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Tried WinAMP 3.0 Final yet?

Discussion in 'Software Apps' started by Julio Franco, Aug 9, 2002.

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  1. Julio Franco TechSpot Editor

    As Tim and myself posted on the news earlier the final release of WinAMP 3.0 is now available, after many many betas and years of development the new player is supposed to be something revolutionary, hmmm... on the developers' side though :D

    Anyway, I've been using WinAMP for years now as my primary music playback program and a new year release spices things up for sure. I had tried the betas before but they used to be very unstable... downloaded the latest version yesterday and after some brief usage the new release looks good to me, just a tad slower to launch and I can't seem to find the options for customizing the spectrum analizer but nothing else apart from that (for now), any more comments, etc?
    Julio Franco, Aug 9, 2002
    #1

  2. Rick TechSpot Staff

    I can't say I'm impressed with it. I don't have a bad opinion of it necessarily, but I'm simply not impressed.

    In all honestly, perhaps I'm a bit unhappy with it. That is.. even though I will use it over the old Winamp purely because of the alpha blending and "revolutionary" skinning engine. Of course the idea of dynamic skinning has been old news since Sonique introduced such a thing on the Windows platform awhile back..


    Achilles heel of Winamp 3 - Stability

    So far, Winamp 3 has crashed 3 times... But I've yet to listen to an entire song with it (If that tells you something). Odd.

    The betas were horribly buggy.. The RC1 (Was that the ONLY release candidate??) was mildly buggy.. And the final version I suppose hasn't improved much on the stability side of things. So I will make do and pray for some "revolutionary" updates.

    A little more disappointment

    I think I feel a bit let down because I was expecting more. There's a couple things that are a step back from Winamp 2 even.. Such as the ability to control spectrum analyzer.

    On the plus side of things...

    The potential of the skins is very great and this is probably what will set it up apart from its older versions. Some other nice touches such as crossfading, proper Direct sound support, alpha blending, transparency and variable sizes add to the flavor and make it a worthwhile download from people looking for something new.


    Overall, I think it is okay. I can live with the occasional crash. As long as you don't touch it, it seems stable enough. ;) I'm sure other people have had an excellent experience with it... Either way, there will be bugs and they will be resolved over a period of several revisions. I think Nullsoft will do a good job with stomping out bugs quickly, as they have done in the past.
    Rick, Aug 9, 2002
    #2

  3. Phantasm66 Newcomer, in training

    I've been running it since one of the first betas and can't say I have a problem. I've been using it as my main mp3 player for a while now, and also distributing it on workstation installs I do at work, and there's been no problem. I think it sounds better than windows media player (although whether it sounds better than winamp 2 is a matter of debate) and it certainly looks far nicer than winamp 2. I don't think I've had it crash on me once. I think a lot of hard work has gone into it, and its paid off. No major complaints here....
    Phantasm66, Aug 9, 2002
    #3

  4. Didou Bowtie extraordinair!

    I'm keeping 2.80.

    The fact that you can't cusomize the analyzer ( I don't like thick bars ;) ) & that you can't choose when W3 read sthe ID3 tags. I can't sort my whole playlist on title because it doesn't load all the titles at once.:(

    It also doesn't support any of my 2.xx skins even though I enabled that option.

    Does that mean the 2.xx series will be discontinued ?
    Didou, Aug 9, 2002
    #4

  5. Snowy Commando Newcomer, in training

    I'll use Winamp3 anyday compared to WMP8 (or 9 even) :grinthumb

    In my opinion, Winamp has always been better than WMP because it is fully customizable, the simplistic but powerful playlist editor and the overall interface design kicks *** compared to WMP. :D

    I've been downloading the betas and have seen things added, fixed and removed over time. I can't complain about anything added or fixed but one thing that was removed was the Shoutcast Server mini browser on the Thinger bar which was useful when it was there. :(

    I would say they have ironed out the stability bugs, its more a case of adding features that it should still have by default. :rolleyes:
    Snowy Commando, Aug 9, 2002
    #5

  6. Julio Franco TechSpot Editor

    Back to WinAMP 2.80 now... While there are certainly some nice features on the new release, much of the customization I used to make on 2.x is gone.

    IMHO 3.0 still leaves you with this unfinished/unmature software sensation which is no good, in the other hand the old good winamp is rock solid and plays your music with less eyecandy but it gets the work done with less CPU utilization.

    I might try 3.x again in a month or so when they will hopefully get some more work done ("final touches") on the basic player itself.
    Julio Franco, Aug 12, 2002
    #6

  7. Rick TechSpot Staff

    Works for all of my Winamp 2.xx skins. :) Perhaps you should try uninstalling it and reinstalling it again. That seemed to fix my crashing problem and a problem I had with a particular Winamp 3 skin as well as odd WMA behavior.
    Rick, Aug 12, 2002
    #7

  8. Spliffmeister TechSpot Paladin

    I know i'm mirroring some of the above comments, but it seems a bit buggy to me too, it seems to crash more often (I don't remember 2.xx crashing at all) although the new skins are a pleasure. Mixed emotions about it, I think I'm gonna stick with the older version.
    Spliffmeister, Aug 15, 2002
    #8

  9. StormBringer Newcomer, in training

    Ditto

    That is pretty much the exact same experience I have had with it.
    StormBringer, Aug 15, 2002
    #9

  10. young&wild TechSpot Chancellor

    Winamp3 is not really a big improvement.

    Here are some of my reasons:

    Cons
    i) It's pretty slow compared to Winamp 2.80 in terms of loading. Takes time to minimize and maximize the winamp window back and for.
    ii)My PC chrashed while i was attempting to play my CDs on Winamp3.
    iii) They replace "Jump to File" function with a some "Select" bar which rather inefficient compared to the previous function in terms of accuraccy pinpointting a song.

    Pros
    i) I really like its ability to allow one or more playlist to be opened & loaded at the same time
    ii) The icons in "Thinger" windows really help make winamp 3's main features easily accessible.
    young&wild, Aug 16, 2002
    #10

  11. Vehementi TechSpot Paladin

    Yes.

    I have and I don't encounter the same stability problems some of you seem to be complaining about. In fact, I haven't had one bit of crashing. In fact, the only problem I've had with it is actually my problem, I keep forgetting to save my playlists...:haha:
    Vehementi, Sep 3, 2002
    #11
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