Global setting:

• Go to: Winamp > Preferences (Ctrl+P) > Playlist
• Uncheck "Use skin or language pack font"
• Select an appropriate font from the drop-down menu, eg. Calibri or Arial Unicode MS

Note: If a suitable font isn't already installed on your system for the language you are trying to view, then you will need to locate and install one. Also note that 'Arial Unicode MS' is included with Microsoft Office, not Winamp.

Classic Skins:

This setting is only required when using any Classic skin:

• Go to: Winamp > Prefs (Ctrl+P) > Skins > Classic Skins
• Uncheck "Use skinned font for main window title display"

Modern Skins:

These settings are only required when using a Modern skin:

• Go to: Winamp > Prefs (Ctrl+P) > Skins > Modern Skins > Font Rendering tab
• Uncheck "Use the alternate fonts if the skin defines them"
• Change the TrueType Replacement font to something more suitable via the "Replace with" drop-down menu.

Media Library:

To display unicode fonts in the Media Library:

• Go to: Winamp > Prefs > Media Library > Library Options tab
• Checkmark "Media Library uses same font as Playlist Editor"

Note: This assumes that you've already set an appropriate font for the playlist.

For upgrades from a pre 5.3x version, you might also need to refresh the metadata in the Media Library local database. You can do this by going to:

• Media Library > Audio view
• Select All items in the Tracks pane (Ctrl+A)
• Right-click an entry, select "Read metadata on selected items"

Note: You might want to do this in stages if you've got a large database, (eg. in excess of 10,000 files).

Reading & Writing MP3 ID3 Tags:

• Go to: Winamp > Prefs > Plugin > Input > in_mp3.dll > config
• Make sure the appropriate settings are selected in the Title/Tags tab

For instance:

• Read ASCII tags as: System Language (not Latin-1)
• Write tags as: Unicode (UTF-16)

Unicode characters need to be entered into the ID3v2 tag (ID3v1 does NOT support Unicode). Though also note that many external/older mp3 cd & portable players do not support Unicode ID3v2 tags. So you may want to bear this in mind if you also plan on using your MP3's with any such players (if the external/portable mp3 player doesn't support Unicode ID3v2 tags, then it will just display weird gibberish/square type characters instead).

The Results:

If you've followed all of the above instructions correctly you should now have full support for international/unicode characters.

Extra Notes

• Saving Unicode Playlists:

When saving your playlist to file (via: Playlist Editor > List button > Save Playlist), make sure you change the 'Save As Type' drop-down menu to .m3u8 (Unicode Playlist), instead of m3u.

Some Frequently asked questions:

Q1: Why is it that the playlist window initially displays the unicode characters okay, but when I reload the list later it shows question marks or gibberish characters again?
A1: When saving your playlist to file (via: Playlist Editor > List button > Save Playlist), make sure you change the 'Save As Type' drop-down menu to .m3u8 (Unicode Playlist), instead of m3u.

Q2: Why do I see ?????? in the Winamp taskbar icon instead of unicode characters?
A2: You are either using a Winamp version older than 5.34 (which was the first Winamp release to support displaying unicode characters in the taskbar icon and system tray tooltip), or you've installed some 3rd-party General Purpose or Media Library plugin (or possibly Input plugin) which is breaking unicode support. Remove said 3rd-party plugin and report the problem to the plugin author (most plugins can quite easily be updated to support unicode).

Q3: Why do I see strange square-type gibberish characters in the Winamp taskbar icon?
A3: You haven't installed Windows support for that particular international language / character set. Go to Windows Control Panel > Regional & Language Options > Languages tab, and install the "Supplemental Language Support".

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