Comparing Media Players: WMP11, iTunes, Winamp & Foobar2000

[KalizVids]

So what is the best?

[SeanS373N]

Lmao face down ass up. xD

[martinboson]

he forgot bonjour for apple.

[narsplace]

damn PCs were slow in 2008

[mewimi]

Itunes is bloatware.

[mewimi]

Your winamp loads a great deal slower than mine o.O" and I have agent disabled lol

[mewimi]

You should always play the same song, due to codecs/quality.

[Baalund]

Winamp ftw!

Tryed foobar2000 but didn't like it. Plus foobar2000 is not supported by many radio stations

[FeLiNe418]

@Baalund what radio stations it doesn't support?

[E1SUNZ]

this vid is 3 years old they all improved now need a new review

[landloper1986]

winamp ftw, its totally awesome and not evil. plus you can do anything you wantt and adapt it to your every whim

[Leivonmies]

foobar2000 + fooPss theme = epic msuic player harun87.deviantart . com/art/fooPss-108019546 remove spaces from the link

[NakedAleks]

Thanks for making this video, it was very informative and I'm now using foobar2000



[dahorn100011]

i use itunes to snyc my ipod and thats it, i use foobar for other things becuase it doesn't require any other services and doesn't take up much space, and with the custom layout its great

[CenaTv2]

I used to use Winamp back on windows 98, and it did the job then, but now its bloatware :(

Itunes is shit.

Foobar2000 is what i use.

[mewimi]

@CenaTv2 Just use the older winamps, you could probably use the new one and modify it in preferences to function like the older versions as well. :3

[MasterTubing]

Great video! Very well presented comparison.

[orestesangel]

I use Foobar2000 on my laptop as it's a light weight and nice player and Winamp on my main pc. Nice comparison man! And nice accent ;D

[drsjohnny]

so does Foobar enhant the music quality?

[zekeluther]

How did you get that stopwatch?

[1SidIcarus1]

WINAMP 4 LIFE

[pat20105]

what about Xion media player

[Lost4rmZone]

I think I'm going to install foobar and get rid if Itunes...ITunes installs so much other crap with it.

[dshopov]

just a question ... you added a directory to foobar's playlist NOT the library (as you did in winamp) so basically you just scanned for files ... why didn't you do this in winamp before you say foobar is faster ? (4k+ songs in under a sec :) (under REAL network environment )) and yes ... try not using "new bento skin" but the default one in winamp THEN tell me it loads so damn slow

[W3Guide]

1.foobar2000 2.Aimp2 3. some shit like iTunes

[pieyeti21994]

you should do Spotify :)

[LucasRocksFilms]

awww...what about songbird

[marioG211]

I TUNES IS THE SHIT BECAUSE I HAVE AN IPOD AND I USE IT TO SINK AND IT ORGANIZES EVERYTHING HOW YO WANT IT

[FuckingStanz]

@marioG211 The combination of your comment and the following in your profile "FOUND A SITE WAY BETTER THAN LOCKERZ COPY AND PASTE THE LINK AND SUBSCRIBE" cements my perception of the average iTunes userl; DUMB. 

ALSO CAN U TYPE LOUDER I CANNOT HEAR U YET

[marioG211]

@FuckingStanz first learn to type then you look at your self and see how much of a looser you are and then you can talk about other ppl

[FuckingStanz]

@marioG211 Apparently you were too slow to catch onto my emulating your grammar and unneccessary capslock, which had been rendering you retarded. Judging by your less than clever retort/insult, I've come to the conclusion that you are, in fact, inbred.

[Shawtgunner]

@FuckingStanz hahaha oh wow, thanks for giving me a laugh

[vstep]

Aimp2 is the best music player.

[starteamplus]

I use Jet Audio because it has perfect sound, also with WIDE effect. This sound is the best I ever heard. Even Winamp with plugins and outputs can't do this sound.

Jet Audio winner.

[Peon546]

ok ill be back in 1 second...ok im back guys!

[UnforgivableMen]

It's a huge fucking shame that there is no Foobar for Linux :( I'm stuck with Rythmbox

[kovamdrmakavez]

foobar <3

[mikecrater]

mediamonkey is a fav of mine...mostly because i can rename files at the drop of a hat,which comes in handy cause i have a ton of song (both folders and files) that are a mess

[csfnau]

What is that tool that u're using as a timer? How does it worx? Thx 4 the future response in advance =)

[bluephreakr]

@Netrex44 But when you have it set up the way you want it, use a portable install and move it to Dropbox. 2GB of file space means fb2k and other small open-source programs have more than enough room to grow.

