Windows Media Player Plus! - Various enhancements for WMP Options

[nagual]

First of all, thanks for your work !
On-line radio on WMP11(Media Guide/ Internet Radio), sounds much better for me than
on any browser, even streamed at 64 Kbps ! Unfortunately, you only can hear the radios listed, (no grooveshark !).
This can be fixed ?

[coffretmugs]

Feature suggestion: Album Shuffle.

I think it's pretty cool to shuffle albums instead of tracks. Shuffling the current view (i.e. search results, categories) would also be pretty awesome instead of shuffling the entire library.

I've tried looking around for this functionality, and the closest one I found was this: http://ablumshufflewmp.sourceforge.net/ -- Yes, it's a typo. However, the project seems to be stagnant. The project page doesn't even have clear instructions on how to use it.

[Tim De Baets]

On-line radio on WMP11(Media Guide/ Internet Radio), sounds much better for me than
on any browser, even streamed at 64 Kbps ! Unfortunately, you only can hear the radios listed, (no grooveshark !).
This can be fixed ?

No, I don't have any plans for such a feature, even if it were technically possible (which I doubt). If music from WMP sounds better than music from a browser, then you should probably try to fix that issue instead (e.g. by updating sound drivers).

If this is because of some enhancements (like SRS WOW), I believe that Windows Vista/7 also allow you to set these enhancements for the whole system, not just WMP.

Feature suggestion: Album Shuffle.

I think it's pretty cool to shuffle albums instead of tracks. Shuffling the current view (i.e. search results, categories) would also be pretty awesome instead of shuffling the entire library.

I've tried looking around for this functionality, and the closest one I found was this: http://ablumshufflewmp.sourceforge.net/ -- Yes, it's a typo. However, the project seems to be stagnant. The project page doesn't even have clear instructions on how to use it.

I have taken a look at that plug-in, and it seems that the first two buttons (< Random and >) can be used for shuffling albums. Not sure what the other buttons are for, though. Album Shuffle might be added to Windows Media Player Plus! in the future, but I don't have any concrete plans yet.

It's already possible to shuffle the current view in WMP's library - when you double-click a song, all songs in the current view will get added to Now Playing, and will be played shuffled when Shuffle mode is enabled.

[coffretmugs]

Feature suggestion: Album Shuffle.
It's already possible to shuffle the current view in WMP's library - when you double-click a song, all songs in the current view will get added to Now Playing, and will be played shuffled when Shuffle mode is enabled.

I actually meant this in the context of album shuffle. Say if I were to look at songs I've rated 4 stars or songs from my search of "Vocaloid": I'd like to shuffle them by album instead of individually.

Of course, this is just a thought that I've thrown out. I just caught myself thinking "Hey it would probably be cool if I can hear my favorite songs by album".

[dann23]

Hello. When you will support wmp12 64bit?

[Tim De Baets]

Unfortunately, there currently aren't any plans for a 64-bit version of WMP Plus!. This would require a lot of work and time, which I would rather spend on adding new features instead. The x86 version of WMP should run just as fast and smooth on Windows 7 64-bit, though.

[WonderCsabo]

Hi Tim!

I just want to thank you for your work and congratulate on WMP Plus! 2.
Tag Editor Plus is working now with batch procession, and finally, FINALLY i can use space to play/pause like any other players.

[dann23]

Unfortunately, there currently aren't any plans for a 64-bit version of WMP Plus!. This would require a lot of work and time, which I would rather spend on adding new features instead. The x86 version of WMP should run just as fast and smooth on Windows 7 64-bit, though.

I know that but there is a problem. ffdshow uses dxva only with wmp 64bit when installed on server 2008 r2 64bit. so i'm stuck with wmp 64bit version. That's why I'm asking.

[WonderCsabo]

This is completely off-topic here, but: why don't you use WMP's built in DXVA decoders?

[sinecure]

Thanks Tim for a great plug-in. I have only recently moved to Windows7 and WMP12 and was despairing of the lack of the ATE which I used to split Albums and add lyrics. Your plug-in answers that prayer.

The only other problem that I have with WMP12 is that the Now Playing screen which had previously always shown Genre now doesn't. I had used Genre for quite a lot of extra album information which I wanted displayed in Now Playing. Is there anyway for the user to determine what fields are displayed in Now Playing?

[Tim De Baets]

Do you mean the genre that appears when you hover the mouse over the musical note in the top-right corner of WMP 11's Now Playing mode?

There currently aren't any plans for making Now Playing UI customizations possible. However, if there are enough user requests for it, I might consider adding that in the future.

[dann23]

This is completely off-topic here, but: why don't you use WMP's built in DXVA decoders?

It's not possible to use subtitles for mkv files.

[sinecure]

Do you mean the genre that appears when you hover the mouse over the musical note in the top-right corner of WMP 11's Now Playing mode?

There currently aren't any plans for making Now Playing UI customizations possible. However, if there are enough user requests for it, I might consider adding that in the future.

Yes. The genre in WMP 11 Now Playing appears in the third row down when you place the cursor on the Album Art (a musical note if left blank). I would leave the cursor there with the Magnifier running to get readable-from-a-distance music information.

