Zoom Player's complete change list history
What's new, changed and fixed in Zoom Player MAX v21.5.1:
New :
* 18 new functions added to the control overlay button options: 01. Play previous video in the same folder as the playing video 02. Play next video in the same folder as the playing video 03. Play previous media with the same file extension in the same folder 04. Play next media with the same file extension in the same folder 05. Fast Play by user specified value 06. Delete currently playing media 07. Increase play rate by user specified value 08. Decrease play rate by user specified value 09. DirectShow-Zoom Pan Left 10. DirectShow-Zoom Pan Right 11. DirectShow-Zoom Pan Up 12. DirectShow-Zoom Pan Down 13. Audio Synchronize ahead by user specified value 14. Audio Synchronize back by user specified value 15. Subtitle Synchronize ahead by user specified value 16. Subtitle Synchronize back by user specified value 17. Increase Volume by user specified value 18. Decrease Volume by user specified value Since the available buttons now stands at 88, I've added a filtering option to make it easier to find the button you're looking for. * Color Control support is now available when using MPC-VR as the video renderer. * Added a new JSON post-processing cache mechanism when using the IPTV Player API. The practical application is that Zoom Player opens the IPTV window faster when closing and reopening Zoom Player several times in the same IPTV database update period (by default, once per day). * The IPTV play window has been visually enhanced with gradient shading of the playlist and EPG sections. Of course, I made the gradient colors fully customizable through the IPTV Window's "Customize" menu option. * The IPTV EPG Grid view has been visually enhanced with gradient shading of Streams and Programs. Of course, I made the gradient colors fully customizable through the EPG Grid's "Customize" menu option. * Added support for IPTV stream grouping based on the "#EXTGRP" tag in M3U/M3U8 playlist. * Added support for two more types of IPTV archive (catchup) streaming modes. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse / Settings) that determines whether the mouse cursor hides automatically when the player window is maximized. Enabled by default. * New Settings (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) to pick the color and opacity of timeline highlighting features (e.g. AB Repeat). * The "exInterface" extended function has been enhanced with new parameters: 15 = Show Control Overlay 16 = Hide Control Overlay 17 = Show Color Control Overlay 18 = Hide Color Control Overlay 19 = Show IPTV stream selection window 20 = Hide IPTV stream selection window 21 = Show Media Server browser window 22 = Hide Media Server browser window * Zoom Player's error dialog is no longer skinned and has been rewritten to use a modern overlay style. Should be easier to read, especially when compared to the skinned version on bright skins (e.g. Alba). * Zoom Player's "Please wait" dialog is no longer skinned and has been rewritten to use an modern overlay style. * New "Tab" (nvTab) navigation function. The Tab button can now be used to: 1. Switch the main home theater interface between home theater interface selection and system functions. 2. Switch the media library home theater interface to function mode and back to the media list. 3. Switch the file browsing home theater interface to function mode and back to the file list. 4. Switch the play list home theater interface to function mode and back to the media list. 5. Switch the play history home theater interface to function mode and back to the media list. 6. Switch the favorites home theater interface to function mode and back to the media list. 7. Switch the streaming audio home theater interface to function mode and back to the media list. 8. Switch the active button on the error dialog window. If you are using a custom keyboard layout, you may want to add this line to your key file: nvAddKey(None,9,nvTab) * I modified the media library's meta-data editor to show the last play date for TV and Movie category folders. And now next to the date, I show how many years and days have passed since the last play date. * Added "Switch to Modern UI" and "Switch to Classic UI" right-click menu options under the "Controls" sub-menu. * Zoom Player's TCP/IP has been extended with a new "0300" message that returns the current skin mode. The skin mode is a 32bit value with each bit indicating whether a skin group section is active. * Zoom Player's TCP/IP has been extended with a new "0310" message that returns the current Media mode skin file. * Zoom Player's TCP/IP has been extended with a new "0320" message that returns the current DVD mode skin file. * Zoom Player's TCP/IP has been extended with a new "0330" message that returns the current Audio mode skin file.Changed :
+ The AB Repeat feature's active range is now visible on the control overlay timeline area. + The "Refresh" button on the IPTV player window can now be used to force a refresh of the IPTV playlist/EPG databases for either the selected playlist entry or All playlist entries without having to open the advanced options dialog. + Playing media from a media server (PLEX / Emby / Jellyfin) that includes multiple versions of the same media will now add all versions to the playlist, allowing you to switch between versions using the "next track" feature. + The Media Server Browser now remembers the list's "Top Index" when closing and re-opening the browser window, restoring the exact scroll bar position of the selected item within the list. + Opening the "Chapter Editor / Go to" dialog using the "G" keyboard shortcut now opens with the "Go to" entry box active and available for immediate input. Opening the same dialog with the Shift+"C" keyboard shortcut opens the dialog with the Chapter name entry box active. + Dragging the Color Control Overlay's color bars now shows the active value as you drag the mouse cursor over a color bar. + Switching between Modern and Classic user interface modes now tries to remember the currently active skin in Classic mode. + Zoom Player's function picker dialog now uses a filtering feature instead of search as it makes it much easier to find functions. The function picker is used in several places throughout Zoom Player's user interface, including the keyboard layout editor and picking custom mouse button functions. + When using multiple attempts to connect to a streaming server, the "Please Wait" window now shows a "Connecting (2/3)" type messages to provide better feedback on the current connection status. + You can no longer show the control overlay by mouse movement when the "Please Wait" window is visible.Fixed :
- Fixed an issue where the playlist editor and equalizer windows could pop to the front of other applications when a new media is loaded and Zoom Player is in the running in the background. - When specifying a custom font that is incompatible (e.g. vertical text font starting with the "@" character) with overlay interfaces or was uninstalled later on, the overlay interfaces did not show any text. Now in such cases, the Arial font is used as a fallback. - There were some cases when trying to use the media library category editor to add a YouTube channel where channel URLs using "@[username]" were not identified correctly and other channels were added instead. - When using Zoom Player's trial version, the time viewing limit only counts actual play time and will no longer bug you to upgrade when you're just setting up. - When using Zoom Player's trial version and the time viewing limit expires Zoom Player did not close itself properly. - Using the media library category editor failed to add a YouTube channel where the channel's URL contained extra information after the channel's identifier (e.g. "https://youtube.com/@zptechnology?si=LsHK4XZ6ngCgLcXE"). - In the advanced options dialog, the ability to set custom functions for the keyboard's "Space" and "Arrow" functions (left/right/up/down) was broken with the custom entry fields remaining disabled. - Switching to audio mode when using MPC-VR as the video renderer did not hide the video window causing cosmetic issues with the audio mode skin. - There was a slight lag updating the timeline's current position when loading a media with a previously saved position. - Favorites added from the media server's media library plugin are now playable. If you previously added favorites from a media library category using the media server plugin, you will have to add them again. - Trying to play a media from either an Emby or Jellyfin server failed if the media had multiple versions (encodings). - The "Show/Hide the Home Theater's Web Browser interface" feature was broken, triggering an empty screen or crash. - The advanced options dialog's playlist Customization page was accidentally labeled as "Playlist". - Resetting the control overlay's default style did not reset the opacity level of the timeline chapter marks to its correct 50% default value. - The were cases where the error dialog could appear behind other, open windows. - Fixed a glitch when Zoom Player's window is positioned in between two different monitors, the OSD action pop-up message could have appeared in the wrong position and even flicker a bit.What's new in Zoom Player v21.4:
* New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Media Server) that determines whether to list collections alongside categories in the Media Server Browser (PLEX / Emby / Jellyfin). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Media Server) that determines whether to list collections within categories in the Media Server Browser. This feature is limited to PLEX as it's the only media server that associates collections with a specific category. * When creating a new category, the Media Server media library plugin will now list Emby/Jellyfin collections. Emby/Jellyfin collections are not locked to a specific type (e.g. movies/tv) so every collection is selectable, regardless of the category type you are creating. This feature can be disabled in the plugin's configuration page. * When creating a new category, the Media Server media library plugin will now list PLEX collections based on the category type you are creating. Unlike Emby/Jellyfin, PLEX locks collections to specific categories. This feature can be disabled in the plugin's configuration page. * The Media Server media library plugin now lists PLEX collections within categories. This feature can be disabled in the plugin's configuration page. + The IPTV Setup wizard has been enhanced for clarity and includes new Information, Skip and Quit buttons. + When using the media server browser interface, going up a folder now restores the exact position of the list prior to entering the folder (the list's top index is now saved along with the item's index). + The MP4 and Matroska (MKV) smart play profiles have been split in two. Each format now has two smart play profiles, one for local file playback and one for streaming, allowing you to pick different components depending on whether you're playing a local file or streaming from a media server. + The Media Server Browser's pop-up hint that appears when hovering items is now a lot less annoying. The hint will only show when hovering over items that don't have enough space to display and instantly hides when hovering over other items. + Emby/Jellyfin collections are no longer listed as a "Collections" folder, this has been replaced with the collection setting above. + Updated MediaInfo to the latest version. + Small quality of life enhancements throughout the UI. - When moving Zoom Player's window between monitors should no longer pause or snap the window back to the original monitor. - Zoom Player will no longer adjust the minimal window size based on your monitor's resolution as it broke some features. This does mean there can be some visual artifacts as the control overlay gradient backgrounds may overlap each other if the playback window is tiny. - Right-clicking a media library entry did not select the entry unless it was in a TV or Movie category. - Fixed a case where another Zoom Player window could appear between the main player window and the control overlay. - The Home Theater quick search feature was partially broken. - The quick search feature now works on with both media file/url or title in the play history Home Theater interface. - When using the YouTube IFRAME player with the Chromium engine it was possible that seeking ahead/back multiple times in a row in under 250ms would seek in place. - The trial version of Zoom Player MAX/IPTV no longer asks you to upgrade on first run.What's new in Zoom Player v21.3:
