Winamp can't load files whose names are in another charset (encoding)

Horus · 12th November 2001, 09:37

Suppose a system locale charset is in "Western Europe", ie ISO-8859-1 (or the equivalent in Window), Winamp can't read files whose names are, say, in Chinese. Of course, the same happens the other way: if a system is in Big5 (Traditional Chinese), and if I want to play a French song whose filename contains accented characters, eg "PrÃ¨s de moi", Winamp can't read it.

AFAIK, since Win98, win filesystem is based on Unicode. I use Win2000 at home which is also a Unicode based system. (WinNT4 is Unicode based too but I don't know how many people use WinNT at home.) On the other hand, Joliet CDRom format supports Unicode by default too. So if Winamp requests filename in Unicode from Windows, it should be able to read every file without having to care about every existing encoding in the world.

BTW, any plan to support Unicode in tag?

12th November 2001, 17:27

Support for multi-language / international Unicode fonts in filenames:
Tixoft Font Plug 11
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=60931 (Tixoft Plugin + Windows fonts)
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....threadid=58969 (more of the same)
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=51293 (general workarounds/fixes)
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=60931 (Regional Control Panel)
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=61102 (Proof it works for some)
Forum Search : keywords = unicode | international characters | language | etc

Horus · 12th November 2001, 20:54

As pointed out by some other users, the problem doesn't relate on display of non-system-locale characters, but relates to _loading_ of files whose names aren't in system locale.

There must be a system function to load filename in Unicode. You see, all those programs made by Microsoft, eg Notepad or Word, can load any file whatever its name. It's just a question of using the appropriate function.

I can't find Winamp source codes. Where are they?

Horus · 13th November 2001, 04:40

Oh by the way, I've just tried the "Tixoft Font Plug II" for character display, but it doesn't seem to work either as expected. Actually, yesterday I've switched my Win2k system locale from Traditional Chinese to Western European as default charset to do some tests (not mainly for Winamp, but for other applications).

I then changed a filename from Chinese to pure ASCII (abd.mp3) and loaded it into Winamp without problem (as expected). However, even with the Tixoft plugin, those Chinese characters within the tag can't be displayed correctly.

I'll switch my system locale back to Traditional Chinese few days later. I'll then test see if tags in French would be displayed correctly this time.

12th November 2001, 09:37	#1
Horus Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 11	Winamp can't load files whose names are in another charset (encoding) Suppose a system locale charset is in "Western Europe", ie ISO-8859-1 (or the equivalent in Window), Winamp can't read files whose names are, say, in Chinese. Of course, the same happens the other way: if a system is in Big5 (Traditional Chinese), and if I want to play a French song whose filename contains accented characters, eg "PrÃ¨s de moi", Winamp can't read it. AFAIK, since Win98, win filesystem is based on Unicode. I use Win2000 at home which is also a Unicode based system. (WinNT4 is Unicode based too but I don't know how many people use WinNT at home.) On the other hand, Joliet CDRom format supports Unicode by default too. So if Winamp requests filename in Unicode from Windows, it should be able to read every file without having to care about every existing encoding in the world. BTW, any plan to support Unicode in tag?

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12th November 2001, 17:27	#2
Sawg Guest Posts: n/a	Support for multi-language / international Unicode fonts in filenames: Tixoft Font Plug 11 http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=60931 (Tixoft Plugin + Windows fonts) http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....threadid=58969 (more of the same) http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=51293 (general workarounds/fixes) http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=60931 (Regional Control Panel) http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=61102 (Proof it works for some) Forum Search : keywords = unicode \| international characters \| language \| etc

12th November 2001, 20:54	#3
Horus Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 11	As pointed out by some other users, the problem doesn't relate on display of non-system-locale characters, but relates to _loading_ of files whose names aren't in system locale. There must be a system function to load filename in Unicode. You see, all those programs made by Microsoft, eg Notepad or Word, can load any file whatever its name. It's just a question of using the appropriate function. I can't find Winamp source codes. Where are they?

13th November 2001, 04:40	#4
Horus Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 11	Oh by the way, I've just tried the "Tixoft Font Plug II" for character display, but it doesn't seem to work either as expected. Actually, yesterday I've switched my Win2k system locale from Traditional Chinese to Western European as default charset to do some tests (not mainly for Winamp, but for other applications). I then changed a filename from Chinese to pure ASCII (abd.mp3) and loaded it into Winamp without problem (as expected). However, even with the Tixoft plugin, those Chinese characters within the tag can't be displayed correctly. I'll switch my system locale back to Traditional Chinese few days later. I'll then test see if tags in French would be displayed correctly this time.