So the Battle of the Media Players continues. None of them is perfect right now. Here’s a breakdown:

iTunes
Pros: Great library, decent sound quality, nice crossfading, everything is simple and elegant
Cons: Runs on the Mac and I’m on Windows all day, no real extensibility

Windows Media Player
Pros: Great library, decent sound quality, SRS processing sounds cool
Cons: No crossfading, ugly, CPU hog, no real extensibility, slow at adding new files, especially over the network

Winamp 2
Pros: Small footprint, good sound quality, decent crossfading, very low CPU usage
Cons: No media library

Winamp 3 beta 3
Pros: Good sound quality, good crossfading, totally extensible, very fast at adding new media to library/playlist
Cons: Media library is pretty useless right now, buggy, not finished, CPU usage can be close to WMP

Sonique
Pros: Good sound quality, it’s “cool”
Cons: Buggy, no media library, crappy playlist, it’s dead.

I was a Sonique fanboy for a long time, then switched to Winamp 2 because I was tired of Sonique’s quirks. I think I’m going to go with WA3 for a while, unless it gets too buggy..

Okay, so I was a little off in the previous post.. Winamp3 does have a similar-to-iTunes-but-not-quite-the-same search capability in the playlist editor; just hit Tab. Now if they improve the media library, we have a winner. Of course, WA3 is still beta, so they have a ways to go.

Another sign of the coming Apocalypse is that I have decided to use Media Player as my primary.. uh.. media player.

Well, I’ll give it a go, anyway. I was looking for iTunes-like searching on Windows, and Winamp 2 doesn’t cut it. Winamp 3 does have searching, but I have to do it in programmer-style regular expressions:

artist HAS “Hardfloor” OR title HAS “Hardfloor” OR filename HAS “Hardfloor”

This isn’t as convenient as WMP’s search function, and nowhere near as convenient as iTunes’ little text box.

Just saw the new Attack of the Clones trailer.. looked good, apart from some dodgy compositing.

It’s kind of a shame that Sam’s so into wrestling right now, I miss the breathlessness that accompanied any new Star Wars thing in this household.

You know your sweater is cheaply made when it fits better when worn backwards.

Buy your fake Rolexes online instead of from that guy down the pub.

Actually, for a short period my dad was that guy down the pub. I got one before he sold the others, and was very pleased with it, until a hot sweaty night down at the Warehouse caused the glass to fall out.

Quality stuff, mate.

Binky has a fantastic new renderer that handles fur, caustics, and natural light really well.

Straitjacketed Women on Television. Now that’s a niche fetish.

In a shocking twist, one of Disney’s kids’ shows is actually entertaining. Even Stevens is the name, and the Louis character is the reason to watch. And Beans, played by that little kid that you really want to punch in the face. I know that sounds bad, but you’ll know what I’m talking about if you know that kid.