Which Music Player do you use - and why?

[Feline]

I am presently using iTunes - which sort of (mildly) p1sses me off (large and frequent updates and somewhat resource hungry - and also the fact that it comes with QuickTime whether I like it or not).

So what might be a better choice? Really looking for something that will just play some music when I feel like it, that isn't in my face all the time - just gets on and does the job. Don't need fancy skins or whatever, and don't need visualisation - just want a small footprint and the ability to create playlists - and also need to sync it to an iPod every now and then ...

Have the following on my list:

WinAmp (Does one really need the Pro version?)
Real Player (not keen on this - had it installed once before and very obtrusive)
Windows Media Player (already got it)
MusicMatch
Foobar 2000

Any others I should take a look at?

Comments?

[jamied]

I just use Windows Media Player as it is already supplied and plays the files i want it to unless i need some codecs. I would recommend taking a look at VNC player. It's nothing special and supports more file types than most other music/video players.

[Saab Dastard]

I avoid Real player and anything else from Real, as I loathe how they try to worm their software into other areas.

Just a personal experience.

SD

[timmcat]

I use VLC - small footprint, no bloatage, genuine freeware and plays just about anything (audio and video) I throw at it.

[rossym]

I use Windows Media Player - couldn't tell you why though.

Tried iTunes and Real Player in the past.... don't get on with them at all!

Sorry I haven't really been that helpful... can recommend WMP though!

[frostbite]

Agreed, Real Player is not desirable software.

[Kestrel_909]

Since conforming to iPodism I've been using iTunes more, however, before when I managed my music folders myself and most of it was .mp3, I had a simple little free program called Destiny Media Player that I picked up years ago.

Small, compact and the functions you need and little else, and uses about as much resources as notepad! So good that I've kept it all these years. I used to be listening to music constatly in the background with it, had no effect on the PC at all.

[BRL]

Realplayer....... I somehow used to get emails from them about some stupid band called (I think) 'The Real Band' or something like that.

Used to get what seemed like an hourly update on them, where they are playing, what they are doing etc etc so I unsubscribed one day from the email service.

Got a reply from some guy asking why I wanted to unsubscribe.

"Well I don't live in America, I have heard them and I think they are s**t!..."

"Well, how about we keep your email on record in case you come over the water you might like to check them out or tell your friends....."

I will let you guess the two word reply I sent back to him.

Back to the original question. I have iTunes here for my ipod, love the playlist thing on it and I have had no problems with it at all. Doesn't really affect my laptop here either, if it does, I can't really tell to be honest.

I think I have WMP as the default, am happy with that too, no problem with it.

Also got Irfanview as that can play music on it.

[powerstall]

Go with anything except Real Player... had a lot of problems with the media player... total waste of time...

Been using itunes as well to complement my Ipod, for easy uploading/transferring of music files...

[The Flying Pram]

I agree with timmcat, use VLC. It does the job, and having spent some time looking through their forums I now know it can do lots more besides just playing audio & video.

[BLUE SKY THINKER]

Suggestion: MPlayer. Small; low key.

Although primarily a (very comprehensive) movie player, I use it for audio also. It's certainly got Play Lists; can't speak for iPod sync, but presume not impossible.

HERE is the portable version (USB stick, or self contained on PC). There's a link on there also to the integrated PC version if you prefer.

----------------------------------------

• MPEG layer 1, 2, and 3 (MP3) audio
• AC3/A52 (Dolby Digital) audio (software or SP/DIF)
• AAC (MPEG-4 audio)
• WMA (DivX Audio) v1, v2
• WMA 9 (WMAv3), Voxware audio, ACELP.net etc (using x86 DLLs)
• RealAudio: COOK, SIPRO, ATRAC3 (using Real libraries)
• RealAudio: DNET and older codecs
• QuickTime: Qclp, Q-Design QDMC/QDM2, MACE 3/6 (using QT libraries), ALAC
• Ogg Vorbis audio
• VIVO audio (g723, Vivo Siren) (using x86 DLL)
• alaw/ulaw, (ms)gsm, pcm, *adpcm and other simple old audio formats

The codec status page has the complete list and is updated daily.

[Jet II]

another vote for VLC

[Feline]

Thanks for all your responses!

Well, looks like I will try a tango with VLC, and a foxtrot with MPlayer!

[bnt]

On Windows I'm using Windows Media Player 11. It has some pretty powerful library management functions, like a facility to find an album's proper names etc. and fix the ID3 tags. Once you get your head around the Playlist thing, syncing to another MP3 player is a doddle - even automatic if you use Auto Playlists.

[Keef]

I use iTunes for the stuff that goes on the iPod, mainly because that's what came with it. It also installed Quicktime, but I've got that more or less corralled and out of the frame. It updates those two about once every six weeks, which I can live with.

However, I'm getting heartily sick of the daily prompts to "update" Safari. There is no Safari on this PC to update - I think this is an attempt to hijack my browser function. So I'm seriously considering dumping the whole Apple package. That's just too sneaky.

Unless I can find a way to stop the prompts for Safari, I think something has to go. Maybe I just need to kill the Apple Software Updater - I don't think I need to update iTunes any more, since it works.