Playback tools

Playback / Audio Library

Most of us use SqueezeCenter and Squeezebox to playback our digital media, but having dedicated tools to playback on the computer and having a good tool to organize and manage your collection can be very important. The wiki already has a (non-tool based) guide to organizing your collection.

The following tools playback and/or organize media on your computer:

Windows (XP/2000):

SoftSqueeze

+ Freeware and Open Source
+ Plays all formats that SqueezeCenter can play
- No library or organization (uses SqueezeCenter)
- Only works with SqueezeCenter

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Foobar 2000

+ Freeware and Open Source
+ Supports several file formats
+ Highly customizable
+ Supports  Tagging
+ Supports ReplayGain
+ Supports Transcoding
- Beta (under heavy development)
- Getting it setup can take a bit of work
- Making it look nice is a lot of work

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iTunes

+ Freeware
+ Probably the best organization tool out there
+ Has lots of other features like PodCasting and Radio
+ You can buy music from Apple through it
- Does not support FLAC
- Can move files around on your hard drive if not setup correctly

Here is a guide to getting iTunes working with SqueezeCenter

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Winamp

+ Freeware (but see below)
+ Plug-ins for almost all codecs
+ Can transcode to some formats
- Pro version (more features) is CommercialWare

Some people prefer older versions of WinAmp.

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JRiverMediaCenter

+ Good for organizing large collections
+ Supports several formats including FLAC
- TrialWare

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SongBird

+ Freeware and Open Source
+ Similar interface to iTunes (good for organization)
- Beta (under heavy development)

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Contributors: Street_Samurai