iTunes vs. Microsoft Media Player

[Colin]

The iTunes player interface is simpler and easier to use than Microsofts Media Player. The sound seems similar (did not do a head to head comparison yet), but the files are a lot smaller. How does iTunes compare in compression and sound quality? Is the much larger Microsoft format that much better for a home movie and music reproduction system? What about with headphones off a PC?

[RTTR]

The iTunes player interface is simpler and easier to use than Microsofts Media Player. The sound seems similar (did not do a head to head comparison yet), but the files are a lot smaller. How does iTunes compare in compression and sound quality? Is the much larger Microsoft format that much better for a home movie and music reproduction system? What about with headphones off a PC?

The files are a lot smaller because the default file ripping method in iTunes is 128kbps AAC, in the settings under importing you can change that.

I rip in 320Kbps AAC or Lossless for my iPod.

It's been a while since I bothered researching what the best codecs are, but I do believe 128kbps AAC is far better then 128kbps WMA (Windows Media)

I would still recommend ripping at atleast 192kbps though.

[Jay481985]

I tend to use winamp which sounds the least equalized to me... Itunes and Media player sounds heavily V'd and gets tiresome after a bit. Also Itunes is such a memory hog that takes like 20 seconds to load. Winamp with asio and madd codec sounds the best to me.

[ranjith]

I tend to use winamp which sounds the least equalized to me... Itunes and Media player sounds heavily V'd and gets tiresome after a bit. Also Itunes is such a memory hog that takes like 20 seconds to load. Winamp with asio and madd codec sounds the best to me.

Winamp, to me, has the best sound quality. I have 4 or 5 but I only ever use winamp, I just installed the others for a comparison. There are many add-ons you can download for winamp as well, just on winamp.com. Fun to mess around with. But I think the EQ in media player goes lower than Winamp's but you can download add-ons to fix that. When I sometimes just plug my earphones into laptop for a listen while at the library or a study room I like using the EQ.

[facemouth]

My personal favorite is Foobar2000. Although I don't have Ipod and haven't tried their plugin.

[tc3sean]

Foobar2000 user aswell! I just got the newer version, and the cdburner plugin, and converting plugin, you just right click a file and select convert, bam done, select from several formats, which can all be edited. I also havent tried the ipod plugin for foobar2000, i use winamps instead, but use foobar2000 to play music.

[Jay481985]

hey foobar users try winamp with the mad plugin. I know it messy with the id1 tags but it sounds soo much cleaner and better. Best of all it is no equalized at all but brings out the full potential of any mp3

[TheEAR]

hey foobar users try winamp with the mad plugin. I know it messy with the id1 tags but it sounds soo much cleaner and better. Best of all it is no equalized at all but brings out the full potential of any mp3

Yep,as much as I like Fubar the Mad plugin with Winamp is the combination to beat.

iTunes will sound good,but the natural sound of Winamp with Mad plugin is what it is all about for me. I use Dynaudio AIR monitors with Creative's XFi Elite Pro a combination that is far more revealing than any PC speaker /soundcard combo found.

[Jay481985]

foobar can use the mad plugin but I like opening multiple intnces of winamp

BTW i have the xfi to and it sounds nice. Know of any plugin for cd/wav files??? heck the mad makes some high encoded mp3 sound better than the wav files, maybe cause the cd player sucks and the codec sucks.

[TheEAR]

foobar can use the mad plugin but I like opening multiple intnces of winamp

BTW i have the xfi to and it sounds nice. Know of any plugin for cd/wav files??? heck the mad makes some high encoded mp3 sound better than the wav files, maybe cause the cd player sucks and the codec sucks.

Sorry,the only plugin I use in for Winamp.Nothing else,and besides when its time to play my CD's and SACD's I sit down in my listening chain and fire up one of my systems. []

[bottle]

i use foobar with the asio plugin ... havent tried winamp but cant imagine it sounding any better.. will give it a shot anyway

[Guest " "]

I thought I was doing good by ripping at 192 (I changed the default setting). But when I got a linux based NAS media server that offered ripping at 320, I tried it and noticed a significant difference. I had to go poking around itunes but finally found it, there is a setting change that will let you rip at 320.

