need video player for windows Vista

[invader]

Help! I need some way to play videos with this crappy operating system.

I used to be able to play videos using "ATI Multimedia Center" or "Windows
Media Player" in the very stable and useful windows XP.

However, since upgrading to Windows Vista my ATI mutlimedia center no longer
works. Actually I upgraded MMC and it started working for a few weeks until
windows update decided it wanted to download a new radeon driver and now MMC
flickers and eventually crashes whenever I try to play a video. I can't even
access my Vonage voicemail because MMC implodes when I try to play simple
sound files.

I tried using the "Windows Media Player" that came with Vista, but it seems
as useless as a giant turd. It has no "File" menu and as far as I can tell no
way to open a file. All I want to do is click File:Open and open a video
file. This does not appear to be possible anymore.

I found "Windows Media Player Classic" and I thought I'd hit gold. It
actually works and has a File:Open option. It's as if Vista is now almost as
powerful as Windows XP was. It can now open files. However, if I go into
View:Options:Formats and try to associate MPG files with Media Player Classic
and then click OK, I find that it automatically un-checks them. So I can't
associate mpeg files with the classic player.

So I go into the start menu and click 'default programs' and try both 'set
your default programs' and 'associate a file with a specific program'. Nope
doesn't work. There's no way to associate with Media Player Classic; only new
media player (I'll call that one "Media Player Turd" to differentiate it from
media player classic).

So can anyone help? Is there any way to get Media Player Turd removed from
Vista and run Media Player Classic in it's place? I'm assuming the reason why
Vista insists on killing my ATI MMC and forcing Media Player Turd on my
computer rather than Media Player Classic is because Media Player Turd
includes a built in music store called 'URGE' which Microsoft wishes to use
to collect more of my money. Maybe it sells turd-compatible music and videos
to go along with Media Player Turd. I dunno.

Is there anyway I can play videos in Vista?

 

[Andy]

Hi,

if you are referring to media player 11, you can go to the options menu on
the right below the toolbar, and select 'classic menus'...voila..a file open
option is available again ;-)

cheers
Andy

 

[Justin]

Or hit the ALT key.

Hi,

if you are referring to media player 11, you can go to the options menu on
the right below the toolbar, and select 'classic menus'...voila..a file
open option is available again ;-)

cheers
Andy

 

[invader]

if you are referring to media player 11, you can go to the options menu on

the right below the toolbar, and select 'classic menus'...voila..a file open
option is available again ;-)

Thank you!!!! Whatever posessed microsoft to put the icon that opens menus in
the lower right corner of the window is beyond me. It also appears to be the
only icon on the damn thing with no balloon help when you hover on it.

Well, this new WMP is still a turd, but at least now it's a functional turd.

Can someone tell me how to get rid of the 'URGE' crap? or is a built-in music
store now bundled with and considered an essential part of the OS? (Can
someone see another lawsuit coming?)

 

[Andy]

No Problem...I agree it seems a silly place to put it.

I like having WMP available, but I always end up downloading a 3rd party
product to play many of my files as so often WMP says it is looking for
codecs, then dosn't find them, sometime even when they are already installed
for another player ;-)

Its still one of the best rippers for my MP3 player, though how that fits
with Microsoft's DRM crusade I'll never know. Its like Sony when they
fought the video pirates and their kit while making VHS recorders and
tapes....schizophrenic in the extreme ;-)

Andy

 

[JimR]

Help! I need some way to play videos with this crappy operating system.

I used to be able to play videos using "ATI Multimedia Center" or "Windows
Media Player" in the very stable and useful windows XP.

However, since upgrading to Windows Vista my ATI mutlimedia center no
longer
works. Actually I upgraded MMC and it started working for a few weeks
until
windows update decided it wanted to download a new radeon driver and now
MMC
flickers and eventually crashes whenever I try to play a video. I can't
even
access my Vonage voicemail because MMC implodes when I try to play simple
sound files.

I tried using the "Windows Media Player" that came with Vista, but it
seems
as useless as a giant turd. It has no "File" menu and as far as I can tell
no
way to open a file. All I want to do is click File:Open and open a video
file. This does not appear to be possible anymore.

I found "Windows Media Player Classic" and I thought I'd hit gold. It
actually works and has a File:Open option. It's as if Vista is now almost
as
powerful as Windows XP was. It can now open files. However, if I go into
View:Options:Formats and try to associate MPG files with Media Player
Classic
and then click OK, I find that it automatically un-checks them. So I can't
associate mpeg files with the classic player.

So I go into the start menu and click 'default programs' and try both 'set
your default programs' and 'associate a file with a specific program'.
Nope
doesn't work. There's no way to associate with Media Player Classic; only
new
media player (I'll call that one "Media Player Turd" to differentiate it
from
media player classic).

So can anyone help? Is there any way to get Media Player Turd removed from
Vista and run Media Player Classic in it's place? I'm assuming the reason
why
Vista insists on killing my ATI MMC and forcing Media Player Turd on my
computer rather than Media Player Classic is because Media Player Turd
includes a built in music store called 'URGE' which Microsoft wishes to
use
to collect more of my money. Maybe it sells turd-compatible music and
videos
to go along with Media Player Turd. I dunno.

Is there anyway I can play videos in Vista?

In WMP11 press the alt key to view the toolbar menu. For the ATI driver
issue, go to the ATI website and download the latest drivers for your
graphics card. While at the ATI site, look for a Vista compatible version of
the ATI Multimedia Center.

 

[JimR]

Thank you!!!! Whatever posessed microsoft to put the icon that opens menus
in
the lower right corner of the window is beyond me. It also appears to be
the
only icon on the damn thing with no balloon help when you hover on it.

Well, this new WMP is still a turd, but at least now it's a functional
turd.

Can someone tell me how to get rid of the 'URGE' crap? or is a built-in
music
store now bundled with and considered an essential part of the OS? (Can
someone see another lawsuit coming?)

If you don't want URGE, select another music store from the drop down menu.

 

[zachd [MSFT]]

You're likely running Media Player Classic under normal user permissions,
and you can't modify system-wide associations (which is presumably what MPC
is trying to do here) without administrator privileges.

If you run it by right-clicking and giving it administrator privileges it
should work. Does it? If it does, then this would have been a bug on XP
too if you were a non-admin there.

I'll send mail to Gabe (MPC) and see if he has plans on fixing this or needs
pointers (or you can point him my way - I'm presuming I can find his email
address, which I'm not seeing right now). It's a pretty straight-forward
fix, really.

In general, the Vista Start menu's "Default Programs" is meant to be
one-stop shopping for association issues.

-Zach

 

[mxh]

While at the ATI site, look for a Vista compatible version of the ATI
Multimedia Center.

ATI has yet to produce a Vista compatible version of MMC. I'm beginning to
wonder of they ever will.

mxh