Winamp News

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by DrO

as for the now playing page (and most of the other online services), it will come back (though some of the other pages may not), but there's a lot of things that need to be decided on, designed and obtained. though am somewhat surprised to see a mention to now playing when the general view on feedback is that people don't like it, heh.

What's not to like? It and the show info panel (which uses a little screen space) are useful even if every possible artist is not supported. The show info panel can be turned off and no one is forced to use the now playing page, so I don't understand the negativity.

[ChiggyChiggy]

Originally Posted by Aminifu

What's not to like? It and the show info panel (which uses a little screen space) are useful even if every possible artist is not supported. The show info panel can be turned off and no one is forced to use the now playing page, so I don't understand the negativity.

I never actually used the "now playing" feature :P I just noticed that its dead, i may have used it back when i first ever tried winamp in around ~2009

Speaking of the Info panel..... where is it? When i first ever used Winamp way back when i remember it was there always, and it made me discover more bands when it used to display the wrong artist info (hehe) was it removed or..?

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by ChiggyChiggy

Speaking of the Info panel..... where is it? When i first ever used Winamp way back when i remember it was there always, and it made me discover more bands when it used to display the wrong artist info (hehe) was it removed or..?

That feature is not working at the moment. It is enabled/disabled on the General Preferences - Media Library - Local Library - Options tab, under the Library Display Settings. After this option is enabled, then on the media and album views in the media library there is a show/hide info button in the bottom right corner

[DrO]

Originally Posted by Aminifu

What's not to like? It and the show info panel (which uses a little screen space) are useful even if every possible artist is not supported. The show info panel can be turned off and no one is forced to use the now playing page, so I don't understand the negativity.

the info panel wasn't too bad and had its merit (which was force disabled with 5.66x), but the now playing node was really just a way to drive site and ad traffic and never felt integrated making it a jarring experience imho (and when it had a phase of playing audio ads cemented my dislike of it).

if anything it'd be better as a separate window / area than a node in the library which prevents access to the local library or other aspects e.g. like the file info area of the bento skins (could even be put in the area where artwork can be shown below the playlist editor, though I suspect that is a bit cPro like).

[Aminifu]

True, the now playing feature detracted from listening to the song. For me, it was interesting from time to time to view the associated content. It was quicker than using an external browser to search for similar content. I viewed the feature as a necessary monetizing item.

I'm also not fond of ads that want to talk to me. Fortunately most of those I run across have a volume control.

[Victhor]

Totally agree, never switched on that info panel but always felt a bit less intrusive and more integrated than Now playing (which I would use if it would have waaaay more info -sort of a live wiki-, but I know that's a use only I would use..)

[ElliottB1]

Originally Posted by mwalden

What Milkdrop website? Please provide URL.

http://www.geisswerks.com/milkdrop/

[DrO]

Originally Posted by DrO

there seems to be a link on geisswerks (though it appears to be 5.66 and not 5.666).

and so is not a recommended version to install. only what is suggested in the second post of this thread is what should be installed.

[klompklump]

It would be great if Winamp makes a Windows Phone app. I would loooove that!

[xfullmetal17]

Depends on if Microsoft allows it... Part of the reason the Android app works is the openness of the platform. If you don't like the stock version of some app, there's almost certainly going to be an alternative you can use instead. (plus Google doesn't charge up the a** just to have apps on their store).

edit: I keep clicking artist/title/album in the Now Playing section expecting it to jump to the appropriate song/artist/album in my library. =/ (unless there's a setting I missed that allows that).

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by xfullmetal17

edit: I keep clicking artist/title/album in the Now Playing section expecting it to jump to the appropriate song/artist/album in my library. =/ (unless there's a setting I missed that allows that).

I don't believe the previous service was ever programmed to do that.

My Now Playing view doesn't show anything. Did you add an alternate service in the configuration options? If so, which one.

[DrO]

like noted above it never had that support (it was only meant to show what's playing irrespective of in the library or not and any links would have taken you to an AOL related search from what I remember).

and currently the view is unlikely to work (a brief alternative was put in place but I don't think that's running currently).

