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Good jukebox/mp3 programs...small reviews here
Frostillicus:
...I've tried all the major ones.
Virtual Music Jukebox
Digital Jukebox
Musicmatch
Winamp
eJukebox (a winamp component)
I just want to say I'm NOT trying bash any software at all. I support all of these programs, especially the first 2.
They all have drawbacks - but they all have some great features too.
I like VMJ for it's album displays and touchscreen-like interface. Very user friendly. Can't read MP3 embedded album art - I'm not about to create artwork (or find each one) for my collection.
Almost a requirement to use the program - browse by album art is it's major feature. Good product support.
DJ - probably the easiest to setup. And the quickest to load - pretty much the simplest interface for a party: available songs on the left, queue on the right. Some cool features like no repeat in queue and scrolling ID info. Can display album art, but also cannot access embedded artwork. No pause, though. Can't really resize anything, and the 'radio' (shuffle) mode doesn't really randomize the songs well. The same ones are always picked in 'random' order. Good product support.
Musicmatch - There are skins that can make it look not so...musicmatch-ish. Decent interface. 8.0 is bug-riddled though so steer clear. downloads album art automatically. By far the coolest feature is Supertagging. Slow, but handy for badly-ripped songs. It's a huge resource hog compared to the other 3. With a large collection it's almost impossible sometimes to move around in it. I concede that it's a much broader program and can rip and encode. It's not very user friendly. Haven't even tried product support because I have no interest in using it full time.
Winamp. It's winamp. Everybody knows winamp. Though with winamp3 most of my skins only half work now because they have a 'playlist editor'. The whole thing is a little too small for me. But it's small and plays smooth...works best with....
...eJukebox. The interface is downright ugly, but it makes up for it in features. I totally dig the kiosk mode, where it locks up fullscreen and all people can do is add songs. Very nice 'top 10' type lists and it downloads the album art automatically. Very intuitive browsing window and it looks pretty good at 800x600. By far the coolest feature is it's web interface, where you can access the jukebox from another computer on your LAN (or with a good IP). Control volume, playlist, see the album, search for song artist album etc. Here's a screenshot:
It has come in handy while I'm on my real computer surfing/working/etc and can change the playlists and songs on my cab (where my real collection is) without having to get up and walk to the living room. Cause I'm lazy :)
We'll see how it works out in a few months of use...but thought I'd post my impressions. I also have tried a bunch of tagging software, but let's not get into that nightmare ;) I welcome any corrections, software additions and such. I don't want to turn it into a battle if I can help it. I apologize for the length, and thanks for reading!
Mameham:
Man it's hard to write a non-biased review when you've already made up your mind, isn't it? :)
( not a bash, just an observation... I've done it too... heh. I've made my company by NAV over McAfee because of my "review"... )
- Eric
Cue-Ball:
You forgot the best one!
http://home.att.net/~mark.schwartz/
Frostillicus:
--- Quote from: Mameham on June 28, 2003, 10:16:30 pm ---Man it's hard to write a non-biased review when you've already made up your mind, isn't it? :)
( not a bash, just an observation... I've done it too... heh. I've made my company by NAV over McAfee because of my "review"... )
- Eric
--- End quote ---
Well, I really hadn't made up my mind until I ran into eJukebox. I tell it like it is - they all have their pros and cons, and I think they are fairly non-biased reviews.
Obviously, I settled on eJukebox, and since most people probaby have never of it, I dwelled on it's good points (tho it does have it's bad ones, too). I've been trying most of these on and off for about a year now.
Cue-Ball: I remember Arcade Jukebox, though I think I tried a much earlier version. It was a little slow on my machine (1.4Ghz) back then, and I'm not sure how well it could handle large collections. But it could certainly appeal to those that want a good looking program!
Mameham:
Glad you took my comments for the tounge-in-cheekness they were supposed to have...
Incidentally I find VJBox and DosCab to be the best jukeboxes... but then I'm looking for as close to a real jukebox as you can get... ( even at a loss of functionality of some of the computer "enchancements" of other programs... )
- Eric
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