Review request: frontend comparision

**tripzero** · 12-05-2007, 11:59 AM

I'd like to see (and if one exists forgive me) a review of the features of the most popular frontends in their specific categories: Commercial, Free, Open Source. This would be a very hard undertaking but I think it would be a great resource to the community.

It would have:

-Brief Summery of the Frontends
-Pros and Cons of each
-Side by side (chart?) comparison of the features of each frontend

It would of course have to come from a non-biased author (which disqualifies me). Stick to the facts and this should be a great resource.

**rbaksi** · 01-31-2008, 03:54 AM

yeah this would be awesome, id love to see the best free frontends

**redls1bird** · 01-31-2008, 08:55 PM

I agree, but it could easily be done in the wiki section if anyone wants to undertake it.

**2k1Toaster** · 01-31-2008, 09:10 PM

Pay For: I dunno, SD and CF both have great features and both have horrible disadvantages.

Free: RoadRunner hands down

Open Source: RoadRunner, it is open source.

RoadRunner basically has everything and more that SD or CF has, low resource requirments, huge community, and a huge selection of skins. Best is that is free and actively supported.

**nemoid** · 02-07-2008, 03:57 PM

^^ What are the "horrible disadvantages" of CF and SD?

**Sonicxtacy02** · 02-07-2008, 04:18 PM

FLAME ON lol

1 horrendus disadvantage is i gotta pay for it lol

**2k1Toaster** · 02-07-2008, 04:35 PM

Originally Posted by nemoid

^^ What are the "horrible disadvantages" of CF and SD?

cost and activation are the big ones.

**maniaxzero** · 02-08-2008, 04:26 AM

i find roadrunner and digitalfx skin the best combo

roadrunner has a slider bar that lets you skip to the part of the song like a video slider where Centrafuse does not. Centrafuse does look very professional but im not used to the controls

DigitalFX skin might not look the best, but it's the most feature rich, simple to navigate interface and i think that's the most important in a carpc. With the new library search feature, i can easily and quickly find songs by artist, song name, or filename. Love it.

I tried LSXVOID, looks good but too lazy to figure out how it works

having said that, RR is not perfect, it freezes and does weird things from time to time.

**tripzero** · 02-09-2008, 12:16 AM

I really didn't want this to turn into a "which is the best frontend thread". There are plenty of threads already with that topic.

I just thought a in depth comparison with chart would be a fantastic resource for new comers. If someone wants to start it in the wiki, I'd be glad to add to it and I bet others would also.

Here is what I would propose as some of the features for the chart:

OS: Linux/Windows/Mac
Price: Free
Open Source: y/n
Audio Engine: directsound/winamp/mplayer/gstreamer
Audio Codec support: mp3/ogg/aac/flac/wma
Video Engine: wmp/mplayer/gstreamer/vlc
Video Codec support: xvid/divx/wmv/mpeg4/mpeg2/Ogg Theora
Navigation Support: iguidance/navit/...
Skinable: y/n
Pluggable: y/n
HD radio support: y/n (plugin?)
FM support: y/n (plugin?)
XM support: y/n (plugin?)
Sirius: y/n (plugin?)
Weather: y/n (plugin?)
Traffic: y/n (plugin?)

Then have a section that talks about each individually:

[brief summery of pros and unique features]

[brief summery of cons]