# Looking for a media player



## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Can anyone recommend a media player that will let me load my “My Music” folder *as is*, with all its sub-folders, etc. intact? 

Regards, 
Wayne


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## Peter Loeser (Aug 11, 2012)

Wayne A. Pflughaupt said:


> Can anyone recommend a media player that will let me load my &#147;My Music&#148; folder as is, with all its sub-folders, etc. intact?
> 
> Regards,
> Wayne


Are you looking for a portable player, or something stationary?


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## Dale Rasco (Apr 11, 2009)

The popcorn hour works very well that way. Are you going to be streaming over the network or a large USB drive, or?


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Sorry, should have been more specific. I’m looking for something for my computer, basically to play my music files. Windows Media Player and Itunes aren't cutting it for me. They seem to dump everything out of the folders I've already created and then haphazardly re-organizes everything into its own folders.

Regards, 
Wayne


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## Dale Rasco (Apr 11, 2009)

Ah, gotcha! Not sure on that one.


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## Peter Loeser (Aug 11, 2012)

Have you looked at Foobar2000? I believe it leaves your folder structure intact. It is fairly customizable and plays most audio formats. I am an iTunes user, but a good friend of mine uses Foobar. I have played around with it and the UI is nice and intuitive once you have it all set up. It will do CD ripping and transcoding, and will also edit your track tags if you want. 

http://www.foobar2000.org/


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## RTS100x5 (Sep 12, 2009)

Hey Wayne, Ive pretty much been through them all until I tried the newest ver of JRIVER.... Its far and above any other MP even XBMC which I love.... 

JRIVER has an ungodly amount of features and tweaks ( especially the audio tweaks , Im even running IZOTOPE OZONE5 as a VST plugin for certain music files :unbelievable:

The Library for my movie files is outstanding - lets me tweak every movie tag and cover art 

Give it a try :bigsmile:


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## Wardsweb (Apr 2, 2010)

Do you want to see your folders like a window's tree, just a list of music (artists, album, songs, etc...) or something more graphics like this?


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## mojave (Dec 30, 2006)

I would recommend JRiver Media Center. It won't do anything to your folders, but you will need to set it up to use your folder structure for future rips. You can also have it change your folder structure if you want it to. However, since it uses a powerful database system for file management, the folder structure doesn't really matter. I could have 20,000 songs all in the same folder and it would still display them by artist, album, genre, or whatever other way I want to display them. If I wanted those 20,000 songs then organized on my hard drive in a certain folder structure, it will reorganize based on my own criteria.

Edit: A review for JRiver was just released today.


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Wardsweb said:


> Do you want to see your folders like a window's tree, just a list of music (artists, album, songs, etc...) or something more graphics like this?


I‘m looking for something like the Windows tree: My Music -> Jazz, Oldies, Christmas Music etc. folders. Also the same protocol for burning discs (ala Nero). If Foobar or JRIVER does that, I’m in. 

I don’t mind the graphics – actually they’re kinda cool - it’s the logical organization I’m after. For instance, it would be easy to make an Oldies, Jazz, Soft Rock etc. playlist by just being able to access my folders “as is.”

My Oldies folder has over 900 songs in it. Windows Media and Itunes dump it all out, along with every other folder, and re-organizes it as _hundreds_ of individual folders by artist names. What a major pain to get an Oldies playlist from that. WM and IT basically turn all my music files into the functional equivalent of a “junk drawer,” and a really big one at that. 

In the same “junk drawer” as all the oldies are remnants of what was in all my other folders as well. Some folders I had labeled as the artist’s name, but when I find that folder in the “junk drawer,” it only has 3 songs when there were originally 15 (to cite one sorry example). What happened to the rest? One top of that, lots of stuff never made it back into a folder. It was all “orphaned” at the end of the folder list as individual files, many now labeled as “unknown.”

Regards, 
Wayne


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## Peter Loeser (Aug 11, 2012)

Most media players (itunes, windows media, etc) want you to point them to a single folder with all of your content and allow them to organize your files via the track tags, genre, etc.

It does look like VLC player may do something similar to what you are trying to accomplish. If you open it up and select View>Playlist you will see a folder structure on the left. It just displays the contents of my folders, as they appear to me in Windows Explorer.



