Xion
15 min. of fame
Sunday, November 18, 2007 by Chasbo | Discussion: Skinning
For awhile there Xion was the darling of a lot of skinners here. Is the bloom off the rose? What happened? Is it because it isn't that good of a music player? I haven't been using it. It's back to itunes and foobar for me because they are much better music players in my opinion. I'm wondering if I'm alone in this opinion.
CarGuy1
Reply #2 Sunday, November 18, 2007 8:35 AM
What about 320kbs? When I rip my MP3's at 320, I find that my ears can not tell if there is a quality loss. Perhaps my hearing is degrading due to age.
Reply #2 Sunday, November 18, 2007 8:35 AM
Once you've degraded audio quality to MP3 I doubt bashing out on a tin can in the backyard would sound any worse.
What about 320kbs? When I rip my MP3's at 320, I find that my ears can not tell if there is a quality loss. Perhaps my hearing is degrading due to age.
Cliff Cawley
Reply #4 Monday, November 19, 2007 1:18 AM
What features do these players have that you think Xion is missing?
For that matter what features do you think Xion is missing in general?
I'm currently in the middle of reworking some of the skin engine code in preparation for hardware acceleration and plan to add more features to the library and playlist.
Is there anything in particular that you all think that it is desperately missing?
Cliff
Xion Developer
http://xion.r2.com.au
Reply #4 Monday, November 19, 2007 1:18 AM
It's back to itunes and foobar for me because they are much better music players in my opinion.
What features do these players have that you think Xion is missing?
For that matter what features do you think Xion is missing in general?
I'm currently in the middle of reworking some of the skin engine code in preparation for hardware acceleration and plan to add more features to the library and playlist.
Is there anything in particular that you all think that it is desperately missing?
Cliff
Xion Developer
http://xion.r2.com.au
ZubaZ
Reply #5 Monday, November 19, 2007 9:07 AM
Before you can ask or answer your question, you have to slap it up against the other music player. Are they still being skinned as much? More?
I use WMP for the comprehensive library and search features. If I were to create another skin though . . xion all the way.
Reply #5 Monday, November 19, 2007 9:07 AM
For awhile there Xion was the darling of a lot of skinners here. Is the bloom off the rose? What happened? Is it because it isn't that good of a music player?
Before you can ask or answer your question, you have to slap it up against the other music player. Are they still being skinned as much? More?
I use WMP for the comprehensive library and search features. If I were to create another skin though . . xion all the way.
HG_Eliminator
Reply #6 Monday, November 19, 2007 11:43 AM
Reply #6 Monday, November 19, 2007 11:43 AM
Cliff.... Video support,Bookmarking of Internet Radio stations (if there is a way i havent found it yet)....
And I rarely see any media players being skinned any more.. it's odd, winamp,wmp, etc. arent getting the mass Skinning attention they used to either..
And I rarely see any media players being skinned any more.. it's odd, winamp,wmp, etc. arent getting the mass Skinning attention they used to either..
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #7 Monday, November 19, 2007 2:41 PM
Reply #7 Monday, November 19, 2007 2:41 PM
Xion is by far my favorite for playing music...and why would anyone think it was limited to just mp3's?
I used to think 192 was fine for mp3...but now its my bottom bitrate I will allow...plus there are lots of superior codecs.
I hope Xion continues to gain ground against all the other players in general usage...I think it has already beaten them all in the skinners view.
The only thing thats holding it back is video support and maybe a simple call to WMP for video would be sufficient...personally,I would like to see Xion teamed up with Zoom player(my fav video player)or develope video capabilities that were similar to Zoom.
Truth is,for me,I dont watch much video on my pc tho so it was never an issue for me.
(and everybody has WMP installed for crappy avi's anyway)
Xion sounds good looks good.(and its getting better all the time)
I used to think 192 was fine for mp3...but now its my bottom bitrate I will allow...plus there are lots of superior codecs.
I hope Xion continues to gain ground against all the other players in general usage...I think it has already beaten them all in the skinners view.
The only thing thats holding it back is video support and maybe a simple call to WMP for video would be sufficient...personally,I would like to see Xion teamed up with Zoom player(my fav video player)or develope video capabilities that were similar to Zoom.
