Beta WMP9

The Windows Media 9 beta is available here, if you fancy trying it. Features include multi-channel audio, "lossless audio", and video smoothing. Lossless audio works like Shorten (shn) files. Video smoothing can produce amazing results if you have a narrowband connection and a high-powered Pentium 4: it doesn't just play what arrives, it tries to interpolate missing frames on the fly. Obviously 5.1 audio requires a PC with a compatible sound card and five home cinema-style loudspeakers. However, WMP is integrated into the operating system, and there is no way of uninstalling it. You are warned to create a system restore point before intalling it, so you can "roll back" to that point to remove it.