What media player do you use?

[pally01]

Hi

I'm interested to know what other Vista users prefer to use for a music/media player? I am totally unhappy with Media Player 11 sound quality and need a good Vista alternative.

Does anyone use Winamp?

Thanks for your replies.

[glc]

It's not WMP that's causing the bad sound - it's Vista.

http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=Vista&message.id=1694

It's going to be a while before anyone has decent drivers.

[Im New]

but still good alternaties are

VLC player

and for music

iTunes of course....


to be honest i dont notice diminished sound

[glc]

It all depends on your sound card or chip and your drivers.

[KAD]

Uh, that Creative message was from September last year. I haven't had any problems with my Audigy 2 sound card and Vista, or Media Player 11.

[glc]

Maybe so, but what if the OP doesn't HAVE a Creative card?

[pally01]

I'm using the onboard audio of my Asus P5B Deluxe board. I have no add-on sound card at the moment. I have my computer connected through an S/PDIF cable to a Pioneer VSX-1016 TXV receiver. Both the computer and the receiver are new to me so I have no other history to fall back on.

My biggest complaint is that my .mp3's seem to "surge" in volume. If you could imagine the sound like an ocean wave, it'd sound like the wave coming/going on a beach. This effect is more noticable on some music than others, even though all of my .mp3's are ripped using the same software and from the same p.c.

I can lessen/minimize the "surge" if I use the WOW setting on Media Player 11 and turn the slide scale all the way to the right.

There are some similarities with my problems and those of the people complaining in the Creative threads GLC supplied above (thanks, GLC). Obviously, the specifics to Creative don't apply to me, but the inherant problems and issues with Vista certainly do. I won't pretend to say that I understood all/most of the technical aspects of the Creative threads though, either.

[Im New]

well...it could also be a speaker problem or perhaps maybe even an equalizer problem....if all else fails and its that bad sound cards are very cheap

[Maynard]

after installing vista, i i found drivers for my realtek audio manager right away....vista was even kind enough to direct me to the page with the drivers.......the new drivers or vista, or both have made my 5.1 system accually play in 5.1 surround instead of playing all 6 speakers through 2 channels.....i still dont know how that happened.....

back to the topic.....i dont like WPM...never have.....i use realplay.....it organizes things very well, and i can burn from there as well......plus it has a mini EQ.....for video i also use realplayer, or nero, or VLC

[pally01]

Hi all. Update on my situation:

Thanks to the Vista compatibility thread started yesterday, I saw that Winamp 5.33 worked with Vista. Both the lists on that thread are just what I needed. Kudos to the contributors!

Before I started this thread, I did try to determine if Winamp would run, but the only info Google gave me was dated and referred to many problems users were having. I just installed it and all my troubles are gone! The sound is fantastic - pure and even!

Media 11 was indeed the root of the issues, as that is the only change I made in my audio set up. No amount of tinkering with Media 11 would eliminate the sound issues, only minimize them.

Thanks again to each of you who try to help. This forum is a Godsend...

[Im New]

Gongrats, glad you were able to get it worked out.

[MaxRat]

It's not WMP that's causing the bad sound - it's Vista.

http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=Vista&message.id=1694

It's going to be a while before anyone has decent drivers.


G...I disagree on this...

I prefer media Player 10...and I install 10 in XP every time I load XP...

I have 9 and 10...I have loaded MP-11 to XP several times and sound quality wasnt as good as it was in 10...I have tried going straight to 11 or over the top of 9 and over the top of 10 and it didnt matter...

11 seems to have issues...? not sure...I have one rig with XPpro and 11 that doesnt sound to bad...

XP-64 with MP-11 is just plain god awful...But....XP-64 with MP-10 sounds the best out of ANY XP set up I have...I dont know why....

Even on the NF3 rig with XPpro and XP-64 and Vista...

XP-64 with MP-10 has the best sound...which I find rather weird...but it does...;)

In MP-11 you need to make sure you go over the settings carefully...In alot of cases the SRS-WOW effects are ON by default...turn them OFF and it will sound better...;)

[pally01]

Xp Home 32 / Media 11 did not give me the terrible results I experienced with Media 11 / Vista Ultimate 32 bit. Not even close. Media 11 on Vista was so bad that I could not play my music with the set up as it was. It was truley that bad.

I preferred Winamp over any/all versions of media player I ever had on my XP p.c. I found Winamp had a much more natural sound and was very easy to adjust to my likings. Media player seemed clunky, the sound un-moving etc.

I tinkered extensively with the settings on Media 11 / Vista. The problem was not one of settings in the wrong place, but rather a media player that had serious issues when trying to operate with Vista. As stated above, I could manipulate the WOW and get the sound better, but definately not good. Turning off WOW was not a step in the right direction.

Personally, I have little good to offer about Gates' player.