Music/Media Players

[machinebacon]

So this thread is dedicated to media and music players (reviews, ideas, criticism, questions and answers)

So, I'm right now testing "Musique" (unfortunately, like many full-feat GUI players it's depending on qt4)
Has been very slow importing my not-so-large media directory.

Nice one-click-and-play option, if you hover the mouse over the album cover, a play button appears and autoplays the artists. Gotta dig a bit into it.

Code: Select all

bbq@grill:~$ depends musique
musique
  Depends: libqt4-sql-sqlite
  Depends: libc6
  Depends: libgcc1
  Depends: libphonon4
  Depends: libqt4-dbus
  Depends: libqt4-network
  Depends: libqt4-sql
  Depends: libqtcore4
  Depends: libqtgui4
  Depends: libstdc++6
  Depends: libtag1c2a
  Depends: phonon

[ivanovnegro]

Has been very slow importing my not-so-large media directory.

What did you think? :D It does not surprise me.

Everybody knows, Ivan is hooked on mpd and I show you why.

allplayersareshit.png (7.9 KiB) Viewed 7133 times

Imagine feeding Musique with that library, it will roast your machine, I assure that.

Before mpd I tried everything, they all fail sooner or later, for me at least. But generally, all the Linux players suck, mpd just sucks less, because it has not some of the fancy features like external devices and that stuff, no shoutcast. But why do I need radio at all with that library? I do not care and I fill my mp3 player manually. Radio is going through the command line or Radiotray and that does not happen often.

What mpd does is one thing where all the others fail, it manages such a large library like Hercules can move rocks or Superman buildings. No bugs, no hiccups. Just speed and efficiency, a great search through clients like ncmpcpp you see in the screenshot. Updating the data base in seconds, streaming capabilities, pulling large playlists, playing without X... I could go on and on but enough, you know that already.

I use ncmpcpp mostly, especially for creating my playlists, search and tagging (the best out there), forget all the tagging software. Ncmpcpp does it just by reading the file name and kaboom. Full keyboard control of course.
Mcp I use for global keyboard shortcuts and gmpc gives a nice UI if needed with notifications and even browsing through the Jamendo catalogue what again I do rarely and visual infos from LastFm/Wikipedia and cover support, literally everything what Amarok and shit offers you sans the resources.

Actually I am listening to some obscure Turkish and have no covers but you get the picture.

One cool feature of GMPC is that you can put individual songs in personal playlists not saving the whole playlist.

Music players that I still like are MOC for the same speed but it has no database, not very practical for me. Deadbeef is top notch, again no library but it has a nice minimal and customizable interface and it comes with a great converter, forget the Gnome program Converter or however it is called.

Players that suck totally are:

Amarok, it is just a connection to the internet, slow and buggy.

Rhythmbox is also just useless, once it just burnt my CPU while trying to read my music library.

Exaile is slOOOOOOw, if you click on some menu, it needs some seconds to load shit.

Gmusicbrowser seems to have something going for it but then the UI ist just plain confusing, it is a playground for layout freaks.

Audacious comes close to Deadbeef but has some sound distortions and is not that customizable as Deadbeef, also the inbuilt tagger is for the bin.

Decibel uses GStreamer, did I said that I hate GStreamer, it has sound distortions and skips music tracks. But GStreamer is the main engine in most of the music applications.

Guayadeque was once something I quite used for a while but it is just an ugly program using wxWidgets, what the hell. It has nice features but is damn buggy. Amarok has less bugs.

Songbird, are you serious? A pile of shit, look just how alien it looks like on any system.

There are many many more but I would begin to rant and this here is not the section.

Also I should say something about my addiction to music but I am not sure, if drugs or hobbies.

[DebianJoe]

moc. moc is just so clean and simple. It just plays the music and then gets out of my way. I don't carry the same size library that Ivan does, so all I need is a tiny little cli player.

I would try out other options if moc didn't do everything I need so very well.

