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Sonic Wallpaper
Joined: 05/22/01
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 1266
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MP3 Players to USE and others to AVOID
Wednesday, November 29, 2006 at 1:12 PM
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Those who haven't discovered that some mp3 players (software) are not very good, or have quirks, or simply have issues with streaming.
I'll need some more feedback from Mac and Linux users in terms of what players to avoid and what works well.
For windows users - there's one mp3 player you all have, and after dealing with this player for the last 5 years, I can definately say without any doubt in my mind, that "Windows Media Player" should be avoided. This player has had problems since 2000, when they first converted it from an mp3 player to a media library platform/player. Back in 1999, WMP was great... you could even loop your loops in it without a pause at the end.
Another player that has caused users problems in the past is Quicktime on the PC. If Quicktime is setup to play mp3s and m3u streaming files, you may experience the dreaded 'embeded Quicktime" issue. This is when you click on a link to an mp3, and instead of an mp3 player being called by your browser, you'll get sent to a blank page with the quicktime player in the middle of the page. Try to fix this, and you'll find it's almost impossible to get rid of. So how do you fix this? You install WinAmp - and WinAmp will assign your mp3 and m3u file extensions to itself - and check the box so WinAmp KEEPS these extensions. you may need to change somethings in WMP and QuickTime too - try that BEFORE you install WinAmp.
Ok - so 2 of the most popular media players for the PC should be avoided at all costs  got it? Now onto the good stuff...
So you have a PC - and you love mp3s... now what? Just use WinAmp people - In all the years I've been hacking away at this music service, WinAmp has never let me down. If a user writes in with a streaming problem, I point them to WinAmp... days later, they write back and say thanks, and tell me that WinAmp fixed the issue.
Don't like WinAmp? Try iTunes [free]
Don't like iTunes - but want a media library/player?
Try Media Jukebox [basic is free] - or Yahoo Music Jukebox [free]
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Mac - you have iTunes, it works well from what I've seen and heard, so most of you shouldn't be having any issues with your media player like the Windows users. If you use a different player than iTunes, and you feel it rocks, let me know about it.
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Linux - I'll have to ask Stefan about these - but here's what I've found:
MPlayer:
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/news.html
VLC:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
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For those who don't want to stop using WMP, you'll continue to have issues with streaming on ArtistServer - the problem could very well be a combination of something I'm doing, and something Microsoft is doing in their software. But I can tell you this... the problems I see with WMP ONLY HAPPEN with WMP, which tells me that there is something different about the way WMP handles an HTTP streaming mp3.
If all goes well, and ArtistServer continues to grow, I'll eventually move all streaming to a 'streaming service provider.' This will greatly improve our streaming and download service, but until then, please try the applications I've linked to.
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nokalypse
Joined: 06/11/02
Location: Athens, Greece
Posts: 73
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RE: MP3 Players to USE and others to AVOID
Thursday, December 21, 2006 at 9:03 PM
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The only issue with Winamp is that it introduces a tiny gap between CD Audio tracks which WMP doesn't.
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Kylo
Joined: 02/16/05
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 787
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RE: MP3 Players to USE and others to AVOID
Friday, December 22, 2006 at 12:06 PM
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how bout musicmatch jukebox? http://www.musicmatch.com/
Although I still like winamp too- it's the fastest program on a really slow computer.
"Energizer bunny arrested- charged with battery."
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