Truth is,for me,I dont watch much video on my pc tho so it was never an issue for me.
(and everybody has WMP installed for crappy avi's anyway)
Xion sounds good looks good.(and its getting better all the time)
HG_Eliminator
Reply #8 Monday, November 19, 2007 7:12 PM
Reply #8 Monday, November 19, 2007 7:12 PM
Possibly even utilizing the video plugins built for winamp would be good...i would like to see Xion become my one stop media player. with no need for the bloated WMP.. 
Cliff Cawley
Reply #9 Monday, November 19, 2007 7:28 PM
I looked into Video. The major problem with doing it similar to winamp is that you end up just using the WMP plugin system anyway. So you get nice slow starts, bloat and other stuff.
I wanted to keep Xion to a pure audio player, hence the title, Xion Audio Player There's a possibility it could be extended though in the future, however rather than making a half baked media player, I'd much rather make the ultimate audio player. I still have a fair way to go in that department (it doesn't help that I can only work on this in my spare time, but I need something to pay the bills, which Xion won't do )
Cliff
Reply #9 Monday, November 19, 2007 7:28 PM
Possibly even utilizing the video plugins built for winamp would be good...i would like to see Xion become my one stop media player. with no need for the bloated WMP..
I looked into Video. The major problem with doing it similar to winamp is that you end up just using the WMP plugin system anyway. So you get nice slow starts, bloat and other stuff.
I wanted to keep Xion to a pure audio player, hence the title, Xion Audio Player
There's a possibility it could be extended though in the future, however rather than making a half baked media player, I'd much rather make the ultimate audio player. I still have a fair way to go in that department (it doesn't help that I can only work on this in my spare time, but I need something to pay the bills, which Xion won't do )Cliff
Jafo
Reply #11 Monday, November 19, 2007 8:44 PM
Reply #11 Monday, November 19, 2007 8:44 PM
Cliff....yes, keep it pure audio.
There's enough Jacks-of-all-trades-masters-of-nothing players out there already ....
Jafo
Reply #12 Monday, November 19, 2007 8:57 PM
Reply #12 Monday, November 19, 2007 8:57 PM
Digital recording doesn't have to be a 'lossy' format.....watching the article on how DTS Images remastered the James Bond movies ...at a 'bitrate' [for want of a better term] of 45 Meg per frame - [25 frames / 1.125 GIG per second] "probably" means there wasn't any 'loss' at all....
A gestalt of 600 G5s is probably beyond most people though....
eieio
Reply #13 Monday, November 19, 2007 9:11 PM
Reply #13 Monday, November 19, 2007 9:11 PM
It bears mention that Xion does support the flac format which is a free lossless format. .. not saying other players don't support it as well ... just throwing that out there in light of the lossy mp3 format comments.
And as far as skinning ... if you've skinned it you know there is not an easier player to skin.
And as far as skinning ... if you've skinned it you know there is not an easier player to skin.
Cliff Cawley
Reply #14 Wednesday, November 21, 2007 7:09 PM
Reply #14 Wednesday, November 21, 2007 7:09 PM
Chasbo, what about foobar and itunes make them better media players than Xion? I'd be interested to hear so that I can perhaps add the missing features to Xion 
Cliff
Cliff
2of3
Reply #15 Saturday, February 9, 2008 5:27 AM
Reply #15 Saturday, February 9, 2008 5:27 AM
From a skinners POV, I love Xion!
Build your interface in Photoshop, zip it, rename to .xsf and slap it in the folder.... viola you got a media player!
I haven't tried to skin WMP or winamp, but I hear it's a bitch!
Thank you Cliff
Build your interface in Photoshop, zip it, rename to .xsf and slap it in the folder.... viola you got a media player!
I haven't tried to skin WMP or winamp, but I hear it's a bitch!
Thank you Cliff
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Reply #1 Sunday, November 18, 2007 6:32 AM
Once you've degraded audio quality to MP3 I doubt bashing out on a tin can in the backyard would sound any worse.
On an audiophile scale of 1 to 10 all the MP3 'players' will nudge around 1 and 2 ....if you're lucky....