What's an audioplayer with a good UI (readable at 800x600), with a remote, which manages playlists?

December 28, 2003 1:37 PM

Audio player (.mp3, etc) with 10 foot U/I (readable on a TV screen at 800x600) which manages playlists, and can be used with a remote? Oh yes, must be wife-friendly.

I've setup a Home Theater PC with myHTPC. Now I'm finding that the music playback options aren't really a good replacement for my 5 year old CD changers. Any body find something reasonable for this scenario?

I've been playing with WinAmp, but the version I have (a late 2 series version I believe) doesn't handle playlists well on for 10 foot U/I (text is tooooo tiny). I've been pointed to muzicman, but it looks a bit over the top for my needs. I'd be happy to use Girder if necessary (especially if anybody has a set of controls setup for snapstream), but I've got the Hauppauge remote (runs from irremote.ini) for now...

posted by daver to shopping (11 comments total)

Have you looked for large-font winamp skins? maybe that could help at least my video card driver lets me change the display's DPI. So, one way to get bigger (but somewhat ugly) fonts is to dial up the DPI.

But really, I am very curious as to your opinion of Snapstream+myHTPC: I've been contemplating a setup just like yours, but a) the myHTPC website is less than stelar, info-wise and b) I can't seem to find any user reviews of at least myHTPC that sound written by an adult. How do you like it? is it a decent TiVo replacement, UI-wise?
posted by costas at 2:11 PM on December 28, 2003

You can download winamps new series 5 player, then use the zoom feature. Not pretty close up, but it might be just fine from 10feet away. UI can be a lil confusing though.
posted by madmanz123 at 2:32 PM on December 28, 2003

ORPHAN APPS.......... A whole page full of orphan-ware MP3 players. All fully working, just no longer being further developed. Some of these look perfect for your purposes.
posted by Fupped Duck at 3:25 PM on December 28, 2003

I'm using the SnapStream system for a second PVR, especially for things I want to save to DVD.

I tried myHTPC, but I couldn't really get it to play music or anything else for that matter. It just doesn't seem to want to work for me.

You could try bumping up the font size on iTunes, but I don't think it will make it big enough still for you.
posted by benjh at 4:08 PM on December 28, 2003

Geexbox is a fullscreen cd bootable Linux distro for media pcs based around Mplayer and it supports all kinds of remotes.
posted by holloway at 6:14 PM on December 28, 2003

well, you could buy a projector and a wireless mouse...but i guess that may be overkill (and typically they only work in the day).
posted by NGnerd at 7:23 PM on December 28, 2003

Costas: I like Snapstream for what it does. The U/I is good, quality seems to be acceptable (boost it up off the defaults for reasonable results), and the remote works well out of the box (I got the full package w/ the hauppauge card). My only real issue is what it doesn't do: handle DVD playback, do MP3s, and do dishes. Next rev, maybe.

I've been using myhtpc as a kiosk/shell type app, and it's fine for that. I'm not too excited about most of the plugins for it, unfortuately, the music plugin is OK but is really only for playing albums, not for playing music per se...
posted by daver at 8:08 PM on December 28, 2003

You can define any font typeface and size you want in Winamp 5.
It's free, too.
I'm pretty sure there are remote control plugins for it.
posted by signal at 8:18 PM on December 28, 2003

For the playlist, that is.
posted by signal at 9:14 PM on December 28, 2003

On the subject of controlling computers from the living room via a TV, does anyone here know if there are wireless mice / keyboards which operate at long range (eg 10 metres)??
posted by skylar at 2:37 AM on December 29, 2003

Microsoft's bluetooth keyboard and mouse are supposed to do 30 feet. Pricey though.
posted by daver at 7:38 AM on December 29, 2003