Winamp 5.5 and 160G Ipod Classic

Question

Winamp 5.5 and 160G Ipod Classic

After reading a few posts about people using Winamp 5.5 with the classic, I thought I'd give it a try. This is what I think so far.

1. I found it to be refreshing to be able to scroll through my song lists and playlists without it locking up for 2 minutes every 60 seconds. (Great)
2. After playing the ipod through winamp and then trying itunes again, i discovered that I can now resize the columns. This was bugging the **** out of me before. (Fantastic)
3. Winamp treated all my movie files as songs and wouldn't play them as videos. (Very Annoying)
4. Apon loading itunes again I discovered that winamp had created duplicate songs, videos, audiobooks and tv shows playlists. No biggy, just a mild annoyance. Easily deleted.
5. Winamp doesn't use the grouping or comments tabs in the file info. Annoying if like me you use them in itunes.

I haven't tried to add songs to my ipod via winamp yet as I had nothing new to add but removing them is easy and caused no problems at all. Either did changing file info.

I would recommend using winamp over itunes with the classics. At least until the problems are fixed.

Mikey.

[EDIT]: I must also add that my ipod doesn't seem to be freezing so much now that I went to winamp and back to itunes. In fact, it hasn't locked up at all in 20 minutes of playing and scrolling though 18000 songs a few times, and this is on my crappy computer.

Message was edited by: mikeytheblack

Message was edited by: mikeytheblack

160G Ipod Classic, Windows XP Pro

Posted on Oct 25, 2007 7:18 PM

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Answer 1

Opaldad

Level 1

75 points

Oct 25, 2007 7:39 PM in response to mikeytheblack

Totally agree.

I am not willing to completely switch over but until iTunes works reliably with the iPod Classic I can live with it. At least I can actually use the program while the iPod is connected.

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Answer 2

Oct 25, 2007 7:41 PM in response to Opaldad

Well, switch over to winamp and then back to itunes seems to have worked wonders for me.

Side note, even though I haven't had any freezing issues this morning after switching back to itunes, the ejecting hasn't improved at all.

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Answer 3

Oct 25, 2007 8:36 PM in response to mikeytheblack

I've only been using it for a short time but am incredibly impressed with this free program. Obviously, a lot of work went into this version and it seems to have everything but the kitchen sink (well...maybe that too!).

I've been able to play all my movies (avi, wmv, mpg, etc..) without problem. I haven't experienced the "duplicate" issue. Not sure what you mean re: grouping/comments. You can add the comments column to the main center window.

I love that I can easily edit (individually or mass) tags on the fly (I have hundreds of ripped albums from my own lp collection with no tags!)including Auto-tag from the net. I like seeing "news" pop up when I play a particular song. I like that the whole program can be customized looks-wise forever. Creating Smart Queries using the query language. You can reformat using a wide variety of encoders. And tons more that I haven't explored. I'm not sure I would want to go back to iTunes (other than to update). I like that, on the surface, it can be as simple to use as iTunes but seems to offer a lot for tinkers like me to get "under the hood". It offers practically everything iTunes offers plus so much more. Looks like I'll be spending a lot of time exploring all the features.

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Answer 4

Oct 25, 2007 11:26 PM in response to robertnyjan

A lot of good points there mate. I will keep playing with winamp. I normally use it all the time anyway and have in the past just used itunes with my ipod.

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Answer 5

cpoindex

Level 1

0 points

Nov 7, 2007 7:45 AM in response to mikeytheblack

I love winamp 5.5 but it is causing a major problem for me because it is killing my ipod. After using winamp 5.5 with my ipod, my ipod reports no music or any content after I eject it from winamp. Works fine in winamp, but can't acess music from the ipod or itunes. Have to restore my ipod everytime.

I have found that a few people have been having the issue on the web, but I have not seen a clear solution.

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Answer 6

Croman

Level 1

50 points

Nov 7, 2007 8:29 AM in response to cpoindex

Yes i had the same problem. Only opened winamp and my music "dissapeared" from iPod, really it still was in it, but iPod plugin of winamp corrupted the database. I could repair it using Mediamonkey, but i decided restore the iPod. Now i only use iTunes to add music/videos to my iPod.

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Answer 7

Loom

Level 1

0 points

Nov 7, 2007 9:11 AM in response to Croman

Did you use the native Winamp Plugin oder the third-party one called "ml_ipod" ?

If you tried the native "Portable Media Player iPod Support", I advise you to uninstall it, and go for ml_ipod.

You can download it at:

http://mlipod.sourceforge.net/index.php?page=patches

It has far more features then the native plugin, and it's getting updates almost on a daily basis. All essential things work, Album Art, Smart Playlists, Videos,Photos, Podcasts and much more. You get even Music in the iPod Quizgame 🙂

Using it till day one on my iPod, and never had a problem. Freezing is a thing I only read in those forums. Winamp + ml_iPod is fast. Really fast, and reliable. Plus, it doesn't bloat the system with 70 Megabytes and 3 services ... 😉

Michael

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Answer 8

Loom

Level 1

0 points

Nov 7, 2007 9:13 AM in response to Loom

PS.

Don't forget to uninstall the old plugin. Just be named "pmp ipod" or something similar in your Winamp folder. Two iPod plugins shouldn't do well together ..

Michael

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Answer 9

Nov 7, 2007 9:24 AM in response to Loom

I haven't experienced any database corruption using the native Winamp iPod plugin. It's such a better experience over iTunes (including v7.5).

I'll give this other plugin a try - sounds good. Thanks Michael.

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Answer 10

Loom

Level 1

0 points

Nov 7, 2007 9:58 AM in response to robertnyjan

I think you'll like ml_ipod.

Album Art wasn't working for me with the native iPod plugin, but this one did it for me.

One of the best features: If you write a "[C]" in the tag field for comments, you can define a compilation. Just as the iTunes feature. Doesn't show all those many artists on the iPod.

Ah yes, and it offers some maintenance features, such as restore etc ...

Here's the link for the ml_ipod help page:

http://mlipod.sourceforge.net/wiki/Main_Page

And here's a comparison between the native iPod plugin and ml_ipod:

http://mlipod.sourceforge.net/wiki/MliPod_versus_pmpiPod

Michael

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Answer 11

Loom

Level 1

0 points

Nov 7, 2007 10:01 AM in response to Loom

Forgot to mention:

Also support for gapless playback and replay gain (Volume Boost).

So, basically, I don't need iTunes, I'll just install it every now and then for updating the firmware.

Michael

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Answer 12

Croman

Level 1

50 points

Nov 7, 2007 11:51 AM in response to Loom

Yes, i used ml_ipod after uninstall native plugin came with Winamp. ml_ipod corrupted the database doing nothing, just opening winamp.

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Answer 13

Loom

Level 1

0 points

Nov 7, 2007 11:56 AM in response to Croman

For ml_ipod corrupting the database ...

I guess, that's what's happening if different programs handle the same database. I won't asume each one of them is 100% compatible to the other.

I used ml_ipod and Winamp from the very beginning. No iTunes ever got it's hand on the database. So that's why I don't have any problems I thinnk.

Anyway, for each his own 😉

Michael

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