CPU Music Players

[SDogo]

What the best MP3 or music player avaliable? (ie..winamp, real player...etc)

Free or not

 

[kmp77]

I've always used winamp. Usually one of the older versions that is less bloated.

 

[the kid 05]

im quite fond of iTunes

 

[hairic]

VLC.

But if you'd like to separate audio from video, you can try foobar2000 for audio.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

If you just want to play mp3s or cds on your computer why not just use Windows Media player if you use windows as your operating system. It's free.

 

[SDogo]

If you just want to play mp3s or cds on your computer why not just use Windows Media player if you use windows as your operating system. It's free.

I'm looking for some thing that will give me some options to control the quality of sound with an equalizer and other extra's. For example, I notice a real difference in music quality playing songs on Windows Media player vs Real Player and was wondering if there was some thing better. I bought a sick Bose speaker system and nice Sound card upgrade so I just want to make sure I can max it out when listening to my tunes.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

I'm looking for some thing that will give me some options to control the quality of sound with an equalizer and other extra's. For example, I notice a real difference in music quality playing songs on Windows Media player vs Real Player and was wondering if there was some thing better. I bought a sick Bose speaker system and nice Sound card upgrade so I just want to make sure I can max it out when listening to my tunes.

Well WMP does have an equalizer you can adjust, also has options for quality (size of mp3s) when you rip from cds. But if that still does not float your boat...I imagine your upgraded sound card probably comes with some software on the CD that came with it.

I personally don't care for real player or Itunes...something about the gui and setup for both I don't really like.

OLD winamp used to be ok, can not say about the newer ones.

At one time musicmatch was an ok system.

However I guess you could go to www.download.com and do a search. Now all of the items there are not free so you have to see which ones are free vs which ones are trial. But the idea of checking there is that most of the programs have sections with people/users that give reviews of the programs/products.

 

[iceberg]

Well WMP does have an equalizer you can adjust, also has options for quality (size of mp3s) when you rip from cds. But if that still does not float your boat...I imagine your upgraded sound card probably comes with some software on the CD that came with it.

I personally don't care for real player or Itunes...something about the gui and setup for both I don't really like.

OLD winamp used to be ok, can not say about the newer ones.

At one time musicmatch was an ok system.

However I guess you could go to www.download.com and do a search. Now all of the items there are not free so you have to see which ones are free vs which ones are trial. But the idea of checking there is that most of the programs have sections with people/users that give reviews of the programs/products.

yep - i'd agree with all this. it really comes down to preference. will the same song sound the same on different players?

should. if not then yea, you have an EQ out there somewhere or something filtering the sound. at it's base level, digital is digital. you either hit it or you don't.

both winamp and wmp have skins to change the look. i used to spend more time looking for the perfect skin than i would listening to music - now i just don't care. i start the music and minimize it and go do what i'm out to do.

for my own radio station, i have links for WMP and WinAmp on the new site we're about to launch, and i have an embedded player i need to make pop out, but that will come before we go.

we're also on itunes radio now, but i HATE that player. it's a huge mess of crapola to me and just let me get my songs to my own system and don't try to be a swiss army media player. but i love the fact we're on there now.

in the end, dig around and install what you want. keep in mind installing another music player will likely hijack all your extensions as all programs will want to be the default player. the more you install the more confusion you're going to see in your media types. look for the "make default player" function and know where it is and how to change which player you want for which file type.

have fun. : )

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

yep - i'd agree with all this. it really comes down to preference. will the same song sound the same on different players?

should. if not then yea, you have an EQ out there somewhere or something filtering the sound. at it's base level, digital is digital. you either hit it or you don't.

both winamp and wmp have skins to change the look. i used to spend more time looking for the perfect skin than i would listening to music - now i just don't care. i start the music and minimize it and go do what i'm out to do.

for my own radio station, i have links for WMP and WinAmp on the new site we're about to launch, and i have an embedded player i need to make pop out, but that will come before we go.

we're also on itunes radio now, but i HATE that player. it's a huge mess of crapola to me and just let me get my songs to my own system and don't try to be a swiss army media player. but i love the fact we're on there now.

in the end, dig around and install what you want. keep in mind installing another music player will likely hijack all your extensions as all programs will want to be the default player. the more you install the more confusion you're going to see in your media types. look for the "make default player" function and know where it is and how to change which player you want for which file type.

have fun. : )

If it were not for my Ipod...I would remove quicktime/itunes from my computer. Just don't like the gui and format. Same with Real Player. I install it on occasion if there is a video or audio file in that format that I want to watch and after that I uninstall it.


