Put Your Favorite Media Player on Its Best Behavior.

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Author: Spanbauer, Scott

INTERNET TIPS

PLUMBING, STREET sweepers, your PC's media players, bicycle chains: What do they have in common? We take them for granted--as long as they're working properly. Follow these tips to make sure your media player does things your way.

IN GENERAL, I'M ALL for alternatives to Microsoft products, but if you don't use an IPod, and you like having some choices when shopping for media files online, Windows Media Player 10 (find.pcworld.com/48424) is a great fit for you. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (find.pcworld.com/48198) may be correct in thinking that digital rights management is a bad idea, but Microsoft's new player makes it a pretty easy evil to live with. Nevertheless, you should keep a few things in mind to avoid DRM hassles.

First, be sure to back up your licenses. When you purchase an audio or video file through one of the services in WMP 10's list of online stores, it will probably come encrypted and accompanied by a digital rights license. Without the license, you can't play the file. Backing up your media licenses lets you restore files that become corrupted, and lets you move the files to another PC. Reinstalling Windows or changing your PC's hardware may invalidate the licenses on your PC, making a backup a must. To create a copy of your licenses in Windows Media Player 10, right-click the player's toolbar and select Show Menu Bar. Choose Tools·Manage Licenses, click Change to select the destination folder or device for your license backup, choose OK, and then click Back Up Now.

To restore backed-up licenses, reopen the Manage licenses dialog box and click Restore Now, but do this only if you really have to--Microsoft limits the number of times you can restore licenses, and the number of PCs you can transfer licenses to (see the company's license FAQ at find.pcworld.com/48200 for the details).

Second, to avoid the DRM license hassle altogether when you rip your own CDs (or copy tracks to your hard disk), make sure that Windows Media Player doesn't do any encrypting. To disable automatic encryption, choose Tools·Options, select the Rip Music tab, and uncheck Copy protect music. Alternatively, you may choose mp3 in the Format list as the audio format you're ripping to--unlike previous versions, Windows Media Player 10 includes an MP3 encoder. Click OK to finish.

IF YOU ENJOY the diversity of Internet radio, you might use AOL subsidiary Nullsoft's Winamp 5.09 player (find.pcworld.com/48202). Besides being highly configurable (with skins and plug-ins galore available at winamp.com/plugins), Nullsoft's Shoutcast service puts a wealth of Internet radio and TV streams at your disposal. Unfortunately, Winamp's Internet TV selection may be a little too wide-ranging for some people; Among the Radiohead videos, pirate reruns, and eastern European news stations, you're likely to find more than a smattering of hard-core porn.

To return your version of Winamp to a PG rating, choose Options·Preferences, select Media Library under General Preferences in the left panel, select the Online Media tab, and click Specify Ratings under the 'Internet TV Ratings Preferences' subheading. Now simply uncheck the types of videos you don't want to see in Winamp (see FIGURE 1). When you're done, click OK and Close. To cleanse the Media Library of all traces of objectionable material, select Recent Items, right-click an item in the list, choose Select All, and then press Delete to clear the list. Doing this in the Recently Played list removes those items from Winamp's Media Library listing, but not from your system's hard drive.

Send your questions and tips to nettips@spanbauer.com. We pay $50 for published items. Go to find.pcworld.com/31523 for more Internet Tips. Scott Spanbauer is a contributing editor for PC World.

FIGURE 1: MAKE THE WINAMP media player safe for children and teens by checking these settings under 'Online Media'.

NO MATTER HOW many video players you have on your PC, you'll occasionally want to convert a video file from one format to another-say, from QuickTime's.mov to MPEG. Though lots of commercial programs can perform such conversions, The RAD Video Tools, a utility created by RAD Game Tools (find.pcworld.com/48204), does the job for free.

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By Scott Spanbauer