In the endless battle of the Windows-based PC vs. the Mac, at least one thing's for certain: if you're a Windows user, choosing the right audio jukebox software involves wading through a plethora of choices. Because iTunes for Mac OS X and up provides a blissfully painless experience, Mac users have it easy. Now back to the Windows faithful. Some of you may be unaware of the conundrum we're presenting here, and more power to you; after all, ignorance can sometimes be bliss, and Windows ships with Windows Media Player (WMP), an undeniably functional music jukebox. However, as you get deeper into experiencing music and other media on your PC, it will become abundantly clear that WMP can't do it all, though version 10.0 comes pretty darn close. With the surplus of contenders from which to choose, how's a Windows user to figure out which is right for them? That's where we come in.


Winamp's selection of free plug-ins (such as the cool skin above) is seemingly endless.
  
For this miniguide, we've evaluated seven media jukeboxes and scored them against one another for the most minute details. All testing was performed with the free versions of the jukeboxes in order to keep the playing field level. After extensive comparisons, we have some good news and some bad news. First, the positive: there are viable alternatives to WMP. Unfortunately, not one of 'em satisfies all of our music or video needs. Then again, they are all free, so we can't really complain. Take a look, and decide which ones suit you best.



Windows Media Player 10.0 Windows Media Player 10.0
Why we love it: Microsoft makes creating playlists, syncing, and burning track lists a painless and brainless procedure -- once you familiarise yourself with the interface. And the app's seamless organisation of all types of media is enviable, to say the least. Plus, the integration of a variety of devices as well as music stores and services makes it a one-stop spot.

Why we hate it: If you run any Microsoft platform, you can't get rid of it. Version 10.0 is available for only Windows XP. It can also take some time to learn the intricacies of the complex interface, and it has a tendency to conflict with other music programs.

Best for: Media management, device syncing, CD ripping, and online purchasing of songs and other media.

Ripping time: 3 minutes, 36 seconds*
Burning time: 10 minutes, 26 seconds**



* We ripped a 74-minute mix CD on a desktop PC running Windows XP with a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 processor and 512MB of RAM. We used the maximum allowable speed, encoded files at 128Kbps in either WMA or AAC, and allowed our e-mail and IM clients to run in the background.

** We burned a 79-minute mix CD on a laptop PC running Windows XP with a 1.8GHz Pentium 4 processor and 512MB of RAM. We used the maximum allowable speed and had no applications running in the background.

RealNetworks RealPlayer 10.5 RealNetworks RealPlayer 10.5
Why we love it: Thanks to Harmony Technology, RealPlayer is compatible with a wide variety of portable devices, but the clincher is its ability to sync with the iPod -- the jukebox can even play and transfer protected songs purchased from iTunes.

Why we hate it: If you don't do a custom install, it automatically becomes your default player. By default, CDs are ripped to AAC (.m4a) files, which are not compatible with most portable devices or music apps. Also, several handy features are available in only the Premium version.

Best for: Device syncing, burning CDs, Internet streaming (because, let's face it, a lot of streams are only available in RealAudio), and as an alternative to iTunes for iPod users.

Ripping time: 3 minutes, 43 seconds
Burning time: 7 minutes, 19 seconds

Apple iTunes 4.7 Apple iTunes 4.7
Why we love it: It's the simplest audio-only jukebox available and it integrates with the most popular portable MP3 player, the iPod, seamlessly. It's also a good application for networking multiple computers to share music streams.

Why we hate it: Its main claim to fame is seamless integration with Apple's iTunes music store, which is not yet available to Australians. It's an audio-only application but lacks some key features such as line-in recording and a customisable radio feature. Plus, thanks to some bugs and a slightly different interface, the Windows version isn't as good as the Mac version.

Best for: Burning CDs, creating playlists, syncing with iPod.

Ripping time: 4 minutes, 56 seconds
Burning time: 7 minutes, 19 seconds

Musicmatch Jukebox 10.0 Musicmatch Jukebox 10.0
Why we love it: A decidedly improved interface that's extremely customisable and better performance make Musicmatch one of the premier audio-only jukeboxes. With a variety of encoding and tagging options, Musicmatch is an audio geek's best friend.

Why we hate it: If you do the "express" install, it automatically becomes your default player, and you must be logged on as an administrator to change this setting; slow CD ripping; lots of extra features are available in the Plus version only.

Best for: Organising and managing your audio collection; listening to Musicmatch's excellent (paid) radio content; accessing nicely integrated pay-to-play services, On Demand and Music Store.

Ripping time: 7 minutes, 43 seconds
Burning time: 10 minutes, 53 seconds

Nullsoft Winamp 5.0 Nullsoft Winamp 5.0
Why we love it: It's a classic, user-customisable application that's basic and efficient. Like plug-ins? This is the application for you.

Why we hate it: The max speed for ripping and burning CDs is 2X, which makes those processes terribly slow. It also lacks some of the latest features found in more encompassing jukeboxes.

Best for: Listening to MP3s and radio streams; customising and enjoying a huge variety of plug-ins such as visualisations.

