WinAmp vs iTunes (it's here)

MeStinkBAD · 17th October 2003, 08:05

Does Winamp really stand a chance now that iTunes is availible for Windows now? Yeah iTunes has no skins, simple "visuals", and probably uses a bit more CPU power than WinAmp. But spend a few hours using it and you become hooked.

Anyhow I'd just like to see this communities response to the Windows release of iTunes.

duh · 17th October 2003, 08:18

I like how iTunes is all nice and free for a full featured product with maximun ripping/burning speed

griffinn · 17th October 2003, 08:19

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=152836

will · 17th October 2003, 09:20

iTunes mem useage: 36mb (7.5 for winamp 5.0b1)
20mb download (wa5 is 4.6)
lacks skins.
visulisation is totally dwarfed by wa5's AVS and milkdrop (which can go 25fps at 1280x1024 here)
UI is sluggish, and I don't really like it.
Library browse thing unconfigurable (i want rid of the genre thing)
Smart views not as powerful (although perhaps a bit easier o use) than wa5 library views.
Doesn't support win98
No media library plugins.
No r3mix option for mp3 vbr encoding.
No stop button (i sometimes hit stop then play to go to the beginning of the song)

If you have any quieries as to why winamp has to have a pro version, check the Winamp Pro FAQ

ryan · 17th October 2003, 09:24

Will, care to throw foobar into the mix ?

edit: usux will

ertmann|CPH · 17th October 2003, 10:23

grrrrrr, i would like iTunes, but apparently Europe and Japan is not important enough markets for Apple, fucking hell man, our disposable income nearly matches that of the United States... pricks!

Viper007Bond · 17th October 2003, 10:27

Winamp5 > *

MeStinkBAD · 17th October 2003, 10:49

Quote:

Originally posted by will
[B]iTunes mem useage: 36mb (7.5 for winamp 5.0b1) 20mb download (wa5 is 4.6)[B]

I see 20megs for iTunes and ten for Winamp. Of course I was looking at physical RAM usage. Not RAM allocation, which includes memory mapped to disk. Does memory really matter anyway?

Quote:

lacks skins.

Skins are something to avoid. Mucks up the interface.

Quote:

visulisation is totally dwarfed by wa5's AVS and milkdrop (which can go 25fps at 1280x1024 here)

No contest here. But is music to be listened to or stared at?

Quote:

UI is sluggish, and I don't really like it.
Library browse thing unconfigurable (i want rid of the genre thing)

UI is a bit slow. You get used to the library browser. And it is most certainly customizable.

Quote:

Smart views not as powerful (although perhaps a bit easier o use) than wa5 library views.

It has different viewing modes. To say it's not as powerful isn't really fair. It certainly is easier to use.

Quote:

Doesn't support win98

Doesn't support OS9.

Quote:

No media library plugins.

It installs Quicktime for a reason.

Quote:

No stop button (i sometimes hit stop then play to go to the beginning of the song)

It's not a freakin' tape deck! One of Winamp's biggest UI flaws was basing it on a cassette deck. You don't need both a stop and pause button. You want to restart, press space, left, right. Or use the mouse.

psyfive · 17th October 2003, 11:19

so was the timing to relese the public beta of winamp 5 timed to match the iTunes release?!

will · 17th October 2003, 11:31

Quote:

Originally posted by MeStinkBAD
I see 20megs for iTunes and ten for Winamp. Of course I was looking at physical RAM usage. Not RAM allocation, which includes memory mapped to disk. Does memory really matter anyway?

Yes.

Quote:

Skins are something to avoid. Mucks up the interface.

Skins let you have the interface the way you want it. They're good.

Quote:

And it is most certainly customizable.

tell me how to get rid of the genre pane

Quote:

It has different viewing modes. To say it's not as powerful isn't really fair. It certainly is easier to use.

the querying is infinatly more powerful, try using it. You can do anything

Quote:

It installs Quicktime for a reason.

yeah, and it slows down everything

Quote:

It's not a freakin' tape deck! One of Winamp's biggest UI flaws was basing it on a cassette deck. You don't need both a stop and pause button. You want to restart, press space, left, right. Or use the mouse.

one of the flaws you say, yet one of the reasons winamp gained popularity, because its easy to use. I'm sure you could find a skin with just the three playback buttons.

