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Microsoft has some good news for the audiophiles of the world, Windows 10 will have native support for FLAC audio files. The primary advantage of a FLAC file over something like an MP3 is that the Free Lossless Audio Codec doesn't lose any data in compression, resulting in higher sound quality.
Most people won't use FLAC files as they are often much larger than a compressed MP3 file and require specialized software in order to play as standard media players like iTunes and Windows Media Player don't support it. Previously, those who wanted to listen to FLAC files would have to convert them or use something like VLC Media Player.
In addition to native FLAC support, Windows 10 will also support MKV files out of the box with Microsoft's own media player. However, most people will have likely got used to downloading a third party application like GOM or VLC by now so there is no telling if this will boost the popularity of the Windows Media Player or not.
This information was announced by Microsoft's Gabriel Aul on Twitter on two separate occasions. You can view his tweets here and here.
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KitGuru Says: It's good to see Microsoft adding in native support for popular file types. However, I do wonder if it will make a difference to those who have moved on to third part applications for movies and music. Do any of you guys still use the Windows Media Player? Do you have a preferred third-party program?
well…. that is ONE TINY step in the right direction. What about native support for USB 2 audio. Something Apple has done for what 5 years now? Many high end dacs require USB 2 audio. So many DAC companies are forced to use USB 1.1 audio or try to make proprietary USB 2 audio drivers that are often glitchy and a pain to get working. I understand perfectly that that high end dacs, or even entry level dacs, usb 2 audio, and stuff like DSD is super super niche, but it is something companies like apple supported a long long time ago. And no I am not an apple fan other than my iphone (which DOESN’T natively support flac!!!). I know. I know. such a hard life for spoiled audiophiles.
they should just bake VLC into windows
They never should have dropped support for Windows Media Center…… I am glad I grabbed it with Windows 8 before that happened
I only use Windows Media Player, I find no need to install another program like it.
VLC everyday….
But media player classic is better.
on what planet?
Windows should integrate Smooth video project.
Also, they need to reintegrate DVD playback and bring blu-ray playback as well.
The one where people have eyes
EVERY planet.
>theres still people that use VLC
those poor bastards.
K-Lite Codec Pack Mega forever. 😀
I always used Media Monkey for the Music collection, still good news to hear that Microsoft is going to add FLAC and MKV support. To bad they wouldn’t include Windows Media Center with Windows 10, and not have it as a separate purchase like they did with Windows 8.
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VLC will always be used, no matter what other media player I have.
Just said that in my post above or below, that’s just one more reason to love Windows 7 even more.
Your absolutely right on that one.
Media Player Classic Home Cinema + ffdshow + MadVR + Reclock for Video is the best setup.
Foobar2000 for audio due to the simply crazy amount of formats it can support and also with Shpeck you can run milkdrop on it for the best visualizations around =)
VLC is great if you don’t care about quality and are just running it on a school/work computer to show something quickly but the quality for video is simply awful and it’s not very powerful as an audio player.
Yeah it’s great as a portable media player to watch videos at work/school/friends place who doesn’t have anything other than WMP but compared to a proper setup the quality is awful.
No need except for high quality video filtering and framerate locking and subtitle support and a codec library and proper MP4/MKV support.
Out of those mentioned, only the subtitles would be nice for me, but meh, never really needed them.
And MP4 support? I see MP4 videos just fine.
(also, do I smell sarcasm?)
Nah not sarcasm if you don’t need those features then WMP is fine for basic playback. Last time I used WMP as my main player would’ve been XP and it couldn’t support switching between audio tracks in MP4 files with multiple streams. Not sure if that’s supported now or not.