zachd [MSFT] wrote:
> "V.Ronans" <v_r@spamless.and.happy> wrote in message
> news:bPKdnU8EJIhdEVnbnZ2dnUVZ_oKhnZ2d@wavecable.com...
>> Lee Reynolds wrote:
>>> Hi All,
>>> Im having a problem with MP 11 on Vista HP. Does not matter
>>> what song file I play, but towards the end of the a song it stops
>>> for a bout 2 secs then carries on, but have no probs with any music
>>> or video file using winamp. Any ideas why it does this?
>>
>> Why use media players for music? VLC or Winamp do a far better job
>> with out eatting so much resources and gives you more control.
>> Winamp may be better suited for music, while VLC beats the pants off
>> of WMP in video playing, although VLC does music/audio just as well
>> as winamp. Winamp has a nice media library feature though. and both
>> are free and not restrictive like media player. VLS supports more
>> formats than media player too. There really is no reason to stick
>> with media player once you know
>> the laternatives 
If you want one app that does both well go with
>> VLC (videolan.org)
>>
>> www.videolan.org
>> www.winamp.com
>
> That's somewhat of a tangent- the user's problem descriptions have
> identified what is 90% likely a bug in the audio processing objects
> for the sound card. Regardless of what player they want to use, it'd
> be of extremely high value to them to fix that up.
While it may be better to fix the root cause, I think in this particular
case, it's something that would only happen with WMP, since it uses
those particular enhancements, and I do not beleive all players do
unless explicitly designed to use them. Otherwise, it would be just
another needless complication.
> Regardless of liking VLC or WinAMP, problems that occur within WMP are
> usually signs that something is wrong with the system / system
> configuration.
The way you said that, I have to disagree. In my experience, many
problem with WMP over the years have bene within it and not occuring in
other players (VLC, among others.) If it's a problem with the soundcard
(or how the system is interacting with it) then that's indeed something
that will likely effect any player.
> Switching players to avoid that may hide the problems
> temporarily, but isn't a great long-term solution. Fix the problem
> and *then* tout your alternative du jour. =)
True, assuming if the proposed fix by Mark Veldhuis works. If it
doesn't, then it coems down ot either waiting for Microsoft fixes it (no
telling how long that will take) or trying alternate players. I agree
VLC is a better alternative to WMP in general. I especially like how I
can play DVD movies in "simple" mode where the player treats it as if it
were a single movie file, and a s a bonus skips all the beginning
adverts, starting playback at the start of the actual film. I really
don't think WMP can do that
-saran