What media players are you using?

[Whitey80]

I currently use Windows Media Player 12 on my Windows 7 HP Touchsmart PC running out to my living room system (components list in sig or clickhere)
I have the HP touchsmart software, which would probably be great for smaller collections, but I have nearly 1tb of music, and it is a headache to pour through.

What are you using and why do you like it? I would like something else.

 

[sparky77]

Boxee and XBMC are both excellent programs from the little I've dabbled with them. Plan to try them out more when I get a new HTPC, until then I've been using the PS3 so can't tell you too much about them.

 

[BMXTRIX]

I have an AppleTV and a Dune Base 3.0.

The AppleTV is a pretty solid unit for audio. It integrates properly with iTunes, but is a headache with the requirement to keep your PC on all the time to serve up the iTunes library constantly, with the added headache of iTunes.

The Dune, with Zappati, is top shelf once it is configured for DVD/video playback. Since you seem to be after a music manager, I would have to say that it doesn't support music in almost any decent manner and is downright lousy. But, that's not why I bought it. I will likely end up with about 450-500 movies on it, this year, spanning 8TB or more.

 

[JohnA]

+1 XBMC, it has a very nice interface

 

[fightinkraut]

I've been using Mediamonkey for audio and Windows Media Center on Win 7 for misc. AV duty.

Dabbled with Boxee, XMBC, haven't really found any reason to switch, wife is familiar with WMC and with the use of some nice plug ins it's able to play anything I throw at it.

Also PowerDVD or splayer for blu-rays.

 

[sholling]

I use mediamonkey on my PC and a Western Digital TV Live media players in my family room and bedroom. Both support playback of 24bit 96khz FLAC files. In addition the WDTV Live boxes support playback of DVD and Blu-Ray rips. They also support network playback and up to 2 external USB drives and are Harmony friendly. My collection is roughly 550GB and I have no complaints. But I organize by directory (artist\album title) instead of relying on tags.

 

[digicidal]

I'm using AlbumPlayer for my jukebox - full ASIO implementation and compatible with all common bit depths and sample rates. PC is running Win7. Interface is 20" touchscreen monitor from Dell. Nice and big and my wife learned to use it in about 5 minutes. Took less time than showing her how to turn on and switch inputs on the DACMagic and the input on the amp.

 

[krzywica]

I've been using Mediamonkey for audio and Windows Media Center on Win 7 for misc. AV duty.

Dabbled with Boxee, XMBC, haven't really found any reason to switch, wife is familiar with WMC and with the use of some nice plug ins it's able to play anything I throw at it.

Also PowerDVD or splayer for blu-rays.

Boxee for the HTPC. Has a great interface and plays everything. Also recently added HD audio support. Although I don't use the HTPC very often for movies and TV Shows I do use it for music and video games quite often.

Foobar 2000 for my desktop with the "Dark One" skin. Excellent media player.

For streaming externally to my Android devices and PC's outside my internal network I use Ampache. Its an open source audio streaming project that transcodes audio to/from whatever bitrate and codec you want. Uses SQL, PHP, and Apache for the backend.

 

[digicidal]

Ampache looks pretty cool... gonna have to look into that for the future. Would be a really nice way to have access to my home media collection when I'm stuck in the office on a long coding project - and way better than trying to keep multiple external drives synchronized with same collection (although they do serve as multiple backups which I have required on occasion).

 

[fitbrit]

I use J. River Media Center for everything media related now. Music and video, networked around the house and connected to a 27 TB server, with a couple of 1080p 23" touchscreens as control pads.

One of the many features that I love is having access to my complete home audio library at work. No issues with bitstreaming HD audio either. Good support and implementation of user-requested features happens often. I'm now a beta team member, so as you can tell, I'm a fan of their software.

Meta-data look-up for video isn't as straightforward as some free software out there, but there are enough fantastic features that I've paid for each upgrade since version 12... and now version 15's development is winding down.

I also always install MPC-HC on every computer as a back-up app for video - it's the unbloated, simple player that is continually supported and improved. It'll play anything with its internal filters too, and I like how it handles ffdshow etc.

 

[Hemlock]

XBMC

Great Library scanner too!!!

 

[krzywica]

I use J. River Media Center for everything media related now. Music and video, networked around the house and connected to a 27 TB server, with a couple of 1080p 23" touchscreens as control pads.

One of the many features that I love is having access to my complete home audio library at work. No issues with bitstreaming HD audio either. Good support and implementation of user-requested features happens often. I'm now a beta team member, so as you can tell, I'm a fan of their software.

Meta-data look-up for video isn't as straightforward as some free software out there, but there are enough fantastic features that I've paid for each upgrade since version 12... and now version 15's development is winding down.

I also always install MPC-HC on every computer as a back-up app for video - it's the unbloated, simple player that is continually supported and improved. It'll play anything with its internal filters too, and I like how it handles ffdshow etc.

J River has potential. Everything seems to be nicely coded and I like the ability to display and play your library on a mobile device (basically use the mobile device as the remote). This feature is especially useful as you can browse your library and queue up media from another room, similar to a Squeezebox Duo if you have a smartphone or tablet. I would likely go for this but with Android 3.0 on the verge of release and these new Tegra2 tablets coming out.....

I plan on building an automation app for Android for use with this device.

http://www.globalcache.com/products/itach/ip2irspecs/
Its an IP to IR transmitter/receiver that I could use with my WIFI network. Thereby sending commands right to my devices with a much higher accuracy than that of a normal IR universal remote. I plan on building a front end with function buttons similar to most popular automation devices.....hopefully I get enough free time in the near future to try this out.

 

[Hi Ho]

I use the Zune software on my PC. It has a very nice interface. I use Windows Media Center on the Xbox to stream from the PC.

 

[fitbrit]

J River has potential. Everything seems to be nicely coded and I like the ability to display and play your library on a mobile device (basically use the mobile device as the remote). This feature is especially useful as you can browse your library and queue up media from another room, similar to a Squeezebox Duo if you have a smartphone or tablet. I would likely go for this but with Android 3.0 on the verge of release and these new Tegra2 tablets coming out.....

I plan on building an automation app for Android for use with this device.

http://www.globalcache.com/products/itach/ip2irspecs/
Its an IP to IR transmitter/receiver that I could use with my WIFI network. Thereby sending commands right to my devices with a much higher accuracy than that of a normal IR universal remote. I plan on building a front end with function buttons similar to most popular automation devices.....hopefully I get enough free time in the near future to try this out.

Seems like a fun project. I've looked into the globalcache stuff myself, and my conclusion was... wait until another day! Just too busy to play with that kind of thing right now, but ultimately...

 

[emaja]

I have the new AppleTV and love it for its simplicity and ease of use for the rest of the family. The wife and kids can all use it without having to ask me every time, "Now, how do I do this again?"

I do all the ripping and conversions. They just use it.

I have about a terabyte of movies and TV shows ripped from DVD/BD and a few iTunes purchases. It is hard to beat.

 

[Biggz]

I use Tversity for video and WMP11 for audio. Tversity to me does a better job streaming video and is always ready to go. My experience with WMP is a little more hit and miss, but it organize media much better. Also less codecs are supported. I use 2 PS3s and 2 WDTVs live as clients. I'm using an older Toshiba laptop as my server running 4TB of media. I use Linsys PLK300 power lines at each client. OK call me Captain Jack, Argh
Biggz

 

[caper26]

• PS3 media server for the HT room
• WMP on the desktop (rarely used)
• Foobar on the laptop, to access FLAC on the network (desktop HDD) via windows 7 homegroup, and stream to amp in living room 2.0 setup.