Gourt Home::Gourt :: Comparison of media players
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of media player programs. Please see the individual players' articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up-to-date. External links lead to plugins or extensions that add features to a player.
General
Basic general information about the players: creator/company, license/price etc.
| Creator | First public release date | Stable version | Cost (USD) | Software license | Proprietary format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amarok | Mark Kretschmann | June 2003 | 1.4.0 | Free | GPL | None |
| Audacious | Beep Media Player & William Pitcock | October 30 2005 | 1.2 | Free | GPL | None |
| Audion | Panic | 3.0.2 | Free | Proprietary | None | |
| Beep Media Player | Milosz Derezynski | June 24 2004 | 0.9.7 | Free | GPL | None |
| BSplayer | Webteh | N/A | 1.37.826 | Free (AdWare), €29,90 (pro) | Proprietary | None |
| Cog | Vincent Spader | 2006-05-01 | 0.0.5 | Free | GPL | None |
| DeliPlayer | Peter Kunath & Florian Vorberger | 1997 (?) | 2.03b | Free (basic), $20 (pro) | Proprietary | None |
| Elecard MPEG Player* | Elecard Ltd.* | November 1999 | 4.0.3 | $20.00 | Proprietary | None |
| foobar2000 | Peter Pawlowski | December 2002 | Free | Proprietary (core), BSD (first-party components) | FPL (playlists) | |
| Helium Music Manager 2006 | ? | ? | ? | $39.99 | ? | ? |
| iTunes | Apple Computer | January 9, 2001 | 6.0.5 (20) | Free | Proprietary | Apple Lossless (part of QuickTime) |
| jetAudio | jetAudio Inc. | 6.24VX | Free (basic), $29 (plus) | Proprietary | None | |
| JuK | Scott Wheeler | February 2003 | 2.1 | Free | GPL | None |
| Light Alloy | Velikanov Ilya | December 21 2001 | 4.0 | Free (trial) / $9.95 | Proprietary | None |
| Listen | Mehdi Abaakouk | 0.4.3 | Free | GPL | None | |
| MediaFrame | Airlock Limited | October 2004 | 2.0 | Free | GPL | None |
| Media Center | J. River | July 2003 | 11.1.090 | $40.00 | Proprietary | None |
| MediaMonkey | Ventis Media Inc. | October 12 2001 | 2.5.2 | Standard free, Gold $19.95, Lifetime $29.95 | Proprietary | None |
| Media Player Classic | Gabest | May 29 2003 | 6.4.9.0 | Free | GPL | .mpcpl (playlists) |
| MP3Toys | Robert Frahm | April 2004 | 2.2 | $14.95 | Proprietary | None |
| MPlayer | MPlayer | September 2000 | Free | GPL | None | |
| Music Player Daemon | Warren Dukes | May 2003 | 0.11.0 | Free | GPL | None |
| Musicmatch Jukebox | Yahoo! | May 1998 | 10.1 | Free (basic) | Proprietary | None |
| musikCube | Casey Langen | 1.0 RC2 | Free | BSD | None | |
| NicePlayer | Jay Tuley & Robert Chin | June 2004 | 0.94.1 | Free | Proprietary | .nicelist (playlists) |
| Ogle | Chalmers University of Technology | 1999 | 0.9.2 | Free | GPL | None |
| PACo Producer | CoSA (The Company of Science & Art) | May 1991 | 1.0 | $199? (now defunct) | Proprietary | CAVF |
| QuickPlayer | Jan Vorel | July 2005 | 1.00 beta 49a | Free | GPL | None |
| QuickTime | Apple Computer | December 1991 | Free (basic), $29.95 (pro) | Proprietary | QuickTime | |
| Quintessential Player | Paul Quinn | 1997 | 4.51 | Free | Proprietary | None |
| RealPlayer | RealNetworks | 1995 | 10 | Free (basic) | Proprietary | RealAudio, RealVideo |
| Rhythmbox | Colin Walters | April 2004 | 0.9.5 | Free | GPL | None |
| SimpleCenter | SimpleDevices, Inc. | 2002-2003 | 4.0 | Free | Proprietary | None |
| SnackAmp | Tom Wilkason | January 2002 | 3.1.2 | Free | GPL | None |
| Songbird | Pioneers of the Inevitable | February 8 2006 | 0.1.1 | Free | GPL | None |
| Sonique | Media Science | November, 1998 | 1.96 | Free | Proprietary | None |
| TrayPlayer | @MAX software | 1.01b | Free | |||
| Totem Movie Player | Totem | July 2002 | Free | GPL | None | |
| VLC media player | VideoLAN | February 2000 | Free | GPL | None | |
| VUPlayer | James Chapman | 2000 | 2.42 | Free | Proprietary | None |
| Winamp | Nullsoft | June 1997 | Free (basic), $19.95 (Pro) | Proprietary | NSA, NSV | |
| Windows Media Player | Microsoft | November 1992 | 11 (beta) | Free, Windows-License needed | Proprietary | WMA, WMV |
| WMV Player | Telestream, Inc. | 2.0.2 | Free | Proprietary | WMA, WMV | |
| xine | xine | August 2000 | 1.1.1 | Free | GPL | None |
| XMMS | XMMS | November 1997 | 1.2.10 | Free | GPL | None |
| XMPlay | Ian Luck | July 1998 | 3.3 | Free | Proprietary | None |
| Zinf | Zinf | April 2002 | 2.2.5 | Free | GPL | None |
| Zoom Player | Inmatrix | December 31 2000 | 4.51 | Free (basic) $27.95 (pro) $35.95 (wmv pro) | Proprietary | None |
| Creator | First public release date | Stable version | Cost (USD) | Software license | Proprietary format |
Operating system support
The operating systems on which the players can run natively (without emulation), meaning which operating systems have which players specifically coded for them (not, for example, Windows Media Player for Windows running on an Apple Macintosh).
