Best media player for mac other than Itunes?

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on my PC i live with winamp and I cant seem to run the alpha of winamp for mac unless I have classic support installed which I dont. Can anyone recommend a better media player?
 
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The only other media player besides Real Player that I've tried is SongBird which is currently Beta and a free download. Give it a Google.
 
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"Best?" That's very subjective, but I guess that's what we're here for.

When I want to use something simple, like Winamp on the PC, I fire up Audion. It's older and unsupported, but it gets the job done.
 
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Depends on what your looking for, fancy interfaces or a clean cut player. I use the divx which is pretty low on system resources. Can't watch any movies on itunes, some codec problem occurs on mine I think.
 
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For audio, I don't even try anything other than iTunes. With all the Quicktime plugins I have, it'll take anything I throw at it except maybe me chiptune stuff (which you need a special player for even on Windows, though VLC can do it too :D). For video, I generally like VLC (low CPU usage and plays almost everything), but MPlayer can handle more recent stuff you throw at it (like SSA-encoded softsubs). I'm personally waiting for the Perian project to finish so I can use Quicktime for everything. All it can't handle as of yet really is certain MKV files and stuff with subtitles.
 
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well what bugs me about Itunes is the screen is so **** big LOL. nice thing about winamp is it was small compact, powerful, full featured but with all the menus hidden till you needed to get at them. Thanks for the ideas I will check the progs you listed out tonight
 
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well what bugs me about Itunes is the screen is so **** big LOL. nice thing about winamp is it was small compact, powerful, full featured but with all the menus hidden till you needed to get at them. Thanks for the ideas I will check the progs you listed out tonight

Have you tried eliminating columns from iTunes and resizing the window? I find that works well, but then again, for compactness I usually just use the mini mode.
 
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For audio, I don't even try anything other than iTunes. With all the Quicktime plugins I have, it'll take anything I throw at it except maybe me chiptune stuff (which you need a special player for even on Windows, though VLC can do it too :D). For video, I generally like VLC (low CPU usage and plays almost everything), but MPlayer can handle more recent stuff you throw at it (like SSA-encoded softsubs). I'm personally waiting for the Perian project to finish so I can use Quicktime for everything. All it can't handle as of yet really is certain MKV files and stuff with subtitles.
Have you been able to get iTunes to play FLAC or SHN files?
 
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For Audio, Quicktime and Cog work well - Cog is small and fast. For video, all I loaded is Quicktime and Windows Media Player. However, both VLC and MPlayer have great reputations. At least on Linux however, both are notoriously difficult to set up and get running nicely. Once up and running, they are fabulous, but my guess is they aren't a good fit with the "it just works" Mac OS X model.
 
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Have you been able to get iTunes to play FLAC or SHN files?

For .shn files:

You can decode/encode .shn to .wav files using xACT http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14246, then import the .wav file into iTunes>Prefs>Advanced>Importing>Import Files Using: MP3. When the files are imported into your iTunes library, highlight the .wav files and ctrl/right-click them and from the contextual menu choose 'Convert Selection to MP3' . When they're done, just delete the .wav files from your Library.

For .flak files:

See above ^^^^ it's exactly the same process.

Alternatively, you can download the trial of Total Audio Converter:
http://www.coolutils.com/TotalAudioConverter
 
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For .shn files:

You can decode/encode .shn to .wav files using xACT http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14246, then import the .wav file into iTunes>Prefs>Advanced>Importing>Import Files Using: MP3. When the files are imported into your iTunes library, highlight the .wav files and ctrl/right-click them and from the contextual menu choose 'Convert Selection to MP3' . When they're done, just delete the .wav files from your Library.

For .flak files:

See above ^^^^ it's exactly the same process.

Alternatively, you can download the trial of Total Audio Converter:
http://www.coolutils.com/TotalAudioConverter
I know that I can convert them I was just hoping somebody figured out some Codecs to play them natively. right now I just use Cog for those files
 

eric


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audion > itunes

songbird is pretty nice too, and has an alternate "mini" player.
 
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Have you been able to get iTunes to play FLAC or SHN files?

I haven't run into those filetypes myself, but I'll definitely look into that for you as soon as things start to calm down around here. I know of at least one FLAC plugin for Quicktime, though obviously I can't say much about its performance since I haven't tested it. SHN will probably require a little more digging, but if there isn't already something, I could always try and start something. ;)
 
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If you like iTunes other than the bigger screen, then using it in miniplayer mode may suit your needs.

To do this, click Window > Zoom.

You will have a minimalist view.

VLC player is also a viable option.
 
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audion > itunes

songbird is pretty nice too, and has an alternate "mini" player.

I would never recommend Audion. As good as it was, it's dead software. Panic made it end of life last year and hasn't even updated it in ages.
 

eric


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mp3s haven't been updated in years.
still use them.
icon12.gif


i knew people who were still using windows 95 when xp was available (well, maybe that isn't a good example <grin>).

just because it isn't being actively redesigned/patched doesn't mean that it isn't a good tool.
 
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Have you been able to get iTunes to play FLAC or SHN files?

AFAIK there are plugin for iTunes to play FLAC files yet. I hope someone will come up with a solution soon.
 

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