Media player/burning software recommendations.

M@lice

I'm sorry if most of this stuff has been asked for more but i have been searching through the website and havn't found alot to help.

Well my Pioneer dvr-107d from jes came without any cd burning apps because it's a bulk order item which was a bit disapointing especially since I originally wanted to get a retail liteon drive. So I think nero is the best but i'll have to pay for it. Is that a good idea or are there alternatives out there. Also i'll be getting a version of linux soon so i could also wait until I get that and get a linux app instead.

I'm also wondering which media player i should use. I want something that isn't too resource hungry so i can run it in the background while i play games and browse the web. I don't want to use windows media player as that has always caused my last pc to grind to a halt if i used it in conjunction with anything else. I'm thinking probably winamp but does anyone know of anything more tailored to my needs?

Also i'll be storing my music in Ogg Vorbis format. I already downloaded EAC and its set up to rip my cd's to Ogg. Wat would you recommend as the most balanced quality level. I think i remember somebody here recommending level9 but the files are pretty big at that quality. But i don't really mind the size as I don't have vast amounts of cd's and 160gb should be plenty.

Also I'll need some software dvd player but i reckon i'll wait until i've installed linux to get that but any recommedations would be excelent.

Also wat's the best firmware for the pioneer drive as i hear you can get some v good "customised" firmware.

Fenster

Nothing has beaten Alcohol 120 in my experience for copying CDs/DVDs (burns ISOs also). I'm not too picky over what I use for compiling CDs as I'm usually just making backups and ghosts-I'm using the latest Nero right now.

For media, I use DivX for episodes of Stargate I download and Winamp 2.91 for everything else. For DVDs I use Xine in Linux as I gave on windows after four hours trying to coax XP to play the Bourne Identiy (bought that day in Xtra-Vision).

Explosive_Cornflake

Personal i use 192k ABR MP3's, with the LAME encoder. Opted away from vorbis because i don't like the built in tags, plus mp3's are a bit more compatible across different mp3 players.
Winamp 5, and media player classic are what i use, but i can see why people stick to the 2.xx series of winamp.
Alchol 120% and nero 6.3 up are all you'll need for burning.

tman

Explosive_Cornflake wrote:

Winamp 5, and media player classic are what i use, but i can see why people stick to the 2.xx series of winamp.

i can't
winamp 3 was extremely offputting alright, but winamp 5 in classic skin mode is just good old winamp 2.91 with some secksy additions.

i use alcohol and nero for burning.
dvd shrink is the mutts nuts for cramming a dual layer disc onto a 4.7gb dvdr.
winamp 5.04 = sheer brilliance. combine it with the ipod plugin and there's no need for bloaty old itunes.

media player classic is great (get the k-lite codec pack and you'll be able to play pretty much any video file in existence with this baby.)

Creamy Goodness

winamp 5.04 for mp3's and audio

powerdvd for dvd's then i rip them later to watch them in

divx player

Mutant_Fruit

If you want a low resource Music player, try out foobar2000. The standard screen is very basic looking, but there are some very good "skins" for it tat make it look b-e-a-utiful. It plays (practically) everything you throw at it, including ogg.

As for burning programs, Nero is probably the best, but it ain't free. Give Alcohol 120% a shot, thats pretty good.

M@lice

I'll give foobar a try so!

Btw reason i chose Ogg is because i like to go with open source and have heard that its very good quality. Oh and I've decided to go with quality 7 rips as the file sizes are comparable to 192kpbs mp3s which is a pretty popular standard.

EDIT: Oh and since I'll have to pay for both alcohol and nero I reckon i'll just wait and get a burner for linux once i get my copy.