Winamp 5 beta 1

Hethrir · Post by **Hethrir** » 2003-10-21 09:49am

Couldn't find any threads, so i hope it's not posted yet....

Get Winamp 5 beta 1 here!

l00ks tasty...it seems to be giving the features of winamp 3 without the bloatware that that two was popular for. the name comes from winamp 2 + winamp 3.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2003-10-21 10:47am

Where's 4?

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2003-10-21 10:55am

I'm still using the 2.95 alpha. Nullsoft hasn't said anything about it in months.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-10-21 10:58am

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:Where's 4?

2+3=5

Hamel wrote:I'm still using the 2.95 alpha. Nullsoft hasn't said anything about it in months.

AFAIK, there were some legal issues over the AAC codec with 2.95a, hence it's non-release.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-10-21 05:33pm

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:Where's 4?

Probably in the same place as Leisure Suit Larry.

Vertigo1 · Post by **Vertigo1** » 2003-10-21 05:53pm

Anyone experience any issues with it yet? I'm still using 2.61, and haven't had a compelling reason to update yet as its the last version released before AOHELL bought out Nullsoft. Those bastards.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-10-21 06:33pm

Vertigo1 wrote:Anyone experience any issues with it yet? I'm still using 2.61, and haven't had a compelling reason to update yet as its the last version released before AOHELL bought out Nullsoft. Those bastards.

What's wrong with latter versions? I use 2.91 and don't have a problem. I tried Winamp 3 and it was nice for a while, but there were several things that irked me:
1) the huge load times (compared to 2, which is instantaneous)
2) the totally freeform skins - at first I thought it was a blessing, but without some base structure, the learning curve when switching skins is intolerable.

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2003-10-21 06:45pm

I have and enjoy 3. I may upgrade if the load times on 5 are faster otherwise i'll just keep what i have thanks.

Datana · Post by **Datana** » 2003-10-21 07:56pm

What I'd really want the Winamp people to fix is Unicode support in filenames and ID3 tags. They implemented a partial hack to get Unicode filenames working as of around 2.8, but it isn't ideal (spawn a read-only copy of the file in the temp directory stripped of Unicode characters and play that back instead; it doesn't clean up the files effectively afterwards, leading to bloat of the temp directory). Unicode ID3 tags simply don't work, period. Winamp 3 actually had partial support (about the only reason I ever used it, given how slow it was response-wise), but it looks like 5's dropped it again from what I can tell from using it (it's based on 2's codebase, so this is understandable).

This issue has been something that they've ignored despite pretty regular complaints on their forums on the topic. You'd think that it would be pretty easy to implement, given that even WMP9 has gone Unicode.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-10-22 05:32am

I've got 3, is it worth downloading?

Post by **Dalton** » 2003-10-22 03:45pm

darthdavid wrote:I have and enjoy 3. I may upgrade if the load times on 5 are faster otherwise i'll just keep what i have thanks.

3 is a piece of shit. I uninstalled it shortly after I installed it and went with 2.91.

Vertigo1 · Post by **Vertigo1** » 2003-10-22 04:46pm

Slartibartfast wrote:
Vertigo1 wrote:Anyone experience any issues with it yet? I'm still using 2.61, and haven't had a compelling reason to update yet as its the last version released before AOHELL bought out Nullsoft. Those bastards.
What's wrong with latter versions? I use 2.91 and don't have a problem. I tried Winamp 3 and it was nice for a while, but there were several things that irked me:
1) the huge load times (compared to 2, which is instantaneous)
2) the totally freeform skins - at first I thought it was a blessing, but without some base structure, the learning curve when switching skins is intolerable.

I just never upgraded beyond 2.61 because it didn't have AOL's usual bloat crap, and is rock solid stable. My only problem with it is that the shuffle feature can't randomize for shit.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-10-22 05:07pm

Vertigo1 wrote:I just never upgraded beyond 2.61 because it didn't have AOL's usual bloat crap, and is rock solid stable. My only problem with it is that the shuffle feature can't randomize for shit.

There are security flaws in older versions of Winamp (predating the second release of 2.81, IIRC), so be warned. Plus, there isn't that much AOL bloat in WA2.9X and can be turned off in the installer