Winamp 5

From CCCP

1 Getting MKV, MP4, and OGM Playback to work in Winamp.
2 Winamp Options
3 Winamp and Softsubs
4 Useful Winamp Plugins
5 Latest version
6 Weblinks

Getting MKV, MP4, and OGM Playback to work in Winamp.

Can be done and it requires the same things as getting the files to work in MPC and ZP. Do not have a thousand codecs installed, and use the CCCP alone.

Last tested with Winamp 5.22. Should also work with all previous Winamp 5 versions.

Winamp Options

Setting Winamp to recognize the containers as video files

Enter Winamp Preferences. Goto Plugins->Input and find the Nullsoft DirectShow Decoder.
Hit Configure.
Add the Video formats you want Winamp to recognize here. Basic ones being MKV, OGM, and MP4. You should be able to add any format which can normally be played in DirectShow. However this does not associate the filetype with the player. It simply lets Winamp know which extensions should be played through its video interface.
If you want to associate the filetypes with Winamp at this point, goto General Preferences->File Types. You should see them available to highlight here now.

Note: Adding MP4 to the video formats here will cause any audio files (such as AAC) which are stored in the MP4 container to be played through DirectShow, instead of through Winamp's normal internal decoders. Which will still work perfectly fine, however you will note the Haali Splitter icon as well as the FFDShow Audio Decoder icon appearing in your system tray (unless you have turned them off). Depending if you really need to play MP4 video files in Winamp or not it may be best to not associate it with the Nullsoft DirectShow Decoder plugin.

Winamp and Softsubs

Setting VSFilter to load automatically with Haali

For some reason Winamp's strange DirectShow plugin will not autoload VSFilter. Under normal circumstances VSFilter will load when it is required for external or internal subtitles. So in order to get VSFilter to load for softsubbed files with Winamp you will need to force it to load within Haali's Media Splitter settings. This will only work for the formats supported by Haali, which by CCCP defaults are MKV, MP4, and OGM.

Goto Start->Programs->Combined Community Codec Pack->Media Splitter Settings.
On the Options tab goto Compatibility.
Change Autoload VSFilter to Yes.

If by some strange occurence you have an AVI file with softsubs (which is not really unheard of), you need to 'Enable Haali Splitter AVI Support' in the CCCP Settings.

At this point you should be able to play any MKV, MP4, or OGM file in Winamp. Note the word should is very important. Since Nullsoft is attempting to emulate DirectShow with its little plugin, or is tapping into it somehow, not everything that works normally in DShow is likely to work in Winamp. Such as the fact that VSFilter is not allowed to load of its own accord, it must be forced to load. The real solution is to simply not use Winamp for video playback. Keep it for audio playback as it was originally intended. A fake DirectShow plugin is no substitute for the real thing.