Winamp TV is a plugin for Winamp that lets you control your TV tuner card from within the multimedia player. TV and FM radio channels are saved a s small files which can be enqueued in a playlist, added to the music library or just played one by one. With this plugin, Winamp becomes a complete multimedia tool!

To change a channel, you only have to change the track in Winamp: so you can arrange the channels any way you like, you can have Winamp or a general purpose plugin randomize them for you, or make different playlists with e.g. preferred selections of channels for the morning or evening. Every channel has its own settings for the video adjustments, the TV system used, stereo/SAP audio and volume.

The plugin lets you run the sound of the TV or radio stations through Winamp's equalizer, DSP and output plugin. You can use this to get better sound, or to correct problems with a channel (using the automatic equalizer settings). The video can be output in a separate window with captioned or thin frame, or just attached to Winamp's video window.

The plugin can also use the Video Mixing Renderers which avoids the problems associated with overlays (i.e. problems in multi-monitor setups and multiple applications trying to display video), and lets you select different de-interlace options, or use the comprehensive on-screen menus.

The lite versions are stripped-down versions of the betas that only support the stable features. They do not support digital tuners, recording, and sending the audio to Winamp.

Here are some key features of "Winamp TV Plugin Lite":

· supports output in winamp's video window
· hardware de-interlacing using the deinterlace part of your display adapter (PureVideo/AVIVO/Chromotion/etc.)
· full aspect ratio control tracking the position of the video and adjusting ratio according to monitor. Can be used to have anamorphic TV-out or no distortion of video on a CRT monitor with resolution 1280x1024.
· zoom-to-fill mode to fill screen with video of different aspect ratio (also known as Pan-Scan/Cinema mode). Can also be used to get rid of the black bands on an LCD monitor with resolution 1280x1024.
· overscan adjustment
· quick channel scan and full range scan by frequency
· uses winamp for channel selection, i.e. easily controlled by playlist, media library or general purpose winamp plugins
· OSD display with comprehensive menus
· names can be assigned to channels
· TV system (PAL/SECAM/NTSC) and sound standard (B/D/I/etc.) setting local for the channel
· global volume, brightness, contrast, etc. settings and local adjustments for each channel
· supports digital audio transfer for cards without an audio cable
· stereo/SAP selection
· FM radio support
· basic teletext
· works with analog PCI tuners, all-in-one TV tuners, video capture and VIVO cards, external USB/USB2 tuners as well as PCMCIA devices. Hardware MPEG 1/2 compressors are also supported.
· can be used as part of the multimedia player or as standalone TV application by installing a copy of Winamp dedicated to TV.


Supported only in Beta versions:
· audio can be routed through WinAmp's visualization, EQ, DSP and output plugin
· supports digital satellite cards with BDA drivers, as well as SkyStar 2
· supports digital terrestrial cards with BDA drivers
· recording to AVI and MPEG-2 (third party encoders required)


Requirements:

· Winamp 2.x, 5.x.
· A hardware TV tuner card.


What's New in This Release:

· (beta11a) updated code to make BDA connections. Fixes a problem with single-filter DVB devices failing to connect in some circumstances and issues with connecting in Network-Provider-bypass mode.
· (beta11a/lite11a) fixed a bug that caused failure to catch power broadcasts.
· (beta11a) slightly tweaked sound synchronization code (prefers the sound to be late than early)