Winamp vs. Sonique vs. Quintessential CD vs. Windows Media Player 6.4 and 7

[SNYder]

Dislikes? Hates? I wanna know what the overall opinion on these five products are. Do you use them if any? What's your favorite (gee... I wonder)? Pet Peevs? Parts of a program you love or wish was in Winamp? Whatever you can think of, do tell.

Peace

[implode]

QCD was good until he tried to make it an everything-player.

[a-arse]

Dislikes
Winamp - Mini-Browser
Sonique - Sucks :D Bloatware and all that
QCD - never tried it
WMP - Dont like it but i've only tried the old version

[SNYder]

everyone hates the damn mini browser...

I personaly like Quintessential CD... it obviously copied off of both Sonique and Winamp, but it still is one cool program dedicated to CD Audio. I've been using it strickly for Cd's for years.

Windows Media Players 7 sucks... need I say more.

6.4 was great, though. I loved it cause it was so simple. No skins, no extra crap. Just a quick loading player. ::smooch:: Never liked using it for MP3's, though. Winamp takes the dough for that one.

[fish]

I've gotta agree with SNYder, WiMP was best back at 6.64, when it was basic.

[John M]

If i ever make a skin, the MB will be titled "WildTangent Game Console" cuz thats all its used for.

[SNYder]

was it up to 6.64 before 7 came out? I can't remeber.


And I official announce the end of QCD 3 on my system. After I just installed the new version I relized just how much extra crap there is in it. Runs slow as fuck. Not only that, the initial design sucks and is annoying to use and look at. On top of that, I havent found one fucking skin which fixes this problem. Someone even made a rip of Winamp skin, which was allot better then the defult skin, but didnt even compare to Winamp. Winamp is now my defult CD player. :P

Peace

[Bilbo Baggins]

everyone hates the damn mini browser...

I quite like it...

[gabriel-knight]

I've always use :

Winamp for playing MP3
Windows Media 7 for playing Video /VCD

Sonique rather slower for me...

[SNYder]

I quite like it...

So do I, but everyone is always complaining about it.

Let me refrase that... Most people I know dislike it or it's lack of features :)

Peace

[PhrostByte]

I don't know about WinME, but if you upgrade to WMP7 on a 98 machine... you still have 6.4. It's in Program Files\Windows Media Player\mplayer2.exe. So you have 6.4 and 7.0 in the same dir, bet some of you didn't know it was still there eh? You even have WMP 4.1... check it out Windows\mplayer.exe

[SNYder]

PhrostByte... good lookin out... I forgot to mention that. But I use windows ME and unfortunitly it doesnt come built in with 6.4 . But you can go download, or atleast you used to be able to, right on the microsoft.com site.

Peace

[Mr. Ice]

winamp: god. plays everything on my system. never crashes, always sounds good. looks cool.

sonique: the devil. plays nothing. i only installed it on a bet and it slowed my system down. (quite hard to do since i have dual P3-850 and 512MB ram) it crashes often and without reason. the ultimate example of bloatware.

quintessential cd: haven't used a recent version. the older ones were real nice cd players. i've heard several bad things about recent versions. (no, not just from this thread)

windows media player 6.4: the #2 player on my computer. plays all video files (except real, winamp does those) and gets wavs and mp3's when i want to test things. very stable, no bloat. good, solid video player.

windows media player 7: this thing is just like sonique only i didn't install it on a bet. i wanted to see if they'd improved a few things i needed. it also slowed my system. it has a ridiculous load time, even coming off a scsi 10k drive. it crashes at least as much as sonique and has so many new "features" that i moved up my planned reformat just to get rid of it. the second best example of bloatware.

[Extremecriticiser]

Some of my friends are involved in the publishing of this magazine, but when there was high demands for everything-reviews (TVs, MP3 players, Stereo systems, blah blah blah), they had to find a reviewer. Luckily for them they know that I have a bad habit of babbling on endlessly about something and criticise anything I don't like, they have agreed to get me to do the reviewing job - for free, cos I kinda like reviewing.

Anyway, should I use my speciality to do just that here, and review each of the players mentioned above concisely and in the most detail I could offer like how I reviewed TVs/Stereos/Radio stations (!)/PC Gaming mags (!!)/Politicians (!!!) in that mag?

Here is my reviewing system=

Scoring =
5 Stars = :cool:
4 Stars = :D
3 Stars = :)
2 Stars = :(
1 Star = :mad:

Fields =

Features = what nice things can that player offer beside playing music? How practically useful are they? Review includes skins on the home site but not plugins.

Interface = How good-looking is it? Any nice graphical touches added? How much?

Audio Quality =
Standard test =
"I'm Mad" 128kps 45khz
"Desperado" 96kps 45khz
How clear-sounding is it? Any decode faults? Any decode side-effects?

Ease to Use = Is the interface easily navagatable? Any keyboard shorcuts? How useful and easyto remmeber are they? Are the settings in the settings menu understandable? Is it well trimmed down to require minimal tweaking, while leaving plenty to play with?

