Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 is now available.

Major changes:
- Fixes have been made for issues that occurred in the first beta release of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP.
- Additional online stores are now available.
- Changes to sharing digital media content. The functionality of Windows Media Connect is now integrated into Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 for Windows XP as the new Media Sharing feature, which lets you enjoy the contents of your Windows Media Player library from anywhere in your home.

More information here.

it's crashed twice for me so far - once during install and once while running.

Well, runs quite flawlessly here. In case someone's interested in Windows Media Audio, the update also includes a bugfixed Windows Media Format Runtime. Microsoft corrected the Windows Media Audio 10 Professional codec's capabilities of low-bitrate encoding - ABR at 16 bit and 64 kbit/s works now.

By the way, that Windows Media Encoder Studios Edition is also available as Beta 1: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsme...se/default.aspx