Another one bytes the dust!

Thankfully 5.35 is pretty **** good, so I'm not really worried. Looks like 5.5 is becoming "bloatware" anyway.

Why do all nice small programs like Winamp tend to become huge bloatware full of thirdparty programs? Winamp toolbar, Winamp remote, eMusic account...
Anyway, you're right, we don't need the new version... Personally, I'll stick with 2.77 : small is beautiful.

Version 2.90 user here, so I don't care either. It all started going downhill after 2.xx.

What Media Players still in active development still currently support Win9x?

Windows Media Player, QuickTime and Winamp have all dropped support. So what's left?

I'm guessing that they also squeezed out NT 4.0 compatibility when I wasn't looking?

I'm not sure what active media-player development remains for Windows 9x, but at least with a program like Winamp the functionality and format-compatibility have been stable for some time. I happen to have version 5.07 installed myself, and it still works like a charm.

I think Media player classic still support 98.

Ironically those were long available as even Winamp 2.x plugins if I'm correct. ^,~

Personally, I've been using 2.92 for a very long time and it has yet to fail me in any way nor fail with any format's I've thrown at it. It's a pity though for the fans of the 5.x series that they're dropping it all of a sudden. Wasn't compatibility one of their focuses in the past? If they were dropping compatibility for the sake of code-size (I'm guessing here) through dropping the compatibility libraries, they should have provided the needed compatibility files as a separate download instead.

For those still seeking older (functional) versions of winamp could benefit from taking a look at http://oldversion.com

last version from march 06.
+Winamp install file has now passed the 8MB

Media Player Classic still seems to support Win9x

Their latest beta 6.4.9.1 has a version available for 2000/XP and 98/Me

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Media_Player_Classic.htm

I have just tested media Player Classic 6.4.9.1 and VLC 0.8.6c with some video files and I have to say Microsoft's Media Player 9 seams to handle the files better, faster and with less glitches.

As for Audio, Winamp seams to be able to handle mp3 and wma whilst taking up a minimum of resources.

Seams RealPlayer has dropped Win9x support in Version 11 as well

The last RealPlayer Version that works on Windows 98/Me is Version 10.5

well for me vlc 0.8.6c didnt work very well, i couldnt really watch anything 0.8.6b works much better

I am going to give MPlayer a try next

I found a nice bundle that has the command line MPlayer + GUI + Installer here...
http://mulder.dummwiedeutsch.de/home/?page=projects

www.jrmediacenter.com

"Win9x" includes Windows 95 as well as 98 and ME. This is the way things seem to break down:

Winamp--
Last 95-compatible version: Somewhere after 5.07 (I tried a more recent version once, and couldn't get it to work right)
Last 98/ME-compatible version: 5.35

RealPlayer--
Last 95-compatible version: 8 (The last usable version too, IMO; at least after unchecking options and cleaning up the interface.)
Last 98/ME-compatible version: 10.5

Windows Media Player--
Last 95-compatible version: 7.0 (although 6.4 is the last version I'd consider usable.)
Last 98/ME-compatible version: 9.x?

QuickTime--
Last 95-compatible version: 5
Last 98/ME-compatible version: 6

Media Player Classic--
Last 95-compatible version: ? (It claims to be compatible with Windows 95, but it prompts a kernel32.dll error on my system.)

Of course, the "media players" that exist don't exactly afford a direct comparison: Different pieces of software do different things. I personally use Winamp to play WAV and MP3 audio files; Media Player, RealPlayer, and QuickTime for their own respective proprietary formats, and the ordinary CD Player accessory for audio CDs. Works for me...

Using the installer from version 7.0 you can get version 7.1 to install, which will work fine. Details

I never got it to work either, and I tried many versions. Most of the versions don't even show an error, they silently quit.

Ah, yes: I've seen that procedure before, although I've never tried it out.

What are the differences between Media Player 7.0 and 7.1 that would warrant upgrading, other than that one is rigged not to install on 95 and NT4 while the other isn't?

I still use old good & small 2.95 - the latest of 2.xx line I could find.

I never saw this "silently quit" problem with Windows 9x, unless it's a game that runs in full screen mode, DirectX games are notorious for this, no error message to tell what went wrong!

The "silently quit" problem usually is seen under Windows 2000 and Windows XP only, apparently, Windows 2000 and Window XP sometimes terminates the application without an error message. Apparently, it's because of a DrWatson bug in Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

MPlayer still couldn't match the performance of WMP9 for videos



I was able to get WMP9 to install on Win98 First Edition by changing my registry setting.
I was also able to get it to install and run on Win95 (though it was modified a little) using the same technique, though I didn't test it thoroughly.

I didn't even knew winamp 5.x did work on 9x LOL, thx for info.
Winamp 2.95 user here.
Past version 2.95 (last in 2.x series) it became horrible bloatware with crap no one needs, same as most other players.
WMP6.4 is still my main player for most of the files though (thanks to yet another gem from sourceforge - ffdshow codec), but I use winamp for playing mp3 files over my home network (it works best for this purpose).
I don't even touch crap like realmedia etc, I value my ears and eyes more than any 'best video' there may be in those crappy formats. MP3s are already crappy enough to my ears.

Can someone fill me in on the whole ffdshow codec.

I have heard a lot about it, but never really understood what it does or its benefits?

That is the one that appears to work properly on 9x currently :

http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/

It provides support for many audio and video multimedia codecs in Windows Media Player or any of its clones. Loads of options plus filters, etc.. A must.

