Amarok/Archives/Audio Engine Comparison

From KDE Community Wiki

Feature Table

Engine Actively Maintained Crossfading KIO-Streaming Scope Equalizer Formats Supported
xine Yes Yes HTTP only, with 1.1.4 smb Yes Yes xine features
Helix Yes Yes in 1.4 http, rtsp Yes Yes Lots, with Real almost everything
NMM No No No No No Lots

this means streaming from any protocol (eg FTP, SSH, FISH, etc.), this is also required for AudioCD playback
yes, we really do mean every format known to man, yes even WMA

Engine Specific Texts

xine-engine

  • Can play using a selection of installed xine-lib output plugins, such as OSS, ALSA, aRts, or ESD.
  • Has gapless playback

Helix Engine

  • Supports native outport to alsa with current realplayer nightly builds and soon--realplayer 11. Now also supports direct alsa output even with realplayer 10.
  • Requires either Helixplayer 1.0+ or Realplayer 10.0+. Realplayer 10.0+ is recommended; Helixplayer is the same codebase as Realplayer, but without many of the more popular plugins (for example, no mp3 plugins).
  • Doesn't work on AMD64 platform (works only on i386 and SUN Sparc).

NMM-engine

  • Has video support.