What freeware MP3 player do your recommend for Windows?

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TallyMan
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15 Feb 2009, 10:16 am

I'm sick of the awful windows media player bundled with Windows Vista.

What freeware MP3 players do others recommend? Obviously it needs to be free of any addware or other malware. I don't need to download or buy any tracks, simply play the ones I've got. It would be handy if it showed basic information that the Windows media player lacks, such as play time remaining per album / set of MP3's.

I just want to be able to select a bunch of MP3 files in a particular folder and play them all. The Windows media player is incapable of such a simple action - you either have to mess about creating libraries first or select the files manually in Windows Explorer then launch the media player with the selection. Its a bit crap really and not user friendly.

There seems to be a big choice of MP3 media players so I'd rather go by recommendation than risk downloading and trying several different ones and risk malware infection.


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Orwell
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15 Feb 2009, 10:21 am

MusikCube is an open-source mp3 player, but it may have a lot of extra functionality that you don't need/want such as a music organizer and all the rest.


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Emor
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15 Feb 2009, 10:25 am

EDIT: The following links are hyperlinked, btw.
Sonique
WinAmp
iTunes
VLC Media Player
Songbird
I know a lot of people who use Sonique and WinAmp, but I never really did like them. I used iTunes on Windows, but it is admittedly bloated, so if you want something light weight and quick, and also capable of playing virtually every file format out there, then go for VLC Media Player. HOWEVER, if you want both functionality and light weight, then I'd say go for SongBird. I used it on Ubuntu(I've not used Windows for around 6 months now) and it was by far superior to all the other listed ones. Maybe, just maybe if iTunes wasn't so bloated, then they'd both be at the same level, but even then, there's 100s of add-ons for SongBird AND it's Opensource! :D.
EMZ=]



Eggman
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15 Feb 2009, 10:26 am

Win amp..it plays all sound files


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TallyMan
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15 Feb 2009, 10:30 am

Orwell wrote:
MusikCube is an open-source mp3 player, but it may have a lot of extra functionality that you don't need/want such as a music organizer and all the rest.


I've just had a look at your link. They don't mention Vista compatible only XP. It may be over the top too because I don't want to create libraries and playlists, just play a bunch of mp3 files in a particular directory. All my mp3's are organised in a tree structure of folders. Genre > Author > Album
I tried letting Windows media player automatically put this lot in a library but the resulting library was an unuseable and completely out of order mess.


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MegaAndy
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15 Feb 2009, 10:34 am

itunes is a brill program especialy if you have an ipod



TallyMan
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15 Feb 2009, 10:37 am

Emor wrote:
I know a lot of people who use Sonique and WinAmp ... there's 100s of add-ons for SongBird AND it's Opensource!


I followed all your links. Thank you. WinAmp and SongBird look about the best.


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TallyMan
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15 Feb 2009, 10:41 am

MegaAndy wrote:
itunes is a brill program especialy if you have an ipod


No, I don't have an iPod, just a no-brand MP3 player which more or less does what I want.

I like software that is quick and simple to use, no messing about with a steep learning curve or creating libraries etc. I'm not bothered about things like skins or advanced features, just a basic "here are my mp3 files - play them". It would be nice if it showed how much play time was left on each track and on the album / selection of mp3's. My requirements are very simple. I'm a simple man :D


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ToadOfSteel
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15 Feb 2009, 11:42 am

Songbird is IMO the best alternative if what you're looking for is an itunes-style program (just less bloated)... If you want something like Quicktime or Windows media player, get VLC...



Dokken
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15 Feb 2009, 11:45 am

winamp is a good one for windows


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DaveSeidel
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15 Feb 2009, 1:24 pm

I highly recommend foobar2000 (http://foobar2000.org). And if you have a hardware MP3 player, take a look at RockBox (http://www.rockbox.org), which is open source firmware.



pakled
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15 Feb 2009, 2:47 pm

does Winamp still kick the llama's a**?



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15 Feb 2009, 2:55 pm

If you want a versatile media player that can play virtually any type of music or video file, as well as any kind of streaming and the ability to record them to file, then go with VLC. Some other features:

Free and Open Source cross-platform media player
Has all the codecs you will ever need built in
Features a complete streaming server, with extended features (video on demand, on the fly transcoding, ...).
Because it is open source, there are tons of plugins available for anything it doesn't have built in.

It may lack a bit of the polish of some of the other players out there, but is probably the most powerful single media player out there.... and best of all it is free.

http://www.videolan.org


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Eggman
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15 Feb 2009, 8:17 pm

pakled wrote:
does Winamp still kick the llama's a**?

Yes it does


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pakled
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15 Feb 2009, 8:48 pm

that's good. I haven't used it since the 90s, but it's nice to know some things don't change...;)
I have something called Audacity, but I think that's actually a ripper....



Eggman
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15 Feb 2009, 8:50 pm

pakled wrote:
that's good. I haven't used it since the 90s, but it's nice to know some things don't change...;)
I have something called Audacity, but I think that's actually a ripper....

i like it because it plays all audio files, even the obscure ones


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