SOmething better than windows media for storing and playing music.

[johnnr892]

Hi, I'm just interested, is there anything similar to windows media player that is better for storing music and playing them, that sounds better and supports more file formats because at the moment all I can rip to is wma in windows media player and it aint that great. Thanks John.

[Alex]

I use db PowerAMP to rip reasonably high quality MP3s, and Winamp to play it all back. You can get loads of plugins for winamp to play different music formats as well.

[Michael]

Winamp, which also rips fine if you have the pro version too.

Plays everything i throw at it.

[Spunkey]

WinAmp for audio, VLC for video.
VLC can play partially downloaded and damaged WMV files - WMP normally gives you the finger if you try anything like that. It also has in built codecs, so none of this 'requesting codec from server' crap.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

[unrealrocks]

WinAmp all the way - for better quality get the MAD MP3 decoder, sounds quite nice (although I think does eq the audio slightly without telling you, just abit of a smile on the EQ).

[johnnr892]

so you would say that ripping to mp3 rather than wma like w.m.p is better?

[Norky]

iTunes!

[schmunk]

iTunes!

...is an awful resource hog - I saw it running on a family member's computer - 100% CPU utilisation to just play a tune!

[uniquekamal]

Try Sonique from Lycos its okay, somewhat like winamp.
http://sonique.lycos.com/

[Dorza]

Upgrade to Media Player 10. That now supports MP3 ripping. I use that for ripping and Winamp for playback

[ekundo]

i use musicmatch, been using it for years, works a treat

[Norky]

...is an awful resource hog - I saw it running on a family member's computer - 100% CPU utilisation to just play a tune!

Utter ********?

What you probably saw was iTunes volume matching songs. This is very rare and only lasts ~10 seconds.

Or were you re-encoding the songs?

Watch the language pls - Caged

[daniel_owen_uk]

WinAmp for audio, VLC for video.
VLC can play partially downloaded and damaged WMV files - WMP normally gives you the finger if you try anything like that. It also has in built codecs, so none of this 'requesting codec from server' crap.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

The man knows his software.

VLC for video
Winamp for audio

[spazman]

Winamp is the best music player imho , i use CDeX to ripp all my CD's its freeware and supports just about every codec you could imagine.

[scottyman]

i don't think ripping quality in itunes is as good as others - winamp is pretty good at high bitrate as is wmp. i just find the cddb databases they use to be inaccurate

[iMc]

The most CPU usage I get with iTunes whilst playing songs is 3% but it usally flicks between 1/2%