Playing Audio CDs

Playing an audio CD in Windows Media Player is almost like playing it on any conventional CD player: insert disc, close drive, enjoy music. The almost has to do with your CD (or DVD) drive’s AutoPlay settings. As described in , you can configure the way your drive responds to the insertion of various kinds of discs. If you have set up your system so that the AutoPlay application for music CDs is Windows Media Player, Media Player starts playing your disc more or less the moment you insert it (provided it’s not busy doing something else).

For more information about setting AutoPlay options, see "Changing the AutoPlay Behavior for a CD or DVD Drive."

If Windows Media Player is not the AutoPlay application for music CDs, when you insert a CD, start Windows Media Player, and then click the Play button. Windows Media Player will begin playing the first item in the current playlist—which might or might not be your CD. (For more information about playlists, see "Working with Playlists.") If Windows Media Player starts playing something other than your CD, click Stop. Then follow these steps:

1. Open the Playlist control, near the upper right corner of Windows Media Player, as shown in Figure 17-1.

2. Select your CD (it should be at the top of the list).

3. Click the Play button; press Ctrl+P; or choose Play, Play/Pause.

   
   

   Figure 17-1. The Playlist control is always visible in Windows Media Player’s full mode.
   

Windows Media Player’s playback controls, shown in Figure 17-2, look and function like those on common consumer devices, such as CD players and video cassette recorders. The Play button becomes a Pause button while Windows Media Player is playing. The Mute button is a toggle; click one time for silence, a second time for music. The Next and Previous buttons move ahead and back one item within the current playlist. You can drag the slider in the Seek control to move to a different place within the item that’s currently playing. So, for example, to start the current track over again, you would drag the Seek slider all the way to the left.

Figure 17-2. Windows Media Player uses playback controls like those of other consumer devices.

Windows Media Player skips when you play a CD.

If you get "skippy" performance, try switching your CD drive to analog playback. Choose Tools, Options and then click the Devices tab. Select your CD drive and click Properties. In the Playback section of the properties dialog box, select Analog. If this doesn’t solve the problem, select Digital again, and then try selecting Use Error Correction (in the same dialog box).

Windows Media Player plays through the current playlist in order, once, unless you turn on Shuffle or Repeat (or both):

• If you turn on Shuffle by clicking the Shuffle button, by pressing Ctrl+H, or by choosing Play, Shuffle, Windows Media Player moves through the playlist in a random order.

• If you choose Repeat by pressing Ctrl+T or by choosing Play, Repeat, Windows Media Player plays the current playlist continuously—that is, it repeats the playlist each time it finishes the final track.

Because Windows Media Player generates a different random sequence each time you start the program, the shuffle order will be different each time you insert a CD. But if you repeat the CD multiple times in a given listening session, you’ll shuffle through the tracks in the same sequence each time. To deliberately change the shuffle order, turn shuffle off and then turn it on again.

While a CD is playing, the best seat in Windows Media Player’s house is Now Playing (click Now Playing in the taskbar or choose View, Taskbar, Now Playing). There you can enjoy visualizations, see what tracks are coming up in the current playlist, view information about the current album, and more.

If the playlist is not displayed along the right edge of Now Playing, click the Playlist button or choose View, Now Playing Tools, Show Playlist. If the playlist is displayed, you can switch to a different track by double-clicking the track.

Your computer slows down while CDs are playing.

Visualizations might have a noticeable impact on system performance on some older computers. If your other programs slow down while you play CDs, choose View, Now Playing Tools. If Show Visualizations is checked, choose this command to turn visualizations off.

Viewing Media Information and Album Art

If you’re connected to the Internet, Windows Media Player can search the All Music Group (AMG) Web site (http://www.allmusic.com) for information about the CD you’re currently playing. To see what it finds, choose View, Now Playing Tools, Media Information. The album art that appears is an Internet link. If you click it, you’ll arrive at a Buy Now page, where you can do just that.

Windows Media Player doesn’t show media information.

If displaying Media Information in Windows Media Player doesn’t show such information as track titles in the Media Information window or in the playlist, try ejecting the CD and reloading it. Also, remember that you must be connected to the Internet to retrieve media information for a CD.

Album art, once retrieved from the Internet, is cached on your computer. Thereafter, even if you’re no longer online, you can display the album art in the visualization area of Now Playing. To do this, choose View, Visualizations, Album Art. Here, too, the art itself becomes a link to AMG. Figure 17-3 shows Now Playing with album art in the visualization area.

Figure 17-3. Windows Media Player can show album art that it retrieved from the Internet in the visualization area, even after you’ve logged off.

Using the Graphic Equalizer and SRS WOW Effects

Windows Media Player includes a 10-band graphic equalizer with numerous preset equalizer settings. To adjust the balance of the various frequency bands in your playback, click Now Playing (if you’re not there already). Then choose View, Now Playing Tools, Graphic Equalizer. If the frequency sliders appear dark, turn the equalizer on by clicking the Off button to toggle it on. Figure 17-4 shows the graphic equalizer.

Figure 17-4. Windows Media Player’s graphic equalizer includes presets for many different kinds of music.

To choose one of the preset equalizer settings, click the Select Preset button, as shown in Figure 17-4, and make a selection from the menu that appears. To create your own custom setting, drag one or more frequency-band sliders upward or downward. When you drag a slider, other sliders might move with it, depending on which of the three options stacked to the left of the sliders is selected. For example, to move one slider without affecting any others, click the top slider option. To change the distribution of sound between your left and right speakers, drag the Balance slider.

If your sound equipment can take advantage of SRS WOW settings, you can control them in Windows Media Player. To learn more about SRS WOW Effects, which can provide a 3-D sound experience from only two speakers, click the SRS button to open the SRS Labs Web site. To access the effects, choose View, Now Playing Tools, SRS WOW Effects. If the controls are unavailable and you see an Off button, click the button to toggle the effects on. With SRS WOW Effects on, you can select the kind of speakers you’re using (normal, large, or headphones), adjust TruBass, and adjust WOW Effect.