Advantages and Disadvantages of Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player (WMP) is a type of player that comes pre-installed with the Windows operating system. It can play audio and video files. The Windows Media Player is coming since the launch of Windows 95. The user interface of the Windows Media Player was last time updated with Windows 7.

Some pros and cons of Windows Media Player are described below:-

Advantages of Windows Media Player (WMP)

Here are some advantages of Windows Media Player:-

1. It can play CDs and DVDs without needing any third-party software.
2. It has Mini Player as well. There are various styles of Mini Player available.
3. Basic editing of audio and video can also be done in this media player.
4. Subtitles are also displayed on the video if the corresponding subtitle files are available.
5. This player is available to all Windows users with no extra fees.
6. Additional skins can be downloaded from the internet which can change the media player appearance.
7. It can support many audio and video formats e.g. MP3, AVI and WMV.
8. Other features of this media player are crossfade and gapless playback for an efficient listening experience.
9. It has an attractive user interface which helps beginners to use the player easily.
10. This player comes with an advanced visualization feature by which music playing becomes entertaining.
11. Creating playlists and tagging files is also enabled in this media player.
12. Controlling playback speed of audio and video files is also embedded in the Windows Media Player.
13. Media files can be organized via metadata which makes it easy to locate videos/audio.
14. Streaming media via local network can be done by this media player.
15. Creating/burning audio and videos into CDs/DVDs is another feature of Windows Media Player.

Disadvantages of Windows Media Player (WMP)

Here are some disadvantages of Windows Media Player:-

1. Some media files are not supported by WMP.
2. WMP is only available on the Windows operating system.
3. Cloud integration is not supported which means you cannot sync music on different devices.
4. Some playback features are not supported e.g. HDR support, 4K playback and 360-degree playback.
5. The new version of Windows cannot download skins from Microsoft’s official website because skins are discontinued to download but you can download from third-party websites.
6. Sometimes it slows down your computer while playing large-size files.
7. There is no built-in equalizer that can make it harder to fine-tune audio files.
8. Streaming files from a local network is possible but streaming media from the internet is not the best choice.
9. If any media file format is not supported then it is required to download third-party codecs.
10. The Windows development team is not working on new updates to Windows Media Player which is limiting improvements in WMP.