I don't personally use VLC this way, so I haven't tested it beyond what I did to take the screenshots. Just thought I'd throw it out there.


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## Sevenfeet (Feb 2, 2009)

iTunes will respect your folder organization if you desire. It's a check box in the Preferences panel->Advanced. I don't mind iTunes organizing everything for me, but it's not for everyone, especially if you've put a lot of time into your own system.

If you try it, begin with a new library, change the folder org parameter and then import your main music folder.


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Foobar and VLC both look like they’ll do what I want. Neither appears to burn CDs, so it looks like I’ll need a separate program for that. Not a biggie. :T

Regards, 
Wayne


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Sevenfeet said:


> iTunes will respect your folder organization if you desire. It's a check box in the Preferences panel->Advanced.


 That would be nice – I really like iTunes. 

I did what you suggested in Edit-> Preferences -> Advanced. Also clicked on the box that said "Copy files to Itunes Media Folder when adding to library." Then, File -> Library -> Organize Library -> Consolidate Files. However, when I click the “Music” icon at the left, I get the same old “junk drawer.” Did I miss something?

Regards, 
Wayne


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## AudiocRaver (Jun 6, 2012)

foobar allows "2-click" switching between library and directory-tree views. There is a plugin that adds CD burning in all supported formats.


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## Sevenfeet (Feb 2, 2009)

Wayne A. Pflughaupt said:


> That would be nice – I really like iTunes.
> 
> I did what you suggested in Edit-> Preferences -> Advanced. Also clicked on the box that said "Copy files to Itunes Media Folder when adding to library." Then, File -> Library -> Organize Library -> Consolidate Files. However, when I click the “Music” icon at the left, I get the same old “junk drawer.” Did I miss something?
> 
> ...


First, you don't need (or want) to use the Consolidate feature. It's only useful if you want to bring music that is scattered in different places to your main iTunes folder. In this case, you're just having iTunes import your music and leave it where it is on the hard drive.

No, what you missed is the "Add file to Library" or better yet, "Add Folder to Library". Both options are available from the "File" menu. If you ask iTunes to Add Folder to the Library, point it to your music collection, and then go get a cup of coffee while it processes it. In the end, your music won't be moved and iTunes will update it's own library file to make sure it knows where it is. Your folder is likely not the main iTunes library folder which is also specified in Advanced Preferences. If you add any music or movies to your library in a manner consistent with how you file, just repeat the step. If you buy anything from iTunes, it will sit in the main iTunes folder (iTunes Media->Music).

Again, DON'T USE the Consolidate step unless you want iTunes to copy your entire music collection to the main iTunes Folder and organize it in a manner iTunes likes. Doing this step would still leave your original music folder intact, BTW.


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## Peter Loeser (Aug 11, 2012)

If you like iTunes, there is another handy feature which sounds like it would be helpful to you, if you aren't already using it - the column browser. You can set up filters based on genre, artist, etc. on the left and view only certain portions of your library at a time. It requires some initial setup and tag editing, but once you've done that it's a really nice function. I personally prefer iTunes (in spite of some of its weaknesses) over any other media players I have tried. I use this feature myself and it was definitely worth the effort to set it up. I don't have my music on my work computer, so the library in the screen shots is mostly empty. I just tossed a few files in there to demonstrate but I think you can get the idea. And like Sevenfeet says, there are ways to import your music into iTunes without it rearranging the folder structure on your hard drive. 

  

Does that help? If that doesn't suit your needs, I'm still thinking Foobar is definitely worth a shot.


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Hi Seven,

I did what you suggested, but the view list when you click the “Music” icon (top left of screen) is still the “junk drawer.” I thought about just making my folders separate Playlists, but it doesn’t look like you can do that – you have to add one song at a time. Is that right?


Peterman and AudiocRaver,

Thanks for the tip! I’ll definitely look into that!

Regards, 
Wayne


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## RTS100x5 (Sep 12, 2009)

JRIVER has 2x as many features as VLC and XBMC....it has a 30 day trial so youll see what I mean ...CD burning and much more.....