I have found that the Plus! editor does not remember the last few entries in the edit boxes as the old ATE used to do. This was a convenience but can be worked around.

[Tim De Baets]

It's not possible to use subtitles for mkv files.

I have no experience with MKV subtitles at all, but you may want to give the Local Subtitles for WMP plug-in a try. It also seems weird that FFDShow can only do DXVA on 64-bit. Is that a known issue, specific to Windows Server 2008?

Yes. The genre in WMP 11 Now Playing appears in the third row down when you place the cursor on the Album Art (a musical note if left blank). I would leave the cursor there with the Magnifier running to get readable-from-a-distance music information.

If a Now Playing customization does get added to Windows Media Player Plus!, then it will most likely be something that appears in place of the album art/visualization (but that will possibly display the album art itself).

I have found that the Plus! editor does not remember the last few entries in the edit boxes as the old ATE used to do. This was a convenience but can be worked around.

History (and auto-complete) for the fields in Tag Editor Plus might be added in one of the next versions.

[dann23]

It's not possible to use subtitles for mkv files.

I have no experience with MKV subtitles at all, but you may want to give the Local Subtitles for WMP plug-in a try. It also seems weird that FFDShow can only do DXVA on 64-bit. Is that a known issue, specific to Windows Server 2008?

I believe it's because of the driver. It's 64bit. And local subtiles for wmp it's just for local subtitle files. It can't read from mkv files.
For now I'll try again on a clean install to see if I can use ffdshow dxva with wmp 32bit. If it's not working, I hope it won't take that long until you'll release a 64bit version.

[Tim De Baets]

As I said, a 64-bit version isn't going to happen anytime soon.

If it's not working on a clean install either, then I suggest that you ask for help in the official FFDShow forum topic.

[sinecure]

It's not possible to use subtitles for mkv files.

I have no experience with MKV subtitles at all, but you may want to give the Local Subtitles for WMP plug-in a try. It also seems weird that FFDShow can only do DXVA on 64-bit. Is that a known issue, specific to Windows Server 2008?

Yes. The genre in WMP 11 Now Playing appears in the third row down when you place the cursor on the Album Art (a musical note if left blank). I would leave the cursor there with the Magnifier running to get readable-from-a-distance music information.

If a Now Playing customization does get added to Windows Media Player Plus!, then it will most likely be something that appears in place of the album art/visualization (but that will possibly display the album art itself).

I have found that the Plus! editor does not remember the last few entries in the edit boxes as the old ATE used to do. This was a convenience but can be worked around.

History (and auto-complete) for the fields in Tag Editor Plus might be added in one of the next versions.

A Now Playing customization in place of the album art makes sense. But you need to watch out for a peculiarity of WMP 12 that non-full screen Now Playing with lyrics does not show the album art at all.

[Tim De Baets]

Indeed, seems like a WMP glitch. Thanks for pointing that out.

[maz1379]

ok i download wmp plus coz of the tag pro but after installing it the tag pro is not there is something wrong with it

[Tim De Baets]

What do you mean with "tag pro"? Tag Editor Plus perhaps?

Can you see Windows Media Player Plus! in the Tools - Plug-ins menu (press Ctrl+M if you don't see the Tools menu), and is it checked (loaded)?

[WonderCsabo]

This is completely off-topic here, but: why don't you use WMP's built in DXVA decoders?

It's not possible to use subtitles for mkv files.

It is possible. Try DirectVobsub or FFDShow subtitle renderer with Haali Media Splitter.

[cncb]

Feature Request: Shuffle + Play

How about adding a "Shuffle + Play" option? This is how I prefer to do shuffle playback of playlists and genres. That is, shuffle all the tracks before they are added to Now Playing. I prefer this since I can see the concrete playback order and the next track that will be played instead of it randomly jumping around in the list (like in the normal shuffle mode). Thanks for considering it.

P.S. "Shuffle + Add Next" and "Shuffle + Add To End" would be great too.

[Tim De Baets]

That's exactly what Party Shuffle does Party Shuffle is included in WMP Plus since version 2.0.

Manually adding songs to Party Shuffle is possible with the Play next or Add to options of WMP's right-click menu.

[cncb]

That's exactly what Party Shuffle does Party Shuffle is included in WMP Plus since version 2.0.

Sorry, I couldn't tell from the description. I will have to play with it some. Thanks.

[cncb]

Manually adding songs to Party Shuffle is possible with the Play next or Add to options of WMP's right-click menu.

Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to get this to work in the way I described. If I start playing the "Party Shuffle" playlist, select tracks in a another playlist, and select "Play next" they get added to the Party Shuffle list in the same order as they are in the original playlist (not shuffled before added). Also, they appear to be permanently added to the Party Shuffle list which could cause this to get pretty large over time.

What would be ideal for me is a way shuffle the tracks before adding to Now Playing as I described above (new commands in the right-click menu). This would use the temporary "Unsaved List" that gets cleared out each time. I hope you can consider adding this. Thanks.