Windows 7 is Microsoft’s way of saying “We <3 media." even other people's formats—notably apple favorites h.264 and aac—are supported in the new os, which comes with newest windows media player, version 12. but biggest multimedia upgrade is play to, a little wmp feature that eclipses all rest. player never going to be prettiest girl school, 7 gives it few upgrades definitely makes more useful. file compatibility for starters, now supports types of files, including aac audio department, h.264, divx xvid video, no third-party download needed. also formats did before, earlier mpeg stuff course anything microsoft had hand in, not just wma wmv, vc-1, too. this ability read so much handy obsessively covered down below. interface though we haven't dwelt on it, player's was subtly redesigned. only there neat pop-up mini music when you want see what's playing you're doing stuff, there's set tabs right-hand side, play, burn sync. differences are subtle at glance, people who were heavy wmp11 users, version, wmp12, has improved workflow. (ars technica nice detailed walkthrough of the new WMP interface, if you’re interested.)
PLAY TO
Speaking of “play,” one of the most potentially groundbreaking features of Windows 7 is “Play To,” the ability to send music, video and photos to any compatible devices on the network, without running any kind of proprietary software, and without any initial setup. Sending a song to a Sonos or a video to an Xbox is—theoretically—just a right-click away.
What devices will work?
The reason things work so well in theory is that they all support DLNA standards for sharing content on a network. You right click a piece of content in Windows Media Player, select “Play To…” and up pops any and all devices that can be commandeered. The good news here is that any media “renderer”—be it a networked photo frame or a PS3—that ends up supporting the standard will be able to receive anything you hurl at it from your Windows 7 box, and you’ll even be able to grab content from servers and other computers and play them on the renderer of your choice. The downside is that there will surely be good products that don’t support the spec for one reason or another.
What devices work now?
In our testing, we sent music to the Sonos and sent certain video files to the Xbox, though only when the Xbox was running the Windows Media Center Extender software. There are currently a number of other compliant “play to” products—such as the Roku SoundBridge—but since the spec itself isn’t finalized yet, it’s hard to just run a list. The DLNA itself will soon be announcing compatible products as they either come to market or receive the appropriate firmware update.
What content works?
As I mentioned, the computer can send media files to “renderers” around the network. At this point, it’s not clear whether or not the computer can tell if the product can render the file—it sends whatever you tell it, and then returns an error if it can’t be played. But soon, the computer itself will know the file compatibilities of devices on the network, and will transcode files on the fly if there’s a better fit (say, from DivX to WMA). This stays in the “I’ll believe it when I see it” file for now, but it’s confirmed to be part of the deal.
[More Play To details and images; for a nice but long-winded video on the subject, click here]
https://gizmodo.com/win-7-tip-play-to-media-control-might-take-over-your-w-5140763