Stability =
Standard test =
Recorded crashes & freezes divided by time of usage in weeks.
Memory usage test, with two other players which one uses more and the other uses less for comparison.

Overall =
Scores from the other fields added up and devided by 5.

Should I do that?

BTW, I've learned the mastery of reviewing from those guys who made UK's PC Gamer - who managed to cough up the most concise and the most accurate PC games review I've ever seen. Hey you! You guys rock! Has Jim Flynn grown a beard yet?

[steve]

For those of you who hate the minibrowser, you just haven't seen its power. We've never got around to actually making it useful, however, be patient. It's not all that far away from being actually a pretty kickass tool. Once we get some free time to whip up what we really want to do with it.

Here at nullsoft, I use Winamp and Sonique. I respect both products cause they both have incredible qualities. People have to realize, each player serves a different market. They're geared to different types of people. That's fine. I respect that they're different and have done a wonderful job in creating a world-class piece of software. So stop the bashing.

If there's going to be any bashing happening. It should be directed at three products. Windows Media Player 7, Real Player, and finally MusicMatch. They're all huge hunks of junk that simply take over the users computer and try, at all costs, take power away from the user experience. *sigh* Do you know what I've had to go through to ensure that I don't have any of those products on my machines? I've tested the products, however, I've removed them after I'm done cause they're just way to intrusive. *sigh* I get agitated just thinking about it.

Okay, I think it's time for bed.

good night

-steve

[a-arse]

Originally posted by Bilbo Baggins
[quote]I quite like it...

Why?
I prefer to use Internet explorer.
There Identical part from the fact the when you use the mini-browser you have to scroll left and right to see everything unless you maximize it which I dont think you can do.
And If you right click and select open in new window it opens it in I.E

[MrDice]

Originally posted by steve
If there's going to be any bashing happening. It should be directed at three products. Windows Media Player 7, Real Player, and finally MusicMatch.

Amen brother. I have WMP on my system, for the movies, I can't find any program that plays the same amount of formats, including Divx.

[fish]

I only use WiMP because it's the only one that supports everything, but I hate it.

[Matt]

Originally posted by MrDice
Amen brother. I have WMP on my system, for the movies, I can't find any program that plays the same amount of formats, including Divx.

PowerDVD does fine for me, including DivX. WMP doesn't even play mpeg video files properly. Don't get WMP7 anyone, too slow.

[ReDVsion]

Thanks steve, for trying to rid the Sonique bashing. Yes, it's slow, but it seems like nobody has tried anything else BUT sonique/winamp. 1.5 second boot-up time on my comp is nothing compared to trying to load WMP7/Earjam. I have no problems with sonique (1.909 IS faster...), and I have been known to use it myself on occasion. It's purty, dammit! Not the most functional piece of software, but pretty.

Yes, PowerDVD works wonders. I'll still be sticking with WMP6.4 (no, the 6.x series didn't go past that version).

Why does NOBODY dump on earjam?

[SNYder]

Extremecriticiser. Go for it. Review the programs I mentioned. I'd be very intrested in what your opinion is. Especially if you will be no bias.

Peace

[SNYder]

Why does NOBODY dump on earjam?

well... I would, but not untill I try the full version. It's not free, and I won't ever buy it. Mabey I'll go get it off of Warez later tonight and try it out...

Extremecriticiser. If your in the mood to try out EarJam, toss that into your review.

Peace

[D-cibeL]

Originally posted by ReDVsion
I have no problems with sonique (1.909 IS faster...)

I agree. Sonique uses up nearly the same amount of memory as Winamp, and has an equal amount of features. Bloatware my a$$ (no offense, but the mini-browser is winamps gateway to bloatware)

Originally posted by ReDVsion
Why does NOBODY dump on earjam?

I'll be the first then. It STINKS.

[Thor]

The Winamp Minibrowser is cool guys !

THOR

[Extremecriticiser]

1. Winamp 2.71
HEAVY LIGHTWEIGHT

Features= :D (4 Stars)

It has all the features we take for granted in any music players; complete with a ten band EQ and lots of presets. The WMA encoder is nice, although a little impractical. It has the biggest collection of bundled visualizations I've ever seen; as the Advanced Visualization Studio allows countless more visualizations to be made. The ID3v2 tagger is inferior to MusicMatch's, but at least there's one. The addition of yet another bundled visualization plugin is a very welcoming change, while the archive of over 10,000 skins is just simply extravagant.

It, however, still lacks the built-in gap remover we appreciate in Coolplayer and Sonique, but crossfaders just about do the job - even though not as efficiently. The 10-band EQ is mediocre by today's standard and is only saved by the large number of bundled presets, while the minibrowser is totally impractical - being too small and useless unlike MusicMatch's and Yahoo Player's powerful tool of music searching and too limited. Overall very good, but some flaws need fixing there.