* Updated TheMovieDB meta-data scraper for TV and Movies. There have been too many bad results lately, so I dug in and rewrote the matching algorithm. The new algorithm is much more accurate, especially if you specify a release year in the folder/filename. I've also added a new setting to pick a specific spoken language preference (disabled by default). Setting this value will not break foreign language content, just give a preference if there's two entries with very similar details except for the spoken language. If you still see incorrect listings, the best recourse would be to specify a release year in the folder/file name, for example "My Movie" would be renamed to "My Movie.2005" or "My Movie (2005)". You may need to close and restart Zoom Player as newly scraped TV shows are cached in system memory until you restart Zoom Player (only need to do this after failed scrapes). * The Color Control Overlay has been enhanced: 1. Hover hint showing the exact brightness/contrast/saturation/hue value before you apply it. 2. You can now use the mouse wheel to adjust the values. 3. You can use the right/left arrow keys to adjust values even if an icon is highlighted and not the bar itself. 4. Adjusting values using the keyboard pops a hint showing the new value. * The control overlay now supports color tinting the timeline/volume knob separately from the buttons (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay). * The setting that controls the control overlay's timeline text display layout has been replaced with a new system for specifying the timeline text. If you previously set a non-default layout, you will need to set it again using the new system. You can now pick which information appears in the left/center/right areas of the timeline text by specifying one or more of the following fields: - Current Position - Duration - Remaining Time - Media Resolution - Current Resolution - Media Title (or file name) Allowing you to display any of these fields in any order and in any position. * I've added an "Update" menu option to the playlist editor's multi-playlist menu, making it much simpler to update previously added playlists. * You can now select multiple media library entries and then use the meta-data editor available through the right-click context menu or the functions page accessible by clicking the gear icon to edit multiple entries in one action, there are the fields you can edit: - Sort Title - Personal Rating - Personal Note - Genres - Tags - Collections * To quickly select items using the mouse, I've added a "Select / Unselect" option to the right click context menu when used within the media library. * You can now use the media library's cache meta-data editor on media that failed to scrape. + The playing media information dialog ("I" keyboard shortcut) now uses mediainfo.dll to extract the playing frame-rate if an accurate frame-rate value cannot be derived from the media engine directly. + The info dialog now gives mediainfo.dll more time to parse the media file to ensure the information it returns is more accurate. + Opening the playlist editor or equalizer dialogs will not automatically hide the control overlay now. + Hovering with the mouse cursor over the timeline when Zoom Player is not the focused application no longer shows the current position hint as showing the hint causes Zoom Player's window to pop to the front, which can be annoying. - Dragging and Dropping media from other applications did not work if you tried dropping the media on the control overlay. - Using Modern UI and attaching the playlist editor to the main user interface and then dragging the main window to move it caused the playlist editor to snap to the left side of the main window instead of moving along with it. - The IPTV window's "Filter EPG" mode drop-down list was not initially set when using a language file to translate zoom player to other languages. - Switching to fullscreen to a secondary monitor using the Classic UI interface could have resulted in the skin's buttons remaining visible in fullscreen mode. - Trying to play a network shared path over 260 characters would fail if the "Do not check if a file exists when adding to the playlist" setting was disabled (the file exist check did not function with the long network path). - The DirectShow Zoom function did not zoom into the mouse cursor position accurately when used from the mouse wheel in windowed mode. - The keyboard shortcut listing dialog did not adjust itself properly for higher DPI displays, forcing you to manually resize the window to see the content properly. - The keyboard layout editor's key-edit dialog now appears centered over the the keyboard layout editor's window, fixes an issue where the ok/cancel buttons were partially truncated on a high DPI monitor and makes more space for translations. - The "Clicking the video area with another app active only takes focus" setting did not work when the control overlay was visible. - Under some circumstances, the pop-up action OSD (Play/Pause/Volume/etc) text may have appeared cropped when using a language file. - Two entries in the options dialog's "Help / Export" menu were not translated properly to other languages. - The entries in the IPTV's menu were not translated properly to other languages. - The entries in the IPTV's EPG Grid menu were not translated properly to other languages. - The Media Library's category editor's right-click menu was not translated properly to other languages. - One entry on the control bar's context menu was not translated properly to other languages. - Under some conditions, the EPG Grid window could appear behind the IPTV window. - Under some conditions, the IPTV Customization window could appear behind the IPTV window. - Under some conditions, the IPTV EPG Grid's Customization window could appear behind the EPG Grid's window. - You couldn't use the Shift+"O" keyboard shortcut to close the color control overlay interface. - I'm not sure if it's an NVIDIA issue or Microsoft, but when using the EVR video renderer, the color control ranges for the Contrast value are reported incorrectly, causing the default widget not to appear centered and the lowest value not to apply correctly. I wrote a work- around to fix this issue. - The cached meta-data editor window could appear in between the main user interface and the control overlay. - Using the cached meta-data editor could result in duplicate personal note and personal rating values added into the cache file.What's new in Zoom Player v21.2:
* When customizing the control overlay (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay), all changes are now updated in real time to reflect your preferences. Check out this video to see how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypufL7tUczo * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) that allows you to set the maximum width (relative to your screen) for the control overlay's user interface while in fullscreen mode. This feature is very useful when using a mouse to control Zoom Player with a large display where you don't want to move the mouse long distances. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) that limits showing the control overlay on mouse movement only if the mouse is hovering over the top / bottom overlay controls (disabled by default). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) that automatically hides the control overlay if the mouse cursor moves into the video area and no longer hovers over the top / bottom overlay controls (disabled by default). * New settings (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) to colorize the Control Overlay buttons and bar knobs. Colorizing the bar knobs is optional when colorizing the buttons. * New settings (Adv. Options / Interface) that allow you to customize the hint pop-ups that appear when hovering over the timeline and in the color control overlay interface. * When using the IPTV dialog to play a VOD TV series, the next episodes are automatically queued to the playlist, allowing you to switch to the next episode without re-opening the IPTV dialog. * New setting (Adv. Options / Playback / IPTV) that when enabled, closing a group snaps the group to the center, displaying an even number of items above / below the closed group (enabled by default). * New "Copy URL" entry adding to the IPTV Window stream list's right-click context menu (when clicking a stream). * The OSD Pop-up actions have a new default style that overrides any style set by the current skin with a new modern style with transparent background. Of course you can customize the new style with custom fonts, background opacity and colors. If you prefer the classic style, you can disable the modern style under "Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Actions". * The playlist editor now uses a Modern UI style. * The setting that controls the OSD Pop-up actions (Play, Pause, volume, etc) size change while in fullscreen mode (Adv. Interface / On Screen Display / Actions) has been replaced with a new "OSD window size" setting. The new OSD window size setting automatically adjusts relative to the display device's DPI setting, letting you pick a size that is maintained on high resolution screens with a DPI value greater than 100%. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) that allows you to align the fixed buttons zone to the left instead of the default screen-centered layout. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) that allows you to hide the timeline (useful if you're only watching live events). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) to control whether the control overlay auto-hides when the mouse cursor is hovering over the timeline area. