Media player

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Media player is a term typically used to describe computer software for playing back multimedia files. Most software media players support an array of media formats, including both audio and video files.

Some media players focus only on audio or video and are known as audio players and video players respectively. The producers of these players usually focus on providing a better user experience as they are specifically tailored toward the media type.

Microsoft Windows comes with pre-loaded Windows Media Player. The latest is Windows Media Player 11, which is bundled with Windows Vista, and available as a download for Windows XP SP2. Mac OS X comes pre-loaded with Quicktime Player for playing Quicktime movies and iTunes for playing a variety of media formats. Winamp only runs on Windows but supports Apple iPods and other portables like Creative's Zen while also supporting audio and video playback. Linux distributions come pre-loaded with various media players including VLC, MPlayer, xine, and Totem.

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[edit] Terminology

Although the term usually refers to computer software, the term is also used for the media playback devices used in digital signage. The term may also be used to describe analog electrical or mechanical media playing equipment such as a phonograph or player piano.

[edit] Software

List of some Media Players.

Software Media Players
Name Audio Video Operating System License
AlbumPlayer Yes No Windows own
aTunes Yes No Windows, Linux, Solaris GPL
Bearshare Yes No Windows own
broadPlayer Yes Yes Web based - works in modern browsers own
BS.Player Yes Yes Windows own
cmus Yes No POSIX-compatible GPL
Foobar2000 Yes No Windows own
GOM player Yes Yes Windows own
Kantaris Yes Yes Windows GPL / LGPL
KMPlayer Yes Yes Linux, Mac, Windows GPL
iMesh Yes Yes Mac, Windows own
iTunes Yes Yes Mac, Windows own
J. River Media Center Yes Yes Windows own
MediaMonkey Yes No Windows own
Media Player Classic Yes Yes Windows GPL
MPlayer Yes Yes POSIX-compatible, Mac OS X, Windows, AmigaOS, MorphOS GPL
MusicMatch Jukebox Yes No Windows own
Napster Yes No Windows own
Narrowstep Player Yes Yes All own
Oregan Media Browser Yes Yes All own
PowerDVD No Yes Windows own (CyberLink)
Quicktime Yes Yes Mac OS X, Windows own (Apple)
RealPlayer Yes Yes Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Symbian OS own
SongBird Yes No Windows, Mac, Linux own
Spider Player Yes No Windows own
VLC Media Player Yes Yes Linux/Unix, Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, BSD GPL
Winamp Yes Yes Windows[1] own
Windows Media Player Yes Yes Windows, Mac OS X, Windows Mobile own
WinDVD No Yes Windows own (InterVideo)
XBMC (XBox Media Center) Yes Yes Xbox game-console, Windows (partial port to Win32) GPL / LGPL
xine Yes Yes Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, IRIX, Mac OS X GPL
XMMS Yes No POSIX-compatible GPL
XMPlay Yes No Windows own
Yahoo! Music Jukebox Yes No Windows own
Zinf Yes No Linux, Windows GPL
Zoom Player Yes Yes Windows own

Many media players use libraries. The library is designed to help you organize, or catalog, your music into categories such as genre, year, rating or other. Good examples of media players that include media libraries are Winamp, Windows Media Player, iTunes, RealPlayer, and Amarok.

Notes:

  1. ^ It exists also Amiamp (AmigaOS) and Macamp (MacOS) versions of Winamp.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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ca:Reproductor multimèdia

cs:Multimediální přehrávač da:Multimedieafspiller de:Media Player es:Reproductor multimedia fr:Lecteur multimédia ko:미디어 플레이어 id:Pemutar media it:Media player nl:Mediaspeler ja:メディアプレーヤー no:Multimedieavspiller pt:Tocador de mídia ru:Мультимедиа-проигрыватели simple:Media player sv:Mediaspelare tr:Ortam oynatıcısı uk:Програвачі мультимедіа zh:媒体播放器

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