Windows Media Player Plus! - Various enhancements for WMP Options

[Tim De Baets]

I would like to announce the release of Windows Media Player Plus!, a free plug-in that offers the following enhancements/improvements for WMP:

• Tag Editor Plus: an alternative for WMP's Advanced Tag Editor. Tag Editor Plus works on WMP 12 too, where the Advanced Tag Editor has been removed.
• Global hotkeys, allowing you to control WMP from within any running application.
• Party Shuffle: a dynamic playlist, that automatically gets filled up with randomly picked songs. Of course, you can still add songs yourself, and reorder/remove songs, just like with a normal playlist.
• Real 'find as you type' in the library: you can simply start typing to search, without having to click on the Search field first.
• Access the standard Explorer right-click menu of a media file directly from within WMP.
• Restore last active playlist, media item, and playback position at WMP startup.
• Show currently playing media in WMP's title bar.
• Advanced playback options: Stop after current and Close after current, to automatically stop playback or close WMP when the current media has ended.
• Let WMP play/pause when you press the space bar.
• Disable group headers in the Library Pane.
• Enhanced and configurable replacement of the Windows Live Messenger Music plug-in (What I'm Listening To).
• Show currently playing media in Skype's mood message.
• Access the properties (settings) of any WMP plug-in from within the main menu (Tools - Plug-in properties), without having to go to Options first.
• "Play next" option when right-clicking a media item in WMP 11's library (WMP 12 already has this by default).
• Quickly re-enable all plug-ins after a WMP crash.

Windows Media Player Plus! is written for Windows Media Player 11 and 12.

For more information and screenshots, please visit the official Windows Media Player Plus! web page.

Download Windows Media Player Plus!

July 4, 2010: version 1.1 fixes a crash when accessing the Windows Media Player Plus! settings while the plug-in is disabled.

March 19, 2011: version 2.0 offers an improved Tag Editor Plus (now with support for album art and batch editing), global hotkeys, Party Shuffle, and much more.

March 30, 2011: version 2.1 fixes some stability issues that were still present in the recently-released 2.0 version.

November 18, 2012: version 2.5 adds full Unicode support, 'Find in library' for Windows Media Player 12, support for Windows 8, and a whole bunch of bugfixes and improvements.

May 19, 2013: version 2.6 adds support for showing the currently playing media in Skype's mood message and fixes some stability issues that were uncovered after the release of version 2.5.

This post has been edited by Tim De Baets: May 19 2013, 16:42

[LANjackal]

Downloaded and tested on both Vista x64 and Windows 7 32-bit. Very well done, thanks. this will go a long way in helping WMP and WMC users out there

[SiriuslyCold]

hi Tim,

great stuff I downloaded it and it works great on WMP12/Win7

Do you have any plans to enable multiple song editing - in the ATE, if you selected multiple songs, the options are greyed out until you clicked on a field. This was useful for compilation albums, for example, when the Album Artist was Various Artists and the Artist was different for each song

[Tim De Baets]

Thanks

Yes, multiple song editing, just like with the Advanced Tag Editor, will be possible in the next major version of Windows Media Player Plus!.

[SiriuslyCold]

Awesome job I was just playing with the other functions

re-enable all plug-ins after a crash is a godsend. (not saying WMP crashes often, but I have more than a few plugins LOL

This post has been edited by SiriuslyCold: Apr 26 2010, 15:05

[shifatul]

Hello sir, your application is great
I just install it on my windows7 64bit
But the plugin only work with the 32bit (x86) version of wmp
I normally use 64bit version of wmp as it runs very fast and smooth on my machine
it will be great if you integrate this application to work with the (x64) version of wmp. (64 bit windows 7 contain both the x86 and x64 version of wmp)

By the way your app works great and it rocks

[Tim De Baets]

Thank you

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.


