MediaMonkey
Encyclopedia
MediaMonkey is a proprietary
digital
media player and media library application developed by Ventis Media Inc., for organizing and playing audio
on Microsoft Windows
operating system
s. By using plugins, it can be extended to handle video and other media formats as well.
MediaMonkey is available in a freeware
version as well as a paid version ("Gold" license). Both editions can be extensively enhanced with skins, third-party plugins, and user-generated extension scripts
. It uses SQLite
to manage its database.
from Audio CDs and encoded into most supported formats. Music can be burned
to CD
/DVD
format in compressed or CD audio
format, optionally normalizing the volume level
of the songs in the process.
, AAC
, OGG
, WMA
, FLAC, MPC
, APE
, and WAV
. It can adjust volume levels automatically using ReplayGain and MP3Gain
.
and Windows Media Player
. Podcasts are supported through the Podcatcher which allows the user to subscribe to podcasts that MediaMonkey will automatically download. It can also monitor the user's hard drive to ensure that any changes are automatically updated in the library.
, and Android-based devices.
scrobbler, a plugin to show lyrics, and a web remote-control interface. MediaMonkey also supports the Winamp 2 API
, allowing a user to use any of the many input, output, DSP
, and visualization plugins developed for Winamp.
-like device synchronization. This synchronization functionality was extended to include syncing to actual iPods in version 2.4, released June 5, 2005. The last major release of the 2.x series was MediaMonkey 2.5, released on December 28, 2005. MediaMonkey 2.5 added improved synchronization for all current iPod, Creative Labs, and iRiver
devices, along with full FLAC support. Minor releases of MediaMonkey continued for the next year, culminating in MediaMonkey 2.5.5 which was released on January 30, 2007.
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
digital
Digital media
Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital form. It can refer to the technical aspect of storage and transmission Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. It can refer to the technical aspect of...
media player and media library application developed by Ventis Media Inc., for organizing and playing audio
Audio player (software)
An audio player is a kind of media player for playing back digital audio, including optical discs such as CDs, SACDs, DVD-Audio, HDCD, audio files and streaming audio....
on Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s. By using plugins, it can be extended to handle video and other media formats as well.
MediaMonkey is available in a freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
version as well as a paid version ("Gold" license). Both editions can be extensively enhanced with skins, third-party plugins, and user-generated extension scripts
Scripting language
A scripting language, script language, or extension language is a programming language that allows control of one or more applications. "Scripts" are distinct from the core code of the application, as they are usually written in a different language and are often created or at least modified by the...
. It uses SQLite
SQLite
SQLite is an ACID-compliant embedded relational database management system contained in a relatively small C programming library. The source code for SQLite is in the public domain and implements most of the SQL standard...
to manage its database.
Audio CDs
Music can be rippedRipping
Ripping is the process of copying audio or video content to a hard disk, typically from removable media. The word is used to refer to all forms of media. Despite the name, neither the media nor the data is damaged after extraction....
from Audio CDs and encoded into most supported formats. Music can be burned
Optical disc authoring
Optical disc authoring, including DVD and Blu-ray Disc authoring , is the process of assembling source material—video, audio or other data—into the proper logical volume format to then be recorded onto an optical disc .-Process:To burn an optical disc, one usually first creates an...
to CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
/DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
format in compressed or CD audio
Red Book (audio CD standard)
Red Book is the standard for audio CDs . It is named after one of the Rainbow Books, a series of books that contain the technical specifications for all CD and CD-ROM formats.The first edition of the Red Book was released in 1980 by Philips and Sony; it was adopted by the Digital Audio Disc...
format, optionally normalizing the volume level
Audio normalization
Audio normalization is the application of a constant amount of gain to an audio recording in order to bring the average or peak amplitude to a target level ....
of the songs in the process.
Supported formats
MediaMonkey supports music playback using MP3MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
, AAC
Advanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
, OGG
Ogg
Ogg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The creators of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia.The Ogg container format can multiplex...
, WMA
WMA
WMA may refer to:- Organizations :*Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association, a nonprofit trade association for owners of manufactured home communities in California*Western Marble Arch, a synagogue in central London...
, FLAC, MPC
Musepack
Musepack or MPC is an open source lossy audio codec, specifically optimized for transparent compression of stereo audio at bitrates of 160–180 kbit/s...
, APE
Monkey's Audio
Monkey's Audio is a file format for audio data compression. Being a lossless format, Monkey's Audio does not discard data during the process of encoding, unlike lossy compression methods such as AAC, MP3, Vorbis and Musepack....
