Winamp3 has gone FINAL!

http://download.nullsoft.com/winamp/client...amp3_0-full.exe

I am not sure if I really like 3.0 at all. I don't see any place to configure audio plugins and it just seems a little more resource intensive and slower to start up. I guess my biggest complaint is lack of plugins/plugin options...

What do other people thing of 3.0 vs 2.80?

-Grant

The other thing I've noticed is that if I play an MPC in Winamp3 and go to the taskmanager, I see that Winamp3(Studio.exe) is taking 50 megs of ram! What is up with that? Something is very weird. My guess is b/c of the MPC hack plugin for winamp3?

Anyway.... I'm sticking to 2.80

-Grant

when playing mpcs you get some sort of a memory leak. Everything lagged on my system...

Wa3 is slow, so I use wa 2.80 instead

Erm...so why isn't it displayed on the front page then?

you know nullsoft. Its always the same with every winamp version!

Performance improved much over the earlier alphas/betas. Not as resource friendly as 2x but still acceptable.

But 3 final is missing some stuff especially with media library and playlist.

Why did they remove the feature when double-clicking in the media library enqueued in playlist as default action. That was pretty handy - now it's also possible but only by right-clicking using send to playlist which is pretty unhandy.

The enqueue/dequeue feature in the playlist would be quite nice. But it's impossible to find out which files are actually enqueued in a big playlist. (I won't remember like 20 tracks i added to queue). So if you want to remove a track that you added some time before you'll have to browse through the complete playlist.

It's the same with the select function. Pretty useless because it selects the track(s) you're looking for perfectly but how would you find that selected track in a big playlist in order to enque it or something like. (edit: just found playlist selection in a drop down menu)

Overall it's not that bad after all but it's lacking some (not that hard to implement) features that make it easier to create and edit a nice playlist while listening. Maybe I just missed some features and my points above are wrong.

Winamp 3 doesn't feel mature enough since the default visualizer can't be changed nor does the equalizer support adjusting the frequencies above 16kHz... Feels a bit lame... :/ A step in the wrong direction...

Ah, don't moan at them like this -- they've finally got the damn thing out the door, and now they can get lots of feedback about the bits and pieces which they need to improve.

I know very well from watching the development of KDE 2 that it can be a long and demoralising road developing a new generation of *any* software.

I don't anticipate moving from WinAmp2 for quite a while, and there is no reason that any of you should feel compelled to do so either.

It works ok for me. Some of the old features are missing, but I have faith that the winamp crew will get them out there eventually.

All I want now is for PP to update wa3plugz with new versions of the DirectSound plugin (helps Audigy skipping) and SSRC plugin .

- Agent 86

It was kind of rushed out the door. For corporate reasons I assume and is not as feature compleat as some may like. But I like it. It will mature nicely over time.

In a recent message at the NSIS (the WInamp installer) forum Justin Frankel make it quite clear he's being pulled off quite hurriedly on something else (i.e. non NSIS-related):
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=...&highlight=shit

so maybe the "it was rushed" comments are true...

FAAD2 decoder for Winamp3 final already available at RareWares

Regards;

Roberto.

i will stick to WinAmp 2.80. the truth is this new version feels very bloated and buggy, and for what, new skins and video playback (video actually sux). as for the rest of the "new features", there is possibly an existing plugin that can do most of those (including video playback) for WA2.x without all the hastle. time has proven that all those "all-in-one" programs are usually terrible, and WA3 is no exception.

Very good point :
Can play CD digitally, gaplessly, and supports unresampled 48 kHz playback.

No plugin combination in Winamp 2 could do this ! (Only gapless to stand CD Reader was SQRsoft and it didn't support proper 48 kHz playback, there was maybe Nullsoft experimental gapless too, but same issue with 48 kHz files).

Bad points :
Preserve file associations was still checked in the options while I unchecked it during install
I didn't find how to select the sound device yet. I had to change the default one in the control panel instead.

Well, I give up.
It keeps freezing. Sometimes there is a program called "studio" not responding, sometimes not. And using the play CD command instead of loading the tracks, it doesn't freeze, but plays no sound.

