foobar2000, why use? Options

[feces1223]

hey. i just downloaded the latest foobar2000. i like the speeds and simplicity but, no gui is increative (if there is such a word). This could easily top winamp just because it feels more powerful but it needs a stronger, better looking gui than winamp (right now it has none). and i'm just wondering out of curiosity what is the advantage of this over winamp 2.9 because i just got that the day it came out. thanks. btw i love these open-source developers. they make good programs.

[ReDVsion]

foobar is about quality and functionality. Although I personally agree that a slightly nicer GUI would be nice, it's not the developer's purpose for the program.

I quite like it. If you do, use it. But Winamp's fine, too.

[feces1223]

indeed. I like so i'll keep. i hate to admit that i'd ever see the day winamp got outnumbered but, i think this is the rise of it

[Daffy]

...and i'm just wondering out of curiosity what is the advantage of this over winamp 2.9...

Please search the forums. This has been discussed a thousand times. Have you been to the FB2K forum?

[Snarko]

Please search the forums.  This has been discussed a thousand times.  Have you been to the FB2K forum?

This has also been said a thousand times.

Kinda like IRC channels or NNTP groups with anti-spam rules. The rules are there because every time somebody sends 1 message of spam, you get 20 telling them not to.

[Diablo]

fb2k GUI is nice, you just need to configure playlist properly. After a month of using it, I tried Winamp and I didnt like it GUI. I just fb2k

[BlueScreenJunky]

I mainly use foobar because evgeryone else uses winamp ;-)
But I find it better because it has more functionnalities (unzip, unrar, plays tfmx/spc without 3rd party plugins) uses less memory/cpu time, and I didn't look at winamp anyway : a few global hotkeys, minimize it, and you don't need to see it anymore.

About foobar's GUI I think it's okay, and I like the custom strings for the playlist etc., but I don't understand why it doesn't use the standard explorer detailed view, with resizable columns and the little arrows at the top to let you sort by artist, size, length, title, album, bitrate etc...

[LPTB]

BlueScreenJunky:

but I don't understand why it doesn't use the standard explorer detailed view, with resizable columns and the little arrows at the top to let you sort by artist, size, length, title, album, bitrate etc...

And I hope it never will, but for you (given your name and love for BSOD's) you can use WMP.

[teetee]

About foobar's GUI I think it's okay, and I like the custom strings for the playlist etc., but I don't understand why it doesn't use the standard explorer detailed view, with resizable columns and the little arrows at the top to let you sort by artist, size, length, title, album, bitrate etc...

Well you have kind of answered your own question.. The reason there aren't resizable columns with arrows is because of the flexibility of the custom strings. You cannot have both..

Also you can already sort by artist, album, track number, file path, title, display name and, in fact any custom string you like. Agreed you need two mouse clicks for most and 3 for the custom one but they are all at least possible!

[Curi0us_George]

That's not entirely true. I'm pretty sure that Peter could implement a list-view using custom strings for each of the columns, and even allow adding and removing arbitrary columns. I don't see it happening, though. It would probably be a lot of work, and not really worth the time.

[tha_man]

The only 'GUI' thing I would like to see in foobar would be customizable toolbar, where you could assign any function to a button (like with hotkeys) and load you own icon for it. Besides that, it should also have ability to put sliders to it, and you could assign volume, pan, seek and similiar actions to them.

The day foobar gets such a toolbar will be the day I will uninstall Winamp


And please don't implement explorer style playlist! Customizable strings are *the best*!

This post has been edited by tha_man: Apr 14 2003, 20:32

[foosion]

The only 'GUI' thing I would like to see in foobar would be customizable toolbar, where you could assign any function to a button (like with hotkeys) and load you own icon for it. Besides that, it should also have ability to put sliders to it, and you could assign volume, pan, seek and similiar actions to it.

This could actually be realized as a plugin. Why don't you go and write it?

[Diablo]

The only 'GUI' thing I would like to see in foobar would be customizable toolbar, where you could assign any function to a button (like with hotkeys) and load you own icon for it. Besides that, it should also have ability to put sliders to it, and you could assign volume, pan, seek and similiar actions to it.

This could actually be realized as a plugin. Why don't you go and write it?

I think there is such plugin (search the forum), I tried it, but didnt like it. With it, there is no fb2k spirit any more

[Curi0us_George]

foosion, how would you add a toolbar to the main window? I'd think that if it were possible, someone would have already added one (for volume and seek, if nothing else).

[superdumprob]

That would be very handy. Using the seek plugin from the components menu is ok but having it right there on a toolbar would be preferable. I think it's better if some things are written as plugins, so that people who don't want them don't use them and people who do, do.

It's all good

[Canar]

it needs a stronger, better looking gui than winamp (right now it has none)

I disagree. It does have a stronger, better looking gui than Winamp, plus, I don't need to retrain all my family to teach them how to use it. It's replaced WiMP on my parents' computer, and Winamp on mine. It looks the same as my Windows environment, and that's exactly the way an application should be.

Besides, there's the incredibly nifty Title Formatting stuff that'll let you do incredible things with tagging. As foobar supports arbitrary tags, it allows me to insert any data I need into my music, so long as it's text.

Furthermore, the development pace is still frenzied, and foobar is still getting loads of intriguing new features.

[BlueScreenJunky]

I'm pretty sure that Peter could implement a list-view using custom strings for each of the columns, and even allow adding and removing arbitrary columns. I don't see it happening, though. It would probably be a lot of work, and not really worth the time.

yup, That's exactly what I was thinking about Curious George, this way you could even do one huge column with your string if you don't want to use it. Besides I don't really need that function, as I said the custom string is cool the way it is, but I think it would be even (and more accessible to neophytes) with a column system.

