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Old 29th April 2007, 06:08   #75  |  Link
burfadel
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,229
I think Media Player Classic has two problems. The first being there's a large proportion of people that think its the old normal Windows Media Player, so they think why use that when I can use WMP 11 etc. A rename to MPC may help.

The second issue, and this is an important one as well, people are seriously put off by the interface. It needs to be updated to a modern styling and not one thats from Windows 3.1/95 days. The new interface won't take the spirit away from the programme, that is a very compact, fast, reliable media player, whilst attracting more people to use it. Many people don't use it just because the interface is um... ultra bland? to put it nicely. A revised interface, graphical shaded play buttons, smooth gradient colour etc thats adjustable will go a long way and won't add too much to the code if done correctly, nor would it slow it down.

Something along the lines of the 'revert' or 'corporate' skin on WMP11, but more updated because I'm sure people have good artistic taste! Some Vista styling would help too!

A version change to 6.5 could be done for this. There's no reason for keeping it at 6.4.9.0. There's so many versions going around called 6.4.9.0 its quite well, silly.

All these changes don't take away from the spirit of the programme and will keep it alive in the future. Failure to update the name, version numbering, and most importantly the interface will mean the programme will slowly die and only a few people who have been using it for a while will remain to use it.

The sooner this is done the better, as if you leave it too long even current users will revert to other media players, inferior or not, and the process of a dying programme project will begion!

Other things that need changing are the progamme dialogue boxes, such as the setup stuff, just needs a little modernising.

The other issue is using wildcards when opening a programme. Normally in the open file dialogue in other media players and programmes when you use a wildcard. ie. *traders* it will show all media files or other files with the word or part thereof of 'traders' in it. In MPC, it will open these files, some of which you may not want. This should be changed!

I hope I didn't sound too negative, I just want this to a be a successful programme for a long time and in its current state, especially with the interface and name, it won't be.
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