[BC] Media players (WAS:HD Radio Article)

[WFIFeng@aol.com]

In a message dated 02/26/2006 3:41:06 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
rorban at earthlink.net writes:

> Real Player 10 (or higher) will play aacPlusV2 streams. There really is 
>  little reason not to use aacPlusV2 for streaming, given that both Real and 
>  Winamp will play it. and that there is a substantial cost savings to the 
>  broadcaster because, compared to WMA, one can get better quality at lower 
>  bit rates  (32 kbps aacPlusV2 is good enough for a majority of the 
consumer 
>  space; 48 kbps will satisfy anyone but hard core audiophiles.)
>  
>  Both players are both free downloads.

But WinAmp isn't bordering on Spyware, like REAL does in its newer versions. 
(Unless they've changed that policy.)

One thing I dont' like about it, is that it completely *dominates* your 
machine... taking away *all* media file associations from *every* other application 
you have, by default.

My boss installed it the other day, to view some site that needed it. I had 
to remove most of it's tentacles in order to get Cool Edit back as the default 
WAV editor/player, and to get Windows Media Player back for the sites that use 
it. I consider that kind of "default behavor" absolutely unacceptable. (I 
reminded him that that is why I need to evaluate any and all software prior to 
installation on Company PC's, and he said "You're right.")

I left it defaulted to all of the "RM" formats, but *not* to anything else. 
On *my* systems, I use their older "G8" version. It still plays 99.5% of what's 
out there, without the "invasive" behavior of it's offspring. Same with my 
old but still useful AOL V5.0

YMMV, of course.

Willie...