Re: media players

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From: Philip Newton
Subject: Re: media players
Date: 12:51 on 29 Sep 2003
On 29 Sep 2003 at 11:51, Simon Wistow wrote:

> Media players are a simple concept. Files comes in, choose codec based 
> on magic, play file through codec.
> 
> IT'S REALLY NOT THAT DIFFICULT.

Oh, and what about the user interface? In Windows 95, the media player 
was a little application with a title bar and windows default colours 
and a slider and some buttons.

Now, it's some sort of monstrosity that's not even rectangular and has 
funky tabs and stuff.

Other players aren't much better; they tend to come in funny oval or 
rounded-corner or blob-shaped default skins, and if they're skinnable, 
the most popular ones don't look much better, either. (Let's not even 
mention how some of them seem to think they must look like a car radio, 
hifi deck, or other hardware player.)

Is there anything fantastically wrong with just playing the audio or 
video clip? An application that looks like 90% of the other $PLATFORM 
applications should be able to do the job equally well -- and the user 
can transfer his UI knowledge to this application.

This seems to be a common theme that runs right through all media 
players, so yes, I'm an equal opportunity hater here, too.

Cheers,
Philip
-- 
Philip Newton <pnewton@xxx.xx>

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