So, why do we hate Windows Media Player 9 again? I’m not sure anymore.

I’m all for the daily MicroShaft bashing. At one point in the past, I got sick of Windows Media Player, and decided to rip and convert my CDs to Ogg Vorbis. Even with a fast machine, and a fast CD drives, this takes time.

I recently did a reinstall on my new computer, and just did a restore of my old one; which also included the WMP9 upgrade on both. The ease of use from a “Copy From CD” standpoint, especially when you can just pop in a couple of CDs, let it rip them, then swap in a couple more, seems a lot quicker than using CDEX and some of the other “open” formats and rippers.

Maybe it was the DRM crap? Or was the substandard MP3 quailty crap? Who knows. I can rip .WMA files with the copy protection turned off, and play them on my other Windblows boxes. So what’s the downside again?

Maybe it’s just faster ripping to WMA because it has better hooks into Direct*, and my Audigy2 card drivers. Either way. I think I might start [and finally finish] ripping my CDs to WMA format and be done with it.

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