what is the best out and out media player

jimbo45 · 17 Oct 2009

Hi all

Two BIG problem with Windows Media player.

1) Can't play FLAC - at least not with a lot of "tweaking". -- I am not a fan of hideously "compressed" mp3 files - nasty artifacts etc. FLAC although compressed is a LOSSLESS compresstion (rather like a digital camera RAW file - highly compressed - but LOSSLESS - the image program like photojob converts this into your printable and viewable picture).

2) Database organisation for media files is HORRIBLE.

I tend to use Winamp for playing and ripping CD's to FLAC (still old fashioned enoughto have CD's - I don't like compressed downloaded music - especially when its riddled with DRM so you have problems on where you play it.

The winamp ripper makes decent playlists - which I keep in a link to a mySQL database -- note not the actual file but just the link. This means I can have multimedia stored on ANY disk / portable device etc etc.

Every so often I just run a perl script to update the MySQL db with any playlists I've moved, deleted - updated.

MediaMonkey is another good one - I have tried it and its fine but I don't need several different players.

The latest VLC is great for Video -- HD content will certainly appear in beta before long - but why in any case would I be bothered with HD on a computer -- for that quality movie what's wrong with a nice large Plasma TV with a good drink in your hand.

Cheers
jimbo

JayLovesKases · 17 Oct 2009

mickey megabyte said:

for movies i use kmplayer, similar to vlc, it's free and plays near-enough everything without needing (but can use if required) external codecs.

agreed. i've come across 3 different file types vlc didn't play but km player did. 2 were differently encoded mkvs and some flv files don't play with vlc either. so if it's about being able to play anything i'd say kmplayer. but apparently the picture quality in kmplayer isn't as good as on other players. so i've read and now noticed myself.

k7ninja · 19 Oct 2009

I have foobar2000 and Winamp. Foobar is easy to add encoders to, to rip into mp3 or FLAC for free, and Winamp is easier to arrange a library in. I usually just play my videos in Winamp as well. The only issue I've had with that is in fullscreen mode, changing the volume from the keyboard doesn't work.
I've used Divx player, but it is actually much slower than winamp. The same video will jerk in divx, and lay smoothly in winamp. And I have iTunes on my XP laptop for my iPod and I hate it lol.

harpua · 21 Oct 2009

Still using the latest RC version of AIMP2 for audio. I think it's very cool. The app also notifies you when there is a new RC version available and it is being aggressively developed.

One can use winamp plugins too if you copy the right .dll from your winamp install over to the AIMP2 program folder.

I think winamp users might find it interesting.

Hard to capture the player well in screen shots but the first screen shot shows the player (default skin with VU meter visualization) and playlist mgr attached below, second is the DSP mgr, third is the EQ that flies out from the side of the player. And finally, another of many skins (the one with the girl). (Adding the one with the girl messed up the original order a bit.)

The main advantages

Support for a large number of music formats:
MP1, MP2, MP3, MPC / MP+, AAC, AC3, Ogg, FLAC,APE, WavPack, Speex, WAV, CDA, WMA, S3M, XM, MOD, IT, MO3, MTM, UMX
The great functionality and intuitive interface
18-band EQ and built-in sound effects
Reverb, Flanger, Chorus, Pitch, Tempo, Echo, Speed
32-bit audio processing
to achieve the best quality
Work with multiple playlists at once
Support of modules for functionality enhancement
You can add new utilities and expand existing, connect such plugins as Input, Gen, DSP from Winamp
Shutting down the computer
You can sleep under favorite music, setting the timer to switch off the computer.
Online radio
Listen and save!
Creation of bookmarks and playback queue
Hot keys
Set up local and global hotkeys to your taste!
Multilingual interface
Multiuser mode
Several users are working with one computer? No problem.
Full Unicode support
File search
Search files on all open playlists
Flexible program settings
Small size of program distribution
Audio Converter
Allows you to convert music from a variety of formats to wma, mp3, wav, ogg
Audio Grabber
You can convert AudioCD (CDA) in MP3, OGG, WAV or WMA
Soung recording
Allows you to write the sound from any audio device in the system and save in mp3, ogg, wav and wma format
Tag Editor
You can easily edit tags of audio files, rename group of files, sort out by required template or apply tags' values to a group of files.
Audio Library
Represents the organizer of music files, which will allow you to easily sort your music, mark listened audios.

ElQuia · 22 Oct 2009

A little recap of mine guys: my multimedia battery is as follows:

I'm on 7 x64, before I was on Vista x64.
1. Sharks codecs packs. I must say that BEFORE shark I was a fan of "install what you use", but since (on vista and now on 7) I started using sharks packs I havn't had ANY problems because of the pack.
2. AUDIO: JRiver Media Center on my main PC, JRiver Media Jukebox (free) on the netbook and my wife´s and children PC's. JRiver plays any audio format. I have a lot of FLAC and WavPack lossless files. It´s also very good for tagging, but I prefer Tag&Rename for massive tagging.
3. DVD & Video Files: Till now for quality: PowerDVD, both video and sound quality are awesome. BUT: does not play mkv

. So I use Media Player Classic Home Cinema x64 (http://xvidvideo.ru/) for those. Also MPC can play ANY format
4.For Quick Browsing INSIDE Total Commander 7.50 I use the media show plugin. This plug can play any format the system (via codec pack) can play and in total commanders quick view mode (ctrl+q) it lets you quickly preview and browse and manage any video or audio media files.

I´m toying around with mplayer (SMPlayer or MPUI interfaces) but I dont have a veredict yet

. The idea is to see if I can replace mediashow inside total commander, using the mplayer4tc plugin. Because mediashow is quite out dated and on win7 it plays ok, but shows black borders on the player commands. That plug seems not to be mantained. BUT the player4tc plug is quite old also so.... I'll see.

Hope all this is useful for somebody

Pug · 22 Oct 2009

Winamp for Music

Gom Player for Video's

if the player can't play the Video it goes off an searches for the Codec

Lucretius · 02 Nov 2009

Windows Media Player 12.

sisi · 04 Nov 2009

I use kmplayer to watch movies , and use vlc to play flv files.

Dinesh · 04 Nov 2009

VLC media player. :)

dartstryker · 05 Nov 2009

The perfect player just simply doesn't exist.

For audio files, all players have one problem in common: they don't let you tag and modify the Now Playing playlist directly.
WMP used to let you do it, with the Now Playing automatic playlist and the advanced edit options, but obviously - since it was actually a clever solution - they've taken it out in WMP12.
batch editing is almost impossible, and in general its media library capabilities are prehistorical.

Winamp doesn't have a decent dynamic library, and it doesn't even show ratings for the songs you're playing. it's pretty hopeless.

Don't know about mediamonkey, the old version was appalling but they must've improved it in the past few years.

Itunes.... ....never mind, just stay safe and don't buy an ipod

I just wish someone would come out with a good plugin for winamp, it's certainly got the best potential.
WMP has fallen back a long way by removing the edit options and the now playing feature... which is unfortunate, since the program is fast and well integrated in Win7.