1. Windows Media Player, iTunes, and Picasa. RE: Apple. Audio. Cyber Life. Cyber Tech. Google. Images. Microsoft. Text. Video.
2. xWebs merging into xComputers. RE: Cyber Life. My Stuff.
3. Jots and rewriting my blogging system. RE: Blogging. Cyber Life. My Stuff.

2007-01-01t16:00:19Z | RE: Apple. Audio. Cyber Life. Cyber Tech. Google. Images. Microsoft. Text. Video.
Windows Media Player, iTunes, and Picasa

Version 11 of Windows Media Player (WMP) by Microsoft just came 2006-10-30. I've been fiddling with it and here are some of my notes on WMP, especially in comparison to Google's Picasa and Apple's iTunes. I think it's their best yet and it has some innovative modifications.

WMP 11 also places new emphasis on ripping (from audio CDs), burning (to discs), syncing (with portable devices like Zune by Microsoft or dozens more. playsforsure.com/FindPortableDevices.aspx), and media shopping (with Urge.com or over a dozen other online media stores.). However I'm not going to focus on those features in this post. I could also compare WMP against other software media/audio/video/picture/text players/viewers such as Winamp, etc. but that's a whole other post.

There are of course other review out there like this one: Windows Media Player 11 Review [winsupersite.com/reviews/wmp11.asp].

Media Types

The media players divide their top level "directories" by media types. iTunes has Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, Audiobooks, and Radio. Picasa's top level "directories" are revealed by looking at its search where the big options are Starred, Movies, and Uploaded, i.e. pictures are the default and there is no audio. WMP used to do Audio, Video, and Radio (streamed content), but now Radio seems to have vanished (but has actually moved to online stores; bye-bye free online radio :P) and in its place are (gasp!) Pictures, Recorded TV, and Other Media (which seems to only find minor audio file types like .au and .mid).

Interestingly, a year ago I was wishing for a media player that covered more media types:

Picasa [Picasa.Google.com], Google's free image manager, can manage graphics and video but not audio. This makes me think that Google must have some plans for audio and music, since this is such a hole in Picasa. Why not have a single app to manage your graphics, video, and audio?

-Google blip [georgehernandez.com/h/aaBlog/post.asp?ts=2005-12-15t19:55:35Z]

Since then, Google hasn't done much with Picasa except for adding Picasa Web Albums [picasaweb.google.com] (where Google can host and display some of your images; You can tag them, make albums, etc., all online). Google has been focusing more on video instead of audio with their Google Video [Video.Google.com] and their purchase of youtube.com. It's interesting to see them try different ways of monetizing it. Perhaps Google is also waiting for everything to coalesce when they come out with GDrive: a practically infinite online hard drive. GDrive is the big thing from Google that I've been salivating over and waiting for the most. I'm so antsy for GDrive that I find all the little leaks annoying: Don't show me the Playtpus interface for GDrive or whatever until I can actually use it. Anticipation is good but I can't let it have too much mind share.

Media file types matter because of issues like media stores, file sharing, Digital Rights Management (DRM), etc.. It's a large can of worms worth a whole other post, but briefly the arena is still working itself out. I personally believe in fewer restrictions (like in DRM) while allowing artists to make money. I also believe that file quality should trump file size, i.e. lossless should trump lossy compression, especially as storage space gets cheaper. I would prefer a general reduction in file types because no one want Betamax AND VHS, but it does make sense to have .jpg and .raw.

The four "great" medias are audio, video, pictures, and text.

