I'm using Windows Mobile 2003's built-in "Windows Media" player and it's awful.

I can't seek VBR MP3s, some LAME encodes don't play at all and the metadata shown is the bare minimum. At least it supports cover art.

What's an actively developed yet light-weight player (freeware, open source only, please) that fits my needs?

• I'm going to listen to MP3s 99% of the time.
• full playback support for LAME MP3s
• ReplayGain
• no fancy and illegible UI (like Winamp)
• some sort of playlist and library support (like foobar2000)
• ID3v2.4 or at least ID3v2.3 unicode
• shows at least the main metadata (and not only half of it like WM2k3's built-in player)

Thanks in advance...

PS: I know this has been asked before, but I think that was some time ago already...

I was going to suggest Winamp, but as you find its incredibly easy to understand and navigate user interface that my 7 year old nephew finds a piece of cake to find his way around to be "fancy and illegible", I won't bother.

Cheers, Slipstreem.

Windows MOBILE, not Windows XP/Vista.

-brendan

http://www.pocketmind.com/pocketmusic.htm

Moderation: A simple link will do.

I have a Dell Axim running WM2003. You want The Core Pocket Media Player.

http://picard.exceed.hu/tcpmp/test/

Woody

CorePlayer is a great Video Player, & it's not free.





Sorry...
I wonder why Nullsoft & ACDSee & Adobe doesn't develop Winamp & Photo Manager & Photoshop for Win Mobile.

While "The Core" player is now closed source and no longer freeware, the original TCPMP software is and works just as well for audio playback.

http://picard.exceed.hu/tcpmp/test/ (yes, I realize the link was already posted, just following up)

Make sure to get the necessary plugins as well. I have a Dell Axim x50v (running Windows Mobile 6, actually) using TCPMP for almost all my multimedia needs on the go these days. Plays DivX/XviD files without breaking a sweat (and no need to re-encode to some other silly format) with minimal power/CPU hits. I recently picked up a 32GB A-Data Compact Flash card from Newegg (link) for $140-ish, loaded it with movies, tons of audio, ebooks, etc. Works like a charm, and I'm now considering getting another, actually.

I have a Palm Tungsten E also that I use with Aeroplayer - I wish those guys would develop something for the PocketPC platform, but I guess they simply don't care about it.

Would be nice to have something better than PocketMusic, at least. Unfortunately, there is nothing out there that will do everything the OP is hoping for, sadly. If I were a programmer I'd do it myself but, I'm not. We can always keep hoping though, right?

Hope this helps...

PocketMusic won the best audio player for Pocket PC from Pocket PC Mag Best Software Awards 2007:

http://www.pocketpcmag.com/awards/nominees_wandf_2007.asp

If you find TCPMP v0.81, I've found that to be the best of the (free) players for my iPAQ h2210 (400MHz PXA255). When playing lossyFLAC, it typically is only using about 20% or less CPU.

What's the best feature of TCPMP?
Audio or video or both?

I haven't used it to play video for some time (although from memory it worked well) but it works really well for simply playing audio well. I don't use any effects or equalisers, etc - just play the music, so I can't comment on those features.

CorePlayer (Formerly TCPMP)
CorePlayer won the 2007 Best Video Player for Pocket PC.

Thanks everyone. I've installed TCPMP 0.72RC1 for now. The page says there will be an open source version of TCPMP/CorePlayer called Beta Player, I will probably use that one once it's out.

I'm afraid that will be a long wait. Unless I'm very misinformed.

http://betaplayer.com/

Hm, I'm afraid so, too.

I prefer Nero ShowTime Mobile.
I have version 1.2.0.13
What was the latest ShowTime Mobile version?

Hi!

I use Conduits Pocket Player, and it has all the features you ask for and more. It is not free, but worth it. It can do gapless playback, which you don't find with the competitors (except Pocket Music, but I have heard reports that it doesn't work perfectly with gapless.)

For a free alternative many prefer Mortplayer.

I tried MortPlayer and it looks quite good, but unfortunately it fails to play even more MP3 VBRs than Windows Media.

Did you tried PocketMusic?
If Nero Dev Team continue developing Nero ShowTime Mobile, it will beat CorePlayer Mobile.