You can also install Dropbox portably on a USB drive with a bit of a hacked copy called DropboxPortable. Go for the older copies if you can find 'em, latest version as of this writing might work for you, but if it doesn't going with something slightly older works as well.

[NetrexTech]

@bluephreakr hey, got new acc :P

anyways.. I've tried Foobar many times and always thought i'd never learn this program but then one day which was yesterday i played with the program and finally i can see how much better this media player is than winamp and all others..

It's an advanced media player. It's not "out of the box" but that's just cool cos' you can configure it the way you want. I just had trouble doing that from the start :P

[mitika4ever]

foobar2000 is the best

[voltz15]

Does Fubar have an amp setting like winamp does? That's the only thing that's keeping me from trying it out.

[bluephreakr]

@voltz15 Hell of a necropost. But i may as well say, foobar2000 1.0.3 has something called Dolby Headphone Wrapper, which is something for foobar's DSP settings. Enable it by finding a copy of dolbyhph.dll on your PC or online and telling it where it is.

Let's be clear; foo_dsp_dolbyhp.dll goes into your \components folder. dolbyhph.dll stays out of it. Place it in the main directory of your player instead.

The only downer is, foobar does no video. But aside from that, works well as portable.

[Nienormalny]

naked foobar looks... naked. Try it with fooAvA interface... looks better than the others, obviously display covers and still uses less resources and runs faster than the rest.

[Victorinox99]

Great review, detailed and fair. I use WMP, but now I'm probably going to get Winamp as it looks like it has a nicer interface.

Never been a fan of iTunes or Foobar2000.

[Chiliem82]

A short summary afterwards might be nice ;) - maybe a statistics screenshot?

Thx for this!

[CSstephan]

Foobar does load Album Covers, you just have to configure the interface correctly. Also, you forgot to mention itunes' Bonjour service which takes quite some resources.

[longlivewhites]

TARANTULA TIME FOR MASSIVE COME SING Y'ALL!!!!!:D nice video:)

[tysonbb85]

Foobar is the best :)

[1981z28camaro]

Winamp with DFX :-)

[E34BMW535i]

foobar is the best overall. winamp has too many bugs, itunes is a bloated, intrusive pig, and wmp11 is ok, but i don't like how it sorts songs by artist.

[squillysk8]

The only thing about foobar is that there is no search feature.

[ToplessGranny]

There's a component that includes a search function.

[fidely]

No need to apologize, you help me make up my mind. Thank you. Oh. You should apologize for having so much rubish music. I saw britney spear a lot of times on your list.

[DCdanis]

nice vid man

[ILoveWowWToo]

I like windows media player betterr.. then itunes

[Danilko100]

iTunes FTW, and it beats WMP even better on vista...

[talldude123]

you're stupid....it takes a whole 5 seconds more to load than WMP11.

[rastaxp]

@talldude123 Depends on your computer and operating system

[talldude123]

Well, most people have a single-core CPU and Windows XP. Most people I know have that setup, including myself.

[bagshitass]

Winamp is alot better, but i was wondering can anyone tell me the best plug in to enhance my winamp5.57? i want to enhance the sound and my system is logitech z5500..any help would be nice, i've read about Enhancer 017..can anyone advise me..thanks.

[almaster0]

VLC FTW!!!

sure it isnt the best for just songs. but it plays absolutly anything.

[TonyRiddles]

I like Winamp much better than WMP and ITunes

[larebz]

MediaMonkey guys, seriously.

[XReDDrAGonX21]

check out Xion audio player

[squillysk8]

Ok, don't mark this as spam cus im serious. If you ever get the chance to download "VLC Media Player", I think you would be very impressed. What I do is you VLC to play music and foobar to organize it. Very easy.

[TheMusicTrack]

Winamp Pr0!

[bluephreakr]

@TheMusicTrack Cracked! lol

No seriously. Everyone I know who has Pro cracked it. If you like Nullsoft, please support them. Wished foobar could support video so I can convert others into using it, since foobar2000, while not the best out of the box allows you to make it whatever the hell you want it to be, musically and graphically.

[louisgjordan2]

I have noticed a problem in AIMP that do not show up in the others.

Instead of playing all the samples to the end, and then looping back to the beginning to play again, in certain situations, it will play to the end and loop to the beginning and play a mix of both the beginning and a section of the end. It's an odd error, but one that does not show up with the other players.

