What is Windows Media Player?

Windows Media Player is a multimedia application which, among other things, enables you to watch certain types of "streaming video" presentations. This is a technology which allows you to watch videos and listen to audio over the internet via your normal dial-up connection, without having to download large audio and video files which would take up a lot of storage space on your computer.

RealOne Player performs the same function. Unlike RealOne Player, however, should you wish to download the audio and video files first, and then subsequently view the webcasts off-line, Windows Media Player is more suited to this. This has the advantage that you are not at the mercy of a poor internet connection while you are trying to watch the video. However the webcast downloads can be slow and use up a lot of storage space on your hard disk drive. Much depends on how immediately you wish to view the webcasts and how large your hard disk drive is. To date, (May 2002), only a few of our webcasts can be viewed with Windows Media Player, the vast majority use RealOne Player.

Windows Media Player is very simple to use - in most cases you just click on the relevant link as you would normally do to view a new web page. The video will start to play automatically after about a minute or so. Or, if you have downloaded the webcast, just double click on the file and it will start automatically, after the download has finished.

You will need a reasonably good internet connection and reasonably up-to-date computer to get good results for streaming, otherwise the images will be a bit jerky and fuzzy. Always check the minimum recommended system requirements.

If you do not have Windows Media Player installed on your computer, and you also wish to download the webcasts rather than stream them, then it's worth taking the time to install Windows Media Player as there is a growing amount of knowledge available on our websites using this technology. Even if your computer is not sufficiently powerful to display the video images well, the soundtracks may still play successfully and these are well worth listening to.

"Should I stick with the old version of Windows Media Player I have on my computer or download the latest version?"

If you have an old and slow computer, then we would definitely recommend you stick with your current version. You may see the following window pop up:

If you do, we recommend that you click on "Don't Upgrade" if your computer is not very powerful. When you are viewing the webcast you may also see a Window requesting you to download and install a patch to your programme - this will update your old version of Windows Media Player to enable it to work optimally, without having to upgrade to the new version. This process is very quick and automatic. You will see it installing some "codecs". You do not need to worry what these are!

If, however, you would like to upgrade to the shiny new version of Windows Media Player, or if you do not have it installed on your computer, then here are the instructions:

Friendly Disclaimer:
Although we do not anticipate problems, as with installing ANY new software, it is advisable to take precautions, such as checking the installation file for viruses prior to installation, backing up critical data, etc. We do not take any legal responsibility for what happens as a result of following these instructions. Moreveor, Windows Media Player is not our product and thus we cannot control how it functions.

Beginners: please go to No. 1 first; at the end of that page there will be a link to No.2 and so on.

1. If you would like advice on downloading Windows Media Player please click here.
2. If you would like help with installing Windows Media Player then please click here.
3. If you would like help with using Windows Media Player then please click here.