Code: Select all

moc
  Depends: libasound2
  Depends: libc6
  Depends: libcurl3-gnutls
  Depends: libdb5.1
  Depends: libfaad2
  Depends: libflac8
  Depends: libgcc1
  Depends: libid3tag0
 |Depends: libjack-jackd2-0
  Depends: <libjack-0.116>
    libjack-jackd2-0
    libjack0
  Depends: libltdl7
  Depends: libmad0
  Depends: libmagic1
  Depends: libmodplug1
  Depends: libmpcdec6
  Depends: libncursesw5
  Depends: libogg0
  Depends: librcc0
  Depends: libresid-builder0c2a
  Depends: libsamplerate0
  Depends: libsidplay2
  Depends: libsidutils0
  Depends: libsndfile1
  Depends: libspeex1
  Depends: libstdc++6
  Depends: libtagc0
  Depends: libtinfo5
  Depends: libvorbis0a
  Depends: libvorbisfile3
  Depends: libwavpack1
  Depends: zlib1g
  Suggests: moc-ffmpeg-plugin

edit: that list is longer than I would have expected, though.

[wuxmedia]

I find it hard enough to type stuff out, and listen to music on the computer, at the same time.
So I dont have any specific music program installed.
for media/films I use VLC, which plays a lot of stuff.

Code: Select all

wux@exefcee:~$ depends vlc
vlc
  Depends: fonts-freefont-ttf
  Depends: vlc-nox
  Depends: libaa1
 |Depends: libavcodec53
  Depends: libavcodec-extra-53
  Depends: libavutil51
  Depends: libc6
  Depends: libcaca0
  Depends: libfreetype6
  Depends: libfribidi0
  Depends: libgcc1
 |Depends: libgl1-mesa-glx
  Depends: <libgl1>
    libgl1-mesa-swx11
    libgl1-mesa-glx
  Depends: libice6
  Depends: libqtcore4
  Depends: libqtgui4
  Depends: libsdl-image1.2
  Depends: libsdl1.2debian
  Depends: libsm6
  Depends: libstdc++6
  Depends: libtar0
  Depends: libva-x11-1
  Depends: libva1
  Depends: libvlccore5
  Depends: libx11-6
  Depends: libxcb-composite0
  Depends: libxcb-keysyms1
  Depends: libxcb-randr0
  Depends: libxcb-render0
  Depends: libxcb-shape0
  Depends: libxcb-shm0
  Depends: libxcb-xfixes0
  Depends: libxcb-xv0
  Depends: libxcb1
  Depends: libxext6
  Depends: libxinerama1
  Depends: libxpm4
  Depends: zlib1g

bit bloaty.

i had moc playing on the P2 96Mb Evectra - mp3s streamed via samba - worked lovely.
otherwise my favourite player is my Technics 1210 mk2's 8p

[machinebacon]

@ivanhoe: the reason I asked about "musique" is easily because I wanted to add a "wife-will-like-it" (not my wife, luckily!) player to the next remix, rather than a server/client solution (you probably know that out first encounter was on the mpd thread over at the munch), so of COOOURSE mpd/mpc is the optimal setup.

The import, by the way, was slow (two minutes) because Musique checks lastfm for covers and crap, and I haven't had a proxy running for this 'service'. 18389 songs only, in 1756 folders. I just noticed, that subsequent scans are quick, almost instant.

Agree with what you wrote about other players, I really like moc and deadbeef, but always fall back to mpg123/mplayer2 and feed the with a randomized playlist.

[ivanovnegro]

^ Musique should be fine then. It is very simple and visually appealing I think. Let's see, is there something in Gtk land?
Maybe this one, http://pragha.wikispaces.com/, still not in the Debian repos.

[machinebacon]

^ Ah yeah, Pragha - for me this is something like Guayadeque (you know what I mean) and lxmusic. Not fisch not fleisch :D

FYI siduction packed pragha for sid:

Code: Select all

bbq@grill:~$ policy pragha
pragha:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 1.0-0.siduction.1
  Version table:
     1.0-0.siduction.1 0
        500 http://packages.siduction.org/base/ unstable/main amd64 Packages

Good towo or whoever it was :D

Edit: forget it -- not interested in tracking the version mismatches:

Code: Select all

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 pragha : Depends: libcdio-cdda0 but it is not installable
          Depends: libcdio-paranoia0 but it is not installable
          Depends: libcdio10 but it is not installable
          Depends: libxfce4util4 (>= 4.3.99.2) but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

[ivanovnegro]

^ Already thought that it is in Siduction. :)

What about Noise, the thing from eOS? Or Xnoise? Damn, that is all the ame shit. I would go with Musique for wifies.

