WinAmp 5.5 Review

From its exit, Winamp must face a sharp competition, in particular on behalf of Windows Media Player 10 and iTunes, which proposes both free paying functions in the software of Nullsoft such as the encoding mp3 or burning at maximum speed.

Nevertheless, the pioneer of the reader’s mp3 continues to be of a great interest for several reasons. It manages a very great number of audio and video formats where the majority of its competitors are limited to principal. Winamp is also much easier to personalize, thanks to hundreds of skins, visualizations or of plug-ins various and varied.

Installation was fast and even if you don’t take the "customized" installation it is very easy to assign or take back file associations, in case you like to play certain files with a different player. I prefer that people take the customized installation since this gives you the option of not adding all those painful AOL icons.

Start up time for the program is lightning fast which was one of the trademarks of the older versions, and its good they keep it in this new version. The default skin is the new blue look which kind of looks like music match, which is very easy to get used to. But I prefer the old school look and that is also their recommendation for slower computers.

The last version of the software includes a great number of innovations, to start with a unified interface which points out that of iTunes or Songbird. The software obtains from now on a module based on Orb giving access its remote library via a Web page made safe, and integrates a navigator in the line of Songbird, giving access easily the audio contents of the Web pages such as the audioblogs. The users of walkmans are not in remainder; Winamp manages a great number of them, of the iPod (except the last models) to the walkmans Creative or Archos while passing through readers UMS.