BlueDev's PC media player smackdown

BlueDev's PC media player smackdown - Part I

-or- yes, I am a dork

Published on January 13, 2005 By BlueDev In iTunes

Untitled The following should come as no surprise to those here (at least those who have read my ramblings): I love music. It is central to my life in so many ways. I can't claim to be a great musician, though I have sung all my life and play around on the guitar now and then. I can't admit to having really taken music classes in school, I was too busy trying to be academic and all that crap. And sadly, I have never really learned how to read music, though I know enough to sort of sight read.

But ever since I can recall I have listened to music. I never have been a passive listener either. I really focus on the music I am listening to, at least until I am familiar enough with it that I don't need to anymore. Couple an avid music lover with a total computer nerd and you get someone who is really obsessive/compulsive when it comes to trying media player programs. I can't claim to have tried them all (there are simply too many), but I think I have tried more than the normal user. And I have found what I like and dislike about each one. So without further ado. . .

BlueDev's tedious and far too long computer media player smackdown part 1. Who will remain standing when the dust clears? We shall see.

Winamp: I have to start with the classic. Winamp will always be a popular media player, if for no other reason than because of nostalgia. That being said, Winamp is and was a great bit of code. 2.9x versions are still incredibly popular and used by many out there (I have it on my older Win 98 box). Winamp 3, well, let's just not talk about it other than to mention the fact that it was gratefully aborted. We now have version 5.08, which has added the free-form skinning of 3 to the usability of 2. Winamp 5 is a great program, and I use it on occasion for the built in internet radio that it has. The ability to organize your music library is also a welcome addition. However, we must sadly accept that Winamp is dead. Development is no longer active and it appears that the end has come. Thanks AOL.

Pros:

Amazing skinning ability in most recent versions
Media library organization
Internet radio and TV
A plethora of plugins available

Cons:

Relatively high resource usage when not minimized (this can depend a great deal on the skin)
Audio quality just never did it for me. Built in equalizer is good, but not sufficient. And the best DSP plugins are going to cost you
The media library management is not dynamic. It requires manually adding or removing music you may have added to your collection or deleted
Also, the media library view is far too cluttered for my tastes

Windows Media Player: Once I made the move to a system running XP, WMP became my player of choice. Powerful, good sound, cool visualizations and freeform skinning made this one a winner for me. Media library organization was good. Things only got better with version 9. I loved WMP 9 and extolled its virtues on many a forum. Very multipurpose, playing music, video, DVDs, etc. Then they released 10. It looks horrible. The interface is just not pleasant. It still is a good program, but for some reasons has fallen out of favor with me. And audio quality just wasn't quite there for me now that I have seen the light. Addition of encoding to mp3 format is what has kept WMP active on my system (as it tags and then organizes the tracks nicely while I rip them).

Pros:

Freeform skinning (with some amazing skins by artists such as The Skins Factory)
Good audio quality with built in eq and SRS WOW effects
Decent visualizations
Good resource use, especially when minimized to the task bar (great taskbar controls are also a big plus)
Media library management is automatic if you have it monitor folders. Very nice
High quality mp3 encoding ability added to 10 is very nice for ripping and organizing your music

Cons:

Ugly as sin (sure, this can be overcome by skins or minimizing it, but if you want to be able to work with your media library you are going to have to stare at the horrific interface)
Sound quality still not perfect. Some muddiness is introduced if you try to make the lower frequencies more rich
WMP can be intrusive with such issues as DRM signing and other aspects. It shows up a lot in Spybot scans if media player information sending is enabled
Recent information about hackers utilizing DRM technology is concerning

iTunes: For a while I had iTunes installed but never used it. One day I fired it up, opened the Eq, tweaked it and was quite pleased by the sound quality. Then, once I figured out how to add my music folder I liked it even more. This was turning out to be a great program. And having the iTunes store integrated into the player was brilliant as well. Lots of good tunes (okay, nothing I like really, I wouldn't dream of buying something from iTunes) right at your fingertips. But I don't have an iPod, so I didn't need that aspect of it. And while iTunes doesn't really have any skins (on the PC - I believe there are some on the Mac), Kapsules, Konfabulator, Avedesk, and even Desktop X all have some pretty slick looking "remote" widgets to run the program. But resource use is off the hook, often ranging from 35-45 megs of RAM when not minimized, and still sometimes reaching 17-20 megs when minimized to the tray. I no longer use iTunes either.

Pros:

Good sound quality - This is what originally drew me to iTunes over the others. It sounded better to me
Good media management, though be careful if you tell it it can organize your music it will suddenly move, rename, and delete music if you are not careful
iTunes store integration making it very easy to add music to your collection
The AAC codec is a good quality ripper, but limits the playback of those files in other media players without conversion. It also can rip to mp3 and does so nicely

Cons:

Resources use, resource use, resource use
No skins ability (on PC)
iTunes can wreak havoc on your music library if everything is not tagged perfectly and you allow iTunes to "consolidate" your library
Does not remember where in a playlist you where when you close the program. Not serious, but a drawback nonetheless

Musicmatch Jukebox: I was something of a fan back in the 6.something days. I have used versions 7 and 8, but nothing recently. So I decided I needed to give the latest and greatest version, 10, a try. And MMJB is already losing big time. After downloading and installing it refused to let me run the application until I had restarted my computer. And once I had done that I noticed MMJB had enabled a Quick Play feature that starts at start-up without asking me if I wanted it to. Programs lose big points when they add something to start-up without letting me know. Bad MMJB. Sound quality is abysmal unless you go in and enable th equalizer. This comes with an automatic level limiter which, while it prevents too much clipping, also makes the music very quite, forcing you to crank the system volume. Oh, and the eq resets itself every time you close the application unless you pony up the $20 for the "Pro" version. Media library management is okay, but cumbersome compared to the three previously mentioned (no nice tree view for Artist>Album>Tracks like the others). Considering its $20 price tag to actually make it functional, MMJB is a total wreck and not worth the time to go to their webpage IMO. This does integrate with MusicMatch store, but I don't think this is handled nearly as well as iTunes.

