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LiquidySplit 1.06b

Winamp LQT plugin and tag viewer
Release Date: 2001/09/01
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1. Description
2. What's New
3. Files Included in Zip
4. Installation Instructions
5. Configuration
6. Customizing html Output
7. Using Seek to Index
8. Notes
9. Known Bugs
10. Contact Information


1. Description
--------------
This is a Winamp LQT plugin and tag viewer that allows playing Liquid 
Audio files in Winamp and viewing LQT media info in the Winamp minibrowser.
This is not the offical lqt plugin from Liquid Audio.  This one allows
output to disk (saving to wav files) while the official plugin does not.

Liquid Audio files can contain several different kinds of encoding including
MPEG-2 AAC, Dolby AC-3, MPEG-1 Layer 3 (MP3) and Linear PCM (uncompressed, 
similar to a wav file).  This plugin plays all but the MP3 encoded Liquid
Audio files.  MP3 encoded lqts can be played in Winamp without a plugin by
changing the file extension to mp3.


2. What's New
-------------
v 1.06b
- Fixed tags not being displayed in the minibrowser when
  starting a track with Winamp and the minibrowser minimized,
- Fixed problem with audio at the ends of tracks being cut
  off short

v 1.06
- Fixed focus grabbing problem,
- Reduced seek stuttering and crash problems,
- Reduced delay on Seek and Stop,
- Fixed various timing inaccuracies,
- Fixed problems when using pitch/playback rate varying DSP plugins,
- Fixed 'unterminated string' error when displaying special characters
  in the Lyrics and Notes tags,
- Added Seek to Index feature (see section 7. Using Seek to Index),
- Added configuration window for winamp.ini settings,
- Added new lqttag.htm example with slide show capability - see 
  customize_help.zip file for details

v 1.055
- Fixed CD reading bug that occured on some systems,
- Fixed multiple bugs that displayed invalid times and/or invalid
  playlist entries when a file error occured,
- New skin name variable (for html customization),
- Html output only if minibrowser window is open (or file Info 
  menu/accelerator is used),
- Avg Bitrate is detected in addition to the Encoder Preset Bitrate
  (may be off by 1 or 2 kb),
- Added three other lqttag HTML examples (Language, Skinny and BigPicture)

v 1.054
- Fixed bug that kept from moving/deleting an lqt file until Winamp was
  closed,
- You can now disable the plugin from ever writing to an lqt file
  (see configuration section for details),
- Version number is now viewable from Preferences,
- Yet another attempt was made to fix the CD reading/double click bug.

v 1.053
- Fixed focus grabbing problem,
- Fixed bug that caused Winamp to crash when reading from CDs,
- Html output now returns filename without extension if no tags are 
  detected within a track.

v 1.052
 - File Attributes are reset when a file is changed,
 - Implemented ini option to reset a file's time stamp when a file is changed.

v 1.051
 - Now works on WinNT/2000.

v 1.05
 - Improved stability (less freezing and crashing),
 - Added tag viewer to view embedded media info (e.g. song name, album title),
 - Added Ability to play lqm files,
 - Bitrate/time info is now read properly.


3. Files Included in Zip
------------------------
in_lqt.dll (Winamp dll used for lqt playback)
fkdrv.dll (fake audio device used for lqt playback)
lqmod.exe (modified Liquid Player executable)
laAc3Dec.dll (Liquid Audio AC-3 decoder)
readme.txt (this file)
lqttag\tagview.dll (tag viewer)
lqttag\lqttag.htm (html file used by minibrowser when displaying tags)
lqttag\customize_help.zip (how to customize html output - with examples)


4. Installation Instructions
----------------------------

1. Make sure your Winamp minibrowser is working.

2. Make sure that you select "Using LAN Internet connection" in
   Winamp (Options->Preferences->Setup->Internet Settings). If you
   choose "Using dial-up modem Internet connection" the tags will
   display only when you are online and if you choose "No Internet
   connection available" the tags won't display at all.

3. Unzip all files to your Winamp "plugins" directory
   (be sure to check the "Use Folder Names" box)

	Example Dir Structure:
	
	C:\...\winamp\winamp.exe
	C:\...\winamp\plugins\in_lqt.dll
	C:\...\winamp\plugins\fkdrv.dll
	C:\...\winamp\plugins\lqttag\tagview.dll
	C:\...\winamp\plugins\lqttag\lqttag.htm


Note: If the viewer doesn't work, try upgrading Winamp.


5. Configuration
----------------
There is now a Configuration window to set plugin options. 
Once the plugin is installed and working, go to the Winamp 
menu under Options->Preferences->Plugins->Input, select the 
LQT plugin and click the Configure button.  The settings are
saved in an [lqttag] section in your winamp.ini file (found
in the Winamp directory).

