Winamp

Description

Chances are if you are not using Windows Media Player on your system, you will probably be using Nullsoft’s Winamp media player or at least be familiar with it. We found that Winamp comfortably emerged as the media player that offers the most to the user. And to top it off, almost all the features are available completely free.

At first glance though, Winamp’s interface does look intimidating. Especially, when compared to Windows Media Player 11 and iTunes 8, where the icons/album art thumbnails are large, the Winamp interface looks cluttered. You can customize the way the player displays your media library (including displaying album art).

Supports a large number of video and audio formats without installing any additional codecs.

The great thing about Winamp is that it supports a large number of video and audio formats without installing any additional codecs (including MP4, OGG and AAC apart from the usual MP3). In fact it supports more formats than any of the other players that we looked at. Winamp also allows you to rip tracks from audio CDs to AAC and WMA but disappointingly, MP3 ripping is only reserved for the paid version. However, the free player does somewhat make up for that by allowing you to convert files to a number of formats but again leaves out MP3 conversion.

If you are looking for a full-featured media player that also offers looks and performance, Winamp is the way to go.