Resources

Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player is the built-in media utility for Windows computers. With this utility, you can easily “rip” audio tracks from a music CD onto your computer. Once ripped, the songs become music files that you can play on your computer. Being able to rip songs onto your computer frees you from having to insert the appropriate CD into your CD drive whenever you want to listen to music.

How to Rip Music CDs in Media Player

First, launch Media Player by going to Start> All Programs> Windows Media Player. Next, connect to the Internet if you aren’t already connected. This allows Media Player to retrieve additional information such as artist information, album art, and so on.

Insert a CD into the CD drive. Allow a few seconds for Media Player to recognize the CD and then click on the Rip tab. These tabs are located across the top of the screen with labels such as: Now Playing, Library, Rip, Burn, Sync, and Guide.

Media Player will automatically begin copying (ripping) the files from the CD to your computer unless you have changed the settings to prevent this. If your Media Player does not automatically begin the ripping process, you will need to manually click the Rip Music button. You can control which tracks are ripped by removing the check mark in the box next to the track. You can also stop ripping by clicking the Stop Rip button. Resume by clicking Start Rip.

The music files will then be accessible via the Library tab as well as stored locally on your computer in your Music folder by default. If you want to change Media Player’s settings (such as default file destination, automatic ripping, audio quality, and music file format) click the Rip tab and then click the More Options choice in the menu that appears. From there, go to the Rip Music> Rip Settings section and make the desired changes.

iTunes Video Requirements

There are a few reasons why you can no longer watch videos from iTunes - one of them may be memory, but then again, maybe not. Do you have Windows XP Service Pack 2? That is another requirement for viewing videos. Here are the requirements for viewing iTunes video on Windows:

• 2.0 GHz Processor
• 512 MB of RAM
• 32 MB of video RAM
• Quicktime 7.1.3
• Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Vista.

If you have all of those requirements on your computer, there are still a few things you can try to prevent the videos from skipping.

DirectX

You can try to change your video acceleration options in DirectX. Get into QuickTime Preferences. Go to Advanced and find the DirectX section. Uncheck all boxes that are related to video acceleration.

ZoneAlarm or other Firewalls

It’s possible that some of your security settings are blocking the proper download of iTunes videos. Make sure that these are allowed websites in your firewall program and that your security settings aren’t too high. ZoneAlarm in particular has been known to cause these kinds of “jerking” issues.

Uninstall and Reinstall iTunes and QuickTime

If everything else is set correctly, you can uninstall and reinstall both iTunes and Quicktime and see if this helps. Your songs and videos should be stored in your My Music files and shouldn’t be affected.

1. Go to Start and then Control Panel. Go to Add/Remove Programs. Select iTunes and Remove. Do not restart your computer at this point.
2. Remove any iPod updates that you see here. Now restart the computer.
3. Go to the disk that your programs are stored on - this is probably the C drive.
4. Go to Program Folder. If you see an iTunes folder, delete it. You may not see it if your previous delete was successful. Do the same with any iPod folders.
5. Empty the recycle bin and then reinstall the iTunes download.

To uninstall QuickTime, follow the steps above, only delete anything related to QuickTime. After you delete the folders, if any, you need to go to: C:\Windows\system 32\ and look for QuickTime and QuickTimeVR files and delete them. Now get the Quicktime download and install it.

Once you have your system requirements in place, one of these solutions should help you get better resolution when running iTunes videos.

Ah, sisters. You can try to reset the password so that your youngest daughter will be able to access the iPod. If that doesn’t work, then you can restore the iPod so that it will revert to the way it was when you got it. Restoring the iPod will erase all of the songs, so only use that if you don’t care about what’s on it.

Reset Password

Plug in the iPod and wait for it to load. Open My Computer and make sure you can view hidden files. (If you can’t, go to Start-Control Panel-Folder Options-View to view hidden files.) Go to iPod_control. Find the folder called Device. You will probably see a file_locked. Rename it file_unlocked. Remove your iPod and it should be unlocked and you should be able to add songs to it.

Restore iPod

In order to restore your iPod to the factory settings, you will need the newest version of iTunes on your computer. Follow these directions:

1. Open iTunes and connect the iPod to the computer using the USB cable or FireWire that came with the iPod. You won’t be asked for a password as long as this is the same computer you synched it with in the first place.
2. You should see your iPod in the Source panel in iTunes. Select your iPod and see the information on the summary tab.
3. Click Restore. You may see one or more restore options. Pick the one you want using either the same version that is currently on the iPod, or you can choose to restore using the latest version available.
4. Once you start the restore process, you will see a progress bar on the screen. Keep the iPod connected to the computer and you will see a settings procedure where you will name the iPod and choose your preferences.
5. Once the restore is done, you should have a brand spanking new disk to work with.

Hopefully, this will get the right daughter up and running again. Make sure she keeps the iPod to herself from now on.

It should be easy to shuffle just the songs in a particular playlist on your Zune. There are two ways to do it - the first is to just pick a playlist, select a song and while it is playing, press the center button. It will say ‘Shuffle Off’. Click on it and it will turn on. You can also go to Main Menu, Settings and choose Shuffle. The Zune treats songs and albums virtually the same, so if you shuffle a song, it will also shuffle the album.

If you find that your playlist isn’t shuffled enough, without leaving the screen, toggle the Shuffle on and off several times and it will continue to shuffle the shuffled list.

