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Topic: Recommended media player for FLAC files? (Read 14492 times) previous topic - next topic
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Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Hey, everyone...

Can you recommend a good media player that best supports flac files? I'd like to become quite proficient with just one, but am unsure which ones to avoid or pursue.

Windows Media Player
J. River Media Center
VLC media player
Winamp
MediaMonkey
foobar2000
dBpoweramp Audio Player (is this outdated?)

Etc.
Etc.

Right now I am noticing minor faults when I point MediaMonkey to my music folder in order to build the library. When MediaMonkey scans my computer and builds my library with all my flac files, they ALL do not show the track number under the track column. What gives?

Thanks, everyone.


Moderation: This is not a poll. Please read the whole thread before replying and don't reply if everything that you have to say has already been said.
"He's a natural born world-shaker."  -Dragline

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #1 –
I use fb2k....as for not showing track numbers, maybe they have no track numbers in the tags?

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #2 –
foobar2000

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #3 –
foobar2000

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #5 –
XMPlay.

After installing some plugins it plays everything I throw at it.

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #6 –
J. River...buy now, and you'll get the 13 license along with the stable 12 version...

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #7 –
am I the only Winamp fan?

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #9 –
Quote from: Bryanhoop on
J. River...buy now, and you'll get the 13 license along with the stable 12 version...


Why buy when there is perfectly good freeware?  My vote is foobar2000.  I use it on both Windows Vista and via Wine on Ubuntu.

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #10 –
windows: foobar2000
linux: aqualung

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #12 –
Quote from: z420er on
Quote from: Bryanhoop on

J. River...buy now, and you'll get the 13 license along with the stable 12 version...


Why buy when there is perfectly good freeware?  My vote is foobar2000.  I use it on both Windows Vista and via Wine on Ubuntu.


Some people do not want to waste hours/days setting up foobar2000 beyond it's pathetic default UI.
J River Media Center also plays video and is great for pictures. If you are only interest in music playback you can choose J. River Media Jukebox which is FREE and works with many portables and Amazon.com for easy MP3 purchase.



J. River Media Jukebox

 

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #13 –
If you read the original post it asks... "Can you recommend a good media player that best supports flac files?" which foobar2000 does just fine natively without having to "waste hours/days setting up".

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #14 –
Quote from: slimserver on
Quote from: z420er on

Quote from: Bryanhoop on

J. River...buy now, and you'll get the 13 license along with the stable 12 version...
Why buy when there is perfectly good freeware?  My vote is foobar2000.  I use it on both Windows Vista and via Wine on Ubuntu.
Some people do not want to waste hours/days setting up foobar2000 beyond it's pathetic default UI.

Have you used foobar2000 recently, as in since the release of 0.9.5?
elevatorladylevitateme

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #15 –
foobar2000 vote here.  Winamp would be second (as an ex-winamp user).
foobar 0.9.6.8
FLAC -5
LAME 3.98 -V3

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #16 –
Quote from: shakey_snake on
Quote from: slimserver on

Quote from: z420er on

Quote from: Bryanhoop on

J. River...buy now, and you'll get the 13 license along with the stable 12 version...
Why buy when there is perfectly good freeware?  My vote is foobar2000.  I use it on both Windows Vista and via Wine on Ubuntu.
Some people do not want to waste hours/days setting up foobar2000 beyond it's pathetic default UI.

Have you used foobar2000 recently, as in since the release of 0.9.5?

Yes I have and the UI is still pathetic. Have you used J. River Media Center recently, as in since the release of MC12?

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #17 –
Quote from: slimserver on
Yes I have and the UI is still pathetic. Have you used J. River Media Center recently, as in since the release of MC12?

Well, on your recommendation, I just messed around with "Media Jukebox 12" a little bit and I must say, it is a rather complete "jukebox type" interface.

Although, I must say that like all "jukebox type" (e.g. iTunes, songbird, MediaMonkey, Winamp w/Bento skin) interfaces it suffers from the same problems:
  • Menus Hell: Finding a function I'm looking for in the main menu is like finding gold. And worst of all a rather random collection of things are dumped in a "tools" menu and are mostly 2 menus deep. And do these items pertain to my selection or the currently playing track?
  • Playlist/media library blur: Am I playing from a playlist or from the media library? What's coming up next after this file I've played? What's playing next after I change what I'm viewing in my library?
  • The "Now playing" thing in the sidebar is either a playlist or a snapshot of the library, so why is an extra "now playing" thing needed? Shouldn't there be a less redundant way of handling this?
  • What are these "things" in the sidebar anyways? are they like tabs or are they items of a treeview?
  • How do I get J. River to look like the rest ot the windows on my desktop?
    Why does it require it's own "distinctive" (i.e. obnoxious) look?
And, how does the tagging panel work? Is it looking up info from an online source or displaying them from my tags? When are my tagging changes saved? Why aren't these important sorts of things (ie potential data loss) more immediately obvious?