General news: Windows Media Player Plus! has gone out of beta and the final 1.0 version has been released. The official Windows Media Player Plus! web page can be found at http://bmproductions.fixnum.org/wmpplus

[koawmfot]

hey tim thanks for the work on this one.

when i saw the screenshot for the tag editor plus i thought maybe you had figured out a way to force WMP to sort by disc number. the problem is that it writes the field but WMP doesn't use it to sort. it is spelled out a bit in this thread here:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums...9d-64ea9a07953e

and in this post in this thread:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums...36-778c21554017

i still don't see the filename collision issue with only the set field. if i picked an equally poor naming convention that didn't accomodate for this with other fields that may be duplicated across two discs, or even the same disc, i'd have the same problem.

is there any chance you'd be able to fix this issue or force WMP to use the set field with the next version?

This post has been edited by koawmfot: May 24 2010, 14:02

[LANjackal]

hey tim thanks for the work on this one.

when i saw the screenshot for the tag editor plus i thought maybe you had figured out a way to force WMP to sort by disc number. the problem is that it writes the field but WMP doesn't use it to sort.

If you're having that problem, it's because you're not using WMP's standard disc number convention.

Title Disc #

is what WMP uses. So for example, for a multidisc release of AwesomeAlbum, "AwesomeAlbum Disc 1" and "AwesomeAlbum Disc 2" will give you the proper ordering in the library. I know this because I've manually added multidisc albums to my library before.

Basically WMP takes its defaults from the AMG metadata lookup service it uses. If you use AMG's conventions for manually edited tracks as above, you'll be OK.

[koawmfot]

... So for example, for a multidisc release of AwesomeAlbum, "AwesomeAlbum Disc 1" and "AwesomeAlbum Disc 2" will give you the proper ordering in the library. I know this because I've manually added multidisc albums to my library before.

Basically WMP takes its defaults from the AMG metadata lookup service it uses. If you use AMG's conventions for manually edited tracks as above, you'll be OK.

that was kind of discussed in the links i provided above. it really is a personal preference thing, and for conformity to the standards of multiple other players. the field is there, WMP sees it and can write it, but it does not use it to sort, so i was inquiring if it would be possible to tell WMP to use it. i don't want to seperate the album into different discs. i want to go into MC and chose play album once and have it play the whole album in the right order. i have a twelve disc collection of bethoven sonatas and would have to add each one when really it is a full release. the workaround i used for now was to set the tracknumbers to 101-110, 201-210, etc... this just messes up support in other players somewhat.

[Tim De Baets]

Yes, sorting by disc number is certainly something that I'm going to look into for the next major version of WMP Plus!. I can't promise anything yet though, it may be too hard or simply impossible to implement.

[LANjackal]

... So for example, for a multidisc release of AwesomeAlbum, "AwesomeAlbum Disc 1" and "AwesomeAlbum Disc 2" will give you the proper ordering in the library. I know this because I've manually added multidisc albums to my library before.

Basically WMP takes its defaults from the AMG metadata lookup service it uses. If you use AMG's conventions for manually edited tracks as above, you'll be OK.

that was kind of discussed in the links i provided above. it really is a personal preference thing, and for conformity to the standards of multiple other players. the field is there, WMP sees it and can write it, but it does not use it to sort, so i was inquiring if it would be possible to tell WMP to use it. i don't want to seperate the album into different discs. i want to go into MC and chose play album once and have it play the whole album in the right order. i have a twelve disc collection of bethoven sonatas and would have to add each one when really it is a full release. the workaround i used for now was to set the tracknumbers to 101-110, 201-210, etc... this just messes up support in other players somewhat.

I hear you. Yeah, cross-player/platform compatibility is still a real mess.

[Stephr0x0rs]

Show currently playing media in WMP's title bar.

This part isn't working for me. Fortunately it is finally displaying it in the taskbar button, but still not showing on the titlebar.

Using WMP12 on Windows 7 Pro x64 (using the 32bit version of WMP).

[Tim De Baets]

Is this in Library or in Now Playing mode? Does it still work in the other mode?

Would it be possible to post a screenshot of this?

