Command Line parameters for Media Player App

I've given up on VLC Media player, I can't get it to reliably play movies on my second monitor, so I'm looking at the Media Player app in Windows 11.

Win 11 Media Player app is: "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.ZuneMusic_11.2309.6.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\Microsoft.Media.Player.exe"

I want to start this at boot, hopefully via a batch file in the Startup folder. I need a command line parameter that tells Media Player to start playing the default playlist. There is no setting that does this.

Any suggestions?

Any alternative players I should look at?

Ztruker said:

Any alternative players I should look at?

Click to expand...

Rich,

Windows Media Player does what you want.
[the legacy one]
e.g.
"C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" "C:\............\Music\Playlists\AlarmCall.wpl"


All the best,
Denis

Will it play the videos/movies on a 2nd display? If so I'll give it a try. Will it handle MP4 and M4V movies?

Hmmm, doesn't handle M4V. Is there a codec I can install for this?

Not true, tried it again and it works okay.

I need to be able to start wmplayer.exe from a batch file and have it start playing the default or specified playlist automatically as soon as it's loaded and direct the output to the 2nd display.

I don't see any way to do that.

Any tips?

This works:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" "C:\Users\ztruk\Music\Playlists\AllMovies.wpl" /Fullscreen

Now I need to add a 2nd screen to this computer to see if I can get that to work. If it does then I'm all set. (I'm home now, was doing this at work before). I'll hook up a small TV via a DVI to HDMI connector and see how that goes. Simple is always better (if it works).

Thanks Dennis.

Ztruker said:

I need to be able to start wmplayer.exe from a batch file and have it start playing the default or specified playlist automatically as soon as it's loaded

Click to expand...

Rich,

That's what I do [well, did]. WMP played my alarm call playlist [starting with Louis Armstrong's On the sunny side of the street]. That's what I copied the command from.
I also mess about controlling the volume as well [read current volume, set very loud volume, reset to current volume again on closing].
I had to close WMP first so I could then change some of its Options [random order, repeat] and it closed it again at the end of the batch file so it could set them back to normal afterwards.
We've discussed this before. I think it was you who pointed me to a utility to retrieve the current volume.

I did not have the complication of multiple displays as my laptop is not connected to anything else at the time and I only ever have audio files in the playlists.
But the things I routinely open on a second monitor later in the day always open on the monitor they were last open in so, assuming you don't use WMP for anything else, it should always open on your second monitor as long as you put it there manually once.

I have recently changed my batch file to call up portable VLC instead. That change was purely so I did not disrupt any WMP playlist that I happened to be mid-way through the night before.
I didn't write down why I chose portable VLC instead of installed VLC. I think it was something to do with difficulty in changing Options [volume, random order, repeat] in the installed version.
If you like VLC for other things, you might try portable VLC for this job and just avoid using it for anything else. I imagine it would play ball as far as your second monitor was concerned.

I noticed that you used 32 bit WMP. I use 64 bit WMP for all routine playing. I'd bet there is no particular advantage to the 64 bit version.


All the best,
Denis

I changed so monitor #2 was primary than dragged all icons back to the original monitor #1 and now WMP opens correctly on monitor #2 which is now a 4 way HDMI splitter that feeds my local TV and all the remote TVs in the showroom. Works correctly every time.