MediaMonkey 3: iTunes for the rest of us?

citizenklaw

I had previosuly tinkered with MediaMonkey, put I always came back to WMP when managing my music and syncing to my M6. But there was always something missing from both WMP and MM. Last night I downloaded the new version of MM and I think that finally someone has it right. I won't bore you with the minutae of what MM can do, because we all know what it can do. What I do want to point out is what it can do with my M6 and my particular needs. So without further ado:

It syncs Cover Art!. If the image is available, it will put it in the appropriate directory. You'll have to let MM know the format of the file, but this is a no brainer.

MM has a new Podcatcher, and it syncrhonizes directly to the M6 without the need of a go-between Playlist. Yes, very much like iTunes. You can *still* put the Podcasts in a playlist and MM will sync the Playlist to the device. But I like the fact that MM puts the Podcast as an Album in the M6. Good One.

I haven't tested other issues (encoding/stuttering) yet. But my experience with MM has been largely positive in the eight hours or so I've been playing with it. Off the bat, I can get rid of my Podcatcher (I will not until I can ascertain that MM fits my needs). MM also plays online streams, which I listen to frequently.

Overall, it's nice to know companies out there that are making features that *some* people out there (sneering at iTunes users) take for granted available for the rest of us. I just might plunk down the $20 for the full version of MM. Or I just might plunk down the $40 for the lifetime license.

citizenklaw

Not everything is peachy keen with MediaMonkey. But this does not diminish the fact that MM bridges a lot of gaps with the M6. Here's a couple of things that MM currently is not doing a 100%:

Cover Art works (it seems) when applying CA to full albums. It does download CA from the web and saves it to the tag, but it doesn't transfer it to the device. This happens on a single track; full albums transfer CA to the M6. But this is entirely a gripe for MM. Minor.

MM is not very tidy with it's Podcast cleaning rules. In two days it has failed to clean old podcasts. I've had to manually delete them. Still, the integration to the M6 outweighs this minor detail.

I'll probably wait for a week more and report back. Still, you should download and try this.

citizenklaw

Following up: MM is too efficient getting rid of old Podcasts. :-P Setting the rule for deletion for a day will get rid of new podcasts almost overnight. I've reset the rules for 3 days. Still, it's better than everything else I've tried so far. I like the fact that it syncs the podcasts directly to the device and it copies the Cover Art. I'm happy!