I have tried so many media players over the years and they each have something good. I wish they could be mashed together to create the one media player that everyone wants and loves without the huge memory consumption.
Winamp was my first media player years ago. Then I had Windows XP for an operating system and I was using Windows Media Player. I used to strictly use Windows Media Player, because it’s already there. Why install more when it could do everything I needed? Now that I have an iPod, I have to use iTunes as well, which just duplicates my music collection. Sure, I could purchase a plug-in for Windows Media Player, but I would rather not.
The media players that I’m writing about are: Winamp, iTunes, Windows Media Player, and Songbird.
Winamp
Winamp has been around for so many years and is probably one of the top media players chosen by most. I never thought Winamp could improve. It was always lacking some features, which would require installing a plug-in. It has always been my favorite since the beginning, because it plays just about everything and supports skinning with a large community actively contributing.
I like that it now has a notification popup above the system tray. I am someone who minimizes everything to the tray if possible. I like a clean desktop. If I’m not currently using it, I don’t want it showing (less distractions). When the song title is longer or shorter than the previously displayed one, the popup shrinks or grows smoothly.
This version of Winamp is their 10th Anniversary Edition, 5.5. The last time I used Winamp, I think it was version 3.0! Winamp has improved a lot over the years.
Winamp is probably a great alternative to iTunes because it now supports connecting an iPod and downloading podcasts, too.
Another must-have feature that most media players have been including is album covers. It makes you feel like you’re looking at your CD collection, instead of just a file collection on the computer, which allows for easier browsing. Winamp now includes album art and support for it on portable devices! Winamp seems to do a better job at finding album covers than iTunes (I don’t buy all of my music through the iTunes store). Winamp is possibly just as good as Windows Media Player, but Windows Media Player allows you to search for them if it can’t find them.
A Winamp toolbar was also added for the browser, but I opted to not install it, because I hate toolbars. But, for those of you who like filling up the top of your browser with unnecessary useful toolbars, you can now control Winamp from your browser.
When using the Winamp Browser and viewing a site (e.g. fluxblog) with music on it, the music will play in Winamp as if it was local. This could save you time from using your regular browser and downloading the music and then telling it to play in Winamp.
Plays an insane amount of audio and video types: see them all!
Winamp has always tried to support most file types. File types supported by Winamp: AAC, AIF, AIFF, AU, AVI, CDA, MID, MIDI, MOD, MP1, MP2, MP3, M3U, MP4, MPEG, MPG, OGG, WAV, WMA, WMV and lots more I have never heard of!
Winamp probably has more features than other media players and uses very little resources. Check out the many (new and improved) features that Winamp has. Winamp has become my favorite again.
iTunes
iTunes is usually installed on Windows if you own an iPod. If I didn’t own an iPod, I wouldn’t use iTunes. One cool thing in iTunes that I like is the album cover view. Even nicer when used in fullscreen view.
Besides supporting iPod connectivity, you can also select what you want synced to the iPod. I do like that iTunes remembers and shows you what songs you have selected to sync with the iPod while still listing the songs that aren’t on the iPod. For podcasts, you can set it to sync only the most recent ones or even ones that haven’t been played yet.
iTunes is very easy to navigate. It isn’t overloaded with tons of features like some media players are, which can take time setting up for the first time.
A few things about iTunes I don’t like are:
- Converting most of my songs and taking forever to do it. Even though this is done just once, I don’t like having duplicates!
- iTunes also is not that great for finding album covers. I have some that just display the musical note instead of the actual cover. Windows Media Player and Winamp both do a much better job.
- When deleting a song, it displays a progress window and the progress bar takes a long time to complete.
I can’t just click how many stars I want when rating songs. iTunes makes me right click on a song and move the cursor over ‘Rating’ and then click how many stars I want to rate it.
It’s not that I don’t like iTunes, it’s that there are too many features I don’t like. If iTunes didn’t feel the need to convert a lot of my songs, I would be happy.
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player comes with Windows, so this may be the most used media player available. I’ve never had a problem with Windows Media Player as long as it played my MP3s.
Microsoft made many improvements to Windows Media Player which was very much needed. It now looks a lot better than it did. Although the previous versions allowed you to install skins, they were ugly.
I have to admit, Windows Media Player is fast when loading and importing songs. Possibly faster than other media players.
Another reason why I like Windows Media Player over some is that I can display a mini version of it on the taskbar giving me access at all times. It displays the current song playing and also the visualization if you choose. Even watch a movie in a tiny screen.
With a large collection of CDs, it can take a very long time to rip them. Windows Media Player does this very quickly. This may vary depending on your computer.
The new version lets you share media to the XBox 360 or another digital media receiver. Before, you would have to install another program to share. Also browse and sync your library to a portable device. No iPod support! Thumbs down, Microsoft!
If you need to play many different file types, Windows Media Player may not be the right one. It’s limited to just several. I’m surprised it even plays MP3s!
Songbird
As you can see in the screenshot, Songbird can have a similar album view like iTunes. It’s pretty, but slow. The album view in iTunes is faster and a little better looking.
Songbirdâ„¢ is a desktop Web player, a digital jukebox and Web browser mash-up. Like Winamp, it supports extensions and skins feathers. Like Firefox®, it is built from Mozilla®, cross-platform and open source.
Besides looking good, it has some really nice features:
- Supports many file types.
- Themes
- Three repeat modes.
- Mini mode
- Create your own custom mixes.
- Browse the web for music to play.
- Extensions
- Sync your iPod!
- and more.
Since I use iTunes to download new podcasts and sync them to my iPod, the library changes. When I loaded Songbird, it popped up a window saying it detected changes in my iTunes library and asked if I want to import those changes into Songbird. Of course! This is a great feature if I must have iTunes and another media player installed together.
I’m not very fond of the Cheesy Video Window when watching a video. Yes, it’s really called that. I’d like to see it open in the main Songbird window. It’s okay when playing videos. I had noticed it skipping a little, may have been my system actively doing something.
Songbird is fairly quick when importing, but don’t expect to do anything in Songbird until the importing process is complete. It wouldn’t let me. I’m sure that will change as newer versions are released.
Another great feature is that it will check for any updates just like Firefox and download and install the updates for you. No manual work involved!
Watch the screencast to see what Songbird is like. If Songbird keeps improving, it may replace the other media players for me. But, that Cheesy Video Window must go!
Other Media Players
Other media players that didn’t make my list:
- BSPlayer would have made the list if it wasn’t for the free version having advertisements. The cost of the pro version isn’t too bad though, but I’m not interested in buying a media player when I can get a good one for free.
- Amarok would have also made it if it was cross-platform. Unfortunately, it’s only for Linux. It is my favorite media player when using Linux! Can also sync the iPod with Amarok.
Check out some screenshots of media players over at Lifehacker’s Media Player Show and Tell. Many of the screenshots are of Foobar, which is a media player I have never tried.
I want a media player that is fast like Windows Media Player, has a mini player window like Winamp and Songbird, has an album view like iTunes, syncs to my iPod, displays what will be synced to the iPod like iTunes does, minimizes to the system tray, lets me rate songs like Winamp does, and has a notification popup displaying what song is playing. Or, I guess depending on the mood I’m in, I can keep all four installed and use either one. I really don’t want to.
Which media player(s) do you use and why do you prefer it/them over the others?
