CD Reader Plugin for Winamp 2.0 beta 3

Winamp used not to be bitperfect on CD playback, which means that sound quality was reduced when playing music from CDs with the well-known application.

In order to eliminate this inconvenience, the CD Reader Plugin for Winamp was built, ensuring a read quality of almost 100%.

The last update of this plugin was in 2004, and the features of the CD Reader Plugin for Winamp may be obsolete nowadays, since Winamp has been updated many times since and improved its playback options.

Nevertheless, those using an older computer and version of Winamp may still find this add-on helpful.

The plugin uses a function called RAW_READ, or “read long”, which extracts digital audio data from CDs, and two level interfaces, ASPI and Win32. Most applications play CDs by reading one data sector at a time, but this plugin makes use of an efficient CDDA navigation system and manages to reread defect sectors.

The CD Reader Plugin for Winamp is easy to install and use. You need to copy the “in_CDReader.dll” file to the Plugins subdirectory, located at “C:\Program Files\Winamp\Plugins”. At the same time, the original Winamp CD plugin needs to be deactivated. Instead of deleting it, you can change its extension (“in_cdda.dll.off” for instance).

Once you try to play CDs, two errors may occur. One is “Your CD-ROM does not support RAW_READ function”, in which case you cannot use the plugin, and the other is “Buffer size too big to handle”, where the solution is to reduce buffer size down to one sector.

CD Reader Plugin for Winamp offers an easy way of improving CD music playback if you are using an old version of the audio player.