Utilities Poll - Week 8

profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
edited September 2003 in Science & Tech
This week's topic: Audio Playback Software

Your input will determine which programs are chosen to bear the proud title "Short-Media Approved", so be sure to vote!

Are you the kind of person who just can't live without music? You probably have hundreds of CD's, and thousands of mp3's in your collection. Your collection needs to be fully catalogued in order to be instantly available. The tag info on your mp3's must be detailed and correct. The sound output has to be high quality to take full advantage of that killer speaker system you spent big money on. It had better look cool, too - and be fully customizable.

What's your favorite Media Player?

Please add your comments and opinions in this thread! Once this project is complete there will be an article written detailing the "S-M Approved" utilities. Knowing "what" you prefer would be great. Knowing "why" you prefer it would be even better.

I will attempt to modify the poll if one of the "Other" votes gets way more votes than one I've already listed.

Thanks for the great response last week. The voting was extremely close. Your vote matters - all comments and all software receiving votes will be mentioned when the Short-Media Approved Utilities list is published.

Coming Soon - Part I of the Short-Media Approved Utilities list!
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Comments

  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    I use WMP9. I use it simply because I cannot get my keyboard's media keys to work with any other program. The only feature I really miss from when I used winamp(3) is the ability to create a queue of songs to play.
  • Rot-KatzeRot-Katze Pensacola, Florida
    edited September 2003
    winamp..just because..it's winamp

    ;[
  • IC-GamesIC-Games
    edited September 2003
    yep Winamp :)
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    Winamp all the way :)

    //;D;D Coaster... avatar!! :respect:
  • SpinnerSpinner Birmingham, UK
    edited September 2003
    I actually always have and still do use 'Real Jukebox Plus 2'. I prefer the interface, but I admit it's a bit rubbish, performance and stability wise.
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    I used to use WinAmp, but after my last reformat, I just didn't bother to download it. The newest version of WMP seems to have the same sound quality even if the interface is a bit bulky. It's just not worth putting another program on my system for the few extra things it could do. Iguess that's what windows wants me to think, but they did a good job...
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited September 2003
    Windows Media Player, v8.1 or v9 if I can be bothered to update it...

    Oh and Coaster, Shorty's right- that avatar is hysterical (although I'm not sure many people outside of London/England will get it...) ;D
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    Winamp.

    WMP9 just uses an inordinate amount of RAM to be playing only music with.
  • EMTEMT Seattle, WA Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    Yeah, seriously, WMP is just too big, bulky, and hungry... I've always used Winamp.

    Friend of mine was complaining about trouble playing MP3s while gaming or some such and I finally convinced him to try Winamp instead of WMP. Problem solved...

    WMP is fine for video but I listen to music much more. Winamp runs on my desktop about 24/7.
  • NixxerNixxer Nottingham, UK
    edited September 2003
    Winamp.

    I use 2.91 at the moment and its got everything I need to play music and video. I like the ammount of visulisations their are, and skins.

    Not a bad program from an AOL owned company.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited September 2003
    EMT- you say WMP is too "big, bulky and hungry". One question: What else would you expect from a Microsoft product? :D

    I use it primarily because I can't be bothered to download 4 copies of Winamp... Why 4 copies? because with 2-4 hard drives in every computer (2 partitons + external drive on laptop) I end up with 3, 4, 5, 6 or even more copies of pretty much every driver and downloadable program, patch and update I need... I think I've got ATi Catalyst v. 3.7, 3.6, 3.5 and 3.4 on my systems somewhere still... And since I can't keep my stuff organized, it's easiest to just use WMP :D
  • NecropolisNecropolis Hawarden, Wales Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    Another vote for Winamp :thumbsup:
  • radfarafradfaraf NJ
    edited September 2003
    foobar > all
    http://www.foobar2000.org/ :vimp:
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    I should ALSO note that I use Winamp 2.91, because Winamp 3 is prone to crashing, eating 25+ mb of RAM, and generally functioning like ****.
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    I'm definitely a Winamp kinda guy :cool:

    It really whips the [WMP's] ass. ;) I must admit they screwed up with 3.0 a bit though. I'm on 2.91 myself. I think they went more in the direction of their ownership's [AOL] snafus with 3.0...


    //edit: curses, Thrax beat me to that 3.0 bit... :p
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited September 2003
    Did Winamp collaborate with Microsoft on V3 or something? ;D
  • SouriatSouriat Nottingham, UK
    edited September 2003
    Another Foobar vote from me, sounds great, is a nice and small/simple program with compatability for every audio codec ive yet to use. A lot of third party plugins around too if you want something that isnt too major of a change its normally around :)

    Although i do use Winamp for the occasions when i want to watch NSV :)
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    I use winamp and BSplayer. winamp for songs and BS player for just about anything else. I think bsplayer is the shizzle for video.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    WinAMP for Music, WMP6 for Videos (Uses codecs but is fast, lite and small).

