BogProg X-Fade 2.0 (Input Crossfading)

[thinktink]

Yeah, sorry about that.

Take care of your finger. I hope you are a fast healer.

Thanks. It ain't the first time I've been burned nor probably will it be the last, although usually it's from a soldering iron, not a stupid lamp. The burn is gone, as painful and annoying as it was it wasn't the biggest burn.

[Aminifu]

Hi thinktink,

I just discovered that X-Fade prevents Winamp from playing CDs. Winamp just cycles thru each song on a CD when it tries to play them. Winamp (or Windows) generates a "CD drive is in use" message prior to each track (acknowledging each message allows Winamp to advance to the next track).

Is this a known limitation?

[thinktink]

Hi thinktink,

I just discovered that X-Fade prevents Winamp from playing CDs. Winamp just cycles thru each song on a CD when it tries to play them. Winamp (or Windows) generates a "CD drive is in use" message prior to each track (acknowledging each message allows Winamp to advance to the next track).

Is this a known limitation?

You're still using CDs?! That's soooo 5000BCs...

Kidding aside, no, this was not a known limitation, but it is now. However, I don't know if CD drives would be able to decode audio tracks simultaneously anyway, which is what's required for X-Fade to be able to crossfade playback.

I just had a look at the CDA input plugin and it seems that it should at least play 1 track at a time. And if an input plugin's transcoder functions cannot provide decoded file audio data then X-Fade should be failing back to a man-in-the-middle plugin and I'm a bit surprised it's not.

Do me a favor and open X-Fade's configuration window and then click the [Plugins...] button. In the "Input Plugins" dialog window that opens up click the [File] button then select a CDA track from your CD drive. Then copy-paste the results from the big box beneath in your next post.

[Aminifu]

You're still using CDs?! That's soooo 5000BCs...

That's funny.

I still use them in my car. It has an old audio system; radio, CDs, and .... tape cassettes! , no input for digital players .

Actually someone recently posted that their Winamp crashes when trying to play CDs. I couldn't remember the last time I played a CD with Winamp, so I tried it. When it wouldn't work, I realized that whenever the last time was, X-Fade was not installed. So after I disabled it, the CD played with no problems. I didn't think it thru at the time, but I agree that most, if not all, CD drives would not be able to play 2 tracks at the same time.

Here is the info you asked for:

"Handled by: Nullsoft CD Plug-in (MusicID 2.6) v4.02 (in_cdda.dll)
An unspecified error occured while attempting to open the file for testing with the Trancoder functions."

[thinktink]

...

Here is the info you asked for:

"Handled by: Nullsoft CD Plug-in (MusicID 2.6) v4.02 (in_cdda.dll)
An unspecified error occured while attempting to open the file for testing with the Trancoder functions."

And with that piece of information I can say the plugin should be failing back into man-in-the-middle mode. It's odd, I thought I tested for this when I had a development computer that had a CD drive. Unfortunately I'm developing on my little Acer and it doesn't have a built-in drive to test with. I'll have to find an external drive to investigate this further.

[thinktink]

AH HA! It's not my fault! More info to come later...

[thinktink]

Ok, so, at least with Winamp v5.666 (build 3516) I removed ALL 3rd party plugins (including my own) and did some tests. I tried with both cda://E,1 and E:\Track01.cda and got the same results. Every time you try to use the Transcoder functions on any CD track, any attempts afterward to play CD tracks normally will fail with that message "CD Drive is currently in use". For example, if you try to Transcode a CD track to WAV, MP3, FLAC, or any other codec, it will fail of course, but then subsequent attempts to play will fail with the aforementioned error dialog. If you restart Winamp then you can then play CDs again until the next time you try to use the Transcoder functions of in_cdda.dll

But with X-Fade installed it's a bit different:

• If you try to play cda://E,1 it will play fine.
• If you try to play E:\Track01.cda it will fail with the error. Subsequent attempts to play E:\Track01.cda will fail twice.
• If you try to play E:\Track01.cda it will fail (once or twice) and then also fail on cda://E,1 (twice) afterwards.
• If you try to Transcode cda://E,1 it will fail but not produce the error dialog. But it will still play just fine afterwards.
• If you try to Transcode E:\Track01.cda it will fail with no error dialog. Any subsequent attempts to play back any CD track will also fail with the error dialog.

So you CAN play CDs with X-Fade installed, just only use cda://[drive letter],[track #] and never try to Transcode CD tracks.

However, these results indicate something is wrong with in_cdda.dll plugin.

P.S.
I found an error with Volume/Pan handling while doing these tests (man-in-the-middle failover doesn't happen very often on my machine) and should be releasing an update that addresses it soon.

[thinktink]

Version 2.1.3.14 now available for download.

Changes:

• Fixed issue with volume/pan playback for files without transcoder support.

[Aminifu]

The in_cdda.dll plug-in is being updated anyway since Gracenote's MusicID is no longer being used to provide track metadata and the Sonic code is too old to be relied on for accurate rips.

Is "cda://[drive letter],[track #]" a command line argument?

Thanks for the v2.1.3.14 update. I do not normally use Winamp to play CDs, but it's good to have a way to do so without having to disable X-Fade. Also, I've been using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) for ripping instead of Winamp.

The person who reported crashes trying to play CDs has not posted their Info Tool report, so what's causing that issue remains unknown. I doubt he/she is using X-Fade.

[thinktink]

...

Is "cda://[drive letter],[track #]" a command line argument?

...

No it is not, it's an alternative method to add a CD track your playlist, you enter it via the "Add URL" option and not "Add File" option (if you're using a classic skin.)

[thinktink]

Version 2.1.4.17 now available for download.

Changes:

• Found and fixed an issue with Unicode file names on file systems without 8.3 file name support.
• Updated NoFlush: Version 1.0.1.2
  • Fixed an issue when the description/version of the selected output plugin was changed/updated and subsequently failing to automatically select a new output plugin after Winamp restart.
• Fixed an issue with the X-Fade tab appearing on the Unified File Information Pane ([Alt]+[3] File Info dialog) for unsupported media.

[Aminifu]

Happy New Year,

I just wanted to let you know that the new versions have been working flawlessly for me. Any idea how many people are using them? I've been promoting them whenever I get an appropriate opportunity.

[djpete]

I've tried this a few times and have always uninstalled it as I couldn't see what it does.
Will it enable a better crossfade than default crossfader?

If so can someone explain simply how to setup?
Thanks

[Aminifu]

...

Will it enable a better crossfade than default crossfader?

If so can someone explain simply how to setup?
Thanks

Well "better" depends on the criteria you use to judge. These plug-ins allow you to start and hear the beginning of the next song in a playlist at the same time you hear current song ending. The amount of overlap is adjustable in milliseconds. These plug-ins are designed for SHOUTcast users and can provide other features (discussed in this thread), but they can be used by non-SHOUTcast users also.

These plug-ins are setup and controlled by their configuration options, there are no controls in the skin UI. Link to the latest versions is in post #26 above.

Read posts #16 and #17 in this thread (http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....88#post3049688) for simple setup instructions to get you started.

There are zero artifacts at the point of crossover. What you hear during the overlap period depends completely on the encoded characteristics of the consecutive songs (i.e. their relative ending and starting volumes and the amount of any starting and/or ending silence encoded in the songs). There is an option called "Logarithmic Transitions" that can be used to provide an automatic volume fade out - fade in between songs during the overlap period.

[djpete]

ok I think I got it.
I just disabled the crossfading on Direct Sound Output.
Sounds more or less similar to Direct Sound Output to me. not sure if better or worse, but I understand it has other features. Thanks