• Videos: WMP has richer play options than Picasa (since Picasa can only play/pause) and can open a greater variety of file types. WMP does not have the mini-player in the library view that iTunes does. iTunes and QuickTime don't have the problems of multiple file types (like missing codecs) but on the other hand they can't play those other video files. As far as play goes, with iTunes you can open multiple videos at a time, pause one at a specific spot, and watch another from another spot.
• Audio: Picasa has no audio playing at all. iTunes has comparable play options to WMP. WMP and iTunes both play .mp3, .aiff, and .wav, but after that they play different files.
• Pictures:
  • Picasa is prettier than WMP and can open a greater variety of file types. I wish Picasa had a shuffle or random picture capability.
  • iTunes has no picture viewing at all.
  • WMP
    • WMP gives you 4 sec per image whereas Picasa lets you decide the display time when running a slideshow.
    • WMP has no edit functions but then again it's a player not an editor.
    • Having all the metadata to play with in WMP however makes it quite useful. Picasa needs more of this.
    • WMP can see .bmp, .gif, and .png, but only adds .jpg to the library. While the majority of people probably have .jpg, I wish they could have added the others, especially .gif, .png, and .raw. WMP may influence many people to just use .jpg.
• Text: No major media player does it: But why not? Organizing .doc, .pdf, .rtf, .html, etc. files would just get too hairy too fast, but a simple organizer and viewer for plain text files (.txt) would be nice. Many physical portable media players don't do text (like Zune) but iPod does and others probably will too. A very simple text editing feature would be sweet but then it would seem to be moving beyond the realm of media player. I'm not even going to start wishing for a reader that could read text out loud.

Here are the "official" media types for Picasa, WMP, and iTunes. ^^ = WMP can open it too. // = WMP can open it but does not add it to libraries. ## = WMP cannot open it.

• WMP. Where's my .ogg!!
  • Windows Media files, including: .asf, .asx, .wpl, .wm, .wmx, .wmd, and .wmz.
  • Windows Media Audio files, including: .wma and .wax
  • Windows Media Video files, including: .wmv and .wvx.
  • CDs, including: .cda.
  • Windows video files, including: .avi.
  • Windows audio files, including: .wav.
  • Movie files, including: .mpeg, .mpg, .mpe, m1v, .m2v, .mod, .mp2, .mpv2, .mp2v, and .mpa.
  • MP3 audio files, including: mp3 and .m3u.
  • MIDI files, including: .mid, .midi, and .rmi.
  • AIFF audio files, including: .aif, .aifc, and .aiff
  • AU audio files, including: .au and .snd.
• Picasa.
  • .jpg, .jpeg. ^^
  • .tif, .tiff. ##
  • .bmp. //
  • .gif. // WMP actually animates the image in Now Playing view, whereas Picasa only shows the first image.
  • .psd.  ##
  • .png. //
  • .raw formats, including: .crw and .nef. ##
  • movies, including: .avi, .mpg, .asf, and .wmv. ^^
  • Quicktime movies, including: .mov. ##
• iTunes.
  • .mp3. ^^
  • .aiff. ^^
  • .wav. ^^
  • MPEG-4, i.e. .mp4. ##
  • Apple Lossy = Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) and Apple Lossless = Apple Lossless Encoder (ALE) = Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC). Both of which are .m4a. ##

Zune supports .mp3, .wma, AAC (.mp4, .m4a, .m4b, .mov), .jpg, .wmv, MPEG-4 (.mp4, .m4v, .mov) and H.264 (.mp4, .m4v, .mov), so my hope is that in the future there will be greater cross platform file types if only everyone could somehow ensure the monetization.

Interface

One of the most exciting developments in this version of WMP is the new breadcrumb navigation with dropdowns. It's like a condensed version of the Mac OS horizontal hierarchy navigation instead of the usual largely vertical Microsoft Windows Explorer tree.

(This image was borrowed from http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304723.)

It's "condensed" because each little arrow on the right of each "directory" opens a drop down menu with the child "directories" of that "directory". The "ancestor" information is visible but the "aunt and uncle" info is hidden and yet accessible. While all the extra hierarchical info is useful in Windows Explorer and Mac OS, sometimes it cumbersome and takes up too much real estate. Once I got used to the Windows Media Player breadcrumb navigator with dropdowns, I have since kept the "Navigation Pane" on the left hidden and gained my self more horizontal real estate.