[machinebacon]

Code: Select all

xnoise:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.2.17-0.siduction.1
  Version table:
     0.2.17-0.siduction.1 0
        500 http://packages.siduction.org/extra/ unstable/main amd64 Packages

wanna join the siduction camp? :) Add their sources, Dave, they have a lot of new stuff in their experimental and their fixes repo saves asses.

[pidsley]

I'm with wux in the "can't think and listen to music at the same time" school, so if I use a music player it's usually only for testing sound, and then it's almost always mocp. But I've been using cmus a little more lately -- it's slightly smaller and lighter than mocp. I don't like the cmus UI as much as mocp, but that's mostly because I'm used to mocp and have it configured the way I like it.

For GUI players, I use audacious or deadbeef, but then only if they're already installed (like in a BBQ spin). Audacious seems fairly light, and might be wife-friendly.

Code: Select all

audacious
  Depends: audacious-plugins
  Depends: dbus
  Depends: dbus-x11
  Depends: gtk2-engines-pixbuf
  Depends: libaudclient2
  Depends: libaudcore1
  Depends: libc6
  Depends: libdbus-1-3
  Depends: libdbus-glib-1-2
  Depends: libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0
  Depends: libglib2.0-0
  Depends: libgtk-3-0
  Depends: libguess1
  Recommends: unzip
  Replaces: <libaudutil1>
  Replaces: <libsad2>

As usual, the list of things I don't like is much larger than the list of things I like. I tried rhythmbox once when someone on munch asked a question about it. What a bloated piece of crap.

[bones]

I use mostly deadbeef or vlc, but I have tried most others. I don't need many features. Also find myself using BBQRadio more than actually listening to my collection, these days. The trance station is nice background music for computating, lol.

[apprentice]

music-player
remember that one

haha
just kidding

cvlc
deadbeef

[machinebacon]

Code: Select all

mplayer2
  Depends: libaa1
  Depends: libasound2
  Depends: libass4
 |Depends: libavcodec53
  Depends: libavcodec-extra-53
  Depends: libavformat53
  Depends: libavutil51
  Depends: libbluray1
  Depends: libc6
  Depends: libcaca0
  Depends: libcdio-cdda1
  Depends: libcdio-paranoia1
  Depends: libcdio13
  Depends: libdca0
  Depends: libdirectfb-1.2-9
  Depends: libdvdnav4
  Depends: libdvdread4
  Depends: libenca0
  Depends: libfaad2
  Depends: libfontconfig1
  Depends: libfreetype6
  Depends: libfribidi0
  Depends: libgif4
 |Depends: libgl1-mesa-glx
  Depends: <libgl1>
    libgl1-mesa-swx11
    libgl1-mesa-glx
 |Depends: libjack-jackd2-0
  Depends: <libjack-0.116>
    libjack-jackd2-0
    libjack0
  Depends: libjpeg8
  Depends: liblircclient0
  Depends: libncurses5
  Depends: libogg0
  Depends: libpng12-0
  Depends: libpostproc52
  Depends: libpulse0
  Depends: libsdl1.2debian
  Depends: libsmbclient
  Depends: libspeex1
  Depends: libswscale2
  Depends: libtheora0
  Depends: libtinfo5
  Depends: libvdpau1
  Depends: libvorbis0a
  Depends: libx11-6
  Depends: libxext6
  Depends: libxinerama1
  Depends: libxv1
  Depends: libxvidcore4
  Depends: libxxf86dga1
  Depends: libxxf86vm1
  Depends: zlib1g
  Conflicts: mplayer
  Replaces: mplayer
    mplayer2

huh, I never thought mplayer2 pulls in that much of crap...

