Any useful Mac media player software?

milltown

Can you recommend any good alternatives to iTunes for playing movies and music on the mac?

I'm on my first Mac (iMac) but I have hated iTunes with a passion for years. IMO it is by far the most cumbersome and least intuitive piece of software I have had the displeasure of having to use. For video playback I don't rate quicktime too highly either. At least windows media player appears to make an attempt to find the right codec when you throw an .avi at it.

I have VLC, awkward and all as it can be, for the video files, although I'd love to hear if there's something better.

Next what I need is a small MP3 player, where I can open a file or folder of music and have just three or four buttons to control it on an interface that doesn't take up much of the screen, unless you want the whole playlist displayed. Does such a thing exist?

Edit: Google was no help. I'm not that lazy.

mikemac

In itunes go to View and you can select the mini player

It's a small display and just has the main controls

Thomas_S_Hunterson

MPlayer OSX Extended as an alternative to VLC. It's a frontend to mplayer.

VLC sounds like what you're after for the MP3 files.

whoopdedoo

I had a pet hate towards iTunes since going down the mac route 2 years ago and have only recently started to actually like the damn app!!

all is forgiven itunes, it really is a handy piece of kit if you use it right, imo

Georgio_77

For video I use Movist. Vox for audio.

stimpson

Plex 9 for video. Pulls info down from the net and organises your media for you. Slick UI and even has an iPhone app that will stream your video while you are out and about. I'd be lost without it.

miralize

VLC for Video. Itunes on windows is absolute muck, but on OSX its the best there is for audio imo

pajor

I also find it doesn't hurt to have Real Player on the Mac.

Don't use it much but can be useful for small .avi files and is best for .flv if downloading off Youtube or whatever you like yourself.

EDIT: Just realised, good for mp3 and can display a playlist with basic controls

conor.hogan.2

iTunes is best for audio (on macs).

VLC.

Also realplayer unfortunately is still used.

silvine

+1 for VLC

Songbird for audio
plex for movies

bigfeller

NoDrama wrote: »

plex for movies

Have you tried Boxee. Just started using it over Plex, much prefer it.

stimpson

I used to use Boxee until I read about privacy concerns. From Wikipedia:

As part of the social networking functionality, information about what content users watch is transmitted to Boxee.tv Inc's servers. Concerns have arisen over the use of this information, as Boxee is being created by a for-profit company and possible revenue-generation models for media center applications include the sale of user activity data to advertisers and other interested parties. Boxee's privacy policy[91] does not directly address this issue.

milltown

Cheers guys. A few options there for me to try out over the next while, thanks.
Actually been using VLC for my MP3s the last few days (dunno why I always just saw it as a video player) and with a minimum of tweaking it seems to suit what I was looking for.

Will try out the others too.

MagicMarker

VLC is great but I really like Quicktime X since moving to Snow Leopard.

I have no problem with Itunes for music playback.