1. playing a cd

19

Photos, Video and Music with Windows Vista for SENIORS - ISBN 978 90 5905 065 5 © 2008 Visual Steps™

1. Playing a CD

In the last few decades the computer has slowly evolved into an Internet and entertainment center. With the Vista program Windows Media Player you have an extensive CD player at your disposal. It has the same functionality as the CD player in your stereo system, plus several other useful features. In this chapter you will learn how to play a CD, how to quickly go to the next or previous track, how to make the CD repeat and how to play tracks in random order. When your computer is connected to the Internet, Windows Media Player can retrieve information about the tracks of the CD you are playing. Then the titles of the tracks and the CD cover are displayed. Different graphic visualizations that move to the sound of the music are another way to visualize the music you play. For musical connoisseurs Windows Media Player is equipped with a graphic equalizer. You can use it to change certain frequencies in your music according to your own taste. In this chapter you will learn how to:

open Windows Media Player; adjust the settings of the program; play an audio CD; go to another track; play the tracks in random order; set up automatic replay; find track and CD information on the Internet; choose visualizations and change audio settings.

Please note:

To be able to work through this chapter you need an audio CD. The examples provided in this chapter were made using a CD featuring Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach: If you prefer, you can select a CD from your own audio library to use with this chapter.

20 Photos, Video and Music with Windows Vista for Seniors


1.1 Setting Up Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player is a Vista multimedia application with several different features. In this chapter you will learn how to play music from an audio CD. This is how you open Windows Media Player:

Turn on your computer

If necessary, turn on the monitor

If necessary, enter the password for your user account

Click

Click You see Windows Media Player somewhere in your programs list:

Click

When you start Windows Media Player for the first time, you will need to configure some initial settings for the program. You can use the default settings.

Please note: If you started Windows Media Player before, you will not see the next window. Then you can proceed to the next step.

Chapter 1 Playing a CD 21


Click the option

Click

As soon as you have chosen the settings, Windows Media Player starts to look for music files on your computer. After a few moments you see the songs that were found:

Please note:

You may see different songs in your Windows Media Player window than you see in this example.



You are going to change some default settings. If you have used Windows Media Player before, please check if the settings on your computer are the same:

Click

below

Click

Click the tab

Click to remove the

check mark at

Click to remove the check mark at

Click



Click

1.2 Playing an Audio CD

In the previous section you made Windows Media Player the default player for most audio files. When you insert an audio CD in your CD/DVD player, Windows will use Media Player to play it.

Please note: To be able to work through the rest of this chapter, you need an audio CD. The CD used in this example is:

By default, Windows plays audio CDs using Windows Media Player. See what happens when you insert an audio CD in your computer:

Insert an audio CD from your own collection in the CD or DVD drive of your computer

Close the drawer

carefully



In most cases the window below will appear. Windows recognizes the CD you placed in the CD/DVD player as an audio CD. To prevent this window from appearing again, you make sure that all audio CDs are played in Media Player as soon as you insert them in the CD/DVD player:

Click to check mark

Click

HELP! Nothing happens after inserting the CD. If an audio CD will not play after you have inserted it, there may be protection mechanisms that disable playback on a computer. In that case, try a different CD.



HELP! I do not see that window. If the Windows Media Player window opens directly, then Windows Media Player has already been set as the default player for audio CDs.

HELP! Another program is opened. Does another program start after you insert an audio CD? Then this program has been set as the default player for your audio CDs. Refer to the Tip at the end of this chapter to see how you can make Windows Media Player the default player. The Windows Media Player window is opened and the CD starts playing. The songs on a CD are called tracks. This word will also be used in this book. The first track is played: You may see shapes moving. These moving graphics are called visualizations:

HELP! The volume is too loud or too soft. If you want to adjust the volume, move the Volume slider . To reduce the volume:

Drag the slider to the left

To increase the volume:

Drag the slider to the right



Tip Quickly mute the volume?

To mute the volume, click .

To restore the volume, click . Just like on your regular CD or DVD player, there is a button you can use to go to the next track:

Click

You can return to the previous track like this: Track 2 is played:

Click

1. playing a cd

Documents