Anyone know of any portable MP3 players? I saw VLC on here but I'd prefer an audio only player.
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What's your problem with the classic oldie one, Winamp?
You can find detailed instructions here: http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=515
OK, it's not a real "Portable App" integrated into the suite, but it's work like a charm for me.
BTW, VLC is a bit slow.
Try Billy from Sheep Friends. It saves it's INI in the program directory, so its fully portable.
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Ryan McCue
Cube Games
Don't Live to Geek, Geek to Live
Lifehacker
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
Billy is extremely small and extremely fast. I don't have any problems loading 1300 songs.
---------------
Arquitecto Brunjes Lozano
Egresado de la Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." -- Robert Frost
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: baby ain't mine." -- Adam Holguin
It loads my 124 songs instantly and still plays even when the computer is frozen. I actually use global hotkeys as well (Ctrl + Shift + P for play/pause, Ctrl + Shift + NumPad +/- for volume control).
) 
Thanks for putting me onto it (I think it was you
----
Ryan McCue
Cube Games
There are only two states in Australia: Queensland and Drunk
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
XMPlay
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." Asimov
Thanks for that posting. I hadn't heard of XMPlay but as there are so many out there i've just stuck to Nero as i've got the app from a CD writer. I do have a use for a portable/USB player!
Is this XMPlay really as good as author claims - how can one compare? The application is so small i was wondering. I use PowerDVD for video as RealPlayer quality is way down by comparison - but not sure how to compare audio players (couldn't tell much difference with the speakers on my machine). I suppose one needs to link up an amp to test it effectively.
But! why is it when one loads a playlist from a CD it doesn't keep tracks in the same order as the CD. Nero and Windows Media Player do - a minor thing perhaps in some people's view but i'd just like to know. It seems to be the case with any player apart from the two i've mentioned - i tried a few RealPlayer, Winamp etc.
Anyone know where one can get skins for the Nero player - tried their website but couldn't see any.
thanks
I am a PortableApps user since the project started (and didn't even have its own web page), almost at the same time I started using XMPlay as my portable mp3/streaming radio software... it is the best...
Greetings.-
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try them out and see what I like best. Billy looks good for being so small but XMPlay is looking pretty good with it's skins and yet still a small footprint. Decisions, decisions.
I recommend foobar2000. It packs a lot of punch for such little overhead. The feature most appealing to portable app users is its ability to run even when everything else is locked up. If the computer freezes up due to lack of RAM, don't be surprised if you still hear your song. Coolplay will freeze up at the slightest loss of resources. I would avoid it. XMPlay is quite nice, too, though I see no reason not to use fb2k. Billy is for the absolute minimalist, but is not much more resource-conservative than XMPlay or fb2k.
note: fb2k's native playlist file uses absolute filepaths, but it also supports m3u. m3u8, and pls, which can use relative paths, so it's a good idea to make a copy of your playlist to one of those formats. As with any player, though, loading from these formats takes longer because some information that isn't in the playlist must be collected. IIRC, PLS stores more information, so it will be faster than M3U.
My suggestion:
Get foobar2000, and, if you wish to play module audio formats such as XM or MOD, pick up XMPlay as well. There are some plugins for each that are worth checking out.
foobar2000:
www.foobar2000.com
http://www.foobar2000.com/components/index.html (plugins)
XMPlay:
http://www.un4seen.com/xmplay.html
http://support.xmplay.com/file.php?cat_id=11 (native plugins)
http://support.xmplay.com/file.php?cat_id=3 (winamp plugins that are compatible)
Vintage!
I'd prefer an audio only player.
why?
Most video players are not designed for audio-only files (i.e. most features will be centered around video playback, and the developers will focus on video playback), so many features that have advanced settings/options/etc. will be basic (like a playlist; e.g. compare VLC's playlist customization with foobar2000's). Also, the memory footprint. Audio-only players consume a lot less memory than video players when playing audio files. Related to that is the speed at which an upcoming in the queue is processed. Video players do a lot more checks than audio players. Not to mention filesize (of the application and its libraries).
Of course I don't want to put words in the OP's mouth.
Vintage!
Some of what you said is why I prefer a player that doesn't do video. Smaller memory and disk space footprint, features geared towards audio etc... I can only imagine how long it'd take to load say WMP from a flash drive. Talk about bloat. I also don't intend to watch videos using my USB drive at all so why use more than I need? If things change and I end up needing a video player too I'll look into video only (if they exist) or a decent media player to do both.
snip
"But! why is it when one loads a playlist from a CD it doesn't keep tracks in the same order as the CD. Nero and Windows Media Player do - a minor thing perhaps in some people's view but i'd just like to know. It seems to be the case with any player apart from the two i've mentioned - i tried a few RealPlayer, Winamp etc."
I read your comments with interest but no has commented on my above query.
thanks
Does anyone know if I can get a portable Podcast download search engine or an MP3 search engine? I want to download straight to my thumbdrive and not install any software on the host computer I would be using to access the net or the site.
Is there a mini itunes portable type app I can run from my thumb drive? Or limewire type app that can do this?
Thanks,
Nomad