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General discussion

9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?

Sep 15, 2004 11:24AM PDT

Which music-player software do you use?

iTunes
Windows Media Player
Musicmatch
RealPlayer
Winamp
QuickTime
Other

Place your votes and discuss this topic.

Some questions to get the conversation rolling are:

Why do you use the music-player you voted on? What makes it so special?

Do you use more than one of these players, if so why, shouldn't one player cover all the different formats?

If you had to convince another person to go with the player you use, how would sell them on it?

If you didn't vote for any of the above player, what music-player do you use?

I'm hoping that these poll discussion will be fun for all of to participate in and hopefully we'd also gain more knowledge out of it.

Enjoy!
-Lee Koo
CNET Community

Discussion is locked

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 16, 2004 4:45PM PDT

Windows Media 10

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 16, 2004 5:27PM PDT

#1 - Jet-Audio by Cowon, and
#2 - Zoom Player

Jet-Audio has a welth of adjustments that make the listening a real pleasure;
Zoom Player is simple to use, good for having ambient music, and it's FREE.

If you are in the mood of closing your eyes and listening to a classic concert on stage, a rock band playing in a stadium, or you just want feel the musicians in your room, Jet-Audio is for you.

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 16, 2004 8:16PM PDT

I use 3 different types. At work I use Media player. Why, simple I workoff a laptop and do not have any great sound cards. On my other computer at I use Musicmatch. On this computer I work with specific videos that have a distinctive sound. This sound has to be perfect to what I video taped. At home I use an other type program from Creative labs. I use this on because I have the Audigy 2 Sound card, and have the speaker system setup for 7.1 surround sound.

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 16, 2004 8:16PM PDT

Quick Time

Real Player if I can't get Q T operating

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 16, 2004 8:31PM PDT

Windows Media Player
I have good luck with Media Player. I'm not a big music fan, so Media player works for me. Plus it's free.

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 16, 2004 8:47PM PDT

Work = Windows Media Player
Home = MusicMatch

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 16, 2004 9:26PM PDT

I prefer windows media player 9 series.IT's fast to turn on,has great aural and video enhancemants.When watching vodeos or movies,color reproduction is accurate,as opposed to winamp.I use real player also,but don't like the way it tries to take over your comp.RP also gets my favorite radio station in the world,(WRTI)which is why I keep it.As far as all the others go,they're all the same to me,haven't tried them all.

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 16, 2004 9:45PM PDT

I use both iTunes and Windows Media Player. I work on both platforms and I find the ability to download from both iTunes and the new MSN convenient and it gives me a large selection of music to choose from.

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 16, 2004 10:12PM PDT

Windows Media Player - it has taken over my laptop. Every time I open my laptop it opens and I can't figure out how to make it stop doing this. Any suggestions appreciated.

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 18, 2004 2:10PM PDT

Start>Contol Panel>Add and Remove Programs>Windows Media Player>Uninstall


peace

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Feb 28, 2006 11:18PM PST

Profound

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 16, 2004 10:36PM PDT

Which music-player software do you use?

1)iTunes
2)Winamp
3)Windows Media Player
4)RealPlayer
5)QuickTime

Why do you use the music-player you voted on? What makes it so special?
I can use I tunes on a cross platform basis and it works very well.

I love winamp due to the skins and it to works well but some data loss in the translation, doesn't handle my older cd's as well as I thought it would.

WMP is ok for the older systems that we have out in the marketplace(severs in place for dhcp

Real Player is ok too, systems integrator at palo alto has this in place and will not use any other playre, works well with his 8 track player too.

I use some quick time too for the apple stuff that I get from a family member.

shouldn't one player cover all the different formats?
Coutl onr do all of that??

If you had to convince another person to go with the player you use, how would sell them on it?
One time thats all....

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 16, 2004 11:06PM PDT

For simply playing music, I use WMP10. I have others installed, but why bother learning them? The windows player works fine.

Device specific hardware is another issue. I have a Creative Jukebox 3 and Muvo NX, both of which I enjoy thouroughly. Creative's software leaves much to be desired however, so I've purchased Red Chair's Notmad explorer which I like. After having sampled MusicMatch, Real Player, WinAmp and others, it's frustrating that they all have their rules and restrictions. There should absolutly be one app that "does it all".

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MusicMatch is the Ginchiest
Sep 16, 2004 11:59PM PDT

MusicMatch is a Great Product, but I fear for its life now that Yahoo has anounced plans to aquire it.

Like so many great products produced by small companys, it will soon be reduce to unusability.

Just look at what happpened to Netscape when aquired by AOL; It took what 6 years to re-create a usable product.

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XMMS (X Multimedia System)
Sep 17, 2004 12:00AM PDT

Its pretty much the standard for Linux. I'd really like to find a good alternative thats GTK2 based but it does the job well. For windows users its basically equivalent to WinAmp.

