Winamp 5.9.2 Released

[Mikey7]

5.9.2 - The Un-Believably Frustrating Version.
If I had any hair to pull out, believe me I would have!

Seriously, what did you do to Winamp???

I'm decades in to using Winamp, & I can't get anything to play for more that a few tracks before it crashes to Windows.

Fresh install, blah, blah, blah.

Even 'Error Reporting' crashed, LOL.

Ps No, don't ask...not sending any reports or detailed info for nerds.

Al

And? Are you expecting help or did you just want to slam the "nerds" who've spent so much time delivering an updated version of Winamp that works beautifully for the vast majority of those using it? I take it you just got aboard the bus without reading anything in this forum starting way back with the Release Candidate (RC) version 5.9.0 and everything that came after, yes? Those "nerds" acknowledged and fixed a long list of issues that were plaguing some users. If you read up a few posts, you'll find that what's left is a handful of folks who've experienced at least one of two remaining issues: 1.) Crashes & 2.) The rendering of Unicode correctly. The list of people having at least one of these issues is a very short one. No one can (or will be willing) to help you without understanding your environment (hardware & OS). To answer your rhetorical question, "what did you do to Winamp," they improved it but could not for copyright issues, use 5.666 as a base - they had to start with 5.8 after losing dev team members during COVID if I'm not mistaken. Also, several plugins have been identified as having been deprecated and trying to run them in 5.9.x will indeed cause you to crash.

Did you upgrade from an earlier version which included plugins? This might be your issue. If you take the time to read the forums regarding 5.9.x you'll note that several plugins don't work and won't until the original authors fix them. I'll suggest the following to you: Start with a clean installation (which, apparently, you did), *no plugins*, and if that goes well, add your plugins one by one until you add one that causes it to crash OR, read the forums and find out which ones have been causing issues. I'm running quite a few plugins and I haven't experienced a single crash or wonky behavior otherwise. My second suggestion is, lay-off the "nerd" stuff. It was meant to be off-putting, and you achieved your goal with it, that is to say, I seriously doubt anyone who *can* help you *will* help you. You probably don't even realize how often I have written this same advice, ad nauseam, to individuals who have no patience and refuse to read the forums - these forums are here for a reason. We also likely have trolls from that "other" Winamp who have posted here, and I offer that other Winamp to you as an alternative if you can't get 5.9 running. That, or another music player.

[jvidal]

this version is officially a disaster. Yesterday I double clicked on an MP3 on my hard drive, winamp opened and then just immediately closed. just like that. this version is useless.
and I didn't even mention the unicode issues.
Probably it's time to move away from winamp once and for all. it's a sad day, for sure. I decided to give this new winamp a chance, but it just keeps getting worse with every new build.

[Mikey7]

this version is officially a disaster. Yesterday I double clicked on an MP3 on my hard drive, winamp opened and then just immediately closed. just like that. this version is useless.
and I didn't even mention the unicode issues.
Probably it's time to move away from winamp once and for all. it's a sad day, for sure. I decided to give this new winamp a chance, but it just keeps getting worse with every new build.

Really good example of what I wrote about earlier in this thread. A person who has been posting to the latest build threads from the very beginning with the very same issues, namely, Winamp 5.9.x crashes and Unicode doesn't work to name just 2 issues he supposedly is experiencing. Now this same person is declaring Winamp 5.9.x "officially a disaster" and that it "just keeps getting worse with every new build," knowing that like-minded persons from the other camp (I don't even have to refer to them by name any longer) will pick up on his declaration and spread misinformation around the Internet and possibly the Twitter-Verse and Discord. Notice he doesn't mention (and will never mention) that except for himself and maybe 4 other posters, the rest of us are running Winamp 5.9.2 and the 5.9.x versions prior to that, flawlessly and as expected, provided we're not trying to run legacy plugins we know have become deprecated and need to be updated by the respective authors.

His personal demeanor isn't much different from the handful of others - demanding fixes in coarse language that no dev would ever seriously consider. He knows that, so we can assume that his personality is just an act, and he knows precisely who his audience actually is. He rarely responds to offers of help and of course, when he supposedly avails himself to that help, it never works for him. Imagine that! Therefore, I "officially" declare JVIDAL to be nothing more than a troll. It is extremely unlikely, if not impossible, that even when installing Winamp 5.9.2 on a clean Windows x.x version that he experiences the same issues unless he is installing plugins already declared deprecated or playlists created is such a manner that Winamp cannot interpret via Unicode his preferred language. That, or he has absolutely no idea what he's doing.

