RE: Windows Media Player vs. Foobar/dBpa/VLC/Groove-Music

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Windows Media Player vs. Foobar/dBpa/VLC/Groove-Music

Or the stuff it does to your files with permission. I configured WMP to do nothing but play files, and use it when checking downloads I might not want to add to my library.

Hi JH,

I am not sure where to locate 'WMP' so as to uninstall it, please? I searched via the Control Panel, but to to no avail.

Thanks,

Paul

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Windows Media Player vs. Foobar/dBpa/VLC/Groove-Music

I use foobar2000 to play FLAC and mp3. Works well "out of the box," but highly customizable if you want to go there; well-supported; and free.

Hi JH,

Have d/l 'Foobar', thanks.

It played a quick flick thru a CD fine. It does not show the artwork, but maybe I need to set something; I can look at it more over the weekend ...

Cheers,

Paul

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Windows Media Player vs. Foobar/dBpa/VLC/Groove-Music

I post there some. No not as friendly. Hydrogenaud.io is almost the only general digital music forum I trust. But they are pretty serious and fully expect you've done your homework.

Hi Gary,

Have joined and created a profile on 'Hydrogenaud.io'.

Cheers.

[Jailhouse]

Re: Windows Media Player vs. Foobar/dBpa/VLC/Groove-Music

Hi JH,

I am not sure where to locate 'WMP' so as to uninstall it, please? I searched via the Control Panel, but to to no avail.

I doubt it can be deleted, being baked into Windows. If you have any file types that open by default in WMP and you don't want them to, set those to another app. Then ignore WMP.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Windows Media Player vs. Foobar/dBpa/VLC/Groove-Music

I doubt it can be deleted, being baked into Windows. If you have any file types that open by default in WMP and you don't want them to, set those to another app. Then ignore WMP.

Hi JH,

OK, I see. It's inextricably embedded within 'Windows Essentials'. Bummer.

But I can, as you kindly suggest, disassociate it from opening all music files.

Cheers,

Paul

[mville]

Re: Windows Media Player vs. Foobar/dBpa/VLC/Groove-Music

I am not sure where to locate 'WMP' so as to uninstall it, please? I searched via the Control Panel, but to to no avail.

In Windows 10 go here:

Control Panel >> Programs and Features >> Turn Windows features on or off >> Media Features

then, un-tick Windows media Player.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Windows Media Player vs. Foobar/dBpa/VLC/Groove-Music

In Windows 10 go here:

Control Panel >> Programs and Features >> Turn Windows features on or off >> Media Features

then, un-tick Windows media Player.

Mville,

Great stuff.

Will do so tomorrow...

Paul

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Windows Media Player vs. Foobar/dBpa/VLC/Groove-Music

Hi again,

Have disabled 'WMP' and associated 'Foobar' instead.

Paul

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Windows Media Player vs. Foobar/dBpa/VLC/Groove-Music

Hi,

I fully admit I have not had much free time to play with my newly installed s/w 'Foobar'. Though I am using it each day now instead of that awful dinosaur equivalent from Windows.

Perhaps - should anyone be interested - I might open up a discussion on listening/ear-training techniques in the future (not a tutorial, but rather just a mash-up for everyone to throw their own personal experiences/methods into the mix.

Anyway, I do have a quick question and if anyone could kindly answer I would be very grateful:

In 'Foobar', is it possible to LOOP a single track, please? So, I click on a single track (from a digital album on my hard-drive) and it plays this same track (only) round and round?

Not sure what you would call such a mode. 'Repeat Play'?

Cheers,

Paul

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Windows Media Player vs. Foobar/dBpa/VLC/Groove-Music

... solved the above now, thanks!

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Windows Media Player vs. Foobar/dBpa/VLC/Groove-Music

Hi,

I disassociated 'Windoze_Media_Player' from opening any music files (ie. when I double-click on an mp3/FLAC). However, when I insert a hard-copy CD (ie. to be ripped by 'dBpa'), 'WMP' automatically opens and starts to play the entire album.

Is there a way to permanently prevent this action, please? It's a shame I just can't completely uninstall the awful thing!

Cheers,

Paul

[Jailhouse]

Re: Windows Media Player vs. Foobar/dBpa/VLC/Groove-Music

If my remembery is still working, you're using Windows 10. So do this:

- Click on the Start button and type in control panel.

- When it pops up, click on Hardware and Sound

- In the Autoplay section, click on Play CDs or other medial automatically.

- Choose your default actions for the various devices. CDs is the fifth section down.

Alternatively, you can cancel AutoPlay altogether by ticking the box at the top of the window.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Windows Media Player vs. Foobar/dBpa/VLC/Groove-Music

Thanks JH,

Yes, I am on Win_10.

I have found and set it accordingly now!

Cheers.

[garym]

Re: Windows Media Player vs. Foobar/dBpa/VLC/Groove-Music

As promised, here's some Foobar2000 stuff I use. Keep in mind there are thousands of ways to setup the way foobar2000 works and displays. It is that flexible. Also keep in mind that I'm no foobar guru, and my setup is just designed to work for the simple things I use foobar for (playing files on my computer). Foobar is not even my main library/player. I use it on my office computer and to check a few things on my home computer. My main music library is using a headless server running linux OS, and feeding files to Logitech Media Server (LMS) which I then control with laptop, iphone, or ipad to play music through various squeezebox networked music players around my house. I also have a setup I'm playing with using these files and a Roon Labs library to feed music to some local "roon ready" networked music players.

Anyhow back to foobar:

1. Install foobar2000 (you already have I believe). From here:

http://www.foobar2000.org/getfile/274b3a9b69bb8f3cb8f17f126621a389/foobar2000_v1.3.16.exe

2. after foobar is installed and it works, exit the foobar program and install the following components in the foobar component folder (get components from:

http://www.foobar2000.org/components

Facets 1.0
File Integrity Verifier 1.1.2

when you download these components, you'll end up unzipping I recall and the main thing is that the two component files above (after unzipping) end up in this folder:
C:\Program Files (x86)\foobar2000\components

3. Download this file to your desktop (I'll leave it there a few days)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/27403489/foobartheme_garym.fth

4. Then restart foobar2000.

5. In foobar2000, go to menu at top, FILE > PREFERENCES > click on "Default User Interface". To the right you see "Theme Management" Click on "import theme".
This will open a box for you to browse to and selected the file "foobartheme_garym.fth" you saved above. Select this file and then click "open". This should import my theme into foobar2000.

6. Exit foobar2000 then reopen the program.

7. in foobar2000 menu, click on LIBRARY, then CONFIGURE. Under "music folders" click "add", then browse to the top level directory (folder) of the directory on your computer holding all your music files (e.g., C:\music). Then click "Apply" then OK. It may take a while to read all your music files into the library. (well, it does for my ~100,000 tracks anyhow.)

At this point you have foobar2000 setup the way I personally use it. On the upper left box, click on "playlists" tab. (note the other tabs too there you can click on...try these too). After clicking on Playlist tab, double click on "Library Selection". You should now see the boxes to the right populate with artist, tracks, albums names, genre, etc. When You select a track to play, you should see the album art in lower left. Also, at the bottom and top of the screen, any now playing song shows you track, album, artist, type of file, Replay Gain values, etc. At the top of each column you can click on the title to sort by name, etc. Click once and you see A...Z. Click again you see Z....A, etc. I often click on the "last modified" column to see things I recently added/edited.

p.s. Look at the "radiostreaming" under playlists and you'll see some internet radio stations you may like. Well, you'll like the first few as they are all jazz! EDIT: Actually, I'm not sure that internet radio playlist carries over with the theme import....so you may not see this after all.

Also note that foobar is very powerful and can do file conversions, ripping, tag editing, etc. I don't use it for any of those purposes. I just use it for playing. I use dbpa for ripping/converting and sometimes mp3tag for some tag editing.

Have fun!

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: Windows Media Player vs. Foobar/dBpa/VLC/Groove-Music

Wow, thanks Gary!

Gee, that's a shed load of info.

I am using 'Foobar' now instead of that damn awful 'WMP'!

I have quickly skimmed through your kind email. But I wanted to ask, please:

I find the 'playbar' (ie. Play/RR/FF/Stop) buttons quite small. I am not sure how others feel about it? And so do you know if there is a way to make this region bigger, as a whole?

And secondly, on the 'timeline' of the player, is it possible for it to display the duration of how long the track has been playing for, and how long is left?



Many thanks.