Russ · 17th October 2003, 11:55

Quote:

Originally posted by will
tell me how to get rid of the genre pane

You mean column? Edit->View Options->Uncheck Genre.

ElChevelle · 17th October 2003, 13:21

Quote:

Originally posted by MeStinkBAD
You don't need both a stop and pause button.

EVERYTHING has a stop and/or pause button.
I may not need one but I want it anyway

s1138 · 17th October 2003, 13:22

who said you dont need a stop button?!

lol.....i use the stop button all the time, and i use the pause button all the time too...

stop. if i have to leave, and want to hear the same song when i come back...
pause. if i am listening to a 55 minute remix, and have to leave, but dont want to come back and listen to the whole thing again.

ElChevelle · 17th October 2003, 13:28

/me goes to iTunes forum to spam Winamp

idynkydnk · 17th October 2003, 14:09

itunes was good for about 5 minutes. There's no options and it's not configurable at all.

I'm alos mad that winamp5 doesn't have the only feature I wanted(right click enqueue like winamp3) so I'm back to using winamp2 again

inthegray · 17th October 2003, 14:19

i wrote a pretty lengthy comparison with itunes against winamp, and some of the flaws of Apple's new media player. i think it's a worthy read.

wakingrufus · 17th October 2003, 15:15

Quote:

Originally posted by inthegray
i wrote a pretty lengthy comparison with itunes against winamp, and some of the flaws of Apple's new media player. i think it's a worthy read.

nice work
i dont understand why apple doesnt understand the concept of maximizeing

Viper007Bond · 17th October 2003, 18:08

Quote:

Originally posted by inthegray
i wrote a pretty lengthy comparison with itunes against winamp, and some of the flaws of Apple's new media player. i think it's a worthy read.

Thanks for the awesome read.

tbdean · 17th October 2003, 18:12

To stop: press pause. To restart from the beginning double click on the song.

But, iTunes does suck, for many reasons. I doesn't seem to be able to put the playlists on a remote file server. With WinAmp all of my playlists are syncronized between all of my computers. With iTunes, this appears to be impossible.

Plus, iTunes insists on savings purchased music as \\Server\Artist\Album\SongName.m4p where as I want it as \\Server\Artist\Artist - Album - Song name.m4p.

There is a ton more, but it's all been brought up. I think if WinAMP (2,3,5, whatever) can play the M4p files then it'll be fine. I'll purchase with iTunes and listen with WinAMP.

xzxzzx · 17th October 2003, 18:24

/me gets reminded that I don't have an iPod yet..

Grrr...

zootm · 17th October 2003, 18:37

i can't see iTunes being much cop vs. winamp5 or foobar, unless you have an iPod, or an apple fetish. i'll download and have a go at some point, though.

will · 17th October 2003, 19:43

Quote:

Originally posted by Russ
You mean column? Edit->View Options->Uncheck Genre.

naw, pane. Next to artist and album on the Browse thingy.

zootm: its Winamp 5 bish!

InvisableMan · 17th October 2003, 19:50

Quote:

Originally posted by ElChevelle
/me goes to iTunes forum to spam Winamp

I talked to Steve awhile ago about adding iPod support to winamp.

It's a good idea. Even though I despise all that apple stands for.

will · 17th October 2003, 19:53

Quote:

Originally posted by InvisableMan
I talked to Steve awhile ago about adding iPod support to winamp.

It's a good idea. Even though I despise all that apple stands for.

Already in http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....16#post1041916

InvisableMan · 17th October 2003, 20:08

see how much i rule even at times when things are involved that you never even knew i had a hand in?