To prevent the minibrowser from opening when Winamp starts
up, the following line is added in the winamp.ini file:

mb_close=1

Files are sometimes edited by the plugin to make them playable.
A file's attributes are always reset to match what they were 
before editing. The following line means the "last modified"
attribute will remain unchanged even when the plugin writes to
the file:

reset_date=1

The following line turns off automatic file edit:

Disable_Write=1

Doing this will disable the plugin from reading lqm files and
from reading files that have expired or are otherwise unplayable
because of security settings. 

For example, your [lqttag] section might look like:

[lqttag]
mb_close=1
reset_date=1
Disable_Write=1


6. Customizing HTML output
--------------------------

The plugin outputs a file with html formatted data. You can customize
this to your liking. There is only one rule to remember: you must have
the file, lqttag.htm, in the lqttag folder. This is the file that the
plugin displays in the minibrowser.  See the customize_help.zip file 
for more about this.


7. Using Seek to Index
----------------------

This feature allows seeking to preset index values within an
lqt file.  This is useful when long tracks or complete CDs are 
encoded to one huge lqt.

First enter the desired seek times into the Notes tag in Liquifier
or Media Editor using either of the following formats:

[MM:SS:FF] or [MM:SS]

Where MM is minutes, SS is seconds and FF is frames (CD frames from
00 to 74).

For example you could enter:

[00:00:00] The Lamb lies down on Broadway
[04:49:72] Fly on a Windshield
[09:12:70] Broadway Melody of 1974
[09:46:02] Cuckoo Cocoon
[11:57:50] In the Cage
[20:13:37] The grand Parade of lifeless Packaging

or

[00:00] The Lamb lies down on Broadway
[04:49] Fly on a Windshield
[09:12] Broadway Melody of 1974
[09:46] Cuckoo Cocoon
[11:57] In the Cage
[20:13] The grand Parade of lifeless Packaging

The timings have to be in brackets [] and follow exactly one of the two
patterns above, for example [2:00:00] or [4:0] would NOT be recognized.

Each seek time also has to be preceded by a carriage return or, to
put it another way, the seek times have to be flush with the left 
margin or they won't be recognized.  This is so that entries like:

[00:00:00] The Lamb lies down on Broadway [04:52]
[04:49:72] Fly on a Windshield [04:22]
[09:12:70] Broadway Melody of 1974 [00:33]
[09:46:02] Cuckoo Cocoon [02:11]
[11:57:50] In the Cage [08:13]
[20:13:37] The grand Parade of lifeless Packaging [02:47]

will work as expected, that is, only the timings on the left will be
taken into account.  The timings after the track names will be ignored.

Other than that, the indexes can appear anywhere within the Notes and 
any amount of text can appear before, after and in between them.

When playing the file, hold down the Ctrl key and click in the Winamp
seek bar to seek to indexes.  Clicking left of the current seek position
will seek to the previous index and clicking to the right of the current
seek position will seek to the next higher index position.  You can also
hold down both the Ctrl and Shift keys and click on the Previous Track or
Next Track buttons to get essentially the same effect.


8. Notes
--------
- The plugin cannot read lqm files or expired files if they cannot 
  be altered (like files burned to CDRs),
- The plugin will not work if Liquid Express Player v4.x is open,
- If a track doesn't play, close Winamp and then check if the
  Liquid Express Player v4.x can play the file,
- The Plugin displays "Artist - Song Name" if detected,
  otherwise the filename minus the extension is displayed 
  in both the playlist window and in the main window,
- The plugin does not output html for any other format besides 
  lqt/lqm files (it doesn't even detect them),
- Changes to winamp.ini do not take effect until you restart Winamp,
- If you are using the Winamp Agent feature (WinampA in your tasklist),
  changes to the ini file may not take effect until you either restart
  your computer or restart Winamp Agent.
- A single lqt file can contain several audio images of the same song at
  multiple bitrates.  The plugin will play the best (highest bitrate) 
  audio image.  It won't play multiple bitrate lqm files.


9. Known Bugs
-------------
- If you encounter the "Unsupported Audio Format" msg, you may have
  to restart Winamp to correct the audio device,
- The plugin may crash with very small files (like less than 1 second 
  files),
- Seeking will sometimes cause Winamp and/or the plugin to crash
  or freeze,
- Using the seek and stop controls with Linear PCM files will also
  freeze or crash Winamp and/or the plugin.


10. Contact Information
-----------------------
Please post any questions, suggestions or bug reports about this plugin
to usenet newsgroup alt.binaries.sounds.aac.d.
