Grasshopper Posted April 26, 2003 Share Posted April 26, 2003 I've really only used WMP and Winamp (a long time ago) but this thread has made me think about it some more. Besides finding a non-Real (would that be unReal??) RealMedia player, I've begun to focus on finding a new player for CD's and mp3 and videos. Yeah, I'll admit I'm lazy right now and say that I've been using WMP cuz it's there. Paint me gullible.What's everyone using? It's time to start dissecting those EULA's!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GolfProRM Posted April 26, 2003 Share Posted April 26, 2003 I've been using Winamp since version 1.1 and while I don't like Version 3 a whole lot (takes a long time to load and uses a bunch of resources), but overall, the program has been very solid and never caused any problems. It doesn't "phone home," doesn't have any spyware or adware, and doesn't collect usage statistics unless you let it when you set it up.I've also been using MUSICMATCH Jukebox occasionally. It's worked great for me when it comes to making mp3 copies of my CD's. It works well for that, but I don't use it much for playing them... doesn't have the flexibility/ease of use that Winamp does.I also use WMP at work to play mp3's as my work computer isn't as fast (see PC Specs thread). It works better than Winamp on my slow machine... I don't really like the program, but it works...So while I voted for Winamp, I've used many programs over the years... always looking for the "better mousetrap" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stryder Posted April 26, 2003 Share Posted April 26, 2003 For DVD and most other video formats I use PowerDVD. For audio I use MusicMatch Plus, I have for a couple of years now. Hands down my favorite audio player/burner/ripper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted April 26, 2003 Share Posted April 26, 2003 Winamp 2.7 for me in windows and it's "brother" xmms in Linux.( with the same visualisation plugins ! ) Bruno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Paracelsus Posted April 26, 2003 Share Posted April 26, 2003 Just my 2¢ as usual.I use WMP as a general multipurpose media player. The latest version of IrfanView can also run several file types.I was never able to get used to WinAmp. (Am I getting Old??) And since I genreally lean to the Classics, MP3's just haven't been high on my list.For a PC Audio CD Player... I've been a major fan of the Axialis CD Player Axialis CD Player Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L_P Posted April 26, 2003 Share Posted April 26, 2003 WinAmp 3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havnblast Posted April 26, 2003 Share Posted April 26, 2003 MusicMatch Jukebox for me - does it all in windows - but what I am curious about is what are people using with Linux - I just downloaded and installed AlsaPlayer, which is a fairly nice player for mp3s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zox Posted April 26, 2003 Share Posted April 26, 2003 PowerDVD for video stuff, Winamp 2 for music.Xmms on Linux. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted April 27, 2003 Share Posted April 27, 2003 I use MusicMatch for mp3's,cd's,ripping and burning. It is easy to use and works without a hitch. For playing DVD's Power DVD is the only one for me. I use WMP for other video and would not have Real Player on my machine if they paid me!(of course that depends how much they were paying) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbredmound Posted April 27, 2003 Share Posted April 27, 2003 I was never able to get used to WinAmp. (Am I getting Old??) And since I generally lean to the Classics, MP3's just haven't been high on my list.It is good not to grow old alone. I have used a bunch of media players (including subjecting myself to the graceless Real Network), and I am always coming back to WMP and QT.The MP3 thing is not happening for me , so my collection of audio and video clips is quite esoteric, and plays well with the mainstream players.I think I was just too lazy to get comfortable with Winamp...there was no payoff for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted April 27, 2003 Share Posted April 27, 2003 In general, I default to Winamp 2.8x (with latest security patches from http://classic.winamp.com ) and XMMS in Linux as well as mpg321 (and its momma mpg123) for commandline.Having said that, I do use WiMP when nothing else works and for some video. I also use the DivX player as well for video.I have been known to use MusicMatch and other audio players as well on occasion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus K Posted April 27, 2003 Share Posted April 27, 2003 My music/audio player of choice is QCD , one of the most polished free players out there, with great support if needed. I also love the way it records/saves radio/shoutcast/mp3 streams right out of the box (no additional downloads). There are quite a few out there with 160 - 320 mp3 streams, and QCD's/Gracenote 'auto tag' works on most saved ones for those who like complete mp3 tags. It can also be set to delete any incomplete fragments.For those who haven't dabbled with Shoutcast/radio streams here's a LINK .The .PLS (or sometimes .m3u) links can be saved and renamed for clarity to your hard drive for quick access. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stryder Posted April 27, 2003 Share Posted April 27, 2003 My music/audio player of choice is QCD , one of the most polished free players out there, with great support if needed. I also love the way it records/saves radio/shoutcast/mp3 streams right out of the box (no additional downloads). There are quite a few out there with 160 - 320 mp3 streams, and QCD's/Gracenote 'auto tag' works on most saved ones for those who like complete mp3 tags. It can also be set to delete any incomplete fragments.For those who haven't dabbled with Shoutcast/radio streams here's a LINK .The .PLS (or sometimes .m3u) links can be saved and renamed for clarity to your hard drive for quick access.Cool Gus. Thanks for the info....this is one I have not looked into, although I have seen it around. But after your review I will have to give it a whirl. Thanks again!