Here are other points on Windows Media Player 11, especially in comparison to Picasa and iTunes:

• File detection.
  • The WMP process of "watching" directories is unobtrusive. I'm not very confident in its immediacy because you can pop a file in a directory but WMP won't know it's there right away. I appreciate how WMP can do a forced find (F3).  What would have been nice is if you had the opportunity to refresh/force find when you're in a "folder" in the library view.
  • Picasa watches the directories with fairly good immediacy but it has that annoying pop up every time it finds something. Picasa does not give you the option for a forced find.
  • iTunes has detects files decently by pretty much insisting that you put your files in its directory.
• Performance.
  • WMP had significant pauses on some of the larger directories but that's not surprising.
  • Picasa did too but I think has Picasa tended to not unfreeze while so far WMP has fairly consistently unfroze itself eventually.
  • iTunes doesn't seem to pause, but then again I have far fewer files for iTunes so it's not a fair comparison.
• Keyboard shortcuts.

  Action	WMP	iTunes	QuickTime	Picasa
  Mute	F7 (was F8) HW	CTRL+ALT+DOWN	CTRL+DOWN	--
  Volume-	F8 (was F9) HW	CTRL+DOWN	DOWN	--
  Volume+	F9 (was F10) HW	CTRL+UP	UP	--
  Volume Max	##	##	CTRL+UP	--
  Play/Pause	CTRL+P HW (fix!)	SPACE	SPACE	SPACE (for Slideshow) / (for video)
  Last File	CTRL+B HW (fix!)	CTRL+LEFT	##	LEFT
  Next File	CTRL+F HW (fix!)	CTRL+RIGHT	##	RIGHT
  Stop	CTRL+S HW	##	##	##
  Stop and Back Frame	## * (fix!)	## (fix!)	LEFT	,
  Stop and Forward Frame	## * (fix!)	## (fix!)	RIGHT	.
  Go to File Start	## (fix!)	## (fix!)	CTRL+LEFT	##
  Go to File End	## (fix!)	## (fix!)	CTRL+RIGHT	##
  Zoom 50%	ALT+1	CTRL+0	ALT+0 $$	##
  Zoom 100%	ALT+2	CTRL+1	ALT+1 $$	##
  Zoom 200%	ALT+3	CTRL+2	ALT+2 $$	##
  Zoom Fit to screen	##	CTRL+3	ALT+3 $$	##
  Zoom Full screen	ALT+ENTER	CTRL+F	ALT+F $$	CTRL+ALT (not ALT+CTRL)
  Zoom In	##	##	##	UP
  Zoom Out	##	##	##	DOWN
  Resize to player	//	//	//	//
  Shuffle	CTRL+H	//	##	##
  Repeat List	CTRL+T	//	##	##
  Repeat One	##	//	##	##
  Switch between Library and Playing views	// (fix!)	ALT+TAB (in PCs)	##	ENTER/ESC
  // = Capability exists but no shortcut. ## = Capability does not exist or NA. $$ = For QuickTime Pro. HW = Works with physical buttons if exists. * = WMP has a feature similar to this that works inconsistently (probably because of the different file types): LEFT or RIGHT will jump back or front a few seconds within a file.

