GREAT Windows Media Player Tip: Play Speed -> Fast!

I wanted to share a GREAT tip that I got from someone when I first started here at Microsoft two months ago. Ok, it probably isn't that GREAT of a tip but it is very helpful to someone like me who is always short on time and has a plethora of web casts and new employee orientation videos that need to be watched. To save yourself a bunch of time, watch them quicker by changing your Play Speed. I don't know exactly how much faster it plays videos/sound clips but it's at least a third faster. Of course with it on "FAST", sound will sound a little cartoonish. But I have yet to encounter a clip that wasn't difficult to understand on fast.

Incase you don't know how to watch a clip on 'Fast', go up to the FILE menu in Windows Media Player and click PLAY -> PLAY SPEED -> FAST.

You, like me, will save a lot of time! Thanks, GW!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 28, 2006
    Oh my gosh!

    a) I love you for blogging this. Channel 9 is NOW wathcable (^_^)

    b) I'm gonna "borrow" this tip and blog about it too

    3) How long has this feature been in Media Player?

  • Anonymous
    April 28, 2006
    This has been available since WMP 9 IIRC. You can also just press the fast forward button. Press it once to play at 1.4x. Press again to play at 2x. Press CTRL+Shift+N to go back to normal speed. There's also a variable speed selector under Enhancements (View | Enhancements | Play Speed Settings). You'll have trouble making out the audio beyond 2x though. This works with audio as well as video files.

  • Anonymous
    November 29, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 20, 2007
    I use ths feature for a long time and really love it. IT works well with my favourite video broadcasts, with DVDs and MP3s (good for audio books). But it does NOT work with DIVX, XVID, etc. Mohammed, can you clarify - is it the functional limitation of Media Player or of specific codecs? Should I wait for some feature-rich DIVX codec that will provide for fast playback in WMP? Or should I wait for next versions of WMP?

  • Anonymous
    December 09, 2013
    great blog, but how do i get my media player to not sound like its on sterroids