Way OT - Best media player to use?

[Mechamaniac]

OK, so I know this is way OT, but figured I'd ask anyway.

I am SICK and FREAKING TIRED of the pisspoor playlist functions in WMP 9/10 etc.

I want to be able to just point the player at a directory, and hit a shuffle button. But WMP wants you to go through all this crap, detecting files, etc etc, ad nauseum, and it takes too long IMHO.

It has been about a million years since I used WinAmp or anything else, so I am looking for a good FREE downloadable player that can do what I want it to do with regard to just finding and playing files without all the hassle.

Any suggestions you guys/gals have is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

[Zentrandude]

use winamp its free and good.

[mikeszekely]

I'm not sure about a player for music or what-not (I still use Windows Media Player for that), but the absolute best video player is VLC (you should be able to find it at videolan.org. Visually, the player isn't much to look at, but it plays everything you can throw at it, inlcuding videos that DivX or WMP wrote off as being corrupt, or not having the proper audio/video codecs for.

Oh, and if you want to use WMP without all the dicking around, open the folder where you're keeping your tunes (in Windows Explorer), highlight all the songs you want, right click and select "Add to Now Playing List." Then WMP will start with just the songs you wanted playing. If you want them to play in a random order, click the "Now Playing List" button, and select the "Play Shuffled" option.

Edited April 1, 2005 by mikeszekely

[Zentrandude]

for video the core media player seems pretty good. I do like it supports many formats including ogm but the player is still in developement and has some bugs.

[Mislovrit]

I do recommand trying Zoomplayer as it is pretty good at playing almost everything. Would've also recommanded BSplayer but the newest seems to have turned into nag-ware.

[Aegis!]

Simple.

Use Media player classic , small , intuitive interface , direct to the point andplays everything.

I used to have zoomplayer , it´s a really good alternative but at the end I was too tired to upgrade it just to get all the features.

[ewilen]

Ditto on the VLC recommendation for video.

For music, I don't have a lot of experience but iTunes might not be a bad choice. I think it's included with the Quicktime download.

[Noriko Takaya]

I pretty much use Winamp to play my media files. It's free and I've made my own skins for it so I like the way it looks.

[Blaine23]

I use:

Winamp for audio

VLC or MediaPlayerClassic for video

Also recommend RealAlternative and QuickAlternative that allow you to play .rm and .mov in media player classic instead of their own goofy players.

[promethuem5]

iTuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunes!

Serisouly, it's my absolute favorite. I can't stand WMP or Real Player. And I have an iPod.

On a side note, anyone know how to convert .wma files to mp3s? I ...er... aquired a CD in wma form and want to make it mp3 for my ipod.

[Commander McBride]

Honestly, I'm still using WMP10. I used Winamp for a long time, but recently WMP got good enough that there was no need to deal with winamp's frequent crashes. My computer locks up every 15 min or so when I try to use Winamp. (I even reformatted and reinstalled, still same problem) All I use it for now it to make playlists for my iRiver, because I can keep its medial library seperate and create lists with the right directories.

[Dat Pinche Haro!]

On a side note, anyone know how to convert .wma files to mp3s?  I ...er... aquired a CD in wma form and want to make it mp3 for my ipod.

i have Magix's MP3Maker Diamond which i bought a year or so ago...it converts wma to mp3 pretty well...but the software costs about 30 bucks...

Edited April 1, 2005 by Dat Pinche Haro!

[Anubis]

I use winamp for audio, and right now I'm using Zoom PLayer for video. I might switch to VideoLAN or Media Player classic soon though. I have to experiment and see which I like best.

If winamp played OGM files I'd probably use that for everything, but oh well.

What about Linux: what do you linux guys use there? (I'm also going to dabble with Suse Linux 9.2 once I have some time.)

[areaseven]

For MP3s, I use MusicMatch Jukebox. For video files, I use either BS Player or PowerDVD.

[JB0]

I'm using Winamp.

2.91. Don't feel like upgrading to 5.

[Max Jenius]

Media Player Classic for the win!

[Akilae]

Another for Media Player Classic. Light, fast, and you can install it on unsuspecting friends since it looks just like classical Media Player before all the bloat

For audio, Winamp 5 has come a long way, give it a try, you might like it. For iPod funcationality, download the ml_ipod plugin.

Edited April 2, 2005 by Akilae

[Mechamaniac]

The main prob I have with MP is that it is just so freaking time consuming to play from a list of MP3's. I used MP6 for the longest time, but finally upgraded to 9 for the easy as hell CD ripping / titling etc. But making a playlist is such a pain in the arse that it is ridiculous.

WinAmp 5 on the other hand is super easy, as I found out today. Just point it at a directory, and hit shuffle which is what I wanted to do.

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

[akt_m]

for videos- BSPLAYER

for music- WINAMP 2 or 5

[Lightning]

I've been using WMP10 and DivX player for a couple things.

[McKlown]

VLC gave me a headache when I tried to use it. It was always reseting the audio/subtitles back to the default settings if I did anything like stop, pause, or switch between fullscreen/windowed mode.

[ComicKaze]

For everything Media Player Classic -> opensource version of the classic media player with every option and function you can dream of. With right plugins, can play realplayer, quicktime, shockwave flash, etc. in addition to mpeg, divx, xvid, ogm, avi, mp3s, DVDs, music CDs, TV tuner, webcam, other devices well...basically anything and everything with full functionaility of amazing amounts of options. One small executable file is all (then get programs like quickalternative to play quicktime, etc.) Full control of everything, even zoom, subtitles, you can manually shrink or expand both horizontally and vertically, seriously, I don't have the room to fill in all the abilities.

The only thing Media Player Classic doens't play is video game music files like nsf's, etc. so the best program for general music I'd have to say is Deliplayer. That thing has go so many features even I'm confused but it's infinetely expandable and has much better GUI that's completely customizable in more ways than I can figure out.

Edited April 2, 2005 by ComicKaze