[timg11]

If possible, can a feature be added to WMP Plus to fix the skip forward/back shortcut key functions that were "broken" in WMP12?

For background, see this thread: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums...e7-672c4456f1a8

In summary, WMP 12 has been changed so that the shortcut keys for skipping only work if the focus is on the slider bar.

We need a plug in like WMP Plus that will intercept the keys and allow skipping forward and back by various sized steps (5 sec, 30 sec, 3 minutes for example) using keyboard shortcuts.
The keyboard shortcuts need to function regardless of of the application's focus, and work equally well in full screen or minimized mode.

There are also requests to make the space bar function as play/pause (it is not mapped to anything else)

It seems clear that the people at MSFT that make decisions on the WMP user interface doesn't actually use WMP.

[Tim De Baets]

Yes, WMP Plus! 2.0 will definitely add a global hotkeys feature to WMP, and hotkeys for skipping forward/backward will be included too.

There are also requests to make the space bar function as play/pause (it is not mapped to anything else)

In WMP 12, the space bar does seem to work for playing/pausing, but only when certain parts of the window are focused (like the Library or Playlist pane). I'll see if I can add something in WMP Plus! 2.0 to make it work regardless of the focused window, this shouldn't be too hard.

[timg11]

Yes, WMP Plus! 2.0 will definitely add a global hotkeys feature to WMP, and hotkeys for skipping forward/backward will be included too.

There are also requests to make the space bar function as play/pause (it is not mapped to anything else)

In WMP 12, the space bar does seem to work for playing/pausing, but only when certain parts of the window are focused (like the Library or Playlist pane). I'll see if I can add something in WMP Plus! 2.0 to make it work regardless of the focused window, this shouldn't be too hard.

Great - I'll be watching for WMP Plus! 2.0.

You are probably already aware of this, but there is a Sourceforge project for a plugin that does some global shortcut key functions for WMP: http://sourceforge.net/projects/wmpkeys/
I downloaded the source and was thinking about modifying it myself, but if you are close to releasing WMP Plus! 2.0, I can just wait for that.

[Tim De Baets]

Yes, I already knew about WMPKeys, but thanks anyway. I wouldn't really say that the 2.0 release is close though, I haven't even started coding on it yet

[theironyuppie]

Yes, sorting by disc number is certainly something that I'm going to look into for the next major version of WMP Plus!. I can't promise anything yet though, it may be too hard or simply impossible to implement.

seriously looking forward to this! definatley a must!
another suggestion, maybe add an auto update feature or a suggested update that u can turn on or off?

[Tim De Baets]

Well, I have tried some things in the meantime. The displayed track numbers are relatively easy to change, but sorting still happens for the original values, so that's not very useful. I'm afraid that it will be very hard to change the way WMP sorts tracks, so it's unlikely that this will be included in the next major version.

Auto-update would indeed be a nice feature. I have already planned more than enough new features for WMP Plus! 2.0, but perhaps a later version will have this.

[JasonWilley]

any chance you could alter the codecs so that windows media player can rip to aac or even mp3 lame encoder instead of the poor one it uses now

[Tim De Baets]

No, that's not worth the trouble, in my opinion. There are much better programs than WMP for ripping, that offer far more options. Examples are CDex and Exact Audio Copy.

[JasonWilley]

yeh but those especially cdex never get updated, and also dont get album art and allow u to sync ur mp3 player to them aswell, windows media player does all of that but just wish the codecs were better quality thats all

This post has been edited by JasonWilley: Jun 13 2010, 23:29

[Tim De Baets]

You can still get album art, and sync the MP3 files, after they have been added to WMP's library.

[xpclient]

Hey Tim De Baets, your idea of a plugin to fix WMP is awesome. With version 11 and version 12, MS removed quite a lot of features from WMP. Do you think you can add most of them back? See what they removed here (and my wish list is the same): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media...emoved_features (WMPlus already restores some of them). Great addin. Thanks.

This post has been edited by xpclient: Jun 23 2010, 07:15