Microsoft is making changes to Windows Media Player on Windows 7

[The AchieVer]

Microsoft is making changes to Windows Media Player on Windows 7

 

 

Windows Media Player is no longer an essential addition to Windows and there are quality third-party alternatives, such as VLC Media Player. Microsoft’s offers the Films & TV app in Windows 10 as an alternative to Windows Media Player, but the legacy player remains the default player on Windows 7 devices.

Today, we spotted a new support documentwhich was quietly published yesterday and it has revealed that Microsoft is retiring a feature that is being used in Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player.

 

According to the support document dated January 26, 2019, Microsoft is retiring the ability to view information (metadata) in Windows Media Player on Windows 7 PCs and Windows Media Center on Windows 7, 8.1 and 8 PCs. Windows Media Player remains unaffected from this changes on Windows 10 devices.

Microsoft says that you can no longer view information (metadata) such as the title, genre, and artist for songs for movies in Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player. Microsoft is discontinuing this service after analyzing the feedback from consumers and the usage data.

“This means that new metadata won’t be updated on media players that are installed on your Windows device,” Microsoft explains. However, for some reasons, the feature appears to be still available on PCs running Windows 10.

 

It’s important to note that any information that has already been download won’t be removed and this change apparently doesn’t affect any key features such as playback, media streaming.

 

 

Source

[mp68terr]

Less features in win7 to push people to use win10!

[Karlston]

*** Reported by me as duplicate/similar *** Sorry folks...

 

Microsoft revealed plans on Friday to turn off the metadata service for certain media product and operating system combinations.

 

The company maintains two media products right now that ship with various versions of the Windows operating system; Windows Media Center, only available in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, and Windows Media Player, available in all supported versions of Windows.

 

Both programs may use the metadata service to retrieve information about media from Microsoft servers. If a song is playing, the metadata service might retrieve the title, artist or genre of the song, or cover art. Movie and TV show metadata may include actor and director names, or genre.

 

Microsoft plans to shut down the metadata service for Windows Media Center entirely. The company did not include Windows Media Center in Windows 10 (but you may get it to install), which it released in 2015, and it was clear right then and there that the multimedia player would be on its way out.

 

 

Windows 7 users who run Windows Media Player will also have to do without the metadata service; Microsoft will shut down the service for Windows Media Player running on Windows 7 going forward but not for Windows Media Player running on Windows 8, 8.1 or 10.

 

The following table highlights how different operating systems are affected.

 

Windows Media version	Operating system	Affected by this change?
Windows Media Center
	Windows 8.1	Yes
	Windows 8	Yes
	Windows 7	Yes
Windows Media Player
	Windows 10	No
	Windows 8.1	No
	Windows 8	No
	Windows 7	Yes

 

Microsoft notes that existing metadata will remain available in the player (metadata that was downloaded already) and that the termination won't affect primary features of either media player. Some features, those that rely on metadata, may be affected, however.

 

Why is Microsoft making the change?

 

According to Microsoft, the decision was made based on customer feedback and usage data.

After looking at customer feedback and usage data, Microsoft decided to discontinue this service. This means that new metadata won’t be updated on media players that are installed on your Windows device.

Closing Words

Windows customers who use Windows Media Center on all supported versions of Windows or Windows Media Player on Windows 7, won't be able to update or download metadata from Microsoft's metadata service anymore going forward.

 

It is unclear why Microsoft made the decision to terminate the metadata service this year and not next. Windows 7 runs out of support in January 2020; terminating the service then would certainly sit better with customers who use the service.

 

You can check out our Windows Media Center alternatives article to find a suitable media player that continues to support metadata.

 

Source: Changes to Windows Media Center and Player Metadata service (gHacks - Martin Brinkmann)

[Reefa]

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