, and WAV
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
. It can adjust volume levels automatically using ReplayGain and MP3Gain
MP3Gain
MP3Gain is an audio normalization software tool. The tool is available on multiple platforms and is free software. It analyzes the MP3 and reversibly changes its volume. The volume can be adjusted for single files or as album where all files would have the same perceived loudness...
.
Music Library
MediaMonkey's music library attempts to organize and categorize a user's music collection. Upon installation it will scan the user's hard drives for music files and add them to its library. Ratings and playback information can be imported from other media players such as WinampWinamp
Winamp is a media player for Windows-based PCs and Android devices, written by Nullsoft, now a subsidiary of AOL. It is proprietary freeware/shareware, multi-format, extensible with plug-ins and skins, and is noted for its graphical sound visualization, playlist, and media library features.Winamp...
and Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices...
. Podcasts are supported through the Podcatcher which allows the user to subscribe to podcasts that MediaMonkey will automatically download. It can also monitor the user's hard drive to ensure that any changes are automatically updated in the library.
Device Sync
MediaMonkey can sync music files with most portable audio devices including the Apple iPod, Apple iPhone, Palm PrePalm Pre
The Palm Pre is a multimedia smartphone designed and marketed by Palm with a multi-touch screen and a sliding keyboard. The smartphone was the first to use Palm's Linux based mobile operating system, webOS...
, and Android-based devices.
Addons
MediaMonkey has support for third-party plugins to extend the base functionality. Available plugins include a Last.fmLast.fm
Last.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
scrobbler, a plugin to show lyrics, and a web remote-control interface. MediaMonkey also supports the Winamp 2 API
Winamp
Winamp is a media player for Windows-based PCs and Android devices, written by Nullsoft, now a subsidiary of AOL. It is proprietary freeware/shareware, multi-format, extensible with plug-ins and skins, and is noted for its graphical sound visualization, playlist, and media library features.Winamp...
, allowing a user to use any of the many input, output, DSP
Digital signal processing
Digital signal processing is concerned with the representation of discrete time signals by a sequence of numbers or symbols and the processing of these signals. Digital signal processing and analog signal processing are subfields of signal processing...
, and visualization plugins developed for Winamp.
Songs-DB
MediaMonkey was first developed in 2001 under the name Songs-DB. Songs-DB version 1.0.0 was released on October 12, 2001. Development progressed steadily with version 1.1 released June 7, 2002. Songs-DB 1.1 was the first version to provide Winamp plugin support. Version 1.2 was released on July 3, 2002 and included improved Winamp plugin support, significant UI improvements, and scripting support. Version 1.3 was released on October 31, 2002 and added Ogg Vorbis support and the ability to burn CDs.MediaMonkey 2
For version 2.0, Songs-DB was renamed to MediaMonkey. MediaMonkey 2.0 was released on August 25, 2003. MediaMonkey 2.2, released on June 9, 2004, added iTunesITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
-like device synchronization. This synchronization functionality was extended to include syncing to actual iPods in version 2.4, released June 5, 2005. The last major release of the 2.x series was MediaMonkey 2.5, released on December 28, 2005. MediaMonkey 2.5 added improved synchronization for all current iPod, Creative Labs, and iRiver
Iriver
iriver is a consumer electronics company headquartered in South Korea and widely known for its digital audio players and other portable media devices....
devices, along with full FLAC support. Minor releases of MediaMonkey continued for the next year, culminating in MediaMonkey 2.5.5 which was released on January 30, 2007.
MediaMonkey 3
MediaMonkey 3.0.1 was released on December 25, 2007. MediaMonkey 3 was designed specifically with large user libraries in mind. This was seen in version 3.0.3, released on June 19, 2008, which increased the supported library size to 100,000+ tracks (from a previously advertised 50,000 tracks).See also
- Comparison of media playersComparison of media playersThe following comparison of video players compares general and technical information for notable software media player programs.For the purpose of this comparison, "video players" are defined as any media player which can play video, even if it can also play audio files.-General:-Operating system...
- List of feed aggregators
- Comparison of feed aggregatorsComparison of feed aggregatorsThe following is a comparison of notable RSS feed aggregators. Often e-mail programs and web browsers have the ability to display RSS feeds. They are listed here, too.Many BitTorrent clients support RSS feeds for broadcatching ....
- Comparison of iPod managersComparison of iPod ManagersThis article is about alternative software applications to manage iPod contents. This includes the transferring of music, photos, and videos between an iPod and a computer....