Alternative to windows media player?

lim · Post by **lim** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 2:00 pm

Is there a decent media player that supports different file extensions?
I'm sick of windows media player and all its garbage. Is there something freeware that resembles the same multi formats with out the bugs and the slowness?

MetalGearRay · Post by **MetalGearRay** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 2:03 pm

Winamp 2.91 at http://www.winamp.com
Make sure you get 2.91, not 3.

bizzle · Post by **bizzle** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 2:06 pm

Use an older Winamp for just audio, such as 2.80(I use that) and if you are on XP use the old WMP for video. You run it by going to run and typing in "mplayer2", without the quotes.

MetalGearRay · Post by **MetalGearRay** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 2:08 pm

But Winamp 2.91 does it all.

Nyarlathotep · Post by **Nyarlathotep** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 2:17 pm

BSPlayer.

mkjones · Post by **mkjones** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 3:09 pm

Winamp 3..
dont listen to the sceptics, it rules..

ninja · Post by **ninja** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 3:27 pm

mkjones wrote:Winamp 3..
dont listen to the sceptics, it rules..

Personally, i find WA3 to be a huge memory hog, espicially when it comes to playing back DIVX files. Personally, i use Winamp 2 for audio playback, and Stomp for media playback. I espicially think winamp 3 is ugly. Since i dont care about skinning it, i always stick with the base skin, and the one for 3 sucks. Plus the stupid "nav" bar or whatever the hell it is annoys me with its scrolling icons and its ugly green "matrix-ness".

Post by **Specially Cork** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 4:25 pm

I can sum up why winamp 3 sucks in 2 words

The Thinger

insanedan · Post by **insanedan** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 4:31 pm

never get winamp 3 for the love of god!!

az_bont · Post by **az_bont** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 5:36 pm

If Winamp3 was any good, then the developer's wouldn't have dropped it to carry on working on Winamp 2.x. I've found UltraPlayer to be very good as well, supporting even RealMedia, but apart from that it can't do anything that Winamp can't, has less plug-ins and fewer skins. It's still a nice change, though.

lim · Post by **lim** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 5:41 pm

The Thinger is pretty dumb. I found the new Winamp, really slow. I hate bloatware. I did, however, like the older versions of Winamp that I used to have. Small, fast and reliable, I get then at http://www.oldversion.com - along with other programs.

Jaded JAaron77 · Post by **Jaded JAaron77** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 6:08 pm

the newer winamp 3 is better than the old one I got long ago, but it still sucks, but then again, i've always hated winamp.......and realOne......and WMP................so I just use WMP since it uses fewers system resources than anything else on my $#@! computer....

sixteen-bit · Post by **sixteen-bit** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 6:41 pm

AVIpreview is surprisingly useful for low CPU useage. It doesn't use plugins or do anything fancy-schmancy but it does offer really damn low overhead and plays back stuff without eating your CPU.
With Media player loading between 64 and 79% CPU to playback a test file, AVIpreview used 33 to 45% on the exact same test file for the exact same video section.

Oh and it's main bonuses? Since it started being bundled with certain 'versions' of kazaa, you may already have it. That and it plays partially downloaded files flawlessly

liltimmyw · Post by **liltimmyw** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 7:41 pm

mkjones wrote:Winamp 3..
dont listen to the sceptics, it rules..

You're good at making jokes.

Post by **|darc|** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 7:44 pm

Xine

lim · Post by **lim** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 9:28 pm

Thanks Darc, looks like a good one.

Falcon4 · Post by **Falcon4** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 10:04 pm

Strange how only one person mentioned mplayer2. It used to be top of the line, and still is, as shown by the fact that it's still included in Windows XP. It used to be an upgrade for Windows 95, then it was succeeded by the over-"featured" Windows Media Player. Microsoft decided to completely rewrite the code, and so left mplayer2 untouched in the installs. So many people are still glued to mplayer2 (you CAN still use mplayer2's preferences to associate IT with your files, not the NEW media player), that MS decided to keep it in XP as well. It's simple. Start, Run, type "mplayer2", hit enter. It reads EVERYTHING the new Player can, just much simpler. You can also uninstall the new MPlayer completely, but I don't have the command line handy at the moment. CMD is your friend

And, oh yeah, WA3 still blows. I tried it, was glued to it, found no configurable options (closed that damned Thinger right off the bat), found that the sound quality sucked with no options for plugins, and moved back to 2.80. Then, after releasing WA3, they work again on 2, releasing 2.91. Do we see a pattern?

Wagh · Post by **Wagh** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 10:20 pm

use mpc.. it's a freeware version of mplayer2 http://www.divx-digest.com/software/med ... assic.html

Falcon4 · Post by **Falcon4** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 10:35 pm

uhhhhhhhhh.... mplayer2 IS freeware, it COMES WITH WINDOWS... that thing's more bloated than mplayer2! Try it, you'll know what I mean.

Post by **|darc|** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 10:43 pm

lim wrote:Thanks Darc, looks like a good one.

Are you planning on using Linux? Because it is Linux only...