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) to control whether the control overlay auto-hides when the mouse cursor is hovering over anywhere in the overlay (top and bottom areas). * Using the next/previous track feature after playing a live IPTV stream plays the previously/next streamed channel from the IPTV stream history. * The IPTV Group Manager is now able to add an entire group as a favorite group, simply select the group and click the left-arrow button. * The IPTV Group Manager is now able select and hide multiple groups, simply click the eye button, pick the group and click the check button. * New "Reset user interface size to default" feature assigned by default to the Ctrl+"`" keyboard shortcut. Using this feature resets the user interface to it's default size, taking skin magnification and system-level DPI into account. * Added two more size settings to the Control Overlay's timeline bar. * New next/previous DVD bookmark features that can be added as buttons to the Modern UI's control overlay. * Added "Fullscreen (maintain zoom) on/off" button options to the control overlay's settings page (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay). + You can now click anywhere in the video area to drag the playback window a few pixels when the left click action is set to play/pause. The play / pause action still works as intended if the mouse cursor isn't moved too far between clicking the button and letting go (16 pixels by default). + The Zoom Player playlist format has been enhanced to remember the media engine used when opening the media. So closing and re-opening Zoom Player or just re-opening the same file from the playlist should preserve the previously used media engine instead of reverting automatically to DirectShow. + The options dialog has been redesigned to make it wider, giving translators more room to effectively translate Zoom Player's settings to other languages. + The "Playlist Editor" entry on the right-click menu has been moved from the "Open Interface" sub-menu to the second option from the top on menu's root level. + For clarity, I renamed the "Zoom on/off" double-click/middle-click mouse actions to "Fullscreen (maintain zoom) on/off" + Now that the control overlay has become the default interface, I moved the "Show time seek position hint over Timeline", "Show position preview thumbnail" and "Only if media reports key frames" settings from "Adv. Options / Interface / Control Bar / Timeline" to "Adv. Options / Interface" as these settings apply to both the control bar and the control overlay. + The timeline position hints are now styled in the same style as the color control overlay hints and are fully customizable under "Adv. Options / Interface". + To make it more accessible, I've added the "Group Manager" to more places in the IPTV's stream list right-click context menu. + The keyboard layout editor now always opens centered on the options dialog and covering 80% of it's size. I also cleaned up the editor dialog a bit when used with high DPI displays. + If skin magnification is at 100%, the default window size now takes into account the monitor's DPI value on initial run (if you have the setting to restore the UI position and size disabled). + The control overlay buttons now show a pop-up hint describing the button's function when hovering over a button for approximately 2 seconds. This feature can be disabled under "Adv. Options / Interface - Show Button Hints". + The Pop-up action messages' (e.g. play/pause/volume) OSD Message Pixel Offset setting (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Actions) is now DPI adjusted, meaning that it maintains the same relative distance based on your display's DPI value. + Removed the "keyboard shortcuts" section from the options dialog. It has been replaced several versions ago by the "F1" keyboard shortcut. + Removed the "Link Parser" section from the options dialog, it's a feature I once planned but was never implemented. + I changed how the option dialog's tree-view panel is translated to make it easier for me to edit and to make it more future proof as previously any change broke the translation. For you it means that if you are currently using an older language file, the tree-view will appear in English. Updating to the latest language files as they become available on the install center should fix this issue. + The modern UI default button layout has changed to replace next/previous track with next/previous chapters (which fallbacks to next/previous track if no chapters are available). + The next/previous chapter feature no longer performs a next/previous DVD bookmark action. Instead performing a next/previous track action. The next/previous DVD bookmark features have been split into separate features. + The Ctrl+Shift+"F10" switch user interface to Classic mode and Ctrl+Shift+"F11" switch user interface to Modern mode keyboard shortcuts now reset the Media and DVD skins to default. + You can now use a double-click action in the options dialog's control overlay section to quickly add/remove buttons from the different zones (System, Pre-Title, Fixed and Dynamic). - When using non-DirectShow zooming or panning functions in fullscreen mode, the control overlay buttons stopped working. - There was a hard limit to the number of IPTV groups you could hide and unfortunately that limit was around 180-240 groups and going over would reset the hidden groups. I have upped the limit, allowing you to hide anywhere between 10000 - 15000 groups, which should hopefully cover even the most extreme playlist. - Trying to play a video with an external audio track failed if the original video file or streaming media had no audio track itself. - Fixed an issue where the next chapter feature did not always work. - The options dialog's search feature did not work for some sections (media server, control overlay, possibly others). - Fixed a case when using the MPC-VR video renderer where the mouse cursor would sometimes stick as a resize cursor even after moving it from the window's edge. - The minimum window size is now automatically adjusted based on the monitor's resolution in order to prevent overlapping user interface elements on a high DPI display. - Under certain conditions, the resume playback dialog did not work, simply doing nothing when you pressed enter. - The mouse wheel can now be used to scroll over the control overlay's timeline to seek in the same way that was possible when using the Classic interface's timeline. - If you have had the setting to show the control overlay when seeking, performing consecutive seek actions did not reset the auto hide timer causing the control overlay to sometimes hide sooner than expected. - Setting the control overlay's timeline/volume bar's corner radius to "None / Square" caused the specified bar colors not to be used. - Fixed a very hard to trigger crash when trying to close Zoom Player using the control API just as Zoom Player was starting to run. - Using the next frame or previous frame feature did not work as expected while the fast forward or rewind features were active. - The title text on the IPTV VOD TV listing was slightly cropped on the right side. - Fixed a few cosmetic issues when redesigning the options dialog. - Fixed a bug when using the next/previous track repeatedly by holding the "]" or "[" keyboard shortcuts with only one media entry in the playlist, triggering a "next media in folder" action that caused a duplicate media entry to be added to the playlist and the "next media in folder" function to not work anymore (since now there are two entries in the playlist). - Adding a media to the favorite list that did not contain a title caused the favorite list to display an empty line. Now the media's name or URL is displayed. - Opening the options dialog with a media currently playing could would trigger a case where only the control overlay's timeline was visible. - The "Double-click triggers both double and single click actions" setting did not function as intended (single click action not triggered twice even if this setting was enabled), possibly broken by a previous update. - Fixed a crash when opening the color control overlay, closing it with the hint visible and then re-opening the color control overlay and hovering over the icons to show the hint. - The options dialog's section title area was not translated correctly when initially opening the options dialog. - If the color control overlay interface was open, clicking the video with the mouse cursor did not work. - Under some condition the seek forward/backward a specified number of seconds control overlay icons did not properly show the seconds count.What's new in Zoom Player v21:
* Introducing : Modern UI Zoom Player's user interface has remained more or less the same over many years and now it's finally time for a fresh new look. Gone is the skinned user interface, replaced by a simple frame. Hovering with the mouse cursor (or pressing the Ctrl+"Space" keyboard shortcut) now brings up a new Control Overlay, a semi-transparent user interface that appears over the video area. I tried to setup the default control overlay layout similar to the previous skinned layout to make the transition to a new interface as seamless as possible, but at the same time maintained the option to easily revert the user interface to the old design. Since the control overlay replaces both the skin and the control bar, some of the default settings related to the control bar have been reset in favor of control overlay features. If these changes are not suited to your setup, you can easily return to using the control bar instead. While designing the new Control Overlay interface, I took your feedback on Zoom Player's reddit forum and made sure the Control Overlay is the most customizable media interface ever created. You can customize nearly everything: + Button selection across 4 different button zones. + Button sizes for each button zone. + Text fonts, colors, sizes and transparency. + Volume and Timeline color, size and transparency. + Element visibility (button zones, volume bar, widgets, etc). + Lots and lots of settings to manage the Control Overlay behavior. The Control Overlay feature can be customized through the advanced options dialog under "Interface / Control Overlay". * When upgrading to a version previous to v21, a new dialog shows up to let you pick the user interface mode, either Classic UI or Modern UI. Please note that if you are using a non-default skin, your skin selection is reset to default in either case. You can pick your favorite skin again through the skin selection dialog ("N" keyboard shortcut). * The default skin modes have been updated. You can access the new modes from the right-click context menu or using these keyboard shortcuts: F3 = No user interface at all, just a floating video window. F4 = The new default, just a thin frame around the video area. F5 = Slightly larger frame with a title area and system buttons. F6 = Charcoal UI using small buttons. F7 = Full Charcoal UI (the previous default). F8 = Show bottom bar with more features. F9 = Show bottom bar with more features. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) to automatically show the Control Overlay when hovering with the mouse (enabled by default). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) to automatically show the Control Overlay when hovering with the mouse even when Zoom Player is not the active application. This feature is not perfect and can cause a cosmetic issue where the overlay appears in between Zoom Player's video window and a window from another application. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) to automatically show the Control Overlay when the mouse cursor reaches the screen's bottom in fullscreen mode. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) to automatically show the Control Overlay when the mouse cursor reaches the screen's top in fullscreen mode. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) to automatically show the Control Overlay when performing a forward/backward seek action. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) to automatically show the Control Overlay when pausing. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) to automatically show the Control Overlay when using fast forward or rewind. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) to automatically hide the Control Overlay when idle (3 seconds by default). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) to automatically hide the Control Overlay when clicking the video area. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Overlay) to show the control overlay when opening a new media. * As part of the Modern UI overhaul, I created a new color control overlay interface. It is accessible through the same color color keyboard shortcut (Shift+"O") and the right-click context menu. The new color control overlay is fully compatible with remote control devices using the left/right/up/down/enter navigation style and provides a more intuitive and less obtrusive interface. The color control overlay is now the default option when picking the color controls from the main home theater interface. You can change this under "Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation". * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video / Colors) that controls the size of the new color control overlay. * New snap zones feature that allows you to instantly snap Zoom Player's window to 10 predefined screen positions and sizes. The snap zones feature uses a similar interface to the video position presets used in fullscreen mode. In fact, they share the same Zoom Player function and keyboard shortcuts. There is no conflict as snap zones only work in windowed mode while video position presets only work in fullscreen mode. There are two ways to set snap zones. The advanced options dialog under "Interface / Position & Size" or by using keyboard shortcuts. To use keyboard shortcuts, first position and size Zoom Player's window and then use the Ctrl+"0-9" keyboard shortcut to set one of the desired zones. For example, Ctrl+"5" will set the current window size and position to snap zone #5. To snap Zoom Player's window back to snap zone #5, all you need to do is press the "5" key in Windowed mode. