Why are media players so awful?

[Darician]

I'm curious. You mention WMP 10 and WMP 12 but what about WMP 11? Even to this day, I still prefer that version of WMP to 12 because 11 had a nice and easy to use UI in my view along with great library management features.

 

[allend66]

Mediamonkey Gold for audio - Excellent library indexing / searching, (free version available)

WMP12 or MPCStar for video

 

[lehnerus2000]

Was that question for me?

I'm curious. You mention WMP 10 and WMP 12 but what about WMP 11? Even to this day, I still prefer that version of WMP to 12 because 11 had a nice and easy to use UI in my view along with great library management features.

I've never installed/used Vista on my PC.
Until July this year, my "hand-me-down" PCs have always being obsolete junk.
This meant there was no possible way to run Vista.

I used Vista on several training courses and I didn't like it.
IMO, it takes 3x as many clicks to get something done in Vista, as it does in XP (at least for the settings I tried playing with).

I added Windows 7 (and Ubuntu 10.04) to my HDD and kept XP.
I've got a powerful PC now and the speedier Windows 7 (double bonus).

I've seen other comments saying that WMP 11 is/was good.

I've never tried it.
When I was extolling the features of a certain browser toolbar, WMP 11 stopped it from working properly on my friend's Vista laptop.
My friend had installed the toolbar, because I said it was good.
As a result, I never upgraded WMP 10 to WMP 11 (on my XP partition).

I've seen articles saying that you can install WMP 11 on a Windows 7 PC, however I've also read comments from other people, saying that they couldn't get it to work.

 

[metalmania31]

I almost never use WMP, I didn't even know we were on v12. LOL

 

[hybridfan]

Foobar2000 for audio and sorry but I do like Media Player Classic.

 

[Darician]

I've installed WMP 11 in Windows 7 32-bit and although most of the kinks were indeed worked out however, the one major drawback at least for me was that whenever you tried to use the "Add to playlist" function without WMP already being open, it would stall in opening the file and error out.

But I do use WMP simply because it's easy to use, manages my library easily and is an all-in-one audio/video player and can also server as a picture viewer and provides DLNA functionality for my other media devices around the house. The only oddity is streaming MKV as I can't forward or rewind but that's for another thread. I've tried other media players and they just don't quite fit the bill for me like WMP with the Shark 007 codecs. Although WMP 12 does not have a UI I particularly like, I still find it easier to use than most other players I've tried. And to be honest, the one feature it has that I like about it over almost any other media player I've tried is the integrated SRS WOW effects.

As far as horror stories, I remember Musicmatch Jukebox ... version 5 I think as it was around 2000. I even bought it for $50 so I could burn CDs with it. What a piece of crap player that was with a slow, clunky, horrible UI. I also tried Real Player around that time and still quite a crappy player. Another one that just never seems to work quite right and has a lot of performance issues in Windows are iTunes and QuickTime Player. Although now on my Core i3, they certainly are quite snappier but they've never approached that level on any more modest machines with older Pentium Ds and Pentium 4s that I've tried.

 

[Evols]

I'm in the process of setting up XBMC. I've heard really great things about it and so far I'm really liking it. My PC is at the center of my HT/Media environment and I'm really looking for a program that effectively manages all my media needs.

Having said that, I'm really curious to know what other peoples media environments look like[physical set-up]. Is there a thread like this that someone knows of?

 

[lehnerus2000]

Not just Windows ...

The media players that I have tried in Ubuntu are awful too.

Additional

I'm in the process of setting up XBMC. I've heard really great things about it and so far I'm really liking it. My PC is at the center of my HT/Media environment and I'm really looking for a program that effectively manages all my media needs.

Having said that, I'm really curious to know what other peoples media environments look like[physical set-up]. Is there a thread like this that someone knows of?

Have you tried the Media Center section?
http://www.sevenforums.com/media-center/

 

[seekermeister]

I'm in the process of setting up XBMC. I've heard really great things about it and so far I'm really liking it. My PC is at the center of my HT/Media environment and I'm really looking for a program that effectively manages all my media needs.

Having said that, I'm really curious to know what other peoples media environments look like[physical set-up]. Is there a thread like this that someone knows of?

