# A little media player help, please? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 18, 2000, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-media-player-help-please/33545 "2000-09-18T01:02:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skribbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Skribbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skribbler)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-media-player-help-please/33545/1 "2000-09-18T01:02:18Z")
On my computer I have the MS media player, MSOFFICE Juke box for midi files, real player and there was another player on there somewhere, but I think I lost it, along with DirectX. Now, in my wandering through the Web, I’ve discovered that I cannot download some music unless I use MP3. I have no idea if there was an MP1 and 2. Since I have limited hard drive space, that is now approaching overload, what do I need to play most of the songs or music on the Internet? The Windows media player seems never to be used, I run midi on the juke box, I’ve not yet figured out what directX is for, though it came with my new motherboard and RealPlayer runs off of AOL. A little help would be nice. What player should I have, or do I need to clutter my HD with all of them because the Web hasn’t gotten it together yet? ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-media-player-help-please/33545/2 "2000-09-18T13:11:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Skribbler \* > \*\*On my computer I have the MS media player, MSOFFICE Juke box for midi files, real player and there was another player on there somewhere, but I think I lost it, along with DirectX. > > Now, in my wandering through the Web, I’ve discovered that I cannot download some music unless I use MP3. I have no idea if there was an MP1 and 2. > > Since I have limited hard drive space, that is now approaching overload, what do I need to play most of the songs or music on the Internet? The Windows media player seems never to be used, I run midi on the juke box, I’ve not yet figured out what directX is for, though it came with my new motherboard and RealPlayer runs off of AOL. > > A little help would be nice. What player should I have, or do I need to clutter my HD with all of them because the Web hasn’t gotten it together yet? \*\* MP3 is short for Mpeg level 3, mpeg being a compression scheme. There is a level 1 and 2, but you don’t need to worry about it. The newest media player will take care of most things, but you still need realplayer and quicktime to view certain video’s. Direct x is not a player, but more of driver used by games/mulimedia. you need it too. ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-media-player-help-please/33545/3 "2000-09-19T01:00:10Z")
A lot of online audio is RealAudio which, IIRC, also uses RealPlayer to play it, though there might be an audio only version I don’t know about. I’m tempted to say that that’s what you’ve been encountering since I can’t think of any other format (besides MIDI and MP3) that’s found online all that much unless you’re looking for it… ---
**Author:** ![Demo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demo/32/8472_2.png) [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-media-player-help-please/33545/4 "2000-09-19T01:11:02Z")
Try Winamp or Sonique. They’re both good players that will manage many media types. RealPlayer and WMP 7 both suck up lots of resources if you’re just playing audio. Set one of the other players up to be default for all the audio and one of those for the video. ---
**Author:** ![Skribbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Skribbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skribbler)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-media-player-help-please/33545/5 "2000-09-19T02:15:53Z")
Great. Thanks a lot. 🙂