    NS
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited September 2003
    Windows Media Player 9.0.

    Comes with Windows, supports the hotkeys on my MS keyboard and does exactly what it is supposed to do.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited September 2003
    When I began this little project I envisioned it someday becoming a reference for people looking to find the best utilities to use on their computer.

    Here is a good example, which hits very close to home:
    I have used MusicMatch Jukebox (that's my vote up there) for years now, mainly because it has some very powerful sorting and playlist tools, and because it uses the genuine Fraunhofer codec. It also has nice features, like VBR ripping, etc.

    They just ticked me off, though, by wanting me to pay full price for their latest version (I have already paid full price for a previous version, plus paid for some of the add-ons like DFX, which is a sound enhancement tool). My original version said nothing about having to pay full price for future upgrades. I decided to just stick with the version I have, but they have now decided that I can no longer gain access to their CDDB for tagging, etc. Another orphan to go with my old Voodoo cards...

    I checked out the foobar2000 some of you have mentioned, and so far I like it very much. I have about 7,000 music mp3's, and over 15,000 Old Time Radio shows. Needless to say, cataloging my playlists is a big deal for me. I also like foobar's plug-in collection, though I'm still looking for the "perfect" playlist spreadsheet-style database manager.

    Thanks for the suggestion!

    :cheers: :celebrate
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    Zortam MP3 Media Studio, Prof.
    Zortam Mp3 Media Studio is an all-in-one MP3 organizer application for converting audio CD to MP3 and WAV format (CD Ripper) using CDDB (Internet Compact Disc Database), editing ID3 tags (Mp3 ID3 Tag Editor) with support for ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags, converting Waw to Mp3 files and Mp3 to Wav files (Wav/Mp3 Converter), managing M3u playlists (Playlist manager), renaming files (Mp3 Renamer) using ID3 tags, searching for duplicate Mp3 files, searching and cataloguing Mp3 files into Mp3 library, listening Mp3's using your favorite Mp3 player and much more.

    You can even add lyrics and picture to ID3 tags(cover, artist picture, etc.) to your Mp3 files.

    Editing ID3 tags is easy and you can process as many files as you want.

    You can sort your Mp3 list in ascending or descending order using all ID3 tags and MPEG fields.

    Zortam Mp3 Media Studio playlist support M3u Winamp format and playlists generated by Mp3 Media Studio can be played in any Mp3 player. You can drag & drop files to the playlist.

    I use it to manage my 15,000 mp3 collection. It helped me organize all my ID3 tags properly, and keeps track of what I have.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited September 2003
    Winamp.


    YOU FORGOT QUICKTIME!!!!!!omgwtfone:rolleyes:
  • danball1976danball1976 Wichita Falls, TX
    edited September 2003
    I like using Windows Media Player 9

    Quicktime is worthless, but you kind of have to have it installed
    WinAMP is used for listening to the Addaboy Radio show.
  • SpinnerSpinner Birmingham, UK
    edited September 2003
    mmonnin said

    YOU FORGOT QUICKTIME!!!!!!omgwtfone:rolleyes:

    That's not really a general media player, as it only plays vids.
    danball1976 said
    WinAMP is used for listening to the Addaboy Radio show.

    Yeah, that's all I use Winamp for, Addaboy.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited September 2003
    mmonnin said
    YOU FORGOT QUICKTIME!!!!!!omgwtfone:rolleyes:
    It was on my original list, but I had to pare it down to the 10 choice limit for polls.

    I don't even use Quicktime for Quicktime files since I found the alternative. ;D
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited September 2003
    profdlp said
    When I began this little project I envisioned it someday becoming a reference for people looking to find the best utilities to use on their computer.

    .....

    I checked out the foobar2000 some of you have mentioned, and so far I like it very much. I have about 7,000 music mp3's, and over 15,000 Old Time Radio shows. Needless to say, cataloging my playlists is a big deal for me. I also like foobar's plug-in collection, though I'm still looking for the "perfect" playlist spreadsheet-style database manager.

    Thanks for the suggestion!

    :cheers: :celebrate

    Have you tried ShufflePlay? Might be handy for your needs.

    http://www.fliptech.net/shuffleplay/
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited September 2003
    I was just joking trying to use the IRC gang slang. I dont use it cept for video trailers I want to watch. Winamp for music and WMP for anything else but movies like DVD.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited September 2003
    SimGuy said Have you tried ShufflePlay? Might be handy for your needs.

    http://www.fliptech.net/shuffleplay/

    I'll check it out - looks interesting. I'm looking at Thrax's suggestion, too.

    Thanks all!:thumbup
  • NixxerNixxer Nottingham, UK
    edited September 2003
    profdlp said
    I don't even use Quicktime for Quicktime files since I found the alternative. ;D

    I use Quicktime Alternative too, its rather good.
This discussion has been closed.