I have been using XBMC for a while, and I agree that it is very good. The only thing that I have had a problem with so far, is that the scrapers in it do a poor job of identifying video files, and too often a file has the wrong information or the thumbnail is in a foreign language or there is no information at all.

I have been advised to use other scrapers to offset this, but so far I have been unable to figure out how to do so. If I could, this program would be perfect.

 

[Rxx]

The WMP 11 Series crashed a lot if you have too much music, not to mention it took at least 12 seconds to search for anything. The 10 series had none of those flaws. The 12 series is like the 11 but they actually fixed all the bugs.
Any WMP version is not half bad for UI because you can just switch to a better skin mod. You just have to find a skin you like.
I'm going to have to look for the 10 series, that really was the best. The only reason I even installed the 11 was because it made my XP start up right.

The most important thing in a media player is the play count! All I want is a media player the syncs the play count from my Zen player. WMP is the only one I've used that can do that. Heh even the creative media source player that came with it, couldn't do that.

 

[Gornot]

Let me just say that I hate 'em ALL!

WMP12 - just poor, despite it's good sides
Winamp - overbloated, buggy crap
Songbird - open source bugged RAM-hog
foobar - Please read this 356 page manual to learn how to set the damn thing up. You want skins? Here's vol. 2!
iTunes - *twitches and shivers*
Zune - no HE-AAC support of any kind, pretty version of WMP (bleh)
MediaMonkey - I'm NOT fat, I'm just big boned (placed in all the wrong places)
Helium Music Manager - lagggggg
aTunes - Java, lol
jetAudio - if you hate music and want to give your friends a shot on your music collection, go right ahead, drag them into hell
Media Jukebox - just... no
Quintessential Media Player - wish I could be blind just thinking about it
Real Player - what's this? you have other processes besides Real? Let me kill those for you


i.e. music players, both for Windows (and those found on Linux) are crap! The only thing I even remotely enjoyed using is Helium Music Manager, which is an amazing piece of software despite it's laggy flaws, Sony Media Go, which is like Sony's version of WMP (music+videos+pictures).
The only thing I haven't tried yet (that may be worth trying) us MusicBee. Looks promising, but seeing as how I am (quite clearly) very picky, I doubt its capabilities already xD

 

[noobvious]

Let me just say that I hate 'em ALL!

WMP12 - just poor, despite it's good sides
Winamp - overbloated, buggy crap
Songbird - open source bugged RAM-hog
foobar - Please read this 356 page manual to learn how to set the damn thing up. You want skins? Here's vol. 2!
iTunes - *twitches and shivers*
Zune - no HE-AAC support of any kind, pretty version of WMP (bleh)
MediaMonkey - I'm NOT fat, I'm just big boned (placed in all the wrong places)
Helium Music Manager - lagggggg
aTunes - Java, lol
jetAudio - if you hate music and want to give your friends a shot on your music collection, go right ahead, drag them into hell
Media Jukebox - just... no
Quintessential Media Player - wish I could be blind just thinking about it
Real Player - what's this? you have other processes besides Real? Let me kill those for you


i.e. music players, both for Windows (and those found on Linux) are crap! The only thing I even remotely enjoyed using is Helium Music Manager, which is an amazing piece of software despite it's laggy flaws, Sony Media Go, which is like Sony's version of WMP (music+videos+pictures).
The only thing I haven't tried yet (that may be worth trying) us MusicBee. Looks promising, but seeing as how I am (quite clearly) very picky, I doubt its capabilities already xD

I have foobar, Mediamonkey, and iTunes all installed, and they all have their uses for me. The only thing I use WMP12 for is watching videos...and I don't use its library either....just open the videos from Explorer.

 

[Gornot]

I was talking more about music. I seriously do NOT want to have dozens of players on my machine. I use VLC for videos I never watch (quite literally) and have found Winamp's aacPlus encoder the best one out there by far, mostly because it's regularly updated. But Winamp is godawful for the most part, just like all the other players.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Updated list

As the OP I should update my comments.

WMP10
I use this player in XP for music.

Media Player Classic
I discovered why it wouldn't play .rmvb files.
See this thread if you are having this problem:
http://www.sevenforums.com/1151048-post6.html

I use it to play all of my video files.
I also use it for DTV, although it isn't very user friendly.

