Kriton Posted June 12, 2010 Share Posted June 12, 2010 Ok - I have a couple of servers laying around that I have decided to tinker around with - I have set up a music only box, and put in a draft N wireless card and Asus soundcard (which sounds surprisingly good by the way) - I want to eventually get a touch screen (if anyone has one cheap, please IM me!) - and I am looking for a program that can play *everything* - I have MP3's, and .flac files, and I don't to have to dick around with work arounds and codec packs to get both to play...I have tried like three players, and all of them have strenghts and major weaknesses - the last that I tried was the ITunes player (recommended by a fellow klipscher) and while I like the format, I have to sign up for an "account" in order to get info on the tracks, or to download album art - and the player does not natively play .flac files!! I am just not that hard up to sign anything over to Apple (or Microsoft for that matter). I just want a player that will be a good juke box, play any format I have without having to jack around, have a good organizational matrix (without forcing me to copy entire albums into its "libraries" ala ITunes (I have the music on a separate disk thank you and I don;t want them *moved* from that disk) and I would really like a program that doesn't cause the music that is currently being played back to skip and jitterwhen I am looking for more songs to play! Am I just screwed here? Any suggestions? Thanks ya'll - B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesV Posted June 13, 2010 Share Posted June 13, 2010 you named I-Tunes, what are the other two programs that you also tried but didn't like? Don't know if you tried Winamp, I've had it for a while now and like it. I don't remember if I had to sign up when I first set it up or not. James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted June 13, 2010 Share Posted June 13, 2010 you named I-Tunes, what are the other two programs that you also tried but didn't like? Don't know if you tried Winamp, I've had it for a while now and like it. I don't remember if I had to sign up when I first set it up or not. James I've used the free version of Winamp for a long time. No sign up required. I've tried other packages, but still find it to be one of the better offerings. Nullsoft is owned by AOL...[:|], but I still like the program.Bruce (in Georgia [] ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sputnik Posted June 13, 2010 Share Posted June 13, 2010 You're probably looking for something more advanced but after reading through an earlier thread about internet radio, I just got a Logitech Squeezebox Duet. Right now, I'm just using it to stream internet radio and Pandora into my system via my wireless router. It works great so far and has nice remote interface - like an iPod. I'm not sure if it's what you're looking for - I haven't run anything from my computer yet but it can play several formats (including mp3 and flac among others.) The only disappointment so far is that it will only stream Pandora at 128kbps even though I subscibed to get 192kbps. I'm hoping they fix that issue soon but it still sounds fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kriton Posted June 13, 2010 Author Share Posted June 13, 2010 Winamp was one I tried, and it worked fine, until I tried to load it on my XP pro machine (service pack 3) and it just wouldn't work - every time I tried to start the program, it just wouldn't open - I also don't thin it had .flac support, but as I never got that far I am not sure about that - I have tried the Classic Media Player (which plays .flac nicely) but which is really tiny and doesn't have a robust play list or organization back program - and I have tried Total Media Player, another small prog that plays everything, but has similar problems as Classic above and really is more of a stand alone video player that heppens to have the codecs to play .flac and pretty much everything else - just not a robust prog for juke boxing... I have been playing some ripped CD's in .flac and high qual MP3, and I am starting to really hear the difference between the two - and I think .flac is the way to go...I have an extensive CD collection and while the computer files will *never* replace the sound of a well engineered CD, I would still like to get them all ripped and done for ease and back up - Keep the ideas coming, surely some of you have HTPC's with audio progs that you use to place. flac, right? Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatgrass Posted June 13, 2010 Share Posted June 13, 2010 It is not a "media server" application, but I have had good success with Foobar. It takes pretty much any file extension I throw at it. Allows different views of your library. And, for me, a positive that it is open source. Also, small footprint when loaded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted June 13, 2010 Share Posted June 13, 2010 Winamp was one I tried, and it worked fine, until I tried to load it on my XP pro machine (service pack 3) and it just wouldn't work - every time I tried to start the program, it just wouldn't open - I also don't thin it had .flac support, but as I never got that far I am not sure about that -I use Winamp on my XP SP3 pc with no problem (I think... I'll check when I get home). I know I have installed different codecs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesV Posted June 13, 2010 Share Posted June 13, 2010 until I tried to load it on my XP pro machine (service pack 3) and it just wouldn't work Maybe something with the Pro version, I'm currently running it on XP home with SP3. Yes it does play flac files. James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kriton Posted June 14, 2010 Author Share Posted June 14, 2010 I just installed WinAmp Pro on my machine ( I had installed the "lite" free version earlier) - and I like the look, the functionality and everything - but be damned if it doesn't stutter when I play music - nothing else is on, no music being downloaded, and the harddrive the music is on is separate from the C drive which is very clean (as this is all the machine does)- very disappointing... B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesV Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 Wow that is weird, as stated I'm running XP home and I also have all my music on an external HD that I just que up and play from. Good luck with the Pro version. James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted June 14, 2010 Share Posted June 14, 2010 I just keep it simple with iTunes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 Have you considered XBMC? ( Xbox media center ) Originally developed with the Microsoft developer kit for the original Xbox, then was ported to Windows, Linux and even Mac Interface was designed with large fonts / buttons so that you could easily make it out at a 10 foot distance on a television. I have the Windows version on the laptop, and it works great IMO. Link here for Windows : http://sourceforge.net/projects/xbmc/files/XBMC%20for%20Windows/Camelot%20-%209.11/xbmc-9.11.exe/download XBMC is a free download as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.4knee Posted June 15, 2010 Share Posted June 15, 2010 I use iTunes but I also use a Mac sorry.