real is whining because their software sucks.

[SpencerH]

Musicmatch has some very useful and simple to use mp3 to wav (and vice versa) converters.

Winamp asks if you want it to take over all music and video every time you start it. That irritation, combined with some of the conflicts it has created on my older systems are reason to avoid it. I havent tried it on a winxp system, but then again why should I with the crap it's caused on my other machines?

[Dr Strangelove]

I basically use Real One Player to play internet radio and music samples. Despite this the connection times are unacceptibly long and pieces are often interrupted as the real Player struggles to keep up. Having a cable modem connection I find this to be very irritating.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Real Player is scum.
I can't wait their going bankrupt, for the World Will Be Cleansed of This Scourge at last.

[Asher]

Originally posted by SpencerH
Winamp asks if you want it to take over all music and video every time you start it.

Err, if you don't want it to maintain links at the startup (which most people DO, since other programs hijack winamp's rights), did it ever occur to you to turn off "Restore File Associations at Winamp Startup", clearly labeled in the preferences?

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Asher

Err, if you don't want it to maintain links at the startup (which most people DO, since other programs hijack winamp's rights),

but I dont

They're not winamps rights. I want to choose what files to associate with what (as I could with the older winamp). The problem with using the older winamp is that it constantly asks for access thru the firewall so it can check for updates. **** that!

did it ever occur to you to turn off "Restore File Associations at Winamp Startup", clearly labeled in the preferences?

No **** eh? And winamp 7 or 8 ( I forget which) will ask win98se every time if I want to change that. If you do make the mistake of choosing yes, it associates everything it can without asking which ones. Yes, I know I can fix that, but why should I have to. Even MS asks nowadays before it does something to your system. What has MS learned that winamp etc have not?

EDIT: as I said before it may be better with XP but I'm not willing to try.

[optimus2861]

^ You can turn off the auto-updater, it's right in the "Setup" portion of the preferences. Winamp never chirps for net access at all after you've done that (except for CDDB lookups which I do allow). And you can turn off the file-associations grab, too. And there is no Winamp 7 or Winamp 8, so I wonder if you even know what you're talking about.

[vee4473]

HEY,

Just thought I would mention a Real player that is cool.

Real One Arcade is fun. Most games can only be played for 60 minutes and then you must buy to keep playing, but fun.

One of their better things

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by optimus2861
^ You can turn off the auto-updater, it's right in the "Setup" portion of the preferences. Winamp never chirps for net access at all after you've done that (except for CDDB lookups which I do allow).

except for cddb lookups

Which I block. You may allow someone else to decide when programs on your PC access the net but I dont. Nor do I want them running in the background waiting for a break in the firewall.

And you can turn off the file-associations grab, too.

I shouldnt have to turn off file associations grabs and as I recall you could only turn it off for a max of 1 month(although that could have been another player)

And there is no Winamp 7 or Winamp 8, so I wonder if you even know what you're talking about.

Thats correct there is no winamp 7 or 8. I didnt remember the winamp versions that I no longer use and I didnt bother to look at the installers I have archived.

But since I did look this morning, the installers that I still have stored and therefore the last I used were 2.64, 2.72, 2.80, 2.81.

If you bother to read my posts you'll note that I wasnt sure which versions were what (hell I may be mixing up aspects of different programs since I no longer use them ) and I acknowledge that things may have changed since I used those programs.

It doesnt change the fact that real, MS, apple, winamp and musicmatch all went down the same path toward controlling your puter.

Happy now?

[optimus2861]

^ Where did I say that I allow "others" to decide whether or not programs get access to the net? I screen everything through my firewall; Winamp is set to "ask" so I still have to approve every time it goes out on CDDB. The only programs I give permanent "on" status to are my web browser (Mozilla), email (Pegasus), and news reader (XNews). (Any MS rep would faint at the sight of my desktop )

As for the "one month" bit -- you must be thinking of another player (sounds like Real, it often seems to whine about extensions). Winamp doesn't do that. At least not with 2.xx. I found the 3.xx to be major bloatware and never bothered with it.

And I don't disagree about vendors trying to exert more & more control over people's computers -- it's for that reason I won't buy activation-riddled software (WinXP is the one exception I made, the first, last and only exception), and I seriously doubt I'm touching Longhorn.