WMP11 vs iTunes
Extracampine
compare to Apple's iTunes ? Or is there any other good contending software
out there ?
Basically I have a 60,000+ library of music, I like the library to be
album-art based, with browsing by genre/artist/album/etc (as WMP11 has) and
the opportunity to search quickly (as WMP11 has). WMP11 just seems a bit
slow browsing the albums (as well as its other problems).
Any suggestions?
Neil Smith [MVP Digital Media]
If your tracks are DRM protected WM audio (bought from online stores)
then you're SOL. If they are WMA or MP3 audio ripped from CDs then you
should be good to go with iTunes. It can convert unprotected WMA to
AAC audio which is the preferred format in iTunes.
Real player can also play your unprotected WMA tracks, and makes a
good all rounder - it also has extensive music library features but
with a lower overhead than WMP11.
If you're happy with WMP10 though, there's no reason to update, as it
has substantially more power user features than WMP11. One of the few
new additions in WMP11 is the ability to span CDs when burning disks,
The downside is device support has become patch and many supposedly
plasy for sure devices no longer work (and aren't being patched by the
manufacturers as they're 18 months old and hence "end of life"
devices)
Watch out for "updates" for WMP10, the lates update is actually an
"upgrade" to WMP11, though it's flagged as an update by WMP10.
Cheers - Neil
------------------------------------------------
Digital Media MVP : 2004-2007
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpfaqs
Dale
iTunes for ripping because their database is more reliable. My wife uses
iTunes exclusively because she just really doesn't like WMP - not even WMP 9
or 10. That's just her personal preference.
iTunes displays album art but only embedded album art. You can download
album art using iTunes but it is my understanding that you can only do so if
you have an iTunes store account and only for tracks you purchased through
the store. Navigation and lists do not have album art display capabilities.
I don't know of any other player that uses album art to the extent that
Windows Media Player 11 does. If the Windows Media Player product team had
done a better job of implementation WMP would be far and away the best player
on the market. The real shame is just how close WMP 11 comes to being such a
great application. There are a lot of fantastic ideas that fall just short
in implementation and end up with a product that just doesn't live up to the
users' expectations.
After trying WinAmp, MusicMatch, iTunes, Windows Media Player, Roxio's
player, Nero's player, and several others, I found that not one of them met
my needs. Even so, the best two still remain Windows Media Player and
iTunes. Windows Media Player 8 was the best, with 9, 10, and 11 each going
down hill from the previous (with the exception of the big boost that WMP 10
got by adding MP3 ripping capability).
There are some great development opportunities using .Net 3.0 that will
simplify the creation of controls and lists that use album art similar to how
WMP 11 does (only better) so maybe soon there will be some more visually
creative alternatives to WMP 11. In the end, if you are stuck on using album
art in your lists, you're stuck using WMP 11, I think.
Dale
--
Dale Preston
MCAD C#
MCSE, MCDBA
zachd [MSFT]
"Dale" <dale...@nospam.nospam> wrote in message
news:BC6424EE-84EB-4CC6...@microsoft.com...
> (with the exception of the big boost that WMP 10
> got by adding MP3 ripping capability).
This was first added back in WMP8, but required add-on MP3 encode packs at
that point. WMP10 was just the first one to include an MP3 encoder out of
the box. =)
--
Speaking for myself only.
See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
John Lockwood
BC6424EE-84EB-4CC6...@microsoft.com, "Dale"
<dale...@nospam.nospam> wrote:
> iTunes is ok. There are pluses and minuses to every player out there. I use
> iTunes for ripping because their database is more reliable. My wife uses
> iTunes exclusively because she just really doesn't like WMP - not even WMP 9
> or 10. That's just her personal preference.
>
> iTunes displays album art but only embedded album art. You can download
> album art using iTunes but it is my understanding that you can only do so if
> you have an iTunes store account and only for tracks you purchased through
> the store. Navigation and lists do not have album art display capabilities.
If you download album art from the iTunes store it does not initially embed
the artwork in the track but stores it in a separate folder (using Apple's
own scheme and format). I prefer to then forcibly embed the artwork.
Yes you can only download artwork if you have an iTunes account but it costs
nothing, and you can download artwork for ANY track you have ripped from a
CD not just those you have bought from Apple's iTunes store.
iTunes 7 does let you browse and list with album art showing much like
WMP11. It also has Coverflow and now in iTunes 7.1 or later that can even be
run in full-screen mode. It sounds like you need to have a look at your
wife's copy to get up to date on how it works.
> I don't know of any other player that uses album art to the extent that
> Windows Media Player 11 does.
With Coverflow iTunes goes way beyond WMP11. Also remember the artwork Apple
provides FREE is 600x600 pixels and is way, way, better quality than the
pathetic 200x200 pixels WMP uses. (Especially if you have Coverflow running
full-screen on a big TV.)
Note: Coverflow also works in iTunes 7 for Windows. (Apple unlike Microsoft
do not artificially cripple their products even when running on the
'oppositions' operating systems.)
Dale
--
Dale Preston
MCAD C#
MCSE, MCDBA
"John Lockwood" wrote:
> On 28/3/07 01:14, in article
> BC6424EE-84EB-4CC6...@microsoft.com, "Dale"
> <dale...@nospam.nospam> wrote:
>
> > iTunes is ok. There are pluses and minuses to every player out there. I use
> > iTunes for ripping because their database is more reliable. My wife uses
> > iTunes exclusively because she just really doesn't like WMP - not even WMP 9
> > or 10. That's just her personal preference.
> >
> > iTunes displays album art but only embedded album art. You can download
> > album art using iTunes but it is my understanding that you can only do so if
> > you have an iTunes store account and only for tracks you purchased through
> > the store. Navigation and lists do not have album art display capabilities.
>
> If you download album art from the iTunes store it does not initially embed
> the artwork in the track but stores it in a separate folder (using Apple's
> own scheme and format). I prefer to then forcibly embed the artwork.
>
> Yes you can only download artwork if you have an iTunes account but it costs
> nothing, and you can download artwork for ANY track you have ripped from a
> CD not just those you have bought from Apple's iTunes store.
>
> iTunes 7 does let you browse and list with album art showing much like
> WMP11. It also has Coverflow and now in iTunes 7.1 or later that can even be
> run in full-screen mode. It sounds like you need to have a look at your
> wife's copy to get up to date on how it works.
Good point. We both have iTunes 6.05. Because of media sharing limitations
in version 6 compared to version 5, I have avoided going to version 7
thinking it will be even worse. Of course we never share media using iTunes
anyway so it's a pointless stand on my part. I will have to test version 7
this weekend.
>
> > I don't know of any other player that uses album art to the extent that
> > Windows Media Player 11 does.
>
> With Coverflow iTunes goes way beyond WMP11. Also remember the artwork Apple
> provides FREE is 600x600 pixels and is way, way, better quality than the
> pathetic 200x200 pixels WMP uses. (Especially if you have Coverflow running
> full-screen on a big TV.)
Everybody except MusicMatch uses bigger album art than Windows Media Player.
>
> Note: Coverflow also works in iTunes 7 for Windows. (Apple unlike Microsoft
> do not artificially cripple their products even when running on the
> 'oppositions' operating systems.)
>
Thanks for the feedback, John. I'll check out version 7 this weekend for
sure.
Dale