MP>Is there a freeware alternative to Windows Media Player that will handle all
MP>of the media formats that WMP will play (audio and video)?

JetAudio form   www.jetaudio.com will handle quite a few formats. the
Basic Version is FREEWARE btu is 12.6 Meg to downliiad. I use it under
win98Se with good results. For QT and MOVF files theour it needs
Quncktime ver 4 or later. Here is a blip from their website

***

Supported file formats are :

   Windows Sound Files (WAV)
   MPEG Audio files (MP1, MP2, MP3) including mp3PRO
   MPEG Audio Playlist Files (PLS, M3U)
   MPEG Video Files (MPG, MPEG)
   Windows Media Audio files (WMA)
   Windows Media Video Files (ASF, WMV)
   Windows Video Files (AVI)
   DivX Video Files (AVI, DIVX) *
   Ogg Vorbis Sound Files (OGG)
   Apple Audio files (AIF and AIFF)
   QuickTime files (QT, MOV and MP4) **
   SUN Audio files (AU and SND)
   RealMedia Files (RA, RAM, RM, RMM)
   MIDI files (MID, RMI and KAR)
   IMS file (IMS)
   Module files (MOD, S3M, XM, MTM, STM, IT, ULT, 669, FAIR, MED, MDL,
   MDL, NST, OKT and WOW)
   Monkey's Audio file format (APE)
   MPEG Plus Audio files (MPC)
   Free Lossless Audio Codec files (FLAC)
   Ogg Media Files (OGM) *
   MKV Video Files (MKV) *

   * Requires additional codec from third party
      For example, you should install DivX codec to play DivX format
      video files.

   ** Requires QuickTime 4 or higher

 Supported disc formats are :

   Audio CD
   Video CD
   DVD

   (Note) DVD playback needs DVD decoder from third party.
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 þ SLMR 2.1a þ This note from El Cajon California USA