media library

[myhotelyear]

i've been using winamp 2.91 for a while now and just downloaded beta 5. basically i always hear people talking about the media library and i just don't understand what it's good for. so i'd appreciate it if someone could give me a nice little overview of what the purpose of the library is. thanks!

[Thunderball.se]

I haven't gotten the hang of these either (loathed the enforced functionality of it in WMP9). Apparently, it's an abstraction layer placed on top of your files, so you select songs using meta data instead of direct file access (which means, if you're stupid and don't know how to sort files properly, this is for you).

I also noted that without the media library, Winamp 5 has a memory footprint of about 2mb with a classic skin. With the library installed, the memory footprint is 20mb. Neat.

[Thunderball.se]

Hmm... I might have rushed the comment on the memory issue. I just reinstalled Winamp 2.91, and it showed a usage of 15mb...

I know that Winamp only used 2mb on my work laptop, with 256mb of RAM and Windows 2000 SP3... and now at home (512mb stationary computer using XP SP1) I get this...

Must investigate further.

[DJ Egg]

Features of the Winamp 5.0 (beta) media library

- All your multimedia files stored in one database.
- Shoutcast Radio and TV Listings, just a single click away
- Multiple playlist support. Create, edit, load all your playlists here
- Send tracks from one playlist to another, or to new playlists.
- Advanced search functionality
- Create custom views, eg. all songs from the 70's, all songs by one artist/genre
- CD Ripping & Burning is done here
- Mass id3 tag editing
- Easy access to bookmarks
- Folder monitoring. Keeps your library auto-updated.
- Now Playing & Info Viewer. Easy access to extra info about any artist/album
- Easy Access to cd-rom's and other generic devices
- more . . .
- more to come in beta <3 (stats, ratings, etc)

Did I miss anything?

Of course, you don't HAVE to use any of the features.
And you don't HAVE to install the library.

[D&B]

I love the new WA5 media library. I have over 22,000 MP3s, so its usefullness to me is beyond words.

Thanks nullsoft!

[Atolibus]

It's pretty cool...

And then, at the same time, though I have over 8,000 mp3's, I've always been a meticulous bastard, and they are organized like a military basic trainee's clothing drawer - neatly, tightly, and cleanly. I took a look at the library - it is friggin neat, to be awesome. It lets me do some trippy stuff with metadata... but then again, I don't need to worry about that, anyhow. I tag all of my stuff to a pretty rigorous standard (and of you ever heard of Uberized rips?), and I file it on my system the same way...

I suppose I could say this - if you need something to do the work for you, which I could understand, given the breadth and depth of some folks collections, then go with the media library. It's pretty tight. Or, if you're a nutcase like me, sort your stuff and tag it properly when you first download it, and go over your collection regularly (ala house cleaning).

[D&B]

Yeah, I have heard of Uberized rips. Mine is pretty meticulously organized. I have an unorganzied folder that builds up until I muster the courage to organize it, but the bulk of my collection matches a standard I like.

Sill, I love just typing the name of a song or album or artist in the ML and BAM everything I need.

[Dipso]

Yea its a handy tool in many aspects, and actualy it works better with well organized and properly tagged mp3's

[myhotelyear]

i guess the reason why i don't need/use it is i don't use any id tags and i am the filename nazi. i've already got everything organized as good as it's gonna get.

[BKDotCom]

I consider myself a "filename nazi" too. But I just got tired of needing explorer open to get to my tunes. Organized doesn't equal quick/efficient to navigate.

The media library also provides all the powerful querying abilities and views

Plus I always uneasy having my less savy friends use explorer.. who knows what damage they could do.

Viva la Media Player!

[GqSkrub]

i've tried to organize my mp3.. but for me the 4000 i have is beyond crazy to fix the id tags.. how did you do it!?!?

[Dipso]

http://www.mp3tag.de/en/index.html

:cool: :up:

Brilliant app for cleaning up and fixing id3 tags

[iron2000]

Now I use ML for tagging only and leave it to the playlist editor for everyday listening.

IMHO, the media library is still not flexible enough.
(But I like mass tagging.)

[Dipso]

I use it to easily sort out my files, and to create and manage pre loaded playlists.

For normal play i usualy just alternate between having all my mp3's in one list on shuffle and, loading a preloaded list for when i just want to listen to an album.¨

Now if only they added subfolders and multiple list loading to the playlists part of the ML....

[gorillablume]

hmm i never used the library before, but i'd like to...
it just doesn't fit my way of sorting things, but maybe (likely) i'm just stupid.. so if anybody has a tip..?
the thing is that i have sorted music in several sub-dirs.. like ..\Label\artist\album\ and i often want to browse a labels dir and let myself get inspired of what i find there.
and i don't really want to have a new view for every parent dir.. i would have too much on the left side, it would make things clumsy, if that makes sense to you..? does it? am i just weired?

[AlxCds]

I think that the library is great. I hate MusicMatch. And apple's iTunes is just too damn slow. I also dont like winamp3 so I have winamp 2.91 with the winamp3 skin. Its great.

http://www.logicrealms.com/4images/data/media/7/winamp-itunes.png

[gflores]

I just use Wincue to find my songs, quick and easy.

[Veej007]

i am a filename nazi too, and wincue is the be-all and end-all of media management for me (aside from the upcoming play stats in winamp5, that is). you other nazis would LOVE it.

www.wincue.org

[ujay]

Same here.

A couple of other points :

Not installing the ML also gets rid of the mini browser, something I like when listening to radio.
It also disables editting bookmarks, but this is very easy to do by hand.

UJ