foolbar2k plays all those formats "Out of the box" because it comes with all the plugins already. Why have plugins for stuff you'll never use?
Balls-on accurate
Plays the way nature intended
32/24-bit & multi-channel output
take advantage of supporting hardware for ultimate quality
Gapless output
Gapless playback of all supported formats
Interpolation & volume/pan ramping
For output that’s smoother than a baby’s arse!
DSP
Automatic gain control (and Replaygain), 5 band equalizer, reverb, plugin support
Net streaming
All supported file types (including MODs and archives) can be streamed from FTP and HTTP servers (inc. Shoutcast/Icecast/Icecast2), optionally writing a copy to disk, FTP directories and HTML webpages can be scanned for playable files
Track information
Displays file/format information, messages/tags, and instrument/sample texts, open webpages from the texts
Title formatting
You decide how you want the track titles to look, title updating from 'net streams and CUE sheets
Library
A database of your tracks, for quick and easy access to the tracks you want to play
Saved/preset settings
Save settings (DSP/etc…) to be automatically used each time specific tracks are loaded, save presets for quick application at any time
Fully customizable shortcuts, including global hotkeys
Integration
Open files/folders from Windows Explorer, drag’n’drop files/folders/shortcuts/URLs, monitor the clipboard for playable URLs, drag’n’drop tracks from XMPlay into other programs, icon customization
Archive plugins
Archived/compressed files can be loaded just like normal files
Unicode file support
Support for Russian, Chinese, etc…
Visualisation
Compatible with Sonique plugins, also includes a MOD pattern view
I use Winamp v2.81, it is an old version from 2002.
It works good, it is nice, have everything I need.
There are Winamp 5 nowadays, but no people from the orginal Nullsoft team who made Winamp is in the current team of developers of Winamp. Justin Frankel (leader) quit too.
I'm also using a Columns UI format string that I completely customized.
I would make a config file myself but it all looks like gibberish to me , and the fact the config file i got is 98% of what i would like to make anyway.
Foobar does all those things. I'm not sure about your screenshot because that was no where near what I got on my system with it.(maybe others could say what xmplay uses on theirs. Also make sure your playing a file)
Like I said XMPlay does not have a good library function.If you have a small amount amount of music then it should be ok but if your like me and have a lot then that just isnt good enough. I want my music sorted by artist then album with a dropdown menu.(like my foobar is)
lol, it shows that it is playing just by looknig at the skin. Though I did see a lot of junk in your system list screenshot. Maybe that's why foolbar takes more. The library works really well; though there are a few features that I like that are missing. (Like pressing next with random on and it will randomly select a new song instead of going to the next track)
Btw, it also supports Winamp plugins; so you can probably fix the library through a winamp plugin too.
Well, I tried out Foobar 0.8.3, and while it isn't by any means a poor audio player, I'm not sure it is what I am looking for. As much as I hate to say it, I still like WMP better than it. I have really gotten used to using my WMP toolbar so that I can switch tracks or adjust the in-player volume without having to restore it to the screen first. As far as I can tell, Foobar doesn't offer that.
I also thought the visualization window was tacky and of course the default appearance of WMP is far more refined than Foobar. These aren't major complaints, but they do count for something. Also, when using Foobar, I checked it under Task Manager, and it was using around 20 MB of pagefile, whereas WMP only used around 7. I know that rridgely said Foobar uses far less than that, but I wasn't playing a movie; I was simply listening to audio from my library.
I won't delete Foobar, as I still want to test it out some more, but as of now, I find that WMP is just a better player when it comes to the look, feel, and ease of use. And you don't know how much I hate to say that!
On a more pleasant note, I just realized that Tarun was listening to Ten Thousand Fists, Disturbed's newest album. Very sweet.
Well, I tried out Foobar 0.8.3, and while it isn't by any means a poor audio player, I'm not sure it is what I am looking for. As much as I hate to say it, I still like WMP better than it. I have really gotten used to using my WMP toolbar so that I can switch tracks or adjust the in-player volume without having to restore it to the screen first. As far as I can tell, Foobar doesn't offer that.
It can be sized down to this:
or you can just use it via the systray which has playback controls using the Default User Interface and with Columns UI.
I also thought the visualization window was tacky and of course the default appearance of WMP is far more refined than Foobar. These aren't major complaints, but they do count for something. Also, when using Foobar, I checked it under Task Manager, and it was using around 20 MB of pagefile, whereas WMP only used around 7. I know that rridgely said Foobar uses far less than that, but I wasn't playing a movie; I was simply listening to audio from my library.
The visualization window isn't appealing at all so I'd have to agree. However it can be completely disabled, and removed from the GUI via right clicking the menu area. FB2K wasn't conceived to be another WMP or Winamp, hence the reason it loads so fast and has a wide playlist area that makes it easy to see the artist, title and album without necessarily having to click upon the file properties. To each their own though, because I used Winamp for years and there wasn't any way to convince me that anything was "better" up until Winamp started having skipping problems in practically every audio file I played - hence my exodus to FB2K.
As far as player mem usage goes it does matter what type of audio format you're playing, e.g.; when playing Ogg Vorbis (.ogg) I've seen the mem usage go up 1MB or so however I'm used to seeing about 7MB usage while it's loaded and not playing a track, however that spikes to around 8.5MB when playing a track.
Thanks for that info, Andavari. I'm still testing it out, so who knows, maybe it will grow on me. I haven't hardly touched the options, so there could be a plethora of usefull little tidbits I never knew about.
And thank you for the links to those other media players, Eldmannen. I'll probably check those out as well.
I haven't hardly touched the options, so there could be a plethora of usefull little tidbits I never knew about.
Most of the options are already pre-configured during setup with good settings. I would however highly recommend that you download Columns UI and a few pre-configured format strings from the Columns UI website since it will take the bland default user interface to something very appealing and more useful. If you spend about one or two hours here and there playing around in Columns UI you should be able to configure the GUI to your own preferred look and ease-of-use. Mine is dead plain but that's how I like it.
