WMP issue, I hope this is the right forum.

[Saknussem]

Hi all,
I am not sure if this is the correct forum for this, but as the problem is media related, in terms of software, I thought to ask here for help. Thank you.
My wife has some new version of WMP on her notebook, and whenever she goes off NOW PLAYING, the screen goes dark. What the HECK is going on there? Can she adjust this? What is this called? What sheepbrain had the idiocy to make it so you can't see your own monitor? Also, how can I simply get to the controls for WMP now? I LOVED WMP 9.0. It was, simply, the best they made. But it wasn't broken, so they went ahead and fixed it. Idiots. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Sak
P.S. Please don't just tell me to remove WMP and get something else. I want to try to fix this. Thanks again.

[warty goblin]

'Some new version' doesn't give one a lot to go on, could you post version number?. In the meantime since you said it started after updating, try uninstalling Windows Media Player, then downloading the full installer for the most recent version from the MIcrosoft website.

[Mando Knight]

We'd also need to know make/manufacturer of the lappity-toppity-box, the OS, and the amount of RAM you have... sometimes it's a hardware issue...

...And sometimes it's a weird setting on the computer itself. Check your sleep mode settings and the preferences on WMP itself.

[raitalin]

A little off-topic, but I'm curious as I haven't used WMP since like, 2001. Even when I was still running Windows.

Did it ever stop sucking horribly? I *always* found better music/video players when I was running Win (whether Winamp, Soniq, Sonic Foundry Jukebox (Which was my favorite, and they stopped making) RealPlayer, Quicktime etc., etc.)

Now I use VLC (which is awesome) and rhythmbox (Which I'm not entirely satisfied with) but I'm curious as to wheather WMP is still the most unwieldy and incompatible media player available.

[Saknussem]

Hi again,
She has a nice HP notebook, uses XP, and it is WMP 11. I am sure there is some setting, somewhere, in WMP that is making the screen darken.

[Jack Squat]

Are the video drivers updated? Can you download another program (be it VLC or Winamp or whatever) to see if it's an isolated problem? Have you tried uninstalling WMP and reinstalling an older version?

[Renegade Paladin]

I *always* found better music/video players when I was running Win (whether Winamp, Soniq, Sonic Foundry Jukebox (Which was my favorite, and they stopped making) RealPlayer, Quicktime etc., etc.)

People actually use RealPlayer? A worse media player I have never found, and it's practically spyware in how determined it is to not be uninstalled.

[magellan]

People actually use RealPlayer? A worse media player I have never found, and it's practically spyware in how determined it is to not be uninstalled.

A long long time ago, when people wondered if they should switch to windows 98, realplayer was a nice little piece of software. Today however your description is acurate

[AstralFire]

Windows Media is pretty decent, and it's my preferred music player.

RealPlayer is terrible.

[raitalin]

A long long time ago, when people wondered if they should switch to windows 98, realplayer was a nice little piece of software. Today however your description is acurate

Yep, that's about the era I used Realplayer and it didn't last long. Mostly I've used VLC and GStreamer since the turn of the century, with a little Quicktaime on my ex's Mac.

As far as the OP's question: maybe it has something to do with the visualization options?

[AstralFire]

Now Playing is the visualization. You would think the issue would strike there.

[JaxGaret]

I'm going to chime in with my personal recommendation for a non-WMP video player: KMPlayer. It never fails to amaze me how much better it is than any other video player, whether it be in terms of visual quality, features, ease of use, speed etc.