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse / Settings) that prevents the first mouse click on the video area from triggering the assigned functions if Zoom Player was not the active application. This setting is enabled by default to allow you to switch to Zoom Player's window now that the user interface is embedded within the video area. This setting only ignores the first click in the video area. If you click the control overlay or other Zoom Player windows, the action is triggered as expected. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / libVLC) allowing you to control whether the libVLC media engine should be used to stream IPTV archived (catchup) programs. This setting does not affect VOD playback. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / IPTV) that controls whether the stream/program filtering works when pressing enter or when typing in each key stroke. The new default is to require pressing enter. On older PCs or some laptops the experience of filtering on every key stroke was not optimal. * Updated Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation) to allow the selection of the new Color Control Overlay interface as an option when opening the color controls from the main Home Theater interface. * New media library search feature that works by filtering the currently listed items. This feature will be expanded in future releases to make it accessible using a remote control. * The media library's Media Server (PLEX/Emby/Jellyfin) plugin now shows TV episode numbers next to the episode name. * You can now drag Zoom Player's window by dragging the title area of a Home Theater interface. If you are not using the default home theater skin, you may need a new version of the skin that supports this feature. * The default home theater interfaces have been slightly tweaked with the close button moved to the right side and the title/date/time appearing more vertically centered in the title area. * New feature to automatically resize the player window to hide aspect ratio black bars, showing only the video. By default, this feature is assigned to the Shift+"`" (~) keyboard shortcut. * New feature to add the currently playing media to the favorites list. By default, this feature is assigned to the Ctrl+Shift+"F" keyboard shortcut. * New keyboard shortcuts to switch between Classic & Modern user interfaces: Ctrl+Shift+"F10" - Switch to Classic mode Ctrl+Shift+"F11" - Switch to Modern mode Classic mode : - Fully skinned user interface with lots of buttons - Control overlay interface is disabled - Control bar appears when moving the mouse to screen-bottom (fullscreen) - The space key shows the control bar - Hot corners are enabled at 5% Modern mode : - Small frame user interface, no buttons whatsoever - Control overlay interface appears over video area on mouse movement - Control bar is disabled - The space key performs a pause/play action - Hot corners are disabled (feature conflict with control overlay) * New "Add to favorites" option on the Playlist Home Theater interface. * New "Add to favorites" option on the Play History Home Theater interface. * New feature to show a pop-up Stream Selection menu. By default this feature is assigned to the control overlay's stream selection button. * When using IPTV's Player API, icons (Live, Movie, Series) are now displayed next to group names. * You can now show/hide the Control Overlay using the Ctrl+"Space" keyboard shortcut. * New "Control Overlay" entry added to the right-click context menu. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse / Settings) that disables Zoom Player from activating any function assigned to a mouse click when Zoom Player's video area is clicked when Zoom Player is not the active application, allowing you to switch to Zoom Player without activating any mouse button assigned function by accident. This new setting is enabled by default, otherwise switching to Zoom Player using the modern UI could trigger undesired actions. * New IPTV Group Manager interface accessible from the IPTV menu button or through the right-click menu. The Group Manager allows you to create new groups and easily select and add multiple streams to the group with a single click. The group manager can then export the organized streams to an M3U format, allowing the groups to be viewed and streamed by other software or devices. * In the previous version, I've added a feature that when you Zoom in using the mouse wheel, it zooms toward the mouse cursor. I have since listened to your feedback and made this feature optional. You can now turn it off under "Advanced Options / Interface / Mouse / Settings". * New "Create Shortcut" IPTV context-menu option that creates a shortcut file for the stream you've right-clicked, allowing you to launch Zoom Player directly into the stream. * You can now add and stream Player API TV Shows from IPTV favorites. If you previously added a TV Show as favorite, you have to recreate the TV Show favorite for this to work. * New "/referrer:[url]" command line parameter that specifies a referrer header when opening a URL from the command line, for example: zplayer.exe "/referrer:https://website.com" "https://website.com/v.m3u8" * New "/useragent:[text]" command line parameter that specifies a user- agent header when opening a URL from the command line, for example: zplayer.exe "/useragent:SpecialCode" "https://website.com/v.m3u8" * New "/exaudio:[media]" command line parameter that manually specifies an external audio file/URL for the currently playing media, for example: zplayer.exe "http://website.com/steam/video.mp4" "/exaudio:http://website.com/stream/audio.mp3" * New "/subtitle:[filename]" command line parameter that specifies an external subtitle file that should be loaded when opening a media file from the command line. * New right-click context menu "Help" usage guide images for the Media Server Browser and the new Modern UI control overlay. + Due to MadVR issues with Windows 11 and no update currently in sight, on a fresh install under Windows 11, MPC-VR is now offered as the performance mode video renderer. + It took nearly 3 days of optimization work, but now the advanced options dialog should open almost twice as fast. + The IPTV player window has been optimized for smoother scrolling while the stream's logo/image is being updated. + The new default when using the left arrow keyboard shortcut in the media library now goes up a folder if you are in a sub-folder rather than showing the category list. If you are already in the root folder then the category list is shown. This change does not affect existing installations, if you would like to apply it to your current installation, you can disable this setting: Advanced Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings - "Nav-Left goes up a folder before entering the Drive/Category list". + You can now resize Zoom Player's in the "F3" no-user-interface skin mode when a home theater interface is visible. + Zoom Player now saves the current play rate (speed) on exit. So if you disabled the settings that automatically reset the play rate, reopening Zoom Player now restores the previous play rate when playing the next track. + Rephrased Zoom Player's function descriptions to make them more logical and easier to find when sorted alphabetically. + Since the new Overlay Control conflicts with the Hot Corner feature, Hot Corners have been disabled by default. If you previously used the Hot Corners feature, you can re-enable it in the advanced options (make sure to disable the Control Overlay). + Maximizing the video window now pops-up any visible Zoom Player windows such as the Playlist Editor, Equalizer, Media Server Browser, IPTV Player, etc. + The default value for the "Show the Mouse Cursor (pixels)" setting (that also determines the number of pixels the mouse should move to show the new Control Overlay interface) has been changed from 2 pixels to 16. If you've previously set another value, you will need to set it again. + The default function assigned to the space key is now "Play / Pause", replacing the previous default of showing/hiding the control bar. If you wish to return to the previous default, you can do so from the advanced options dialog under (Interface / Keyboard). + The user interface button hints are now showing the function names from the translations in combination with any hint text from the skin. This change will help with translations since the text that is currently embedded in the skin script is not accessible. The downside is that using non-default skins may show a double-hint. + Updated Home Theater icons (media library, play history & color controls). + Scrolling through the play history window should be smoother now. + The default audio tag display position has changed from "Bottom" to "Center" in order to make sure it's not obscured by the control overlay. This change only affects clean installations. + The Control Bar menu entry has been moved under the "Controls" sub-menu. + The multi-playlist manager can now be resized to a smaller window. - Streaming from the media library's "Media server" plugin did not respect the "Use libVLC Engine to stream Media Server content" setting. - The Media Server Browser and Media Library Media Server plugins failed to show any episode listing for Jellyfin servers. - Media Server paths are no longer displayed in the media library, they were basically just gibberish to a human and a distraction. - Media Server TV show listings did not show their duration in the TV jukebox area. - Fixed a bug in the media library where resizing the window's height would stop thumbnails from updating until another action was used (clicking somewhere or using the keyboard). - Opening a media from the play history window and then as the media was being loaded quickly reopening the play history window would trigger a crash. - Fixed an issue where partially downloaded IPTV metadata was used instead of keeping the previously downloaded metadata, causing the IPTV stream list to disappear or appear partially with no error being reported in the IPTV settings section of the advanced options dialog. - Eliminated a bit of flickering (two updates) in the IPTV window's stream list panel when re-opening the window. - Clicking the "Media Info" radio button on the information window got broken and didn't show any information. - Switching between multiple-playlists now properly stops the currently playing media. - When using MadVR or MPC-VR as the video renderer with the no-UI skin mode (F3 keyboard shortcut), you can now resize the video from the edges and not only from the corners. - Hopefully fixed cases where Chinese/Japanese time and date display would show invalid characters. - Adding IPTV Player API movie to the favorites did not show the movie's description when clicked in the favorites section. - Fixed a bug after playing certain media files and then opening the media library would open the media library in the wrong mode (e.g. media scanner). - Fixed some DPI scaling issues on the "please upgrade" window.What's new in Zoom Player v20.1:
* The IPTV Player window's favorites system has been replaced by personal groups. This means that when you right-click a stream you are now presented with an option to pick which group to add the stream to or to add the stream to a "New Group". You can now right-click a personal group to rename, sort and remove the group along with additional controls to reposition the group (move up/down/top/bottom) within multiple personal groups. * The IPTV Player window's "Only show favorites" menu option is now saved when restarting Zoom Player. * Added support for IPTV Archive (catch-up) streams when using the Player API. Archive channels allow you to play previously aired content on a live channel. * Added support for TV / Movie categories when using the IPTV Player API login method (instead of listing them all under "TV" and "Movies"). * New setting (Adv. Options / Playback / IPTV) to fix IPTV Player API server-side character encoding issues. If stream names appear to use incorrect characters for foreign languages, symbols or emoji, try enabling this setting. * I found the IPTV window's user experience with regards to groups somewhat annoying. It's way too easy to accidentally click a group and then it auto-opens which can be jarring. To improve the experience, I decided to require a double-click action to open/close a stream group. However, I left the door open to disable this behavior in the options (Adv. Options / Playback / IPTV) in case single click action is preferable to you. * The advanced options dialog window is now taller and a bit more spaced out to make it easier finding a particular setting. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Smart Play / Settings) that allows you to specify LAV Splitter Source's (the DirectShow media engine streaming component) Stream Analysis Duration. The higher the value, the less chances of a partial stream detection (audio only playback) or a failed connection in exchange. A higher value may delay initial stream playback as the stream is analyzed. LAV Filter's default value is 1000, but from experimentation, I changed the default to 9500. If this causes streams to open slowly on your PC, you can reset this value back to 1000. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse / Settings) to disable the custom mouse cursor used when hovering over the timeline and use the Windows default mouse cursor instead. * When the libVLC media engine is in use, you can now see a "libVLC" entry on the right-click menu under the "Filter Properties" sub-menu. + The Media Server Browser dialog (Shift+"Y" keyboard shortcut) should open slightly faster. + You can now dismiss a connection error message from the IPTV player window by clicking the stream list, EPG list or an empty region within the IPTV player window. You can also dismiss the error dialog using the keyboard by pressing the ESC key without the action closing the IPTV player window. - Closing and then re-opening the IPTV player window caused the EPG Grid button to become disabled until Zoom Player was restarted. - An IPTV Authentication error could result in the "Please Wait" window never disappearing. - The Pre-Configuration Wizard wizard that appears on a fresh install or when using the Alt+Shift+"F12" keyboard shortcut would enable MadVR's OSD for fullscreen exclusive mode, a feature that's actually problematic and on some PCs would break the control bar and other OSD elements. To work-around this issue, I had to reset this setting globally. If you are using MadVR in fullscreen exclusive mode, you will have to re-enable this setting manually. - Adding an IPTV stream with archive (catch-up) support as a favorite stream did not allow you to watch archived programs. - In some cases where the IPTV EPG is messed up, listing two entries for the same stream at the same air time, a "no information" entry was inserted between these entries entries. - Zoom Player now tries to remove duplicate IPTV EPG entries (as long as they are listed at the exact same air time).What's new in Zoom Player v20:
* In an effort to modernize Zoom Player's Home Theater look & feel, I've been working with Godwin on a new icon style. Simple, clean, subtle shading. Another small tweak I made is to the Home Theater interfaces title area. It is now using a more standard font & color, reducing the number of different fonts used on-screen for a cleaner look. If you would like to comment on the new design, leave me a post on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/zoomplayer * New Media Server Browser feature that allows you to stream media from a local or remote Media Server (Adv. Options / Playback / Media Server). Zoom Player currently supports the top-3 media servers: 1. Plex 2. Emby 3. Jellyfin There is no limit to the number or types of servers you can add, you can mix and match as many servers as you want. With Zoom Player MAX, you can access the new Media Server Browser using the Shift+"Y" keyboard shortcut or using the right-click menu under the "Open Interface" sub-menu. With Zoom Player IPTV, there is an additional dedicated button to open the Media Server Browser window and it's the second option from the top on the right-click menu. Right-clicking a media entry to show information about the media along with any associated art (poster/cover image). Please note that depending on the media server type, load and connectivity, using libVLC to stream content from a media server may offer faster seeking and audio/subtitle track switching. Depending on the Media Server used, the returned search result may differ. For example, when searching the entire server, Emby will return Movies, TV Series, Seasons and Episodes, including if the search term is only in the show name and not an episode's title. Plex and Jellyfin on the other hand, will only return Movies, TV Series and Episodes that the search term matches the entry's title. Episodes and Seasons that do not contain the Series name in the title, will not be listed. Plex is even worse when searching within a category, it does not search recursively so it's not working much better than the filtering feature. * New "Media Server" Media Library plugin. After specifying your media server credentials in Zoom Player's options dialog (Adv. Options / Playback / Media Server), Simply press Shift+"M" to open the media library category editor, select either the TV Shows or Movies category mode and click "Create Category". You will be presented with a choice of categories available on the specified media servers. Pick a category and you're done, full access to your Plex, Emby or Jellyfin library accessible directly from Zoom Player's media library. * New "Stream connection attempts" IPTV setting (Adv. Options / Playback / IPTV). IPTV servers can be overloaded at times and may require more than one attempt to establish a connection. The default value is now "3" connection attempts before showing an error. * New libVLC option ("Adv. Options / Playback / libVLC" or "Adv. Options / Playback / Media Server", this setting appears twice) to control whether the libVLC media engine should be used when playing content from media servers. * You can now edit a media library plug-in's memory cache duration by opening the category editor (Shift+"M") and pressing the "Configure Category" button (the default value is specified by the plugin itself). * New Shift+"Y" keyboard shortcut to open the Media Server browsing client. * The default IPTV skin now includes new buttons to open the Home Theater Media Library and Media Server Browser interfaces. These buttons replace the Fast Forward and Rewind buttons which work on a technology that is not really practical with streaming content. * New "Play History" button on the IPTV Player window next to the "Play Stream" button to quickly replay the last 10 (configurable, see below) viewed streams. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / IPTV) that controls how many streams should be saved in the IPTV Player window's play history drop- down menu). The default value is "10" and you can set it to "0" to completely disable saving IPTV stream playback history. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) to control whether the media library shows a media's duration next to the media's name in list view (enabled by default). * You can now define a Personal Rating and leave a Personal Note in the media library's meta-data editor. Setting a Personal Rating overrides the Star rating user interface display, but does not affect sorting or filtering by Star rating. * New "Sort by Personal Rating" media library sorting option. * New "Filter by Personal Rating" media library filtering option. * You can now set the DVD Video Renderer to MPC-VR. Please note that if LAV Filters is used with hardware accelerated video decoding in "D3D11" or "DXVA2 (native)" modes, subtitles will not be visible. * The Media Library's Plugin API has been enhanced to provide additional information to the plugin, opening access to new features (e.g. Media Server plugin). * New feature to reset Zoom Player to default settings. Accessible from the advanced options dialog by clicking the "Help / Export" button. * You can now change the skin magnification from 100% to 400% through the right-click menu within the "Controls" sub-menu. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display) to only show the time when showing the clock (Alt+Ctrl+"D" keyboard shortcut). By default both the Time and Date are shown. * Since neither of the Subtitle components used by Zoom Player (DirectVobSub and xySubFilter) support VTT subtitles, I wrote code to dynamically convert ".VTT" files to ".SRT" files on the fly. The temporary ".SRT" files are saved to the windows temp folder and are erased as soon as the media closes. This feature only works on external subtitle files. * Two new functions added to the XBOX controller Stick controls (Adv. Options / Interface / XInput) to control the volume using and seek forward/backward a number of seconds. * You can now assign any Zoom Player function to the XBOX controller trigger buttons. The default custom values are seeking backward/forward. * New (optional) color Hue adjustment control bar buttons, including Increase Hue, Decrease Hue and Reset Hue. * New (optional) control bar button to open the Media Server Browser. * New TCP/IP API command #3210 that returns information on whether the user accepted or canceled a file delete request. * New "exSkinMagnify" extended function that lets you set the skin's magnification values. Valid values are 1 (100%) to 8 (800%). * Added smart play profiles for Audiobooks in the ".M4B" and ".AAX" formats. * Added "AAX" as a default Audio file extension format. This change is not applied automatically to existing installation, you can apply it by clicking the "Default" button next to the audio extensions under "Advanced Options / File Format Association / File Extensions". * The Media Library plug-in API has been extended to allow plugins to specify their own memory cache duration. The default value for most plugins is 1 hour. The default value for the media server plugin is 24 hours. Using the "Refresh" option clears the cache and retrieves fresh data. + Re-opening the IPTV Player window should now be nearly instant. The only downside is that if you edit the files manually while Zoom Player is running, you will have to restart Zoom Player for the changes to take affect. + New (optional) control bar button to open the IPTV Player window added to Zoom Player MAX. + The IPTV setup window (Adv. Options / Playback / IPTV) now allows you to set an auto-update time that includes a fractional value, allowing the database to be updated more than once per day. The minimal automatic update value is approximately 30 minutes. + A message explaining libVLC was not installed on your computer accidentally displayed when libVLC was installed but failed to open a file or stream. + The Zoom in functions (both standard and DirectShow) now try to Zoom in toward the mouse cursor when triggered using the mouse wheel. + The Playlist Editor's right-click context menu has been simplified with some of the items moved to an "Extras" sub-menu. + The IPTV Player window is now using skinned right-click context menus. + You can now select and play multiple items directly from the play history window (Alt+"H" keyboard shortcut). + Added ellipsis "..." symbols to Home Theater list interfaces where previously the text