Pros:

Rips and burns nicely (good quality encoder)
Looks okay I suppose (I am really stretching to find pros here)

Cons:

Piss poor sound quality unless you fork out cash for the pro version which will actually store your eq settings when you close it
Cumbersome media library management
Resource usage is really terrible. It doesn't appear to use nearly as much as iTunes (the process mmjb.exe was using around 12-13 megs when playing a track). But the kicker is the number of other processes it loads. After I closed and then uninstalled the program my number of processes dropped by 6. Yes, 6. And that is without making any other alterations to my system. Only closing and uninstalling MMJB. That is entirely unacceptable

Rundown: Well, it is hard for me to call a clear winner today. Winamp has a lot going for it (and the nostalgia helps, I will admit). But sound quality and a cluttered media library interface work against it. iTunes and WMP are both excellent programs, each with their own pluses and minuses. Due to the resource issue and the free form skins I have to give the win to WMP here. MMJB should be avoided at all costs *dons flame resistant suit*. There is nothing in the free version of MMJB that allows it to even stand on the same level as the other programs. Perhaps the pro version makes the difference, but it isn't fair to compare a $20 program to three free alternatives. (Likewise I did not mention the pro version of Winamp).

And so the award goes to WMP 10 (even though it pains me to look upon it). But we still need to discuss the dark horses out there. Who knows what they will bring to the table. Stay tuned!

Comments

CygnusXII

on Jan 13, 2005

You might consider some other Media Players, as there are a few you haven't included in your list.

Foobar2000 http://tinyurl.com/z5b7 [Foobar2000.org]
"Features
* Open component architecture allowing third-party developers to extend functionality of the player
* Audio formats supported "out-of-the-box": WAV, AIFF, VOC, AU, SND, Ogg Vorbis, MPC, MP2, MP3, MPEG-4
AAC
* Audio formats supported through official addons: FLAC, OggFLAC, Monkey's Audio, WavPack, Speex,
CDDA, TFMX, SPC, various MOD types; extraction on-the-fly from RAR, 7-ZIP & ZIP archives
* Full Unicode support on Windows NT
* ReplayGain support
* Low memory footprint, efficient handling of really large playlists
* Advanced file info processing capabilities (generic file info box and masstagger)
* Highly customizable playlist display
* Customizable keyboard shortcuts
* Most of standard components are opensourced under BSD license (source included with the SDK)

Also let's not forget dbPowerAmp. http://tinyurl.com/375rd [dbPoweramp.com]
"* Complete music rating system and selective play,
* Cross-fader & gapless playback,
* Playlist editor, most played, newest and previously played,
* Quality equalizer (16384 order filter),
* Advanced skins, mini tray control and on screen options,
* Special play, pause...keyboard control, global keyboard control of dAP from any program.
* Small and fast - modularized: only components use are loaded,
* Widest codecs available, plays practically every audio type (by default dAP plays Wave, Audio CDs,
Mp3, Ogg & Midi).
* 100% Free, no nags, popups, hidden spy or bundleware.

Both of these are free, have plugins that are very usefull, unencumbered by DRM intrusions, and are HIGH Quiality Players.

2

BlueDev

on Jan 13, 2005

Good list. As I mentioned, this is part one. The next part (or two) will deal with what I called the dark horses. This list includes the following:

foobar2000 (my absolute favorite of all time!)
MusikCube
dbPowerAmp
Apollo 37
VuPlayer
wxMusik
The Core Media player
JetAudio

I have used both the ones you mention, and plan to include them in the lists.

3

Scarebear

on Jan 14, 2005

Have you tried Quintessential Player (QCD)? It's my current favourite.

4

BlueDev

on Jan 14, 2005

I have tried it, but it has been a long time. That was actually one of the ones I was going to include, but then forgot about it. I will give it a go and add it to the list.

5

Scarebear

on Jan 15, 2005

Excellent. I look forward to reading it then I wish Sonique was still a serious contender too

6

dabe

on Jan 16, 2005

Hmm..... no mention of Coolplayer. What are some of your thoughts on this little program? I just stumbled across this thread, and it really interests me, as I play most of my music via my computer, and as mp3's. Also, what about the DX media player? Am I missing something?

TIA

7

dabe

on Jan 16, 2005

By the way, I'm a big fan of QCD and WMPlayer 10. I almost never use Winamp, except to burn CD's. And, of course, Coolplayer. I just love that little thang. It's very cool, but a nuisance to select skins for it. I'd love it if the developers upgraded some features. And no, visuals are not necessary. They just eat up resources, which I don't have much to spare, though I'm shopping for a new computer right now (but that's another thread possibility).

8

BlueDev

on Jan 16, 2005

Dabe, I hadn't thought about Coolplayer as I used it once a long time ago but found it just didn't have quite what I needed. But I can certainly add it to the list. Also since DX player just basically uses other players (either one of the supported ones you have open or WMP internally) I don't think it mertis consideration in these articles as it is not, of itself, a media player. Rather it is a controller for other players. I will check out Coolplayer again and add it to the list. This could turn it into three articles, rather than two (since the suggestion for a couple I hadn't originally intended on comparing.

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