Interface= :) (3 Stars)

Ugly, outdated with the rectangular windows, windowshade modes and blocky objects you find more than enough in the Windows 98 GUI, while the vast variety of skins doesn't do any difference other than make the buttons small, smaller or smallest, and the doublesize mode reminds me of Doom when ran on low res. Saved from getting two stars only by the variety of skins and a certain, limited form of transparency.

Audio Quality= :cool: (5 Stars)

Then I started playing some music. The Audio Quality is a Sonique-killer! Sharp, clear, jerk-free audio pour out of your speakers in overwhelming floods, and that bug where if you do anything else like clicking on the Start button results in a click and a jerk is finally gone! Sharp, clear, while the difference in Quality compared to Sonique is only just barely noticeble. It was certainly a wise move for Nullsoft to switch to Fraunhofer!

Ease to Use= :D (4 Stars)

The simple interface means that the buttons are a little too small, but surprisingly simple to use. The keyboard shortcuts are still a little impractically limited and somewhat hard to remember, but the easy to use mouse interface overcomes this. Now, the settings menu. The settings menu has always been a major problem in all previous versions of Winamp, whose window after window of terms not normally used in the general public clutter, while the lack of reference for what each setting does just makes the matter worse.

Well, not so in v2.71, whose settings menu have been trimmed down to a few sliders, buttons and checkboxes, and excellently cutting down on the number of textboxes. Finally each of the feature in the settings menu have quotes on what each bit does, and simple tasks once needed tweaking in v2.65 have been automated. Though not as well trimmed as Sonique, vast improvements are there.

Stability= :D (4 Stars)

Memory usage (rounded up to the nearest Megabyte):
Sonique 1.64 = 8 MB
Winamp 2.71 = 6 MB
Cowon JetAudio = 5 MB

Stability rating: 1/week

Would have give it a five had it not crashed on me on the first week of use. However, vast improvement is there since v2.7.

Conclusion= :D (4.0)

WInamp is improving with time; more thought is being put into its development and better things are popping up. Nullsoft still have a way ahead to go, but it seemed certain that they will get there in the end. I have now taken the wisdom of using both Sonique and Winamp, and all I can say now is "Nearly there, Nullsoft, nearly there..."

Next up: we take a look at Sonique 1.808...

[SNYder]

Bravo, EC. Bravo. :)

Well done review on Winamp. I guess you did learn a thing or two from that magazine. Can't wait for your Sonique Review.

Peace

[Extremecriticiser]

Erm,. still haven't finished Sonique 1.808 review, but I got the Quintessential review:

3. Quintessential 3.11
LOST SOUL

Features= :) (3 Stars)

In terms of MP3 Audio, Quintessential has nothing to offer whatsoever. The Vorbis OGG encoder is nice but impractical, while the Directsound support is bugged from head to toe. Quintessential's features, however, are revolved around two things; CD Audio and internet. Firstly, you can register with CDDB from Quintessential, which is nice. It has more than just ordimary support for CDDB; it's more like a CDDB receiver - receiving informations from CDDB and display them on to one of Quintessential's many internet windows. It also introduces "interactive visual plugins" to the MP3 world - which is something you don't see everyday.

Now, Nullsoft, Team Sonique, take note; this is one internet intergration I've never seen before; the ability to download skins from Quintessential. Nooooo, not like MusicMatch's flawed browser window and the even more flawed Yahoo Player digital browser, but the ability to quickly load a database of skins from within a special part of the program that also allows you to preview the skins with a small internet window and download it in a snap of a finger, ready to use without ever having to launch the browser. This "download from app" feature has been hinted in Yahoo Player and MusiaMatch but only has been fully realised in Quintessential. So for one sure thing; Quintessential is the future of music player's intergration with internet.

Two crippling, but not fatal, flaws, though: the inability to rename CD tracks without CDDB is just unforgivable, and the playlist editor is somewhat lousy and slow. Overall I would give it a four if it's just a CD player, but since it tries to play MP3s as well, I can't help but say "Now that's a bad move."

Interface= :cool: (5 Stars)

Hi-tech and freeform, with plenty of animations and graphical treats. Visually Quintessential is something you don't see everyday.

Audio Quality= :D (4 Stars)

This is talking in terms of pure MPEG audio; Quintessential is a bad choice for playing MP3s; it smudges the output and exaggerates high-pitched parts of tracks. At least its audible, but not appreciable.

Ease to Use= :( (2 Stars)

Flawed from head to toe; the playlist editor is frustrating to use, the volume knob is small and frustrating to get to, the mode switching within skins is nice, but switching between skins is tedious as it involes going into the skin brwoser and select a skin, then a mode. Where's the EQ? I tell you where it is; prefs->media formats->MP3->Equalizer, and not only that, it's limited to MP3s and not WAVs, or OGGs. The settings for each plugin is just plain dumb; with settings which are not supposed to be settings (OGG plugin; file types "OGG" - ofcourse its *.OGG! What are you expceting, *.LAME?).

