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 * Media Player – Top Tips / 21**

Keyboard Shortcuts… Instantaneous Media control

The great thing about Media Player is its flexibility.

If you’re doing some work and want to watch a show or listen to music at the same time no problem!

But what if you need to quickly pause a tune without fumbling for your mouse?

Simple – press Control and P to pause or resume play: Control and S to stop play in a hurry or Control and E to eject a CD or DVD in the drive.

Memorise these, and never get caught short again.


 * Media Player – Top Tips / 22**

Speedy streaming… Increase buffering time

If you use a standard 56KB modem to connect to the Internet and find that streamed video pauses, stops and restarts often, you should increase the amount of time your player spends buffering the stream.

Click Tools> Options then click the Performance tab and increase your Network Buffering.

You can increase it up to 60 seconds from the default 5: keep increasing it until media streams properly.


 * Media Player – Top Tips / 23**

Star Selection… Ratings and Auto‐playlists

Life’s too short to listen to bad music, and with the vast collections that digital music can afford, it helps to label your tracks using Media Players star rating system.

Right‐click the file’s name, point to Rate and choose a score.

Alternatively, go to Library and you can rate any track simply by clicking on the stars next to the track’s names.

To listen to tracks that you’ve given a high star rating, simply click the Rating header in the Library and the tracks will be arranged accordingly.


 * Media Player – Top Tips / 24**

Visualisations… Bringing sounds to life

Media Player 10 features a visual display that responds directly to your music.

With a track playing in Full Mode, click Now Playing in the top left‐hand corner and choose one.

Double‐click anywhere on the Visualisations Pane to maximise the window, and rightclick the display for an options menu.


 * Media Player – Top Tip / 25**

Superstar DJ… Change the playback speed

Maybe you miss the days when you could muck around with the speed of your records; maybe you’re bored by the way your collection sounds, or perhaps you just want to make

Barry White sound like Prince. Either way, you’ll love this tip. Press Ctrl + Shift + G to speed up your music, or Ctrl + Shift + S to slow it down. To return to normal speed, press [/i]Ctrl + Shift + N[/i].


 * Media Player – Top Tip / 26**

Expand your mind… Download new visualisations

If you’ve been staring at your monitor like an overly attentive hawk since discovering the marvel of Media Player visualisations, you may have reached the point where a bit of variety wouldn’t go amiss. Make sure Media Player 10 is in ‘full mode’, then click View >

Visualisations > Download Visualisations. This will take you to the Media Player site for a full top‐up.