[JoeItaly]

Hello to everyone reading! I just had to sign into the forum to thank DrO and everyone else working on Winamp. I've been using Winamp for years and got quite a few other people to use it too. After reading the comments made on this thread I have a good feeling that everything will work out right in the end. DrO is on the right track ........ I've used a lot of plug-ins over the years ...... my main gripe is that you never knew whether the plug-in would work with the version of winamp you were using! Had to uninstall plug-in many times ....and a couple of times had to re-install Winamp! Start from scrach with the the plug-ins and make it mandatory to list the version of winamp it was made for and the OS. Thanks again to everyone involved.

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by JoeItaly

Start from scrach with the the plug-ins and make it mandatory to list the version of winamp it was made for and the OS. Thanks again to everyone involved.

The best you can do for now is look at the release dates for the plug-ins and compare them to the release dates for the Winamp versions. 3 or more years difference is huge for software. The version history in the "About Winamp" dialog box lists the dates for all the released versions. It is easy to find the release dates for Windows OS versions (many/most of the plug-ins were released when XP was dominant and sadly have not been updated).

One of the biggest problems for plug-ins designed with XP in mind is that OSes since XP restrict where and how certain data is written which interferes with their installation and/or setup. Folder restrictions can be dealt with, but registry restrictions are hard to overcome.

[torben_p2p]

I'm searching for Winamp PRO 5.666 Download.

[Aminifu]

Look at post #2 of this thread and be sure to select the correct link on the Filehippo site.

[ChiggyChiggy]

Originally Posted by Aminifu

Look at post #2 of this thread and be sure to select the correct link on the Filehippo site.

I think he meant he wants one with the serial # lol, since i guess the current AOL versions are somewhat abandonware now?

Wait who does the money go to when people buy the Pro version anyways? o.O

[DrO]

no one is able to buy pro versions of Winamp so it's a non-issue on where the money goes. it doesn't stop people using the pro version still (which isn't provided as a specific download but still allows you to enter the registration key if needed).

[Kilyn]

Originally Posted by Aminifu

Nothing is really 'free'. Everything must be paid for, thru the front door or the back (hidden and indirect). I rather pay a reasonable cost upfront and know what I'm buying (and not depend on the charity of others).

Yeah. Although there is charity work and so on, any ongoing things that are "free" (particularly online services like a certain social website) are paid for in other ways. If you aren't paying an upfront cost, you might find out later that there's undesirable software bundled in, or shady business practices going on at the other end.

Originally Posted by DrO

which is why a number of linux distributions don't provide native MP3 decoder libraries for example (since depending on where in the world you are determines which patents and licensing authorities are in operation) so they don't have to pay anything and leave it to the user to download what is needed, etc. as MP3 is still a patented codec in parts up until 2017 (and with the few related patents relating to encoding support from what i've been able to work out).

Interesting. Usually the quoted reason is that they're not "free speech", so they'd rather discourage the use of them (at least in relation with FOSS, or at least to satisfy those crying for FOSS/"Libre"-only) but on the flip side I find most people using Linux are using it for the "free beer" factor (surprise, surprise).

Originally Posted by DrO

as vegdelicious seems to be living in a reality bubble in that most of the main codecs in use (MP3, AAC, H.264 and so on) are under patent and generally require licensing to use them (which varies between formats and encoding and decoding areas depending on the codec) to avoid getting taken through the legal wringer when you're seen as a 'large' product.

On the flip side, some codec owners will allow unlimited use for a few years; I don't recall which video format (mp4?) but there is one recently that they were going to start requiring licences but then decided to extend the unlimited use period. (Also, something similar happened with GIF. Did you know that was originally supposed to be licenced as well? I think CompuServe ended up backing down from trying to get everyone to pay up, though -- IIRC because so many decided instead to remove GIF support instead. Whoops.)

Originally Posted by ChiggyChiggy

FYI, to play mp3s and other formats on Linux, your distribution is either paying (like Ubuntu and family does with the restricted codecs) or theyre there by legal loopholes.

