Winamp 5.1 Released (Official)

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Thanks to Plastique on the forums for the info

Further to our previous post about Winamp 5.1 a few days ago (which turned out to be a beta and was pulled offline), the official 5.1 release is now available to download. For a full change log, click the Read More button.

Nullsoft Winamp is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity media player for Windows. Winamp supports playback of many audio (MP3, OGG, AAC, WAV, MOD, XM, S3M, IT, MIDI, etc) and video types (AVI, ASF, MPEG, NSV), custom appearances called skins (supporting both classic Winamp 1.x/2.x skins and Winamp 3 freeform skins), audio visualization and audio effect plug-ins (including two industry dominating visualization plug-ins), an advanced media library, Internet radio and TV support, CD ripping, and CD burning.

Download: Winamp 5.1 Lite | Winamp 5.1 Full | Winamp 5.1 Pro | Winamp 5.1 eMusic Plus

View: Winamp

Winamp 5.1 Surround Edition change log

New: CodingTechnologies AACPlus encoder!
The MP3 Killer!
Awesome at low bitrates too!
New: Grand Prize Winner of the Internet Surround Music Project!
KAJE - Hey Buddy (featuring Afrika Bambaataa)
New: SHOUTcast Wire - A Media RSS Browser and Subscription Service
New: Predixis Smart Playlist Generator
(Mix your tracks based on what they sound like!)
New: AOL Radio featuring (((XM))) Free Sampler!
New: CD Ripping now available at 8x in free version!
New: Microsoft WMA encoder
New: Over 200 new Milkdrop presets!
Update: in_vorbis now returns bitrate in getextendedfileinfo
Fixed: WMA stuttery playback
Fixed: out_ds copy button on status tab now works all the time
Fixed: Much improved ripping and playback with Sonic engine
Fixed: Video window now resizable regardless of Sidecar
Fixed: Length of long mp3's now reported properly
Fixed: Silent install switch now works properly
Fixed: Simultaneous CD Playback and Ripping

#1 net-cruizer on 01 Sep 2005 - 23:11

Awsome version! I should have just waited the xtra day for the final though, then I wouldn't have had to install twice, lol.

(1 reply) #2 DenS on 01 Sep 2005 - 23:12

The full one w/o the emusic bundle:
Winamp 5.1 Full

#2.1 Howard on 01 Sep 2005 - 23:21

Thanks. I'll add that to the news post

#3 Mystical112 on 01 Sep 2005 - 23:19

nice thx..

#4 Rascally on 01 Sep 2005 - 23:39

HOLY CRAP!

Is it just me, or are they aiming straight at the bow of WMP here?

I (L) WMP usually, but....

(2 replies) #5 xpgeek on 02 Sep 2005 - 00:06

Will my DFX work on this version ?

#5.1 Darken on 02 Sep 2005 - 00:27

All works fine! [DFX 7.2 + Winamp 5.1]

#5.2 xpgeek on 02 Sep 2005 - 00:34

Thanks.

#6 sullysnet on 02 Sep 2005 - 00:13

cool stuff, been using it since that other post

(2 replies) #7 Dirtie on 02 Sep 2005 - 01:15

I like the fact they are fixing stuff and adding needed features, but I hate the fact they are also adding in bloat and unneeded features.

#7.1 net-cruizer on 02 Sep 2005 - 03:20

Hmm, I didn't notice any bloat. Hard to consider a few extra links in the Media Library any sort of bloat, lol.
Anything that was added, can be removed in a few clicks of the mouse anyways.
And it's only a 5 meg download file for full, uses maybe 5 megs of ram at the most when installed.

#7.2 Laser_iCE on 07 Sep 2005 - 13:30

5MB of RAM? What have you been huffin'? I'm using it right now, I love it, but 5MB? Give me your Winamp!

(3 replies) #8 LTD on 02 Sep 2005 - 01:31

*yawn*

Another wanna-be WMP 10.

*ducks to avoid the blows of Winamp fanboys*

#8.1 ivand67 on 02 Sep 2005 - 03:35

You're on crack. Winamp is the anti-WMP. It's completely different from WMP and the number of plugins, skins, scripts and whatnot easily beats WMP.

Winamp remains easily the best media player out there, and many others are better than Windows Media Player, that's for sure.

