Tag Archives: media player

Hokrain Is A Light, Portable Music Player With Massive Hotkey & Format Support

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Listening to music during work or other activities is a common habit of regular PC users including myself. Windows Media Player that comes built-in with Windows takes up a lot of system resources, which can be overkill if all you want to do is play songs. Several third party alternatives such as iTunes and MediaMonkey also face the same memory-hogging problem. Other options such as the open-source Stealth Player offer a much more lightweight experience. However, while consuming lesser memory, most of the lightweight tools face the problem of not offering many useful options such as playlist creation, search, and navigation. Hokrain is a portable and lightweight audio player that allows you to play songs without interfering with your work, while providing you with several useful options related to playlist creation, navigation and hotkeys. Other than the usual MP3, WMA and WAV audio formats, it supports a large number of unusual ones allowing you to use one audio player for all your music needs. Keep reading to find out more about Hokrain. Read More

MediaMonkey Media Player & Manager Comes To Windows 8 And RT

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Listening to music while working is a pretty common habit of most computer users, as it helps one relax and take the mind off of stressful things. It can also help people block off any disturbing sounds from the surroundings while working on their computers. Whether listening to music while working increases or decreases the productivity and efficiency is a debatable topic. After the default Windows Media Player, iTunes and Winamp, MediaMonkey is one of the most famous audio players available for Windows. In Windows 8, Microsoft has also included a new Modern UI-based music player. However, it does not provide you with a lot of options for playlist creation and metadata editing. Today, we have the Modern UI version of MediaMonkey that allows you to manage and play your music & video collection, create playlists, adjust equalizer settings, and edit metadata. More on MediaMonkey after the jump. Read More

MPC-BE Is Media Player Classic With Better UI & More Options

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Media Player Classic probably needs no introduction. The feature-laden open-source audio and video player has earned quite a reputation  and is considered as one of the best media player available for Windows, among the likes of KMPlayer, GOM Player and VLC etc. The only downside however, is the player’s UI that's reminiscent of Windows Media Player from Windows 95 and 98, that might not likely please everyone. Being open-source software, it allows anyone to custom-tailor it to their needs. If you want the features of MPC with some added eye candy that brings its UI out of the 90s, give MPC-BE a shot. It’s a revamped version of Media Player Classic that - according to its developer - not only looks better than MPC, but also performs faster. Furthermore, MPC-BE isn't merely about new looks; the developer has also thrown a bunch of extra features into the mix. Let's find out more about the player after the jump. Read More

RockPlayer2 Comes To Android; Offers A Sleek UI, WiFi Media Sharing & Online Streaming

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It’s been quite a while since RockPlayer2 was made available to iOS users, and now it’s time for Android fans to enjoy the revamped version of one of the most feature-rich cross-platform media playing and streaming apps for smartphones and tablets. RockPlayer2 has just been released to the Play Store with a completely redesigned UI and a whole bunch of powerful features including universal media format support, wireless media sharing across devices via RockShare, the reinvented seek bar (aka FreeSeek), native UPnP client, improved media file management, subtitles support, HDMI mirroring, fully customizable control bar, and various gesture to control media playback on your device with minimal effort. All in all, it’s a massive update considering the significant changes in terms of the revamped UI as well as the new features. Read More

MediaMonkey For Android Available In Public Beta With UPnP/DLNA Support

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MediaMonkey is a power-packed media player and library management application for Windows that needs long introduction. The team behind the app has just released a public beta of MediaMonkey for Android equipped with several great features including playback support for your music files, audiobooks, podcasts and videos etc., extended playlist management, browsing multimedia content in a number of ways, UPnP/DNLA support (with integrated download manager), content bookmarking, replay gain, lyrics support, and last but not the least, the option to wirelessly sync content with the MediaMonkey desktop client. In addition, the app presents you with a sleek music player UI, complete with the option to rate your tracks, set the favorite ones as the ringtone, share the best ones with your mates, switch between tracks via swipe gestures, edit track details and lots more. The beta variant of the app is currently available for download via the official MediaMonkey forums only, and we've got the download links and further details for you right after the break. Read More

