Whats the best media player?

[DevO]

Hey all,

I've had it with Windows Media Player! I'm trying to keep an organized collection of music here and WMP just isn't doing the job. I add a handful of albums to the library and they go all disorganized, their tags are all fucked up, and theres no way I'm gonna go through all these files one-by-one fixing up their tags, ya know?

Theres gotta be something better out there. RealPlayer? WinAmp?

What do you use?

[Guest Low Roller]

I've been a Winamp junkie since v2.0.

I keep a 5000+ song library perfectly organized using the Media Library feature. There are some great skins out there as well.

[Freeker]

for video its definetly VLC.

http://www.videolan.org/

[Guest Low Roller]

Agreed for VLC. That program plays everything I've ever tried- including PAL DVDs.

[AD]

For music I haven't found anything that beats iTunes. I have over 11000 perfectly organised songs and it's never crashed, messed up tags, etc.. in the 2.8 years I've been using it.

AD

[DevO]

I don't like iTunes cuz it transfers everything to m4a files, and m4a files don't play on my iRiver. I'd probably go for iTunes if it weren't for that!

[Del]

iTunes. And as far as I can tell it keeps my songs in whatever format I want. (mp3/wav)

[AD]

I don't like iTunes cuz it transfers everything to m4a files, and m4a files don't play on my iRiver. I'd probably go for iTunes if it weren't for that!

There's a toggle that has been in the program since it was released for Windows in 2003 that lets you choose between mp3, m4a, wav, aiff, etc.....

Look in the Options | Advanced | Importing menu.

AD

[mattm]

I use winamp for music. As to the mp3's, I sucked in my gut and fixed all the tags so that they work in any media player. There's a program called ID3Tagit that is great for that. I was able to do almost everything in one day. Oh, I should mention that I have around 52 000 mp3's in the collection so it was no easy task.

Mine are sorted in folders by band and then album. With ID3Tagit you select a folder and can highlight all the songs in it and set their tags at once. Say you have a folder for a band with 5 albums in it, you can select the band folder (with the search subfolders option picked) and then ctrl-a to select all the songs and just put the band name in one box. Press save and all five albums now have the proper band name.

The best feature is that it allows you to convert file names to ID3 tags so if you have a folder with an album in it and the file names are (for example) like this:

Band Name - 01 - Song name

you can put in - - (there's a legend, it's really easy to use) and it will fill out the tag fields for you.

Once the tags are set it doesn't matter which media player or mp3 player you use, they all work. And if some filenames are bad, you can do the trick above in reverse (ID3 tag -> Filename).

[bouche]

iTunes has by far the best interface and organization that I've seen and it's FREE. However, I think musicmatch may be good to, but you it's not free like iTunes.

[AD]

don't forget the smart playlists.... mmmm.... smart playlists......

[fluffhead77]

VLC for video

iTunes for audio and some video as well

[bouche]

don't forget the smart playlists.... mmmm.... smart playlists......

that is really a standout feature, although rarely mentioned.

[DevO]

What's a smart playlist? Is that for iTunes?

Matt, that ID3Tagit sounds like exactly what I need! Thanks.

[SmoothedShredder]

I use realplayer. It's exactly like Itunes except that you can actually delete the file from your computer through the player and not just from the players Database. It could just be an imbedded setting that I don't know about, but as far as I know, you can't actually get rid of the file through Itunes. I want to make the switch eventually, but I've got 7/12th of the way through screening my collection (deleting maybe 2000 useless clips, or tunes I'd be happy to never hear again) and unfortunatley iTunes doesn't import Realplayer rating stars.

The autoplaylists are really cool. If I'm at my computer I listen to unrated clips and rate as I go. If I'm running around the house, I put on the set of rated clips for Funkytown.

I can hardly wait until I develop a richer genre system. That way I can listen to Blues and have the appropriate Jimi and Zepplin tunes come up in with Willie Dixon and Buddy Guy, or Listen to Funk and have Jimi Tunes come up with Parliament and Ike and Tina.

Oh yeah... when you've made your adjustments in RealPlayer, push one button and they will restore all the files in embedded folders which you can set such as: ->-> Then you're off to the races.

Edited February 15, 2006 by Guest

[AD]

It's exactly like Itunes except that you can actually delete the file from your computer through the player and not just from the players Database. It could just be an imbedded setting that I don't know about, but as far as I know, you can't actually get rid of the file through Itunes. I want to make the switch eventually, but I've got 7/12th of the way through screening my collection (deleting maybe 2000 useless clips, or tunes I'd be happy to never hear again) and unfortunatley iTunes doesn't import Realplayer rating stars.

Select File(s) | Right-Click | Clear | Dialog Box "Move to Recycle Bin or remove from iTunes?"

Files deleted.

AD

[SmoothedShredder]

I guess they updated it for version 6. Downloading it now... but I just checked... The version I have doesn't do what you say. We're both right.

[AD]

We're both right.

Rage.

[bouche]

some how I don't see Realplayer as an iTunes clone.

Mediacenter may be for you KevO.

[SmoothedShredder]

some how I don't see Realplayer as an iTunes clone.

Mediacenter may be for you KevO.

Okay, I'll bite... What can iTunes do that RealPlayer cannot?

[bouche]

the last time I used real player, I didn't see any kind of interface that came anywhere near that of iTunes. It seems like a flashier winAmp that's loaded with annoying popups with a crappy interface.

Does it have the organization that iTunes has? Can you subscribe to podcasts?

[bouche]

i found the media library in real player. it doesn't seem anywhere close to iTunes, but at least they have the genre/artist seperation. That's a major plus in iTunes for me.

[DevO]

Hmm. What are the downsides to iTunes?

[AD]

if you're a liveshow freak there's no support for FLAC / SHN

I haven't really used any other programs for a long time so that's the only downside I can think of. There most likely are others though.

AD

[SmoothedShredder]

Cool, all fair points. I do want to make a switch, but will do so once I've finished my first pass of my collection. I figure if I can rate 100 songs a day it'll take me 56 days to finish my collection... I might get those 56 days this year, and probably a good chunk of next. I cannot wait to see where the media players are at... and definately a weak point of real player as it doesn't connect to my IPOD Shuffle. But for free, and useful (the genre, rating, and re-organizing options are the ones I need most and done by Itunes I know for free as well, so if your starting from scratch: ITunes... Good then.