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Ask Download Squad: What media player(s) do you use?
Our last question, on Web-based apps,
drew some clear winners. Unsurprisingly, Gmail was a big hit, as were
web-based feed aggregators like Bloglines. Also popular: calendars and
organizers, including Backpack, Kiko and Airset.This week, it's back to the desktop for a look at two of last week's biggest announcements. Last Tuesday, Microsoft and Real ended their long conflict, with Microsoft putting $761 million into Real, and giving Real a place on MSN for the Rhapsody service. Meanwhile, the company that was most responsible for driving the two rivals into each other's arms, Apple, rolled out a video-capable iPod, and with it a new version of iTunes, which includes the ability to purchase videos from the iTunes Music Store.
So, our question: What do you use to manage media on your computer? Real Player? Windows Media Player? ITunes? Yahoo Music Engine? One of the old standbys like MusicMatch or WinAmp? More than one — or none — of the above? Post your answer in the Comments section below. And, if you'd like to have your question included here, send it to us using this form. We'll post one question each week.
Comments
68
Subscribe to commentsshadekhNov 11th 2005 4:18AM
i use:
itunes for music and podcasts(have an ipod nano)
Media Player classic for all video (miles better imho than anything else out there, also handles realplayer files)
Danish MunirNov 21st 2005 9:18PM
Windows Media Player 10!
Clean, elegant, and love the ratings feature which actually feeds the metadata into the files so that even if I reformat my PC or copy my music to another computer, my song ratings are not lost :)
The autoplaylists are a neat too
JodyDec 1st 2005 10:14PM
Winamp for music - mp3's only
For videos - Windows Media player - the classic version
"mplayer2.exe"
i have so many codecs on my computer it can't play uncompressed video - so i use quicktime.
A strong selling (err, usage) point for any software I use is a small footprint. 700mhz & 384mb sdram makes it almost necessary. itunes is too cumbersome for my system.
mrjigglesDec 4th 2005 11:44AM
JetAudio, the free version is great but i got the pro off P2P and its even more amazing, it plays any type of music or video in great quality n it crossfades between songs so it isnt hard on the ears, i for one hate when music suddenly come to a halt idk why but it almost hurts so the crossfading is definitely great. you can also tag it, it isnt really my thing but the feature is there and it displays the tag on a scrollbar-type thing. plus its got tons of skins and toolbar mode so it doesnt clutter up my desktop. it blows everything outta the water. only cons are the amount of space it takes up and depending on what skin you use, it can get pretty memory intensive but nothing that a decent computer cant handle.
http://www.cowonamerica.com/download/
BradOct 17th 2005 12:51PM
WinAmp all the way (except for the rare WMV file, which I'll watch in Windows Media Player). I even went ahead and paid for the full version. WinAmp just does it all, without getting in my way.
M.Oct 17th 2005 10:50AM
Itunes for music organization, fb2k for playback (less bloat, better sound).
GazZulOct 17th 2005 12:14PM
Winamp 2.91 ...
rerunx5Oct 17th 2005 11:03AM
Music Match Jukebox for music organization and cd burning, Windows Media Player 10 for playback and copy music to mp3 player
SPeedY_BOct 17th 2005 11:15AM
iTunes for everything on all machines :)
DiddleOct 17th 2005 11:24AM
I don't really like iTunes but I have to use it for my Shuffle (which I don't really like but got as a gift, so whatever).
I use WinAmp for ALL my media playback, good ol' Explorer for my management (not entirely true, I do have some apps to manage ID3s and other MP3 info).
tppOct 17th 2005 12:22PM
Windows Explorer + Winamp
QCD for audio CDs
gezepiOct 17th 2005 11:33AM
Windows
Explorer for management, Foobar2k for playback
Linux
Amarok
PashaOct 17th 2005 11:35AM
I use winamp for all my music. The library there is awesome.
For video i use Media Player Classic.
And i also feel like i should point out The GodFather (http://users.otenet.gr/~jtcliper/tgf/). This tool is invaluable for tagging and renaming your files to be in the exact format you prefer.
Brian PipaOct 17th 2005 11:39AM
Foobar 2000:
http://myvogonpoetry.com/wp/2005/08/23/foobar-2000-why-it-rocks/
brian
http://candyaddict.com
AFDOct 17th 2005 11:56AM
For quick audio and video playback I use Media Player Classic (not from Microsoft) and PowerDVD for DVD. For audio management I use Winamp. Below is the project page for Media Player Classic, if anyone's interested.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/
BenOct 17th 2005 11:42AM
I primarily use Winamp (w/ the DFX enhancement) for audio. Sometimes I'll WMP for videos playback, but usually stick with the Divx Player. I just (re)-installed iTunes to see what all the rave was about...the Music Store is nice, but I primairly use iTunes for retrieving Podcasts. The Podcast Directory is nice and seamless.
So:
Winamp -> Audio
Divx Player -> Video
iTunes -> Music Store for Charts/Podcasts
NikolaievOct 17th 2005 11:42AM
Music Management: MEdia Monkey
Media Player: VLC
MikeOct 17th 2005 11:48AM
Audiograbber for ripping (Ogg,WAV), dMc for organizing, converting, etc., Nero for burning. I don't care much for the all-in-ones (most are too proprietary) - the right tool for the right job.
DanielOct 17th 2005 7:03PM
fb2k for playback on an echo indigo dj card in my laptop, i use http://www.uberview.org/ for file organization, nice and clean, lowkey, and it works great with fb2k (you right click/play/enqueue any file/album from uberview, and it displays cover art too
AlvaroOct 17th 2005 11:49AM
Media Monkey does wonders for music organization, especially since it supports the iPod almost perfectly (you can make "smart playlists" but they only update on the PC, not the iPod.) It'll even sync ratings and last played dates!
For video I don't really organize too much, but I stick to Media Player Classic for playback, ocassionally busting out Quicktime for troublesome movs or Sasami2k for a nice nostalgic time.