Looking for a good media player like windows media player 11. I have a older pc with a 1ghz p3 and 768 of ram that i would like to make a simple jukebox. I would like to use linux for the os. But, i'm having a hard time finding a media player that displays album art and is nice like media player 11.

Firstly Linux is not Windows. If you want WMP11 functionality you have to have WMP11. and Windows. VLC Media Player on the other hand plays everything, every format no holds barred, including video. Forget album art, it's just eye candy that sucks up your already meager resources.

I would suggest Amarok -- I use it everyday. Also look at using a LiveCD such as Knoppix or PCLinuxOS for this purpose. If you'll only be using the computer as a "Jukebox" then there's no need to commit to an OS completely.

Tell us more and we might be able to help you more.

Also, look at the results of last years "best media player" poll.

Joel

Thanks for the replys.

First off Album art is eye candy and i want it. This "juke box" should be really easy to use and nice looking. The users will be my wife and guests who come over to rock out. Most people rather not search folders for music and i hate making playlists. I'm looking for something of a modded x-box type player. I will only be playing mp3s so i really don't need a super versatile player with a butt load of codecs. I'd rather not use a live cd for the fact i only have 768mb of pc133. I rather not use windows for the fact i don't want to buy it nor do i want more os than i need. I just remembered winamp, hmm i wonder if i can get the newest version running on gentoo or pclinxos mini me.

Amarok does all that windows media player/itunes does but about 1000000000 times better. It took me a while to get used to it after using windows but is far more intuitive. It displays album art, lyrics and has thousands of downloadable scripts to do far much more. It also has dynamic and intelligent playlists. Brilliant app, that doesn't munch CPU like media player

I like Amarok so far (just started using it). I just use it for catching streams so far. I'll have to get into it a little more. Thanks!

If you like Winamp...who doesn't? Then you will be impressed with XMMS. I won't say it's a clone but you make your own judgement.

Amarok! WooHoo! I love it! It's funny how it's been right under my nose the hole time. I like the setup, the album song list, the lyrics script, and the wiki function. It is more than what i was looking, it's super fantastic. Sorry, i'm just really happy i can finish my little project now. Now i have to choose a disto, something light and fluffy, i think i will use dsl.

You cannot get lighter distro than GeeXboX. You can easily modify it to suit your needs.

Played with GeexBox a little the version i had didn't have a very good player in it(nothing like amarok).

A few notes:

If your needs are as specialized as you are saying, you should learn how to compile software to exactly fit your needs. The caveat is that too much "optimization" can lead to suboptimal performance: the people who packaged the software usually know how to make it perform best.

PCLinuxOS and Knoppix run well as LiveCDs on systems with small amounts of memory -- they run well without a lot of halting to read the CD.

However, if the system is "throw-away" or "specialized" then play around with as many distros as you want. Especially try the small ones like DSL and Puppy, since they may have everything you need. You can install whatever software you want -- trust me, it's easy -- you don't have to go by what the distro packages with it.

PCLinuxOS also comes in several varieties, one of which is small and only contains software that you choose to install (Mini-me). There is also a remaster that is specialized for jukebox purposes. Unfortunately their site is down right now...

Joel