Foobar2000

The title of this article is incorrect because of technical limitations. The correct title is foobar2000.

foobar2000 is a freeware audio player for Windows developed by Peter Pawlowski, a former freelance contractor for Nullsoft. Featuring a minimalist interface, it also boasts many features for metadata support and high-quality audio output. The theoretical maximum sampling rate and bit depth for audio output are both far in excess of the capacities of even professional-grade audio equipment. To maximize the audio fidelity of consumer-grade equipment, it provides noise-shaped dither. It features a number of official and third-party components which add many additional features. While the core is closed source, the author provides an extensive SDK under the BSD license, which also includes the source code for most of the components.

Notable features

• Straightforward scripting language called TAGZ which allows the user to change what metadata is shown by the player in various locations like the playlist.
• Unicode support on NT-based versions of Windows.
• Tabbed playlists.
• Highly flexible and well-designed component API which allows developers to change or add almost any feature, including the user interface, decoding of unusual audio files, output to unusual devices, visualizations, and DSP effects.
• Built-in Replay Gain support.
• Gapless playback
• Diskwriter component which allows transcoding from any playable source to various formats (extensible via the API).
• Low memory footprint.
• Standard user-interface which integrates seamlessly with Windows and provides a minimal learning curve for new users.
• Kernel streaming and ASIO output components, which can bypass theoretical problems involving Windows' KMIXER.DLL.
• Support for many tagging formats including ID3v2, APEv2, Ogg, WMA and others.
• Audioscrobbler support.
• Apple iPod support.
• Vital userbase committed to making foobar2000 the most capable and accurate audio player in existence.

See also

• List of audio players
• Comparison of media players

External links

• Official foobar2000 site – contains general information and download links.
• Case's foobar2000 downloads – Many useful 3rd party components, and an updated "special" installer including extra features not in the official "special" installer.
• foobar2000 Distribution Site and its mirror – provides the official installers and several 3rd-party plugins as well.
• foobar2000 3rd-party plugins – the official place for third-party developers to submit their plugins.
• User-compiled list of important foobar2000 sites.
• Official foobar2000 forum – discussions, feature requests, bug reports, troubleshooting and more.
• #foobar2000 on Freenode.