And to make it all worse, it refuses to acknowledge th fact that it's hard to use alone. Strange buttons setting were used instead of the more logical "ZXCVB", while other keyboard shortcuts looks functional but actually impractical. I could never learn enough keyboard shorcuts to get it going like how I did with Sonique and Winamp. Poor, and need A LOT of work.

Stability= :) (3 Stars)

Memory usage (rounded up to the nearest Megabyte):
Sonique 1.808 = 13 MB
Quintessential 3.11 = 8 MB which is equal to Sonique 1.64
Winamp 2.71 = 6 MB

Stability rating: Average 2/day

The memory usage is a bit much, while the crash and freeze rate is totally unforgivable; it has already crashed on me four times and even persisted to work behind background after it was closed and crash 5 minutes afterwords.

Conclusion= :) (3.2)

A long way to go for this player that refuses to admit its failure at being an MP3 player. If it was purely a CD player, I would have given it 5, 5, excluded, 3, 3 (which would give it a score of 4.0 - matching Winamp's). But noooo, it decides to play MP3s, and its pretty lousy at that too. If it's purely a CD player, then would be a player that deserves much more than it got right now, but as long as it still tries to play MP3, it's dump.

[Edited by Extremecriticiser on 12-23-2000 at 03:36 AM]

[ReDVsion]

It's nice having a guy doing reviews on the forums...

And EC - don't do 1.808 - use 1.909 for Sonique.

[fish]

lost soul :) good one

[Riksruin]

but i cant find where to find out how many megs programs are taking up. i can find the percentage ram that is being used in total

plz help me!

[Colonel G]

If you're using win2k, you should be able to figure it out quite easily. If you're using Win98/5, get Microsoft's Kernel Power Toys. In that package, there is a little handy-dandy proggie called Wintop which enables you to view CPU & RAM usage for each and every running proggie. Search Microshaft's site, you should find it.

[Extremecriticiser]

2. Sonique 1.808
BEAUTIFUL PIG

Features= :) (3 Stars)

An auto-sloping twenty band EQ is something you don't see everyday that makes up for its servere lack of EQ presets, while the bundled visualizations are few (only four), but their cloud'n'fade visual effects are gorgeuos. A built-in gap remover is something that should have been thought out by Nullsoft, so shame on you. The lack of CDDB is forgivable, as it is sure to have been thought about in Team Sonique's HQ before. Seeing the rest of Sonique's design, the lack of ID3v2 tagger seems to be to save space rather than the lack of technical knowhow.

The built-in music search engine replaces the lack of a minibrowser, while the lack of skins variety is made up by being completely freeform, which makes Sonique visuals a joy to look at. The playlist editor, however, need a lot of improving. Overall a bit mediocre, but just about does the job. Oh, and did I forget to mention that it's a brilliant module player (Winamp slows down when it plays mods, but Sonique, ironically, speeds up)?

Interface= :cool: (5 Stars)

One word; wow. I just can't believe what I'm seeing. Freeform skins draws your eyes to it, then satify you with smooth, hi-tech interface animations. A smooth but deadly mixture animated buttons, animated interface objects, and that slide up and down effect for the EQ just adds up to form the perfect eyecandy solution. Click on something and the old load swings out of sight, while new set of fully-animated objects that represents the interface slings into view. It is smooth, hi-tech and englossing click after click.

Audio Quality= :cool: (5 Stars)

Inferior only to Winamp 2.71. It hurls wave after wave of sharp, clear, high quality audio at you - so much sometimes it hurts a bit being caught in the torment of such sonic tempest of seismic proportion. One, rather insignificant, flaw, though; while Winamp tries to smooth an error on a track down by slightly smudging over it, Sonique coughs out an error without caring if it is an error or not at all. Overall, though, Sonique ranks among one of the best.

Ease to Use= :D (4 Stars)

There has always been much debate on Sonique's ease to use; some say Sonique is a pain to use, while Sonique fans would argue that it's actually easier than people think. I'm here to investigate those claims. First impression, then. Yes, very hard to use with the mouse alone as using it involves switching from one screen to another back and forth, very frustrating. Had it not been the following below, I would have give it two stars.

However, it seemed obvious that Team Sonique knows that their player is hard to use with the mouse alone, and has included what is arguably one of the easiest to learn and remember set of keyboard shortcuts ever. It took me just twenty minutes to learn, remember and get used to the keyboard shortcuts before I could just about do everything in my typical Sonique session with minimum use of the mouse. One of the reasons for this is that there are more than one way to the same function, for example; to get to the playlist editor you can press either "p" or ctrl+p.

For example, my typical Sonique session is this; ctrl+e to visual mode, ah I forgot to enable the EQ so I pressed "q" (unlike Winamp's "o"). I wanna load a playlist so I pressed ctrl+d to clear current playlist and pressed "a" to open a playlist - WITHOUT having to go to the playlist editor! Playlist loaded, wanna change skin, so I pressed ctrl+s to get to the settings menu and do some simple pointy-clickety before pressing Backspace to quickly get back to the visual mode. I press "x" to play, and press "s" to enable shuffle. I wanna do some work, so I press ctrl+a (unlike Winamp's ctrl+t) to get to stay on top. Most excellently, the "zxcvb" buttons work as well as the orginal "<-x->" buttons. It's brilliantly thought out, shortcut after shortcut, and completely makes up for the frustrating mouse-based interface.

