SteveC said:
Has anyone else tried the Winamp 5 beta?
Yep.
The v5's modern skin has a pretty large footprint in memory (even more then v3's). It seems to fluctuate between 9-17MB. Using the classic skin with v5 drops that mem useage to a much more reasonable 2-6MB range. For comparison, Version 3 seems to take the middle ground, using amounts somewhere in between 6-12MB.
Turning to loading times, my highly sciencetific test results (involving me counting in my head) show that, on my platform, v5 outfitted in the modern skin loads up and is ready to roll in ~2seconds. Alternatively, employing v5 with the classic winamp skin yeilds an ~.5second load time. Even with v5's modern skin, there is a marked improvement over version 3's pathetic loading time. Proof in the pudding that much of version 5 is based on the older, but snappier, version 2.
I thought the colour schemes with the modern skin were nice, but they are a feature that won't get much use out of me. Namely because the modern skin doesn't quite display everything I would want shown in my prefered winamp configuration....I use winamp in its thin bar mode and place it, along with an attached thin bar playlist, at the top of the screen. In such a manner, I get all the controls, info, and visual effects (eq) that I desire for 99% of my operational use/needs. With the modern skin, there doesn't appear to be any way to display the eq spectrum when in thin bar mode. Plus, by default, it is considerably larger then the classic skin's thin bar mode. Scaling is available, but that just ends up making the text fuzzy.
Sonically, winamp 5 seems (to me) to be a tad better. I don't know if this perception is due to actual improvements in fidelity or if its just a slight boast in the default play back sound level that they've given it. Anyone else think it sounds better?
CK
It's a major improvement on v3 in terms of load time and responsiveness, and my assembled collection of skins all work happily. I'll certainly be getting the final release when it comes out.