I really miss an mp3 player for linux that are not stucked in stone age. Some essensial points in my search is the following needs:

* ALSA output
* Multiple playlists, so that items can be draged from one playlist to another
* Easy playlistnavigation (e.g. as the "j"-button search in xmms)
* Speed
* Multiple inputformat (mp4, ogg, mp4)

I've tried a bunch of players but all lacks functionality or stability as the concept mp3-player was newly invented. I've also asked in different IRC-channels but often get quite geeky answers as "just implement it yourself"
or "who needs that".

Here is my conclusions:

* xmms *
The grand-old-man, but:
- Stuck with an outdated gtk.
- No multiple playlists.
- Generally it just seems that xmms-developers has left the building years ago as no major improvements has been done for a long period (away from alsa support).

* beep-media-player *
Nice with the gtk2-interface, but:
- Poor ALSA support. I have an M-audio audiophile card, which just works under all gstreamer apps and on xmms. But not here.
- No multiple playlist

* rhythmbox *
Several playlists, gstreamer. Really cool, but:
- When adding a bunch (1k-2k) of files to the library it takes loooong time. Several minutes.
- Quite unstable. Sometimes drag/drop to playlists doesn't work. Sometimes deletion doesn't work.
- For some reason its not possible to search in non-library playlists
- Poorly customizable

* juk *
Generally cool, but:
- If I arrange my playlist in a specific order and accidentially push a column title, the playlist will be sorted by entries in this column. There is no way of dropping this resorting - resulting in wasted work in arrangement.
- Poorly customizable regarding to e.g. input-plugins (Can't play mp4).
- I just generally don't like the KDE-look. Wished there was some gtk-version, but this is not a showstopper.

None of the above players is just like "wow, cool". Aren't there any really cool players out there without the lacks I described above?

Btw.: The concept and design of gstreamer (which is used by rhythmbox and juk) is impressively flexible and well thought out. We just miss a player as cool as this backend.

I like Amarok. It is simple to use, easily organizes your entire collection. It can be interfaced like juk or another player (I forget which one off hand.)

amarok - thanks, thats more like it. Pretty feature ritch I must say and with gstreamer support. Nice! A nice visionary development work.

As of version 1.1.1-1 (the only debian package I could find) it had some problems too. I don't know if any of the bugs/annoyments are fixed in 1.2-beta2 (latest version), but no debian package is available for that one.

I have the following issues:
-A lot of my mp3's miss id3 tags. As the collection list (and playlist) insist on showing id3-information instead of filename, it is impossible to tell
what row represent what number.

-It takes LOOOONG time for the playlist to load all id3-tags. Really long time. Amarok exists if I change playlist in the middle of such a load.
-I don't think it has support for mp4

-An option in the preferences on how to handle id3-tags could be nice.

-When I arrange a playlist and accidentially presses some column caption, the playlist is sorted by this column. There is no way of restoring my original sortorder.

-When playing a radio channel, and switching to another radio channel it seems like the old one is still active: The new channel is interrupted with sound from the old one.

-I can't find an easy way of adding new radio channels

-I miss an easy way of adding a new empty playlist. (minor annoyment)

-It still got that KDE-look (because it's a KDE-app., I know). I like gtk better, but thats just a cosmetic isue.

I used Zinf for a while....I found it a really good player...
...Amarok is definitely the best one I tried!

why do you need xmms to have a newer gtk ?
it's not a graphics programs for god's sake it's only an audio player...........

yeah that one is really a problem, no updates lately you're right
and yet still there are a couple of bugs present

but overall this is the best there is, it even supports jack..........

I think your requirements for a newer gtk interface are not a reason for concern.....
as this is not something that conflicts with your needs:

also, it supports any plugin there is, including NAS and video output and input, but if you really don't want xmms after all

I say your only alternative (if you ONLY need mp3) (btw, I personally don't use mp3) I think is alsaplayer, which is certainly supports ALSA, but the playlist thing is a strange requirement, one I never heard before..........you don't know where your files are ? :huh:

I was gonna make a new thread for this but now that this is hear. Does anyone know where I can get a copy of the xmms-mp3 rpm for 64 bit Fedora Core 3. I found one a while ago but then I reintalled fedora and I couldn't find it again. Silence is so bloody annoying

Xmms and mp3Blaster are the best possible mp3 players.

mp3Blaster is hard to navigate but at least it works for us 64 bit users.

64-bit users ?
you mean Itanium ?
you dude got Itanium ?

I use Beep Media Player from CVS and it works great for me. The J (jump) key works as expected, and in current releases it seems to load the ID3 tags a lot quicker than older versions.

And as for 64bit systems, the most common ones for home users now are the AMD64 line of CPU's (prices on par with the Pentium 4), and the Motorola PPC CPU found in Apple's Macintosh G5. There are also the venerable and still formidable Alpha and UltraSPARC 64bit platforms. Itanium isn't really that common.


Håkan