Winamp First Impressions

Travis G · 27th February 2004, 14:40

I just figured I post a mild little rant on my first impressions with the new Winamp. For the most part, Winamp is working just fine. I switched from ZINF for performance reasons, but I'm not seeing any boost to performance, both players fail to cache properly and I get pops and crackles if there is any disturbance to the WiFi network.

My observations are:

It is nice that the new Winamp has a standard menu bar on the default skin. To me, skinable apps are a complete waste. I very rarely if ever use the mouse, so I want all my applications easily navigable with a keyboard. I want to see what keys I have to press so I don't have a break in period where I learn shortcut keys. Besides, why should this application look pretty, I'm listening to it, not looking at it.

It imported the MP3s and Oggs just fine, but ignored all the playlist files. That is annoying, especially since I have to add playlists one at a time. Add to this annoyance, Winamp seems to store new playlists in a private DB. So I have to recreate the playlists on other machines on the same network, or ones or remote networks using WebDAV or the like? I could export and import, but again, that is a one at a time annoyance.

The most played list is bugged. I have tracks that say they have been played twice as often as an other tracks I have, but they aren't even on the most played list. I've only had Winamp for a few days. I can't figure out why they aren't showing up. At first I assumed it was because they didn't have full tags, but that isn't the case. Maybe only Oggs show up and not MP3s.

When you use Winamp to edit ID tags, the app temporarily hangs (I've only noticed this in WinXP, I haven't tested elsewhere). This is bad. It shouldn't become unresponsive. And if it is currently playing music while I'm editing a tag that isn't enqueued, then it shouldn't stop playing as it is switching tracks just because it is editing another track's tags.

Also, vBulletin has a bug. This isn't the only vBulletin forum I've seen it on. I usually use Mozilla 1.6, but I can't post to a vBulletin forum because the "New Thread" image isn't there. That just bugs me. I'll look at the source when I get a chance to see what the problem is.

-Travis

Travis G · 27th February 2004, 14:46

Nevermind on the vBulletin bug. It was a false positive in my userContent.css. It is set up to block banner ads, and an arrangement of letters in the New Post link triggered it.

That just made me very happy.

27th February 2004, 14:40	#1
Travis G Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Durham, NC, US Posts: 3	Winamp First Impressions I just figured I post a mild little rant on my first impressions with the new Winamp. For the most part, Winamp is working just fine. I switched from ZINF for performance reasons, but I'm not seeing any boost to performance, both players fail to cache properly and I get pops and crackles if there is any disturbance to the WiFi network. My observations are: It is nice that the new Winamp has a standard menu bar on the default skin. To me, skinable apps are a complete waste. I very rarely if ever use the mouse, so I want all my applications easily navigable with a keyboard. I want to see what keys I have to press so I don't have a break in period where I learn shortcut keys. Besides, why should this application look pretty, I'm listening to it, not looking at it. It imported the MP3s and Oggs just fine, but ignored all the playlist files. That is annoying, especially since I have to add playlists one at a time. Add to this annoyance, Winamp seems to store new playlists in a private DB. So I have to recreate the playlists on other machines on the same network, or ones or remote networks using WebDAV or the like? I could export and import, but again, that is a one at a time annoyance. The most played list is bugged. I have tracks that say they have been played twice as often as an other tracks I have, but they aren't even on the most played list. I've only had Winamp for a few days. I can't figure out why they aren't showing up. At first I assumed it was because they didn't have full tags, but that isn't the case. Maybe only Oggs show up and not MP3s. When you use Winamp to edit ID tags, the app temporarily hangs (I've only noticed this in WinXP, I haven't tested elsewhere). This is bad. It shouldn't become unresponsive. And if it is currently playing music while I'm editing a tag that isn't enqueued, then it shouldn't stop playing as it is switching tracks just because it is editing another track's tags. Also, vBulletin has a bug. This isn't the only vBulletin forum I've seen it on. I usually use Mozilla 1.6, but I can't post to a vBulletin forum because the "New Thread" image isn't there. That just bugs me. I'll look at the source when I get a chance to see what the problem is. -Travis

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27th February 2004, 14:46	#2
Travis G Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Durham, NC, US Posts: 3	Nevermind on the vBulletin bug. It was a false positive in my userContent.css. It is set up to block banner ads, and an arrangement of letters in the New Post link triggered it. That just made me very happy.