Software players don't somehow change the D/A converter in your PC. What's likely happening here is that you WMP is still in the default mode of "Rip CD when inserted". It rips to .wma and that's what you're hearing being played back, *not* the CD itself. Shut that setting off. To play a CD in WMP, you click the "Now playing" tab and hit the little down arrow. You should see the CD as D:CD title.

BTW, to get that panel back, simply click the arrow next to the "Search" box at the top right of the window.

Edited December 4, 2010 by Kevin Bresnahan

[JohnS]

Thanks Kevin, I've learnt something about WMP today.

[GA Russell]

BTW, to get that panel back, simply click the arrow next to the "Search" box at the top right of the window.

Kevin, I get the "search" box and its arrow when I am on the Library screen, but not when I am on the Now Playing screen. The Now Playing screen is a full screen of the light show (which I can do without!).

Any other suggestions?

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Kevin, I get the "search" box and its arrow when I am on the Library screen, but not when I am on the Now Playing screen. The Now Playing screen is a full screen of the light show (which I can do without!).

Any other suggestions?

Which version of WMP are you using? I'm using version 11.0. If I click the arrow while in the Now Playing tab, all I have to do to get back the panel on the side is click the small arrow under Now Playing and then click Show List Pane and that panel shows back up.

Kevin

[GA Russell]

Thanks Kevin! That did it.