The settings menu, then, is so well trimmed down to the point which the settings for the MPEG decoder are two checkboxes, while the settings for the module decoder are eight selector boxes. It is therefore extremely well trimmed and require very little tweaking to get it going. Tweak lovers will not like this, though.

People will disagree with me on this, but I'm sorry, I must give it at least four stars; the combination of such well thought out keyboard commands and well trimmed settings menu just overwhelmed me.

Stability= :D (4 Stars)

Memory usage (rounded up to the nearest Megabyte):
WMP 7 = uncertain, but the last test revealed it to have used something like 14 MB
Sonique 1.808 = 13 MB
Sonique 1.64 = 8 MB

Stability rating: 0

People complain about Sonique's unstability, saying it crashes without reason and stuffs. That's may be that you have inadequate memory; Sonique's memory usage is just sheer insanity. For other cases, I don't know, because it's strange that I don't see that problem, maybe a few minor bugs, but it has crashed on me only twice in its entire usage, and both was not Sonique's fault - but the Squaresoft Crossfader which hogs on to the sound card long after I've closed Winamp. Perhaps it's also because I NEVER load more than 150 songs on to a playlist - no matter if it's on Winamp or Sonique; an unbreakable habit (why do you need more than 150 songs per playlist is beyond me!). Whatever people say, it is a must for me to give Sonique a four on stability - would have been a five had it not been such an insane memory hog.

Conclusion= :D (4.2)

The race for stardom was a tense one, but Sonique races JUST ahead with its combination of looks, quality and a whole host of visual treats. Overall, in my opinion, Sonique remains the king of the MP3 player kingdom, spending his time playing chess with his advisers from day to day from his huge, golden throne. Although the downloads may not say so - I don't know, maybe I've missed out the most important part of human psychology. This may not appeal to tweak-lovers, but as far as I'm concerned, Sonique ranks among the best. But watch out, King Sonique, Prince Winamp is catching up...

[Extremecriticiser]

Since it would be unfair and costly to rate the entire thing from scratch, I have decided to rate updates to orginal softwares with seperate systems. This is how I rate updates;

Scoring=

Heaps of updates= :cool:
Some updates= :D
Miniscule updates= :)
No updates= :(
Worse than before= :mad:

Features= any new things from previous version?

Audio Quality= any improvements in audio quality from previous version?

Stability= is it more stable and less crash-happy than the previous version?

Performance= any performance improvements?

Miscellaneous= other improvements (major bugs fixed, previous feature bug fixed, etc)?

Overall= scores added up and divided by five.

[Extremecriticiser]

Features= :D

New decoder, more EQ presets as well as being more refined, easier switching to user EQ presets, the tagger is now part of the nav console, and an updated OGG decoder.

Audio Quality= :(

Don't be fooled by the 3DNow!/PIII acceleration, the audio quality's the same. I use an AMD K6-2 (3DNow!).

Stability= :mad:

On the first DAY of use, it has already froze on me once. To make it even more strange, this is the first EVER Sonique crash or freeze that has ever happened on my computer, so a report of this pollutes my Norton CrashGuard records. Shame on you, Team Sonique, shame on you all...

Performance= :D

_____________| v1.808 | v1.909
Basic information
Memory usage_| 13.1MB | 12.5MB
Load time_____| 7 sec_ | 6 sec

Fullscreen vis test 320x240
Spacething____| 25 FPS | 28 FPS
Miffo_________| 14 FPS | 14 FPS

Fullscreen vis test 640x480
Spec'n'Hopp___| 20 FPS | 22 FPS

Transition test (when playing MPEG)
Menu_________| 2 sec_ | 1 sec
Screen res_____| 2 sec_ | just over 1 sec
To fullscreen___| 4 sec_ | just over 2 sec

Comment; hmmm, the memory usage is still insanely much, but somehow my system resource meter which once measured 75% free when Sonique is on now reads 81%, which is an improvement. The interface is now noticably faster, and the visual plugins runs at slightly higher frames rates. Many things once tortoise slow are now sped up, but only slightly. Overall, a little miniscule but good improvements.

Miscellaneous= :D

Lots of bug fixes, most notably the Wave writer now works with modules, it no longer clears the playlist containing mods when you close and restart Sonique, and the slight animation and response time bug has been fixed.

Conclusion= :) (3.0)

King Sonique, feeling threatened by the rise of Prince Winamp, leaped from his throne, smashed away the chessboard and quickly put on his armor. His attempt to win some of his taken kingdom back gained him little, while Prince Winamp plans with his strategists to counter attack. Both sides vowed to build new, better armies to send into the certain Wars of the Sequals. The heat intensifies, the battle is on...