Also, the sound quality is not as good. Something about the harmonics is flat.

It is the only player that shares well.

[stevyainzo]

visuals in winamp are breathtaking

[frestylezz]

and those from WMP suck.

[bluephreakr]

@stevyainzo foobar2000, shpeck plugin, look on the hydrogenaudio forums for foo_vis_shpeck and look at the last few posts as of posting this. If you want a pre-hacked DLL, send me a PM and I'll give it to you, and I even have a guide called Shpeck for Newbies (Yes, a dedicated website for it).

shpeckguide.x10.mx

[louisgjordan2]

Foobar2K 26,636k RAM when playing music

AIMP 5,500 RAM when playing music

AIMP plays 32 bit, high end sounds, and has perfect sharing. I may have found the best player yet. Please include it if you do another comparison.

[vibovitold]

I use AIMP2 as well, but I don't understand what practical difference does 26 MB vs 5 MB make, when we commonly have 2... 4... 8... GB of RAM these days? how often does that 21 MB of saved RAM matter to you?

[louisgjordan2]

Wow, look at those stats! Great comparison. I hate it when programs have hidden services running in the background! Foobar2k's lack of services is a huge plus, as well as it's very small footprint, and speed. It would easily be the best sound-ap of all time and probably is, but for sound-programmer's who need to work with powerful, and high-end soundfiles, which both winamp and foobar2k are capable of, Foobar falls short because it does not SHARE. Should have learned that in kindergarten...

[louisgjordan2]

Winamp is the best media-player by far. It plays many formats, including 32 bit, high-bitrate soundfiles, which WMP does not, and it is very fast.

Foobar2k is equally as good as Winamp, and has the same advantages and power with one big exception. Foobar2000 does not share the soundfile that it's playing. This is a major drawback for me, a sound-programmer. Another flaw is that it's programmer is impossible to contact. WMP just does not compete in the power arena.

[pinturaz]

Good, I like winamp.

[sammyd1993]

This may seem like a stupid question but why are you using a Virtual Machine?

[astigpat13]

winamp! you can even make the visualization your desktop background and awesome skins and tons of them, and also been alive for years!

[TheTexanAtheist]

winamp is the best period!

[IzzySM]

And I say Foobar is the best, period!

:P

[KRUMP274]

It depends what os you are operating too. like itunes will run faster if you are using mac osx. that goes with wmp11 if you are running vista etc. So it really depends on the os

[thehobbsslayer]

i think foobar work very fast on both man :P

[CriminalMonkey]

you forget VLC

[BassGoesBoom1]

hes using the modern winamp skins?

that really slows it down

[EpsilonKnight2]

the cool thing about winamp though is it can play pretty much ANY kind of media file you can think of. winamp is great for live streaming too. as he said it opens faster if you just leave the agent alone.

[GGfpc]

you're crap

Just kidding

[Justnorthofjustice]

Very educational... thanks.

[crissxxx]

Aimp2 would be the best player for sound quality, its equal or a bit better than xm player.

[Honorsucks]

FooBar2000 Is overall better than anything on the free software exchange.

[ankitpasi1]

foobar2000 FTW!

[YomorokaXD]

real player 11, im not calling you crap but im just saying real player sp is a grate media thingy as well

[BrerRa66it]

foobar2000 smart joyce

[foxstriker10]

Microsoft has improved wmp. Wmp 12 is very stable and faster than wmp 12. Foobar is also another good choice for media playing software.

[vibovitold]

i know this starts sort of like a cheesy commercial ;) but well. like most ppl, i was a long time winamp user - once i tried foobar i switched. it's more convenient. it provides multiple playlist support (tabbed). it's easily customizable (you don't have to hunt for some buggy plugins). it has a built-in media library. it allows you to perform file operations (e.g. copying all the songs into one folder) - by a couple of clicks. i can't list all the features here... i recommend it 100%.

[vibovitold]

i may be wrong but my impression is that winamp is the equivalent of internet explorer - the majority people who stick with it, have never simply tried any alternative

[princeryuma]

what is better for better music and quility

[OjStudios]

Foobar2000 with ASIO is the best.

[Voovux]

VLC Media Player is cool, too.

[Juninho8Slo]

Foobar2000

[illage2]

:O Trantula by Pendulum

[obbytoo]

I use Foobar because I don't need to look at it...it's for music!

[JustCloudless]

amen!