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonicDragon Posted April 27, 2003 Share Posted April 27, 2003 Winamp 2.9 - I didn't like winamp 3 at all. It was really slow and not as stable to me as previous versions of winamp.Ok, help me clear something up here... was i my imagination that Winamp release v. 3 and then v. 2.9 becuase people didn't really like 3, or am i just completely out of my mind? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted April 28, 2003 Share Posted April 28, 2003 my 5 cents (2 US cents):-winamp - used it in the past, but no real innovation in 2 years, it sux compared to today's standards, its vis are cheezy, its font is mircroscopic, its interface is lame and so Windows 3.x like, and its video player is slow and buggy.-playa (comes with divx): crash-o-matic-WinDVD - best DVD player, IMO; nice controls and features, prefer it unstead of PowerDVD-WMP 9 - best video player, IMO; micro$oft is on the ball in this category, i think they are innovating faster than the competition; got hooked on WMP when they were first to have full screen mode, yet move mouse and get video controls pop up along bottom just when you need it. plus MOST other players (home-grown versions) have severe problems maintaining mouth-word syncronization after you pause or fast-forward, etc...-WMP 9 - best mp3 player, IMO; love their battery-series visualizations. weak part is their playlist, but all other controls are nice and fresh looking... love version 9 especially. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsden11 Posted April 29, 2003 Share Posted April 29, 2003 Not only do we use WMP 9 but we stream it out for our clients at roughly 25 TB per week... are clients are most happy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus K Posted April 29, 2003 Share Posted April 29, 2003 -WMP 9 - best mp3 player, IMO; love their battery-series visualizations.Can MS finally deal properly with VBR mp3's? Do they provide a way to adjust/change the mp3 tags? Can it auto tag untagged mp3's? Can WMP play/record Shoutcast mp3 streams? Can it play .ape and Ogg Vorbis formats? Previous versions of WMP (have no experience with WMP9) could not, while most of the free players out there could easily handle these basic, usefull tasks.I'm not much for watching visualtions so on this I can't comment. You can like and praise MS, but 'innovative' they are not (I would compare them more to the Borg, if anything). I can't really think of anything that MS has done that hasn't been 'borrowed' from smaller, truly innovative people (except maybe Microsoft Bob ). And I will never forget when innovative Bill Gates, at a time when Netscape was rocking and redefining the net, called the Internet "'a toy". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted April 29, 2003 Share Posted April 29, 2003 I know it can play VBR mp3s no problem. As for the rest, I use Tag&Rename for all my tagging/untagging needs. I dont want an MP3 Player renaming tags automatically, just my preference. And Shoutcast is Winamp-based radio, right? I dont use that one, I use spinner and bbc's radio 1, both of which use real player only. And .ape and ogg vorbis? never heard of it, never came across those files, and have no plans to.I usually, ya know, play music on a music player, and have full screen effects just for kick while i'm doing something non-computer related. I know M$ isnt really an innovative-goaled company, but to say they never invented a single useful feature since the 80s is a bit of an exageration. And as for the Media Player v9, its slick interface and auto-hide control panel are unmatched in the media player world. I used to be a Winamp die-hard, but they are going backwards (no, really going backwards, releasing v2.9 AFTER v3.0) ;)and the battery visualitions I mentioned actually look like they follow the beat of a song, unlike Winamps collections.oh, and they're leading the way in digital rights protection among players ... ok, that is its only weakness Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ThunderRiver Posted April 30, 2003 Share Posted April 30, 2003 I useWindows Media Player 9PlayaWinAmp 2.9WinDVD 3 promm..that's about enough to cover all the media files I have on this PC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted April 30, 2003 Share Posted April 30, 2003 I useWindows Media Player 9PlayaWinAmp 2.9WinDVD 3 promm..that's about enough to cover all the media files I have on this PCwhat about the dreaded REAL video / audio format? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest genaldar Posted May 1, 2003 Share Posted May 1, 2003 Winamp 2.91 for sound files (most of the features of 3, but it's still a 2). It's lighter than 3 still but it'll play movies and use all my old 2.x skins (main reason I dumped 3 actually, I'm a picky *******). btw its great they're continuing the 2 line even after 3 came out (I was a little surprised when I found out).WMP 9 for video. Up until 9 came out I used 6.4 mostly since 7 and 8 were so D*** heavy. For some reason 9 seems lighter (no where near as light as 6 of course, but lighter than those other 2).Jetaudio for real and quicktime stuff. Its a resource hog, slow and unresponsive, doesn't have mozilla plugins and it needs quicktime to be installed in order to play .mov and .qt files, but it doesn't track like real player or insert itself into the start up routine every time you run it like quicktime. Big download though, but thats what back up cds are for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grasshopper Posted May 1, 2003 Author Share Posted May 1, 2003 After seeing Jetaudio mentioned a couple of times, I downloaded it and tried it. It works fine for the "Real" content. Like others, though, I find that it is sometimes unresponsive, especially on shutdown. And other times too. But, it beats Realplayer in that it's not a pesky little disease on your computer. And that's what I wanted.Thanks for the suggestion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tntoak Posted May 3, 2003 Share Posted May 3, 2003 Music Match Jukebox PlusPowerDVDWMP 9I don't even bother using WMP for mp3s - I don't like the way it handles them - and I like the volume leveling and batch file renaming features of MMJB much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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