in_mad v2 Winamp MAD MP3 input plugin Options

[nemoW]

Thanks for Unicode file/pathname support![hr]
Strange behavior with ReplayGain (plugin versions 0.2.0.4, 0.2.0.12):
MAD can't see (or use) ReplayGain in most files. File contain ReplayGain info (checked in File info->APE->advanced), but nor ReplayGain gain nor Preamp not applied.
Screenshots:
File info->APE->advanced
File info->Statistics
MAD Plugin properities

[j7n]

@j7n, did you manage to get it working under Win98 on your machine? I'm interested in why its having problems. I've tweaked a few settings in this build but I don't think there is much else I can do. I might dig out the old 400MHz computer from the garage with Win98 on it to test on the real thing.

FILEVERSION 0,2,0,12. I tried Dependency Scanner and it said something about KERNEL32.DLL. Then I installed KernelEx update and now it loads and plays properly. Service Pack v2.1 was installed before but it apparently does not include KernelEx, 48bitLBA, NUSB and some other useful stuff.

Special characters present in active 8-bit codepage are displayed, others are replaced with question marks. This is very nice, cos now that APE is supported I can just upload some of my files managed in Foobar to users who are only familiar with Winamp, and have proper metadata.

Thanks to the updates at MSFN you can have proper Win98 installation on up to i915 at 2.66 GHz and a modern video adapter.

EDIT: Tried again on another computer. Plugin didn't load until KernelEx was installed. No other changes were performed to the system during the test.

This post has been edited by j7n: Jan 31 2008, 19:46

[nonreality]

I set it up in Mediamonkey and it seems to work fine and sounds great. This may a dumb question but what does resolution do and what should it be set at?

[Sylph]

Hey, MoSPDude,

thank you so much for the plugin! Great work!

I just have two questions: when I installed the plugin that can be downloaded here I could pick a 24 bits resolution, now with this new version I cannot! Where is the problem?

Also, why can't ReplayGain be enabled and should I delete these files from the Plugins directory that came in that previous version archive:



Thanks!

[MoSPDude]

Hey, I've uploaded an update to fix the ReplayGain in APE tags. The new version is 0.2.0.14.

The resolution is just the decoder output bit depth - its best left on 16 bit if you use DSP plug-ins, otherwise you can experiment with high bit depths especially if you've got a good soundcard.

@Sylph, are you using WA5.x? If so, you can enable the 24 bit and ReplayGain globally for Winamp playback under Winamp General Preferences -> Playback - or you can disable in_mad from using the playback configuration on in_mad General preference page. Those files can be deleted as well, as they are development files and not needed to use the plug-in, only the 2 files in the main zip.

[Sylph]

Hey, I've uploaded an update to fix the ReplayGain in APE tags. The new version is 0.2.0.14.

Are they a part of the .zip file that can be downloaded from the link given above?

The resolution is just the decoder output bit depth - its best left on 16 bit if you use DSP plug-ins, otherwise you can experiment with high bit depths especially if you've got a good soundcard.

Well, I use DFX Audio Enhancer 8.360. Do you think I should leave the depth on 16?

@Sylph, are you using WA5.x? If so, you can enable the 24 bit and ReplayGain globally for Winamp playback under Winamp General Preferences -> Playback - or you can disable in_mad from using the playback configuration on in_mad General preference page. Those files can be deleted as well, as they are development files and not needed to use the plug-in, only the 2 files in the main zip.

Thank you, MoSPDude, that fixed the problem.

So to install the plugin correctly I should just copy the .dll and .ini files to Plugins directory?

[MoSPDude]

The first link on the main page contains the latest DLLs - it should be two files only, in_mad.dll and in_mad.ini - just copy these to the Winamp plugin folder.

Most DSP plug-ins only support 16 bit resolution and are tuned for that, so I'd leave it at 16 bit. I don't know if DFX Audio Enhancer would support higher.

Cheers for all feedback - and I'll try to fix the bugs that come up .

[Sylph]

The first link on the main page contains the latest DLLs - it should be two files only, in_mad.dll and in_mad.ini - just copy these to the Winamp plugin folder.

Most DSP plug-ins only support 16 bit resolution and are tuned for that, so I'd leave it at 16 bit. I don't know if DFX Audio Enhancer would support higher.

Cheers for all feedback - and I'll try to fix the bugs that come up .

Thank you for keeping this great plugin/decoder alive!

DFX's site says this:

One important factor contributing to the exceptional sound quality is the fact that DFX performs all audio processing with 32-bit floating point precision, yielding truly professional audio quality. Since Internet audio playback systems currently only support 16-bit audio playback, as a final processing step DFX carefully re-dithers the audio signal to the final 16-bit resolution using Power Technology's proprietary high quality dithering technology. Re-dithering allows a dynamic range in the playback signal that actually exceeds the theoretical limit of a 16-bit playback system.

so I guess they do support 32-bit...