  • What a mess. It's like having the brakes and accelerator in different locations depending on make and model of the car.
• Views.
  • Picasa only has Small Thumbnails and Normal Thumbnails.
  • WMP has Icon, Extended Tile, and Detail views.
    • It is annoying that not all three options are available for all "directories", especially since the metadata should still be available in all directories.
    • Extended Tile does not show enough metadata.
    • I wish that Microsoft and other folks would follow the Mac thing of shrinking the date and time format when the space given to it is shrunk.
    • I love how in WMP, the column headers are still available for sorting --even when in the Icon or Tile views. I also love how the column sorting has not only the usual ascending and descending, but also a third click of default sort.
    • I like the new thing when in the Now Playing view where if the List pane on the right is wide enough, then it can show ratings and other meta data like run time.
  • iTunes has List, Grouped with Artwork, and with Cover Flow views.
    • I like how all three views give you full metadata access.
    • Pity that iTunes has no column option for File Path.
    • I like how a right-click instantly gives you access to the available columns list. In WMP you have a few extra clicks.
  • I like how you can rearrange columns in WMP or iTunes, but I wish they would also gave you the ability to drag off unwanted columns.
• Playlists.
  • WMP and iTunes have playlist and are equivalent to Picasa's albums.
  • The WMP Auto Lists are equivalent to iTunes Smart Lists, but Picasa has no such thing.
  • WMP, iTunes, and Picasa all allow you to make playlists of mixed media types.
  • Once you get used to labels and tags (a la Picasa and Gmail), then old folders, virtual folders, and playlists else seem to be lacking. Come on people! Embedding metadata within the media files is the way to go! Picasa does both.
• Search.
  • WMP search works on a "directory" level. You can also search "official" media information. EG: Search for "genre:rock".
  • iTunes search works on a "directory" level.
  • Picasa search works on entire collection.
  • I would like it if you could have the option select the scope of your search.
• Ratings.
  • WMP and iTunes allows you to rate 1 to 5 stars.
  • Picasa allows you to mark items as starred or not.
  • I'd like the 1-5 stars option plus the option to flag files.

I'm sure I'll have other comments as I go along but overall this upgrade was an improvement on WMP. WMP is good as an audio (depending on you audio source) and video player (except for .mov and animated .gif). WMP is good as a picture viewer (if you're only viewing .jpg). I wish WMP could be a plain text organizer and reader too. WMP needs more tagging capabilities.

2007-01-01t17:58:27Z | RE: Cyber Life. My Stuff.
xWebs merging into xComputers

I'm going to absorb the content in /xWebs into /xComputers. Why? There has always been a fair amount of overlap between what is covered by "Web" and what is covered by "Computers". Those two areas are also fairly old and I'm not editing them as actively as I used to. EG: My section on HTML was a reference I created for myself back in the day (when only the W3C was available and I also wanted some offline notes for myself), but now better online resources on HTML are available like gotapi.com.

I want to apologize ahead of time for the flux that will occur on my site while I make these changes. This will probably break any inbound links to content in the old /xWebs. Sorry!

2007-01-01t18:35:01Z | RE: Blogging. Cyber Life. My Stuff.
Jots and rewriting my blogging system

The second is a total rewrite of my blogging system. While the current system is fine, one of the stresses I've had lately is feeling guilty whenever I fell behind on my blogging. This happens because I have a lot of little links, online videos, pictures, and thoughts. I jot them down and then feel like I ought to do some big write up or other on them. However I often don't have time for a big write up, and then time passes, and then things get stale, and then I feel guilty. That's terrible! Then it hit me: No, I don't need to do a big write up --perhaps I should just jot them down.

So I've been fooling with video jotting: I surf for videos, I jot it down, and add some tiny note. I started with Videos Jot and Martial Arts Videos Jot. So far I've been jotting more and blogging less: It is less stressful! I think I can apply the jotting principle all over and save my regular blogging for actual write ups. So far I think I'll jot links, videos, images, and thoughts. Of course I'll still want to tag all of this.

As far as I know, I originated using the word "jot" to describe the "jotting" concept just a few minutes ago. When I was fooling with the concept, the first word I used was "dump", but "dump" and "dumping" didn't sound very appealing. I certainly don't think I was the first to jot since some of the early blogs were very "jotty". I love how the different morphologies of "jot" don't show up as an error in the spell checker.

This jotting thing is just the push I needed because I've been meaning to convert my blogging system from a backend of a bunch of xml files to a database backend, and from a local input to a web input. This would cut down on administrative maintenance and would also make all the meta data useable: I could pull, filter, sort, etc. by tags, dates, etc..

I will try to not break any inbound links to posts via the first version of my blogging system. Sorry, but the links to  Videos Jot and Martial Arts Videos Jot may change.