Music Playback Software (iHate iTunes - Alternatives?)
Jan 19, 2011 at 12:22 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 15

R-Audiohead

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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3) It seems like ALL the add ons in the songbird community are outdated - at least all of the functional ones like playlist export and iPod sync etc.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
 
Jan 19, 2011 at 5:15 AM Post #3 of 15


Quote:
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3) It seems like ALL the add ons in the songbird community are outdated - at least all of the functional ones like playlist export and iPod sync etc.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.
 
Jan 19, 2011 at 3:47 PM Post #4 of 15
A lot of people appear to object to it on the basis of the fact that you have to pay for it
confused.gif
(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.
 
Jan 19, 2011 at 6:46 PM Post #6 of 15
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.
 
Jan 20, 2011 at 4:48 PM Post #8 of 15
I'll probably go foobar.
 
I liked the add-on ideas of songbird, and it sounds like foobar runs pretty "manual" as well.
 
Jan 20, 2011 at 6:10 PM Post #9 of 15
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.
 
Jan 20, 2011 at 7:08 PM Post #10 of 15


Quote:
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.



Maybe I will give musicbee a look then :D
 
Jan 20, 2011 at 10:07 PM Post #11 of 15


Quote:
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)
 
Jan 21, 2011 at 12:04 AM Post #12 of 15
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.
 
Jan 23, 2011 at 12:03 AM Post #13 of 15
I have yet to see something that can beat Foobar.
 
Jan 25, 2011 at 4:55 PM Post #14 of 15
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.
 
Jan 25, 2011 at 5:20 PM Post #15 of 15
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.
 

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