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Um, not sure whether this really belongs here or in Off-topic. In the course of an rant regarding the general crap-ness of Media Player on another board, I was bombarded with suggestions that I download other media-playing software. However when I pressed said individuals for details about why any platform was better than others, the all looked shifty and avoided the issue.

Does anyone have any particular views as to which software is better and why?

Thank you for not messing with my head.

The Morrigan.

Winamp. WMP calls home to momma (microsoft) reporting your every action, can only rip in .wma and needs an external codec to play anything other than .wav or .wma. It's also bloated. Real player is OK but it can't handle certain file types and is full of spyware. Winamp has a broad range of supported filetypes, is lightweight and doesn't fill your computer with crap.

I don't entirely know about Real having spyware, but what it does have is a rather nasty licensing/subscription scheme.

As a media player it's OK, I suppose. It has far too many useless "features" for my taste, however.

The Helix player, however, seems more promising. But it's only for Linux at the moment if I'm not mistaken.

Crayz9000 wrote: But it's only for Linux at the moment if I'm not mistaken.

If he knows what he's doing he could get it in source and compile it for windows .

Cheers guys.

Crayz9000 wrote:As a media player it's OK, I suppose. It has far too many useless "features" for my taste, however.

Speaking of useless "features", why the hell does WMP have an automatic playlist called "Music I dislike"? What sort of depraved idiot wants to listen to a playlist full of music that they don't like? Even I'm not that masochistic. If I don't like music, I delete it from my hard drive/media library.*

* With a few notable exceptions which are so amusingly awful that I keep them around for my own childish amusement. Eg. William Shatner singing Tambourine Man, Paul McCartney singing Give Ireland Back to The Irish & that godawful song Britney Spears did with Madonna.

Morrigan wrote:Cheers guys.

Crayz9000 wrote:As a media player it's OK, I suppose. It has far too many useless "features" for my taste, however.

Speaking of useless "features", why the hell does WMP have an automatic playlist called "Music I dislike"? What sort of depraved idiot wants to listen to a playlist full of music that they don't like? Even I'm not that masochistic. If I don't like music, I delete it from my hard drive/media library.*

* With a few notable exceptions which are so amusingly awful that I keep them around for my own childish amusement. Eg. William Shatner singing Tambourine Man, Paul McCartney singing Give Ireland Back to The Irish & that godawful song Britney Spears did with Madonna.

It also likes to lag and crash.

I generally use the old mplayer2.exe. It takes less resources on this computer than Winamp. The new Windows Media Player is scary, I have disliked Real for too long to every use any of their stuff, and quicktime is x_X.

I have never had a problem with media player, I think it is the best.

Equinox2003 wrote:I have never had a problem with media player, I think it is the best.

Let's see how great it is.

• .Wma Files:
  Oooh, a closed standard, that has built in drm, takes up heaps of space and is incompatible with alot of file converters. Sighn me up fast cheif.
• Other Files:
  A major player that doesn't come with a .MP3 codec standard? Excuse me while I shit myself laughing. And don't even think of trying to play say, a real media or ogg vorbis file in WMP. But it's not like anyone uses anything other than .wma for anything important so it doesn't really matter does it?
• Interface:
  You're telling me that on top of all these great features I get to use a crapily skinned, de-stabilized version of the same interface that this player has been using for years? Gee Golly, that's fucking awsome.
• Phoning Home:
  You mean to say that WMP sends messages about me back to Billy Gates? WHat for? Ooooh, it's to protect the walle...er...rights of record company execu....er...artists? Well fine by me then. He can have my credit card number and a key to my house too while he's at it so long as Brittney get's enough money to upgrade to E cups.

As you can see, windows media player offers numerous advantages over winamp, real player and all the other fine players out there.

Is WMP the best? Nope. Is it functional? Sure. It meets my limited needs. Now, if I were a much bigger music afficianado, pumping TBs of MP3 through my system every day, that would be different. But for simple folk like me, who just want to hear a song every now and then, WMP is just fine.

I use Music match Jukebox, not sure how that stands up to the crowds but it has internet Radio stations, artist choice etc and you cab buy mp3s through it for $0.99.

There is musicmatch basic and musicmatch plus (which you pay a subscription for. however basic is good enough for playing music and burning cd's.

I'll use both Windows Media Player and Winamp, depending on the need at the time. For most movie files it's WMP 9, for mp3s and music it's typically winamp. I don't like RealOne player due to the fact of how laggy it is.

I use Winamp (the latest release of Winamp 2) for audio and Media Player Classic (not WMP) for video in Windows (had issues with Winamp's video playing locking up my computer).

iTunes

It depends. Winamp does everything that WMP does and more in a smaller memory footprint. However, old Windows Media Player (version 6.xx) is a very good player, if you're looking for a basic player that plays many things. Newer WMP causes crashes, locks a lot of the time, and has a clunky, pointless GUI.

Have now downloaded Winamp & discovered to my delight that it actually plays my Rita Hayworth singing Put the Blame on Mame MP3 that I could never get to work.

[does happy dance]

Morrigan wrote:Have now downloaded Winamp & discovered to my delight that it actually plays my Rita Hayworth singing Put the Blame on Mame MP3 that I could never get to work.

'cause like I said, WMP needs an additional codec to play mp3s. Yeah that's fucking smart.

I use old school Media Player for mp3, avi, mpg, wav, and mid. For mov I use Quicktime. If I want to play a playlist of mp3s, I use Winamp. For wmv, and the other crappy new Windows formats, I use the newer Media Player, but I tend to avoid those file types. As to ram and rm, well let's just say that I don't let RealPlayer within 50 ft of my computer.

Real is the spawn of the devil. I'll use anything in preference to Real.

But Winamp is my preference.

What's wrong with Realplayer? It plays great!

Otherwise:

Winamp - good, no frills movie player. No clunkiness, nice'n simple. My choice for music.

Real - seems to work better than Quicktime, my second movie choice.

WMP - clunky, annoying, bloated interface and features. And it's Microsoft. Ugh.

I only use Winamp for MP3s, but I have all my media file preferences except for WMVs set for Windows Media Player 2.0, which I've always prefered as my default audio/video programme for playing individual files, such as when I'm browsing.

Other than that, I tend to use each format's specific player, such as the current WMP, Quicktime, and Real. Though as others mentioned, since it takes such an insanely long time to do anything, I tend to avoid Real format media.

I use Winamp 5, though I've had to use WMP a lot lately for .wmv files. For some reason, Winamo doesn't play them when, originally when I installed v5, it did and did it well.

If you liked Media Player 6.4, then you could get Media Player Classic, an open-source version of it. Not sure how they managed, but thing is, it works. And you can use any of the OSS codecs you like.

Crayz9000 wrote:If you liked Media Player 6.4, then you could get Media Player Classic, an open-source version of it. Not sure how they managed, but thing is, it works. And you can use any of the OSS codecs you like.

I use that for QT and RM files.

darthdavid wrote:'cause like I said, WMP needs an additional codec to play mp3s. Yeah that's fucking smart.

You're talking to someone who, until recently, refered to a USB port as 'that plug thingy that the mouse goes in' and once fixed her computer by throwing a shoe at it.