[_Raziel-BG]

It acts kinda strange here. On some MP3s it shows the artist and track name twice. Unfortunately I couldn't even come close to finding a common characteristic between the files, so I could have any idea what's causing it. It actually seems to copy each value of the following fields of the ID3v2 tag twice: title, artist, album, year, track # and genre. I'm using WinXP Pro SP2, Winamp 5.35 with a classic skin.

Edit: as far as plugins go, DFX isn't even close to Ozone concerning both quality or features but has the same (or was it even just a bit higher) price tag. I also prefer the free Enhancer 0.17 over DFX any day. To me it sounds better, is lighter and is more flexible. Oh, and price is unbeatable.

This post has been edited by _Raziel-BG: Feb 3 2008, 05:59

[Orochi7777]

MoSPDude I love what you have done with this plugin. However I have a little request and I am not sure if you could implement it in your next update.
I noticed that In_mad stores its configurations in the registry. I use in_mad in a portable version of a player I use. Is it possible to make in_mad save its configuration settings inside INI file rather than registry.

Thank You...

[-sanb-]

Orochi7777

I noticed that In_mad stores its configurations in the registry. I use in_mad in a portable version of a player I use. Is it possible to make in_mad save its configuration settings inside INI file rather than registry.

MoSPDude
I'm to using this plugin with another "portable" player and want that he had not kept his settings in the registry
if it will do will be very grateful
thanks! with respect

[BSOD2600]

Has anyone else noticed 'stuttering' with the latest version (0.2.0.14) ? I'm on XP, Winamp 5.52, out_asio (v0.67 SSE2), and E-MU 0404 card. Since switching from your older in_mad plugin to your newer one, I notice that through songs, the music will occasionally stutter / stop. I'm quite sure it's not my computer (quad core), etc. I can play the same song with your old plugin and it works fine, then play it again with your newer v2 plugin and there is stuttering. These are all mp3s. The statistics tab doesn't show any errors either.

Any ideas?

[Trainwreck56]

Has anyone else noticed 'stuttering' with the latest version (0.2.0.14) ? I'm on XP, Winamp 5.52, out_asio (v0.67 SSE2), and E-MU 0404 card. Since switching from your older in_mad plugin to your newer one, I notice that through songs, the music will occasionally stutter / stop. I'm quite sure it's not my computer (quad core), etc. I can play the same song with your old plugin and it works fine, then play it again with your newer v2 plugin and there is stuttering. These are all mp3s. The statistics tab doesn't show any errors either.

Any ideas?

I am also noticing this stuttering. Mine seems to only happen when Winamp is displaying the tag info in the playlist. I am running winamp 5.52 on xp using the default direct sound output.

[CromagDK]

Hey there

im wonderering a bit, when i play a stream, not an ordinary mp3, only streams, my mouse marker shifts between standard mouse marker and marker with timeglas.
It changes 2 times a second i believe.

Do you need specific info from me ?

/Cromag

edit: At the same time, it looks for me like it has a mem leak ( Maybe just on my box, dont know) . With my normal mpeg decoder winamp take around 8 megs ram. With the mad plugin it runs with 200kb pr second upwards, doesnt end till i kill it.

This post has been edited by CromagDK: Feb 11 2008, 19:48

[MoSPDude]

I'm hoping to get chance to have a play this coming weekend - but I need a bit more information, and a few things for people to try....

@CromagDK - The plug-in could be working hard, possibly in that memory leak situation, and windows will be changing it to busy and back. I need you to disable any DSP and stop any Visualisation first, then see if the situation remains. If it does, please could you make a note of your configuration settings and then delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Winamp\MAD Plug-in (if your comfortable - I don't hold any responsibility if you damage the registry!) with Winamp closed, and see if the problem remains after. If it does, then I'm at a loss for ideas on where to start. In all cases - get back to me!

@BSOD2600 and Trainwreck56 - are you using the plug-in with the Winamp global playback config enabled? If so - what is your plug-in priority set to? If not - try setting it to both Highest and Normal. Are you using extras like last.fm or audioscrobbler software?

@_Raziel-BG - First make sure your using the latest plug-in currently 0.2.0.14. Are you using basic or advanced title formatting? I need to know the formatting string in either case. As a start, you could try changing the tag lookup order in the config to see if that changes the situation.

Finally, I was using some XP only commands in the last version to do the input suspend - explaining why KernelEx was needed in Win98 for this version, I've removed and changed the code ready for the next. I have tested it with no KernelEx on my Virtual Machine, and again it works now I'll look into a portable configuation, probably a separate INI.