Well waddaya know, Canonical is there after all. I'd never known that to be honest, and it's good to know. It makes sense I think since they do make money off certain services IIRC, though it's less evident than with Red Hat.

[ARcasecell]

i love classic skin it just so winamp

[Gamergeek1981]

is there any update when the next version of winamp will be released

[musicf8]

Originally Posted by Gamergeek1981

is there any update when the next version of winamp will be released

before the end of the year

[WordTickler]

I am so glad Winamp is on the way back! This has really energized my interest in writing 3rd party apps. I hope the API gets a revamp.

As for suggestions for the resurrection, is there a place/thread for us long-time and loyal users to make suggestions for improvement/new features?

For instance, I'm hoping to see Winamp integrate with XBMC--even if I have to write code to do it myself.

Thanks,

WordTickler

[DrO]

that'd be the wish list (with there still be no guarantee things will be taken on done, especially as there's a lot of old requests that should be sorted out before some of the new things).

i would not expect a radical change in the API offered (as covered in some of my posts in here, it's most likely be refinement / removal of things that aren't used or need to be changed to make things easier to implement (primarily for helping all of the natively provided plug-ins).

[voodoohippie]

I had Winamp installed on my PC Way before Shoutcast and Winamp changed owners. Now suddenly when I do a Auto Tag (it looks up the audio finger print) it no longer works and I had to Download a 3rd party program to look up audio tags now. I hope Winamp does come back soon or more folks will be looking at other players like Mediamonkey where you still have the Audio Fingerprint tag scanner.

[DrO]

Gracenote Services No Longer Work In Winamp: Reason Why Explained

[sorein]

Version 5.666? Nice touch! Did you also draw a devil's head on it?

[chuckjmoore1991]

I hope the new Winamp has support for MusicBrainz. It would also be nice for Shoutcast radio to be similar to BBC Radio, having Artist Pages for almost every artist and linking to MBID's. Artist who have Twitter account can find out when their song is being played on Shoutcast Radio through their artist page.

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by chuckjmoore1991

I hope the new Winamp has support for MusicBrainz.

As discussed by him in the thread DrO posted 2 posts above. MusicBrainz is the leading candidate to replace Gracenote for tagging and maybe some other features.

[Sabine Klare]

Maybe I should uncheck "Use MusicID" in the in_cdda.dll via Options > Preferences > Plug-ins > Input > Configure, before I will play a CD the next time. It would be very interesting now, what would happen, if I insert a CD to play it directly (I do that only rarely).

The last time I played a CD with Winamp July 2013, before the changings came.

Yes, MusicBrainz could be a good candidate...

[DrO]

you don't need to do that, at most if the CD was already known to Winamp (and stored in it's local cache) then it'll use the information stored to generate the track titles, otherwise you just get Track 01, Track 02, etc (which is what would happen if a CD lookup was not possible anyway or if the feature was not installed).

[sotofuxi]

Good to see you sorting the Winamp issues out guys. AOL Music suck!!!

How on earth they allowed everybody's favourite Llama die like that is nuts! A clear example if ever there was one of a huge company buying the little guys to close them down eventually leaving the huge companies even huger due to people's appetite for music & movie downloads. A bizarre old thing like watching a good friend slowly die whilst I sit and suck up all the oxygen. I'll do all I can to assist. People are constantly questioning where Winamp went or where it is, I'm just glad I saved the very last download.

Winamp is a cash cow waiting to be milked, you could even revolutionise the download market by reducing the DL fee to around 49p(UK) or 69c(US) etc. There is no need for greedy corporations to bleed people dry charging stupid prices when there is no need for it.

I don't mind really, charge what you like if you are going down the music download route to raise revenue's.

I truly hope with all that I am, that you guys manage to put Winamp right back where it once was, on the top of the heap.

Llama's love heights, they need height up their ass baby.

Peace amigo's.