When I'm using windows I go for winamp. Mainly because I can skin it in such a way as to remain on top of the other applications but still not interfere with them.

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Re: XMMS (X Multimedia System)
Oct 7, 2004 8:33PM PDT

Yup it is almost a standard for Linux. You might also try amaroK. It is some new and very nice looking music player.

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 17, 2004 12:33AM PDT

I use Windows Media Player.

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 17, 2004 12:46AM PDT

Windows Media Player 10, It does everything I need.

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 17, 2004 1:29AM PDT

Winamp!! but of course!

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 17, 2004 2:13AM PDT

I prefer to use Windows Media Player because since it is bundled with Windows XP, it is readily available and easy to use. I also like the fact that it is free. I tried Real Player for a while and had a lot of problems with it. In order to solve those problems, I would have had to upgrade to a fee based version. No thanks.

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 17, 2004 4:36AM PDT

I've been using WINAmp for my musicf list but have Window Media player as my default when I get an unknown file.

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 17, 2004 5:01AM PDT

windows media player because it is the first one i had and i THINK, the only one i have,and seems to be about the handiest to use. it has many rather easy to use features to get it to play the music one wants.

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 17, 2004 5:18AM PDT

I use Windows Media Player, though I own both Musicmatch and RealPlayer also. i just hate to pay to listen to friggin music.

They've all gotten out of hand and aren't worth any price.

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 17, 2004 5:28AM PDT

The Windows Media Player mostly. You asked witch music player do I use. For music downloads, so far, you can't beat iTunes and Emusic for selection

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 17, 2004 6:34AM PDT

Windows Media Player Version 10; because it provides the best 'sound' when playing back CDs and Internet Music. No other player gives one such a rich blend of notes and bass.
Real Player, Quicktime, and the other programs require one to upgrade costing money. I will not pay to have 'quality'.

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 17, 2004 8:05AM PDT

Greetings Lee,
I like to use MusicMatch Juckbox it works for most my
ripping and burning needs!
recently I put some of my music on download.com in
MP3 format and needed to convert them to 192 sample rate.
well Winamp,Realplayer and even Windows player would not
covert the wave files like good old MMJ plus did.

Also you can convert wave to MP3PRO. at all most as good as,
CD qulity over standerd MP3.

I was surprised to see that Windows player 10 is way better then
it was I like its new look and now you can, burn CDs and do lot
more with music files and videos then before there is hope for
Microsoft !

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 17, 2004 10:51AM PDT

(only regarding audio)
Winamp has the lowest overhead of the batch. Since I never use the AVS features, great sound with efficient CPU usage is the best match. (some interesting DSP plug-ins as well to enhance the audio experience)

Windows Media Player also has great audio reproduction, but takes more CPU. The only good plug-ins are premium add-ons.

Quicktime is on par with Windows Media Player, but a bit annoying to navigate at times. Also can absorb more CPU than playing a song should take (no worse than WMP).

The only real negative in this group is RealPlayer. I have stripped all traces of any of RealPlayer from my system because it is a REAL pain in the a... Talk about invading the desktop. It will haunt you until you invest in the premium service. If you want to throw out your TV, discontinue your magazine subscriptions and invest in a monthly fee so you can see the world on a computer monitor... OK... I am sure there are a couple of geeks out there who have yet to leave the basement... But as a simple stand-alone audio player? Nah... not worth the effort.

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Nov 25, 2004 9:16PM PST

Agreed - Winamp is my 1st chioce also - cpu utilization is a good point - I chose Winamp because it sounds much better than WinMedia Player and the many FREE plugins you can obtain.

Next I would have to say I use iTunes and this one actually has the ability to sound better than WMP and even Winamp, (I was surprised to find this - although I had to add all my own equalizer presets - the delivered ones are too quiet/muffled.)

As for Win Media Player - I use this as a last resort, mainly due to the sound quality - I have done everything to try and get this sound to right, (tried it on my Desktop PC with some Harmon Kardon speakers and TB/Santa Cruz sound card and several laptops - dell and toshiba.) It seems to distort all my music very easily.

Agreed about Real Player - did the same - wiped it off all my laptops and PC - mainly because as you said, it takes over... It's a piece of junk to me...

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 17, 2004 9:44PM PDT

i use all of them iTunes, Windows Media Player, Musicmatch, RealPlayer, Winamp, and QuickTime. I also use Sonic and jetAudio

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Re: 9/17/04 Which music-player software do you use?
Sep 17, 2004 10:16PM PDT

Realplayer and windows media player. I use this too because they give me clear pictures and voice and they do not seize as many others do. However, I will not say much about the others since I am now used to these two and I am satisfied with them.