Winamp or WMP?

bgoodman · 12-24-2003, 01:02 PM

Poll started for CarComp

shakes · 12-24-2003, 01:30 PM

the only thing WMP is good for is playing DVDs (because it's free)

deadweasel · 12-24-2003, 04:58 PM

Winamp, winamp... and uh.... WINAMP. For DVDs, there's PowerDVD. For everything else..... there's WINAMP! Hands down the best video and audio player out there. It's flexible, gives you tons of control over playback, and I don't get this nagging feeling that something is going on behind the scenes everytime I start the player.

liquid_smoke · 12-25-2003, 02:33 AM

winamp hands down, WMP blows
but for a player for my car i would pass both up as there are better apps than both of them.

CarComp · 12-25-2003, 08:11 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by liquid_smoke

winamp hands down, WMP blows
but for a player for my car i would pass both up as there are better apps than both of them.

Ok, well if you know of an app that is as stable as winamp / wmp, has an easy to use programming interface and/or API, has integrated visualizations, and is easy to install with Installshield, please let me know. I am searching for such a thing... The idea player would be completely activeX and would not be a standalone player.

Pudge · 12-25-2003, 08:24 PM

I choose Winamp hands down. The whole "free DVD playing on WMP" is a no. You have to have a decoder installed (powerdvd, windvd, etc.) to use that feature, meaning it's not really free. I know of codec packs that include a DVD decoder, but I'm not positive about the legit-ness of those packs.

deadweasel · 12-25-2003, 08:29 PM

Actually Pudge, I thought the ability to play DVDs came as PART of the WMP9 package? It seems to work fine on my machine, and it played without having any of the other DVD packages installed.

Pudge · 12-25-2003, 09:06 PM

Hmmm... Maybe I had this problem with 8 series. Unless you have another decoder installed. But if not, thanks for clearing that up

CarComp · 12-25-2003, 11:09 PM

We will always require that you install a decoder / codec... It has a lot to do with licensing. We can't hand out something that is not free.

liquid_smoke · 12-25-2003, 11:16 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Pudge

Hmmm... Maybe I had this problem with 8 series. Unless you have another decoder installed. But if not, thanks for clearing that up

Pude you had it right, you do have to have a decoder installed. Its not exactly free so to speak. The reason the other guy (cant remember name& im lazy) didnt have to install any of those other apps is because the drivers for your dvd player likely installed a codec for the dvd player to work. But if you dont have a 3rd party codec installed WMP wont play the DVD.

About the app thats better than winamp in my opinion is this.
http://www.musicex.com/mediajukebox/
And to say winamp is stable isnt really saying much, its known to buggy and for a reason. Now V5 is a lot better and actually the first version that im actually using and pretty much happy with all the other versions are lacking IMO. And WMP just sucks, the audio quality leaves a lot to be desired and the visualizations look like a 3yr old designed them. Why does it have to be completely active X and not a stand alone app? Im assumeing so its easier to program and script for? Im not sure if the app in the link is active X or not but is an ideal app to write a frontend for, the only thing missing is TV tuner support and Navi intergration but those things will likely never happen as those are car specific (at least the navi is).

deadweasel · 12-26-2003, 12:28 AM

liquid_smoke, I did a little digging about in this cluttered hard drive of mine, and discovered that you are indeed correct. Apparently there IS a codec that came with the DVD, only in this case, it came in the form of some Compaq drivers for this drive that I scavenged from another machine.

Good call!

liquid_smoke · 12-26-2003, 03:03 AM

I figured that was it

, i used to have an old XBOX dev kit at work (first xbox dev kit was a tower pc) that had a dvd drive on it, but i couldnt play any damn movies cause WMP would ***** about not having a codec and since MS didnt care if dvd's worked on the first dev kits we had to install 3rd party codec to play movies.

CarComp · 12-29-2003, 11:27 PM

The next release is going to be.... Drumroll.....

WINAMP!!!

We finally found a way to get full control over the visualizations (which is so cool even I amaze myself with it now) so no more *****ing about Windows Media Player. Of course, I will be sticking with the tried and true winamp 2.9, but still there are about a million plugins for it so thats cool.. Plus its small and winamp5 is just too much features "just to play music"... Also switching to winamp will most definately get rid of that darn popup box asking you to retry something when WMP screws up.

Also, I though i'd add, External applications will be having a "toolwindow" that "hovers" above the launched application so you can exit the app with touchscreen, select next / previous song, and control volume. Oh, and its skinned btw, but I will support a "default mode" since the older skins (read all of them) won't have this feature.

Bow down. Don't you ever give up on m.e.. Just cause its taking longer these days to get out an update... These super advanced things are pretty hard to code right and take time.

-CarComp