[Suggestion] FAQ - infos for Mac users

[a_doubt]

First of all thanks for the FAQ, it helped me a lot of times. Through the FAQ I got to know Cog (audio player for FLAC files), which I used in the past. Unfortunately the installed program does not work any more (because I use Mac OS X 10.5.8 "Leopard"), so I looked for other options and therefore looked up the FAQ again and found some links that may need to be updated or revised:

http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/faq.php?faq=new_faq_item#faq_software
Freeware Software Links. Look Inside If You're Stuck!
Macintosh Software:
Audio Players:
-> Cog (http://cogx.org/)
Suggestion: Add a warning that the recent version of Cog 0.07 has a bug under Leopard (probably also under Snow Leopard) that causes the playlist to become corrupted.
Since the last news is published February 15, 2008, I'm not sure if there will be any updates of this player. At least there is a link to the latest unstable build, which I just downloaded, looks like this version does not have the bug.

->MacAmp (http://www.arcticlounge.com/maltx/) - no longer being developed
No suggestions, since I never tried this player.

->Pure Audio (http://homepage.mac.com/steve_bryan/FileSharing11.html)
The link doesn't work any more. (* also see below)

->Play (http://sbooth.org/Play/) - will play 24-bit flac, but will not play shns.
Just installed it, looks similar to the Cog player, but does not show "total time" when multiple tracks are selected (e.g. how long is a particular show?).

->Songbird (http://getsongbird.com/) - for Mac OS X 10.5 or later, will not play shn
Suggestion: Another player to add, looks like an iTunes competitor.
Hopefully other users of this player can state their opinion about it here in this topic.

DVD-Video Players:
->VideoLAN Client (VLC) (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/)
No suggestion.

->MPEG Streamclip (http://www.squared5.com/)
Suggestion: Please add this player, I find it very useful, and it's probably good to have an alternative to VLC.


http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/faq.php?faq=audio#faq_ripping
How do I extract audio data from an audio CD?
XLD (Macintosh)
(...)
Seeds to The Traders' Den MUST use this or a comparable "secure mode" ripping program.
Question: Does this include xAct? Because xAct is also mentionend here among "Audio Extraction and Editing Tools":
http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/faq.php?faq=new_faq_item#faq_software
Obviously TTD recommends XLD, so I just wonder if extracting audio data from an audio CD using xAct is compliant.

*
http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/faq.php?faq=playing#faq_macamp
Pure Audio (Macintosh)
Pure Audio is a powerful new player with support for playback of FLAC, SHN, and APE files on a Macintosh. It can be downloaded here (http://homepage.mac.com/steve_bryan/FileSharing11.html).
The link doesn't work any more.

Thanks in advance for any updates in the FAQ!

[U2Lynne]

Thank you very much for this information!

I've updated the page here - http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/faq.php?faq=new_faq_item#faq_software

I've also added a couple of players here - http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/faq.php?faq=audio#faq_playing

as for XLD and xACT, the last I took a look at xACT, it was not as good as XLD. I could actually extract a track using EAC and XLD and get the same checksums for the same tracks. I was never able to do this when using xACT.

[a_doubt]

Thank you for the fast update :clap:

I never used EAC, but I'm aware it is the common program for windows users for extracting audio files, and therefore I understand why you recommend XLD.

[Karst]

I'm finding that Vuze has loads of problems and bugs in the past year or so. Switched to Transmission and that works much better.

Should Garageband be mentioned in there somewhere?

[daddyray]

Vuze can suck with leopard (beach ball ahoy) but is better with snow leopard and it works just fine with lion.

MplayerX has been a nice alternative to VLC but I have not tried to see what file types overwhelm it

[Karst]

Yeah, I'm on OS 10.5. Not used MplayerX before, will check it out.

[AAR.oner]

Transmission pwns Vuze imo

[daddyray]

I haven't tried transmission in a few years and the interface confused me but that was very early in my torrenting days. Seemed to minimal if I recall. I am not sure what OS one needs for Mplayerx....it came if this current box.

[Karst]

I'd give it another try Ray. When I opened my Vuze torrents in Transmission I found that to my horror some of the older ones that had been completed according to Vuze still had some left to go in Transmission. It was actually the mods at Dime who suggested I switch to this client. I'm finding it much more reliable and the interface is easy to work out and there less bells and whistles.

[co9ol]

Any love for Vox? A mac FLAC player that plays your audio files in Alphabetical order within the folder automatically. Saves time adding to a play list.

[Karst]

Songbird does that surely? Nice interface, bit limited though.