Topic: I need the best music player/organizer

[Stogi]

I'm done. I'm tired of itunes inability to swap music from ipod to it's library. I'm sick of WMP not playing the file types I love. I'm sick of it all.

Now that my song collection has crossed the 10k line, I need the best media player out there so I can finally get down to the nitty-gritty and organize my music collection. I want pictures, internet accessibility, support for files such as flack and ape; I want a party-mode lock-down feature, so grubby paws can't change the song. I want Milkdrop support. Damn it, I want it all!

I'm on a PC and use windows. I am trying out MediaMonkey right now, but it likes to crash, further pissing me off.

What do you tech-heads suggest?


BIG EDIT:

So I'm looking to get into Linux because it has the best music player (I told ya'll, music's my life). Now I just want to know before I jump in head first: is Linux school friendly? I mean, if a Professor wants a digital copy of my paper can I give them a file that'll work on their computer?  

[DAaaMan64]

amarok :p hehe sorry linux player.  My windows nerd friends use foobar, I guess it is very customizable.  Might look at that.  Good luck dude!

[ShyGuy]

Yeah I really like Amarok also. Z! is good if you're using OS/2

[Mashiro]

I know there's some kinda 3rd party app that lets you bring songs from iPod over to the iTunes library . . . I just forget what it's called. I know it exists though! =)

[Stogi]

Ok, how am I suppose to get Linux on my PC? Can I have two OS's? Is Linux easy to get a hold of? Is it better than XP?

I am honestly ready to whatever I have to do in order to enjoy my PC to the fullest. If that means changing OS's so be it.

EDIT: So I'm downloading PCLinuxOS 2007..............

Was that a step in the right direction?

[ShyGuy]

I use Freespire myself. Many Linux distros allow you to boot off the install CD and check it out before installing it, give it a shot!

http://freespire.org/

[vudu]

The man asks for an alternative to iTunes and you tell him to download Linux?  You guys are nuts.

[Stogi]

Funny isn't it?

Though the more I research Linux, the more I feel like it would be a hell of a lot better for me. I love everything that has to do with open-source (though I don't know the first thing about scripting). What I do know is that other people know what's going on, and they know how to hook it up.

[UERD]

You can use OpenOffice with Linux. It's free and supposed to be compatible with the MS Office suite (read: your professor's Windows machine). You can also set up a dual-boot system if you have enough HDD space.

Oh, and the latest version of iTunes lets you copy songs right off your iPod.

[Stogi]

Realllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyy


Interesting turn of events! Still, Imma check out Linux because I JUST DID ALL THAT RESEARCH.

[Shift Key]

Quote
Originally posted by: KashogiStogi
I want pictures, internet accessibility, support for files such as flack and ape; I want a party-mode lock-down feature, so grubby paws can't change the song. I want Milkdrop support. Damn it, I want it all!

Add my name to the "recommending amaroK" list.

I haven't tried APE on it but it does support FLAC natively.
Party-mode lockdown? Password-protected screensaver can do that. (Alt-Ctrl-L under KDE)\

Quote
BIG EDIT:

So I'm looking to get into Linux because it has the best music player (I told ya'll, music's my life). Now I just want to know before I jump in head first: is Linux school friendly? I mean, if a Professor wants a digital copy of my paper can I give them a file that'll work on their computer?

Yes. OpenOffice.org supports the standard office document formats* and you can save your work as PDF.

* Conversions of MS Office formats not perfect. On the whole it works fine if you keep conversions between OpenDocument and Office formats to a minimum.

Dual-booting is a great way to try it out. Who knows, you might even enjoy it. You don't need to know the intimates of the command line to get started - and documentation has improved greatly in recent times for the situations where you get stuck. Just start on something user-friendly (PCLinuxOS is a good choice) and see how it fits.

[Stogi]

Thanks, you've all been really helpful.

Just one more thing: Why do you personally like Amarok so much?

[DAaaMan64]

You need to know, your first month or so with linux can be rocky, especially if your not a computer guy.  It can be down right impossible if your not willing to learn.  For the record, I have used most major distros, what was most comfortable for me was kubuntu.  I love amarok cause it is all the functionality I have ever asked for and an extremely light feeling package.

Anyway, I can't stress patience enough when learning to use linux.  Especially concerning hardware compatibility.  

[Shift Key]

Quote
Originally posted by: KashogiStogi
Just one more thing: Why do you personally like Amarok so much?

The killer feature is playlist filtering.

If I have a massive playlist of songs from everywhere but want to play album X which has some songs in on the playlist, then I can just type X into the Filter and all the other songs are hidden away. Remove the filter and I get my original playlist back. It retains the same behaviour (random, shuffle, repeat whatever) but enables you to cherry-pick items temporarily.

For example: I can filter on "CLASH OR RAMONES" and only get songs which contain those words. Once I've had enough of that then I can remove the filter and go back to the original playlist.

Not sure if other media players do this but that's why I keep using Amarok.

[18 Days]

Quote
I'm done. I'm tired of itunes inability to swap music from ipod to it's library

There are loopholes. Usually, if you got the music off one comptuer and you want to move it to your computer, if you have the other computer authorise YOUR computer in their iTunes Store account, it should in theory add ipod music to your comptuer.

Also what Shifty talks about is pretty standard as far as features go. As demonstrated

[Shecky]

KashogiStogi:

If you don't quite follow, or like the concept of "root"... then go with Ubuntu.

Otherwise any of the major distros (Fedora, Mandriva, Suse)  should work fine.