Windows Media Player And Metadata

I run my own Internet radio station, and it has got s flash player, which you can see on the radio manager's website, or which you can embed in a website.

However, there is also a possibility to listen in your own default media player such as Winamp or Windows Media Player.

To achieve this, you have to put a small playlist(.m3u) file on your machine, and when you double click that, your default media player will open and play the programme.

I use Winamp personally, and, since it is obliged (for copyright reasons) to display the metadata (Name of the song, Artist), I have made sure all my files display those data when played.

This works fine in Winamp, but not in Windows Media Player.

The music plays, but no metadata are being shown.

Does anyone know of a way (plugin or setting) to make this happen?

I have Windows Media Player 12 on my system (do not use it, of course), but it seems this problem exists in all versions, as some listeners have made me aware of the fact the player was not showing which music was being played.

So, if anyone has an answer, I would really like to find out how I (or rather, my listeners) can let Windows Media Player show the metadata.

I have checked the menus and the help files, all to no avail.

Thank you in advance.

Old windows media players were not able to show meta data of any stream, it was not important if meta data was preset or which type of stream you are using it simply couldn't show meta data information. Now i don't know inf newer version like 12 support meta data in streams or not but i remember that i have played a radio station using my windows media player which 12 version and as i remember i was able to see title and song name when it was playing. So before trying any plugin first get sure that windows media player doesn't support meta data for the type you use to stream your station.If you find out that your media player doesn't support meta data for that type then you can use appropriate plugin for showing them. i don't know which format you are using for your streams but if you are using aac+ which is very popular these days for streams and windows media player can't show its meta data then i recommend you "Orban" plugin which is capable to show meta data for aac+ in your media player.I use VLC myself for listening to any stream, i found it to be a lot better than any other player because it never lags when playing and also in newer version they have added an equalizer which really works and i can even get better and sharper sound than winamp with it.

Thank you, Iniyila,

well, to be quite honest, I do not Use WMP either, but I am trying to find out what can be done to make it show the metadata

I know it is probably not important to the managers of the radio provider, as it does show the metadata in all other programs (WinAmp, VLC....) but I am doing it for listeners who told me they wanted to use their default media player to listen rather than the online Flash player.

(All they have to do to achieve that is click on an .m3u file on the website which is then put on their machine and always openss their default player when they activate it.

However, some people who use WMP as their default player said "it plays all right, but now I cannot see what is playing".

And, before I forget, yes, I have tested it with the latest version of WMP 12.

Anyway, thank you for your reply.