HOW-TOs and TIPS: XMPlay

Changing Skins for XMPlay:

1. Choose and download skins from the site. (The skins should be on the same page where the XMPlay download is located.)
2. Once the download is completed, you should have an .xmpskin file. Cut and paste this file to the same directory where you extracted the XMPlay files.
3. Open XMPlay, Click "Options and stuff".
4. Under "Device" should be the entry for "Plugins and skins". Click on this entry.
5. Change the field for "Current Skin" to the one you've chosen and downloaded.

Enable MP3 encoding

1. Download LAME and extract lame.exe to the same directory where XMPlay is found.
2. Open "Options and Stuff" , Locate “Device” > “Encoders”.
3. On the "Encoder" field, scroll and select "LAME".
4. Go back to "Device" and look under the "Output" category where you will find the field entry for device. Scroll and change to "Encoder - LAME". You can also play around with the settings for the writing process, as you can change the fields for buffering, channels, sample rate, etc.
5. Under File writing click on browse and select where you want to write the files to. Click on apply to save changes.
6. Now you can either encode streaming media or cd tracks. When you click on Play, it will ask you for a file name, after which it starts encoding.

If you want to go back to listening, change back the "Device" field to your soundcard.

Setting XMPlay as your default Audio Player (for supported formats) :

1. On the "Options and Stuff" window, select "Integration".
2. Under "Associated file types", select the formats you want XMPlay to open. Select all if you want to play all the supported files through XMPlay.
3. You can also set other options in here, and even add Desktop and Quick launch icons.
4. Click apply and changes should take place automatically.

Tip : Once you've set XMPlay as your default player, you might want to change how files open in XMPlay. Open "Options and Stuff" and go to "Miscellaneous". On this page, look for and uncheck "multiple instances" as this forces XMPlay to open a separate instance for each music file opened (excluding those dragged n'dropped).

Creating Playlists

Having playlists enables XMPlay to load a group of songs in one instance of XMPlay, and is also useful if you're using XMPlay with a Portable storage device.

1. Create one by just selecting/opening the songs you want to include. Click on the floppy disk drive image(default skin) which is the "save list" button. Give it a name and save it on the same directory as XMPlay so its easier to retrieve.
2. You can retrieve the playlist by just opening the .pls file you've created.

Tip : As mentioned, playlists are helpful most especially if you're using different computers and store songs on each of them. Save your playlists together with the XMPlay files on your portable storage device and probably name your playlists according to location (eg: lab.pls , class19.pls , etc.).