Winamp
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Winamp is a skinnable, multi-format music/media player made by Nullsoft that currently can be used only on the Windows operating system; it is available to download without charge, although a "Pro" version with additional features is available for a small payment to cover the licensing for additional codecs. It gained popularity in the late 1990s, particularly with the proliferation of the MP3 audio format. Winamp was originally developed by Justin Frankel, with some of its code based on the AMP decoding engine by Tomislav Uzelac and others. It is currently being developed by a production team at Nullsoft that had worked with Justin before his resignation in early 2004.
In November, 2004, the last remaining original team member resigned. Future major releases of Winamp are in doubt, although AOL insists that it is committed to the product.
The current version of Winamp is 5.07, released on December 2, 2004.
History
Winamp 1 and Winamp 2
Although Winamp 1 (first version released in June 1997) was used among early adopters of the MP1, MP2, and MP3 formats, it wasn't until Winamp 2 was released that it became widely used, and among the most downloaded software for the PC.
Winamp3
Another Winamp project was produced separately called Winamp3 (spelled condensed in this way to include mp3 in the name, i.e., Winamp3). This was a complete rewrite of version 2, and was based on the Wasabi application framework, which offered additional functionality and flexibility. Winamp3 was developed in parallel to Winamp 2. However, many users found this version too resource-hungry or unstable (or even lacked some cherished functionality, such as the ability to numerically and chronologically find the sum of all of the tracks in their playlists). As a result, many of these users reverted back to Winamp 2. Nullsoft listened to its user base and returned focus to the previous, more stable programming code.
Winamp 5.0
The Winamp 2 and Winamp3 branches were later fused into Winamp 5.0 — version 5.0 was chosen, since 2 + 3 = 5 — taking the best parts of both "worlds": some of Winamp3's features were kept while preserving Winamp 2's maturity. Winamp 5.0 was released in December 2003. Most of the Wasabi framework built for Winamp3 has since become open source, and is being used to develop a complete program called wasabi.player, essentially an open source version of Winamp3.
Winamp 5.0 comes in two versions: Standard and Pro. The Standard version is free (in price; it is not Free Software), while the Pro offers a slightly richer feature set, particularly with regard to music ripping and CD burning. Pro currently sells for USD $14.95.
Concepts
Skins
Winamp also has many skins available.[1] Skins are revisions of the Graphical User Interface of Winamp. Many skins are currently available, such as the popular MMD3 (pictured) skin. Winamp 5.0 has brought many new options for potential skin designers, including alpha channels and docked toolbar.
Plug-ins
Winamp has a comprehensive software development kit, which allows software developers to add small bits of their own software to the Winamp code. These plug-ins range from general plug-ins (for basic functionality) to visualizations (for sound activated graphics). Many plugins are available on Winamp's web site.
Features
The following are features of Winamp 5.0+.
- Winamp 5.0 supports MIDI, MOD, MP1, MP2, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WAV, WMA, and many other audio formats.
- It supports AVI files, which will be played through the appropriate DirectShow filters installed on the user's system, MPEG, and NSV (Nullsoft Streaming Video), where the latter is a native format to Winamp.
- It supports plugins for additional input and output formats, sound effects (via DSP plugins), and visual effects (notably Advanced Visualization Studio, or AVS). Some of the plugins enable Winamp to play console emulator-related sound formats such as NSF, VGM, GBS, SID, HES, GYM, SPC, PSF and PSF2 (see also Video game music). These plugins are available both at the official web site and from other parties.
- It supports both Winamp 2's "classic" skins and Winamp3's more flexible "modern" skins (the latter via an official plugin provided with the "Full" install).
- It features Media Library support for Internet radio via the SHOUTcast technology, as well as Internet television channels listings.
- It supports ripping data from audio CDs into MP3 or AAC formats, a feature further improved in Winamp Pro.
- It supports burning music to CDs, a feature also further improved in Winamp Pro.
- It supports a true alpha channel (transparency)
- It supports winshade mode, which allows Winamp to operate as an always on top media bar
- Winamp 5.04 supports docked toolbar, which allows it to hide the program off-screen when not in use.
- Winamp 5.05 fixes a dangerous vunerabilty, called the Winamp Skin File Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability
- Winamp 5.07 fixes the in_cdda.dll Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
A number of similar programs exist that are based loosely on the same user interface design and program capabilities, but made by independent parties, often designed for other operating systems. Two such programs are MacAMP and XMMS.
Derivative work
- Unagi, codename for the media playback engine derived from Winamp core technologies as distributed with the AOL software or as an ActiveX download. Powers many AOL media projects (i.e video@netscape, video@aol etc).
References
- Winamp Forums (2003, December 20). Message posted to the thread Winamp 5.01 with Internet TV Content Rating by Nunzio390.
See also
External links
- Official Winamp site
- Winamp Heaven Version Archive
- Winamp Unlimited news site
- Third Party French Winamp community
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