Music Playback Software (iHate iTunes - Alternatives?)

Around these here parts, it seems like foobar is the way to go.

Personally, iTunes is fine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by R-Audiohead 

Hey guys,

 

I have been rolling with Songbird for awhile after becoming free of the shackles of iTunes, but I have noticed a couple of problems that I just can't accept.

 

1) Drop and drag functionality failed constantly - this is NOT acceptable

2) iPods appear to be invisible

3) It seems like ALL the add ons in the songbird community are outdated - at least all of the functional ones like playlist export and iPod sync etc.

 

I loved the interface, and I liked the store.  Both of which I can live without.

 

I am leaning towards mediamonkey and foobar, I was curious of the opinions of you guys.

 

I have FLAC files, and about a 45 GB Library.  Let me know your thoughts!! Thanks

I have Mediamonkey and foobar and iTunes on my computer. I need iTunes because of the iPod Touch I just got, but I only use it for adding videos, podcasts, and apps to the Touch. Mediamonkey is what I use for my other DAPs, and it also works great for loading tunes onto the iPod. My lossy files (MP3, M4A, Ogg) are in my Mediamonkey library(because that's what I load on my portable players)and  my FLACs are in my foobar library.

A lot of people appear to object to it on the basis of the fact that you have to pay for it (and in my case, the attitude of th devs in certain matters)  but j.River Media Center is pretty unbeatable as an all-in-one organisation / playback tool.

I still need to use iTunes since I have an iPhone and don't want to deal with the half-and-half experience that would result if I used e.g. Mediamonkey, but I swear by j.River MC... whereas I swear at iTunes rather often.

I find MediaMonkey works well.

Personally I'm quite partial to MusicBee. Has a very nice interface, skinnable, good CD ripping and file conversion to a variety of formats built in, plays everything I need it to and it's pretty lightweight and fast too. Dunno what ipod compatibility is like though.

Foobar

it can do anything*.

Hell, i even use it as alarm to wake me up with the playlist i chose.

* with the right addons

I don't really get the appeal in Foobar. It doesn't do anything other players can't do and it has an annoying interface and fixing it involves tweaking it for hours. Why? Other players come pre-tweaked so they're usable when you download them. And I haven't really missed anything about Foobar after switching to MusicBee, I've just noticed how much easier everything is.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fraseyboy 

I don't really get the appeal in Foobar. It doesn't do anything other players can't do and it has an annoying interface and fixing it involves tweaking it for hours. Why? Other players come pre-tweaked so they're usable when you download them. And I haven't really missed anything about Foobar after switching to MusicBee, I've just noticed how much easier everything is.

i think some of us dont want a prefabricated software. foobar can be moded into anything you like. i have mine set to fulfill all my needs, and my own user interfase ( a simple and useful) hell i even made my own keys in photoshop and added them to the tool bar. yes, it took me loooong hours and i loved it. as for the look, any color you like.

I made this thread in last.fm loooong time ago

http://www.last.fm/group/Foobar+Users/forum/45322/_/512108

(i think, last.fm seems to be down for me atm)

I like foobar mostly because of its responsiveness, which seems to be in the tenth of seconds, and also because it has the best implemented tagger and library I can find.

I have yet to see something that can beat Foobar.

JetAudio player especially if you listen in HT setup. I know many hate to hear music in a 5.1 setup. But, i am amazed how these sound like stereo with great depth and height. My receiver is pioneer vsx-21txh. It does fantastic job in calibration. At the sweet spot. I feel like the music is stereo with great sound stage. But it actually uses all the speakers. Once i am used to that, i am not able to switch back to foobar or vlc or mediamonkey. I can't say that is the best. That is what i enjoy now.

Just a note...i only use speakers at home for listening to music though PC.

I am more inclined to use foobar as J.River Media Center forces you to upgrade the software when new releases come out. It took only *one* time for my play lists to be wiped out after an update. These two shortcomings mandated a switch to another player.