Software Update: Songbird 1.4.2

Version 1.4.1 of Songbird was released on Monday and was followed by 1.4.2 on Tuesday. This open source music player is based on Gecko and is therefore available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Songbird is developed by Poti, short for ‘Pioneers of the Inevitable’. This group includes developers who were involved with Winamp and Yahoo Music Engine, among others. More information about the possibilities of this program is on this page to find back. New in this release is the ability to rip CDs, something that currently only works in the Windows version. Version 1.4.2 fixes a ‘glitch’ in the user interface, these are the release notes for version 1.4.1:

New features and improvements

CD Rip Support (Windows only)

• Songbird can now rip music from audio CDs to the main Songbird library.

Firmware Update for MSC (Windows only)

• Songbird will be able to manage the firmware on selected MSC devices.

purple rain

• Songbird has a new default feather.

Known bugs/issues in 1.4.1

CD Rip

• Songbird will not recognize USB CD drives plugged in while the application is running. Quit and restart Songbird to mount your CD drive inside the application. ( bug 18033)
• Users must click within the CD Rip media view to activate the CD Rip-specific keyboard shortcuts. ( bug 18267)
• CDs will occasionally not eject automatically after a successful rip when the auto-eject option is enabled. ( bug 18291)
• Album artwork for some compilation CDs will not be fetched during the CD Rip process. Users can manually fetch artwork for the album once the ripped tracks are in the Songbird library. ( bug 18328)
• The CD Rip node will be displayed for data-only CDs. ( bug 18349)
• Users must select a track within the CD Rip media view to see the artwork associated with the album. ( bug 18331)
  • Will be fixed for 1.5.0 release.
• Attempting to manually eject CD while rip is in progress cancels current track rip and moves to next track. ( bug 18418)

MSC

• Unknown file types are transferred to devices as-is. ( bug 18204)
• The wrong error string may be displayed in the error dialog during sync (eg “Transfer Error” may display instead of “Sync Error”). ( bug 18324)
• Songbird changes case of user files on device as compared to media library ( bug 18363)
• [msc] Disk space usage limitations not working as designed ( bug 18516)

Other

• Changes to some metadata fields made to AAC files in Songbird are not exported to iTunes. ( bug 17576)
• [mashtape] After minimizing Songbird with mashtape video tab in focus, track changes cause Songbird to become maximized ( bug 18379)
• Number of channels in music files are not listed for some of the file ( bug 18451)
• Inconsistent Music Folder naming based on Locale (18484)
• Intermittently when downloading tracks, progress bars stop animating ( bug 18595)
• Mac only: The new feather (Purple Rain) will display with some artifacts from the old feather (Gonzo) if 1.4.1 is installed directly on top of 1.2 instead of using the in-product updating mechanism. To fix this, go to the View menu, choose Feathers, and choose Purple Rain.

Other known bugs/issues

All Platforms

• Dialogs text cropped when OS is using big fonts ( bug 5583)
• Window min/max sizing does not respect DPI ( bug 6956)
• [iPod] Album Artwork switched to wrong music ( bug 7780)
• [ipod] 1st Gen iPod shuffle not mounting in Songbird ( bug 10432)
  • Workaround:
    • Go to iPod directory
    • Find “ipod_control” folder and delete it
    • Re-connect the ipod and Songbird will recognize it.
• Paused tracks intermittently increase play count ( bug 13615)
• iTunes smart playlists aren’t imported ( bug 16473)
• [mgtlibrary] “Unknown” not being localized in file management default strings ( bug 18419)

Windows Specific

• Cannot playback media items on MTP device from within Songbird app ( bug 8068)
• Some songs display as 0:00 ( bug 9145)
• Same files can be added twice to a device if 2 PCs are used ( bug 9803)
• Songbird Changes USB Hard Drive Label (18367)

Linux Specific

• [linux] Mini mode position is not remembered when switched back from Full Player ( bug 5938)
• [podcast][mac][linux] Play stopped on change of feather ( bug 9525)
• [mac][linux] Songbird does not play MIDI files ( bug 9798)
• [linux] Files from SMB shares cannot be played ( bug 12539)
• Songbird won’t play music under Fedora 10/Songbird does not work on Fedora 10 ( bug 15235)

MacOSX Specific

• [mac][ipod] iTunes can interfere with mount of iPod in Songbird ( bug 6946)
• [podcast][mac][linux] Play stopped on change of feather ( bug 9525)
• [mac][linux] Songbird does not play MIDI files ( bug 9798)
• [mac] Mini-player doesn’t show up in Spaces (intermittent) ( bug 9819)
• [key][mac] Keyboard shortcuts for Play/Pause, Next/previous track not shown in Control menu ( bug 12922)