Looking For A New Software Audio Player

[Jamil]

I have been using Winamp for a long time now, but it looks like I need to switch to something new. Here's what I am looking for-- I have a file server that stores all of my audio files. They are in APE format. I connect to this server on multiple computers using Winamp to play music. My music library shares with no problems.

What I would like to do is have Winamp store its database on the server too. Such that whenever I play a particular song on one computer, all computers on the network see the updated play count, last played date/time, and other information.

Is anyone aware of another media player that can do this?

Thanks.

[Jamil]

Re: Looking For A New Software Audio Player

After a bit of searching, it looks like J. River Media Center may be the only player to do what I am looking for. Although it does not share a singe library and database on the network, it offers full client and server two way synchronization for many updates made on either the client or server side. It does stream from the server to the client, which is more than I need. However, the database will be kept in sync.

[Jamil]

Re: Looking For A New Software Audio Player

J. River Media Center really cannot do what I was looking for. I had uninstalled and stopped using it.

It turns out that iTunes allows you to store its library database out on the network available to all your computers. All you have to do (under Windows) is hold down the shift key before starting iTunes. You will get prompted to use a different library database or create a new one. I created a new library database on my NAS within a share all my computers have access to. I then started iTunes again while holding down shift on all other networked computers to point to this library I created earlier.

Very nice, and it's all free. I just have to convert my thousands of APE files to Apple lossless now...