Dualboot Media Player

January 21, 2007 1:39 PM

What's the best media player that works in both OS's in a dual boot setup (XP and Unix) ?

Ideally, I would like to listen to my music in either OS, while retaining "last played time" "ratings", etc. I already have my music on a separate FAT partition, so any OS can read/write to/from it.

Some half-ideas I've come up with: Run a program with versions in both OS's and that use the same database file (but which program allows this?). Stream the music somehow, and just find any player that will play streams in each OS (this doesn't seem to solve the problem, but it might offer more options). Use a program written in an interpreted language (the base layer is installed in each OS).

(I'm trying to convert to Unix, and this is one of the critical functions that I must have during my transition.)

posted by philomathoholic to computers & internet (12 comments total)

Are you using Mac OS X as your UNIX? You could use iTunes, in that case, and Bootcamp into Windows XP. Place your Music folder into a FAT32 partition and make a symbolic link to preferences from the Windows (Documents and Settings) and OS X (~/Library) sides into this location. Then you can share between operating systems.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:51 PM on January 21, 2007

Get VMware and run both yoru OS's at the same time dual booting is so 20th century, man.
posted by delmoi at 1:52 PM on January 21, 2007

I think your best bet may be to try out Jajuk. It's a cross-platform iTunes-like program that works pretty well. It lacks iPod support at the present, but will have it someday. You should be able to use a symlink to share the database file.

I've heard that it's possible to get iTunes running in linux with Wine or Crossover, but I've also heard that getting it set up is not for the faint of heart.

Songbird will someday be a nice, all platform music player, in the same way that firefox is for browsing. Unfortunately, it's still buggy at the present and lacks some key features.

My current (less than ideal) solution is to use iTunes in Windows, then on linux, I have a script that syncs my Songbird library with iTunes once in a while. Sadly, this is a one-way solution (I can only do rating in iTunes) If Jajuk adds iPod support, I'll make the switch.
posted by chrisamiller at 2:02 PM on January 21, 2007

Not using Mac OS X.

Running a VM is slow, but I would be interested in running XP in a VM from a partition, under Unix (reliable Unix, running familiar XP, with if-all-else-fails dual boot option). I have found some sites describing the process for Ubunbtu, but it's still more complicated than I'm comfortable with in Unix (the OS that I'm trying to learn). I figure that when I get more comfortable in Unix, I'll do this.

Plus, another thing about VMs, from what little I know, they can't see other partitions/drives. So I assume I would have to set up streaming audio?
posted by philomathoholic at 2:04 PM on January 21, 2007

Realplayer might work, although I'm not sure what kind of database it uses to store user information.
posted by wireless at 2:09 PM on January 21, 2007

Running a VM is slow, but I would be interested in running XP in a VM from a partition, under Unix ... I have found some sites describing the process for Ubunbtu

<ubernerd>
Technically, Linux is not a form of "Unix", it's a Unix workalike, but it's not based on any Unix code (unlike, say, Mac OS or Open BSD). It implements POSIX, but so does windows.
</ubernerd>
posted by delmoi at 2:16 PM on January 21, 2007

MPlayer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPlayer ist so only thing that comes to my mind. I don't know if this suites your problem.
posted by yoyo_nyc at 2:16 PM on January 21, 2007

Thank you for the correction ubernerd. I should have said that I had found some instructions on setting it up, and they happen to be for Linux. As I understand it, the process is more about the VM, then about the OS that is running the VM.

I should note that a requirement for the media player is dynamic/smart playlists. I'll give Jajuk a try, it looks cool. I'm not generally inclined to try iTunes or RealPlayer though. I don't have any real experience with MPlayer, so I'll have to give that one a try also.

About the symbolic links; Would I install the windows version to the music partition and the Unix version to the Unix partition, then link the Unix database file to the music partition database file? I don't think that symbolic links work with Windows, even with Cygwin.
posted by philomathoholic at 2:34 PM on January 21, 2007

About the symbolic links; Would I install the windows version to the music partition and the Unix version to the Unix partition, then link the Unix database file to the music partition database file?

Yep, that's exactly what I'd do.
posted by chrisamiller at 2:59 PM on January 21, 2007

VLC might do the trick.
posted by fvox13 at 3:39 PM on January 21, 2007

Running a VM is slow, but I would be interested in running XP in a VM from a partition, under Unix (reliable Unix, running familiar XP, with if-all-else-fails dual boot option). I have found some sites describing the process for Ubunbtu, but it's still more complicated than I'm comfortable with in Unix (the OS that I'm trying to learn). I figure that when I get more comfortable in Unix, I'll do this.

Are you running VMWare Server? Windows XP under Ubuntu is quite snappy for me on a 5-year-old system, even more so with VMWare tools installed on the Windows image. The setup process is, by the way, pretty straightforward and GUI-based.

Plus, another thing about VMs, from what little I know, they can't see other partitions/drives. So I assume I would have to set up streaming audio?

Pretty much. The easiest way is to set up a Samba share (Windows folder share) and mount/map it on the OS that doesn't have the music. Then just use your program of choice as if the music were local.

I can't think of any way to share last played time, ratings, etc. across OS's. Some media players, like VLC and mplayer, are cross-platform, but almost certainly not what you're looking for.

What music player are you using in Windows? Amarok is in my opinion by far the best Linux music player, and it supports dynamic/smart playlists.
posted by musicinmybrain at 10:15 PM on January 21, 2007

Running VMWare Server under XP was slow, for me. I haven't tried it on anything else, but I can easily imagine that it is faster on a better OS.

I'm currently using Windows Media Player. I liked amaroK and could see myself migrating to it.

I like the samba idea. I've heard it before, but maybe this will be the encouragement I need to just do it.
posted by philomathoholic at 12:25 AM on January 22, 2007