[mojo]

I'm looking for an alternative to WinAMP, and was wondering what other people like... let's look at a few candidates I have tried.

Requirements
- Media library
- Fast loading
- Unicode support
- MPC/FLAC/AAC format support

WinAMP
+ Fairly quick
+ Nice media library
+ iPod support
+ Kernel streaing / ASIO
- No unicode

iTunes
+ iPod support
- Slow
- No MPC/FLAC

foobar2000
+ iPod support
+ Kernel streaming / ASIO
+ Arguably best sound of all players
+ Good format support
- Insainly hard to set up *

MediaMonkey
+ iPod support
+ Good format support
+ Kernel streaming / ASIO
- Slow
- Media library always reverts back to default view

musikCube
+ Fast
+ Good format support
- No Kernel streaming / ASIO, based on BASS audio library
- Media library seems to consider extra spaces in tags etc

wxMusik
? Seems about the same as musikCube?


In short, I think WinAMP is probably the ultimate, except it can't even play files with Unicode characters in the name... Or maybe foobar2000, if it just worked...

* Note: I am a computer technician, and studied computer programming at degree level. I regard myself as an expert. But, a lot like Linux, the documentation for foobar is so thinly spread, often out of date and seemingly incomplete (where is the one-stop manual with a good overview?). I tried both V0.8 and V0.9, and couldn't get either into a state I was happy with. I downloaded some layout codes and tried them, but... well, I want to play music, not write code. If I wanted to do that, I'd just write a music player.

 

[djdube525]

For what it's worth, there is an iTunes plug in that allows you to play foobar through the interface... if you google "iTunes foobar plugin" you should see the following link to aquasoft

http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/showthread.php?t=32733

When you install it, you'll get a tab in the iTunes preferences. You'ld then check "Foobar2000 passthrough"

That being said, I agree about settings. I'm currently having difficulty with ASIO and foobar. I installed ASIO4ALL v2.7, but cant for the life of me get it into the component library in foobar. Any hints anyone?

 

[003]

How does foobar have better quality than winamp if both are using ASIO?

 

[jiiteepee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by djdube525 For what it's worth, there is an iTunes plug in that allows you to play foobar through the interface... if you google "iTunes foobar plugin" you should see the following link to aquasoft http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/showthread.php?t=32733 When you install it, you'll get a tab in the iTunes preferences. You'ld then check "Foobar2000 passthrough" That being said, I agree about settings. I'm currently having difficulty with ASIO and foobar. I installed ASIO4ALL v2.7, but cant for the life of me get it into the component library in foobar. Any hints anyone?

Asio4All is not a component for Foobar, but a generic ASIO driver. You should see it listed on Output:ASIO_dll window as a Device. You also need a ASIO_dll plugin for foobar --> http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...p?showforum=28

jiitee

 

[mojo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by djdube525 For what it's worth, there is an iTunes plug in that allows you to play foobar through the interface... if you google "iTunes foobar plugin" you should see the following link to aquasoft

Looks interesting, thanks. I will download and try it. I don't support it allows you to support MPC/FLAC in iTunes though, does it? iTunes does not seem to work with APE tags either, or at least not the last time I looked.

 

[swmtnbiker]

Give J. River Media Center a look:

http://www.jrmediacenter.com/

It's Shareware, and despite a few issues (and what application doesn't have them?) I find it to be a fantastic piece of software.

 

[djdube525]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mojo Looks interesting, thanks. I will download and try it. I don't support it allows you to support MPC/FLAC in iTunes though, does it? iTunes does not seem to work with APE tags either, or at least not the last time I looked.

With the plug in for foobar, you can play whatever foobar can play through iTunes. So yes to your question - although FLAC on IPOD is out... but for those that want to use Foobar, but like the iTunes interface... it's pretty nice.

 

[slwiser]

My vote goes to J Media..

 

[Rambaud]

Seems like J. River is worth a try.

Downloading as I type.

I too find foobar beyond my meagre talents.

 

[mojo]

Thanks for the replies so far.

The foobar plugin for iTunes works pretty well it seems. J. River Media Center seems a bit over the top for what I'm looking for - reminds me more of the XBOX Media Centre (which is, BTW, excellent).

003: foobar2000 is probably equal to WinAMP when using ASIO. One thing I miss when using kernel streaming (not tried ASIO) in WinAMP is that it does not fade in and out, like the DirectSound plugin does.

One interesting thing I noticed about the WinAMP media library - because it uses custom controls it's easier to work with. Windows scroll bars are terrible for long lists, the WinAMP ones work a lot better.

 

[swmtnbiker]

IMO one of Media Center's biggest strengths is its media management. It's media libraries (you can have as many as you'd like) are pretty much completely customizable.

 

[ComfyCan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mojo * Note: I am a computer technician, and studied computer programming at degree level. I regard myself as an expert. But, a lot like Linux, the documentation for foobar is so thinly spread, often out of date and seemingly incomplete (where is the one-stop manual with a good overview?). I tried both V0.8 and V0.9, and couldn't get either into a state I was happy with. I downloaded some layout codes and tried them, but... well, I want to play music, not write code. If I wanted to do that, I'd just write a music player.

I don't have an answer; I use Foobar 2k, with default interface and ASIO enabled due to charity explanations from headfi members.

However, I am happy to see that a computer technician finds Foobar documentation confusing. It makes me, a mere mortal, feel much less like an idiot.

I may try the I-tunes foobar plug-in, that sounds interesting. My only concern is that I do use I-tunes to feed my Nano with ACC files, while the rest of my music is stored in Flac for use on my PC and Rockboxed Iriver H140; I forsee the potential for conflicts when I try to sych the Nano.

BTW, Rockbox suffers from the same complexity issues. Well-meaning folk are constantly fiddling with these open source programs, making it very difficult for the average bear to keep up. Manuals are outdated before they are written. The Rockbox users's manual is in perpetual draft form; the 5/18/06 manual for Iriver H100 series is 112 pages long, and contains numerous gaps and outdated entries. I realize people don't get paid to do this work, but it sure is frustrating.

I haven't tried Media Center; it looks like another CPU intensive application that tries to do too much, but I could be wrong.

I know I, for one, would be quite willing to pay for a simple, low-overhead player with ASIO and FLAC support with a few simple features like Columns UI, album art, and a few playlist options. Foobar appears to be the answer, but I just don't have the time or the patience to customize it myself.

If you haven't seen Nero's latest package, for God's sake don't bother. It is a huge resource hog and would take months to figure out. It's also expensive. I deleted it hours after I put it on my machine, it's terrible. The software suite hijacked all media file associations without notice, and made AVI files unviewable with any player. I could have fixed it, but it made me so mad I just took it off.

The bloatware trend in software development is almost as disturbing as the recording industry's abandonment of dynamic range in mixing cd's, but I digress.

Why must every new software offering rival the tax code in complexity?

 

[slwiser]

J River Media plug-in's are all use 32 bit operations if that means anything to you. Their EQ is very good..if you need to use a little for some things.

 

[swmtnbiker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ComfyCan Why must every new software offering rival the tax code in complexity?

Because software engineering resources are cheap and plentiful in Bangalor and southeast Asia. Focused and experienced project managers however are not. But I digress...

 

[slwiser]

I just check my J River Media player processor load and it is running between 0 and 2%. How they do this I do not know. Memory resources are running a little over 12 megs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ComfyCan I haven't tried Media Center; it looks like another CPU intensive application that tries to do too much, but I could be wrong.