I Need a New Music Player

[Eleazar]

I have finally gotten fed up with my overly resource intensive Zune music player, and am looking for a good music player that doesn't take up as many resources as a game. Does anyone have any good suggestions?

[SpazROK]

iTunes is pretty legit, even on my hella bogged down windows laptop it runs fine. That or Windows Media Player?

I hear ya about the Zune though, I gave up on them because of the interface.

[Bloodwrath970]

WMP is my favorite. Windows Media Center is a do-it-all for all media, though it is probably a tad too intensive for youre needs.

[Eleazar]

I like the interface, I like it better than iTunes, I'm just tired of seeing my CPU jump from 5% or less with only firefox on to 95% when I turn Zune on. I mean I can use photoshop, illustrator, flash, firefox, and peggle up all at the same time, and not even get close to 100% of my CPU.

Also I should have said no iTunes, but I didn't really think it would be necessary since it is kind of obvious. I also hate Windows Media Player, I just don't like one thing about it.

[Redenbacher09]

I recommend Songbird. It's still a bit in its infancy, but it's been working very well for me, I can customize its look however I please (currently the Walnut 'wood' theme, to match Thunderbird, and Firefox, on the rest of my wood themed desktop :p), and there are a lot of nifty little extensions that are out for it.

EDIT: I'm listening to music with it as we speak. It's using 8% CPU and roughly 50MB of memory usage.

[Eleazar]

thanks Redenbacher09

[Redenbacher09]

My pleasure, Eleazar. If you have any questions feel free to ask, but the interface is pretty straightforward.

Oh, and just a sidenote - it installs on Linux as well - I'm running it with Ubuntu :)

I know you had mentioned attempting to tinker with Ubuntu.

[Bloodwrath970]

Songbird looks like iTunes pretty much. whats different/better/worse?

[Eleazar]

My pleasure, Eleazar. If you have any questions feel free to ask, but the interface is pretty straightforward.

Oh, and just a sidenote - it installs on Linux as well - I'm running it with Ubuntu

I know you had mentioned attempting to tinker with Ubuntu.

You know I think that might be my problem. Vista just plan sucks because, although it isn't as bad, my CPU usage did jump by about 40%. I was thinking that might be the problem, because I never had that problem with XP. I might need to stop by my schools book store tuesday when I'm on campus and buy XP, it is only $11.



Songbird looks like iTunes pretty much. whats different/better/worse?

Songbird isn't owned by a huge corporation that millions of 20ish year olds bow down to. I really don't dislike iTunes just Apple.

[Bloodwrath970]

iHate iTunes. i know i know, horrible play on words, couldnt resist.

[Redenbacher09]

Songbird looks like iTunes pretty much. whats different/better/worse?

By default it looks similar to iTunes. I like it because I can customize it's look with all the skins that can be downloaded :)

It also runs much smoother than iTunes, in my opinion. However, that is compared to running iTunes on XP, I'm sure it runs better on OSX.

It also has some nifty extensions. One of my favorites shows me which of my artists are playing live near me and on what dates :) I haven't used it successfully, but I can forsee future usefulness.

[Father Diablo]

Yah dude id say find someone who has music and just sync it on yur player, preff an ipod or touch somthing. P.S. itunes is stupid just like XBL, u gatta pay for every little thing. But yah SongBird b the best bet, or a friend.

[TonyOrtiz15]

iHate iTunes. i know i know, horrible play on words, couldnt resist.

/agree

Unfortunately, I would be recommending Zune. It's the best device. The software is not as important as the device to me. But, I have no gripes about the software as I do with itunes. The resources don't really bother me and my super computer. Although when I'm just listening from the computer, I use regular old windows media player. My keyboard has controls for it so when I'm playing a game, I don't have to alt+tab to pause, skip, etc. You can probably program them for other players, but I'm selectively lazy and this is a spot where I am.

[The Skoomaeater]

Winamp is worth a look, and with Winamp remote you can access your music from any location as long as the PC with all your tunes on it is connected to the internet and switched on. That means you can stream music to your Xbox 360.

If you are really crafty, install winamp remote onto a USB drive, then take that into work/university/school and plug it into their computers to listen to your tracks anywhere! Shoop da woop!