Hi, looking for recommendations and or thoughts on open source software for Windows, specially for audio, video and media playback?
I’m currently using VLC for most video files, but don’t really enjoy using it for my music collection. I’ve been looking into the following so far:
- Audacious
- Kodi
- Clementine
::edit:: Forgot use case! I’m mainly looking for something to play my local MP3 collection, with metadata intact as I’ve spent years making sure it all correct thanks to mp3Tag. Playlists are a bonus, visualisations would be nice, but it’s mainly for an album at a time from my harddrive while I work or read.
Thank you!
For Context: Am in the process of replacing Office365 and Windows default apps on my personal laptop with open source due to the intrusive Copilot etc. I am also looking at the eventual move back over to a Linux OS down the line.
for audio: foobar2000
for video: MPC-HC, MVP, VLC
Fooyin, VLC, and Kodi.
I recently found this on github : Muzik-offline
I’m also keepin an eye on this as it has flac support : Wora
There are more on this list : Alternativeto
foobar and musicbee are not open source afaik
I can’t recommend Musicbee enough: https://www.getmusicbee.com/. It’s completely free, extremely customizable, updated consistently, has healthy ecosystem of plugins, and has a helpful community if you have questions about using any of its features.
Mediamonkey is also a good choice, but once I found Musicbee I transitioned and never looked back: https://www.mediamonkey.com/.
Edit: I forgot to add that both options support playlist and visualizers. Musicbee even has smart playlists that can update automatically based on custom rules you set up. (If you want that feature in Mediamonkey, then you have to pay for a license.)
Both of these appear to be proprietary, not actually free (libre).
Foobar2000 has become the new winamp for me, been using it for a decade now
I wouldn’t recommend Clementine since it’s unmaintained. You might want to consider Strawberry instead, which is an updated fork of Clementine.
That having been said, I actually use Audacious because I like using old WinAmp skins.
While I like Strawberry as a music player, keep in mind that since a few releases you can’t download it for free on windows anymore, so that’s something OP needs to consider. In the download page it is stated “Access to macOS and Windows releases are currently restricted to sponsors, a 5 USD monthly sponsorship is required.” Further down it also explains why. Iirc KDE’s Elisa music player should work on windows too, so it is something worth at least checking out if one doesn’t want to pay for Strawberry.
Thank you for letting me know. I wasn’t aware since I’ve only every used it on Linux.
Clementine actually is maintained again as of a year or two ago. I still like Strawberry better though.
I recommend Tauon since it also has a Windows build.
i like cmus, but it is commandline-only.
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Foobar unfortunately is closed source, which OP has mentioned as a requirement.
But agreed, it’s so good I use it on Linux through wine, despite many alternatives
