WMP 11 Vs iTunes + QuickTime

[gxsaurav]

I am posting this article here, cos it involves words like "Apple" "iPod" "iTunes" Which always lead to fights

Windows media player in Windows Vista is a complete overhaul of the previous version & after version 9 it is the most sensible upgrade to Windows Media player.

*img216.imageshack.us/img216/5042/playeryc1.jpg

Windows Media player is based on the DirectShow engine of Windows which means all the videos and audio which it plays is hardware accelerated & decoded as long as the graphics card is compatible, such as nVidia GeForce 6 & up series using Purevideo or ATI X1xxx series using AVIVO Engine.

Due to this DirectShow nature, Windows Media Player can support any media format out there, as long as a codec is provided. Theoretically it can even play DRM content which is not WMA such as iTunes Fairplay but so far there is no Fairplay decoder for WMP released by Apple. Windows has a centralized database of codec and any DirectShow compatible media player such as BSPlayer or Winamp can access this database to play any file. In simple terms, if you have a codec installed, anything will play in any media player of your choice in Windows Vista.

Out of the box, Windows Media Player plays all you mp3 & wma. The supported formats can be extended by installing 3rd party codec & plug-in available freely & widely. Installing a simple codec such as FFDShow will allow you to a lot more audio formats supported by FFDShow including MP4, or you can simply install the Orban decoder to play non DRM mp4 & m4a files in Windows Media Player or the Matroska Pack for mkv files..The possibilities are endless.

WMP 11 came with enhancement to Library Management taking lessons from some other innovative media players available in the market such as iTunes or Winamp. Now you can search for any song in your library using the inbuilt search. You can sort your songs in various categories such as Album, artist Year, genre etc.

*img527.imageshack.us/img527/7052/libraryml1.th.jpg

Tagging songs is not a tough task although right now WMP supports tagging of only mp3 & wma format. You can either enter the tags yourself using the advanced tag editor or simply right click on a music file & select “Find Album info” which will gather the album info as well as Album art from the Windows Media Database. No matter whether it is a DRM song or non-DRM song or a song ripped from your CD. You also don’t need to sign in to do any of these. Simply go ahead, WMP doesn’t ask for any info of yours.

With WMP it is not just about Music Library, cos now you can even make a library of your videos based on tags you define. Just like music you can search for video songs, movies & TV Shows added to your library.

By default WMP rips your CDs in WMA format which you can change from the Options. You can also burn your songs which WMP will automatically convert while burning an Audio CD.

When it comes to Portable Media player management, WMP beats every other Media player out there. It syncs & connects to thousands of media players out there which support WMP. You just connect any PMP or DAP & it will detect it automatically & ask you whether you want to sync or not, If you do then it will either convert the songs you select to sync in a compatible format, & will sync them with proper tags, folder structure, album art etc. It even syncs to Sony Walkman phone, as long as you are syncing mp3 & not converting them to wma. However with new Walkman phones available from SE which support WMA, WMP can now sync directly saving both & space & quality.

You can purchase songs from many compatible online stores whether it is MTV Urge or Napster. The songs play in WMP only if they are DRM based. If they are not then they play anywhere. Windows Media player is a solution to all your Multimedia management or playback needs.

One thing which is in WMP & not in iTunes that you can change the interface colour on the fly toanything you like. Even as yucky to red.

Now comparing this to the Quicktime+iTunes ecosystem available on Mac OS X.

*img129.imageshack.us/img129/5974/quicktimecg3.th.jpg

QuickTime technology & engine is one of the best engines out there which rivals that of Windows Media, however the QuickTime player is a very slow & buggy media player on Windows platform just like iTunes. On a Mac the story is different & I wonder why can’t apple release it properly for Windows? 90% of the iPod users are Windows users. I am comparing the Mac offering here.

QuickTime out of the box, just like Windows Media player plays many formats such as mp3 & mp4. It doesn’t support WMA unless you have the Flip4Mac component installed. It supports DivX content using the official DivX component which you will need to download & install. Just like WMP there is most likely a video/audio codec available for QuickTime. You can also install FFmpegX on a Mac using which you can encode one video format to other. To download more Quicktime Components, you can check Apple website

Mac OS X uses the QuickTime engine for everything. Whether it is decoding a jpg or bmp in Preview or playing a video in a webpage, it is all handled with QuickTime. It even handles Flash files but you are better off using the official flash codec. QuickTime has hardware accelerated Video using Core Video on Mac OS X 10.4 or later, so CPU usage is reduced a lot while playing H.264 based contents.

