Linux Media Player Roundup - Part 2 (Page 1 of 1)
Written by
Steve Lake
Posted on: Nov 05, 2007 at 01:28pm
Section:
Software
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Welcome to part 2 of our Linux Media Player
Roundup. Today we'll be covering a few more Linux Media Players and showing you each
of them, and what makes them special. But first, I'd like to add a few
clarifications from part 1. One of our readers was kind enough to point out an extra
feature in Amarok that I was unaware of the first time I tested it. It has the
ability to add "pluggable" backend support for a variety of different multimedia
engines, such as Xine, Gstreamer and more. I didn't find this the first time, or
simply overlooked it, but I did find it the second time, which means that its issues with
media playback should be solvable by simply changing the multimedia engine that it uses.
The second comment was that I had mentioned about how BMPx would eventually rival
Amarok, iTunes and more. To clarify why I had said that, I believe that BMPx will
eventually rival them based on its layout. The way it handles files, albums,
playlists and more is not only logical, but it's also more intuitive and much easier to
navigate through. BMPx feels so comfortable upon first use that anybody could pick
it up and use it right away with no troubles at all, and no need to go through any kind of
learning curve. Just start, click, and enjoy. It's so much easier to get where
you want to go and do what you want to do, that I feel it'll easily overtake the other
media players similar to it, such as the aforementioned iTunes and Amarok.
Ease of use will trump complex features any day. Because it doesn't mater how
powerful a media player is. If it's not easy to use, most people will opt for an
equal, or even lesser featured player that's easier to use. Why do you think so many
of the greatest features ever produced have also been some of the least used?
Because despite their power, they were too difficult to use for the average
individual. So simple, yet powerful is always best, and I feel BMPx has done a
splendid job of achieving that. And now that I've clarified those things, let's look
at our next batch of Linux Media Players.
Banshee
Banshee is somewhat of the new kid on the block. Currently at version 0.12.1,
it's still very green around the gills and has a long ways to go before it's ready for
primetime, but it's an upcoming superstar in the Linux Media Player world. Initially
it started off as nothing more than a basic media player. Then as it's grown, new
features have begun to appear, such as a podcasts feature, streaming radio broadcasts
(which doesn't yet work and will cause some ugly crashes to occur), as well as a better,
more enhanced media information system. That's the three boxes you see down below
the main playlist window.
The box appears and disappears, based on which song you're playing and whether or not
it has any information to show you that's related to the current song being played.
The information is quite good at this point and looks to grow even more detailed in the
future. Playback is decent, although I don't think it'll win any medals just
yet. It does however have a decent list of supported formats that should grow as it
grows, although it currently only appears to be able to properly handle wave, ogg and mp3,
as well as some limited streaming formats.
It also comes with a complete plugin system to allow you to connect to last.fm, do
music sharing, cd burning, podcasting, and much more. So it's ability to be expanded
is quite good making the player very flexible, and opening up a large range of
possibilities for the future. The interface also lends itself to a great deal of
"ease of use", which for the average person is great. There's also a
plugin to allow Banshee to be minimized into a very small player so that it's out of the
way while still being right at hand should you need it.
Right now I don't suggest this media player for regular daily use, but I do highly
recommend that you install it anyways. Why? Because the developers would love
your feedback. And the best way to provide that is to use it regularly. How
else are you going to suggest new features or report existing bugs?? So help out the
developers and take it for a regular spin. You may even fall in love with it.
I know I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.
Click here for the Banshee Media
Player homepage.
Decibel Media Player
This player is one of the new kids on the block (currently at version 0.06.3) as far as
Linux media players are concerned. However, despite its early alpha state, the
player itself is fairly stable. It might take a little bit of fussing to get it
installed, as you'll have to install it from source, but it can be done if you'd like.
The biggest premise of the player is that simplicity is best. And that's
exactly how the player works. It's very simple to us, and the interface works
nicely, although the program itself is a bit flaky at this point. But that's to be
expected from an early alpha. As it matures a bit more, it should not be surprising
to find that it'll slowly loose its simple interface, but gain many great features that
will make it a must have player for those who like to organize their media, but don't need
a lot of pop and fluff in their player in order to do it.
Currently, the only supported formats appear to be wave, mp3 and ogg, and possibly
flac, but I couldn't get the last format to play. It does support last.fm streaming,
and includes an instant messenger option to update your online status indicating what
you're listening to. Although I'm not sure where it sends that information. My
guess would be your last.fm page.
The player itself is light and simple. So much so that there's really not much to
say about it. There's the normal play, pause, shuffle, sort and other common
features you'd expect in a media player, but little else. The only real
distinguishing features are its UI layout and the file manager on the left side of the
play window. But I wouldn't let that stop you from trying it. The only thing
that should stop you at this point is if you need it as a full time media player since
it's still in its early alpha stages. However, if you'd like to help in the
development of this project, then by all means, head
on over to the homepage and see what you can do to help the developers out! Even
something as simple as digging up and reporting out bugs is welcome.
Exaile
The Exaile media player is a Linux music player that has so much in common with Amarok
that it's actually surprising. The biggest difference is how the player frontend is
laid out. Otherwise, everything's pretty much the same. It does album art,
connects and interacts with Last.FM, has artist and album information, etc, etc.
There are some things that Amarok has that Exaile doesn't, like an integrated Magnatune
store and a context function, but Exaile makes up for that by providing you with several
distinct features, such as the ability for you to download song lyrics, tabbed playlists,
a built in shoutcast directory browser, and blacklisting of tracks.
There's a few other tools that are included with the program that can provide you with
some useful options, such as iPod and iTunes interactive support, but that's really about
it. Format support is also fairly typical with just wave, mp3 and ogg formats
supported. The program is currently in early alpha development stage, the latest
version of which is 0.2.11, so if you try it, you may find some stability issues with the
player.
For more information on this Linux media player, check
out their homepage.
JuK
JuK is a simple jukebox application found in KDE. It has the full set of features
users have come to expect in a media player, but also allows for basic management of
playlists, updating ID3 tags for both MP3 and Ogg, delete or renaming of files based on
their ID3 tags, search and a few other things. The tagger is interesting because it
operates in a similar manor to ID3-Tagit, but not with as many features. So it's not
as powerful, but it still does a decent job. It's design is focused around
simplicity, only giving you what is believed by the developers to be the bare minimum you
need in a player. It tries its best to be unobtrusive and does so very well.
It also does automatic importing of playlists via directory scanning, or m3u files.
Really, it's the only player so far I've found that supports the Winamp m3u file.
It also supports an intriguing history feature that tells you which files you have
played and when. I'm not sure why you'd want that, but I can see where it might come
in handy for some people. JuK supports MP3, Ogg and Flac media formats. JuK is
part of the KDE Multimedia Package and comes with KDE by default if you also install the
Multimedia Package.
Summary
Well, that's all for part 2. In part 3 we'll be diving deeper into the rabbit
hole and bringing you more media players, but not just audio players this time.
We've got a few to show you that are multi-purpose players that will play DVD's, movies,
and much more. So check back soon and we'll have our next part up for you to check
out and enjoy. As always, if you have comments or questions about this article,
please feel free to share them with us either by email,
or in the forums. Thanks.
For those wanting to see the previous review in this series, just Click Here!
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