Cheers all for feedback

EDIT:spelling....

This post has been edited by MoSPDude: Feb 12 2008, 17:08

[Trainwreck56]

@BSOD2600 and Trainwreck56 - are you using the plug-in with the Winamp global playback config enabled? If so - what is your plug-in priority set to? If not - try setting it to both Highest and Normal. Are you using extras like last.fm or audioscrobbler software?

Yes, I am using with Winamp global playback enabled and priority class for Winamp is set at high and your plugin is set to the highest. I am not using any extras as such.


On a side note, although i have updated your plugin it still displays as being 0.15.1 (beta) in the input list. Is this correct? I have tried deleting the in_mad.dll and replacing it with the newest version but to no avail.

Thank you very much for your work, I greatly appreciate it.

[-sanb-]

MoSPDude
I'm using AIMP player for listening music and your plugin, sound very good.
But for the normal work of the player with your plugin first step is to turn off the "Use Winamp 5.5 unified file information box," and "Enable unicode supporte".
Please make the next version of these default parameters for a more universal use of the plugin with another players
as a picture

Thanks!

I'll look into a portable configuation, probably a separate INI.

be very nice

This post has been edited by -sanb-: Feb 12 2008, 19:14

[Orochi7777]

I'll look into a portable configuation, probably a separate INI.

MosPDude, it was a long reply but I it was worth it.

Thanks again for your time

[BSOD2600]

@BSOD2600 and Trainwreck56 - are you using the plug-in with the Winamp global playback config enabled? If so - what is your plug-in priority set to? If not - try setting it to both Highest and Normal. Are you using extras like last.fm or audioscrobbler software?

Yes, I've got both "use winamp 5 playback config" and "use winamp 5.5 unified file info box" enabled. The priority is set to Highest and greyed out, so I can't change it.

Yes, I'm using the Last.fm plugin too, gen_audioscrobbler.dll v1.1.11p7-DrO internal build.

[Cybermutant]

Like a previous poster, I'm also using a large file input buffer so that the whole MP3 is cached in memory. However, contrary to MoSPDude's post that he has added the feature to release the file as soon as buffering is finished, the file handle doesn't get closed and the file cannot be tagged, edited, deleted, etc. But, if you press Pause during play, the handle gets closed, and then you can continue playback from the memory buffer and do whatever you like with the file.

I'm using Winamp 5.52 on Vista x64. No extra audio plugins.

[MoSPDude]

Hi, the 0.15.1 (beta) is correct - its an old name referring to the libmad version used. The actual file version is displayed in the title of the About box.

I assumed that people would be tagging the files in Winamp. When you pause, stop, or open the file information boxes for tag editing it will close the main tag file handle that remains when anything in Winamp (other plugins etc) query the file for tag information. The playback handle will be closed as soon as it has buffered. It was done mainly to speed up the process of reading artist, album etc from one file, rather than closing, opening, and seeking for tags in the same file repeatedly. The problem when I made it close both handles on buffering is that something else would then query it - needing it to be reopened etc. slowing it down again. If its a definite problem, I was thinking about putting it on a timer so the handle will close if nothing asks for file info after a couple of seconds.

Thanks for the reply about the stuttering. I'll have to try a few things to better determine the cause of it. On the memory leak issue, I can't seem to trace a problem down on the internet streaming side - I'll have a better look into it soon, it could be a metadata related issue.

[gameplaya15143]

I figured out that the unicode support option has to be unchecked for it to work with winamp 2.9x. After I replaced the title formatting string, everything seems to be fine. Meta-data from VBR mp3 streams from icecast works nicely. Great job!

I noticed the 'choppy' sound thing myself. It seems the output plugin gets starved sometimes when beginning playback. Only happens rarely on streams, I have yet to have it happen on a local file.

[Domin]

Hi Domin, in what way does it crash when the stream fails - winamp completely stops responding? I've been testing it by playing back then pulling the network cable out and it goes to the next track silently leaving a message in the File Info box as to why it failed.

It usualy hangs for a few minutes, but latest version seems to fixe it, and i have no of the problems with studdering or mem leaks others mention.

Running on Vista X64 Ultimate.

[MoSPDude]

Hi folks,

I've put up another update - this version is now 0.2.0.20. I hope this addresses some of the previous issues. I've had a look into the memory leak and changed a possible cause. Support for configuration file is included, place it into the plugins folder with everything else - if the file is present it uses that - if not it uses the registry.

I've been too busy lately to do any serious changes. Cheers for your feedback, I hope to get some time over Easter to play!

[Orochi7777]

MoSPDude you are my HERO.
Thank you very much for your hard work, the configuration file is simply awesome.

Thanks Again....

Cheers !!!