However QuickTime is not without its flaws. Just to play a video full screen you need to buy QuickTime for $30. Since QuickTime is more like a Multimedia platform, after buying the full version you can also use it for file format conversion such as DivX to H.264. Also to play or export mpeg2 content in QuickTime you will need to buy the QuickTime MPEG 2 component available for another $20. It is just a media player first & not for library management. For that there is iTunes.

With iTunes, things are not so good. iTunes is made for iPod & iPod is made for iTunes. iTunes uses the QuickTime audio decoding engine but doesn’t play any file format other then mp3 & mp4. The ability to play other file formats cannot be added at all.

*img453.imageshack.us/img453/555/itunes7ea2.th.jpg

When you import songs in iTunes library, it imports them in form of its own library, making 2 copies of same song in your HD. One at the original location & 2nd at the iTunes Library location. You can change this option from

advanced>general> copy files to itunes music folder when adding to library.

iTunes syncs only to iPod, & this management is superb indeed. You can easily do whatever you want with your iPod with iTunes. iTunes also manages other Apple only products such as iPhone & Apple TV, so if you have Apple products then iTunes is the best bet for you. If you don’t have Apple products & like to use other better choices then iTunes is not for you whether Mac or Windows.

Tagging songs is very easy using iTunes, however if you want to use automatic tagging or download Album art from within iTunes for your songs, you will require to get an iTunes music store account, which isn’t available in all parts of Asia. Though you can easily fool the system I guess.

Not only Music, you can also manage library of Movies, TV shows & what not you bought from iTunes store. You can also manage your home grown videos provided they are in mp4 or m4v format because iTunes will only support these formats to import. You DivX/DVR-MS/MPEG/avi videos cannot be managed in iTunes unless they are converted to mp4 format which takes a lot of time to convert.

Searching for a song in your iTunes library is very easy, just type in the search box.

Ripping songs from CDs is possible in either wav mp3 or mp4 with m4a as the default codec.

You cannot copy songs back from iPod to your computer, cos Apple doesn’t allows you to re-copy your own songs, nor can you re-download a song you previously purchased using the iTunes music store.

Most of iTunes users are Windows users & on Windows iTunes is a very badly written media player which is not only slow but also eats about 35 MB of RAM just while playing music & minimized to tray. If it is not for iPod management & buying songs from iTunes music store then there is hardly a reason to stick to iTunes on Windows, unless you are loyal to Apple.

I am not an avid iTunes user & I am using it first time on a Mac. I would like arya to do a review of iTunes & QuickTime here so that we can compare & truth be revealed. I am sure I missed some good points of iTunes, while he will miss many good features of WMP. He sure is the biggest Mac marketing agent out here in digit forum. Or if other users would like to add points that I missed out in iTunes, then plz do so

(posting pics of Quicktime & iTunes from Mac in a while)

 

[Third Eye]

WM11 and iTunes

Both are good

 

[gxsaurav]

Yup, the most important point is which Platform you are using, Windows or Mac & what you want to do.

 

[infra_red_dude]

i prefer none! both are resource hogs. winamp is sufficient and very light. its media library, tho is inferior to wmp or itunes/qt, serves the purpose and i dun miss any day-to-day useful feature in it (which itunes or wmp has). but i'm giving my opinion as a windows user. winamp is not natively supported in mac. guess u'll hafta install it via crossover.

 

[gxsaurav]

i prefer none! both are resource hogs. winamp is sufficient and very light. its media library, tho is inferior to wmp or itunes/qt, serves the purpose and i dun miss any day-to-day useful feature in it (which itunes or wmp has). but i'm giving my opinion as a windows user. winamp is not natively supported in mac. guess u'll hafta install it via crossover.

This just in, Winamp doesn't work with crossover in Mac. It installs as an "Unsupported Application" in a Windows 2000 bottle but doesn't play any wma/flac file.

Winamp is indeed a superb music player. Just play in Winamp, put to system tray & forget about it. I was just comparing features & media players given by default in Windows Vista & Mac OS X, & it is upto you forum members to decide which is better natively. This is why I bolded the important text. iTunes & WMP 11 both is available in Windows so anyone can try themselves & give there verdict here.

P.S. - My iTunes library sux . I haven't even tagged songs..so any avid iTunes user is asked to post a screenshot of that in it's full glory

 

[infra_red_dude]

^^^ yeah true. if theres a choice b/w only wmp and itunes on windows then i'd choose wmp anyday. i dun haf an ipod and need not compulsorily use it (actually winamp works wid ipod using the ipod plugin as well!). the best feature of itunes is the search capability which is much better than wmp's.

