Fix WMP/Find better music player

So, I don't know when this happened, but I think my Windows Media Player is broken somehow. Yes, I use WMP. Do not laugh.

So, here's what I notice: When I'm loading a Youtube videos and have WMP playing some mp3s in the background, on random occassions it will cause IE8 to lock up, and I'm forced to restart IE. Also, when I'm chatting with Trillian, I won't be able to hear the "send message" or "receive message" beeps. There might be other problems, but I haven't noticed them yet. (No problems if I watch flash videos on another browser like Chrome).

So I'm wondering if this a known issue and whether there's a fix for it. Google hasn't turned up anything, though, to be fair, I'm not sure what to search for.

So, ideally, I'm hoping for a fix. And I'd really, really prefer the fixes to not be "don't use WMP!" "Don't use IE8!" "Don't use IE8 and WMP together!" I'm a creature of habit.

That being said, if there is no fix, I'd like a recommendation of a good music player with a fairly simple interface, easy to use playlist feature, and has the Win7 mouseover play/pause/stop buttons. Foobar and Songbird don't have the mouseover features, and Winamp causes the same problems as WMP.

Audio drivers are Realtek, if that means anything

 

I like wmp for video files but it is forbidden to even look at my music files. The new one is just as bad as the older versions as far as.... everything...goes.

Don't use wmp for your music player mr forge

Odd that winamp has the same problems, this points to either IE or a driver conflict. It might be silverlight/flash integration w/ IE, don't quote me on that though.

Ok, change the above to don't use IE, I sorry

Try resetting your sound profile (ctrl panel) to default?

 

I'll try the sound profile thing.

And don't worry, I won't hold your other advice against you, haha.

EDIT: Er, how exactly do I reset my audio profile?

 

ctrl panel > sounds > one of the tabs > dropdown menu. It might still be on default.

After a quick google it seems like people do have this issue and, it doesn't seem to have ever been resolved or figured out, but tips range from fiddling with tab options in IE to reinstalling/updating realtek drivers and updating/removing sound blaster software, if you have it.

A question? Why are you using IE 8 instead of 9, or ie at all for that matter (go firefox!)
Also, are you using 32 or 64 bit versionsof the programs?

 

I don't think the official version of IE9 is out yet.

On that note - that sounds a lot as if you use Asio with Windows Media Player - or some other method that doesn't use the standard sound driver.

Overall Windows Media Player is fine - better than some rubbish out there that people seem to use (tunes-thingy from the company with the rotting fruit).
If you want something smaller and lighter however, try maybe Foobar? There is also a very nice theme called DarkOne on DevianART which gives it a lovely look.

 

If you want to try something different, take a look at the Zune player. It has a nice clean interface and mouseover features like WMP.

 

Weird. Could have sworn I posted in this thread. Oh well.

Anyway, Detlev, I already tried out Foobar, and the lack of a mouseover menu killed it for me. Same with Songbird.

However, the statement about interfering drivers made me look at my WMP settings. In playback devices, the default was set to "Default Audio Device", not the Realtek that I've been using for everything else (and Realtek is my system's standard sound driver). So I switched WMP over to Realtek. I'll see how it goes.

Crash, I'll check out Zune. My brother has a Zune, and he's always using that player.

 

If you're a database/library player kinda guy:

Option 1
Go for Winamp (with classicpro installed so you can install really cool looking, functional skins). Among the best, if not the best, when it comes to audio format support, supports stable video handing as of v.5. Massive plugins support that do tons of stuff and unrivaled visualization abilities.

Option 2
J.River Media Jukebox. Free, very powerful library-based player made for audiophiles. Its paid sibling J.River Media Center is hands-down the best media player out there. Everything from pictures, movies, camera syncing, and of course, audio libraries. Full DLNA support plus a whole host of other awesomeness. Its what I personally use 98% of the time and I definitely swear by its awesomeness. USD50 for it. I've also personally (along with the help of Scolex, made it compatible with Rainmeter. An internet first I believe.)



Both of these are very resource friendly I might add. The bottom two, not so much.

Option 3
Songbird. I don't have much personal experience with it, but its supposed to be good. lol

Option 4
MediaMonkey. Another library based player that has good organization capabilities. Rather bland UI though, and very lacking in the skins sections. I couldn't take it after a week's use.

If you're a playlist kinda guy and you play your music from explorer itself (double clicking music files, highlighting and sending to playlist), none better than foobar. Takes a bit of time to get used to its spartan-ness, but I've managed to tweak it to just the way I like it. Semi-library handler/semi playlist player.



There are some cool configs on dA but it's rather time consuming browsing through them all looking for the best one.

All depends on your needs.

First person to mention iTunes gets punched.

Edit: Read your post.

And also for what its worth, WMP might be taking exclusive use of your audio device. Using WASAPI output or something hence disallowing other sounds in the same device.

 

Have you tried to unistall WMP 12 and reinstall it?

Uninstall/Reinstall Windows Media Player 12 In Windows 7

And how about repair and defrag your registry?

 

So, switched over my audio device, and everything seems fine so far. Thanks, guys.