I have added the winamp transcoding API to the WavPack plugin, so now format conversion, CD burning, and Replaygain calculations all work with WavPack files. Also, I added the functions to allow winamp (and other plugins) to write metadata text information to WavPack files. I'm not sure exactly what this buys (other than the ability to write calculated Replaygain info, which is how I tested it) but I'm sure there are plugins that do this.

Note that this does not allow editing the metadata tags directly from winamp (alt+3) unless there's a plugin that implements this through that API.

Here are the changes (relative to version 2.4) with the newest in bold:

• added transcoding API (allows CD burning, format conversion, Replaygain calc)
• added API for writing metadata from winamp
• Unicode support for info box and media library
• added option to pass multichannel audio to output
• added option to pass all audio as 16-bit (for better compatibility)
• added option to output 24-bit audio when ReplayGain is active
• changed high-resolution output from 32-bit to 24-bit (allows winamp EQ to work, and probably other things)
• fixed bug that caused the seek bar to sometimes vacillate when moved
• performance enhancement from 4.41
• added genre display to info box

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Thanks...

David

edit: Latest version is now alpha8; link above has been updated (read below for additional features). This version is now very stable.

edit: Latest version is now in beta; read more and get it here

Thanks to everyone who helped with testing...

I found and fixed a bug in the transcoding API that caused badly corrupted files to be generated quite often. If you're using it, please stop, and check any files you transcoded (or burned to CD, or replaygained) for missing channels and loud pops. Alpha 5 is available here:

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Benski, one of you WA guys mabbe?

Add this block of code somewhere in your program. It will cause Winamp 5.5+ to do tag editing through your plugin's metadata interface.

Man, I love HA !
Thank you very much Benski, David please forget abuout work and wife immediately !

It buys you two features:
1) Ctrl+E metadata editing in the media library will sync up changes to the file
2) The Auto-tagger included in 5.5+ will write back to the tags (auto-tagger also requires the "extended read" API which you've already implemented).

Maybe a few other things, but nothing I can think of off the top of my head.

Hey thanks, benski, that worked great! I also implemented metadata "formatinformation" so that I can display the other information that used to be in my infobox (and still is for older winamp versions).

The updated version is here:

http://www.wavpack.com/winamp_alpha6.zip

Now, DARcode, you can edit your tags in winamp!!




I updated to 5.5 and tried these out and they work fine. That auto-tagger feature is pretty cool!

Unfortunately I seem to have the "can't burn CDs" problem described in the winamp forums, so I couldn't test that again...

Anyway, thanks again for your help. The WavPack plugin is starting to look real...

David

I just tested it here, replaygain and autotagger worked like a charm.

Thank-you very much David!

Yeah ! Many many thanks David ! Early Xmas present !

Thanks a lot, David ! Plugin works without problems.

2 benski: is it possible to include wavpack plugin to future winamp versions as a standard component ?

Hi David

the option "use correction files" in plugin configuration is used both in playback and transcoding. It makes sense to split them - i.e. do not use wvc-files during playback but do use in time of format conversion

Thanks.

Mike

Thanks, that's a good idea. I thought about something like that for replaygain too because I would never want replaygain when transcoding or burning a CD. But then I thought that maybe someone else might want that (mix CDs maybe), and decided to make the setting apply to both. But for using the wvc file, obviously you would always want that for transcoding.

just want to remind that the performance issue with access to files stored on Windows network shared folders is still there. Previously it affected just Medialy Library re-scan. With new features it appears in new places
1) "file info" dialog with track metadata takes about 5-10 seconds to open
2) format conversion is slowed about twice

thanks

Okay, I think I know what's going on here. Winamp does quite a bit of metadata reading on the same file, and I think some of the plugins keep the last file open so they can retrieve the information more quickly. I'm rather swamped right now, but I might be able to try this in the next week or two.

Thanks for letting me know about this.

