Whats better
 

Ive been using both Windows media player and Winamp and i really cant pick which one I like better overall (thanks SiN) any thoughts?

for audio, video, or both?

pls specificate.

I assume you mean Windows Media player? and not the compression format? not quite sure if this was a question about formats (with winamp == mp3) or players.

But, as SiN said, your question is a bit vague... although I am ashamedly a big fan of Windows Media Player, over Winamp.

I really like how Media Player will display the cover art of whatever album you're playing. And if you're playing an MP3, it displays "folder.jpg" from the folder where the mp3 is (if it exists). I also really like the pull-down menu which lists all your playlists, cd-rom drives, artists, and/or albums, which you can customize. Not to mention how the taskbar entry turns into a mini control panel when you minimize it.

Yea, I like Media Player. :)

Winamp can look up the album covers of your MP3's if you want. I don't know exactly how because whenever I accidentally run across it I close it. I think it's annoying.

Winamp lacks DRM....that's a +99 modifier in my book.

Only thing I like more about Windows Media Player is that the fullscreen video controls are prettier. Aside for that, it sucks.

EDIT: Oh, and just in case you were actually asking about format (equating Winamp with mp3), then my vote goes to "other" instead, for OGG.

SM, winmedia can also look up album covers for u, but i turn it off cuz i dont trust microsoft to look at my music library.

i prefer winmedia.

I use winamp for my audio and video. Never been a big fan of Windows Media Player, at least not the more recent versions.

die hard iTUnes fan w/ VLC for video here...

I prefer winamp over windows media player. Other then the fact about the skins, I can tweak winamp better then windows media.

Sorry, I meant that in response to Moskie mentioning how he liked that in WMP :) What a circle we've led ourselves into :lol:

I usually use both, Winamp for mp3's, Windows Media Player for video.

i hate the shuffle on Windows media

I prefer Winamp to WM, because I think its a better player in general.

However, in practice I use iTunes for Windows. I think it gets a bad rap from a lot of people.

I use Musicmatch Jukebox for audio, and Windows Media Player for video.

I think windows media player takes up too much processor memory and it takes longer to load up, cuz u gotto load up all those subsections that people rarly look at. Its more complex and it is slower than the faster and more compact winamp. plus, winamp looks better :D

So can WMP...

I prefer Winamp over WMP b/c it actually uses less memory and Winamp seems to have more functionality.

iTunes. I like the big interface and the ease of CD ripping.

iTunes all the way

Same here, I find they each have their best use. Musicmatch doesn't play video clips, which Media player does reasonably well. Media Player sucks at managing your MP3s, but Musicmatch has a great music library capability. I have 27+ Gb of music and using Musicmatch's library to find music is really fast.

Gee, I'm sorry. MusicMatch Jukebox has to be one of the most bloated out media players I've ever seen or used. It WILL bloat your system out, and cause everything else in your operating environment to significantly slow down when it's running in the background. It's up there in the shitty bloatwarez annals with Real Player and just about anything by Roxio. Speaking of programs that bloat like Real Player, MMJB, by my experience, also has the wonderful compunction to overthrow the previous default program you had for opening the file type of your choice. For example, installing MMJB will automatically oust WMP or whatever else you had before and set itself as the default program for playing mp3s. For the user that doesn't know the difference between a good, fast program like Winamp, which on the entry-level average computer (one that has at least a 1.6 - 2.4 GHz processor) will open up in less than 2 seconds, compared to MMJB which, on average, takes at least 10-15 seconds to load. Well, to the person who knows or cares nothing about speed of access or having all media files be auto-opened by shitty programs like Real Player and MMJB, well, I guess you can go with that.

However, if you're anything like me, have 10000+ mp3s and desire a program that can open in say less than 3 seconds, no matter how many mp3s you've got in there, then Winamp is the best program, IMO.

WMP is an alright program, from my experience. You can do better, as far as codec's for different types of video encoding go, but, as a general programs go, its still pretty good. I would suggest as an alternative to WMP, Divx. It has a really good general set of codecs to start out with, and it's pretty swift.

One letter. J. That's gotta be the best innovation I've ever seen in a playlisting program. Just hit the key 'J' and bam, you can type in the name of any song in your playlist and be instantly taken to it. No searching, no hitting next, just type in the name of the song/artist and you've got it. If you have 500 or less songs in your playlist, then this feature might go unnoticed and unappreciated, but if you've got more than 1000, then jumping becomes a friggin lifesaver. Also, the navigational abilities of Winamp are hard to contest, being able to go back and forth, pause and stop, just by using certain keys on the keyboard makes the entire experience easier.

But only the newest Winamp is any good.

I like winamp for audio, but for video my vote goes to WMP. It just looks sharper and a lot better in full screen mode. However, there are other programs out there as well that are even better, but they are usually only for one type of media.

The newest winamp is the only one available. Winamp 2 was pretty good when it was out, however winamp3 blew major ass. Total bloatwarez

I guess it depends on the speed of your processor. I'm running a P4 1.8 Ghz with Windows XP and my MP3 files are all on a PII 266 Mhz running Win 2K. I can load MMJB in less than 5 seconds. I do admit MMJB is a bit of bloatware, but I can't tell from Winamp's web site if has the features of MMJB. As an example, I recently bought a Rio NITRUS player. After loading the USB drivers MMJB was already configured to recognize the NITRUS. I wonder if Winamp can do the same?

I just mostly use Windows Media Player unless it is a dvd. I'm too lazy to install winamp since WMP is already built into Windows.

windows media takes up too many system resources, the new winamp doesn't even slow down my 400mhz comp when in classic mode

This is a tricky question, as I use both for different purposes. I do however find that I use Winamp more often than the Media Player.