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The market for media players has a lot to offer. Some programs
focus solely on audio, others on video. Then there are many programs
that try to do it all. Some people use the default Windows CD
player. Others use WinAmp. Others use any number of other MP3
or CD players. I used to use WinAmp exclusively, until I received
my review copy of SIREN
Jukebox 2.0 (SJ2) by Sonic
Foundry. Although not perfect, it is the best all around meda
player I've tried to date.
The program is very simple to use. The boxed product comes with
no manual. This always worries me as I like to flip through the
manuals before installing new software (just in case there are
some issues). But after installing the program, there was nothing
to worry about. The interface is very user friendly, and I could
use all of the featuers without a problem.
The one thing I noticed right from the beginning was the drain
on the system when compared with Winamp. It never affect my system,
but if your system doesn't meet the minimum system requirements,
then it may. Make sure that you have a 300MHz or greater processor
and at least 64MB of RAM.
The first thing that really makes SJ2 standout is its use of
skins. It comes with a selection of skins already, and you can
download more from their web site. What makes the skins great
is that they do not have to be rectangular. Skins can come in
any shape or size. The image on the left shows one of the skins
that comes with SJ2 (the cat in the back is my cat Misty). The
image on the right shows the same skin in transparent mode. Rather
than having to minimize SJ2, you can enable the transparent mode.
When the program isn't acgtive, it will become transparent. Very
cool!
The program has 7 main windows/tabs (I was able to test all of
them except for the Portable Player tab):
- Media Library
- Play/Rip CD
- Explore FIles
- Internet Media
- Internet Radio
- Burn CD
- Portable Player
Media Library
The feature that most people would use the most is the Media
Library. This "library" shows all of the media on your
computer (there is a wizard you can use to find the files). Based
on the ID3 tags of your songs, they are sorted by album, artist,
or genre. In the screenshot below, I have my MP3s sorted by genre.
You can see that at the time I did this, I had 169 files that
totaled 11 hours of playing time. The Billie Holiday song "Pennies
from Heaven" is 3 minutes long.
When performing the system scan for media, SJ2 will read the
ID3 tags and add the information to its proprietary database.
The only problem with this is that when you change file information
in SJ2, the ID3 tag isn't updated automatically. There is a simple
way to update all of the tags (from the Edit menu), but some users
may not like this "feature".
Play/Rip CD
Ripping CDs is very easy. In fact, the interface is similar to
the CDex program (a popular freeware cd ripper). From this window,
you can listen to CDs, or rip them to MP3 or WMA format. The screen
shot below shows the ripping of one of my Frank Sinatra CDs. It
works very well with one major drawback. SJ2 does not look up
the CD information in any CDDB. Their support document at http://www.sonicfoundry.com/support/SupportProduct.asp?FamilyID=34&Family=SIREN+Jukebox&TopicID=8&DetailID=883
states that "The cost of this service from our current service
provider, Gracenote (formerly CDDB), has become too high. And,
if we use a free service (like freedb), we may be subject to a
lawsuit..." It's a shame that they don't include this feature.
If a user is ripping a lot of CDs, then this could be a major
stumbling block. It is important to note however that SJ2 can
import information from the local CDDB, so if you've used another
program to play the CD, then yuo should be able to use that information
already in your local CDDB to populate the fields in SJ2.
Explore Files
The Explore Files Tab is a Windows Explorer interface that allows
you to find media files manually. WHen you find a file, you can
right-click on the file, and aded to your media library or add
to your Burn list.
Internet Media & Internet Radio
The Internet Media and Internet Radio tabs are very similar.
They take you to pages on the Sonic Foundry web site. There are
links to all sorts of sites that cover music searching, online
radio stations, record labels, music resources and music stores.
Burn CD
The Burn CD feature is probably the feature that makes SJ2 worth
the $29.97 price. This built in burning option, does a fine job
when burning CDs. You can right-click on any of your music files
in your media library, and choose the "Add to burn list"
option. In my test I chose to make a small CD with some of my
favourite jazz recordings. The burning process took 20 minutes
for 38 minutes worth of music. This seems rather slow, and I presume
that this must be for conversion (converting the compressed audio
format back into CD audio.
Conclusion
SIREN
Jukebox 2.0 is an excellent "all-in-one" media player.
I've focused on music in this review, but it also plays many movie
formats. As I stated in the beginning, the program isn't perfect,
but the excellent Media Library (being able to sort by almost
any category is wonderful), the ability to rip CDs, and the ability
to burn your own CDs make it well worth the $29.97
price.
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