[Weeeman5872]

Agree'd

[dshopov]

@obbytoo actually you are forced to look at it when you change the song AND watch exactly what are you doing to NOT mess your playlist :) while in winamp you just send it to tray and forget about it (true hotkeys ftw)

[1981z28camaro]

Winamp just looks better, and it's fast at adding music too (Foobar was faster because like he said it doesn't add album art)

Winamp is easier to use as well, has some cool features, good skins, and you can use the DFX audio plugin, which is amazing, and the other programs other than Windows Media Player can't use that program, so I would say Winamp is the best one.

[houleagain9048]

get more ram and a faster comp stop bitching.

[bluephreakr]

@houleagain9048 Not everyone has the money for it, or the space. Myself, I use a craptop. It's a single core that's begun to choke on everything because I have too much shit running on it at once, lol

[moot2000]

Tried Foobar twice before, over the years, hated it for the terrible UI. Had to use Foobar again recently to do some format conversions, noticed how nice everything sounded. Then AB'ed with wmp and iTunes which has the awsomest UI, but in the end it's the sound that matters. Now the only thing I can to listen to is Foobar. Wmp and iTunes sound same, that is, crappy.

I use JBL LSR32's. Decent, by ANY standard.

WinAmp may sound good with the right setup, but Foobar sounds great out of the box.

[bluephreakr]

@moot2000 Dolby Headphone Wrapper, and Columns UI or PanelsUI if you want to revamp the look.

[Mibmu]

And my Winamp (newest ^^) uses only about 14mb ram! :D

[Mibmu]

I'm using Winamp in the classic theme, takes less RAM, CPU and stuff...=P

[NightmareX151]

I prefer Winamp to all the other ones.

[mstram24]

foobar2000 is a superior application in every respect.

[bluephreakr]

@mstram24 Except for video. Once video comes along, fb2k may be the iTunes AND Winamp killer.

[AlbedoAtoned]

If you have a lot of music and like your music tags, then Foobar is for you. I have been using it for a couple years now and though there is a learning curve it isn't as large as some would say. Just learn it little by little.

[dugger0]

fb2k has a library feature and album art. You make it look like a POS. You can also change the layout of the GUI to suit your needs to almost any way you want. I think you poorly reviewed fb2k in my opinion.

[AppA]

WinAmp - cool dude at the bar drinking a scotch and wearing a leather jacket.

WMP - looks pretty normal but has a livesize poster of Josef Fritzl above his bed.

VideoLan (VLC) - lol what are you doing here, do you even have an equalizer?

iTunes - glossy, fat, insecure transvestite.

foobar2000 - Chuck Norris.

[PsycoticaKamikaze]

I switched from iTunes to Winamp yesterday, and it's much better, foobar2000 looks like it has awesome speed and resource usage, but I couldn't figure it out.

[A0TP]

Make another comparation with jetAudio 7.

[LIEHIEZE]

Thanks, great vid!

I think I'm going to stick with winamp for now.. like it!

[videoslacker]

Even though I own a laptop that can handle many of the heavier stuff out there, I still always get the lightest weight players. I originally was a winamp guy for years, and then I started noticing that winamp was becoming buggier and bloated. I switched to foobar and never looked back. Winamp just went down the drain when AOL brought the rights to nullsoft. :(

[mikimiki95]

maybe it starts faster but your comp makes it longer, I dont know^^

[wine2805]

great video thanks for sharing

[pivovinorakija]

nice video ...

[MIGHTYcbu]

LOL, all the things mentioned are really not important on a mediaplayer.

it's all about usabilty, songbird tries but fails in the longrun, but iTunes is by far the best player.

[CmdrTobs]

ITunes......lol that's the worst. Well. Its the worst if you have been using computers say before the year 2000. People these days can't seem to cope without programs with "libraries" that hide directory structure of there HDD from them. As the concept of such a thing is too hard for people these days. The amount of times I get asked by someone where their 5GB music collection actually is when they want to backup because they have no idea.....

[napone0]

Nice video. Traditionally, I'm not a big fan of Microsoft; BUT, I have to say Windows Media Player 11 is so much more responsive than iTunes 7. The 'gapless' feature that Apple introduced into iTunes 7 completely destroyed the player, making it slow and bulky. I haven't tried Foobar yet, but I'll give it a try.

[goofynewfie72]

Awesome video. It was very informative. I just wish you had included JetAudio in the comparison. Maybe next time?

[Xplodz]

Itunes = Big steaming pile of cow shit.