Ripping time: 37 minutes, 7 seconds
Burning time: 23 minutes, 24 seconds

JetAudio 6.0 Basic JetAudio 6.0 Basic
Why we love it: JetAudio supports more than 50 audio and video formats--especially handy if you listen to or watch a lot of different online streams so that you don't have to worry about constantly switching between RealPlayer and WMP. It includes free recording and file-conversion utilities. The many options for EQ and sound effects let you make your tunes sound just right.

Why we hate it: There's no built-in MP3 encoding, which takes away from the usefulness of the CD ripper. It lacks support for even JetAudio's portable devices.

Best for: Internet streaming, recording (especially radio), CD ripping, and file conversion (except to MP3).

Ripping time: 3 minutes, 25 seconds
Burning time: 11 minutes, 16 seconds

J. River Media Jukebox 8.0 J. River Media Jukebox 8.0
Why we love it: This media player is compatible with lots of file types and boasts a user-friendly interface. It represents the underdog of media jukeboxes.

Why we hate it: The program is buggy, and the interface looks a bit dated.

Best for: Searching your media; viewing video; CD ripping

Ripping time: 3 minutes, 29 seconds
Burning time: 21 minutes, 29 seconds


The final score

  Windows Media Player 10.0 RealNetworks RealPlayer 10.5 Apple iTunes 4.7 Musicmatch Nullsoft Winamp 5.0 JetAudio 6.0 Basic J. River Media Center
Overall look and feel 8 7 9 8 8 7 9
Library management 9 8 8 10 7 0 7
Multimedia capability 8 8 5 5 6 9 9
Ripping CDs 8 7 7 6 3 7 7
Burning CDs 6 9 9 6 3 7 3
Device support 9 9 6 8 6 0 2
Recording 0 0* 0 0* 0 9 8
File conversion 0 0* 3 6 0 8 0*
Internet streaming 8 8 7 7 8 10 9
Fun extras 8 7 8 6 10 7 3
Total 64 63 62 62 51 64 54
* Available in only the Plus or Premium version

The chart breakdown
(This list explains what criteria we used to rate each feature for all of the music apps.)

Overall look and feel: Prettiness; general visual experience; ease of use.
Library management: Usefulness for organising your media files; layout; how well it syncs with your main music folder.
Multimedia capability: Variety of music files supported; support for other media (video and photos).
Ripping CDs: Average time to rip full-length CD; ease of use; choice of options/settings.
Burning CDs: Average time to burn a full-length audio CD; ease of use; choice of options/settings.
Device support: Integration of device support; variety of devices supported; syncing capabilities.
Recording: Integration of recording feature; variety of sources supported; options/settings.
File conversion: Inclusion of feature; original file types supported; resulting file type options.
Internet streaming: Integration within the program; variety of common online streaming formats supported; performance.
Fun extras: Variety of visualisations and skins; integration of online music store; playback effects and customisation options; unique features.

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dabe
07/01/2005 03:56 PM

I have been a media junkie for as long as I can remember. While I would like there to be a program that "does it all" the way I want it to, there is just simply no such program which reaches this electronic state of nirvana for me. Therefore I choose to use different programs for different aspects of media consumption on my PC. For example, if I want to rip a CD, I'll use CDex - a program with a user-friendly interface which does everything I need it to and more. Once I've finished ripping a CD, I will listen to it not in CDex's media playback function, but will rather use Winamp 5. Winamp, like the article says, is a classic. It's great fun to use and, with the exception of Version 3, has evolved nicely through time. Then perhaps I will want to watch some video files I have recently downloa... I mean... legitimately purchased. And while Winamp's video playback is adequate, a program which is more specialised for video playback, such as Zoom Player, is a more appropriate option. Can you see where I'm going here? Although it would be nice to have one giant program, perhaps called "MULTI-PURPOSE MEDIA PLAYBACK SOFTWARE V 1.0", which has so many customisable options and features it's not funny, I am quite happy to double click on a couple of different shortcuts to satisfy my media fetish.

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DaVo
29/01/2005 06:52 PM

iTunes rulz if you have a large collection of music. Easy to manage and use. Looks nice...does everything I want it to do...

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peter
26/11/2005 01:03 PM

media player sticks to Napster even when online store is changed and if you remove it it restors again you guessed it NAPSTER GRRR online media lookup sucks why don't they use the normal database MONEY

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sandiablues
10/09/2006 10:58 AM

While Musicmatch does offer some pretty cool library features in the "editing - supertagging" mode, it still does not allow for multiple artists entry into the library. For instance, upload Santana's "Supernatural" into the library and because there is more than one feature artist involved in the recording, MM lists the album artist as "(Various)". You can correct the library entry by manually typing in "Santana", but then MM overwrites the contributing artist credits - you can't list one principle artist in the main credits with contributing artists listed per song. Very frustrating. And user beware! What you change in the program's music library will overwrite your core music files in your computer's music folder.. One good thing: compare the music output quality between WMP and MM. On my system at least, MM's audio output quality was significantly better..

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