# Windows Media Player Equivalent? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2008, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336 "2008-12-31T09:17:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/1 "2008-12-31T09:17:52Z")
What is everyone using to keep track of, and listen to, your MP3s? I’m currently using Windows Media Player 10 and I imagine Microsoft will make it impossible to get in a year or so. I tried Windows Media Player 11 but, either I was using it wrong, or it was really hard to navigate. I have a lot of songs and like to keep them organized. Version 10 allows me to do that. So just wondering what everyone else is using and any recommendations. I guess this could also go into IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/2 "2008-12-31T10:39:30Z")
I’m using WMP11. What’s this organizational difference you’ve noticed? It seems to work the same way for me? There’s also good ol’ WinAmp, of course, and iTunes and RealPlayer. But WMP wins for me because it’s already there. ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/3 "2008-12-31T10:42:01Z")
I use J River’s Media Center: lots of features, regularly updated. MediaMonkey is a good, free alternative. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/4 "2008-12-31T11:12:40Z")
Seconding MediaMonkey. ---
**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/5 "2008-12-31T11:42:17Z")
[Amarok](http://amarok.kde.org/) (on Kubuntu, that is). ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/6 "2008-12-31T11:58:29Z")
> [@Kal](#): > > Seconding MediaMonkey. Adding my vote for MediaMonkey. I used iTunes for a while, but it was just so bloated and kept constantly wanting to update itself, quite apart from consuming about 30% of my CPU time just to play MP3s - something that WinAmp and MM do without using more than about 5%; wtf does iTunes do with all that extra computing power? It was rapidly ditched, therefore, in favour of MM, which works very nicely with my iPod, and I’m considering shelling out for the paid version of MM. I still keep WinAmp (2.95, not the recent junk) for when I want some pretty visualisations or just want to play an album in a hurry. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/7 "2008-12-31T12:24:55Z")
> [@Dervorin](#): > > I still keep WinAmp (2.95, not the recent junk) for when I want some pretty visualisations… Don’t forget that MM supports Winamp 2 visualisation plugins and comes with Milkdrop and Geiss as default. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/8 "2008-12-31T15:34:51Z")
Winamp got better, actually, the recent versions are nice. And they work just fine with my iPod and my Sansa. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/9 "2009-01-01T00:57:45Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > I’m using WMP11. What’s this organizational difference you’ve noticed? It seems to work the same way for me? > > There’s also good ol’ WinAmp, of course, and iTunes and RealPlayer. But WMP wins for me because it’s already there. I like the user interface of WMP10. Correct me if I’m wrong but it seems WMP11 is more image based while WMP10 has everything listed as text. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/10 "2009-01-01T01:02:01Z")
> [@tr0psn4j](#): > > I’m currently using Windows Media Player 10 and I imagine Microsoft will make it impossible to get in a year or so. Why? The trend is to build _more_ into the OS, not break apps out and charge for it. Why shouldn’t a media player be part of an OS? ---
**Author:** ![gladtobeblazed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@gladtobeblazed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gladtobeblazed)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/11 "2009-01-01T01:56:51Z")
I’m using the most recent version of Winamp. I vastly prefer it to any other media player that I’ve tried. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/12 "2009-01-01T04:07:15Z")
Another vote for WinAmp. Very simple to make playlists using drag 'n drop. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/13 "2009-01-01T16:34:02Z")
I was hoping to find a video player that is better than Windows Media Player, which lacks many of the features you find on a standard DVD player, most notably slo-mo. Plus it won’t handle Real Media or Quicktime files too well. I’ve had RealPlayer on a previous machine, but I don’t want the malware that comes with it. I’m willing to pay for a good media player – don’t need it to be free, in short, though I’m OK with freeware if it does the job, and a lot of it does. I should think that a computer-based media player should give you a lot more control over content than a DVD player. Anybody have an suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![Casserole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b77776/32.png) [@Casserole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casserole)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/14 "2009-01-01T16:36:32Z")
Try VLC Media Player. Plays DVDs out of the box. As for audio players, Winamp has my vote on Windows. Rhythmbox on Ubuntu, which is an iTunes clone and uses barely any system resources 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/15 "2009-01-01T21:53:10Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > I was hoping to find a video player that is better than Windows Media Player, which lacks many of the features you find on a standard DVD player, most notably slo-mo. Plus it won’t handle Real Media or Quicktime files too well. I’ve had RealPlayer on a previous machine, but I don’t want the malware that comes with it. I’m willing to pay for a good media player – don’t need it to be free, in short, though I’m OK with freeware if it does the job, and a lot of it does. I should think that a computer-based media player should give you a lot more control over content than a DVD player. Anybody have an suggestions? I’ll second VLC. It’s amazingly simple yet plays everything I’ve thrown at it. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/16 "2009-01-01T23:13:54Z")
Don’t forget the CCCP codec package. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/17 "2009-01-01T23:33:35Z")
> [@Casserole](#): > > Try VLC Media Player. But not if you want a media player that doesn’t suck. The controls are awful - laggy if they bother responding at all, which is really obnoxious since the only thing I use it for is getting screencaps of stuff that I can’t load in Windows Movie Maker - and horrible rendering of any video format other than DVD video. Media Player Classic with the CCCP pack is the only player worth looking at for video. ---
**Author:** ![gladtobeblazed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@gladtobeblazed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gladtobeblazed)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/18 "2009-01-02T00:05:44Z")
For videos I use VLC, Media Player Classic with the K-Lite codec pack, and The KMPlayer. I’d say The KMPlayer is the most powerful and fully featured player, but it I find it loads slower than the other two. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/19 "2009-01-03T03:07:48Z")
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll give all of them a look. I bet all of them are better than WMP. ---
**Author:** ![freekalette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@freekalette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freekalette)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336/20 "2009-01-03T03:36:01Z")
I use Zoom Player (also from the CCCP download) for all my media files. If you awitch it to the advanced interface, there’s enough customizability for even a serious computer geek, but it’s also really easy to use and has thus far handled everything I’ve thrown at it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-media-player-equivalent/479336.md?page=2)