 

[gxsaurav]

Yup, winamp can be used to manage iPod too, but Winamp won't play iTunes DRM content.

Search capability for the library is also in WMP11 now, mentioned above.

Anyway, comon mac users, post about iTunes. I have no idea how good it is.....we all would like to know , how good Quicktime & iTunes are out of the box

 

[ambandla]

When you import songs in iTunes library, it imports them in form of its own library, making 2 copies of same song in your HD. One at the original location & 2nd at the iTunes Library location.

@Saurav, This is not true. I have a 30 GB audio collection and itunes never made a second copy of any of the music files I have added to itunes library.

 

[gxsaurav]

Did you tried importing those files in iTunes ? or are they already imported in iTunes library. You seem to be having a big proper tagged iTunes library, plz provide a screenshot so that I can post it here for proper comparision.

I had all my 200 songs in my mobile phone in m4a format. I copied from the memory card to Mac HD, & placed them in corresponding folder with names as i do in Windows like "Linkin Park"-> "Minutes to Midnight" -> all files here. Upon importing in Mac, itunes copied every song again to iTunes library folder in Music folder

I am myelf saying that I have not used iTunes much, which seems like you use properly. Plz read the above article & tell yourself it lacks something. I will add whatever I have missed.

 

[aryayush]

I didn't read your whole first post (didn't even read a line but I'm going to) but I can tell you up front that Windows Media Player is better than both iTunes and QuickTime Player. I've lost count of how many times I've said that.

But for me, VLC rocks. VLC for video and iTunes for audio does the job just fine for me (because I do not insist on using the worst audio format out there).
______________________

I've read it now.

Congratulations on your first unbiased and true article (unlike the other extremely biased "review" of Mac OS X going on in the other thread)! I sincerely did not know that you were capable of it and am genuinely and pleasantly surprised. Keep it up.

There were a few mistakes and I would like to point them out as a form of constructive criticism.

It even handles Flash files but you are better off using the official flash codec.

This does not really make much sense. Mac OS X, by default, plays Flash movies quite well. In fact, I find that Adobe Flash Player (it was bundled with CS3) is slower than QuickTime Player is.

When you import songs in iTunes library, it imports them in form of its own library, making 2 copies of same song in your HD. One at the original location & 2nd at the iTunes Library location.

Though I prefer it this way (the reason you use management applications is that you don't have to mess with folders anymore), this is actually a preference in iTunes that (on a Mac) is turned off by default. So, iTunes can manage your songs without making two copies of them.

Tagging songs is very easy using iTunes, however if you want to use automatic tagging or download Album art from within iTunes for your songs, you will require to get an iTunes music store account, which isn’t available in all parts of Asia.

There are many free and paid plug-ins for iTunes that automatically fetch ID3 tags, cover art and lyrics for you without the need for an iTunes Music Store account. I already use one of them.

You can also manage your home grown videos provided they are in mp4 or m4v format because iTunes will only support these formats to import. You DivX/DVR-MS/MPEG/avi videos cannot be managed in iTunes unless they are converted to mp4 format which takes a lot of time to convert.

iTunes accepts MOV files by default. And if you have the DivX codec installed, it accepts DivX files as well. I am not so sure about Xvid though.

You cannot copy songs back from iPod to your computer, cos Apple doesn’t allows you to re-copy your own songs, nor can you re-download a song you previously purchased using the iTunes music store.

Both of these are possible. In fact, the second feature was introduced by Apple and since then has been copied by other online music stores. You can re-download songs you've already downloaded. And as I told you in another thread, iTunes 7.1.x supports copying songs from an iPod into your library.

Apart from these (little) mistakes, the article is spot on and you have rightly summarised it by saying that on Windows, you need iTunes only if you own Apple products. When I used to use Windows ( :shudder: ), I always preferred WMP to iTunes.

Oh, and BTW, I hate WinAMP. It is the worst music player ever and the interface is like **** - even for a Windows application.

*img300.imageshack.us/img300/381/aryayushuserbarkm0.gif

 

[ssk_the_gr8]

Oh, and BTW, I hate WinAMP. It is the worst music player ever and the interface is like **** - even for a Windows application.

i totally agree with u...
i prefer media monkey(the latest versions r awesome specially their media library functions) compared to both itunes & WMP for audio & VLC for video...

 

[eggman]

When you import songs in iTunes library, it imports them in form of its own library, making 2 copies of same song in your HD. One at the original location & 2nd at the iTunes Library location.