Spotify Introduces Web Player For Streaming Music & Radio Online

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Most online services start out with a web interface and work their way up to desktop and mobile apps. Spotify did the exact opposite; it started out with desktop and mobile apps and has just introduced a web player that is slowing being rolled out to different Spotify accounts. Regardless whether or not you have a paid subscription to the service or just a free one, you should be able use the web interface which lets you play music, listen to and create different radio stations, and manage playlists. The interface is stunning yet simple although it might be a little crowded if you use it on a smaller screen. The web player consists of four sections; a section bar at the far left that allows you to move to your playlists, the radio, or check out what’s new, the section to its left shows additional controls for the tab you’re in whereas the last two larger ones list your music and showcase the music player. The web player and the new web interface bear little resemblance to its desktop app. Read More

Multimedia 8: A Feature-Rich Replacement For Native Windows 8 Media Player

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There’s been a lot of discussion regarding how Windows 8 would end up as an entertainment platform. Since a media player is a keystone feature of any multimedia device, Windows 8 ships with one too (following the usual Windows Media Player norm from previous iterations). However, this time it also comes with a brand new Modern UI styled media player, even though it isn’t something astonishing. If you fancy the new Modern UI and find the default media player quite primitive for your taste, then Multimedia 8 is probably what you’re looking for. It’s a Metro Modern app that is more than capable of satisfying all your multimedia needs, and supports playback for both audio and video files. It also allows you to select from among a slew of different themes, play media files in loop, enable subtitles and trim down your favorite audio/video sections from within the player. Furthermore, Multimedia 8 contains an integrated audio and video recording feature. Read More

Idrod Music: Media Player That Emulates The Old iPod Nano On Your Android

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Android music players come in various shapes, sizes and flavors, with some trying to adhere to the latest Android GUI instructions (i.e., take the Holo route), while others attempting to replicate looks of offerings from other platforms. Fresh to the scene, Idrod Music (beta) is a feature-filled, customizable and multilingual media player for Android that can, at best, be referred to as an app that emulates everybody’s favorite old iPod nano/classic. Sporting the same on-screen menu, circular dial for in-app navigation, and gesture-based controls as that of the aforementioned iDevice, Idrod Music lets you enjoy local music playback, videos and photos on your Android in an entirely different way. Though not the most comprehensive media player in the market, the app offers enough customization and subtle controls to entice users towards giving it a fair try. While the photo and video explorer of the app contains nothing too flashy to talk about (apart from full-screen browsing), its music player certainly packs quite a few useful features, including the shuffle & repeat options, a 10-band equalizer, background playback, multiple browsing modes, automatic album cover searching, and the option to manually search for tracks. Past the break, we look at Idrod Music in detail. Read More

Flutter Ported To Windows, Lets You Use Hand Gestures To Resume/Pause Media Playback

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Plugins and third party support for media players comes out almost every other day to enhance the overall media experience. Some plugins add better library options, some provide hotkeys, while others bring support for a wide range of audio and video codecs etc. Most advance users rely on third party extensions to extend the native functionality of the media player. For instance, lyrics plugin for Windows Media Player and Winamp lets users automatically download lyrics of the songs and embed them into tracks' ID3 tags. Similarly, tag organization add-ins are programmed to download the album art and other missing tag information, like year of release, artist name, original track number, album name etc. A few months ago, we covered Flutter for Mac, an application that allows users to control iTunes and Spotify using hand gestures. It has recently been ported to Windows, with support for additional media players, including Windows Media Player and Winamp. As of now, it can only play and pause the media file, but the developer will add more gestures for track navigation and changing playlist shuffle mode in the next iterations. Flutter requires nothing except a webcam to detect and read the hand gestures. When it reads the pre-defined (play/pause) hand gesture, it immediately plays/pauses the current track and displays an on-screen indicator. Read More

noozy: Zune Style Android Media Player With Podcast & Sound Processors

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Elegant and power-packed Android music players are plentiful in the Google Play Store, and quite a few of them try to replicate the looks and functionality of Microsoft’s Zune player, such as the previously-reviewed InstaMusic and Fede’s Music Player. The latest to join the club of Metro-style Android music players is noozy – a sleek freemium that not just possesses powerful audio playback capabilities (courtesy of enhanced sound technology imported from the Noozxoide Laboratories), but also supports playing videos. In addition, the app lets users subscribe to, stream & download podcasts, listen to live audio broadcasts from noozy.live & last.fm services, and keep a close tab on the world's leading tracks, artists & albums. noozy also happens to be a great online music discovery tool that suggests tracks based on whatever you’re currently listening to. Users can get listen to samples of recommended tracks, browse complete albums of suggested artists, and purchase their favorite albums from various global music stores. Die-hard music lovers can also keep an eye on their favorite artists’ biographies, top tracks, album reviews & playlists, and get recommendations for similar artists. We’re not done with the app’s features yet; continue reading past the break to find out what else noozy has on offer. Read More

