http://malektips.com/multimedia_players_help_and_tips.html Tips and tricks for various multimedia players including RealPlayer, QuickTime, Winamp, and Windows Media Player. en-us Tue, 23 Dec 2008 03:04:47 GMT Tue, 23 Dec 2008 03:04:47 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Custom webmaster@envprogramming.com (Andrew Malek) webmaster@envprogramming.com (Andrew Malek) http://malektips.com/graphics/logo_88x30.gif http://malektips.com/multimedia_players_help_and_tips.html 88 30 http://malektips.com/vista-media-center-guide-remove-channels.html If the TV Program Guide in Windows Media Center displays channels you cannot get in your area or those you do not care to watch, remove these listings.

When downloading TV Program Guide information for Windows Media Center in Windows Vista, you may notice some channels appearing in the guide that are not actually available in your area. Or, there may be a channel or two that you never actually watch.

You can easily remove channels from the Program Guide, and these channels can be added back later if desired....

Read more at MalekTips.]]> Tue, 23 Dec 2008 03:04:44 GMT http://malektips.com/vista-media-center-guide-remove-channels.html http://malektips.com/vista-media-center-recorder-storage-limit.html Prevent accidentally using too much hard drive room for storing TV recordings in Windows Media Center.

By default, Windows Media Center in Windows Vista can use a large portion of your hard drive to store TV recordings. While this allows you to store more television shows, especially in HD, this also can potentially limit the amount of hard drive space available for other applications.

If you frequently use other applications that need gigabytes of room for data and wish to limit the amount of space Windows Media Center can use to store television shows, perform the following tweak from within the application:...

Read more at MalekTips.]]> Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:53:51 GMT http://malektips.com/vista-media-center-recorder-storage-limit.html http://malektips.com/vista-media-center-taskbar-notifications.html Toggle whether Windows Media Center should display notifications in the Windows Taskbar.

By default, Windows Media Center in Windows Vista displays notifications in the Windows Taskbar when certain tasks are performing or when it needs to notify you of warning conditions, such as:

* When you record a television show, a red circle appears in the taskbar. ...

Read more at MalekTips.]]> Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:46:41 GMT http://malektips.com/vista-media-center-taskbar-notifications.html http://malektips.com/vista-media-center-high-contrast-color-scheme.html Configure Windows Media Center to use a high contrast color scheme that may be easier to read.

If you find the text in Windows Media Center in Windows Vista difficult to read when the computer is connected to a television or other output device, there are options to change the color scheme to high contrast black or white.

...

Read more at MalekTips.]]> Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:14:43 GMT http://malektips.com/vista-media-center-high-contrast-color-scheme.html http://malektips.com/media-player-11-rip-music-folder-location.html Configure Windows Media Player 11 to place ripped audio files in a different folder than your "My Music" folder.

By default, when you rip music from a CD in Windows Media Player 11, the ripped media files (WMA by default) are placed in your "My Music" folder, which in Windows XP is located at C:\Documents and Settings\[YOUR_USER_NAME]\My Documents\My Music.

If you'd like to place ripped media files in a different location, do the following:...

Read more at MalekTips.]]> Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:16:17 GMT http://malektips.com/media-player-11-rip-music-folder-location.html http://malektips.com/media-player-11-song-crossfade.html Fade one song into the next in Windows Media Player 11.

As you play multiple audio files in Windows Media Player 11, once one song ends, a brief amount of silence may occur before the next song begins. To help prevent this silence from happening you can enable song crossfading, where one song literally blends, or fades, into the next.

1. Switch to Media Player's full mode by pressing Ctrl + 1....

Read more at MalekTips.]]> Fri, 5 Dec 2008 20:07:53 GMT http://malektips.com/media-player-11-song-crossfade.html http://malektips.com/media-player-11-srs-wow.html Enhance media playback in Windows Media Player 11 with SRS WOW 3D and TruBass effects.

Windows Media Player 11 includes a player enhancement called SRS WOW, a feature you may wish to experiment with for enhanced audio playback. SRS WOW adds a 3d "depth" to the sound and offers bass adjustments via TruBass.

1. Switch to Media Player's full mode by pressing Ctrl + 1....

Read more at MalekTips.]]> Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:50:49 GMT http://malektips.com/media-player-11-srs-wow.html http://malektips.com/media-center-2005-remove-animation-transition.html Remove animations when navigating between screens in Windows Media Center 2005.

