Uncle Google gives me this tip about turning off effects on my sound card from many many different sites, but it's not solving the problem.

I know that the real answer is "use something other than Windows Media Player", but let's just assume for a moment that I need to run WMP for some reason.

Here's my problem:

Let's say I've got MP3 files associated with WMP. I double click on the MP3, and WMP launches.

The WMP window appears and renders fully. This is instantaneous.

Then there is a pause. The MP3 doesn't play, and the center of the WMP screen, instead of showing a visual, is simply a white square.

Then, I have to *WAIT*, for about 10-15 seconds.

Only after that pause does the MP3 start playing and the visuals appear.

This only happens the *first time* I run Media Player after not having run it for a while. If I close Media Player and double-click on the MP3 again, it launches and begins playing the MP3 instantly.

Anyone have any ideas? I suspect it's looking for updates on the internet or something. But I have no proof of that. There doesn't appear to be a way to turn that sort of thing off.

I would try playing the file using MPC as a diagnostic. Since it uses the same engine, whether it takes the same amount of time would point you to whether it is a back-end problem or a UI problem.

What is "MPC" ?

Also: While I was typing up the post, it prompted me to try turning off visualizations. That seems (maybe) to have corrected the issue, although I won't be sure until I've used it for a few days.

Media Player Classic.

Visualizations makes sense, too.

It makes sense only in the "I see how a crack-addled coder might make it work that way" sense.

In the "why the hell did Microsoft make the music start only after the visual plugin is fully loaded" sense, it's completely bonkers.

It is a Microsoft product.

Could it be looking for licenses, codecs, or track info on the internet?

Yes, that is what I had suspected. At least one of those things.

It still might be doing those things, I'm not certain yet. We'll see how it handles itself long-term since I took the simple step of disabling the visuals. As it stands right now it looks like disabling the visuals took care of the issue.

Turns out that disabling visuals did not take care of the issue.

It seems to be a timing thing. If I haven't run WMP for a day or two, then it's slow to launch.

No one else sees this happen?

WMP was so painfully slow that I switched to Media Monkey. Basically, I needed a decent tag editor. Media Monkey is not only faster at updating id3 tags, it also is easier to use and more powerful.

I suspect that if you have a setting telling WMP to update the media library on launch, this could be causing the delay.

Tools > Options > Library shows that WMP automatically checks My Documents > My Music and My Documents > My Videos to update the library. If you have a lot of files in there, that could cause it. Either move the files or point WMP away from that if you don't use WMP for keeping a library.

Other possibility:
In Tools > Options > Player
You can tell it to check for updates Daily, Weekly or Monthly. Perhaps that's why some days are quicker than others.

The folders it searches are empty, but it's always doing this thing where it fills that screen with "AUTOMATICALLY ADDED" for a bunch of folders, and if I hit IGNORE and toggle the radio button and go back, they go back to "AUTOMATICALLY ADDED" and I don't see a way to just turn that shit *off* completely. There's always at least one that it doesn't let me make "ignore" and then the others keep changing back to AUTOMATICALLY ADDED.

Grr.



Again, set to "monthly" but there's no option to just turn that bullshit *OFF*.

Something else I just tried. Changed the thing that said "DETECT CONNECTION SPEED" and told it was on a T1. Maybe that'll help.

I'm still trying to figure out what the reason is.