This ain't true. I use iTunes a lot, on Windows VISTA. iTunes doesn't make copy of every song on iTunes folder. Only if you try to import the songs in the format which iTunes doesn't support,like wma, then only it converts them to .m4a and store it in its folder.

 

[aryayush]

It does not convert WMA songs.

*img300.imageshack.us/img300/381/aryayushuserbarkm0.gif

 

[eggman]

It does not convert WMA songs.

Atleast while importing .wma songs in iTunes 7 on Windows Vista, iTunes convert it to AAC and keep it in iTunes folder.

*img72.imageshack.us/img72/534/seelx4.th.jpg

 

[aryayush]

WOW! Now I've got to remove that drawback from the Mac OS X thread.

@gx_saurav,
You can grab a screenshot of iTunes here:
*loop.worldofapple.com/wp-content/post-images/itunes7.jpg

I did not include it within 'IMG' tags so that you can put it in the original post instead, where it belongs.

*img300.imageshack.us/img300/381/aryayushuserbarkm0.gif

 

[blackleopard92]

i got itunes to sync with my w700i, all audio in acc format. best of quality and space.however, this is the only purpose i use it for. converting songs to acc format for my walkman.

but one thing i would like help with on WMP. how can u get playlist to display album name? this is the only reason i use winamp. the playlist entries are totally configurable, and can be scripted to anything u want. but WMP only shows song and artist name, not the album name.

 

[gxsaurav]

Congratulations on your first unbiased and true article (unlike the other extremely biased "review" of Mac OS X going on in the other thread)! I sincerely did not know that you were capable of it and am genuinely and pleasantly surprised. Keep it up.

Go take some history lessons first.

This does not really make much sense. Mac OS X, by default, plays Flash movies quite well. In fact, I find that Adobe Flash Player (it was bundled with CS3) is slower than QuickTime Player is.

Nope, Quicktime flash component is based on Flash 7 in tiger not flash 9.Thats why I said Official flash player is better.

Though I prefer it this way (the reason you use management applications is that you don't have to mess with folders anymore), this is actually a preference in iTunes that (on a Mac) is turned off by default. So, iTunes can manage your songs without making two copies of them.

Where is this option?, I m checking in few minutes.

There are many free and paid plug-ins for iTunes that automatically fetch ID3 tags, cover art and lyrics for you without the need for an iTunes Music Store account. I already use one of them.

I was talking about out of the box experience without any 3rd party plugins. If it was about WMP & iTunes with 3rd party apps then iTunes is not even required to manage iPod (Anapod explorer)

iTunes accepts MOV files by default. And if you have the DivX codec installed, it accepts DivX files as well. I am not so sure about Xvid though

Nope, just try draging & drop a .avi or .divx file in iTunes, it will not import.

Both of these are possible. In fact, the second feature was introduced by Apple and since then has been copied by other online music stores

Nope, Zeeshan will confirm this with Latest iTunes installed on his Mac.

You can re-download songs you've already downloaded.

Just once. That too only in case your Harddisk dies.

iTunes 7.1.x supports copying songs from an iPod into your library.

Nope, it playes songs directly from your iPod. Without copying them back to computer cos they are already sorted in iPod harddisk.

Oh, and BTW, I hate WinAMP. It is the worst music player ever and the interface is like **** - even for a Windows application.

You really don't know what You can do with Winamp skins, do u? . Or do you use your OS without customising it at all? The skining engine of Winamp is one of the best out there & is extremely efficient in memory & CPU usage.

Sorry I forgot, your OS works best at default settings & breaks if moded

WOW! Now I've got to remove that drawback from the Mac OS X thread.

Well, in that case even I can add that Windows Media player can play all m4a songs after converting them to wma or mp3. But does iTunes plays them without coversion ? No. & Thats the point we were talking about in that thread.

P.S. - iTunes doesn't converts WMA 10 files.

but one thing i would like help with on WMP. how can u get playlist to display album name? this is the only reason i use winamp. the playlist entries are totally configurable, and can be scripted to anything u want. but WMP only shows song and artist name, not the album name.

Another plus point in a 3rd party Windows Application. WMP shows album name too but not in Main Window but in library.

 

[blackleopard92]

advanced>general> copy files to itunes music folder when adding to library.

 

[Faun]

I luv Foobar2000
and jetaudio7

 

[prasad_den]

Out of the two, I prefer WMP 11.. iTunes as always created problems and has been a resource hog to me..!! But, in general I prefer GOM Player.. the best..!!