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## Sevenfeet (Feb 2, 2009)

Wayne A. Pflughaupt said:


> Hi Seven,
> 
> I did what you suggested, but the view list when you click the “Music” icon (top left of screen) is still the “junk drawer.” I thought about just making my folders separate Playlists, but it doesn’t look like you can do that – you have to add one song at a time. Is that right?


Now I'm confused. Can you post a screenshot?

And do you have a folder on your hard drive called a "junk drawer"?


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

LOL – see Post #10. It’s basically the listing you see when you open up iTunes – IOW, the iTunes (re)organization of the files and folders.

Regards, 
Wayne


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## Sevenfeet (Feb 2, 2009)

Wayne A. Pflughaupt said:


> LOL – see Post #10. It’s basically the listing you see when you open up iTunes – IOW, the iTunes (re)organization of the files and folders.
> 
> Regards,
> Wayne


OK, I'm not sure if there is any way around this. iTunes is always going to display by Title and Artist, regardless. At that point, the whole point of playlists are to make your own lists that you like, for example, "Oldies". I'm assuming your music is at least labeled in some way by title and artist, but if it's not in a standard format, iTunes might not know what to do with it, outside of putting it in a unorganized large list.

There might be some utility of investing in a tagging program in order to properly label your music if that's an issue (and I don't know if it is).


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Aww rats, I was so hopeful!



> iTunes might not know what to do with it, outside of putting it in a unorganized large list.


Yup, lots and lots of that in the “junk drawer.” It’s maddening.

Regards, 
Wayne


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## Peter Loeser (Aug 11, 2012)

Sevenfeet said:


> OK, I'm not sure if there is any way around this. iTunes is always going to display by Title and Artist, regardless. At that point, the whole point of playlists are to make your own lists that you like, for example, "Oldies". I'm assuming your music is at least labeled in some way by title and artist, but if it's not in a standard format, iTunes might not know what to do with it, outside of putting it in a unorganized large list.
> 
> There might be some utility of investing in a tagging program in order to properly label your music if that's an issue (and I don't know if it is).


Wayne,

Have you tried editing the tags in your music files to keep them organized? Most music formats have embedded data fields that let you specify artist, title, genre, album, etc. to be displayed by media players like iTunes. They are independent of the file name and folder structure. Like Seven says, this is the place where you tell iTunes which songs are Jazz, Oldies, Christmas, etc. If the tags are empty or contain the wrong info, it may be what is causing iTunes to spit out the "junk drawer" you are seeing. You can edit the tags from within iTunes. You could even select a whole group of artists or albums at once and tag them with the same genre. Once you have done this, iTunes has tools that will keep them organized in a way that I think would be useful to you - such as smart playlists, or the column browser I described in post 17.


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## WRYKER (Jan 23, 2009)

What about JRiver software?


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Hey Peter,

Unfortunately I have a lot of “untagged” stuff – band recordings made by myself or friends, sine wave and test signals, stuff I recorded from LPs to CD-R and then ripped to the computer, etc. etc. Much of it, once it’s out of its original folder it’s just labeled as “Track 1,” “Track 2,” etc. I don’t have the motivation or patience to sort it all out and tag all of it. 

I downloaded both Foobar and VLC, and *Foobar rocks*! You can create playlists by adding either individual files (no dragging-and-dropping from a list required), or entire folders (really love this)! And I was able to figure it out without the “Help” files. That’s what I need, something so simple a 3rd grader could figure it out – LOL. Downloaded the app for burning, but haven’t figured out how it works. But that’s fine, burning with Windows is simple enough.

Regards, 
Wayne


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## Peter Loeser (Aug 11, 2012)

Glad to hear Foobar is getting the job done!


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## AudiocRaver (Jun 6, 2012)

Yeah, tagging can become quite a chore with a big music library. Little inadvertent tagging variations lead to chaotic library lists, and lots of frustration. Adding tags from scratch is very time-consuming. When needed, I use mp3tag, which is free. MusicBrainz Picard it is also free and has some really cool features, but I haven't tried it. Your strategy of searching by directory and filename may be the simplest approach.

Glad you're liking foobar, it's not for everyone but I've been really happy with it. There are enough options that it can be a little tricky figuring them out, especially adding plug-ins. I've fiddled with it a bit so holler if you need help with anything like that.

AudiocRaver


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