By default, when navigating between screens in Windows Media Center 2005, screens pop in and out through transition animations. While many people appreciate this "eye candy", others may find this needless and would rather have the increased navigation speed with these animations removed.

1. Select "Settings"....

Read more at MalekTips.]]> Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:15:24 GMT http://malektips.com/media-center-2005-remove-animation-transition.html http://malektips.com/media-player-11-internet-usage-rights.html Determine whether Media Player 11 should automatically try to acquire usage rights for protected files that are out-of-date or lack rights.

When trying to play protected files in Windows Media Player 11, if the files contain invalid or out-of-date usage rights, the player may attempt to re-acquire these rights automatically via the Internet. This way, if you are playing a list of files with incomplete rights, instead of having Media Player 11 prompt you for each file, it can try to get such rights automatically.

Some people, however, may be concerned with Media Player 11 automatically accessing the Internet, and would rather first be asked whether or not to try to acquire correct usage rights. If so, this option can be toggled....

Read more at MalekTips.]]> Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:17:29 GMT http://malektips.com/media-player-11-internet-usage-rights.html http://malektips.com/windows-media-player-11-screensaver.html Toggle whether or not your screensaver should appear while media files are played with Windows Media Player 11.

Depending on your configuration, if you have a screensaver enabled, when playing multimedia files with Windows Media Player 11, the screensaver may not display during media playback.

If screensavers appear during movie playback, or if screensavers hide visualizations when playing audio files, make sure to disallow the screensaver. Alternatively, if you are not playing movie files nor watching the visualizations, you may wish to allow the screensaver to appear. Thus, to toggle this setting:...

Read more at MalekTips.]]> Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:03:25 GMT http://malektips.com/windows-media-player-11-screensaver.html http://malektips.com/media-center-2005-slideshow-transition-time.html Change how long Media Center Edition 2005 waits between slideshow images.

When playing slideshows in Windows Media Center 2005, you may find that slideshows take too little or too much time between images. This interval time is configurable:

1. Select "Settings"....

Read more at MalekTips.]]> Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:32:29 GMT http://malektips.com/media-center-2005-slideshow-transition-time.html http://malektips.com/media-player-11-playback-speed.html Is a speaker talking too slow or too fast in a multimedia file? Adjust the playback speed in Windows Media Player 11.

When using Windows Media Player 11 to play a downloaded or streamed podcast, audiobook, or other multimedia file mostly containing voice, you may find problems with the speaker's speed. Some speakers talk so slowly they can bore you to tears; others may speak so fast that their words seem to fly by.

To help solve these problems, you can adjust Windows Media Player 11's playback speed....

Read more at MalekTips.]]> Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:51:36 GMT http://malektips.com/media-player-11-playback-speed.html http://malektips.com/media-player-11-switch-full-compact-skin.html Switch how Windows Media Player 11 is displayed - with a full set of features, compact, or with a skin.

Windows Media Player 11 can appear several different ways onscreen - in full mode, with all functions available; compact; or with a customized skin, or look, where some functions (including menus) may not be accessible or easily apparent.

You can switch between full and skin modes using either the menus or keyboard. Note that depending on your chosen skin, you may not have access to the menu bar. In this case the skin may have a button to switch back to full mode, but this will depend on the skin - the keyboard shortcut should still work, however:...

Read more at MalekTips.]]> Tue, 7 Oct 2008 15:39:56 GMT http://malektips.com/media-player-11-switch-full-compact-skin.html http://malektips.com/media-player-11-disable-video-acceleration.html If videos do not display correctly in Windows Media Player 11, reduce or disable video acceleration.

Some Windows Media Player 11 users may experience problems when playing video. Video playback might halt or crash the machine, or video playback might appear jerky even when viewing videos stored on a computer and not streamed over the Internet.

To solve some video playback problems you can try adjusting an accleration slider that may fix issues with certain graphics cards....

Read more at MalekTips.]]> Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:10:59 GMT http://malektips.com/media-player-11-disable-video-acceleration.html http://malektips.com/media-player-11-keyboard-shortcuts.html A list of commonly-used keyboard shortcuts when playing multimedia with Windows Media Player 11.

While keyboard shortcuts to rewind, fast forward, play, pause, stop, and skip tracks in Windows Media Player 11 are visible in Windows Media Player's menu bar, here are some common shortcuts listed for reference purposes. You may wish to print this list:

Play/Pause: Ctrl+P...

Read more at MalekTips.]]> Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:04:21 GMT http://malektips.com/media-player-11-keyboard-shortcuts.html