#8.2 ev0| on 02 Sep 2005 - 05:31

umm i agree. Winamp is one of, if not the best audio player for windows out there. I use foobar, but i can attest that Winamp is a high quality player and if I was forced to not use foobar, then my 2nd choice would be winamp, anyday.

#8.3 Jugalator on 02 Sep 2005 - 06:38

"Another wanna-be WMP 10.
*ducks to avoid the blows of Winamp fanboys*"

If that's not an obvious flamebait, I don't know what is...

Personally, I can't see many Winamp or Foobar users ever wishing to go the route of WMP. WMP is the direct opposite of the minimalism these media players are trying to achieve. Those that get turned on by Musicmatch Jukebox on the other hand...

(9 replies) #9 Opio on 02 Sep 2005 - 01:57

This isn't good. It crashes after playing files

#9.1 ivand67 on 02 Sep 2005 - 03:37

Surely this is your computer. You got the problem, not Winamp. No one's reporting anything like this on the Winamp forums.

The new features on 5.1 are great, and proof that Winamp development, although slow, is NOT dead, like many say.

#9.2 Opio on 02 Sep 2005 - 04:00

I never claimed it to be anything other than my computer although I have never had problems like this in the past with Winamp, so surely something's up.

Anyways I realized my problem was with a shotty DFX installation. I fixed it but it still crashed twice on me (not at startup, and even after a fresh reinstall).

Must be my computer

#9.3 Litespeed on 02 Sep 2005 - 04:18

I've had the same problems with crashing. I uninstalled it in the end and went back to 5.094.

#9.4 xpgeek on 02 Sep 2005 - 05:34

No probs with crashing here. Tho I figured out my keyboard media keys for next and previous track only work with winamp and classic skin and not on modern one at all.

#9.5 a^j on 02 Sep 2005 - 06:45

I've experience crashing too. Later I've found out that Predixis MusicMagic is the cause of the problem. Uninstall the plugin and no more crash for me

#9.6 koocha on 02 Sep 2005 - 08:15

Mine crashes when I play MP3s, but the surround sound semo works fine

#9.7 b_pizzle on 03 Sep 2005 - 06:57

Mine definitely crashes too. Seems to only happen with the 5.1 Whips Llama's ___ sound bit. And for some reason, I can't get the streaming aacPLUS files to load. Any ideas?

#9.8 Solarix on 04 Sep 2005 - 21:04

ya mine crashes after an mp3 file is played , this is sad

#9.9 Daemon on 08 Sep 2005 - 21:42

Mine crashes as well. I'll just wait till they release the next patch. Until then I'm gonna try iTunes 5.

(3 replies) #10 BiGdUsTy on 02 Sep 2005 - 01:59

Until there is a plug-in like foobar's “convert stereo to four channels” I’m not using winamp again. And don't start in on me with the enable hardware acceleration crap. All that does is make it sound like your listening to one of those old Dolby Pro-logic amps from the pre 5.1 days. I want a winamp plug-in that takes the front left and right speakers and copies them to the back and at full volume. Anybody knows of a plug-in like that. And one that does not require you to have 3 other plug-ins installed to make it work.

#10.1 Raa on 02 Sep 2005 - 02:36

Yes, it's called a 3.5mm stereo splitter jack

takes one input and splits it into 2. that way you can plugin your rear & front speakers into the same port (front)

#10.2 divertom15 on 02 Sep 2005 - 03:43

Your looking for this:

KB 5.1 Channel v1.00 (out_KB51chn.dll) does EXACTLY what you want.

you can find it in the plugin section of winamp.com

#10.3 onesolo on 02 Sep 2005 - 14:42

Sorry but I don't understand why would someone who listen to music that it's in 2 stereo channels would like to output the sound to 4 speaker by cloning the sound from the front speakers to the rear speakers.

That's so not Audiophile. You should just listen in 2 stereo mode or wait for someone to make a Dobly Prologic 2 or DTS Neo plugin... (I don't know if that's possible, maybe not...)

#11 Erftek on 02 Sep 2005 - 02:00

Everything working perfect for me. AWESOME!

#12 StarSabers on 02 Sep 2005 - 03:19

Is it just me, or was my huge playlist replace by one they put there?

Other than that ..... good as always. Just never had to back up the default playlist upon upgrading.

