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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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