Author Topic: What's your music player of choice? (Read 112628 times)

GHammer · « **Reply #50 on:** August 10, 2007, 02:16 AM »

I've tried almost every single player out there. I still will install new players to test them out to see what they do. But I completely swear by JRiver Media Center. It is killer for organizing all kinds of media--especially large libraries (I have over 40,000 songs at this point). I use it for video somewhat, but it is all I use for audio. Unfortunately it's only available for Windows (it's what's keeping me from going 100% Linux).

If you look through the Wikipedia article (linked to earlier in this thread) comparing music players, take a look at the features for JRMC. It's one of the only ones that's completely green for features AND audio format support (and is mostly green for a bunch of others). LastFM support isn't built in, but there is a plug-in that works great.

I'm also very visual. I like to look through the album covers to find music, rather than just looking at text and tags. JRMC has robust cover art support for browsing.

The bad news is...it ain't cheap (about $40). But they're constantly updating it, adding features, etc.

I HIGHLY recommend it....
-BRossMac (August 09, 2007, 11:10 PM)

I'll second that. A great music player/manager that also is good with other media. Even RAW image files.

quantumrider · « **Reply #51 on:** August 10, 2007, 02:27 AM »

Quintessential Player from quinnware.com and iZotope Ozone, awesome for speakers and headphones

housetier · « **Reply #52 on:** August 10, 2007, 02:30 AM »

I use mplayer for nearly all my multimedia needs:

movie files of any type, any codec, and any format
watching DVD
audio files of any type, any codec, and any format
radio streams (not all of them, flash stuff won't work)
video streams (ditto)

If I need DVD menus I use VLC.

Mplayer is free and good; you don't have to install it, so it won't mess with your registry either :-)

So far I have not found a usable GUI, but I haven't been looking that hard because *I* don't want a GUI. If you want your media player to look pretty, mplayer probably is not for you.

Grorgy · « **Reply #53 on:** August 10, 2007, 02:31 AM »

I use either media monkey 3 or j river (media monkey3 is still in a public alpha stage but mostly works ok, some odd noises, which is why i use jriver too, it works seamlessly for me), then run them thru my stereo

dspelley · « **Reply #54 on:** August 10, 2007, 11:19 AM »

I've recently been using Jet Audio free version http://www.cowonamer...m/products/jetaudio/ and it seems to be able to play just about everything I need.

At work I often stream Slacker.com http://www.slacker.com/. They have a downloadable player, but I haven't used it.

wmain · « **Reply #55 on:** August 12, 2007, 10:43 AM »

I have an XMRadio so I just listen to the online XMRadio on the computer. I can't be bothered with downloading music or ripping CD's.

allen · « **Reply #56 on:** August 13, 2007, 12:01 AM »

I do that myself quite a bit--but sirius rather than xm

CleverCat · « **Reply #57 on:** August 13, 2007, 01:32 AM »

Hmmm

Nice to see a mention of Billy. Small footprint, but limited to mp3's afaict. Musikcube and Songbird are very interesting, but I think they still need refining. I use most of the others as the mood strikes, but tend to favor an older version of jetAudio (bloatware, but I like it, and v.7.x's crapware). I won't touch Real Player, took forever to root out all the debris from the registry. I won Zoom Player Pro in a monthly drawing, but seldom use it.

So much music, so little time...

just my 2 pennies
OEF
-OldElmerFudd (August 09, 2007, 04:05 PM)

I tried billy - has the best sound of all my players!

OldElmerFudd · « **Reply #58 on:** August 30, 2007, 11:05 PM »

Hmmm

Nice to see a mention of Billy. Small footprint, but limited to mp3's afaict. Musikcube and Songbird are very interesting, but I think they still need refining. I use most of the others as the mood strikes, but tend to favor an older version of jetAudio (bloatware, but I like it, and v.7.x's crapware). I won't touch Real Player, took forever to root out all the debris from the registry. I won Zoom Player Pro in a monthly drawing, but seldom use it.

So much music, so little time...

just my 2 pennies
OEF
-OldElmerFudd (August 09, 2007, 04:05 PM)

I tried billy - has the best sound of all my players!
-CleverCat (August 13, 2007, 01:32 AM)

Agreed. Billy's sound is fine, even with my oldest machine/card combo. Good speakers make a difference...depending on the box, I use Altec Lansing, JBL, or Creative. Sennheiser HD 280 Pro cans usually stay with the machine set up for audio work...and Billy's right there on all of them! I don't think I've got anything else like that running on the network!

PhilB66 · « **Reply #59 on:** January 06, 2008, 11:26 PM »

Check out DéKiBulle (Portable version available).