Actually WinAMP3 is not that bad it takes 10meg physical memore and 20meg of virtual memory, but at the same time other players did this for a long time (Windows Media Player 7+, MusicMatch Jukebox, Media Jukebox) and people still use them and like a lot. Whether or not they are bad or good is another thing, but MMJB has a huge userbase, probably WMP also. Also most modern PCs have at least 256Mb RAM and the PC I plan to build based on a ClawHammer later this year will have at least 1Gig, so memory is not really an issue.
WinAMP3 was just released and it is wrong to expect to have all the plugins available
immediately after the release time, but I'm 100% that in 1/2 year everything you can find for WinAMP2.X will be ported to WinAMP3. I kinda liked Crossfading feature and possibility to resize the player freely. I think by version 3.1 it will be very mature and will replace 2.X series completely. I know people like cool skins so this feature will attract a lot of folks out there, and it supports Ogg Vorbis right from the start which is also great!
I didn't test Media Library feature yet, but I think it is a good addition. I like being able to select any track I have on one of 4 HDDs in thousands of folders and play it instantly not leaving a player and then just close the library window to make player compact.
Though I will have to read some manual to figure out how new playlist works and how to use it efficiently.
But for the time being I will still use my beloved WinAMP2.8

You've stripped away the ID3v2 support? (I know most of you doesn't use them since they're just a simple hack, but I still like them... I'll just remove them when the time comes, but I want them for the moment...)

Man does not live by Winamp3 alone. Not yet at least. For being a whole new codebase it is to be expected that they will have to kind of re-invent themselves. Winamp3 and wasabi are off to a good start. I used to like sonique for its free form skins. But I must say I have seen some winamp3 skins that are truly jaw dropping. No matter how rushed it is now that it is final support will follow. And if the possibility and flexability of the plugins are anywhere close to that of the skins, well watch out. And that is just what they claim with wasabi. So far the skins have definatly been impressive. Wait till the first round of plugins are out and Wa3.xx is out and then we will see.

Gotta ask Menno. I'm pretty sure ID3v2 isn't supported in the WA3 plugin because ID3lib isn't included in the project.

i thought that's what the betas were for. i mean, what you're saying is that this isn't really a final "final," right? and that's what the moaners are moaning about.

Betas were mostly for bugfixing, and Alphas for feature implementation. (I think)

Now that most of the Alpha bugs have been squashed, feature implementing can start again.

That's how I see the process.

Well, no software is ever final. Winamp 2.X is still eveolving and that series has been at it for about 5 years now.

What I think is ment is that most doubt that is the developers original hope for feature set of 3.0.

Exactly, Sawg. You're sharp as a tack in every forum. I myself am enjoying Winamp 3, but its not gonna take over my file associations until it gets to 3.2, where most of the bigger bugs and slowdowns can be knocked out.

Now, to wait for the oncoming flood of components and skins...which will amaze us with every passing month.

I have no use for Winamp 3. I installed it. I played. I uninstalled. If this is supposed to be the next best thing then I've lost all faith in Nullsoft.

fancy skins are nice.. for about 5 min. The playlist stuff they've done is interesting, but hardly necessary. The thing about media players is they've pretty much reached their practical peak with winamp2.xx - much like MS Word reached the peak for word processing a few years ago. Any new additions won't be relevant to most users.

rjamorim

I have installed the cnv_aacpcm.wac file and it works. But I have a more fundamental question--why are there separate converters for mp4 and aac, particularly for wa2, which is audio only? Since the audio track of mp4 IS aac, albeit with a slightly different package, why isn't there just one input component?

Now, unless I am mistaken, the benefits of faad2 1.1 are only found in the latest aac wa3 converter and not in the mp4 converter....

In case any anybody didn't already know, there is an ASIO plugin for Winamp3 available here: http://www.aikis.or.jp/%7Eotachan/cnv_pcmasio.html

Mostly political issues.

To make it short, Dolby won't go after people distributing MPEG4 decoders, but they will if an aac-only decoder is being distributed.

Anyway, Menno plans to add AAC playback capability to in_mp4. That will make development and distribution easier.



What MP4 converter? For Winamp3?
Dunno...

I just updated AAC binaries at RareWares. Now, all decoders based on FAAD2 hosted there are ER-aware. (Consequently, they theoretically could be used to listen to DRM - you'll only miss the SBR part, that should be implemented soon)

Regards;

Roberto.

Seems OK with the Winamp2 input plugin and 2.x input support. Just remember to delete the WA3 mpc plugin.

Well, what did you expect coming from these guys?

[img]ff5fb6dcb2[/img]

(Yes, that's the NullSoft dev team. Justin is the 3rd (or 4th?) from left)

That is so wrong on so many levels.


edit* Changed the pic, eh?

Ogg Vorbis support got the shaft in winamp3. No more custom title display and use of Vorbisgain tags . I'm sticking with 2.80 for now, thanks... especially because I have a lot of files with tags that depend on custom title display (anime sound tracks)

*That* was actually a mistake done by an anti-leech engine.

I'm really sorry. :-/

Ha, made me laugh anyways.

Made quite a few people laugh.