1.0-2.0 = Stick with the previous version, or die horribly of regret!
2.1-3.0 = Stick with the previous version, but update if you wish.
3.1-4.0 = Worth the download all the way through...
4.1-5.0 = I don't care what you think - DOWNLOAD! IT! NOW!

[JoBu]

I liked the reviews, but do you think you were really objective with QCD?

Complaining that it was hard to use because it used 'strange buttons' instead of the logical 'ZXCVB' sounds like you are stuck in the Winamp users dogma - if it's not just like Winamp, it's worse. FYI: QCD uses the illogical 'QWERTY' keys for controlling playback. You also mention changing skins is tedious but it uses the exact same method of selecting skins as Winamp (open skin browser, select skin - or Ctrl+S if you like). The playlist editor in QCD does everything Winamp's and Sonique does plus a couple more things (expect for resizing). Also, the volume is large and right on the skin. I'm not sure what the hardship was there.

QCD got flambasted for being a MP3 player, but got praise for playing CD's. You load it with files the same exact way as the other players and it plays them. It just happens to also load and play CD's far better than the other players too. It's MP3 plugin uses the XAudio decoder (says in the about box), which I believe is in about 8 dozen other players out there so it's not doing anything different in that area. Although you are right, it's EQ is lame and useless to get to. But is the bad EQ why MP3 sucks in QCD? Saying it's a dump because it plays MP3s but not really saying why, isn't really objective.

Like everyone, I'm sure you have had Winamp installed for a long time, and probably Sonique too. How long have you even known about QCD? Just the 2 hours before the review? Did you really try to know it, or did you expect it to be a copy of Winamp with a different skin?

Everyone I show QCD to stumbles around at first because they have Winamp Dislexia. But after they actually learn QCD, they swear by it and find they can't use Winamp nearly as well.

[Riksruin]

Originally posted by Colonel G
If you're using win2k, you should be able to figure it out quite easily. If you're using Win98/5, get Microsoft's Kernel Power Toys. In that package, there is a little handy-dandy proggie called Wintop which enables you to view CPU & RAM usage for each and every running proggie. Search Microshaft's site, you should find it.

i cant find a win 98 version. I found the win 95 version but it said that it couldnt be used with win 98, does any1 kno an exact link to a homepage for this????

[Reverend Ike]

Rikki -

As far as I know, there is no "Windows 98" version of Wintop. I have read posts by others that state they have successfully used the W95 Wintop on their W98 machine (despite the warning). However, I tried it on my Windows 98 system and could not get it to work without crashing.

[SNYder]

JoBu... you make some good points. Lets see what EC says. I'm not cridict.

oh... and if anyone is wondering how a QCD user found his way over here. I went over to the OCD website and posted the review...

Peace

[Extremecriticiser]

Jubu,

1. I said the "QWERTY" shortcuts were illogical because they do not line up with the buttons you find on the graphical interface. The "ZXCVB" works great because they line up with the buttons you see on Winamp. That's why. Sorry I didn't mention it in my review - thought you can figure out why.

2. The playlist editor uses right click to select a track, rather than useing left clicks to do the playlist managing and right click for some nice functions like Winamp. The Tagger is way off the playlist, and the funtions are nice but doesn't make the playlist managing any easier.

3. Right click anywhere on Winamp's control boxes and move you mouse NEARLY to the bottom - there is a tab called "skins". Drag your mouse over that and think again.

4. Why do you think DSPs work? Why do you think there are input and output plugins? Input can be one thing and output can be another, and it seems either QCD's input plugin is lame, or the output plugin is. And yes the lame EQ adds to the frustration.

5. I've been using ONLY QCD for 12 hours a day for the last three days, you can count on that. I'm still using it right now to re-evaluate my review. My attempt to unlock every secrets on each app I review is legendary, and I have the most hideous ridged forehead you'll ever see - don't mess with me. :D

[Slumlord]

Originally posted by steve

If there's going to be any bashing happening. It should be directed at three products. Windows Media Player 7, Real Player, and finally MusicMatch. They're all huge hunks of junk that simply take over the users computer and try, at all costs, take power away from the user experience. *sigh* Do you know what I've had to go through to ensure that I don't have any of those products on my machines?
Okay, I think it's time for bed.
-steve

Yo. You're not kidding. Especially Realplayer8!! this program messed up my win2k system to the point where i had to reformat to get everything sane again. it wouldnt listen to my default preferences and registered EVERY media format it could get its hands on. and i mean audio AND video. then i uninstalled it and win2k was STILL looking for realplayer. its the same with mediaplayer7. i had that installed on win98 and it became default everything and wouldnt listen to my preferences. can anyone get this player NOT to play cds? i couldnt and i unchecked and unregistered every media type it attatched itself to.

ive used sonique on win98 since v1.31 and still use that version now. its the only one that seems to work correctly. (get my sonique skin! (http://skins.sonique.com/details.phtml?record=20000222224300) :D)

for win2k i use QCD. the skinning capabilities for this program are beyond anything yet. and paul even incorporated one of my (great) requests. its a great player though it doesnt have the visual plugins of winamp or sonique. maybe soon..

i started out with winamp like most people until i began making my own skins and found that other players had freeform skinning ability. i just dont use winamp anymore.

for you people who say these players are bloated.. either you have os problems or you really really need a new computer / more memory cuz i have no idea what you're talking about. QCD and sonique run fine and fast.

