Foobar2000
foobar2000 is a free jukebox program for Windows developed by Peter Pawłowski and first released on 2002-12-20. By default, the software is light-weight and uses a spartan interface, but uses a plugin system to allow extended features. With various plugins installed, the system supports hundreds of audio formats, both decoding and encoding, has a powerful library system, supports meta tags for dozens of formats, and easy modification of them, and extends many formats beyond their original specifications with custom meta tags, album art, etc.
I found foobar2000 while trying to find a replacement for the aging Winamp. After becoming familiar with it, I now prefer it over any other music player. foobar2000 also have a port written for phones and tables called foobar2000 Mobile.
Review
Good
- The default program has been receiving constant updates for years, as have many of the plugins featured on the site.
- With a full complement of plugins, you will be hard-pressed to find an audio format or playlist that isn't supported.
- The program is remarkably stable. I have used it for years, and I can't remember the last time it crashed.
- The user-interface can be easily modified and moved around, and there are several ways to view the data.
- The program can also play audio files found in compressed archives of various formats.
- foobar2000 supports multiple forms of replay gain, can read from various optical disc, supports disc burning, and can even play the audio tracks out of several video formats.
- You can't ask for a better price tag!
Bad
- The album art unfortunately doesn't support PNG images, so you're stuck with either JPG or BMP.
- The program is not cross-platform, and the developer has no intention of supporting other platforms.
- Though the position of the interface can be easily moved about, it still looks very spartan, perhaps a bit too much for those users who prefer form over function.
Ugly
- Nothing.
Links
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foobar2000 - Wikipedia.
- foobar2000.org - Official.