Raas · 17th October 2003, 20:10

I think I'll stick with i-Tunes for the moment,like it that much now.
The Equalizer owns Winamps by the way,nice to not having to install 3 dsp plugins to make it sound the way I want.

gt55x · 17th October 2003, 21:13

itunes only works for America only.
It will never be the silightest popler due to that.

While Winamp is the Worlds most famous Media/Mp3 player.

Russ · 17th October 2003, 21:15

Err, iTunes Music Store only works in America. iTunes itself works fine here in the UK

.

will · 17th October 2003, 21:31

Quote:

Originally posted by InvisableMan
see how much i rule even at times when things are involved that you never even knew i had a hand in?

yeah, you own us, and is completely unrelated to the fact that justin a) wrote winamp b) has an ipod c) likes writing cool code

Krynis · 17th October 2003, 21:31

i have been using winamp for over 8 years im pretty stuck on it

s1138 · 17th October 2003, 22:13

itunes too big for me....
visuals suck
cant really tell big dfference in sound quality
loading files is ALOT slower then winamp
oh, a big one is....IT REORGANIZES YOUR MUSIC FOLDER!

D&B · 21st October 2003, 06:18

I am tired so here are my quick positives and negatives for itunes when compared to winamp (i am sticking with winamp.)

iTunes Pros
-----
-Ease of use is throught the roof. My mom could use this fucking thing.
-Built in quality ripping and burning.
-iPod support
-Library does a perfect job of reading all my file's title, artist etc. Winamp fucks this up somehow.

iTunes Negatives
-------------
Most the negatives for me fall under the lack of a plugin system
- no dsp plugins (cant live without enhancer.)
- no input plugins. What about my MPCs? my psfs? smcs? and all the other random shit my winamp takes like a charm.
-ML isnt as powerful
-i guess lack of skins are a negative, but with such an easy use interface most people would never change it.

Right now the winner for me is Winamp. Most of the positives to iTunes I have seperate Apps that do loads better. Ripping? EAC baby. Ipod support? Ephpod blows iTunes out of the water. Burning? Nero works fine for me.

I doubt even winamp pro will have ripping and encoding support on par with (free) EAC or ipod support as robust as (free) ephpod. The burning might be cool though.

Yes, I know its hard for a program to do everything well that individual apps do well, but I think winamp could do it!

EnDurA · 21st October 2003, 09:31

Winamp shall own over all media players, no other one can duplicate AVS without it looking shit *cough*WiMPy*cough*, and that alone makes winamp 10x better than anything else.

EnDurA · 21st October 2003, 09:42

o, and btw, in regard to

Quote:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
visulisation is totally dwarfed by wa5's AVS and milkdrop (which can go 25fps at 1280x1024 here)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

No contest here. But is music to be listened to or stared at?

music should be accompanied by trippy vis so that i have both visual and audio ectasy

[edit] sorry about the double post [/edit]

Velouria · 21st October 2003, 13:28

Quote:

Originally posted by will
naw, pane. Next to artist and album on the Browse thingy.

Go to Edit > Preferences > General
Uncheck "Show genre when browsing"

Quote:

Originally posted by walkingrufus
i dont understand why apple doesnt understand the concept of maximizeing

Was browsing through Slashdot and found this explanation, make of it what you will.

xzxzzx · 21st October 2003, 13:36

Indeed - Winamp wipes the floor in the visualization department.

D&B · 21st October 2003, 18:56

Quote:

Originally posted by xzxzzx
Indeed - Winamp wipes the floor in the visualization department.

While I agree, it is the least important part of a music player, versus, you know, functionality and stuff.

17th October 2003, 08:05	#1
MeStinkBAD Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Tucson, AZ Posts: 18	WinAmp vs iTunes (it's here) Does Winamp really stand a chance now that iTunes is availible for Windows now? Yeah iTunes has no skins, simple "visuals", and probably uses a bit more CPU power than WinAmp. But spend a few hours using it and you become hooked. Anyhow I'd just like to see this communities response to the Windows release of iTunes.

