Need to find a media player

n e r d · 03-28-2006, 10:16 AM

I'm running SuSE 10 and looking for a decent media player. I really really wish I could use iTunes, because no matter how much I hate apple's OS I do like their music software. Even If I could use Winamp it would be great, but since wine has proved to be pretty much useless, I can't run them, so I'm looking for a linux MP3 playing program.

I currently use AmaroK but I would swear it's written by Microsoft since it crashes so much.

Is there something similar to AmaroK that runs for more than 10 minutes without crashing and uses the Xine audio engine so I can play MP3?

phil.d.g · 03-28-2006, 10:48 AM

Beep Media Player? It doesn't use the xine audio engine AFAIK, but it does play mp3's

ssfrstlstnm · 03-28-2006, 11:28 AM

Hmm, amarok has never crashed for me. Have you tried xmms?

jlo_sandog · 03-29-2006, 04:56 AM

I use vlc (videolan client), and downloaded a few songs on linux with Sharpmusique (no drm).

http://bordeaux.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=966

http://www.nanocrew.net/software/sharpmusique/

ethics · 03-29-2006, 05:03 AM

amarok for audio, vlc/mplayer for video, can't go wrong (unless you dont want KDE for amarok :P)

jiml8 · 03-29-2006, 08:43 PM

mplayer/gmplayer work fine. I use kplayer quite a bit also.

Then there is VLC,which I also use.

I, too, have found amarok too much trouble to worry with. Mostly I use the combination of Streamtuner/Kplayer to do pretty much what Amarok does.

WRSpithead · 03-29-2006, 09:01 PM

I use mplayer for videos and juk for music. I love both!

Ellops · 03-29-2006, 09:23 PM

Kaffeine is an all in one solution too... uses xine

There is also then Linux Media Player (but iv never tried it)

I prefer amarok/xmmms for audio, and mplayer for movies, though

J.W. · 03-29-2006, 10:59 PM

Have you checked the 2005 LQ Awards for what your fellow LQ'ers voted as the best audio media player?

Sabinou · 03-30-2006, 01:07 AM

Here's my suggestion : instead of trying every media player available, and especially since you want an itunes clone, try to find why amarok is crashing ^^
Amarok is THE itunes for Linux, so you should on top of all adress why amarok's crashing.

Don't take no offence, but I don't know your level of nux knoweledge. Have you tried running amarok from a console, so as to see what is the error message during a crash ?
Is it a package-based amarok, or a home-compiled one ?
Have you tried asking amarok to use another internal engine, you have choice for instance between ards gstreamer xine etcetera ?

daihard · 03-30-2006, 01:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sabinou

Here's my suggestion : instead of trying every media player available, and especially since you want an itunes clone, try to find why amarok is crashing ^^
Amarok is THE itunes for Linux, so you should on top of all adress why amarok's crashing.

That is a good suggestion. Running a Linux application from the console will usually give you a lot more information about the program, including when it crashes. AmaroK is a very good media player. If you can figure it out and start using it without crashing, it'll probably be the best.

Having said that, I personally use xmms for MP3/AAC playback and Kaffeine for movies.

n e r d · 03-30-2006, 10:38 AM

The version of amarok I have is the one that came pre-installed with Linux.

If I'm correct, it was crashing during updating collection, which it for whatever reason seems to have to do every 10-20 minutes.

Since then, though, it hasn't locked up. Maybe it truly was working, but it's still shouldn't lock up the GUI for a background task.

I'll see what happens from now on, and I'll run it from a command prompt for a while and see if it locks up and what error message I get.

While I'm asking about amarok, there are a few things I do not like about it, and hope I can change an option to fix. When I double click on an artist under the collection tab, it adds every one of the artists songs to a playlist. It does not play the songs, instead I have to scroll through the list to the bottom to play the songs. What I want to do is get rid of the whole playlist thing, and instead when I double click on an artist, I want their albums to pop up, then when I double click on album, I want the playlist to clear and the album begin immediately.

Even better would be if I could have a list of all the songs with a search. In other words, how do I make amarok act like itunes?

sigmaz32 · 04-02-2006, 10:19 AM

I cant use amarok mplayer for suse 10. please help, I am from Greece and sorry fo my English, thanks! Icant play my favorite internet stations (www.e-radio.gr e.t) amarok play stantart stations, please help again thanks!

onjoo · 04-02-2006, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sigmaz32

I cant use amarok mplayer for suse 10. please help, I am from Greece and sorry fo my English, thanks!

Let me guess, you can't play mp3s? ...?

run this on konsole with root :

Code:

installation_sources -a http://packman.iu-bremen.de/suse/10.0/

go to yast (software management) and install packages called "mad" and "lame". Install also mplayer. Yast will take care of the dependencies

n e r d · 04-02-2006, 11:06 AM

I couldn't play mp3 at first either and even after installing the updates for it frm YaST, I still couldn't and only could through xine, so what I had to do was switch the audio engine to xine.

So if you install the packages onjoo said, and it still won't play, try using the xine audio engine.

Here is the tutorial I used to enable mp3 playback:
http://www.thejemreport.com/mambo/content/view/178/42/

It was very easy to do.