Surprise, surprise, Microsoft is using its new player in an effort to squeaze Real and make its own Windows Media format the standard for digital audio on the Web.

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Apple's approach means the market remains essentially cut down the middle - between the iTunes service, which works only on the iPod, and services which use a Windows Media format, essentially everyone else.

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If you do like the native Windows format for media, you can use the included Windows Media Connection functionality.

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That said, Bill Gates is touting Microsoft's own software format, Windows Media, to several online music services and hardware firms, hoping to set a rival standard with greater interoperability.

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Any Universal license holder -- a music site that has been given permission to post song samples, for example -- can go to Loudeye and get the music delivered in any digital format, including Windows Media or QuickTime.

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So if you pop in a DVD "infected" with Protect DVD-Video, it can't be read by Windows Media Player, Media Center Edition, or any DirectShow-based software, thanks to a Universal Disc Format that tricks your machine into believing that the IFO file is zero bytes long.

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Microsoft Windows Media Player: This audio and video player supports almost any type of local and streamed multimedia format, including Real Audio, Real Video, QuickTime, MIDI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MP3, AVI, .wav, .mov, .vod, and .au.

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While the receiver can play Windows Media music files, it doesn't understand their playlists unless you export them in a different format.

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