XenoAmp Is A Completely Gesture Controlled Music Player For Android

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The list of quality Android music player runs quite long, but if you’re looking for a minimalist and completely gesture-based alternative, then XenoAmp (beta) by XDA member ssuukk might be right up your alley. Defying the conventions of menu and control-laden UI, XenoAmp lets you take control of your music playback and browsing via various gestures. Whether it’s switching between tracks, adjusting volume, rating your tracks, or accessing your media library, it’s all controllable via tapping or swiping. Besides all the cool gestures, the app also supports several nifty features, such as gapless playback (Android 4.1 only), automatic equalizer calibration through automatic room correction, virtualizer & bass boost effects, music tag sync by scanning barcodes from audio CDs, easy management of playlists by tags, customizable sleep timer to automatically switch off music after a specified time, automatic album art detection & downloading from the internet, graphical representation of music albums on an aesthetically-rich & zoom-able plane, built-in file manager to navigate to music folders, ID3 tag editor, filtering of tracks by rating, date of listening/adding to library or number of plays,  Last.fm & Libre.fm scrobbling, multiple preset sound profiles, home & lock screen widgets, automatic playback and volume controls upon plugging headset and receiving calls, and lots more. Read More

RealPlayer For Android Exits Beta; Emerges As A Nifty Media Player

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The desktop version of the famous RealPlayer by Real Networks Inc. might no longer be in contention among most computer users these days, but that doesn’t imply that the company has given up on making efforts to recapture the global market; this time, by targeting the mobile users. After keeping the Android client of their media playing/streaming app in beta for quite some time now, the company has finally decided to step up a gear, and hence have launched the debut version of the official Android app of RealPlayer in the Google Play Store. Laced with almost all the goodies that a hardcore music fan would love to have at their disposal, this multilingual app vows to become your one-stop media playing and streaming app on Android. By media, we mean that the app has been designed to cater to your music, video and photo browsing needs, with prime focus placed stringently on presenting Android users with a power-packed music player. The app’s list of supported features is quite extensive, and you’ll have to hit the break in order to unveil the entire list in detail. Read More

CherryPlayer: Feature-Rich Streaming Media Player With YouTube Support

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Media players are an essential part of any multimedia device. Smartphones, notebooks, tablets – all these gadgets carry a default media player application to address users’ need to play their favorite audio and video content. Although stock multimedia players pretty much do the job for casual users, third party applications simply offer a lot more. I have reviewed a bunch of media player for Windows from time to time, and today I present to you another one called CherryPlayer. I have to admit, the application does look beautiful with snazzy interface design and a slew of features, such as ability to stream music from Last.fm, play and download YouTube videos, search online music from VK.com (an European social networking website) and then some. Of course, it can also play media files from your local directory, supporting various file formats, and didn’t encounter any problems playing all the audio/video files I threw at it. Read More

MoboPlayer: Free, Feature-Rich Android Media Player With Floating Window

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Android users have the option to resort to some quality media playing apps in order to enjoy their favorite music and videos on their devices. Previously reviewed MX Video Player, Wondershare Player and Super Video, Floating & Popup are a few names that deserve a mention in discussion of some of the most feature-rich, free media players for Android. While all aforementioned names are relatively new to the scene, there are a few candidates that have been around for quite some time now, trying to attract masses with their own set of goodies. One such very fine app has been MoboPlayer that is not only graphically rich, but packs enough quality and a broad set of features to be given a shot. As the article progresses, you shall be able to unveil the amazingly impressive features that the app possesses; however, it is worth mentioning here that with the latest update, MoboPlayer has transcended beyond being just a simple media player, as the Samsung Galaxy S III style floating window capability has been thrown into the mix as well. This particular feature of the app allows you to enjoy your favorite videos atop your Android’s homescreen or any other app that you want to have opened on your device without interrupting video playback. Read More

