Talk:Comparison of media players/Archive 2

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Contents

False AAC

It's not false, very few users see m4p files, instead they see AAC files. One of the most common edits to this table is to change m4p to aac, I simply made a note, that they are commonly seen to the user as aac. PPGMD

I'm confused. Where do users see AAC files? All the music I've purchased from the ITMS end with ".m4p. What is it now, 2,000,000+ songs that have been sold on the ITMS? Unless it's just Steve, Avie and Jonathan that have been buying all those songs, then I'm not sure where you are getting the "very few users see m4p files" bit from. AlistairMcMillan 16:08, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)
I agree... all of the protected AAC files I get are .m4p, I haven't seen a single one that has been .aac, I don't know where you get that information --Ctachme 04:42, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Winamp at first couldn't handle MP4 containers and played bare AAC files in a hackish way.

Mac OS 9 column?

I notice that there is no Mac OS 9 column listed, and there are Mac OS 9 media players.

I already added a Win16 column anyway, so why not have a Mac OS 9 column? --KelisFan2K5 17:52, 13 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Neither a Mac OS 9 or Win16 column seem really useful to me. Or we'll end with FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, Hurd, etc. and the tables will be unreadable. Sam Hocevar 20:12, 13 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Mac OS prior to Mac OS X is a completely different operating system. Win16 is a trivial difference. Dread Lord CyberSkull ✎☠ 00:10, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

BSD/Unix split

Why is BSD and Unix split? BSD, I guess they mean FreeBSD, NetBSD. "Unix" - Solaris and SGI? Seems kind of meaningless.

Supported formats

I think it would be helpful if there were a table which listed all the popular audio and video formats and whether or not each of the players supported them (or if aditional plugins were neccesary to play that format). --Blackcats 09:16, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I've added those tables. Please help filling/correcting them. --minghong 13:15, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Hey - thanks for adding all that. I think a lot of people will find that helpful. I'll try and help with filling in if I see any gaps where I can find the answer... --Blackcats 22:36, 27 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Maybe someone cares more than me to add a Musepack column? It's important enough.

Mixing frontends and backends?

This Comparison is mixing frontends and backends. Although some applications have their own backend, it is more and more common at least on the unix desktop, that applications (e.g. amarok, juk, totem) support multiple backends (e.g. GStreamer, Xine, MPlayer, ARts) and thus the features depend as much on the backend choosen as on the application itself.--Hhielscher 18:31, 27 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Yeah. That's why I didn't fill in the media format support for those players... So I don't know how to deal with them. --minghong 08:09, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Drop Ogle?

Since it is a DVD-only player, I suggest to drop the entire product for this comparison. I also suggest not to add WinDVD and PowerDVD as they play primary VCD/DCD. --minghong 09:01, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Seconded. The whole thing is getting far too messy. Sam Hocevar 09:39, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Video format versus file format verus containter versus codec

What's the difference between these four things? I don't think the tables make it clear what's what why. --Ctachme 19:26, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

File format? Where did you see that? It's such a general term. Video format is just video codec. Container can contain any audio/video channel. --minghong 09:23, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

BetaPlayer

I commented Betaplayer as the contributor didn't fill in the rest of the tables. Also, is this player notable? P.S. I also suggest to drop Nero Media Player. --minghong 09:31, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I was hoping to add a link to BetaPlayer, a windows CE media player. When I added it earlier, I put it in the same format as the other media players (no link to the site). It was commented out; the editor had never heard of it.

I added a link to the web site, but it was removed as "Spam".

How should I go about adding BetaPlayer? It's a Media Player, why can't it go in a list of Media Players?

If you are going to add it, add its entries in every table. And try to fill in every cells. --minghong

Gapless playback

What about gapless playback? foobar2000 has it natively with gapless formats.

I added an entry for gapless playback. Offhand I only knew about gapless support in a handful of players. Someone else will have to finish the remaining entries.

Winamp format support?

The article indicates that Winamp doesn't support a number of formats, such as APE and AAC. Those formats are supported via easily-accessable plugins, however--I'm listening to an AAC file via Winamp right now. Is there any reason the table doesn't indicate Winamp's support via plugins for those formats? Starwiz

Maybe you could add these indications with a note explaining the need for plugins? GhePeU 11:23, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
I will; I just wanted to make sure there wasn't a good reason they were missing. Starwiz 22:02, Apr 27, 2005 (UTC)

Drop Nero Media Player?

What is it anyway? No page here on wikipedia... I only found something about Nero Digital which are some codec. What are other's opinions on this? --Harteex 01:16, 31 May 2005 (GMT+1)

I agree that it should be dropped --Ctachme 03:57, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

A few iTunes/Quicktime notes...

Although iTunes for Windows can't play WMA files, it can convert unprotected WMA files into MP3 or AAC files. Quicktime is up to version 7.0.1. No version of Quicktime can play WMA or WMV files.

The chart indicates that QT can play DVD-Audio formatted disks. I don't believe it can. Can someone confirm DVD-A support?

Hardware Player Support

Should we consider showing what/how each program supports hardware audio players? For example, does it support MTP, Sureplay, DRM, USB Drives, etc... --Anubis1975 09:53, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

MPlayer

For what OS does mplayer support RealMedia?

It does not depend on OS but on CPU architecture since binary codecs are used to decode RealVideo 3 and 4 as well as some of the Real audio codecs. Those binary codecs are supported on Intel and PowerPC.
mplayer can play realmedia on windows, linux and mac (and a few more os's as long as they are x86 intel or powerpc based) Compn 18:08, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Memory

Seems like it might be useful to show comparisons of memory usage, as well. Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 06:05, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Thats tremendously subjective depending on what you consider the proper configuration of the player. Some example listed can vary in memory useage by more then an order of magnitude depending on individual use. I think it should be left out. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.196.193.152 (talk • contribs)
I agree with T. Rhymeless and would also ask for a memory usage comparsion chart. Such a chart may be subjective related to the individually configured computer system/ audio player settings, which makes it difficult, but not impossible. Memory usage is of importance. Ask yourself, who would want a slow player? Or who would want an audio player to slow down the system and eat away memory? LIllIi 23:27, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
 I agree it's a good idea, as long as each player is tested with default configuration, and it is included in the table that it is only the default configuration, this information would be fair and of use.

iTunes and OGG?

I thought iTunes 6 can play OGG Vorbis files... can we get a confirmation?

You need to have the OGG QuickTime Codec installed, then any QuickTime application can play OGG. Dread Lord CyberSkull ✎☠ 00:29, 15 December 2005 (UTC)
I agree with this. This is by far what determines if I use a piece of software or not, be it media player or some other software. I would do this myself but I'm unsure about how to go about doing this. A guess is to install then run each player and look up its mem usage on the task manager, but this might be unique to each computer. Any suggestions? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Agodina (talk • contribs) 8:28, 17 February 2006