Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Aug 23, 2012 14:59:58 GMT -5
Any suggestions? WMP crashes my computer, it's just a matter of HOW long it'll take not if it'll happen. I'm tired of sitting here in the silence when I have all this good stuff to listen to. ;D
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Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Aug 23, 2012 15:18:36 GMT -5
Really, none of our resident computer geniuses have download anything different from what comes packaged with their computer's OS? Wow....
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Angel!
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Post by Angel! on Aug 23, 2012 15:57:36 GMT -5
Years ago I always used Winamp. I know it is still available free, but don't know if it is as good as it once was. www.winamp.com/Edited because the first link I posted was to an older version of the software |
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Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Aug 23, 2012 16:00:17 GMT -5
Thanks Angel, I'll check it out.  |
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8 Bit WWBG
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Post by 8 Bit WWBG on Aug 23, 2012 16:05:08 GMT -5
I like VLC Player: www.videolan.org/vlc/It has a lot of codecs built into it, so it can play many file types natively. I also like Media Player Classic. Its a build of WMP 6.4, back before WMP became an "experience". mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/WinAmp is great, but mainly for music. ZoomPlayer is another one that has codecs built into it. (http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_download.shtml) ETA: I have personally used all of the above players. MP Classic, and VLC are my two standard players. They can play discs as well as files. |
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8 Bit WWBG
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Post by 8 Bit WWBG on Aug 23, 2012 16:08:06 GMT -5
Seriously, I loved 6.4. I was so happy when people re-compiled it to work for later versions of windows.
It was WMP7 that first introduced the stupid "welcome" screen where it would go out and retrieve a bunch of "whats hot" links and news stories. It was incredibly bloated when I just wanted to play a file and I wanted to play it now.
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Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Aug 23, 2012 16:08:33 GMT -5
Couple of questions: WTH is a codec and will it give me a headache to have to deal with it? And would it offend a work computer?  I mainly just want to play music so that doesn't hurt WinAmp's chances either. |
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Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Aug 23, 2012 16:10:43 GMT -5
Seriously, I loved 6.4. I was so happy when people re-compiled it to work for later versions of windows. It was WMP7 that first introduced the stupid "welcome" screen where it would go out and retrieve a bunch of "whats hot" links and news stories. It was incredibly bloated when I just wanted to play a file and I wanted to play it now. WMP11 is what is ticking off my computer and last I checked 12 only works with Windows7 so no upgrading it to see if that helps. I don't need an "experience" just to play the dang files. |
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8 Bit WWBG
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Post by 8 Bit WWBG on Aug 23, 2012 16:14:16 GMT -5
Codec (a portmanteau of "compression-decompression") is like a "language" for audio and video compression. Digital media is almost always compressed. Uncompressed media would be enormous (CD quality audio is 10Mb/minute, for example). That same audio compressed into mp3 of comparable quality would be 1Mb/minute.
An uncompressed 20 minute HD video would probably be more than 20 gig. Compressed at broadcast rates, the same stream is 4 gig. Compressed to streaming quality, its probably under 100Mb
Popular compressions = .mp3, AAC, .mp4, h264, and so on.
Aaaaaannnnnyyyyways, that is important because with earlier players, you had to install all these codecs. In other words, you had to teach the player how to read the file. Modern players like the ones I listed come pre-installed with popular codecs, so most files play with no further work.
Think back to the days when device drivers had to be loaded into windows before something would work.
...:::"And would it offend a work computer?":::...
Computers cannot be offended. Your IT security people, however, most definitely can. Consult your official policy regarding installation of software. Everything I linked to is free and open source, but I don't presume to speak on behalf of your policy folks.
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Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Aug 23, 2012 16:17:46 GMT -5
I know about the size of uncompressed music files, DS's entire music collection is in FLAC(C?) format. Sounds great but takes up tons of space. He bought his own external hard drive. Computers most certainly can be offended, you should see how mine acts for WMP11 I doubt they'll get more bent about that than my being here however. I can delete the app when it's time to replace this thing.  |
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Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Aug 23, 2012 16:23:51 GMT -5
Oh, I skipped a question about the codecs. You said the one has them already, does that mean I'm going to have to download codecs for the others?
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8 Bit WWBG
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Post by 8 Bit WWBG on Aug 23, 2012 16:30:07 GMT -5
...:::"I know about the size of uncompressed music files, DS's entire music collection is in FLAC(C?) format. Sounds great but takes up tons of space. He bought his own external hard drive.":::...
FLAC = "Free Lossless Audio Compression". Lossless compression is still big. Smaller than uncompressed, but has the benefit of not "discarding" bits. Lossy compression (of which mp3, mp4, AAC... all are) discards bits, but achieves much better compression. FLAC files are like, 1/2 the uncompressed size. mp3 could be 1/10th.
...:::"You said the one has them already, does that mean I'm going to have to download codecs for the others?":::...
Not likely for audio. WinAmp should have everything you need for most audio formats. Same with VLC, and media player classic, and zoom. I was thinking you were playing video. You should be good to go.
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Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Aug 23, 2012 16:30:54 GMT -5
Thanks WWBG |
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8 Bit WWBG
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Post by 8 Bit WWBG on Aug 23, 2012 16:42:11 GMT -5
You're welcome.
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Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Aug 24, 2012 11:46:38 GMT -5
Just because I know everyone was dying to know what I chose, I downloaded WinAmp this morning and I have music again!!! Thanks to both of you that recommended it ;D
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Virgil Showlion
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Post by Virgil Showlion on Aug 24, 2012 11:58:00 GMT -5
WinAmp must be a good product. I had it back in 1998 running on Windows 95. |
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8 Bit WWBG
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Post by 8 Bit WWBG on Aug 24, 2012 12:28:27 GMT -5
At the time, it was one of the only things that could play .mp3 files natively. It was also very stable.
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Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Aug 24, 2012 13:31:22 GMT -5
WinAmp must be a good product. I had it back in 1998 running on Windows 95. Why mess up a good thing? I wanted something that didn't disturb the cranky computer I work on, so far so good. ;D |
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Virgil Showlion
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Post by Virgil Showlion on Aug 24, 2012 13:46:43 GMT -5
WinAmp must be a good product. I had it back in 1998 running on Windows 95. Why mess up a good thing? I wanted something that didn't disturb the cranky computer I work on, so far so good. ;D Absolutely. Their plugin architecture and skinning system is so well designed that the software has only gone through three major revisions in 15 years (since v1.0). That's almost unheard of. Consider that in that time we've had MS Office '97, '98, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010(, 2011?, 2012?) and numerous OEMs and platform-specific versions. They've updated their file format a dozen times, three of which were completely backwards-non-compatible. Virtually all plug-in features are deprecated, or disabled by default because they pose huge security risks. And each software version seems to be incrementally less usable than the previous one. Winamp is an exemplar of what stable, modular, extensible application design should be. |
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Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Aug 24, 2012 14:00:04 GMT -5
What a long way to tell me you approve of my choice Virgil ;D Sadly, I'm stuck with MS Office but I don't use IE unless it's a work specific thing.
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