Daum PotPlayer: A Worthy Alternative To VLC, KMPlayer & Media Player Classic

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Judging and reviewing a media player is often a challenging task, as different features have separate levels of priority in each user’s mind. One might rank the loading speed higher than a stylish user interface, while another may downplay such points as immaterial in contrast to format support. With this consideration in mind, we have found the new PotPlayer fairly attractive for multimedia users, worldwide. An attractive interface coupled with advanced features, comprehensive format support, quality control and a minimum impact on your computer’s performance, has brought great respect to this apparently-nascent software. Unfortunately, unlike its peers (like VLC Player or Media Player Classic) etc, PotPlayer currently only supports Windows. Read More

SVPtube: Copy URLs Of YouTube Videos To Stream Them On Your Favorite Media Player

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YouTube has been cited as the most popular video streaming website on the internet. In fact, it is but a glimpse of what Web 3.0 might have to offer to the internet users. After having been widely acclaimed around the globe, time has taken us to a point where YouTube can not only be streamed on your desktop, but also, on Smartphones, Tablets, TVs, Laptops, Netbooks and Ultrabooks. While the videos are streamed and watched directly from within your web browser on Google’s own API, wouldn’t it have been better if you could use your favorite media player to watch those videos? In this way, not only you could customize the playback, but also, as flash streaming consumes more battery, your regular video player could save you the juice by using codecs and hardware acceleration. If something like this you’ve been looking for, then consider your wish granted, as SVPtube brings this concept to reality. It allows you to grab and stream YouTube videos directly on your regular media player. Good thing is, most of the major media players are supported, including KMPlayer, VLC and Media Player Classic, just to name a few. It simply does so by silently sitting on the system tray, and automatically triggers the media player should you copy a YouTube video’s URL to the clipboard. Does it fare well with Google’s integrated flash player? Let’s find out. Read More

20 Features Of KMPlayer That You Probably Don’t Know About

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When it comes to choosing a media player that supports a slew of audio and video formats, there are certainly many applications at your disposal. While most users opt in for widely popular VLC player, many of us look for a media player that comes packed with better media organization features. KMPlayer is a media player which has seen a lot of improvements in the past few years. It offers a stupendous amount of audio and video processing related features, eye-candy GUI, (the now recently added) 3D video playback support and a powerful rendering engine. While it has the ability to play almost all types of media files, it also includes most of the decoders that are essential to render a wide range of media files and supports external decoders that can improve both the video rendering quality and color reproduction. Keeping all that in mind, we decided to go ahead, into the very depths of KMPlayer itself and unearth twenty awesome features that you may not know about. Read More

Rules Player Provides GUI Front-End & Extensive Format Support For MPlayer

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Among the plethora of video players available for Windows (and other cross-platform applications), MPlayer has earned a name, quite of its own, owing to its support for various media formats and open source nature. Although Mplayer relies on a command-line interface, you can easily obtain optional media players off the internet that provide its GUI front-end. Rules Player, for the Windows operating system, is one such solution that uses MPlayer binaries and provide a simple and easy-to-use media player. It supports a wide array of video formats including AVI, MKV, MOV, SGP, MP4, OGG, NUTT, OGM etc., as well as various audio formats such as MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC, AC3, FLAC and so on. Additionally, the application lets you play videos while they are being downloaded, thus saving you the agony of having to wait for the download process to be completed first. Lets delve inside and see if it's worth a shot. Read More

Use Hotkeys For Playback Control Of Multiple Media Players With MPH

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There are numerous applications available out there that let you assign custom global keyboard shortcuts to a specific media player, so that you can easily play or pause a media file, control volume, etc., even if your media player is not active, but what if you want to assign hotkeys to not just one, but a number of different media players that you use? Meet MPH (Media Player Hotkeys) – an application that is designed to configure a single set of hotkey combinations for multiple media players including VLC, Windows Media Player, KM Player, Winamp, Media Player Classic and so on. Apart from using hotkeys, you can use mouse buttons and scroll wheel to perform different tasks as well. Read More

solplay Lets You View A Twitter Stream With A Topic & Update Frequency Of Your Choice [Web]

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Want to know the Twitter crowd's opinion on a particular topic? solplay (currently in beta) displays a continuous flow of tweets regarding a topic chosen by you. The interface takes after that of a conventional media player. You have controls that allow you to play/pause the flow of tweets, or view new ones, by clicking a forward button, while the amount of tweets coming in are depicted by volume bars that you can adjust to control said frequency. You can drag & drop tweets to add them to your Favorites, and create custom topics in the Presets category to search for strings or hashtags. solplay also lets you delete created topics and favorites by dragging them to a trash can within the interface. Read More