[eneakume]

winamp pro is great

[ThatKidKyle]

i am so getting foobar2000 for my intel atom netbook now....

[666TheMasterGod666]

itunes is the best but too slow when have much music

[omid11]

Um no. Itunes is the worst. Following windows media player.

[FatNation]

Wow.. I'm going to install Foobar now.

[Jr4594]

foobar is my favorite, i really use itunes just for my ipod, and ill play songs on there if its already up, and wmp11 is fine if you dont want to install anymore players

[alililiff]

crap or something like that :p

No just joking nice video :D

[xxuglymexx]

MPC FOR VIDEOS

[Jr4594]

foobar is the best for music, for videos id either use vlc or just install a codec pack and use windows media player

[khara4life09]

im gAnna try out foobar is its the lightest.

[ziweiwu]

If you are smart, and geeky . _____ PLZ use foobars. sure it's complex and hard to program. But it can be your best player, because You can actually design how it looks and how it plays.

[Jr4594]

thats exactly what i love about it, you could choose to only show what you want

[lolesossp]

you forgot VLC

[chaos8092]

that winamp 8 sec startup is bull... on classic (ie no themes) its as fast as the others...

[arronhunt]

you should have done a review on Appeal (or how attractive it is)

[xoxkillerdollxox]

well i have a mac with itunes, so screw you all! xD

[mabo1980]

Great replacement for iTunes which can import the database from iTunes is Songbird by Mozilla.

Finally you can uninstall iTunes and still have all your statistics etc...

[exozero]

Winamp ftw

[Xplodz]

Sorry ipod fanfags everything beats itunes by a LONGSHOT.

[manicaldan13]

great review. my i tunes takes a HELL of a lot longer to load, at least 15 seconds. but then again i do have over 20GB of music. thanks

[mikae1]

Give musikCube a try.

[pyrogamer]

You mentioned that foobar2000 "might not show all the album artwork". Not true, it will show all the album artwork that your files are tied to automatically after importing.

[daeladub]

WMP 11 is a good player, even when im multitasking pretty hard, no locking up or crashing, it's pretty stable. I use REAL from time to time but WMP is what i use from time to time. I havent used WINAMP for a couple of years but i experienced no problems with it either.

[silverstonewebcam]

WMP 11 FTW

[LessthanJake14]

Takes me 7 seconds to start WMP 11 on memory hog Vista.

[silverstonewebcam]

takes me only .67 secs on vista....and ive 2 GB ram and core 2 duo 2.0 GHZ..ssoooo dont call vista a hog its completely fine

[demonikreaper]

Foobar2000 is honest to god the best music player I have ever used. I don't need 10,000 visualisations, because it's usually running in the backround (never using more than 20mb of RAM). I have customized it more so than I could ever do with any of the other players. I can skin it too, but what's the point? All I might do is change the background color.

Anyways, typical computer users use typical programs. Enjoy your WHY COMPUTER STOP RUNNING WHEN I MAKE SONG SING?

[djtheextremegamerpro]

FOOBAR FTW

[DatNarutoKid]

cheapo

[demonikreaper]

DatNarutoKid.

First of all, LOL at your name.

Secondly, your username says a lot about you.

I am guessing you use windows vista home premium, probably an emachines package deal for under $800, and you are probably also under the age of 14, and know little about computers.

[pimpstenator]

man lol my firefox is 3 times the itunes for ram. But i usually always have 4 or more tabs open.

Good video.

[demonikreaper]

Try using Opera. It takes a bit to get used to, but is overall better.

[Mhoomba]

I love Opera, except for the built in Bit Torrent. I prefer uTorrent and am forced to use a different browser, temporarily, to download torrentss.

[demonikreaper]

No, actually, not at all.

I will message you in a second.

[ladynumberfour4]

to download torrents from opera with utorrent:

tools -> preferences -> advanced -> downloads -> uncheck "hide files opened with opera" -> quickfind -> type "torrent" -> select it -> edit -> check "open with default application" and select the uTorrent .exe. i know demonikreaper has probably answered already...just ~sharing the info~ :D

[decemi]

you can disable the builtin utorrent, im using utorrent with opera myself.

[StefConEnterprises]

Foobar2000 0.9.4.5 is superior to all the new versions when it comes to ram. Workes just as great. :) 30 000 songs in playlist and playing=10 MB in ram. Minimized=3 MB.

[PhoeniXCE]

YOU'RE CRAP.

jk, good video. :)