More Screenshots

BRossMac · « **Reply #60 on:** January 07, 2008, 12:17 AM »

The folks who make JRMedia Center have released a free version of the software (with a more limited feature set).

http://www.mediajukebox.com

Curt · « **Reply #61 on:** January 07, 2008, 07:58 AM »

The folks who make JRMedia Center have released a free version of the software (with a more limited feature set). http://www.mediajukebox.com
-BRossMac (January 07, 2008, 12:17 AM)

This is good news! I will for sure check it out.

---

I have dumped most of my media players, mplayer, MPC, VLC and KMP, because of the new Winamp 5.5 Pro. This is The Best I have had so far! I really like it in general, but I am extra pleased that I can tell it to also play the videos without showing their movie (sound only). Nice feature when you are working!

CleverCat · « **Reply #62 on:** January 08, 2008, 12:39 AM »

I'm hooked on Media Monkey - version 3 just out - Fantastic!

Curt · « **Reply #63 on:** January 08, 2008, 07:45 AM »

CyberNet tells about MediaMonkey:

25% Off MediaMonkey Licenses

Posted: 07 Jan 2008 06:17 PM CST

MediaMonkey
Back on our two-year anniversary we hosted a giveaway for a few MediaMonkey licenses. With over 130 entries we couldn’t exactly give a license to everyone who entered in, but now anyone can get 25% off a MediaMonkey license. The price of a lifetime license goes from $40 down to $30, and a Gold license from $20 down to $15.

You may be aware that there is also a free version of MediaMonkey available, but Gold users get some great advantages. Things like advanced search capabilities, encoding MP3’s, a sleep timer, file monitoring, and more are only found in the Gold version of MediaMonkey.

To get the 25% discount just enter in MM2-UPG-DISC25 as the coupon code during the checkout process. The coupon is good for the entire month of January, which gives you some time to wait for your next paycheck.

[via FatWallet]

Copyright © 2008 CyberNet |

http://www.mediamonkey.com/
http://www.mediamonk...com/product_gold.htm

Tekzel · « **Reply #64 on:** January 08, 2008, 08:18 AM »

I use Subsonic + WinAMP to view and play my music, and Subsonic to manage my tags and such. I love Subsonic because it lets me stream my music to work or wherever. Like the interface and how it organizes based on files instead of tags.

wilfrednilsen · « **Reply #65 on:** January 15, 2008, 07:32 PM »

In the office, I use the built in MP3 player in BarracudaDrive when I play my music directly from my home computer. The music is streamed directly and bypasses the company firewall.

The Web File Manager can create play lists directly from my music collection.

oldfart · « **Reply #66 on:** January 16, 2008, 03:47 PM »

You people don't know the troubles you cause. I am a very new member of DC and just getting started with my search for software. Yesterday I read the Best of 2007 and found myself checking out and/or downloading several neat little programs, only one of which I've installed so far. You see, I have developed a doozy of a disability that requires me to take a basket-load of meds each day, most of which cut my IQ exponentially. Today I stumbled upon your thread and because I've been searching for a decent music and video player, I very much appreciated all the great suggestions.
Many moons ago I was signed up with Music Match Jukebox for the excellent reason that it came installed on this Dell. I purchased a number of albums and singles, mostly sixties and seventies stuff [hence the name oldfart]. I haven't been listening to music much this past year due to my difficulties but I've gotten somewhat used to all the damn meds and have begun to play with the computer more and listening to music was one of my first desires.
I had quit MMJ [I had purchased PLUS and had a subscription to their library at one time] Anywho, I first downloaded 1by1 and then read about JRiver having a free version and grabbed it. I installed the program and imported my library, none of which would play. After fumbling around for a bit I noticed that it was a DRM problem, they could not verify my license. I finally woke up and Googled MMJ but it kept taking me to Yahoo. Eventually I figured out that MMJ was apparently absorbed by Yahoo so I downloaded and installed Yahoo's player. Sure enough, when I tried to play my music it had the same DRM problem but it did bring up a window asking me for my MMJ user name and password. Thankfully I was able to go to my password keeper [see thread concerning password managers] and find my old MMJ info.
I imported my library once again and was pleased to see it find my license and play the song. I then opened JRiver and it played the tune also. Unfortunately it would only play that song. I am going to have to play each song on Yahoo first to obtain my license before I can use any other player.
I think I read something about the importance of backing up you license somewhere upstream of this post and I plan to find that post and dutifully follow its suggestion.
Thanks to all you nice folks for providing me with both excellent knowledge about media players but also giving me a whole afternoon's activity.