[Colin]

what is the highest possblie with MS MP and iTunes?

where is the higher setting with iTunes

[DrWho]

Since HD space is so cheap I prefer to rip lossless audio/video...

But I do use winamp for my playback - though it really sucks for large video files. I can't stand iTunes, both on PC and Mac, but it's the only option for a mac.

During the next couple weeks I will also be moving to a dual boot system on my PC machine so that I can run Unix based apps so I can do labs and stuff at home. If anyone knows of a good flavor of install with good audio options I would be most interested. I'm leaning towards FreeBSD right now, but have absolutely no clue what I'm doing [] I'm pretty sure there is no unix version of winamp.

[Jay481985]

colin if I am not mistaken it is in the general preferences where you

can change your setting on the ipod. Just look at the ripping and

burning section. Change from default 192 to 320 not vbr but the 320

constant rate. vbr is variable bit rate

[Guest " "]

freeBSD....I think MAC X operating system is built on freebsd. There is an icon in the MAC X operating system to go to unix.

mac has a good PDF about the MAC X operating system on their web site.

New versions of MAC support the intel chip ( you are running the unix based MAC X OS on intel chipset) and there is a software option to allow dual boot or native boot to the microsoft oprating system.

I'n not a MAC genis...but I recently bought MAC's for my family and I won't go back to wintel.

a MAC mini can connect to your existing monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, and retail begining at 499 with out a student discount.

[DrWho]

I don't personally own a Mac...we just happen to have a fully decked

out G5 in the studio (pre-intel chipset). For what we paid for the G5 I

can do everything at equal performance on a half-priced windows based

system - whether it be multitrack audio or insane video editing. But

that's probably because all our processing is being performed with

dedicated outboard equipment. They each have their own quirks so I find

myself using the best tool for the job.

The new Mac OS is supposed to support triple booting - where you can

switch between windows, unix, and OS X seemlessly (which is the reason

they went with the intel chipsets). They are also boasting seemless

execution of software written for any of the three operating systems.

Sadly I could never afford a machine capable of doing what I do now

with my PC.

One of the downsides I foresee going with FreeBSD is that there is no

64-bit version of Firefox for it and the klipsch forums don't work with

the built-in Konqueror browser. And I am also worried about finding

audio drivers for my sound card - apparently there are a select few

chipsets that don't work with normal drivers.

And now that we're totally off topic...the whole reason I brought it up

is because it'd be cool to find an awesome unix based playback software

package - especially because it'd probably be free and not have all the

annoying piracy protection crap that hinders the performance.

[toddvj]

what is the highest possblie with MS MP and iTunes?

where is the higher setting with iTunes

Colin, the highest possible for both is "Lossless." Either Windows Media Audio Lossless or Apple Lossless. You can also do up to 320kbps mp3 with either player, or variable bit rate (VBR). On iTunes you have the option to encode with AAC, again up to 320, or VBR. You can also do straight WAV, or AIFF (which is a lot like WAV, I couldn't tell you the difference). On WMP, you can do WMA up to 192, or VBR.

On iTunes, go to Edit/Preferences, Click on the Advanced Tab, click on the Importing tab, and you will find all your options for encoding your music.

Of course you don't have to use the players to rip your CDs, you can use seperate Software to rip/encode, and then you can play your music on whatever player you like. I use EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to extract the music and LAME to encode to mp3 format. Both programs are free, just do a Google search, and the two programs work together. After you download and install the programs, it is one-click to rip a CD to mp3. (Actually a couple clicks, because the program searches for track titles, etc. for the CD, and you have to verify that it has chosen the correct album).

[Guest " "]

I was able to use the default MAC X browser safari ok on this fourm....I did have to switch to firefox to use a few GOV sites though.

MAC's cost more sure.....but after trying to keep 5 XP P-4 machines running on my home network...I gave up and determined the higher cost of a machine that can run a non-windows platform would save me time in the long run....and I was right....I no longer have to do support vists to every PC in the house to do updates, stinger runs, spyware scans, system restore backups, etc.