Winamp News

[DJ Egg]

Hey, I was going to post that

So, as already mentioned, the plan is to make Winamp 100% freeware again,
which means replacing all 3rd-party/aol-licensed code with open source/free alternatives....

So we've started with core features such as:
- mp3 & aac decoders (more details to come later)
- removing ms drm support from in_wm (wow, heh)
- cd ripping
- albumart retrieval
- OpenH264 decoder

Maybe a few other surprises such as a new OpenMPT-based in_mod, and a wasapi output plugin...

I've also got a 5.666->5.8 changelog.txt file already with over 100 lines,
so expect a whole heap of new features, improvements, tweaks, optimizations & fixes....

There's still a load of work to be done though....
e.g. CD burning - and Gracenote replacement (CDDB, Autotag, PlaylistGenerator) being the big one,
and plenty more (further news to follow later).

Alas, it's still some time away before we can provide a public beta build...
but I can assure you all, we're working on it, and it will come eventually :-)

[musicf8]

Awesome, thanks for the update DJ Egg!

[DJ-Garybaldy]

Hey, I was going to post that

So, as already mentioned, the plan is to make Winamp 100% freeware again,
which means replacing all 3rd-party/aol-licensed code with open source/free alternatives....

So we've started with core features such as:
- mp3 & aac decoders (more details to come later)
- removing ms drm support from in_wm (wow, heh)
- cd ripping
- albumart retrieval
- OpenH264 decoder

Maybe a few other surprises such as a new OpenMPT-based in_mod, and a wasapi output plugin...

I've also got a 5.666->5.8 changelog.txt file already with over 100 lines,
so expect a whole heap of new features, improvements, tweaks, optimizations & fixes....

There's still a load of work to be done though....
e.g. CD burning - and Gracenote (CDDB, Autotag, PlaylistGenerator) replacement being the big one,
and plenty more (further news to follow later).

Alas, it's still some time away before we can provide a public beta build...
but I can assure you all, we're working on it, and it will come eventually :-)

That should hopefully stop the Whinging and whining from a few people.....

Intrigued as to what the new winamp is going to be like. Anything that improves a program has to be good... I can imagine the AOL code was pain to remove.

[kzuse]

I've also got a 5.666->5.8 changelog.txt file already with over 100 lines,
so expect a whole heap of new features, improvements, tweaks, optimizations & fixes....

I never dared to expect this any more...

Egg, this totally made my day!!! And the next few days, I think. Thank you so much, and also thank you so much to let us know that.

I'm not quite sure about the OpenMPT thing as MikMod is already GNU GPL licensed... but probably the reason is to rewrite it because the old in_mod code as such was difficult to maintain?

Also, would it be possible to make it compatible in a way that people who bought Winamp Pro and thus do still have the enc_mp3 encoders etc. on their hard disk, can continue to use those encoders (if you have to remove them in the official installers)? I really mainly use Winamp to reencode and all those handy things...

I think for AAC and MP3 decoding you will find solutions that are free, there are a few out there, arent they? I hope you will not have to remove SBR support from AAC (HE-AAC)... that would be a huge pity.


Anyway - I'm joyful that you confirmed that work is going on! And 5.8 is a good sounding number ;-)

Keep it up, and thank you so much!

Best regards,
kzuse

[Victhor]

So, as already mentioned, the plan is to make Winamp 100% freeware again...
I've also got a 5.666->5.8 changelog.txt file already with over 100 lines,

Sound like a continuation over the previous line, not a start-from-scratch (i.e. dropping skins & plugins along with familiar UI, etc), so that sounds sweeeeett!!

[DJ Egg]

@kzuse

The mp3 & aac decoder changes have already been done.
We will still support HE-AAC playback.

I'll provide more details later, but not right now.

Re: in_mod
Yes, it would require us to rewrite in_mod to update to the latest mikmod anyway.
OpenMPT (Modplug) is better maintained and supports even more formats, afaik.
The new plug-in is already mostly done, and works a treat :-)

Re: Pro / encoders
We won't delete lame_enc or enc_fhgaac on upgrades, only on uninstallations.
On clean installs, lame_enc will need to be downloaded separately....


@Victhor

Winamp 5.8 will be a continuation of the 5.x series, so yes, we'll still support plug-ins and skins.
Classic base skin & Modern / Bento skins will still be included.
Yes, we would like to have a new skin to accompany the release... but no work has begun on it yet.
We haven't decided yet, but we might open it up to the community once a beta build is out.... (?)

[trekman]

Hey, I was going to post that

So, as already mentioned, the plan is to make Winamp 100% freeware again,
which means replacing all 3rd-party/aol-licensed code with open source/free alternatives....

So we've started with core features such as:
- mp3 & aac decoders (more details to come later)
- removing ms drm support from in_wm (wow, heh)
- cd ripping
- albumart retrieval
- OpenH264 decoder

Maybe a few other surprises such as a new OpenMPT-based in_mod, and a wasapi output plugin...

I've also got a 5.666->5.8 changelog.txt file already with over 100 lines,
so expect a whole heap of new features, improvements, tweaks, optimizations & fixes....

There's still a load of work to be done though....
e.g. CD burning - and Gracenote (CDDB, Autotag, PlaylistGenerator) replacement being the big one,
and plenty more (further news to follow later).

Alas, it's still some time away before we can provide a public beta build...
but I can assure you all, we're working on it, and it will come eventually :-)

Thank You for the update. For many of us that are not techies that dont understand the lingo you guys talk the updates are really welcome. We just love our Winamp and are excited to see and use a new version.

[thinktink]

Are there any private betas for the Beta team members to test?

[DJ Egg]

@thinktink

No, not yet. Hopefully soon...ish...

Currently, there's just a very small Alpha team...

p.s. Always remember the first rule of **** ****

[Benski]

I'm not quite sure about the OpenMPT thing as MikMod is already GNU GPL licensed... but probably the reason is to rewrite it because the old in_mod code as such was difficult to maintain?

GPL can't be used in Winamp, unfortunately, as it requires that the entire program be GPL. LGPL is allowed, however. The copy of MikMod inside in_mod is very very old. When I looked at the open source MikMod project a few years back, it was unusable as they had removed thread safety completely from the library and only one MOD could be played at a time (which made things like transcoding and Alt+3 info impossible).

[djpete]

I still suggest a locked thread with updates just on Winamp progress now that we have an announcement as such.

This is way to important to people to be lost again in the general news area with all these other posts

[musicf8]

I still suggest a locked thread with updates just on Winamp progress now that we have an announcement as such.

This is way to important to people to be lost again in the general news area with all these other posts

The only problem is people will then start new threads asking the questions instead. But still I do like having a "Current status of Winamp Development" thread that's locked for only update statuses

[djpete]

It's just that a month down the track this info will be buried like all the other bits and pieces we have had..:-(
I don't want to come here to read that someone loves Winamp. I'd rather have just the facts updated in an orderly fashion..:-)

PS Reminder that the download links need to be updated as the Android ones are dead links now.

[ryerman]

I still suggest a locked thread with updates just on Winamp progress now that we have an announcement as such.

I agree.
But it will be next to useless unless it is updated regularly, perhaps monthly at least.

[DJ Egg]

@djpete

Re: Android .apk links
Oops, thought I'd already updated them... I have now. Thanks.

Re: dedicated thread etc
There'll be one once we get a beta build out, but it's probably still a few weeks off yet.
Said thread will include the full changelog :-)