$:-\$

CleverCat · « **Reply #67 on:** January 18, 2008, 06:25 AM »

CyberNet tells about MediaMonkey:

25% Off MediaMonkey Licenses

Posted: 07 Jan 2008 06:17 PM CST

MediaMonkey
Back on our two-year anniversary we hosted a giveaway for a few MediaMonkey licenses. With over 130 entries we couldn’t exactly give a license to everyone who entered in, but now anyone can get 25% off a MediaMonkey license. The price of a lifetime license goes from $40 down to $30, and a Gold license from $20 down to $15.

You may be aware that there is also a free version of MediaMonkey available, but Gold users get some great advantages. Things like advanced search capabilities, encoding MP3’s, a sleep timer, file monitoring, and more are only found in the Gold version of MediaMonkey.

To get the 25% discount just enter in MM2-UPG-DISC25 as the coupon code during the checkout process. The coupon is good for the entire month of January, which gives you some time to wait for your next paycheck.

[via FatWallet]

Copyright © 2008 CyberNet |
http://www.mediamonkey.com/
http://www.mediamonk...com/product_gold.htm
-Curt (January 08, 2008, 07:45 AM)

Thanks Curt - just got lifetime discount thanks to you!

ThalSwe · « **Reply #68 on:** January 19, 2008, 09:43 AM »

Was an custom-crazy Foobar user for the longest time, spending way to much time tinkering around with settings,finding/updating plugins and tweaking the look to perfection (and to be honest change it almost once a week since I simply had new ideas by that time

).
Then I found this thread and decided to check it for fun as I honestly was perfectly happy with Foobar and what it offers but to my suprise I actually ended up changing to a new one.

Currently playing around with Jr Media Jukebox and full Media Center version of it and I am not far away from paying for it as it simply is sweet. Love the speed of it, the accessability while keeping it highly customizable, the look and just...the feel of using it.
A big thanks to BRossMac for mentioning it.

Will probably look around a bit more before settling down permanently as I simply was to...limited with Foobar and never gave the rest even a look.
Actually recommend that to anyone in the thread that enjoy their current player, try anyways and you might be surprised

(also ended up putting Billy on my usb drive so

for this thread)

mouser · « **Reply #69 on:** January 19, 2008, 09:52 AM »

The minimalist simplicity of VUplayer (recommended by Allen) won me over.

dspelley · « **Reply #70 on:** January 31, 2008, 09:33 PM »

(Winamp vs iTunes vs MediaMonkey)² Rematch.

Here's a music player review/comparison from Skytopia updated earlier today. This is a rematch from a review they did about 3 years ago. Pretty comprehensive comparison of the latest versions of Winamp, iTunes and MediaMonkey.

And the winner is.....

cthorpe · « **Reply #71 on:** February 01, 2008, 02:30 AM »

I use three different players depending on what I am listening to.

For just playing a single album, I use Billy.

If I'm going to be on my computer for an extended length of time, I will fire up MusicIP Mixer, pick a few good songs and let it generate a mix.

Finally, I have a Zune and a Zune Pass (unlimited downloads and plays of most of the Zune catalog), so if I am putting tracks on it or looking around for something brand new I'll go with that one.

OldElmerFudd · « **Reply #72 on:** February 05, 2008, 02:57 PM »

The minimalist simplicity of VUplayer (recommended by Allen) won me over.
-mouser (January 19, 2008, 09:52 AM)

Think you may be on to something here, mouser. There's a nice little set of filters and audio tools on the site, tho' for the life of me I can't seem to get the VU Meters to work.

ThalSwe · « **Reply #73 on:** February 17, 2008, 10:21 AM »

Just a small heads-up for users of Billy. It recently got a update

Version 1.04i beta - Feb 15 2008
FLAC support
Last.fm support (playing history)
ID3v2.4 tag support (view only in properties)
Musicbrainz support and replaygain values extracted, no support yet.
Recording with "pre" functionality in radio streams
Dedicated shortcuts for Shuffle/Repeat
Thanks all for the patients..

Quite a nice update if you ask me. Definatly ensured its spot on my usb stick

Josh · « **Reply #74 on:** February 17, 2008, 10:27 AM »

I have to say, I used to be a winamp fan back in the days of the early 5.0 release. I then came upon Zoom Player which played everything I wanted (only player to support all formats I used plus dvd), but then it became plagued with repeated codec issues. I had to repeatedly reinstall codecs to get it to play files properly. I have since moved back to winamp and havent looked back. Once Winamp adds DVD playback, I will be completely satisfied with it.