Create a Playlist

You probably know how to create a playlist, but it doesn’t hurt to go over the process. You can either do it as an autoplaylist where it is sorted by particular criteria, or as a manual playlist. To create an autoplaylist while you are in the Zune software, go to Collection and Playlists. Select New Auto Playlist. Enter the playlist name and then use drop-down menus to select the criteria. If you manually enter the criteria, you need to be sure they are separated by a ; . To create a manual playlist, go to Collection, Music and Playlists. Drag songs and albums to your playlist icon. Click New Playlist and name it.

Now you need to sync the Zune to the software on your PC. Once it’s synced, you will see your playlist on the player. If you want to add songs to the playlist, you will need to delete it from the player, add the new songs to the playlist on the PC and then resync it in order to get the updated playlist. Know that people have reported problems if they keep more than 2,000 songs in one playlist.

There is talk that Microsoft is going to be coming out with a “Smart Shuffle”, where the user can set a shuffle option based on meta data and tags so that you can shuffle by artist or genre.

Zune Tips

Before you sync your Zune, make sure your mp3 files are tagged with the artist, album and genre. In the Zune software, you right click on an album to adjust the tags. You can also use a tagging software download such as mp3 tag.

Make sure that you are using the latest Zune software downloads. Check the website often so that everything is up to date.

Make sure you are using mp3 files rather than WMA files because they are more universal. Go to Settings, Rip Menu and then Set Format. Set it to mp3 and the bit rate to 256 Kbps.

If you are having an issue with your Zune, you can always try a reboot to see of that will fix it. Hold the small back button on the left and then hold the Zune pad for about two seconds to get it to reboot. This should not change any of your playlists or settings.

Hopefully, this answered your question. If you need further assistance, let us know.

It sounds like you either don’t have Java running or that you have a version that is old. The easiest thing to do in this situation is to go to the website and do a new installation.

Java

Java is a programming language that was originally developed by Sun Microsystems that is used in many applications on the web, allowing you to play games, chat with other people and view images. YouTube interacts with the Java client library in order to run many videos. You can get the free Java install by clicking on the link. Download Java to a file or to your desktop and then open in and install it on your system.

Adobe FlashPlayer

YouTube uses the Adobe FlashPlayer in order to run videos. If you are having problems, it is a good idea to uninstall any older versions of FlashPlayer and reinstall the latest version. The only way to uninstall FlashPlayer is to go to the Adobe FlashPlayer Uninstaller, and save it to a file or desktop. You must close everything, including the Internet in order to run the uninstaller. Once you have uninstalled any old versions, go back to Adobe and use the Adobe FlashPlayer Installer.

Enable Java Applets

Once you have everything you need on your system, you need to be sure that your system has enabled Java Script.

1. Get into your Internet browser.
2. Go to Tools and then Internet Options.
3. Choose the Security tab and then Custom Level.
4. Scroll down to Scripting. Find “Enable for Active Scripting and Scripting of Java Applets” and select it.
5. Click Ok. You may need to confirm.

Clear the Temporary Internet Files

If you still can’t play videos, you may need to delete your temporary Internet files. To do this:

1. Go to Start and choose Control Panel.
2. Choose Internet Options. Find the General Tab and then choose Temporary Internet Files.
3. Choose Delete Files. Select “Delete all offline content”. Click Ok.

Firewall

It doesn’t sound like this is your problem, but sometimes your firewall can block websites like YouTube. If this is the case, you need to make sure that YouTube is an allowed site in your firewall in order to view videos.

I think that downloading the latest versions of Java and FlashPlayer and enabling Java Script will stop this error from popping up and allow you to view videos on the site.

I am having problems with Windows Media Player 11. It will not connect to the Internet to update album information. I have checked that I have access allowed in my Windows firewall but every time I try it tells me I need to connect to the Internet to access the information.

Troubleshooting Windows Media Player Internet Connection Settings

Enable Media Player to Work Online

There are a few well-known fixes when it comes to getting Windows Media Player synced up to access online information. First of all, make sure that your Media Player is configured to access the Internet, rather than set to work offline. With Media Player open, click the File tab, then find the listing called Work Offline and make sure that it is not selected.

Enable Media Player to Connect to the Internet

Next, make sure that your Media Player isn’t set to block attempts to connect to the Internet. With Windows Media Player open, click the Tools tab, then selection Options. Now choose the Player tab, then make sure that the box next to Connect to the Internet is checked to enable the player to go online.

Run the Media Player Connection Wizard

If this fails, there is also an Internet Connection Wizard that you can launch. The wizard will run an application to troubleshoot your Internet connection and get the Player set up online. Click the Start button, then clicking Run and then type icwconn1.exe into the text box and click OK. If the Internet Connection Wizard offers any advice, follow the steps provided to resolve the issue.

Update your Album Information in Windows Media Player

To update your album information using Windows Vista, first open Windows Media Player and select an album to update by opening it. Run your cursor over the track listings to select all tracks and then right click your mouse so that the menu opens. Scroll down and choose Find Album Info, this will open a Media Player Wizard that you can use to find the information you want and update your albums. The Wizard will offer to look for information if all the tracks are from the same album, or if they might be from different albums, choose the appropriate answer and then click Next.

Narrow you Search Results

If the search doesn’t find any results, look under Existing Information for the album and then choose Edit. Manually enter the info that you do know to help the search narrow down the possibilities. Then try the steps above again and check if the wizard has more luck locating and updating your album information.