Arne Hess

Editor in Chief

Website

The
fun thing about Windows Media Player for the Smartphone is that it offers the
user a rich multimedia experience through video and sound. But having fun with
Windows Media Player doesn't really stop there.You can even give Windows
Media Player any look you want and match it with your Smartphone's
custom Home Screen.
The concept of skinning Windows Media Player really isn't something new. 
Windows Media Player used for Windows powered mobile devices from version 1,
1.1, 1.2, 7, 7.1, 8, 8.5, and 9 fully support skinning. We take a look at how
skinning works for the Smartphone and what is really needed.Skinning Windows
Media Player for Smartphone 2002 is actually simpler than that of the Pocket
PCs. There are less mapping images as the controls for the Smartphone 2002's
Media Player makes use of the joystick or D-Pad of the Smartphone.

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Filip Norrgård

I'm too lazy to register

It is interesting to see that the Windows Media skin files work in the same way for Windows Mobile Smartphones as for Pocket PCs. I've been writing a guide for creating WMP skins, but mainly intended for Pocket PCs and this is something really new to me.

(What I'm waiting for right now is WM2003SE to see how the skinning for WMP is implemented in landscape mode.)

I wonder one thing, however: does it work to have the skins in My documents subfolders without tweaking in the registry (on Smartphones)? On Pocket PCs it seems to work and you can also have the skins in /Program Files/Windows Media Player/'s subfolders. (ok, the path might be wrong here..)

Thanks for the guide!

Arne Hess

Editor in Chief

Website

@Filip NorrgÃ¥rd: The thing with the Smartphone version of Media Player is that it does not have a provision for a skin changer.  Therefore, coding it into the registry is the easiest way around it.  If you want to put it into another folder, say in the IPSMMy Documents folder, you can do so creating another folder in it called wmplayer. Then in your My Documents folder, you can have several skin sets in their own folders (ex. BlueSkin, Metal, etc.) What you will then have to do is copy the contents of these folders and paste them into the wmplayer folder.

It's crude, but it's the only way to go so far for the Smartphone version.

As for the newer WM2003SE version of Windows Media Player (version 9.0.1), the skins support both portrait and landscape modes and are encoded into the *.skn file. It will check on the Pocket PC's orientation and it will use the necessary image files and section of the skin definition file that best suits the current orientation.

You're welcome. I hope it was of some help. :-)

Mabuhay! ~ Carlo

BOb

I'm too lazy to register

So after loading the pictures and the .skn file onto the phone, what do you do?