Halo 2 trailer...But...

[Gumdrop]

Anyone noticed how you have to download WMP9 just to watch the new Halo 2 trailer? I smell a rat!

[@m]

Originally posted by Gumdrop
Anyone noticed how you have to download WMP9 just to watch the new Halo 2 trailer? I smell a rat!

You don't have to, because if you don't have winXP you can't install WMP9. I have WMP7.1 and it just updated it or something to watch the trailer.

btw. I heard that Windows Media Player 9 is full of spyware like: cydoor, doubleclick etc. so when you do install it make sure you run ad-aware after it.

[THEthief]

Originally posted by Gumdrop
Anyone noticed how you have to download WMP9 just to watch the new Halo 2 trailer? I smell a rat!

I noticed the ad for it - "Preview Halo 2 on Window Media Player 9" or something like that. As @M says, it's supposed to be spyware filled, so I just avoided it.

[DJC]

Originally posted by @m


You don't have to, because if you don't have winXP you can't install WMP9. I have WMP7.1 and it just updated it or something to watch the trailer.

btw. I heard that Windows Media Player 9 is full of spyware like: cydoor, doubleclick etc. so when you do install it make sure you run ad-aware after it.

Actually the information here is false.
Windows Media Player 9 is available for ALL Windows OSs from 98SE to .NET Enterprise Server. It is Media Player 8 that is only available with XP.

As for the spyware issue, I've not seen any reports of Spyware in MP9, however <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1023-955514.html">This</a> article on the subject is rather interesting, especially this part:

Windows Media Player 9 Series may be one of the first new Microsoft products so clearly putting privacy policies and controls in the hands of consumers. Unlike competing products or earlier versions of Microsoft's media player, the privacy policies and settings option is the first thing a consumers sees the first time the product is started.

Sounds like A Good Thing™ to me.


Of course Microsoft make you download Windows Media Player 9 to watch the Halo 2 trailer, don't forget they own Bungie, the developers of Halo 1 and 2. It's a good business strategy. Not without faults mind you, people moan a lot, but it gets the info out. For example I didn't even know about Media Player 9 until I saw the Halo 2 trailer required it.

[LeatherMan]

This trailer you speak of has been converted into a number of other formats (QT, MPEG, etc), and you can find mirrors for them here.

No need to download WMP9 now!

[Fafhrd]

halo doesn't interest me enough to bother with the trailer, but I felt like pointing out that cydoor is a very very evil thing, whether or not its included with wmp...

[Komag]

WOW! I am a huge Halo fan (I've beat the game on every difficulty setting) and that Halo 2 trailer is quite cool! WMP9 seems fine to me I just ran Ad-aware after installing WMP9 and nothing came up :-) clean as whistle

[@m]

Originally posted by DJC
Actually the information here is false.
Windows Media Player 9 is available for ALL Windows OSs from 98SE to .NET Enterprise Server. It is Media Player 8 that is only available with XP.

As for the spyware issue, I've not seen any reports of Spyware in MP9, however <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1023-955514.html">This</a> article on the subject is rather interesting, especially this part:


Sounds like A Good Thing™ to me.


Of course Microsoft make you download Windows Media Player 9 to watch the Halo 2 trailer, don't forget they own Bungie, the developers of Halo 1 and 2. It's a good business strategy. Not without faults mind you, people moan a lot, but it gets the info out. For example I didn't even know about Media Player 9 until I saw the Halo 2 trailer required it.

Well I thought there was only an XP version, I clicked a link to download WMP9 but they only linked to the xp version instead of all versions. As for the spyware, if it doesn't contain any then it's good

[Fafhrd]

it seemed a little odd to me that ms would be using some OTHER companies spyware if they were going to - you'd think they just up and make/use their own. Of course, if they did that, ad aware might not know it yet...