On top of that, it doesn't seem it play my embedded cue sheets...
elevatorladylevitateme

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #18 –
Quote from: shakey_snake on
On top of that, it doesn't seem it play my embedded cue sheets...

People seem to have missed the part where the OP says "Can you recommend a good media player that best supports flac files?".
I don't use Windows, but on that platform, foobar2000 is that player, if I'm not mistaken.

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #20 –
My suggestion: Winamp.
Native FLAC support, ReplayGain support, handy Media Library with nice Online-Radio directories included.

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #21 –
Quote from: shakey_snake on
Well, on your recommendation, I just messed around with "Media Jukebox 12" a little bit and I must say, it is a rather complete "jukebox type" interface.


You have probably invested a lot of time in Foobar.  So you invested a few minutes in dismissing Media Jukebox.  Had you made a more serious effort (say a few percent of the effort you put into Foobar), you might have found answers to the questions you raised.

>    * Menus Hell: Finding a function I'm looking for in the main menu is like finding gold. And worst of all a
> rather random collection of things are dumped in a "tools" menu and are mostly 2 menus deep.

There are a number of things that you do once using the tools/options dialog: choosing a format for ripping and ripping options, setting the base location for ripped files and a template for naming ripped files, custom library fields and others.

There are right-click context menus for many things.  I use those far more than the pull-down menus.

> And do these items pertain to my selection or the currently playing track?

You certainly don't need the pull-down menus to play the current selection.

You can put things you need frequently into the toolbar/status line at the bottom of the window.  Mine has "Zones" to switch the playback zone shown, "Playing Now" to show what in the queue to be played, "Recently Imported" to shown what I added to the current library, "Rip Disc" to show the DVD device view and "Tag" to bring up the tag editing window.

So how did I customize Media center?  I right-clicking ion the Toolbar/status line and got the Customize Toolbar menu.  Adding items to the the toolbar is just a matter of selecting

>    * Playlist/media library blur: Am I playing from a playlist or from the media library?

You select a view scheme or a playlist in the tree on the left side.  Then the contents of that view scheme or playlist is shown in the view to the right.  You select some files and choose an action such as playing them, adding them to the queue, moving or copying them, editing tags, etc.

> What's coming up next after this file I've played?

Look at Playing Now.

> What's playing next after I change what I'm viewing in my library?

Look at Playing Now.  Changing what you are viewing doesn't affect what you have already queued up.

>    * The "Now playing" thing in the sidebar is either a playlist or a snapshot of the library,
> so why is an extra "now playing" thing needed? Shouldn't there be a less redundant way of handling this?

The area at the top of the screen shows info about the file currently playing.  The Playing now list shows what has played recently, what's playing now and what is queued up to play.

If you don't need to look at the "Playing Now" view, don't.

>    * What are these "things" in the sidebar anyways? are they like tabs or are they items of a treeview?

There is a tree view of view schemes.  I have views for classical music, broadway shows, sons (pop), jazz and Rock.  I can select what files to include and exclude in each view, how I want to select music in that view and what columns of tag info and other attributes to display for each file.


>    * How do I get J. River to look like the rest ot the windows on my desktop?

And how do the rest of your windows look?

>      Why does it require it's own "distinctive" (i.e. obnoxious) look?

There are a number of skins available.  I use "Gray Noire" on one PC to give reduced contrast from the standard Noire skin, an iTunes like skin on another PC and a "Windoze classic" skin on another PC.

---
There is a lot of functionality in Media Jukebox and Media Center 12.  It does take a little effort to understand what's there and how to do what you want.  However, for anything fancy, it is much easier than trying to get similar results from Foobar.  And the documentation is much better.

If Foobar does what you want without tinkering, it's a good choice.  If you want to tinker, it has more potential as a full time hobby project than J. River's players.  If you are imprinted on Foobar, you will be disappointed to find that MJ doesn't do things in exactly the same way.

If you are happy with Foobar, that's fine.

Bill

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #22 –
I am just glad I get my needed set of features from Foobar2000. Have a feeling that many current Foobar2000 users were once in the past scared off jukeboxes by the likes of Musicmatch and Real.

All good players copy the best from each other. In that screenshot of J. River Media Jukebox I saw elements from iTunes, elements also used in Winamp, and elements copied by a ColumnsUI skin. Visual elements.

I will rather suggest players not worth using: WMP 9/10/11

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #23 –
foobar2000, what else?

Recommended media player for FLAC files?

Reply #24 –
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