Well, it turns out I had time to try something on this today! This should perform media library operations much faster than before, and I also changed the transcoding API to always use correction files. This involved changes that could potentially lead to nasty bugs, so (as usual) all testing is appreciated. Thanks!

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Alternatively it could be included in one fo the Essentials Packs, no?

Thanks a lot! Everything works fine so far.
Your dedication and speed of response is really amazing!

Thanks!

BTW, did the change seem to make a difference in speed? Is the plugin generally as fast as the others now?

yes, now it has the same speed as mp3 in all operations.
thanks again!

Got a report of a crash in the winamp plugin when you restart winamp after removing the files that were in the playlist the last time you shut it down. I fixed the crash, although winamp still isn't very willing to admit that the files aren't there anymore (for any format, not just WavPack)...

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Hi bryant
When will you release the final version?

I'm not sure. As many of you know, I am very busy here. I may get to it by the end of the month, but I can't promise anything.

However, the latest alpha (8) seems to be very robust. Nobody should hesitate using it just because it's not released.

Thanks bryant.
Please place the latest version in the first post.

Done...

First of all, Hello everyone! And second, Very, very, very, very nice work on WavPack!

I'm a Winamp user and gave this version of the plugin a try. I noticed that when using correction files, even after playback has stopped/moved on to the next song, there's still an open handle left for the .wvc file of a .wv that's played for the first time in that session and have to restart Winamp to free it. On the other hand, if I play it first without the correction file, then again using it, this does not happen, but the playback is still reported as lossy (although the correction file is used and it's actually in lossless mode).

And I'd also like to make a feature request, mostly for the Winamp plugin, but might prove useful for unpacking in general - the possibility to store the correction files in a different folder than the .wv file. I'd love this because I'd like to transcode my collection to hybrid mode, keeping the correction files on the server back at home, available through samba when needed, while the songs themselves on the laptop hdd so I can play them anywhere and everywhere and get the benefit of smaller files with unperceivable quality loss to the regular human ear that just needs some music while working.

LE: I see there are some open handles left for .wv files as well sometimes. And the tags created through Winamp are not read until the restart of Winamp? Also, with the Add file(s) to playlist dialogue from the playlist I do have "WavPack File (*.WV)" but if I select "All supported types" .wv files are filtered out. But this may be Winamp issue(s) or something wrong with my install (I'm currently using Winamp v5.53).

Thanks David...

The open handles stuff sounds like it is probably in the winamp plugin so I'll take a look there and see what I can come up with. The problem of winamp reporting the wrong mode (lossless/lossy) and bitrate depending on whether the correction file is used is because winamp is storing that in cache and is not aware that the information is out of date. Once you actually play the file it should get refreshed (and the instantaneous bitrate display should be a reliable indication). The other issues you mention sound like winamp issues but I'll try to reproduce them the next time I run Windows.



Yeah, this has been suggested before. I think it's a great idea but I think it would be kind of a nightmare to implement and I just don't have the time these days for something like that (especially trying to make it cross-platform).

BTW, thanks for the post and welcome to the forum!

Hi David.

Just FYI, Winamp plugin started to keep additional opened handles in one of last alfa versions, after you improved performance of Media library refresh.

But I'm personally don't care about this issue

Mike

Yes, this makes sense once I thought about it a little (and looked at the code).

Leaving the files open is how I improved the performance of the Media Library!

Of course, I also hate apps that leave handles open after they close. Does it do that, or does it close up everything when winamp closes? Do other plugins leave handles open?

I will take a look at this soon, but I've got such a full plate now that I might not get to it this weekend. But thanks for the heads-up...

David

Alpha 8 doesn't save metadata files.

What do you mean by this? What metadata files?

Thanks,

David

I mean like ID3 Tag in MP3 files.

I believe that I fixed the open handles issues and the problem where the update did not take effect immediately. This is now in beta available here.

Thanks and sorry for the delay.