WAV file received in e-mail not playing with WINAMP
 

I just installed WINAMP 5.21 and the file I received via e-mail and wanted to play is not playing. All suggestions will be appreciated.

assuming you are confident in the origin of the file and that it's not some random virus you've picked up, first try to play the file in a number of other media players, such as WMP. if it works in them you know it isn't the file itself.

Probably because the WAV isn't a standard cd-quality pcm .wav file (uncompressed 44.1KHz, 16-bit, stereo, 1411.2kbps) but has been compressed with some other codec such as a mp3-layered riff .wav.

Right-click the WAV file in Explorer and look at the properties (or look at the properties of the .wav in Windows Media Player) and see what Audio Codec it says it's using (eg. MPEG Audio Layer-3).

Alas, the newer Waveform Decoder (in_wave.dll) in Winamp 5.2x doesn't support some codecs, including mp3 layered riff .wav's.

You can find more info and workarounds/temp fixes via the Known Bugs thread.

Basically, your options are to replace the new in_wave with the older one from 5.1x (no multi-user profile support) or use the DirectShow Decoder (in_dshow) to play wav instead of in_wave.

And yes, as joeconstantine says, this is also assuming that the file is not corrupt and is a legit/proper .wav file.

Thanks to all for the thoughts and suggestions. I have received many e-mails from the same individual before, with no indication of contamination, so hopefully such is not the case with this. I am relatively un-knowledgeable about some of the issues mentioned, so unsure about how to pursue them, so will explore to see what I can manage. Thanks again..