I can "officially declare" in addition, that the 5.9.0, 5.9.1, and 5.9.2 versions of Winamp install and perform very well for everyone else. It is to be expected that some users opt to stay on 5.666 or 5.8 due to their need to keep the functionality of legacy plugins and I for one, speaking only as an end user, perfectly understand that as do the devs. Some prefer to stay on those earlier versions because they don't wish to feel they are participating in the Owners' NFT scheme and that also is perfectly understandable. I and others have previously written regarding those plugins that still work very well. I am not associated officially with Winamp in any manner, shape, or form. I've been running and comparing AIMP to Winamp 5.9.2 as well and for now consider AIMP to be more of a novelty although what it does, it does very well.

Please bear all of this in mind if you're considering writing a news article (or hit-piece) about the Winamp Desktop Version 5.9.2 for Internet consumption.

[jvidal]

Did I ask for your opinion? I don't think so.

[Mikey7]

Did I ask for your opinion? I don't think so.

You ask anyone reading your diatribes for their opinion. That's what this forum is all about.

[jvidal]

Well, anyone BUT you. I don't need or want your opinion, next time, keep it to yourself.. Who told you it's ok to go around telling other people what to do or giving unwanted advice????

[Mikey7]

Well, anyone BUT you. I don't need or want your opinion, next time, keep it to yourself.. Who told you it's ok to go around telling other people what to do or giving unwanted advice????

I'm reasonably certain that responding to comments like yours is in compliance with the forum rules. I didn't tell YOU what to do. I have as much right to my opinion as you think you do. I merely advised others that what you wrote declaring Winamp 5.9.2 a "disaster" and that each iteration of Winamp from 5.9.0 "just keeps getting worse with every new build" is hogwash and I would say in addition to that, that I would advise anyone considering writing a review regarding 5.9.2 who might consider including your comments above to go back and read everything you've posted and all the replies people like me completely wasted their time responding to dating back to the release of 5.9.0.

[zumer]

it's just because they rushed the release. I would give 5.9.2 beta status to 5.9 RC XX. There was no need to rush to release. Let there be many rc builds 5.9 and not releases with minor changes. that's why people get angry.

[zumer]

each company has the right to promote the product the way it wants. but people would very warmly welcome winamp if there was a release of say 5.8.x on the old stable vc9 code and in parallel they were slowly developing 5.9 on the new vc code.

[Mikey7]

each company has the right to promote the product the way it wants. but people would very warmly welcome winamp if there was a release of say 5.8.x on the old stable vc9 code and in parallel they were slowly developing 5.9 on the new vc code.

I'm correcting my reply here. DJ Egg mentions in a post from June 2022:

"Yes, we can't use 5.666
5.666 includes software/libraries/codecs from Gracenote, Sonic, Fraunhofer & more which were exclusively licensed to AOL.

So 5.666 is basically illegal (for us to use).

For 5.8, we removed all those elements (Gracenote CDDB & Acoustic Fingerprinting etc., Sonic Burning Engine, Fraunhofer MP3 & AAC decoder & AAC Encoder) - and we still haven't managed to replace the former two yet (we will hopefully eventually replace Gracenote with MusicBrainz or similar service - and probably the burning engine with the native Windows engine)."

Moderators: I submit this hoping it isn't considered cross-posting since my intention is to quote DJEgg for clarification.

[zumer]

That's been covered dozens of times now. Thanks to copyright issues, they can't develop off the 5.8 branch. It's why it was never officially released. They had to take 5.666 and develop off of that and I think they've done a magnificent job. Myself and others haven't had a single issue and only a small handful of people whose intentions I'm seriously beginning to question have been vocal about the same two issues since 5.9.0 was in RC stage and I'm just not buying their complaints anymore. There may well be some odds and ends that still need work, but they're not causing problems at the level that this handful of very vocal users on this forum are making them out to be. My goodness...it's just a music player and if you're not satisfied with its performance, there are plenty of other options for pity's sake.

I also have a crash in the player. some modules are unstable. It is necessary to take some plugin from 5.8 for stable work. the developers are great, but the release is not timely.

[NJK]

some modules are unstable. It is necessary to take some plugin from 5.8 for stable work. the developers are great, but the release is not timely.

