After you select a bookmark from the list or enter the URL of a music blog manually, the Winamp browser scours all of the MP3s available on the web page and presents them for streaming or downloading in the Media Monitor section at the bottom of the page. I asked Winamp's developers why on earth anyone would want to browse the web through Winamp once I used the Media Monitor feature, I understood why. The fact that AOL is no longer in the business of selling music allows Winamp's developers to push the envelope in two key areas: downloading music from MP3 blogs (Media Monitor) and streaming music over the internet (Winamp Remote). As a side bonus, the application can also play the music from iPods that are synced to other machines, just like iTunes can. In our testing, Winamp's device-syncing feature worked as advertised with an iPod and a Creative player. Winamp can transfer music protected by PlaysForSure digital rights management onto compatible devices, but not songs purchased from the iTunes Store onto an iPod. Connect an iPod and it shows up in Winamp, where you can add tracks, albums, playlists and so forth by simply dragging them onto the device. Winamp offers lots of control over the naming conventions of the resulting files, and can automatically generate a playlist of a ripped album.Īs for syncing with devices, Winamp performs admirably with any player that can be used as a mass storage device, including the iPod. Ripping speed is also pegged to 8X real time without the upgrade.
#Winamp for pc pro#
However, you'll need to pony up $20 for the pro version if you want to use Winamp to rip to MP3 or aacPlus at high bit rates (iTunes and Windows Media Player rip to MP3 for free). In addition, the program indicates your upstream and downstream bandwidth, displays extended format information for videos, and offers the same level of overall tweaking that previous versions of Winamp did.įor ripping your CDs, Winamp includes a wide array of format options: aacPlus, FLAC, AAC, MP3, WMA (including lossless) and WAV, at all the normal bit rates. Click on any element there, and Winamp's browser will display an AOL web search on the term. Clicking on any track in your library brings up news related to the artist who recorded it in the Media Monitor window at the bottom of the screen, while the Now Playing window at the top of the screen displays the composer, publisher or release year of the song, which rotate through in a customizable Song Ticker. If you right-click any song or playlist, you get the option to play similar tracks (using Praedixis' technology), convert the songs into just about every format you can think of, or queue up the selection in the Now Playing list. The deeper you dig into the Winamp application, the more you find. Other media sources include Shoutcast Radio, Shoutcast TV, Winamp Music (which will apparently include streaming music and videos from AOL Music and streams/downloads from AOL Spinner, but was not working during our testing), AOL Videos, AOL Radio with XM, AOL Games and In2TV. You can subscribe to and manage podcasts in Winamp just as you can in iTunes - by subscribing through the program's podcast directory or manually adding feeds, and then specifying how often you want the podcasts updated.
This was not the only instance of advertising within the program and it's a little annoying to see a Tampax ad where your R.E.M. The search function is fast, and works just like iTunes - it starts searching for results as you type.Ī Now Playing view displays extended file information from the song's tag we expected to see a larger version of the album art there, too, but instead, Winamp displays an ad. When you select specific artists, their albums show up in the pane to the right select an album, and its songs appear in the pane below that. The Local Media view gives you pretty much the same sort of list view as iTunes and Windows Media Player, but if you click on the Audio section, you get a more detailed, functional music interface with an iTunes-style navigation toolbar on the left, a Now Playing playlist at the top right, and the media library grouped by artist in the left-middle pane. Winamp offers a number of different views to help you find and play media. Then you're up and running with Winamp (although the Winamp Remote companion app might require a little fussing around - more on that later).
After installation, Winamp scans your folders to build its media library database, which can take quite a while depending on the size of your collection. The Winamp application is easy to install, letting you choose file associations and components with the same degree of precision evident elsewhere in the program.