An excellent ripper / encoder / media player. (Musicmatch Jukebox)

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	Musicmatch Jukebox
Date:	05/02/01 (953 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: loads of features, easy to use

Disadvantages: large file size, takes up lots of desktop, sometimes unstable

Music Match Jukebox (MMJB from now on…) is a ripper / encoder / media player. As such, the file size is a bit bigger than dedicated rippers or media players, although I think that the extra file size is worth it for the features that MMJB offers.

MMJB is capable of playing lots of different file formats (i.e. WAV, MP3, Windows Media, CD Audio tracks), and is a CDDB (CD Database) compatible CD player. For those of you unfamiliar to CDDB, what this means is that when you insert a CD, and hit ‘play’, if you are connected to the internet, the program goes off and retrieves information on the CD you are playing (if found in the database) which means it will then display track listings etc.

The ripper / encoder is very easy to use, and providing you know a bit about computer audio files then you should have no trouble navigating the easy interface, and converting tracks to and from MP3’s. The file conversions though were quite quick; some other ripper software I’ve used has been incredibly slow. Sound quality from both the media player and from the encoded software is as good as any other piece of software I’ve used. One problem I have, and this may just be me being stupid, but I wanted to rip to WAV files first, while connected to the 'net (which is far quicker than ripping to mp3) in order to take advantage of the CDDB feature (which cuts on a lot of typing) then convert to mp3 when I wasn't going to be using my computer for other things, but I simply couldn't find this feature. **Update – yes, I am thick, I eventually found the convert function under the “File” menu**

I really like the media player though – the tag it uses for the MP3’s contains a lot of information – not just artist and track, but album, music type, year etc. and the media player takes advantage of this. You can make play lists based on certain criteria that can be matched to these tags, so
in theory you could play all your U2 songs, or you could have 2 hours of music you defined as Rock or whatever. This is a feature I’ve never seen before in a media player, but it’s one that I think a lot of people will find incredibly useful!

Another useful feature, for those of you who are internet connected is the "info" button. Whilst a track is playing, click on the "i" button, and a load of information and links will appear (if available) relating to whatever song you are currently playing - sometimes with downloads for you to have.

These days, MMJB comes in a variety of windows, which you can choose to display or not. This is quite handy as some of the windows can take up a lot of screen space (although in order to view all of the play list details, this is perhaps understandable) and it is also skinnable. I don’t have any of the skins – I like the default one which is clear, uncluttered and quite easy on the eye.

A feature I haven’t used is one which enables you to burn your own CD’s straight from the program, but as I don’t have a CD-R, I haven’t been able to take advantage of this option. (See update below)

It comes in 2 flavours - a free version, and a version you pay for. The main differences which the developers claim are better sound quality, faster file encoding, and the ability to print CD covers. There are other additional features, but these are quite minor, and not really a selling point.

You can download a trial version from: http://www.musicmatch.com or from Tucows in their audio section. I’ve been using this for about a week now, and I have to say that I think I’ll probably end up uninstalling Winamp because I like this so much.

**Update**
Writing to CD-R’s using MMJB is easy. First of all, add whichever media files you wish to burn to your playlist, and select the “Create CD from playlist
221; option. A box pops up with your current playlist, and checkboxes beside each track. You can then add or delete tracks according to your preference. At the bottom of this box is a green status bar which tells you the amount of space you have left (if you are recording audio tracks, it also shows the time remaining on the disc). This bar will be coloured red if you have exceeded the storage space on the disc. If there are any songs you wish to add that aren’t in your playlist, you simply use the “Add song” option which allows you to browse your computer.

As with most burning software, you are given three options: burn, test, or test and burn. Obviously, testing and burning will take approximately twice as long as
Just testing or just burning, and overall speed will depend on your CD-R drive.

One strange thing that I haven’t been able to figure out is that MMJB shows that CD’s are capable of holding 747MB. I was only aware of 74 and 80 mins CD’s which hold 650Mb and 700Mb respectively. As with older CD writers and rewriters, it’s advisable to shut down all other programs to minimise buffer under-run.

**Update**
All of a sudden, the program told me that I had a newer version on my HD ready for installation (don't know how this happened!) but I installed it anyway. To be honest I haven't noticed any real changes apart from the logo, and sound at startup.

**Note**
Most of the information regarding the CD burning supplied by Dooyoo member “Wease”. Thanks Wease!

Summary: