Hi guys,
there are a lot decoders out there and most people don't know which is the best. So I tried to do a little comparison of different codecs and the newest MM 3.0.3 RC9.
First about quality:
The quality of all decoders are very similar because MP3 is a standard, so there aren't different ways how to decode it. But there are some difference about the bit-depth ("detail") and noiseshaping which might affect the quality - at least theoretically! Practically there is no hearable difference under normal listening circumstances. And a higher resolution doesn't mean automatically that the sound is better!
Anyway there is a
Comparison regarding quality on hydrogenaudio which shows some differences. But the tester had to use some special tricks to hear the difference so you can't just compare it to normal listening situations. And btw, the tested MAD-plugin is older than the one I mention later.
So the main difference of the codecs are other features like gapless playback:
Default MM3-decoder
The default decoder is very basic and has no special features. For VBR-songs it shows the average bitrate which cant be changed. Unfortunately the decoder doesn't decode perfectly gapless. There is no pause between the tracks but there's a little click which sometimes is very noticeable.
Functionality: *
Gapless: *
MAD 0.14.2b
This MAD-plugin which is linked on the MediaMonkey-homepage has some more features: It is able to show the average or the realtime-bitrate, supports different resolutions, clipping protection and you can set the channels to mono, stereo and others. The gap between songs is a bit better than in the default decoder: For some songs it's perfect on some songs you hear a slight click or 'jump'.
BUT: The seekbar doesn't work in MM 3.0.3 RC9.
Functionality: **
Gapless: **
MAD v2 (by MoSPDude)
This decoder has tons of options: IT has the same like the older MAD but also a lot additions like gap-removal (nothing to do with gapless-mode!) different noise-shaping-algorithms, storage of streams and much more. There are no gaps between different songs - much better than the other plugins.
BUT: Like with the other MAD-plugin the seekbar doesn't work in MM 3.0.3 RC9.
Functionality: ****
Gapless: ****
Buggy MediaMonkey 3:
Unfortunately MediaMonkey 3 is really buggy regarding MP3-Input-Plugins. While the MAD-plugins have the problem that the seekbar doesn't work - which is REALLY annoying - other plugins just don't work at all. This affects all in_mpg123-plugins I tried: Neither the
one linked one the MediaMonkey-homepage nor
Otachans newest plugin for Winamp 2.x/3.x were able to play songs. But also another
MAD-plugin had the same problems. The songs were accessibble (not greyed) but they just skipped when you wanted to play them.
Conclusion:
At the moment there is no perfect MP3-decoder for MediaMonkey. The original one works normally but has no features, isn't perfectly gapless and some users mention problems with playback or songlength. And there are good alternatives but unfortunately most of them don't work with MM3. And these which work have the problem that the seekbar doesn't work.
I really hope that the developers are able to find the different bugs which lead to the mentioned problems. Because in older versions other plugings worked great!
Big_Berny