I just think people do not realize that Windows Media Players has made some good changes over the past few years. Maybe some people just don't realize some of the things they have done. I think some people don't even mess with the controls or see what is on it now.

I like using the WMP to rip songs from CDs because I think it does a good job of labeling the songs and also organizing them within the my music folders.

I know some people that have ripped CDs with it but never went in to change the settings so what they wind up with is a song in Windows format instead of MP3 format and also at a lower setting. When they could go into it, change the rip to make it an MP3 format and set it to higher levels for better quality.


I guess it is all personal preferences.

 

[iceberg]

If it were not for my Ipod...I would remove quicktime/itunes from my computer. Just don't like the gui and format. Same with Real Player. I install it on occasion if there is a video or audio file in that format that I want to watch and after that I uninstall it.

I just think people do not realize that Windows Media Players has made some good changes over the past few years. Maybe some people just don't realize some of the things they have done. I think some people don't even mess with the controls or see what is on it now.

I like using the WMP to rip songs from CDs because I think it does a good job of labeling the songs and also organizing them within the my music folders.

I know some people that have ripped CDs with it but never went in to change the settings so what they wind up with is a song in Windows format instead of MP3 format and also at a lower setting. When they could go into it, change the rip to make it an MP3 format and set it to higher levels for better quality.

I guess it is all personal preferences.

well microsoft in the past has usually been the generic app, when included.

write vs. word?
paint vs. hell pen and paper?

the initial media players were horrible. but the last 2 have really come a long way. i still HATE the fact that WMP won't stream the artist and song on the player - some messed up legal reason i suppose that i don't get.

but outside of that it's fine. i prefer a smaller footprint so i find that skin and move on or buy a bigger monitor and set the res higher. : )

for ipod and zune and so forth - i hate 'em. i have an 80gig zune that was given to me i'm likely to never use. for the most part i'm never far from my music anyway. if i go outside, i crank it inside to hear it. i don't go jogging cause of city ordinances preventing the sidewalk repair, so no need there. i just don't need my music that portable most likely cause i'm not that portable. : )

all that said, my biggest gripe is zune and ipod wanting total control of how you use it. if i could load up my zune w/o having to synch and get cute, just copy folders over, i'd use it.

i don't want an interface there - period. i only wanna click and drag my music/movies over. since i can't do that it's useless to me.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

well microsoft in the past has usually been the generic app, when included.

write vs. word?
paint vs. hell pen and paper?

the initial media players were horrible. but the last 2 have really come a long way. i still HATE the fact that WMP won't stream the artist and song on the player - some messed up legal reason i suppose that i don't get.

but outside of that it's fine. i prefer a smaller footprint so i find that skin and move on or buy a bigger monitor and set the res higher. : )

for ipod and zune and so forth - i hate 'em. i have an 80gig zune that was given to me i'm likely to never use. for the most part i'm never far from my music anyway. if i go outside, i crank it inside to hear it. i don't go jogging cause of city ordinances preventing the sidewalk repair, so no need there. i just don't need my music that portable most likely cause i'm not that portable. : )

all that said, my biggest gripe is zune and ipod wanting total control of how you use it. if i could load up my zune w/o having to synch and get cute, just copy folders over, i'd use it.

i don't want an interface there - period. i only wanna click and drag my music/movies over. since i can't do that it's useless to me.

Have you tried a copy and/or drag approach with the zune?

I have not used a zune so I don't know if it has to convert the files like ipod converts from MP3s to a quicktime style format.

But I was wondering if you have tried to move folders to the zune without using the zune software?

What I mean is if hook up your zune to your computer via USB. You should be able to go into that USB connection like it is a new drive (like in your MY Computer section so you see your HD, CD or DVD drive and so on). And explore it until you find the folder or area that it stores the music on. Then copy and paste, or click/drag a music folder to that folder.

I wonder if it would recognize it and let you play it on your zune or would it have to convert it or add it to a library and so on.

See i would like to do that with my ipod. Because the whole interface thing kind of sucks. If I rip a song from my CDs with Itunes it only saves it to my Itune library under a large file...where as with WMP it will save it to a folder that can stay on my computer. I also hate how only some songs will show cover art on the IPOD even though it would show cover art when I rip it and play it in WMP.