17th October 2003, 08:19	#3
griffinn Court Jester (Forum King) Join Date: May 2000 Location: Your local toystore Posts: 3,501	http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=152836 The smiley slot machine! \| Quotable Blog

17th October 2003, 09:20	#4
will Nullsoft Newbie (Moderator) Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Sheffield, England Posts: 5,569	iTunes mem useage: 36mb (7.5 for winamp 5.0b1) 20mb download (wa5 is 4.6) lacks skins. visulisation is totally dwarfed by wa5's AVS and milkdrop (which can go 25fps at 1280x1024 here) UI is sluggish, and I don't really like it. Library browse thing unconfigurable (i want rid of the genre thing) Smart views not as powerful (although perhaps a bit easier o use) than wa5 library views. Doesn't support win98 No media library plugins. No r3mix option for mp3 vbr encoding. No stop button (i sometimes hit stop then play to go to the beginning of the song) If you have any quieries as to why winamp has to have a pro version, check the Winamp Pro FAQ DO NOT PM ME WITH TECH SUPPORT QUESTIONS

17th October 2003, 10:27	#7
Viper007Bond Major Dude Join Date: May 2002 Location: Portland, OR Life: None Posts: 1,054	Winamp5 > * - Viper007Bond \| Viper007Bond.com

17th October 2003, 14:19	#16
inthegray Major Dude Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 704	i wrote a pretty lengthy comparison with itunes against winamp, and some of the flaws of Apple's new media player. i think it's a worthy read. eric is awesome

17th October 2003, 08:18	#2
duh Banned Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 290	I like how iTunes is all nice and free for a full featured product with maximun ripping/burning speed

17th October 2003, 09:24	#5
ryan not fucked, not quite. (Forum King) Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Missouri via Tennessee Posts: 8,813	Will, care to throw foobar into the mix ? edit: usux will

17th October 2003, 10:23	#6
ertmann\|CPH Forum Viking (Forum King) Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: The North Posts: 3,541	grrrrrr, i would like iTunes, but apparently Europe and Japan is not important enough markets for Apple, fucking hell man, our disposable income nearly matches that of the United States... pricks!

17th October 2003, 11:19	#9
psyfive Forum King Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Colorado Posts: 2,527	so was the timing to relese the public beta of winamp 5 timed to match the iTunes release?!

17th October 2003, 13:22	#13
s1138 Alumni? Join Date: May 2000 Location: joja Posts: 6,936	who said you dont need a stop button?! lol.....i use the stop button all the time, and i use the pause button all the time too... stop. if i have to leave, and want to hear the same song when i come back... pause. if i am listening to a 55 minute remix, and have to leave, but dont want to come back and listen to the whole thing again.

17th October 2003, 13:28	#14
ElChevelle Moderator Alumni Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: the MANCANNON! Posts: 22,448	/me goes to iTunes forum to spam Winamp

17th October 2003, 14:09	#15
idynkydnk Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 428	itunes was good for about 5 minutes. There's no options and it's not configurable at all. I'm alos mad that winamp5 doesn't have the only feature I wanted(right click enqueue like winamp3) so I'm back to using winamp2 again

17th October 2003, 18:12	#19
tbdean Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 2	To stop: press pause. To restart from the beginning double click on the song. But, iTunes does suck, for many reasons. I doesn't seem to be able to put the playlists on a remote file server. With WinAmp all of my playlists are syncronized between all of my computers. With iTunes, this appears to be impossible. Plus, iTunes insists on savings purchased music as \\Server\Artist\Album\SongName.m4p where as I want it as \\Server\Artist\Artist - Album - Song name.m4p. There is a ton more, but it's all been brought up. I think if WinAMP (2,3,5, whatever) can play the M4p files then it'll be fine. I'll purchase with iTunes and listen with WinAMP.