[Slumlord]

i even use sonique in the background while playing games constantly. tonyhawk, counterstrike, unreal tour... so... i believe you people have the problem in your systems. OR it may be the newer versions of the sonique player. i only use v1.31

[Extremecriticiser]

Slumlord:

Hey waitaminute, I know you - Indiglo Assassin! Aw man, that skin, along with Microsonice, are my favorite space-saver skins, although my favorite skin of all time has to be the Greenwitch skin (also by zeroida). Hey, watch out for my (I make skins too, maybe you could help me make the jog wheel turn!) skins!

[Extremecriticiser]

4. Windows Media Player 6.4
A MIRACLE

Features= :) (3 Stars)

Lacks everything you ever know, but the support for every media formats you can think of excluding RealMedia and Modules is just a sheer demonstration of what Microsoft can really do, while the customizable interface arrangements confirms this. It doesn't have a playlist editor as such, but imports them from your saved ones created from Winamp and Sonique. It lacks every feature we take for granted in dedicated music players, but that's what make this a great player - it's simple, quick and efficient. Plus it has complete intergration with internet explorer, appearing as a either an ActiveX module or as a toolbar on the browser bars. Overall it's plain and simple, but that's what I love about it.

Interface= :( (2 Stars)

If Winamp is plain and boring, then this is even more so; Windows original "Greys'n'blues" is still here without any attempt to skin it whatsoever. Total lack of skins are (kind of) made up by it being having a surprising amount of customizability.

Audio Quality= :cool: (5 Stars)

Clear, sharp and high-quality. It ranks among the best.

Ease to Use= :cool: (5 Stars)

Simple to use, as it is just a box of buttons and stats on your desktop, which is good. Keyboard shortcuts, whether there are any or not, doesn't matter; the mouse-based interface is ingeniously simple enough to blow away the meaning of "keyboard shortcuts". The settings menu is excellently trimmed up to the point that most of the time it needs no tweaking at all, only needing it when you want to sharpen things a little. Extremely well done.

Stability= :cool: (5 Stars)

Memory usage (rounded up to the nearest Megabyte):
Cowon JetAudio = 5 MB
WMP 6.4 = 3 MB
Coolplayer = Less than 1 MB

Stability rating: 0

In my whole year of using this thing, it has never, and I mean NEVER, crashed or froze on me, and it still hasn't, EVER!

Conclusion= :D (4.0)

I listen to Mike Oldfield, and the first line of one of his song "Holy" from album "Earth Moving" went;

"Harmony always, when I look around me, and your smile I see. I can feel it around me; a miracle I find in your company..."

Maybe the guy who sang in that song was just babbling musically about how Microsoft, finally after many years, get one thing right with the softwares they make and, most magically, WITHOUT stealing others' ideas! Heck, the earth IS moving...

Bill Gates; "C'mon! Good artists copy, great artists steal! Dunno who said that - Van Gogh or somein'..."

See? You CAN do something right without stealing from others (Seatle Software Company, Xerox, Apple, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo, Team Sonique, MusicMatch, RealMedia, Sony, Nintendo, Sega, Nullsoft, AOL, blah blah blah applouds sarcastically).

[Extremecriticiser]

Note; I can't remember what's WMP 7 was like to the finest detail; I unstalled it about 6 months ago and I refuse to download that 10meg modem buster, but I can still hack the review scores from my head when I reviewed it for that magazine. I'll rewrite the review when I get Windows ME soon.

5. Windows Media Player 7
BACK TO "THE FUTURE"

Features= :D (4 Stars)

Interface= :D (4 Stars)

Audio Quality= :cool: (5 Stars)

Ease to Use= :( (2 Stars)

Stability= :( (2 Stars)

Memory usage (rounded up to the nearest Megabyte):
(None that I know uses more memory!)
WMP 7 = Uncertain, although I seem to remember the number "15"
Sonique 1.808 = 13 MB

Stability rating: 2/day

Conclusion= :) (3.4)

Bill Gates gets bombed back to stone age with a MusicMatch clone-esque that offers to twinkle but fails to shine. The biggest sequal screw-up in the entire computer music industry.

Bill Gates; "It's like we live in the same neighborhood and you decide to go'n'steal a TV from Xerox's house, only you can't - cos I got there first. And now you're saying "that's not fair!"...

Steve Jobs continues warming up his rifle...

[Extremecriticiser]

Winamp 2.71 :D (4.0)

Winamp was in a dark age of ignorance for a long time up to 2.666, but in 2.7 he leaps from his feet, crawed up his pit where King Sonique has imprisoned him, escaped to a castle where he recovered and proclaimed himself prince.