I also hate the idea that if for some reason i would rip a CD at work. Say someone brought a CD I wanted but I did not want to take it home. If I rip it to a computer at work and then try to hook my ipod into the itunes at work...since it is not the library I initally used with my Ipod and sincs to it (aka the itunes library I have on my home computer) then at work it says it is not the same library and I can not sinc that extra folder or what not unless I completely erase my ipod and start from scratch and I say screw that. So basically at work the only good think for Itunes and hooking my ipod to my computer is to recharge it.

 

[Yeagermeister]

Have you tried a copy and/or drag approach with the zune?

I have not used a zune so I don't know if it has to convert the files like ipod converts from MP3s to a quicktime style format.

But I was wondering if you have tried to move folders to the zune without using the zune software?

What I mean is if hook up your zune to your computer via USB. You should be able to go into that USB connection like it is a new drive (like in your MY Computer section so you see your HD, CD or DVD drive and so on). And explore it until you find the folder or area that it stores the music on. Then copy and paste, or click/drag a music folder to that folder.

I wonder if it would recognize it and let you play it on your zune or would it have to convert it or add it to a library and so on.

See i would like to do that with my ipod. Because the whole interface thing kind of sucks. If I rip a song from my CDs with Itunes it only saves it to my Itune library under a large file...where as with WMP it will save it to a folder that can stay on my computer. I also hate how only some songs will show cover art on the IPOD even though it would show cover art when I rip it and play it in WMP.

I also hate the idea that if for some reason i would rip a CD at work. Say someone brought a CD I wanted but I did not want to take it home. If I rip it to a computer at work and then try to hook my ipod into the itunes at work...since it is not the library I initally used with my Ipod and sincs to it (aka the itunes library I have on my home computer) then at work it says it is not the same library and I can not sinc that extra folder or what not unless I completely erase my ipod and start from scratch and I say screw that. So basically at work the only good think for Itunes and hooking my ipod to my computer is to recharge it.

You can't copy straight to a Zune.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

You can't copy straight to a Zune.

You tried going into the usb like a separate drive?

Was it a format issue that you could move it there but it would not play? I mean ipod I can put things on there I think but I just could not be able to play them so it has me curious.

Reason I am wondering is I am thinking about getting a larger mp3 player (storage wise). As you know I got the ipod for free (well $2 for a raffle ticket) but I would like to have a little larger space on it now. 15-20 would probably work, really don't need something huge. And if I am going to put the money into it I would like to see if a thing or two that bugs me on the ipod is different on the zune.

But I was considering getting a zune because I thought it would mesh better with the WMP and some other things.

So let me ask you.

If you rip a CD in WMP it will go online and check to get the title of the cd/artist and songs and it will normally also find a cover art for an icon of sorts. When it rips to a folder on your computer it also saves that artwork.

However on IPOD if I import that folder...it acts like it is importing the images but it also acts like it will only use an image if it happens to be in the itune store. Kind of confusing here but basically of the huge number of cd/albums I have on my ipod...there are only like 4-5 cover images and it is annoying when you have hundreds of blank cover images.

So question to you...if you rip a CD and it shows an image in your WMP...does that transfer to your zune?

I know it seems like a trivial thing but it just annoys me.:laugh2:

 

[iceberg]

yes, i've tried. you can't. it will only "see itself" through their UI.

which is why i hate it and it will likely never get used again. i don't like random crap on my computer i don't use that often and hate just the same.

 

[Yeagermeister]

yes, i've tried. you can't. it will only "see itself" through their UI.

which is why i hate it and it will likely never get used again. i don't like random crap on my computer i don't use that often and hate just the same.

:signmast:

Over the weekend I ripped my whole cd collection and uploaded it to my Zune and I still have over 100 gig of space left.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

I use Real and Windows Media. They're really the only two I ever use.

 

[hairic]

I'm looking for some thing that will give me some options to control the quality of sound with an equalizer and other extra's. For example, I notice a real difference in music quality playing songs on Windows Media player vs Real Player and was wondering if there was some thing better. I bought a sick Bose speaker system and nice Sound card upgrade so I just want to make sure I can max it out when listening to my tunes.

You'd have to listen for differences yourself, but foobar2000. The equalizer actually works well.