Here is a new pre-release version of the MAD plug-in for Winamp:
http://www.mars.org/home/rob/proj/mpeg/mad-plugin/in_mad-0.13.1b-pre1.zip
This pre-release has two significant changes, one of which affects sound quality.
Note well: THIS VERSION OF THE PLUG-IN PRODUCES DIFFERENT SOUNDING OUTPUT THAN PREVIOUS VERSIONS. This pre-release uses a new, experimental, dithering algorithm to address the dithering deficiencies of previous versions. It may (hopefully) sound better, or it may not. Please listen to it carefully and post your feedback, positive or negative.
The other change is a new "Streaming" checkbox in the configuration, to enable or disable streaming support. If you prefer to use another plug-in with better streaming support (http/ftp), you can uncheck this while still leaving the MAD plug-in enabled for normal files.
Cheers,
Hi, In the last release the reading of VBR tags was implemented. However, the function still seems slow. The time it takes for the average bitrate to appear in winamp seems to still be related to the size of the mp3, as though the plugin has to read through the entire file before the bitrate is available. Surely just reading the 100 bytes or so of the VBR tag is enough to work out the playing time and average bitrate? Why is this function still so slow? Cheers.
Mark Powell - UNIX System Administrator - The University of Salford Academic Information Services, Clifford Whitworth Building, Salford University, Manchester, M5 4WT, UK. Tel: +44 161 295 5936 Fax: +44 161 295 5888 www.pgp.com for PGP key
Mark Powell wrote:
In the last release the reading of VBR tags was implemented. However, the function still seems slow. The time it takes for the average bitrate to appear in winamp seems to still be related to the size of the mp3, as though the plugin has to read through the entire file before the bitrate is available. Surely just reading the 100 bytes or so of the VBR tag is enough to work out the playing time and average bitrate? Why is this function still so slow?
When you say "the average bitrate to appear in Winamp" do you mean in the main Winamp display when "Display average bitrate" is enabled, or in the MPEG Audio tab of the File Info dialog?
The former should indeed happen immediately when a VBR header is present. The latter still depends on a full scan of the file, although I'm willing to reconsider the need for this.
On Fri, 14 Sep 2001, Rob Leslie wrote:
When you say "the average bitrate to appear in Winamp" do you mean in the main Winamp display when "Display average bitrate" is enabled, or in the MPEG Audio tab of the File Info dialog?
I mean in the file info dialog. Winamp displays the bitrate as 32Kbps or whatever until the average bit rate is available from the plugin. This is noticably slow on large mp3s.
The former should indeed happen immediately when a VBR header is present. The latter still depends on a full scan of the file, although I'm willing to reconsider the need for this.
Why does it require a full scan of the file. Surely the information from the VBR tag is already lying around to provide this info instantly? Cheers.
Mark Powell - UNIX System Administrator - The University of Salford Academic Information Services, Clifford Whitworth Building, Salford University, Manchester, M5 4WT, UK. Tel: +44 161 295 5936 Fax: +44 161 295 5888 www.pgp.com for PGP key
Mark Powell wrote:
I mean in the file info dialog. Winamp displays the bitrate as 32Kbps or whatever until the average bit rate is available from the plugin. This is noticably slow on large mp3s.
Why does it require a full scan of the file. Surely the information from the VBR tag is already lying around to provide this info instantly?
The idea behind scanning the entire file is to provide completely accurate information, even in the face of an incorrect VBR header (e.g. the file is truncated or has been spliced together.)
Perhaps a good solution would be to display the VBR header information until the scan is completed.
-
Mark Powell -
Rob Leslie