WMP enhancements
Windows Media Player 12 has been designed to replicate many
of the features you would expect to see on a traditional home stereo, complete
with a mixer, equaliser and other audio tweaking devices. The software
equivalent of the myriad of knobs and sliders you’d see on high-end stereo
equipment are known as playback enhancements in Windows Media Player, and
they’re even easier to use than their physical counterparts. Using the built-in
playback enhancements for Windows Media Player, you can adjust and optimise
audio and video on the fly to best suit your situation, speaker system and
tastes.
Some of the extra
enhancements you can make to your listening experience.
To access playback enhancements, you must be in the ‘Now Playing Mode’. Click the
icon in the bottom-right of the
Player Library to switch to ‘Now Playing Mode’. Right-click anywhere in the Now Playing window and choose ‘Enhancements’ to see the list of available
playback enhancements.
A brief handful of these enhancements are:
Crossfading
In the Crossfading and auto volume levelling window, click ‘Turn on Crossfading’ to have
Windows Media Player gradually fade
out the song at the end and then have the next song on the playlist gradually fade in. Move the slider to the left to shorten the overlap between songs. Move the
slider to the right to lengthen the
overlap.
Crossfading
Auto volume levelling
In the ‘Crossfading and auto volume levelling’ window, click ‘Turn on Auto volume
levelling’ so that Windows Media
Player automatically adjusts the volume level between songs to make them more similar. Windows Media Player does so by analysing the song during playback,
and then adding the auto volume
levelling information after the song has played all the way through. Clever, innit?
In
the ‘Crossfading and auto volume levelling’ window, click ‘Turn on Auto volume levelling’ so that Windows Media Player automatically adjusts
the volume level between songs
to make them more similar.
SRS Wow Effects
These allow you to enhance the lowfrequency bass and stereo sound performance (i.e. panning between left and right channels). The options
here are pretty straightforward.
Move the TruBass slider to the left to reduce
the low-frequency effect, and move it
to the right to boost the low-frequency sounds.
SRS
Wow Effects
Move the WOW Effect slider to the left to
decrease the stereo sound performance
and move it to the right to increase it. This enhancement creates more of a surround sound kind of effect.
You can have SRS Wow optimised for your
speaker type by clicking the text in
the top-left with the arrow next to it. Choose from normal speakers, headphones or large speakers.
Dolby
Digital Settings
These settings are similar to the speaker type setting in the SRS Wow effects. However,
these settings only affect Dolby
Digital content, which is great for remastered music or live bands. Within this menu you can choose from three
different presets:
·
Normal: Reduces entire range of Dolby Digital for quieter
playback.
·
Night: Boosts dialogue while toning down other sounds. Good for
laptops.
·
Theatre: Increases dynamic range of all sounds for more dramatic
differences between soft and loud sounds and a fuller listening experience.
Dolby
Digital Settings
It’s down to what works best with the type of
music you’re listening to and your
stereo/PC setup.
Top WMP
Plug-ins
Plug-ins add and enhance an otherwise standard
bit of software. Here are some of our
favourite WMP plug-ins:
·
Lyrics Plug-in (bit.ly/IUqhGd): Now you can see
what Bob Dylan was actually singing.
·
Last.fm Scrobbler (bit.ly/JDF3lL): Add the music
you listen to into your Last.fm
profile.
·
WMPKeys (bit.ly/L2TwW8): Edit those shortcut keys
for WMP.
·
DFX Audio Enhancer (bit.ly/L6cMrW): Tweak your
sound settings even further.
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Keyboard Shortcuts
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Alt+1
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Video size 50%
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Alt+2
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Video size 100%
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Alt+3
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Video size 200%
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Alt+Enter
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Toggle display for full-screen video
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Ctrl+1
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Switch to Player Library
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Ctrl+2
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Switch to skin mode
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Ctrl+3
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Switch to Now Playing mode
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Ctrl+7
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Add to playlist
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Ctrl+8
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Add to burn list
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Ctrl+9
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Add to sync list
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Ctrl+B
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Previous (item or chapter)
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Ctrl+F
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Next (item or chapter)
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Ctrl+H
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Turn shuffle on or off
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Ctrl+J
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Eject CD or DVD (this doesn’t work on computers equipped
with two or more CD or DVD disc drives)
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Ctrl+M
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In the Player Library, show or hide the menu bar
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Ctrl+N
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Create a new playlist
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Ctrl+Shift+B
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Restart video
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F4
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Switch the view of items In the details pane
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Shift+F10
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Show shortcut menu
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