A clean install without those old plugins is as stable as it gets. It's the "old plugins" that are making the player unstable , some of those plugins had their last upgrade when Ronald Reagan was still president of the USA.

Here the latest release is playing music 24/7 , only plugin i have is the latest shoutcast plugin,nothing else and have had no issues with Winamp

[Mikey7]

A clean install without those old plugins is as stable as it gets. It's the "old plugins" that are making the player unstable , some of those plugins had their last upgrade when Ronald Reagan was still president of the USA.

Here the latest release is playing music 24/7 , only plugin i have is the latest shoutcast plugin,nothing else and have had no issues with Winamp

I have had no issues with Winamp 5.9.x - none. We keep telling the same people (mostly) the same thing over and over again, and it seems as though they are pretending that it's the very first time we've covered the very same topic. "We want to pick up where 5.8 left off." Even the **CUP developer will tell you that 5.8 was a one-off with bad coding and that 5.666 is where any developer needs to start. The other issue there is that **CUP contains code that doesn't belong to that particular developer but it's up to the current Winamp copyright holder to go after them, if at all. It's not my fight and it took me a long time to realize that it's a losing battle. I've been perfectly happy with those plugins that still work well and my advice to those who live and die on the hill of the one or two "must have" plugins that no longer work is, let the Winamp 5.9 devs work on the main application. If they're "must have" then get busy coding them or find a dev interested enough in Winamp to code them until such time the Winamp devs have time to consider coding them or including them in the main application.

Here is a list of popular plugins known to work:

Album Art Viewer v1.03

Big Clock v1.03

Classic Spectrum Analyzer (visualization)

DSP Perfect Declipper - *commercial* A must-have for Internet Radio.

Jump To File Extra (JTFE) v1.33 build 1216. Controversial "must-have* plugin that wouldn't load in 5.9 RC1 and for which end-users insisted they could never run 5.9 without. Well...it works now.

Lyricsplugin_winamp (gen_lyricsplugin.dll) This is the lyrics plugin that fetches lyrics from an active website.

Not-So-Yasapi - Perhaps the best WASAPI output plugin for Winamp but is likely no longer needed.

Waveform Seeker v2.3.1 This doesn't replace the seeker, it is an additional seeker bar that works very well and allows a minute, specific choice in music file position.

There are probably more that I have missed/have no personal interest in.

[zumer]

I have had no issues with Winamp 5.9.x - none. We keep telling the same people (mostly) the same thing over and over again, and it seems as though they are pretending that it's the very first time we've covered the very same topic. "We want to pick up where 5.8 left off." Even the **CUP developer will tell you that 5.8 was a one-off with bad coding and that 5.666 is where any developer needs to start. The other issue there is that **CUP contains code that doesn't belong to that particular developer but it's up to the current Winamp copyright holder to go after them, if at all. It's not my fight and it took me a long time to realize that it's a losing battle. I've been perfectly happy with those plugins that still work well and my advice to those who live and die on the hill of the one or two "must have" plugins that no longer work is, let the Winamp 5.9 devs work on the main application. If they're "must have" then get busy coding them or find a dev interested enough in Winamp to code them until such time the Winamp devs have time to consider coding them or including them in the main application.

Here is a list of popular plugins known to work:

Album Art Viewer v1.03

Big Clock v1.03

Classic Spectrum Analyzer (visualization)

DSP Perfect Declipper - *commercial* A must-have for Internet Radio.

Jump To File Extra (JTFE) v1.33 build 1216. Controversial "must-have* plugin that wouldn't load in 5.9 RC1 and for which end-users insisted they could never run 5.9 without. Well...it works now.

Lyricsplugin_winamp (gen_lyricsplugin.dll) This is the lyrics plugin that fetches lyrics from an active website.

Not-So-Yasapi - Perhaps the best WASAPI output plugin for Winamp but is likely no longer needed.

Waveform Seeker v2.3.1 This doesn't replace the seeker, it is an additional seeker bar that works very well and allows a minute, specific choice in music file position.

There are probably more that I have missed/have no personal interest in.

I don't mean third party plugins. I mean clean install. winamp 5.9.x is unstable and can crash at any moment.

[NJK]

I don't mean third party plugins. I mean clean install. winamp 5.9.x is unstable and can crash at any moment.

what part of my previous post about running the latest version of winamp running 24/7 here on this system didn't you understand? no crash has happened yet. Time to have a look at other software running on your system that might cause this.