[Yesfan70]

I see these two programs mentioned more than any other on here. I would really like to hear from those who have tried both and what made you decide one over the other.

Also how do these programs compare to WMP11. I really like WMP 11 more or less because I am used to it. I like the way it is laid out for one. It could be better (ie: rip to flac), but it is good enough. What I want to know is what do these two programs (or others for those who don't use FB2k or MM) bring to the table that WMP11 doesn't.

Basically what I would like to do is have one program manage two music folders. The first folder will have all my CDs ripped to lossless (be it WMA or FLAC). The second folder will have the same library in lossy MP3 or WMA. The main reason I'm thinking about this is because my PC (a 5 year old Dell) takes forever to convert Lossless to MP3/WMA for my ZVW. With the lossy folder, I can just rotate songs in and out for my ZVW since it takes no time for WMP 11 to sync songs to my player. The lossless folder is strictly for a future squeezebox hooked up to my stereo downstairs.

BTW...I did a search for foobar, but none of the threads I found seemed to answer my questions.

As always I appreciate everyone's help.

 

[whistler]

Check www.hydrogenaudio.org they are the forum for Foobar2000.

I mainly use MediaMonkey. It can do everything you want. It also can be used to synch your ZVW, I use it with my ZVM and iPod's. The converter works great. I have all my music ripped as WAV, archiving, and am currently making MP3 copies of the files to play on my portable.

 

[Redo]

I like MediaMonkey quite a bit more, and it has ASIO and bit matched playback capabilities. Foobar is very plain from the start, but it can get pretty depending on how much time and research you put into it.

Whatever the case is, ditch WMP11. Or go for Amarok in Linux if you're feeling adventurous

(amarok is the best player ever!)

 

[Yesfan70]

If you don't mind me asking, what is it about WMP 11 that you don't like? As for me, there are two things I have noticed that I don't like:

1) There's an option to check FLAC as a playable format, but even after downloading the codec for it, it always seems to "uncheck" itself even after I check the box and then hit apply.

2) Sometimes, after syncing some songs to my players, when I go back to my music collection an album or two might have the tracks broken up into 1-2 song albums (ex: Yes Fragile tr 1, Yes Fragile, tr 2, then Yes Fragile tr 3-9 instead of one album with 9 tr on it).

I still have Media Monkey (just need to re-install it) but it does seem to throw everything at you at once. I just need to play around with it more to get used to it I think.

So far, I do like how Foobar is laid out. Seems pretty simple. I am having trouble getting the UI customized and adding panels. I'll just have to read more on how to do that and pay a visit to the Hydrogen Audio.

 

[Jubei]

I find the interface of most media players (including WMP and Media Monkey) too cluttered - which is why I like Foobar. Yes, it does take effort and alot of time to configure Foobar. I also actually like my Foobar relatively plain - nothing fancy, with columns UI, just an full screen height album list panel, album art, old track info and a large playlist switcher panel. With a largish library (over 17,000 tracks), Foobar is still very efficient, quick of start up, and hogs little memory.

I suspect other media players would be less efficient with a large library. This is a suspicion because I have not tried loading the entire library onto other players.

 

[Yesfan70]

I was looking over the Hydrogen Audio site. There's almost too much info on there. I have no clue where to start. I have an idea of what I want to do with Foobar, but seem to have trouble finding the right direction.

I really like how some of those guys and gals posted pics of how they have their own individual foobars setup. I want to do something like that but don't know where to start.

 

[Jubei]

Try Fooblog 2000. They have some configs you can download and install (follow the instructions).

 

[kikkomang]

you can download pre configured foobar releases.

 

[Yesfan70]

Really? Where?

There is a Foobar gallery thread I was looking through on the Hydrogen Audio forums. Foobar seems to be a bit more technical than I hoped, but I guess I'll give it a shot. I can always just go back to WMP or give Monkey Media a try again.

 

[Anarchy965]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yesfan70 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Really? Where?

That site Jubei just mentioned, fooblog, has the latest release of the FofR gui. Pretty easy to set up too.

 

[Hooah]

MediaMonkey is my favorite mediaplayer with Winamp as a close second. I would use Foobar more, but I do not want to devote that much time to set it up when MM has everything I need. Plus, it handles my large collection without a hitch. It is also one of the most powerful organizing programs available.
But the biggest reason I choose MM is it's ability to handle and organize large libraries.

 

[carlineng]

Foobar2000 never fails me. Its a streamlined program with tons of customizable playback options and an interface that can be as simple or as complicated as you want.

Itunes and WMP both take up way too many system resources on a PC.

 

[Topplayer]

search is your friend

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=252503

 

[Prozakk]

Hello Yesfan!

 

[omendelovitz]

with MM, you don't have to have a lossy folder; MM has on the fly encoding into lossy from what you choose to load onto your media player.