Seriously, Winamp is improving over time. Nullsoft is finally starting to think seriously about Winamp and is improving with the best stuffs they can find. The ensured and coming Wars of the Sequals will be an interesting one.

Sonique 1.808 :D (4.2)

Although the score seemed to suggest it as king, the line between who's better is not clear. Sonique blow away Winamp with looks, visual effects, usability, quality and program stability, while Winamp fights back with functionality, simplicity, compatability, variety and more quality.

The battle line is still not clear; although Sonique gains just slightly more. With Sonique 2 and Winamp 3 coming out nearly the same time; the Wars of the Sequals would be an interesting to watch...

Quintessential 3.11 :) (3.2)

The Quinns can do two things; either improve their MPEG support, or just forget about it and stick with CDs. I don't care which, but the terrible MPEG audio support need fixing - one way or the other, you choose. Other unneccessary things need trimming, and a bit more thought could have been put into its development. But hold on, there's future for this thing yet - if it doesn't screw itself up first.

Windows Media Player 6.4 :D (4.0)

Microsoft finally gets something right with what is arguably the best quick click-on-file'n'play desktop player that offers nothing but sheer simplicity - well done.

Windows Media Player 7 :) (3.4)

Man, I hate to screw up my nice comment for its predecessor with a bad one for WMP 6.4's sequal, but Microsoft screws up big time in what tries to get attention but fails to sparkle. If there will be a WMP 8 soon, I'll be there to see it.

[SNYder]

bravo, EC! BRAVO!

excilent review, bro!

This thread started off slow, but you picked it up and skyrocketed staite into my best of folder.

Thank you for the great comments.

And... are these reviews going to be in a magizine? and which one? I'd definetly buy it.

Peace

[Extremecriticiser]

Published by some of my friends involved in it. Not popular enough to be global though. I've asked them if they could send it to you, but I highly doubt it - to busy for American customers...

[ReDVsion]

Great reviews, very thorough, but I can't agree on WMP7 being better than QCD...

[Matt]

I got around to trying Quintessential today. It's a good player, similar to Winamp in parts (preferences etc). I wouldn't use as a replacement to Winamp.

I've always liked the visual effects and animations of Sonique and now Quintessential. I think Winamp should add some of these. I know some people would rather useablity than anything else, but I think they're worth adding. (It's time for a bit of an interface change)

Anyway the players, I'd put them in this order -

Winamp
Sonique
Quintessential
WMP 6.4
WMP 7

[SNYder]

Great reviews, very thorough, but I can't agree on WMP7 being better than QCD...

i highly agree...

[Extremecriticiser]

ReDVsion,

Tell me, does QCD rip CDs?

And anyway, as you can see, WMP 7 only JUST got 0.2 more than QCD, meaning they're just as lousy as each other - except one can rip CDs and one can't. :D

[SNYder]

i still agree :-P

[ReDVsion]

I still agree with myself as well... :D

Look, if I wanna rip CDs, I use a damn ripper, not a slow-ass POS that I have to worry about freezing up on me. You could plop coolplayer into this review and say that IT sucks because it doesn't have as many features, but that's not the point of the program. Besides, when I want a media player, I don't want it to do everything on god's green earth just OK, I want it to do one thing and one thing well - like play music files. It's job is NOT to rip CDs, encode, mow my lawn, etc.

All of these players, aside from WMP7, are great for playing media files, though it just depends on your personal preference. Winamp is fast & functional, with plenty of gadgets to boot; Sonique is gorgeous, end of story; QCD is a partial mix of both; WMP6.4 is your all-purpose play everything player; And Coolplayer is just your basic no-nonsense player, though with some nice skins.

Personally I've had no stability problems with the above mentioned (aside from WMP7...), and all I can safely say will be staying on my computer.

In conclusion, WMP7, Earjam, MMJB, RP8, and all those other shitty-ass players that I know are out there but I haven't tried, suck.

[Extremecriticiser]

I have to be fair when I review! I have to admit that an addition of a CD ripper/burner is nice and I must give a credit on that! Sorry, but I don't filter when I review! I don't filter bad things off Sonique and Winamp and say only good things about them and don't filter out good things about WMP 7! I review it straight, and no zig-zagging around features that I think is nice EVEN if it's a lousy one!

WMP 7's CD ripper is a lousy one, yes, but I must admit that as a feature - I can't just zig-zag it around and omit it!

I'm sorry, but WMP 7 is just as lousy as QCD3, except it can ONLY JUST rip CDs THAT'S ALL!!!!

[Aeroe]

Um you did know that WinME has both WMP 6.4 and 7.0, right?
If anyone thinks they are "stuck" with 7.0, look in the folder. You might need to associate the file types back to 6.4
Or maybe the WinME iso I got is different... hehe

[ReDVsion]

I don't suppose you could tell me where to get one of those ISO's... :D

EC: CALM DOWN! Sheesh. I've just had a better experience with QCD than with WMP7.