| Windows | Mac OS X | GNU/Linux | BSD Unix | Solaris | Other Unix | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amarok | (via X11 layer) | |||||
| Audacious | ||||||
| Audion | PPC native Might be usable with Rosetta. Compare with the OSX86 Project's Universal software page. | |||||
| BSplayer | ||||||
| Cog | 10.3 PPC and higher | |||||
| DeliPlayer | ||||||
| Elecard MPEG Player | ||||||
| foobar2000 | 2000/XP/2003 only since v0.9 | |||||
| iTunes | 2000/XP/2003/Vista only | |||||
| jetAudio | ||||||
| JuK | ||||||
| Light Alloy | ||||||
| Listen | ||||||
| MediaFrame | PPC native | |||||
| Media Center | ||||||
| MediaMonkey | ||||||
| Media Player Classic | ||||||
| MP3Toys | ||||||
| MPlayer | ||||||
| Music Player Daemon | ||||||
| Musicmatch Jukebox | ||||||
| musikCube | 2000/XP/2003 only | |||||
| NicePlayer | ||||||
| QuickPlayer | ||||||
| QuickTime | ||||||
| Quintessential Player | ||||||
| RealPlayer | ||||||
| Rhythmbox | ||||||
| SimpleCenter | ||||||
| SnackAmp | ||||||
| Songbird | available in SVN | available in SVN | ||||
| Sonique | ||||||
| Totem Movie Player | ||||||
| VLC | ||||||
| VUPlayer | ||||||
| Winamp | Last version is a beta of 2.x | |||||
| Windows Media Player | Only WMP9 Supported | |||||
| WMV Player | PPC native ; Replaces Windows Media Player | |||||
| xine | PPC native | |||||
| XMMS | (via X11 layer) | |||||
| XMPlay | ||||||
| Yahoo Music Engine | ||||||
| Zinf | ||||||
| Zoom Player | ||||||
| Windows | Mac OS X | GNU/Linux | BSD Unix | Solaris | Other Unix |
Features
Information on what features each of the players support. Footnotes lead to information about support in future versions of the players or plugins that provide such functionality.
The tables compare general and technical information for a number of media player programs. Please see the individual products articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up-to-date. External links lead to plugins or extensions that add features to that player.
Protocol support
Information about which internet protocols the players support, for receiving streaming media content. Footnotes lead to information about support in future versions of the players or plugins that provide such functionality.
Audio format support
Information about what audio codecs, and by extension their native audio file formats, the players support. Footnotes lead to information about support in future versions of the players or plugins/filters that provide such functionality.
Video format support
Information about what video codecs the players support. Footnotes lead to information about support in future versions of the players or plugins/filters that provide such functionality.
Container format support
Information about what container formats the players support. Footnotes lead to information about support in future versions of the players or filters that provide such functionality.
| AVI | ASF | QuickTime | Ogg | OGM | Matroska | MP4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amarok | Basic | Basic | |||||
| Audacious | Vorbis only | ||||||
| Audion | |||||||
| BSplayer | |||||||
| Cog | |||||||
| DeliPlayer | |||||||
| Elecard MPEG Player | |||||||
| foobar2000 | Support is available from a 3rd-party plugin * | ||||||
| iTunes | A hack allows playback. * | Win: yes Mac: file is parsable | |||||
| jetAudio | Requires QuickTime 4 or higher. | ||||||
| JuK | |||||||
| Light Alloy | {{yes} | ||||||
| Listen | |||||||
| MediaFrame | |||||||
| Media Center | |||||||
| MediaMonkey | |||||||
| Media Player Classic | |||||||
| MPlayer | |||||||
| Musicmatch Jukebox | |||||||
| musikCube | |||||||
| NicePlayer | |||||||
| QuickPlayer | |||||||
| QuickTime | |||||||
| Quintessential Player | |||||||
| RealPlayer | Needs an additional plug-in * | ||||||
| Rhythmbox | |||||||
| Songbird | |||||||
| Sonique | |||||||
| Totem Movie Player | |||||||
| VLC | |||||||
| VUPlayer | Vorbis only | ||||||
| Winamp | |||||||
| Windows Media Player | |||||||
| WMV Player | |||||||
| xine | |||||||
| XMMS | Vorbis only | ||||||
| XMPlay | Vorbis only | ||||||
| Zinf | |||||||
| Zoom Player | |||||||
| AVI | ASF | QuickTime | Ogg | OGM | Matroska | MP4 |
Optical disc support
Information about what optical discs the players support. Footnotes lead to information about support in future versions of the players or plugins that provide such functionality.
Metadata support
Information about what metadata, or tagging, formats the players support. Most other containers have their own metadata format and the players usually use them. Footnotes lead to information about support in future versions of the players or plugins that provide such functionality.
Subtitle support
Information about what subtitle formats the players support. DVD subtitle is not listed, as the players either have to support all DVD features or none. Footnotes lead to information about support in future versions of the players or filters that provide such functionality.
Notes
"Comparison of media players"