Media playing software

[richard]

May have been asked before but I couldn't find it

I've been using winamp and media player classic but find winamp hogs my machine

Any thoughts on a good FREE download that will handle most files and also have good volume and equalizer controls

[redzonerocker]

vlc is a good option
seems to play most anything & it's free

[Randy Cornhole]

Some people don't seem to like itunes but i've used it for years and like it myself. Its free as well...

[BaaBaa.]

I use RealPlayer as standard but also got itunes.

[Francois]

May have been asked before but I couldn't find it

I've been using winamp and media player classic but find winamp hogs my machine

Any thoughts on a good FREE download that will handle most files and also have good volume and equalizer controls

Have you tried VLC ?

Very good for video and audio as well. VLC has an equalizer.

And... it's free...

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

[buksida]

Richard, you keep asking the same questions ... and we keep answering them. Have a look here:

http://www.huahinafterdark.com/forum/pc ... t3692.html

http://www.huahinafterdark.com/forum/be ... 10340.html

http://www.huahinafterdark.com/forum/me ... t8471.html

http://www.huahinafterdark.com/forum/mu ... t8124.html

Personally I use Winamp Pro as it doesn't hog the memory (unless you're running a machine with 128 Megs of RAM!), doesn't take over the internet connection, doesn't rename or reorder my collection and simply plays tunes with a few extra optional functions.

[Cowtown Comedy]

try GOM...very good player

[webmaster]

The best player in my opinion is the KmPlayer.

Plays any media type, quite small/not heavy on resources and has a lot of functions you can change for your own liking and on top of it's completely free

http://www.download.com/The-KMPlayer/30 ... 59939.html

[Guess]

I have not tried the last two mentioned but I agree VLC is very good for sound and video. Also WinAmp is good and does not hog resources on my machine.

The resource hoggers that I have now given up with are Music Match and iTunes.

[Wanderlust]

I have not tried the last two mentioned but I agree VLC is very good for sound and video. Also WinAmp is good and does not hog resources on my machine.

The resource hoggers that I have now given up with are Music Match and iTunes.

As I don't use a Windows machine, can someone explain exactly how iTunes hogs resources? It must work in a completely different way on a Mac to a Windows PC because it will run quite happily all the time and I might be using 4 or 5 other 'heavy' applications at the same time, for example Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Safari, Word and Excel are frequently all on at the same time as each other and iTunes. Maybe I have a higher spec machine than many but I don't think so - it just puzzles me why so many seem to say this about iTunes. Also the Quick Time thing puzzles me, as that only runs on my Mac when playing streaming video I think and/or only when I choose it; as I say the iTunes for Windows must be drastically different or the users who complain about it are not setting it up right.

[buksida]

We've had this debate before and we concluded that Apple designed software works completely different on a Mac than a PC so we should really stick to PC media players here as requested by the OP.

Quicktime is an extremely intrusive piece of software on a PC (firewall logs will confirm), iTunes isn't far behind but I don't doubt that they're as smooth as a whipped cream on a Mac! (Either that or the intrusive bits go unnoticed on OSX )

I will try the two free players recommended here as I too am always looking for something better!

[Wanderlust]

I wasn't trying to open up the Mac vs PC debate, and in fact nobody actually specified that this was media players for PCs if you look back; I was trying to make sure the distinction was made, otherwise some people who have Macs or are thinking about getting one may get the wrong impression. I am genuinely interested in the 'resource hog' thing, because the OP says it about winamp while you (buksi) and others say it is not, so is this a question of how much RAM the machine has? In other words would iTunes work well for people with lots of RAM? Or is it processor speed? This all impacts on the OP so is relevant i think.

[Randy Cornhole]

I have used itunes on Mac and PC. Both work fine for me...

[Big Boy]

My son uses iTunes on our 10 year old, low spec PC with no problems whatsoever.

[Wanderlust]

Given Randy and BB's comments I'm even more puzzled now!