was simply cut off. + Added ellipsis "..." symbols to the playlist editor. + Added ellipsis "..." symbols to the meta-data display area when playing audio tracks. + The Options window's Search feature will now start showing results only from the second letter searched, typing that first character returned a lot of results which wasn't as snappy as I wanted and there's nothing to search for that is one letter long, so it didn't make sense either. + The default TCP/IP Control API port has been changed to 32999. + The default Web Server Control port has been changed to 32998. + Play history is used by many of the features, making the default value of storing history for 30 days no longer make sense. I have now changed the default value to 18262 days (approximately 50 years). + The mouse wheel should work better when scrolling through options in the advanced options dialog. + The Media Library Playlist plugin can now handle playlists that have x32 more entries compared to the previous version (over 24,000 entries). + The Media Library RSS plugin is now more compatible with Atom feeds. + The Media Library RSS plugin should be a little faster parsing feeds. + I am disabling the "Display OSD through MadVR's OSD API" setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video) on every install. This feature can have a negative impact on the user experience, its only benefits is if you use MadVR in fullscreen exclusive mode, a mode that is no longer of much use when running Windows 10 or better. If you previously used this feature and would like to continue using it, it can be re-enabled in the options. + libVLC's default audio framework is now set by default to "DirectSound", otherwise using libVLC and changing the volume would affect the windows- level volume level for Zoom Player (which should always be set to 100%). + Added "cover" to the "Background image search mask" feature which is used to find album art images when playing audio files. So right now the search mask covers both "folder" and "cover" file names (in any support image format). - The IPTV's "Force http" subscription setting did not actually force "http" connections if the server reported it supports "https", but doesn't actually have a server listening on the https port. - Fixed a bug that prevented some channel icons from being displayed in the IPTV player window. - Fixed a bug that prevented the IPTV player window from being closed after playing a stream and then closing and re-opening the IPTV player window. - Fixed a crash when using the keyboard or remote in the confirmation home theater interface (used when resuming playback or to confirm erasing a file) to press Enter multiple times in quick succession. - Fixed a crash when opening the IPTV's or EPG Grid's 'customize' menus on a monitor with a DPI setting larger than 100%. - Fixed a crash when opening the play history window on a monitor with a DPI setting larger than 100%. - Setting "On Playlist Complete" to "Auto-Rewind" could have triggered a crash or unstable behavior under some conditions. - Fixed a crash when loading 4bit PNG images with transparency. This was especially nasty with the IPTV player window as some stream logos were using this format, causing the IPTV Player feature to become unstable (unable to close window or an outright crash). - Fixed a relatively rare crash when closing the confirmation home theater interface (used when resuming playback or to confirm erasing a file). - Fixed a relatively rare crash when closing the virtual keyboard interface (used when renaming files in the media library or trying to access a password protected category). - Fixed an infinite-loop freeze when using the media library with a network share path (e.g. "\\ServerName\Movies\") folder based category, entering a sub-folder within that category and later on renaming or deleting the folder server-side without updating Zoom Player's media library configuration. - Fixed a bug in the open-drive feature (which is also used when auto- mounting ISO files) that failed to properly load virtually mounted BluRay content. - Fixed a bug where re-opening the IPTV Player window with a previously selected stream highlighted didn't enable the "Play Stream" button. - Using the media library's Filter by Star Rating feature showed a value range, for example "6 - 7", but did not actually show any 7.0 entries, showing only up to 6.9. - Setting the DVD Video Renderer to MadMR did not work at all with only audio playing. Please note that if LAV Filters is used with hardware accelerated video decoding in "D3D11" or "DXVA2 (native)" modes, subtitles will not be visible. - Titles in the skinned right-click menu were not horizontally aligned. - The Shift+Arrow keys to accurately reposition the video image or player windows stopped functioning at some point and now works again. - The "Reset Brightness" feature when using the EVR or MadVR video renderers reset the brightness to "1" instead of "0". - Hiding IPTV Groups containing the quote character in the group's name did not work as intended. - The Media Library RSS Feed plug-in should be better at handling text that is not encoded in UTF8 or English (e.g. Russian). - libVLC's audio framework selection was completely broken, selecting another device wouldn't work at all or would use the default audio device instead. - When streaming media using libVLC, under some unknown condition, libVLC starts sending 1000's of time-changed events to Zoom Player every second, causing Zoom Player's user interface to freeze under the load. I wrote custom code to filter out all the duplicate events to work-around this issue. - Fixed a bug in Zoom Player IPTV that partially broke translation of the options dialog left-pane tree view, causing some lines to remain in the original English. - The setting to go fullscreen on play was accidentally disabled in Zoom Player IPTV. - Fixed a bug that caused some error message text to get truncated. - In some resolutions, the meta-data display for playing audio media did not use a round-rectangle background correctly, causing text to appear partially outside the background. - Some over-zealous code optimization broke the audio playback meta-data display area, showing tags for empty fields. - When loading TAG data from audio files and MP4 files containing unicode character using MediaInfo.dll, the media title appeared as a series of question marks. - Selecting the libVLC section in the Advanced Options dialog a second time no longer tries to relist libVLC's audio devices, causing a slight delay. - Fixed an issue that prevented the libVLC media engine from playing media files containing Emoji characters. - Fixed an issue that under some conditions caused the media library thumbnail text to render incorrectly, either not utilizing the available space or actually drawing over the thumbnail. - Fixed loading ".Cue" external chapter files not loading the correct chapter positions. - The Media Library's "Playlist" plugin did not display the media's title when listing ".M3U" playlists. - Opening the options dialog now resets the IPTV player cache to make sure changes are updated when re-opening the IPTV player window. - The XBOX controller functions were not being triggered at the correct speed and in the case of analog input (stick, triggers), the function did not repeat if the stick/trigger did not move.What's new in Zoom Player v19.5.2:
* A new IPTV Setup Wizard is shown when opening the IPTV player window for the first time. The Wizard simplifies the IPTV setup experience by automatically using the recommended default values. You only need to enter the login details you receive from your provider, click "save" and you're done. In Zoom Player IPTV, the IPTV Setup Wizard is shown immediately after launching Zoom Player for the very first time. * You can now open the IPTV Setup Wizard at any time by using the Ctrl+Shift+"F12" keyboard shortcut. Please note that using the IPTV Setup Wizard wipes existing IPTV provider information (with a warning message first). * On a fresh install, the Pre-Configuration wizard now offers a new "PC IPTV" option. The only difference from the regular PC option and the "PC IPTV" option is that picking the "PC IPTV" shows the new IPTV Setup Wizard right afterwards. * New Alt+"Q" keyboard shortcut to bring up the Source/Splitter filter's property page (configuration dialog). By default it opens the "LAV Splitter Source" dialog, allowing you to more easily configure Stream Analysis Duration", "Queue Memory", Preferred audio stream selection and other "source" related features. * New "Adv. Options / Playback / IPTV" button to clear the database cache. + Optimized the options dialog, it should now open 500-800ms faster. Yes, it still takes longer than desired. There's so many settings that it takes Windows itself about 1.3 seconds just to create the dialog and another 0.3 second just to set the DPI-Aware font. + Opening the IPTV player window for the first time no longer offers to add the FreeTV project's stream list. You can still add the stream list in the advanced options dialog. + The IPTV Player window's "Update Available" button is now outlined in a highlight color when an update is available, making it easier to see when an update is available. + To make the interface more intuitive, the media library category editor's "Create Category" button is now enabled in Prism View mode. When clicked, you will be prompted for the category mode before proceeding. + You can now rename and delete media library categories from prism view without first having to select the category mode. + The media library category editor's right-click menu now selects the item under the cursor before showing the menu. + To allow activation, Zoom Player's trial version will no longer automatically close after the trial period is over, instead preventing new media playback and showing the "Trial Over" message again. + The playlist editor's item counter has been changed from "file/files" to "Item(s)" to better reflect the fact that the playlist can hold URLs. Previously the "file/files" text was hard-coded, but now it's using the translated text for other languages. + The MadVR default is now set to not to display OSD through MadVR's OSD service which is slower and only intended for fullscreen exclusive mode. + There is now a "Cancel" button on the media library category editor's "Create Category" type selector. + Added a confirmation message when trying to use the "Remove All" button on the chapter/bookmark editor. + You can minimize the IPTV window again. - The IPTV Player window's "Update Available" button did not enable after downloading Player API database updates. - The "IPTV" entry's text on the main right-click context menu was not updated correctly. - Removing an IPTV XCode/Playlist/EPG automated download profile mid- download could have caused Zoom Player to freeze. Now a message pops up and asks you to wait for the download to complete first. - The following keyboard shortcuts were not assigned the function listed in the keyboard help: Alt+"6" - Toggle libVLC IPTV playback (Enabled/Disabled) Alt+"7" - Toggle libVLC BluRay playback (Enabled/Disabled) Alt+"8" - Toggle libVLC Media file playback (Enabled/Disabled) Alt+"9" - Toggle libVLC Streaming playback (Enabled/Disabled) - Adding chapters to a media file containing embedded chapter data caused the embedded chapters to disappear when reloading the media. - The "Open Window's file association interface" button in the "File Format Association" section of the options dialog now works with Windows 10+.What's new in Zoom Player v19.5:
* IPTV Subscription support. Zoom Player supports three different IPTV Subscription modes to access the stream playlist and EPG (electronic program guide) information. The modes exist to offer a fallback solution in case your IPTV provider is only offering partial support for Player API feature-set. 1. Player API : This is the most recent login interface. It uses network queries to obtain both the Stream Playlists and EPG data. TV Series and Movies are handled separately from live streams, providing an enhanced navigation experience. However, the EPG information is only accessible on a per-stream level and not as a whole, preventing the Global Filtering and EPG Grid features from working. 2. Player API + XML (default) : By leveraging the Player API you still benefit from the separate handling of TV Series and Movies. With the entire EPG downloaded as a single XML file, the Global Filtering and EPG Grid features have access to the full program guide and can work as intended. 3. M3U + XML : This is the most basic mode with both the EPG and the stream playlists downloaded as single-file databases. Global Filtering and the EPG Grid features work as intended, however TV Series and Movies are left to the graces of your IPTV provider, which means they may be harder to access and usually lack EPG or Meta-Data information (e.g. Bitrate). * New IPTV Electronic Program Guide Grid. The EPG grid is an alternative program guide view that lists the episode guide of multiple streams in an easy to scroll and filter interface. You can access the EPG grid by pressing the "#" button within the IPTV window. The EPG grid does not rely on the stream list and can be used without specifying any stream sources. The EPG grid's look and feel can be fully customized by pressing the menu button and choosing "Customize". You can use this same menu to "Magnetize" the EPG Grid window to the IPTV window. * New IPTV global episode guide filter. The new global filter works across all streams, filtering out streams that do not contain a program title containing the filter text. Global filtering is very useful when searching for a particular program or live event across all available streams. Please note that performing the initial global search triggers a one time stream indexing operation that may up to a few minutes on some hardware. * Added support for H.266/VVC, AV1 and Opus detection and icons to the media library. * New IPTV menu button on the IPTV window. The new menu includes: 1. Only show favorites (new feature, hides all other streams). 2. Toggle Opacity (previously a button). 3. IPTV Settings (previously a button). * Added a new setting (Adv. Options / System / Screen Saver & Capture) that allows you to specify if screenshots should be saved in the same folder as the video currently being played (Only applies to local files). * Added a new setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video / Aspect Ratio) to reset the aspect ratio to "Derived" when opening a new media (disabled by default). * Added a new setting (Adv. Options / Playback / History) to automatically restore the previously active video aspect ratio on replay (disabled by default). This new feature will only work for videos that was previously played by this version of Zoom Player (or newer) since previous versions did not save the active aspect ratio. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / IPTV) to sort the Group list by name. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Naviation / Settings) to prevent the fullscreen playlist and streaming navigation interfaces from closing when playing a new file. * New Settings to seek forward/backward a percentage of the media's duration. Te default seek distance is 10% of the media's duration but you can change this value under "Adv. Options / Playback / Controls". By default, the two new functions are assigned to the Ctrl+Alt+"[" and Ctrl+Alt+"]" keyboard shortcuts. * New Settings to seek forward/backward a percentage of the media's duration when right-clicking the timeline. The default action is still seeking in seconds, you can change this to percent under - "Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse / Settings". * Added settings to control which Zoom Player function is triggered when using the mouse wheel while holding either the Alt, Ctrl or Shift keys. The default values are: Mouse Wheel + Alt : Seek 5 seconds backwards/forwards Mouse Wheel + Ctrl : Seek 20 seconds backwards/forwards Mouse Wheel + Shift : Seek 120 seconds backwards/forwards Watch me code it live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyEXJgvPv7c * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / IPTV) to control whether global EPG filtering includes filtering using the program's description. This setting can slow down filtering and is disabled by default. * New "Copy path to clipboard" item on the playlist editor's right-click menu. This feature allows you to copy the file or URL path of the selected media entry in the playlist editor. * IPTV Per-EPG Time Shift support (Adv. Options / Playback / IPTV) has been added. The time shift is applied to the entire EPG. Please note : If you previously set a time shift on a specific stream then both time shifts are combined. * In cases where you list an IPTV stream supporting archive playback but the stream does not have an Episode Guide or the Episode Guide does not cover the full archive period specified in the playlist, Zoom Player now creates empty entries on the EPG listing panels to enable archive playback covering the full archive period. * IPTV playback of streams that require authentication using user-agent or referrer are now supported. For compatibility, Zoom Player uses the same "#EXTVLCOPT" playlist tag as VLC. This feature requires a version of LAV Filters newer than 0.79.2 as it was introduced by LAV Filters in a nightly build released after v0.79.2. * Rewrote some of the IPTV stream listing code to work much faster when dealing with massive stream lists. I used a test file containing an outrageous 572,527 playlist entries in a 142mb file. I managed to reduce filtering time from 24.4 seconds all the way down to 1.3 seconds or 1877% faster compared to the previous version. * Added an IPTV stream "filtered / count" label to the IPTV window. * Adding an IPTV Playlist or EPG download link will now automatically suggest a profile name based on the base URL. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / IPTV) that determines whether clicking on an IPTV group snaps the group to the top of the list, displaying the maximum number of items on-screen. Enabled by default. * Added an "Export Playlist to M3U" feature to the playlist editor's right- click context menu. * Closing Zoom Player with less than 1GB of free space on the "C:" drive now shows a warning message. Under some conditions, low disk space can corrupt Zoom Player's settings and we don't want that. If the message is annoying, disable it under "Adv. Options / System". + Some of the IPTV customization options have moved to an interactive dialog that can be opened from the IPTV window and allows you to view any changes you make in real time. + The media library now shows the media's duration in list view mode when a duration is available. + Cleaned up the Advanced Options dialog's Video Aspect Ratio section. + Cleaned up the Advanced Options dialog's Mouse Wheel section. Watch me redesign it live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyEXJgvPv7c + Redesigned the chapter/bookmark editor to make it cleaner and easier to use. Watch me redesign it live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyEXJgvPv7c + Enhanced the IPTV playlist parsing code to be more tolerant of badly authored playlists. + Optimized several parsing functions, Zoom Player should now load a little quicker. + You can now edit the IPTV's Playlist/EPG URL value without having to first remove the existing listing. + Unassigned (to a group) IPTV playlist entries are now listed on the bottom and not semi-randomly (where the first unassigned entry was spotting in the playlist). + Zoom Player no longer asks you if you would like to add the free IPTV channels if you already configured your own IPTV subscription service. + Clicking on a playlist entry in the playlist editor window when search is active, now removes the keyboard focus from the search box. The search value is not reset in this case, just hidden until you click the search box again. + Changed the title of the IPTV interface on the right-click context menu from "IPTV Electronic Program Guide" to "IPTV Player". + Some of the IPTV window's buttons have moved under a Menu button to make room for new features. + The Media Library's YouTube Playlist plugin can now be used to "Refresh" the thumbnail and playlist name under the media library editor's configuration page. + For clarity, the IPTV Window's "Play Stream" button is now disabled in cases where streams can't be played based on the currently selected entry. + The scene-cut dialog now closes when closing the playing media and will not open unless a media is playing with a duration longer than "0". + The "Reset user interface windows" function now applies to the IPTV player window and EPG Grid window. + Refreshed the content of the keyboard help dialog (F1 keyboard shortcut) for clarity. + The options dialog's Search feature now tries to screen-center the searched feature when clicked. + You can now select and delete multiple media library categories in the media library category editor using a single action. + You can now use the "Delete" key in the media library category editor to delete (with confirmation) the selected categories. + Added a right-click menu to the media library category editor's category list to make the features more accessible. + Small tweaks to the Media Library Category Editor layout to improve the user experience. + Added "VTT" to the default subtitle extensions (Adv. Options / File Format Association / File Extensions). You need to press the "Default" button on this page to apply this change on existing installations. + Added the ".RA" extension to Smart Play's real audio source profile. + The "Reset Color settings" keyboard shortcut has been changed from "F11" to "Ctrl+F11". + The "Apply Color settings" keyboard shortcut has been changed from "F12" to "Ctrl+F12". - Playing new media from the Playlist Editor, IPTV windows, Advanced Playlist Control and the Station Manager should no longer cause the main player window to appear on top for a short duration while the media is loading. - Incorrectly setting the Hot-Corner action in the advanced options dialog could cause Zoom Player's settings to get partially reset. - Due to an encoding bug, favorite IPTV stream names containing special characters got progressively more corrupted with "&pipe", ""e", "&" and other HTML character encoding garbage. - Parsing "M3U" playlist containing URLs ignored the listed duration. - Any interface SFX played while a media was loaded using the DirectShow media engine would break volume control until a new media was loaded. - "SOON" and "LIVE" media library YouTube entries would disappear when pressing the "Load More" option and then closing and reopening the media library. - Fixed a UTF8 encoding/decoding bug that failed to decode unicode characters greater than U+010000 in the TCP/IP control API, causing Zoom Player to not find files with these characters in the name. - Loading a Zoom Player chapter file (".zpchp") did not sort the chapters by position, instead showing them by the order they were listed in the file. Watch me fix it live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyEXJgvPv7c - Fixed a bug that prevented the source video resolution from being read when using MPC-VR as the video renderer. Watch me fix it live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyEXJgvPv7c - Fixed a bug that prevented text input on the "Folder/Poster file mask" and "Backdrop file mask" settings (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization). - Fixed a bug where IPTV stream's time-shift offset was not being saved correctly if the stream only had a name and not an ID. - The media library category editor should now restore the previously selected category when closing and re-opening the dialog. - Using the media library's "resume playback" feature did not add the media's title (when available) to the playlist. - Fixed a bug that could cause Zoom Player to freeze on exit when a new IPTV playlist/EPG