Songbird 1.7 Beta 1 adds Windows 7 support

The Songbird developers have released the first beta for version 1.7 of their open source and cross platform media player. The development preview addresses several platform specific bugs and includes several new features.

Songbird 1.7 Beta 1 features support for MPEG4 and WMV encoding, the re-introduction of video playback via a new GStreamer-based implementation and support for Windows 7. According to the developers, support for Windows 7-specific UI features will be available "in a to-be-determined future release". Other improvements include support for Device SD cards and Philips Muse and CAM devices.

Songbird 1.7.2 Beta 1 on Mac OS X. Earlier this month, the Songbird project announced that it would be dropping support for Linux, citing prioritisation issues. VP of Engineering Georges Auberger said that the small engineering team have decided to focus on the Windows and Mac versions as the Linux version of Songbird was falling behind. Following the announcement, a group of developers decided to create Nightingale, an in-development Linux fork of Songbird. The first release of Nightingale will likely be based on Songbird 1.8.

As with all development releases, use of Songbird 1.7 beta in production environments and on mission critical systems is not advised. Users testing the release are encouraged to report any bugs that they encounter.

More details about the release can be found in the release announcement and release notes. Songbird 1.7.2 Beta 1 is available to download for Mac OS X and Windows XP or later. Songbird is released under version 2 of the GNU General Public License (GPLv2). The latest stable release is version 1.4.3 from early January.

See also:

• Report: Songbird to be bundled with Philips MP3 players, a report from The H.

(crve)