h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've ripped almost my entire CD collection onto my new PC. I play it through WMP. It seems OK, but, towards the end of each track, it starts to skip. This sounds exactly like those old, 12" black CDs used to do...you know the ones, you had to wind them up with a rubber band.

Why does this happen? There's clearly nothing wrong with the WMA file (if I "rewind" a bit and play it again, it doesn't happen ). It just seems to be WMA saying "hey, I'm nearly at the end of the track, I'll duck about for a bit". User activity on the PC doesn't seem to be an influence - I've experimented with this - so what is it? Does it happen to anyone else? Is there a better player I can use? Will Nighthoover return?

Techy stuff:

Windows Vista Home Basic
WMP 11

RF

You answered your own question: Windows Vista Home Basic


.. and you have my deepest sympathy

Techy possibility: I understand that Vista makes excessive use of the page/swap file -- which possibly could be the cause of the skipping

>Is there a better player I can use?< There are many, _much_ better media players, such as Amarok, which, unfortunately, won't run under Windwoes Vilesta.

In my former, M$-cursed life, I was fond of Apollo, a freeware media player -- The developer has ceased development, but it's here: http://koti.welho.com/hylinen/apollo/ if you want to check it out.
I don't know if it works with Redmond's current cra.. err, release.

For other possibilities, check the list of foxytunes supported media players, here: http://www.foxytunes.com/firefox/supportedPlayers.html

I use Windows Media Player with mp3 files on Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional. There is never a problem with skipping (except when the original CD skipped during the ripping process).

many a fine alternative for wmp exist, most of them better


foobar2000, winamp, itunes etc... try any of these to see if they make a difference!

The trouble with many of those is that they try to take over your computer.

I'm using Vista (Home Premium) and have ripped all my CDs and... I'm not having any problems at all

And, for the record, I'm loving my Vista too.

Hmmm... a trendy choice I know but I find "iTunes" to be exceptionally good as a media player....

I've never had a problem with Media Player. Everything rips OK, everything plays OK, all the albums are prettily displayed and I can make 'Fade To Grey' sound even fabber with careful tweaking of the 'SRS' thingy.

Could it be the exception to Microsoft's rule?

what SRS thingy... I need a manual

but Fade to Grey? oh how old I feel - that was part of the soundtrack to my A-level year

Allthough to be fair my Media Player of choice is the "not exactly legal" XBMC....

SRS WOW, under the drop down menu thingy in the Now Playing screen. Makes most recent stuff sound poo (mucks about with the stereo field, bass definition and, I think, adds some compression) but can perk up old, sorry, classic synth stuff marvellously.

I have a MediaPlayer question!. On my laptop MP10 minimises to a little bar on the 'Start' bar with play controls etc, and a little pop up that pops up and tells you what's playing when you hover over it. I can't find out how to set it up on the main PC. Any ideas?

If you mean the taskbar typically located at screen bottom, iirc, right-click it, (the taskbar), select toolbars, select windows media player


...why do I keep answering windows questions? I hate windows...

Thta's the fella! :cheers:

Oops!

My shiny new speakers arrived today...and I found that WMP was still doing the same thing. I've just downloaded WinAmp, and that seems to have fixed the problem. So thanks to all for your suggestions!

RF