Able to decode the following video formats for example :

H264, X264, VSSH (incomplete), DAVC, PAVC, AVC1
XVID, XVIX
DIVX, DX50, BLZ0, DXGM
MP4V, 3IVX, 3IV1, 3IV2, MP4S, M4S2, RMP4, DM4V, WV1F
DIV3, DIV4, DIV5, DIV6, AP41, COL1, DVX3, MPG3
ffdshow and ffvfw internal FOURCCs
MP43
MP42, DIV2
MP41, MPG4, DIV1
H263, L263, M263, U263, X263, S263 (in 3gp files)
Flash Video (FLV1)
Theora Video (THEO)
VP3 Video (VP31)
VP5 Video (VP50)
VP6 Video (VP60, VP61, VP62)
VP6F Video (VP6F, FLV4)
MPEG1 codec
MPEG2 codec
MPEG, MPG1, MPG2, 1001, 1002
EM2V, MMES
Windows Media Video 7 (WMV1)
Windows Media Video 8 (WMV2)
Windows Media Video 9 Simple & Main Profiles (WMV3)
Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile (WVC1)
Windows Media Video 9 Image (WMVP, WVP2)
Windows Screen Codecs (MSS1, MSS2)
H261, M261
Huffyuv codec for libavcodec (HFYU, FFVH)
MJPG, LJPG (lossless)
AVRN, MJPA
Sorenson Video (SVQ1)
Sorenson Video (SVQ3)
Quicktime Planar RGB Video (8BPS)
Quicktime Animation Video (QTRLE)
Quicktime Video Video (QRPZA)
FFV1 codec for libavcodec (FFV1)
dvsd, DVSD, dv25, DV25, dv50, DV50
CDVC, CDV5, DVIS, PDVC
CamStudio Video (CSCD)
CorePNG (PNG1, MPNG)
LOCO Video (LOCO)
LCL LossLess Codec Library (MSZH)
TechSmith Camtasia (TSCC)
ZLIB LossLess Codec Library (ZLIB)
Zip Motion Blocks Video (ZMBV)
Autodesc RLE (AASC)
ASUS V1/V2 (ASV1, ASV2)
ATI (VCR1)
Cinepak (CVID)
Chinese AVS video (AVS1-P2, JiZhun profile)
Creative YUV Video (CYUV)
Intel Indeo 2 (RT21)
Intel Indeo 3 (IV31, IV32)
Fraps v0, v1, v2 & v4 (FPS1)
Miro VideoXL (VIXL)
MS Video-1 (CRAM)
MS RLE Video (MRLE)
Q-Team (QPEG, Q1.0, Q1.1)
Real Video (RV10, RV20, incomplete)
Doesn't support 24-bit compression.
IBM Ultimotion Video (ULTI)
Winnov WNV1 Video (WNV1)
experimental
AVIS (AviSynth AVI files)

Thanks for that link I will give it a go.

Wooo hooo!

Combining ffdshow and Media Player Classic I can now run wmv videos smoothly

The fact ffdshow does mp4, DivX, H264 & XVID is unreal!

Media Player Classic + Real Time Alternative + Quick Time Alternative + ffdshow = Ultimate Media Player for Win9x

Galahs, I'm using this combination (MPC+ffdshow) for years and hardly can imagine my PC without it.
With ffdshow you don't need any codec packs.
Btw, this is page of newer MPC on SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=205650

MPC + ffdshow has finally opened my eyes to what everyone was raving about.

As a bonus, it is bloody efficient at decoding movies too even on my ageing PII 333Mhz

You mean you were using the official WMV codecs, and that didn't run smoothly? If so, I definitely need to check out ffdshow.

Yeah I was using the official wmv9 codec in Media Player Classic 6.4.9.1 and they didn't run smoothly.

But the same video ran smoothly in Windows Media Player 9

I have the ffdshow filter running just for MPC and now it can run all wmv videos I have as good or better than WMP9

Appears there is a bug in Winamp 5.35 for Win98/Me

CD Playback is totally borked under Win98. The problem doesn't exist under 5.34.

The solution: Use 5.34 OR use 5.35 and replace in cdda.dll with the one from 5.34 OR just don't use Winamp to play CD's.

FYI:

Links to free(ware) media players [supported OSes clearly stated]:
http://www.mdgx.com/toy.htm#MED

HTH

sorry, galahs. WMP9 does NOT work at all under Win95. tried the registry hacks myself a few months ago on a 95 machine and got some cryptic error messages during WMP9 setup. WMP9 is totally incompatible with 95.

It sure kinda sucks for Winamp 5.5x to kill 9X support.

I still like using that old CDPLAYER.EXE app in Win98. The WinME version of CDPLAYER.EXE launches Windows Media Player 7.x or 9.x.

WinAmp 5.51 has been released and its updated installer now refuses to install under Win9x/ME/NT4 systems.

If you guys want to download old versions of Winamp that still function under Win9x systems go here:
http://www.winampheaven.net/old.php

I'm no longer bothered by new types of apps abandoning Win9x support as I'm starting to slowly "let go" of Win9x; that's part of my new year's resolution of 2008 and beyond.

That's a pity for this community (I assume that your move away from 9x will mean that you will be helping out here less and less).

Before you "let go", I hope you manage to complete your Windows 95 OSR2 service pack. I've been really pleasantly surprised by 95's versatility as a viable OS on ancient hardware (with some fantastic, well-chosen apps - step forward VLC Media Player, Miranda, Opera, xplorer2, and CCleaner - and the help of your OSR2 URP).

What for? You're not caving in to the newest flashy and fancy stuff, are you?