17th October 2003, 18:24	#20
xzxzzx Forum King Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 7,254	/me gets reminded that I don't have an iPod yet.. Grrr... Freedom of speech is the basic freedom of humanity. When you've lost that, you've lost everything. 1\/\/4y 34\|<$p4y 1gp4y 33714y, 0d4y 0uy4y? \| Roses are #FF0000; Violets are #0000FF; chown -R ${YOU} ~/base The DMCA. It really is that bad. : Count for your life.

17th October 2003, 18:37	#21
zootm Forum King Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: the nether reaches of bonnie scotland Posts: 13,375	i can't see iTunes being much cop vs. winamp5 or foobar, unless you have an iPod, or an apple fetish. i'll download and have a go at some point, though.

17th October 2003, 20:08	#25
InvisableMan Ninja Master! (Forum King) Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Hotel California Posts: 4,333	see how much i rule even at times when things are involved that you never even knew i had a hand in?

17th October 2003, 20:10	#26
Raas Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: nowhere Posts: 341	I think I'll stick with i-Tunes for the moment,like it that much now. The Equalizer owns Winamps by the way,nice to not having to install 3 dsp plugins to make it sound the way I want.

17th October 2003, 21:13	#27
gt55x Senior Member Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 230	itunes only works for America only. It will never be the silightest popler due to that. While Winamp is the Worlds most famous Media/Mp3 player.

17th October 2003, 21:15	#28
Russ Mostly Harmless (Alumni) Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: UK Posts: 2,319	Err, iTunes Music Store only works in America. iTunes itself works fine here in the UK . For long you live and high you fly, but only if you ride the tide, and balanced on the biggest wave you race towards an early grave. \|Musicbrainz\|Audioscrobbler\|last.fm\|

17th October 2003, 21:31	#30
Krynis Major Dude Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Canada B.C. Posts: 666 Posts: 771	i have been using winamp for over 8 years im pretty stuck on it

17th October 2003, 22:13	#31
s1138 Alumni? Join Date: May 2000 Location: joja Posts: 6,936	itunes too big for me.... visuals suck cant really tell big dfference in sound quality loading files is ALOT slower then winamp oh, a big one is....IT REORGANIZES YOUR MUSIC FOLDER!

21st October 2003, 06:18	#32
D&B Banned Join Date: Mar 2001 Posts: 1,027	I am tired so here are my quick positives and negatives for itunes when compared to winamp (i am sticking with winamp.) iTunes Pros ----- -Ease of use is throught the roof. My mom could use this fucking thing. -Built in quality ripping and burning. -iPod support -Library does a perfect job of reading all my file's title, artist etc. Winamp fucks this up somehow. iTunes Negatives ------------- Most the negatives for me fall under the lack of a plugin system - no dsp plugins (cant live without enhancer.) - no input plugins. What about my MPCs? my psfs? smcs? and all the other random shit my winamp takes like a charm. -ML isnt as powerful -i guess lack of skins are a negative, but with such an easy use interface most people would never change it. Right now the winner for me is Winamp. Most of the positives to iTunes I have seperate Apps that do loads better. Ripping? EAC baby. Ipod support? Ephpod blows iTunes out of the water. Burning? Nero works fine for me. I doubt even winamp pro will have ripping and encoding support on par with (free) EAC or ipod support as robust as (free) ephpod. The burning might be cool though. Yes, I know its hard for a program to do everything well that individual apps do well, but I think winamp could do it!

21st October 2003, 09:31	#33
EnDurA Major Dude Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: East Coast of Aus Posts: 1,467	Winamp shall own over all media players, no other one can duplicate AVS without it looking shit coughWiMPycough, and that alone makes winamp 10x better than anything else.

21st October 2003, 13:36	#36
xzxzzx Forum King Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 7,254	Indeed - Winamp wipes the floor in the visualization department. Freedom of speech is the basic freedom of humanity. When you've lost that, you've lost everything. 1\/\/4y 34\|<$p4y 1gp4y 33714y, 0d4y 0uy4y? \| Roses are #FF0000; Violets are #0000FF; chown -R ${YOU} ~/base The DMCA. It really is that bad. : Count for your life.

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