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted June 16, 2010 Share Posted June 16, 2010 It would be fun to build a little linux music server. The plus side would be that you can use older hardware and streamline the OS. Has anyone tried Sockso? http://sockso.pu-gh.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kriton Posted June 18, 2010 Author Share Posted June 18, 2010 Hey Seti - I haven't tried Sockso, but it looks cool - acctually - I have discovered my problem - after wiping the C: drive and reinstalling Windows XP, I started trying to play my music files again just with Windows Media Player, and was having the same stuttering! This after I removed all cards and went just with the motherboard audio, etc. - So as a last ditch effort, I moved a few MP3's to another hard drive, just to see if it was the drive. Sure enough, stuttering stopped! I moved all of the music files off the former disk, to another disc, and miraculously, they are playing clear as a bell. I loaded VLC player (as it has .flac support) and sure enough, they are playing well and sound great. But I have learned a lot - and I like a VLC - it is simple, but does the job. I also have been using EAC to rip CD's to .flac and it has been working well too. So I guess I am going to have a few music servers laying around - I have been ripping like a mad man, my rather large CD collection - just to see what it would take to get it done. If anyone wants to know how I went about it - PM me... Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kriton Posted June 19, 2010 Author Share Posted June 19, 2010 XBOX Media Center looks really slick - that is rather what I have been looking for - not sure if this old box will be able to handle the graphics and things that program appears to put out, but I will try it on another build soon - Thanks Hurd! B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatgrass Posted June 25, 2010 Share Posted June 25, 2010 XBMC is pretty slick. It is so small, you can load it on a thumb drive and just boot to it. Take it anywhere to demo. I still have a thumb drive with it loaded. Download the XBMC image and find a file called uniboot. This makes it real easy to make a bootable thumb drive. There are some good "how-to"s I just find find them as I post this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted June 25, 2010 Share Posted June 25, 2010 Hey Seti - I haven't tried Sockso, but it looks cool - acctually - I have discovered my problem - after wiping the C: drive and reinstalling Windows XP, I started trying to play my music files again just with Windows Media Player, and was having the same stuttering! This after I removed all cards and went just with the motherboard audio, etc. - So as a last ditch effort, I moved a few MP3's to another hard drive, just to see if it was the drive. Sure enough, stuttering stopped! I moved all of the music files off the former disk, to another disc, and miraculously, they are playing clear as a bell. I loaded VLC player (as it has .flac support) and sure enough, they are playing well and sound great. But I have learned a lot - and I like a VLC - it is simple, but does the job. I also have been using EAC to rip CD's to .flac and it has been working well too. So I guess I am going to have a few music servers laying around - I have been ripping like a mad man, my rather large CD collection - just to see what it would take to get it done. If anyone wants to know how I went about it - PM me... Bruce VLC is my last resort player. If it won't play the file nothing will. Sockso is awesome but it doesn't play all files. I'm sure there is a tweak for that. I always keep the OS and program partition seperate from my data files. This is likely an old habbit I picked up years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KdAgain Posted June 27, 2010 Share Posted June 27, 2010 Probably the best and most versatile player is JRiver Media Center 15. Their SQ is considered one of the best in the Windows world. They are constantly developing it and it has a pretty good Library Server. It has a 'Secure Ripping' feature that supposedly will do as good a job as EAC - nice to have it all in one program. BTW Itunes is generally considered to have excellent SQ on a Mac, but not PC. I must disagree with an earlier statement that your ripped collection will never be as good as the CDs. With good ripping software to WAV or FLAC AND a good DAC you can get outstanding quality. But do you have a good DAC, or are you just using the onboard audio? There is a huge difference. Once you have a good computer audio setup you can then download high resolution music files and get way better than CD quality. When I say download I mean from paid sites. hdtracks.com is probably one of the biggest of the audiophile sites. Have fun, Rod Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kriton Posted June 28, 2010 Author Share Posted June 28, 2010 I don't know if I can say that my music server is putting out sound *as good* as my cd's, but to my ears it sounds pretty damn good - I am using the highly touted Asus 192/24 sound card (which was cheap by the way) and funneling the whole thing into my Juicy Music Pre and Dood monoblock amps, so I am using old and new in tandem - which I find rather cool. I have looked at the XBMC front end, and I have seen JRiver - but not evaluated it - I will have to do that now that I have found what my problem was... Thanks for the feedback gentlemen! B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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