Okay, here's my dilemma - we're running Windows 2000, and Windows Media Player [WMPLAYER.EXE] maxes out at version 9 for Windows 2000.
Version 10 and above require at least XP, and we aren't going to upgrade any time soon.
But version 9 can't read music digitally off of a SATA CD-ROM [where the bits travel down the SATA cable, into the motherboard, and back out through the PCI bus to the sound card] - it requires one of those old CD-ROM players which has an audio-out cable which links directly to the sound card.
So being stuck with Windows 2000, we need to find something other than Windows Media Player.
I refuse to deploy either Real Player or iTunes/QuickTime - they're both malware as far as I'm concerned.
I downloaded Winamp last night and played around with it and I have to say that it is quite possibly the most hideously ugly piece of software I have ever encountered [the people who write it must have the visual/graphical equivalent of Asperger's syndrome].
What I want is a lean, clean, pretty music player, which can read CD-ROM's off of a SATA drive.
Also, when I run Windows Media Player, I particularly enjoy watching a Fourier Transform - especially the visualization "Firestorm", although "Bars" isn't bad.
But when I googled "Fourier Transform Winamp Visualization", about the only hit I got was for some outfit who actually wanted me to PURCHASE the right to see a Fourier Transform:
http://spectool.megafongsm.net/
Plus their screen shots are just horridly, putridly ugly - frankly, they look like vomit.
So is there anything out there which
1) Isn't Malware, and
2) Looks nice, and
3) Can read off a SATA CD-ROM, and
4) Bonus points if it has Fourier Transform visualizations!
Thanks!
Version 10 and above require at least XP, and we aren't going to upgrade any time soon.
But version 9 can't read music digitally off of a SATA CD-ROM [where the bits travel down the SATA cable, into the motherboard, and back out through the PCI bus to the sound card] - it requires one of those old CD-ROM players which has an audio-out cable which links directly to the sound card.
So being stuck with Windows 2000, we need to find something other than Windows Media Player.
I refuse to deploy either Real Player or iTunes/QuickTime - they're both malware as far as I'm concerned.
I downloaded Winamp last night and played around with it and I have to say that it is quite possibly the most hideously ugly piece of software I have ever encountered [the people who write it must have the visual/graphical equivalent of Asperger's syndrome].
What I want is a lean, clean, pretty music player, which can read CD-ROM's off of a SATA drive.
Also, when I run Windows Media Player, I particularly enjoy watching a Fourier Transform - especially the visualization "Firestorm", although "Bars" isn't bad.
But when I googled "Fourier Transform Winamp Visualization", about the only hit I got was for some outfit who actually wanted me to PURCHASE the right to see a Fourier Transform:
http://spectool.megafongsm.net/
Plus their screen shots are just horridly, putridly ugly - frankly, they look like vomit.
So is there anything out there which
1) Isn't Malware, and
2) Looks nice, and
3) Can read off a SATA CD-ROM, and
4) Bonus points if it has Fourier Transform visualizations!
Thanks!