(1 reply) #13 benz240 on 02 Sep 2005 - 04:09

wtf, its crashing if i double click on another file in the playlist, while one is playing

#13.1 benz240 on 02 Sep 2005 - 04:15

NEVERMIND, not doing it anymore

#14 jn1167 on 02 Sep 2005 - 04:20

It seems to load a lot faster than 5.0 and the sound seems better as well. Nice upgrade!

And no crashing here. Works great!!

#15 -=MagMan=- on 02 Sep 2005 - 05:29

Just finished installing this puppy, and glad to say all of my plug-ins still work, even my mL_iPod plug-in

And for some reason, I agree with some of the other comments here, this version does seem to sound better!!!

(1 reply) #16 ev0| on 02 Sep 2005 - 06:13

amazing, isn't it, the placebo effect. I wonder if 5.11 will "sound better (tm) "

#16.1 Jugalator on 02 Sep 2005 - 06:37

Agreed

It's like with Firefox security updates. A person can even verify only security fixes was checked in thanks to its open source nature, but still there are lots of people claiming they "know" it runs faster.

Same with Winamp; it was already routing the sound directly to the card without any processing or sound filtering going on earlier.

Anyway, feature wise this is by far the best update to have come out of AOL yet.

#17 nw_raptor on 02 Sep 2005 - 06:38

Horray! /me downloads

#18 intoksicated on 02 Sep 2005 - 07:46

so what's the difference between this and the "beta" one... besides the word beta? anything removed, added, fixed, changed? or did they just made it official because they realized that lots of people have the "beta" anyways...

#19 Studio7designs on 02 Sep 2005 - 08:00

wow super slow after foobar... will stick with foobar on my laptop for sure

#20 M/\TT on 02 Sep 2005 - 08:07

thanks - installing it again

#21 hotdog963al on 02 Sep 2005 - 09:47

OoooOOoo Meaty, I only just updated, it's been nagging me for an update for weeks.
WMA jumpy playback pissed me off when I had an entire metallica album in WMA format and It never played well so I had to convert it all to MP3. Now WMAs play perfect, w00t.
I've notice fading seems to be back

I thought I had already turned it on

#22 thenay on 02 Sep 2005 - 10:01

This version takes longer to load, by a second or two than the last version

(2 replies) #23 Boogiman on 02 Sep 2005 - 10:32

A man, AAC Rulez !!!

Never used it before, but the sound compared to MP3 is mindblowing. Would the converting of an MP3 to AAC do any good?

#23.1 gaekwad2 on 02 Sep 2005 - 12:58

No, unless you convert to extra low bitrates to save space.

The resulting AACs can only sound worse than the mp3s.

#23.2 beardly on 02 Sep 2005 - 14:53

Converting from MP3 to AAC would not be good, but reencoding your CDs to AAC would be.

(1 reply) #24 The Cub on 02 Sep 2005 - 11:58

At the risk of sounding really dumb, what is the difference between the full and pro versions?

I can only find 2 versions on the site and thats free and pro.

thanks for any advice

#24.1 virtorio on 03 Sep 2005 - 01:20

The free one is the full one, it has all the features of the free version. The lite version is also free but with some features pulled out (like visualizations and WMA support I guess, not totally sure as I've never downloaded it) I guess to bring down the download size.

Pro has extra functionality like burning and ripping support

#25 jimbo11883 on 02 Sep 2005 - 13:34

Still doesn't sound better than foobar with the 4 channel upmix.

#26 Scorcho on 02 Sep 2005 - 14:47

isn't the way to get winamp to play on 4 speakers is to use the direct sound output and set your windows sound control panel to a quad/5.1 speaker set up?

#27 evileye on 02 Sep 2005 - 16:30

yay! go lite...

#28 indian_boy on 02 Sep 2005 - 19:52

everyone does realize you can remove components during install for this "bloatware"?!?!?!

#29 Erich on 03 Sep 2005 - 23:43

It's now become painfully clear why they skipped version 4 and went straight to 5... just so they could name this version 5.1... heh

#30 soldier1st on 04 Sep 2005 - 04:08

i don't like dfx,anyways winamp is in need to more supported formats so you could almost replace wmp with it.

(1 reply) #31 Azathoth on 04 Sep 2005 - 21:36

STILL puts gaps between my mp3's in the playlist, and it's not because of the buffer settings as ogg's are seamless.

#31.1 danzorx on 10 Sep 2005 - 15:53

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=158316

maybe that will help. i can't guarantee it though, haven't tried it out

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