[Kamyk]

As a long time user of winamp, I have only two requests/concerns/suggestions. Unlike the previous winamps please for the love of god allow us relative file locations in playlists instead of absolute ones for our media files. That and an easy way to import our old playlists. I can't even begin to explain how utterly annoying/frustrating it was to have to completely recreate all our playlists from scratch every time we installed a new version or our drive letters changed for whatever reason.

Example: changing thousands of xml entries by hand/find/replace from:
c:\users\name\mp3s\yada yada
to d:\users\name\mp3s\yada yada
instead of just having a simple built in function to tell it "hey \users\name\mp3s\yada yada changed drives".

It is the nature of computing and windows in particular to move file locations on a regular basis, in a futile attempt to keep everything organized. Audio and video make up a large part of that for many people. Winamp keeping up with it would be a godsend.

(Also, as a side note, a user friendly color theme editor built in would be a very nice touch too).

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by Kamyk

It is the nature of computing and windows in particular to move file locations on a regular basis, in a futile attempt to keep everything organized.

Since you concede that it's "a futile attempt to keep everything organized", then why move things on a regular basis? I assume you mean some sort of logical (storage scheme) organization. Providing metadata in the audio files and/or their media library records allows Winamp's default and custom smartviews to present them in all sorts of ways, despite their physical locations. Winamp's ability to sort and present audio files in many ways is one of it's greatest strengths.

I concede that managing music video files by their metadata is a problem. There are apps available for managing movies and tv shows. I'm currently using "Media Companion" (link below). It lets me organize my copies of movies and tv shows and invoke Winamp to play them.

http://mediacompanion.codeplex.com/

When you move things and break your playlists, "listFix()" (link below) is a nice little app that can repair them. Even if you only used playlists created within the Winamp media library you can get to them in the "Users/<your profile name>/Appdata/Roaming/Winamp/Plugins/ML/Playlists" folder. Shutdown Winamp first. These playlists have alphanumeric names that Winamp creates to internally associate with the 'user friendly' names used in the media library.

http://listfix.sourceforge.net/

[DrO]

Winamp does save relative filepaths in playlists it creates if the playlist is saved to the same drive and has done that for years. so as long as the playlist is maintained on the same drive (and ideally in the same folder structure as the media it references) then importing / using those playlists should stay working (unless the actual files move). and I know that works since its how I've used playlists created by Winamp since 1999.

as for importing of the playlists, you need to use the original playlist when importing them into Winamp's library (assuming you're using 5.66x) instead of allowing Winamp to maintain its own copy. that way you at most just need to update the location of those playlists instead of having to re-do the whole of the playlist as it sounds like you're doing.

using both those steps will minimise what you have to keep updating. however constantly moving things around is never a good idea and I'm not following why you feel you have to keep doing it as you're just causing yourself more work and will make it more likely that playlists will break.

[danton.q]

Hi,
I've read this thread with interest but didn't find any info about the improvement of Shoutcast Radio in Winamp Media Library.

Before (till december) I could search by keyword or category (Rock, Classic, etc.). I had then a nice page displaying dozens of radios.

Today I cannot search by category anymore (while on website it's style possible) and worse than that, it displays only 5 stations by page.

So will the Winamp media library Shoutcast radio page be improved, have a nicer design, be more usable ? When ?

I like Winamp, no I love Winamp (maybe one day a Linux version ?).

[DrO]

yes. soon. nope.

[danton.q]

I'd love to see that. What means "soon" ? Before summer ?

[DrO]

i believe it'll be something like that.

[Koopa]

Originally Posted by sotofuxi

How on earth they allowed everybody's favourite Llama die like that is nuts! A clear example if ever there was one of a huge company buying the little guys to close them down eventually leaving the huge companies even huger due to people's appetite for music & movie downloads. .

Usually I would agree, but most people simply forget, that Winamp became freeware after AOL bought it.

Winamp under the AOL flag was running for a long time, but it wasn't profitable in the end. (Sure, AOL made a lot of mistakes during the years).

And at least AOL sold it, if they would have die it as nuts, it would be simply dead now.