And I hope it never will, but for you (given your name and love for BSOD's) you can use WMP.

Oh thanx, I just installed WMP9 as you suggested, and it crashed my PC ! I'll definitely get rid of foobar and BSplayer, BSODs are so entertaining

This could actually be realized as a plugin. Why don't you go and write it?

it was actually a hack, and doesn't work with recent builds.

This post has been edited by BlueScreenJunky: Apr 14 2003, 23:54

[FlashBuster]

I don't know why everybody want a cool, good looking GUI? Are you guys sitting on the Computer and wwatch the newest Winamp skin while it plays your songs? I mainly LISTEN to the music... Thats the purpose of the program, i think. 99% of the time foobar is minimized, because i can control everything with shortcuts. Only when i change the playlist i see the GUI. And that happens fast, because of the simple GUI.

[Melomane]

hey. i just downloaded the latest foobar2000. i like the speeds and simplicity but, no gui is increative (if there is such a word). This could easily top winamp just because it feels more powerful but it needs a stronger, better looking gui than winamp (right now it has none). and i'm just wondering out of curiosity what is the advantage of this over winamp 2.9 because i just got that the day it came out. thanks. btw i love these open-source developers. they make good programs.

foobar 2000 0.6, winamp 2.90

skins: no, yes
visualisation: no yes
replaygain scan: yes, no
disk writer (with dsp & replay gain): yes, no
disk writer support all encoders: yes, plugin for lame
avanced maastagger: yes, no
configurable playlist formatting: yes, no
album list: yes, plugin
database search,media library: plugin; yes
crossfader: no, plugin
decoder 64 bit: yes, no (16 bit)

if you love skin and visuatiation go to winamp, if not go to foobar (remember , foobar is at 0.6b18 version, winamp at 2.90...)

This post has been edited by Melomane: Apr 15 2003, 14:36

[superdumprob]

skins: no, yes

Foobar: True but you can change your windows theme to suit and so it's much more uniform with the rest of your system.

visualisation: no yes

Foobar does, see the visualisation thread and note apach's posts

configurable playlist formatting: yes, no

Winamp: Not quite true, there is some configurability in the input plugins, but that's about it. (You can specify artist, album etc in the vorbis, mp3 and musepack plugins I believe)

album list: yes, plugin

To be fair the foobar album list feature is a plugin.

crossfader: no, plugin

Is anyone going to implement this as I do quite like crossfading on seek and stop? (which are the defaults in Winamp using the directsound output method)

As for a "tabulated" list view for a playlist, this could produce some interesting functionality benefits for the masstagger. It would be best if it could be enabled or disabled though, I think, because peoples are fond of the format strings. I know I am becoming more so.

Have fun people.

[foosion]

foosion, how would you add a toolbar to the main window?  I'd think that if it were possible, someone would have already added one (for volume and seek, if nothing else).

Well, I wouldn't add this to the main window, unless Peter adds some way to the sdk to do this, so I would just create a floating toolbar window. But I guess it would feel like foo_stfu, if it wasn't part of the main window. My main point was that it would be possible to bind actions to buttons, as you can enumerate actions like any other service. Of course you would need slightly more work to add sliders bound to playing position or volume. Still possible though.

[Melomane]

skins: no, yes

Foobar: True but you can change your windows theme to suit and so it's much more uniform with the rest of your system.

not true with win98...but i don't like skin!

configurable playlist formatting: yes, no

Winamp: Not quite true, there is some configurability in the input plugins, but that's about it. (You can specify artist, album etc in the vorbis, mp3 and musepack plugins I believe)

foobar config strings is for all type of files...

album list: yes, plugin

To be fair the foobar album list feature is a plugin.

it is a composant done with foobar (pp make)

crossfader: no, plugin

Is anyone going to implement this as I do quite like crossfading on seek and stop? (which are the defaults in Winamp using the directsound output method)

this is fading , crossfading is different!

i love foobar!

This post has been edited by Melomane: Apr 15 2003, 17:12

[superdumprob]

Me too Melomane, me too. By "change your windows theme to suit" I meant Control Panel > Display Properties> Appearance and change stuff in there. I personally like the uniformity and prefer it cos otherwise I spend days and days looking for a half decent skin that fits in with my colour scheme.

Hang on, it's been so long since I used windows 98, i can't remember if it had the appearances thing in it. I'm sure it must have done. It's almost vital for any kinda of GUI configurability. Oh well.

[Curi0us_George]

Well, I wouldn't add this to the main window, unless Peter adds some way to the sdk to do this, so I would just create a floating toolbar window. But I guess it would feel like foo_stfu, if it wasn't part of the main window. My main point was that it would be possible to bind actions to buttons, as you can enumerate actions like any other service. Of course you would need slightly more work to add sliders bound to playing position or volume. Still possible though.

I don't actually like floating windows. If I was going to use it constantly, I'd want it to be part of the main Window. (I think it might be possible to do this, actually, but I'd have to look into the other UIs in the SDK to know for sure).

[Curi0us_George]

Is anyone going to implement this as I do quite like crossfading on seek and stop? (which are the defaults in Winamp using the directsound output method)

If I recall correctly, Peter once mentioned that he missed crossfading as well, so it's possible that he might add it at some point in the future. (Probably not this week, though )

Something like this would probably need to be implemented in the actual output plugin, though, so I don't think we'll be seeing a quick drop-in plugin to do it for us.