Whenever you want to play a quick video or music file you can use the player already located in the Google Desktop dock instead of using other elaborate software. Media Player integrates perfectly with the widget dock and enables you to quickly open media files.
The app comes with a simple interface – a regular player complete with a few basic buttons, such as play/pause, stop, next and previous, as well as a progress slider and a volume controller.
Both audio and video file formats can be loaded. If you play an audio track, the video box is replaced with a visualization; an oscilloscope that follows the song’s waves.
When you load a video file to the Media Player, the clip is displayed in the small window. Alternatively, movies or video clips can be viewed in full screen format by simply double-clicking on the frame.
The app can also be undocked and moved to any spot on your desktop.
Further playback options enable you to adjust the playing speed from the right-click menu. Also, file details, such as bitrate and number of frames can be seen by accessing the “Statistics” option.
The software can be displayed in two different styles – XP and Vista. The themes modify the way the app’s frame is displayed, but not much else.
The tiny widget comes with plenty of performance options. Thus, you can choose to use video smoothing, to display full screen controls and to enable DirectX Video Acceleration for WMV files. Additionally, you can add and run various audio and video plug-ins.
All in all, Media Player is a great widget when you want to immediately play a certain song or video. Despite the basic features, the app works great. Installing and customizing it shouldn’t be a problem to any users, no matter what their level of experience is.