Software Savvy June Edition – Everything you need to know about media players
Listening to music has never been easier than it is today, with new sites and apps to stream or play music coming out all the time. We need more than just a standard media player these days, we need something that’s innovative; that works on multiple systems; that can work with multiple file types. We’ve played around with a lot of different media player and found that most of them are great in their own way, but the being the audiophiles that we are, we couldn’t settle for anything less than the best. So, after much research, we discovered a handful of media players that we at Computer Guru have tried, tested, and found to work really well. If we missed your favorite media player, let us know in the comments!
VLC Media Player
If you’ve only been using the windows media player that came with your operating system, we recommend you expand your horizons. VLC is simple, easy to use, and plays virtually everything. If you haven’t been able to play a file on your regular player, try it with VLC, which has a reputation for succeeding where Windows Media Player fails. It has tons of other great features too, like network streaming, playback speed control, playlists, and more.VLC Player is available for Macintosh, Windows, and Linux.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html
Windows Media Player + K-Lite Codec Pack
If there’s a media player simpler than VLC, K-Lite is it. Dead-simple, no extras to bloat it down. With the addition of the K-Lite Codec pack, it becomes just as useful as VLC too. Just combine this codec pack to your regular media player and watch it work wonders with just about any file type you throw at it.
WinAMP
WinAMP is everything Windows Media Player wishes it was. With a better visualizer, add-ons, RSS compatibility for podcasts, and lots more, WinAMP is one of the most customizable media players available. It’s been around for a while, and it has a look that will make you feel nostalgic for the days of Donkey Kong, but despite the outdated look, it’s still one of the best media players available and it combines the old-fashioned values a media players of yore with cutting edge technology. It also doesn’t take up a lot of space, and works on most operating systems. Win AMP offers many of the benefits of ITunes without actually having to use ITunes.
MediaMonkey
Media monkey advertises itself as a media organizer for serious collectors, and it certainly lives up to it’s reputation. If you have a massive collection of MP3s, MediaMonkey can be used very effectively to clean up and organize your media library. It has a look and feel that’s similar to ITunes, which makes it very user-friendly for those already familiar with that platform. Not only will it help you get organized if you have a huge collection of music, but MediaMonkey also supports lesser-used file types too, like OGG, FLAC, AAC and others. This media player works great on smartphones as well as your computer or tablet. Android users looking for something similar to iTunes will be thrilled with MediaMonkey, and even iOS users might benefit from using this one if they have an extensive music collection. MediaMonkey works well and organizes files quickly and easily, cleaning up duplicate files and otherwise decluttering your collection with just the click of a mouse.
http://www.mediamonkey.com/download/