MOVING AWAY FROM ITUNES

[stpierre76]

I all,

I have been using itunes for a while but recently it s been doing strange things.Tought it may have been my laptop but i have 2 of them and it s doing it with both.Also i tried other media player and did some a/b comparaison and find others to be sonically slightly betgter(blind test).The big advantage itunes had for it was its ease of use, especially liked the genius tool, but that did play up and would not do it anymore.So m keen to delete itunes from computer install a new media player and re rip all my cd collection.I was wondering which media player is fairly easy to use and especially if there are any of them that offfer a kind of genius style application.Really enjoyed the fact that i could press classical or regaae and it would play allthe songs according to their category..

sincerely yours john

 

[Andrew Everard]

Well, you could try Songbird

 

[stpierre76]

thanks andrew, i will indeed try songbird.did not even heard about it.I downloaded winamp, media monkey, j river and will try to use them for a few days and see which one suits me best.

sincerely yours

 

[SteveR750]

If you use J River make sure you take the time to configure the output correctly - it makes a big difference when you do.

 

[kena]

Foobar 2K is very configurable but not good on just "out the box". PJPRO has a good guide on initial setup here Plug ins are available for transferring to Iphone/Touch , I only have the horrid app Itunes on my PC for updates to the Touch , but will admit Foobar is not for the feint hearted so possibly J. River /Media Monkey may suit better..

 

[knacker]

Andrew,

does Songbird allow purchased itunes songs/films to be inported and played? If so I would give it a try

 

[Anonymous]

I will second foobar2k if you like tinkering with stuff, it is really flexible software, you can do all sorts of cool stuff with it like ASIO output, but as someone said earlier it's not for the feint hearted. Not sure if it will play DRM locked stuff, but then again, what will. x

 

[Anonymous]

Also a huge fan of Foobar 2000 - lean, ultra customizable, no-frills player. In fact in moving to a Mac, not being able to run foobar is one of my biggest regrets..

 

[Andrew Everard]

knacker:does Songbird allow purchased itunes songs/films to be inported and played? If so I would give it a try

Don't buy music from iTunes, but in interests of research just downloaded the Kylie freebie EP offered as part of the iTunes 12 Days of Christmas promotion, and it imports into and plays on Songbird no probs.

 

[John Duncan]

knacker:
Andrew,

does Songbird allow purchased itunes songs/films to be inported and played? If so I would give it a try

I downloaded it and it runs like a dog compared to iTunes (on Mac).

 

[Anonymous]

Songbird is slow with medium to large media libraries.

You could try CrossOver Mac which would then allow u to use WinAmp. One of the advantages of WinAmp is that it can play virtually any format - both audio and video.