Code: Select all

gmerlin
  Depends: gmerlin-data
  Depends: libasound2
  Depends: libatk1.0-0
  Depends: libc6
  Depends: libcairo2
  Depends: libfontconfig1
  Depends: libfreetype6
  Depends: libgavl1
  Depends: libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0
  Depends: libglib2.0-0
  Depends: libgmerlin0
  Depends: libgtk2.0-0
  Depends: libpango1.0-0
  Depends: libx11-6
  Depends: libxext6
  Depends: libxml2
  Recommends: <gmerlin-encoders>
    gmerlin-encoders-extra
    gmerlin-encoders-ffmpeg
    gmerlin-encoders-good
  Recommends: gmerlin-plugins-avdecoder
  Recommends: gmerlin-plugins-base

now this looks decent. gotta give it a whirl.

[machinebacon]

How I love packages starting with a "g"

Code: Select all

bbq@grill:~$ gmerlin
[utils] Info: Created directory /home/bbq/.gmerlin
Segmentation fault

the fuck will I investigate, the fuck.

[ivanovnegro]

wanna join the siduction camp? :) Add their sources, Dave, they have a lot of new stuff in their experimental and their fixes repo saves asses.

I stay pure. :)

What about gogglesmm:

http://code.google.com/p/gogglesmm/

Code: Select all

apt-cache depends gogglesmm
gogglesmm
  Hängt ab von: libc6
  Hängt ab von: libdbus-1-3
  Hängt ab von: libexpat1
  Hängt ab von: libfox-1.6-0
  Hängt ab von: libgcc1
  Hängt ab von: libgcrypt11
 |Hängt ab von: libgl1-mesa-glx
  Hängt ab von: <libgl1>
    libgl1-mesa-swx11
    libgl1-mesa-glx
 |Hängt ab von: libglu1-mesa
  Hängt ab von: <libglu1>
    libglu1-mesa
  Hängt ab von: libsqlite3-0
  Hängt ab von: libstdc++6
  Hängt ab von: libtag1c2a
  Hängt ab von: libx11-6
  Hängt ab von: libxine1

[machinebacon]

:brech: that's like gxine, ha! The frontend could directly be used in another distro :)

[MrPink]

I'm surprised, Clementine has not been mentioned yet. A solid and feature-rich audio player imo. A bit heavy though:

Code: Select all

apt-cache depends clementine
clementine
  Depends: libc6
  Depends: libcdio13
  Depends: libchromaprint0
  Depends: libechonest2.1
  Depends: libfftw3-double3
  Depends: libgcc1
  Depends: libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0
  Depends: libglib2.0-0
  Depends: libgpod4
  Depends: libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0
  Depends: libgstreamer0.10-0
  Depends: libimobiledevice2
  Depends: liblastfm1
  Depends: libmtp9
  Depends: libplist1
  Depends: libprojectm2
  Depends: libprotobuf-lite7
  Depends: libqjson0
  Depends: libqt4-dbus
  Depends: libqt4-network
  Depends: libqt4-opengl
  Depends: libqt4-sql
  Depends: libqt4-xml
  Depends: libqtcore4
  Depends: libqtgui4
  Depends: libqxt-gui0
  Depends: libstdc++6
  Depends: libtag1c2a
  Depends: libusb-1.0-0
  Depends: libusbmuxd1
  Depends: libx11-6
  Depends: libxml2
  Depends: zlib1g
  Depends: gstreamer0.10-plugins-base
  Depends: gstreamer0.10-plugins-good
  Depends: gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
  Depends: libqt4-sql-sqlite
  Depends: projectm-data
 |Recommends: gstreamer0.10-alsa
  Recommends: gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio

[dkeg]

tbh, the only player's I've used are clementine (so much hype, decided to try it) which i did not like at all, and banshee. Banshee I guess was fine. No issues. Been awhile though. Mainly use moc and / or cmus. They do what I need. Any video casts I play through mplayer. Like most of you, I feel like some of these applications just offer so much stuff I get lost and don't even know what most of the stuff does or what it's for. I like moc and cmus b/c I tell it the directory and it plays. that's it.

[machinebacon]

^ Agree! Oh and mplayer has a *load* of options you can throw into the .mplayer/config file, it's a massive application...

[GekkoP]

deadbeef. I used mpd+ncmpcc for a while, but I'm now with deadbeef.