Winamp
I use this player in W7 for music.

 

[Gornot]

Just make sure you don't edit tags in the files included in your library, because Winamp completely at random deletes them forever! Unless you check "automatically remove missing files at startup" or something like that... Screwed up half my collection of 25000+ songs

 

[lehnerus2000]

Interesting

Just make sure you don't edit tags in the files included in your library, because Winamp completely at random deletes them forever! Unless you check "automatically remove missing files at startup" or something like that... Screwed up half my collection of 25000+ songs

Interesting how different installations experience weird problems.

I've had no problems with Winamp.

On my installation WMP12 screwed up my files (truncated file names, details changed or deleted).
I had my files set to "Read only"and I had unchecked the update media info option.

Also see this thread:
http://www.sevenforums.com/music-pictures-video/166917-wmp-12-moving-combining-albums.html

 

[Gornot]

I discovered this problem with Winamp last year by pure coincidence, when some of my files included in the library weren't being played. Ever since I've tested every new build to see if this was fixed, but no, Winamp still at random deletes files if I edit tags internally.

Since I use aac exclusively for my music, it's either Winamp or *twitches* iTunes. But iTunes truncates filenames like crazy, which is beyond annoying; not to mention that it's beyond bloated for someone like me whose country isn't supported for the iTunes store, so I have no use for most of the features Apple *spits on the floor* brags about xD
Only Winamp and iTunes regularly update their encoders; I often found the open source FAAC solution to be too complicated to set up, and I can never get the same quality at lower bitrates. With Winamp I can go as low as 64kb/s with absolutely no audible loss in quality whatsoever. But also I'd be annoyed having Winamp installed just to rip and organize music, then spend a couple of hours (indeed) installing and bugfixing a foobar skin...

 

[lehnerus2000]

Weird Interaction

It must be some weird interaction between various programs (Winamp, WMP?, iTunes, etc.).
I don't have iTunes (no iPod).
Maybe it's a glitch with .aac handling (I use 192-320 kb/s mp3).

I experienced a weird interaction between Real Player and MPC.
You used to have to have Real Player installed, if you wanted to play .rmvb files in MPC.

At some point they changed MPC (or Real Player) and if you had Real Player installed, it would prevent MPC from playing .rmvb files.

 

[Gornot]

It must be some weird interaction between various programs (Winamp, WMP?, iTunes, etc.).

Don't think so, I don't use WMP anymore, I don't even set it up, I just keep it enabled to have the "now playing" option available in Messenger. if I disable it, this feature doesn't work.
Also, I NEVER install two programs of the same type at the same time.

I don't have iTunes (no iPod).

*high five*

Maybe it's a glitch with .aac handling (I use 192-320 kb/s mp3).

Happens with other filetypes, too, especially if they have "special characters" like Á á É ú æ Ø ç etc.

As for the Real Player, just avoid it... massively! Instead, use MPC-HC and install Real Alternative, or a codec pack like K-Lite or Shark007.

 

[lehnerus2000]

I got rid of it ...

It must be some weird interaction between various programs (Winamp, WMP?, iTunes, etc.).

Don't think so, I don't use WMP anymore, I don't even set it up, I just keep it enabled to have the "now playing" option available in Messenger. if I disable it, this feature doesn't work.
Also, I NEVER install two programs of the same type at the same time.

I suppose you have already tried reinstalling these programs.
Sometimes the order you install programs affects their stability (different versions of the same shared dlls).

I don't have iTunes (no iPod).

*high five*

Maybe it's a glitch with .aac handling (I use 192-320 kb/s mp3).

Happens with other filetypes, too, especially if they have "special characters" like Á á É ú æ Ø ç etc.

As for the Real Player, just avoid it... massively! Instead, use MPC-HC and install Real Alternative, or a codec pack like K-Lite or Shark007.

I got rid of it (Real Player) last December.
I was only using it for CD ripping (It's CD database was highly effective).
Once I discovered that it was screwing up MPC, it was gone.

Ubuntu media players "spit the dummy", if there are any special characters in the file names (at least on my PC).

I guess it will remain an unsolved mystery.