download has finished with no disk space to extract it. - Pressing "Play" from the control bar when using the libVLC engine for playback could cause the control bar to appear hidden behind the video, preventing access until the control bar was closed and reopened. - Fixed a small cosmetic glitch when resizing the IPTV program information dialog. - Fixed a cosmetic bug that caused the wrong icons to appear in the playlist fullscreen navigation interface if safe mode was enabled. - Fixed a cosmetic bug that didn't update the playing media's duration in real time if the playlist had another duplicate entry listed earlier. - The Media Library RSS feed plugin showed duplicate entries if the server switched from "https://" URLs to "http://" URLs. This fix does not resolve the issue if bad entries were already cached, to resolve that you have to erase the ".rss" file from Zoom Player's "CategoryCache\RSS_Feed\" folder. - The Media Library RSS feed plugin did not show the "Refresh" option. - Some dialogs on the skin selection dialog were not showing translated OK/Cancel buttons. - When using really massive IPTV playlists that can take a few seconds to parse or filter, Windows would detect Zoom Player's window as unresponsive and when Zoom Player completed the action and became responsive again, Windows would bring the main player window to the front automatically. Now Zoom Player restores the IPTV window to the top as soon as such long actions are complete. - You can no longer right-click to hide your IPTV's "Favorites" from the stream list. - When picking a local IPTV playlist or EPG file and changing the dialog to search for "all files", no files were shown. - Fixed a rare case where the playlist editor was not able to read an M3U playlist entry's title. - You can no longer use a duplicate or empty profile name when adding or renaming IPTV sources. - On rare occasions using the Edge Webview2 engine to playback YouTube content resulted in the video's duration remaining at zero, causing Zoom Player's internal screen saver to kick-in. I wrote a fix, but it is untested as this issue is somewhat rare, let me know if you encounter it after this fix. - Fixed a glitch with the default skins that caused the title text to appear behind the minimize button in audio mode. - Setting the Scene Cut editor to "Pause Playback" did not update the user interface correctly. - Using ".df" definition files to save/restore a subtitle synchronization offset was broken in v19 when I added support for the libVLC media engine. - Using a custom menu "Execute" feature did not work if the playing file had space characters in the file name. - You can no longer "favorite" the same IPTV stream more than once. - Clicking on "Favorite" IPTV streams did not show their EPG information or showed an EPG information from a different stream. - Right-clicking the IPTV Stream List panel did not update the EPG listing. - The scene-cut information was not cleared when closing the playing media. - The scene-cut "GoTo" button was incorrectly enabled for some cut modes. - An IPTV's program description did not show line breaks correctly in the EPG list. - Switching an audio or subtitle track while the Home Theater Stream Selection interface was open did not update the listed entries to reflect the new track selection. - Media Library thumbnails with a title longer than the available space to display the text were not vertically centered correctly.What's new in Zoom Player v19:
* Zoom Player has integrated libVLC, the media engine used by the VLC media player. This integration means that several new features that were unique to VLC are now available in Zoom Player, leveraging the reliability of VLC with Zoom Player's powerful and versatile user interface. In theory, Zoom Player's default choice of Microsoft's DirectShow media engine is superior to libVLC in a lot of ways. DirectShow is a lower-level integration, allowing me to develop unique features that are impossible to do with libVLC. At the same time and due to its complexity, there may be cases where libVLC can be more reliable than DirectShow. By default only BluRay discs play using libVLC due to libVLC's support for playing BluRay discs with menus. However, since this is Zoom Player you're reading about, the ultimate choice of which engine to use is up to you! You can enable libVLC specifically for BluRay discs, IPTV streaming, media playback (by file extension) and open-ended streaming (by URL, for example "youtube") under the new advanced options section (Adv. Options / Playback / libVLC). To use libVLC you must either install the latest version of the 32bit VLC player or install libVLC from the install center (it does not conflict with existing VLC installations). Most Zoom Player features are compatible with the new media engine: - BluRay Playback with Menus! Enabled by default, opening a drive, folder or the "index.bdmv" file begins BluRay playback. Menus are navigated using the standard navigation keys (up/down/left/right Arrows + Enter keys). The same limitation that apply to playing BluRay discs in VLC applies when using the libVLC media engine in Zoom Player, along with any glitches. This means that you must have Java installed for the BluRay menus to work and that playing encrypted discs will not work by default. As for the glitches, I encountered cases where 4K BluRay videos can freeze and verified that the same issue happens in the original VLC player. - Casting! You can now use libVLC to cast the playing video to supported ChromeCast devices. All you need to do is open "Adv. Options / Playback / libVLC" and scan for the ChromeCast device. Any content played through the libVLC engine will now display on the selected device. Please consider that it can take a few seconds longer to open media files for casting. - Aspect Ratio Controls: Zoom Player's powerful aspect ratio controls are fully supported. - Subtitle Display: Other than re-positioning the subtitles on-screen, most of Zoom Player subtitle features should work great with libVLC. - Add Subtitle Track on Drag & Drop / Add Sub file: You can easily add subtitle files by drag & dropping files on Zoom Player's window or by opening a subtitle file after the video is loaded. - Subtitle Synchronization Adjustments: You can adjust subtitle synchronization through the standard keyboard macros (Alt+Ctrl+"+" and Alt+Ctrl+"-" on the keypad). - Audio Framework Device Selection: libVLC is pretty flexible in its audio device selection offering three different frameworks (MMDevice, DirectSound and WaveOut). Zoom Player makes it easy to choose the framework that works best for your PC. - Audio Track Selection & Cycle: Easily select and cycle between multiple audio tracks. - Audio Synchronization Adjustments: You can adjust audio synchronization using the standard keyboard macros (Shift+"+" and Shift+"-" on the keypad). - Equalizer & Pre-amp: Please note that the values work a bit differently when compared to the DirectShow Equalizer and the two don't sound the exactly same when switching media engines. - Preferred Audio Device switching (Shift+"A"): Works like the DirectShow version, but requires you to select the audio devices separately on the libVLC options page. - Virtual Video Editing with BluRay Movies with Menus: The scene cut feature that allows you to virtually edit videos should now be compatible with BluRay titles with Menus when using libVLC. However, this feature has not been heavily tested so please let me know on reddit if it's not working as expected. - Play History (position, audio track, subtitle track): Zoom Player's play history feature which can save and restore the last play position, active audio, subtitle tracks and more is fully compatible. - Play Rates (fast play, slow motion): Fast Play and Slow Motion might even work on more media formats than supported by DirectShow, give it a try. - Load Embedded Chapters (Bookmarks): Using libVLC, Zoom Player can read embedded chapters or bookmarks from both media files and BluRay titles. - Load External Audio Tracks for playing video: Full support for one or more external audio tracks. - Play Next Frame: The next frame feature is fully supported. - Screenshots: The screenshot keyboard macro (Alt+"F") is fully compatible with libVLC with the exception that the screenshot file format is limited to ".png". - SHOUTcast Radio Streaming: While supported, using the DirectShow media engine provides a superior experience. * Added support for the new H.266 VVC (Versatile Video Codec) format. LAV Filters v0.79 is required for decoding. Please note that VCC support is experimental and not fully optimized. To properly support VCC in resolutions above 1080p would require hardware accelerated decoding which is not currently supported by any current GPU or CPU (next-gen support has been announced). * Added MPC Audio Decoder Smart Play profiles for many supported audio Codecs. * The playlist editor has received support for multiple playlists that you can instantly switch between. Multiple playlists are loaded in a background thread so even if you use massive playlists with 1000's of items, it should not have much of an impact Zoom Player's load and close time performance. Press the new multi-playlist button on the playlist editor (top left corner) to add the current playlist, a playlist from a file or manage the multiple playlists (remove, rename, reorder). You can see me develop this feature live here: Part 1 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hhQoJ0kkoA Part 2 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GLUuymiz_Y * New "Cast to Device" feature on the main right-click menu and available as a keyboard shortcut (Shift+"/") that allows you to Cast the currently playing media to a Chromecast compatible device. This feature does requires libVLC is installed but does not require you to play the current media with libVLC (the playback engines automatically switch as the media is casted). You can see me develop this feature live here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3eDBtunqZc * Running Zoom Player on a fresh install will now asks if you would like to enable "Performance Mode". Choosing "Yes" does two things: 1. Enables D3D11 hardware accelerated video decoding in LAV Filters, a requirement for smooth 4K video playback. 2. Sets the Video Renderer to MadVR, enabling HDR video support, high quality video scaling, hardware accelerated subtitle rendering and smoother motion. Both settings can be modified in the advanced options dialog: Adv. Options / Playback / Video * MPC-VR can now be selected as a Video Renderer for media playback. Some of this video renderer's features are not yet supported (e.g. pixel-shaders). But subtitles, subtitle synchronization, video rotation and Dolby Vision do work thanks to the help of Chetan Ullal and his work on the MPC Subtitle Helper component: https://github.com/Chetan-Ullal/MPC-BE-SubtitleHelper/releases * The hint pop-up that appears when hovering with the mouse cursor over a skinned user interface button now includes the keyboard macro used to activate the button. * New keyboard macros to toggle libVLC playback: Alt+"6" - Toggle libVLC IPTV playback (enabled/disabled) Alt+"7" - Toggle libVLC BluRay playback (enabled/disabled) Alt+"8" - Toggle libVLC Media file playback (enabled/disabled) Alt+"9" - Toggle libVLC Streaming playback (enabled/disabled) These toggles still require that you re-open the playing media to take affect. * The right-click menu has been extended with a new "Help" section. The help section provides quick access to the keyboard shortcut list and quick usage guides for most of Zoom Player's interfaces. * The Play History dialog (Alt+"H") has gotten a face-lift, an option whether to clear the playlist when playing from history, a button that automatically sets the column sizes based on the current window size and you can drag the play history window with the mouse by clicking in any empty space. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / History) that allows you to hide the "Recent" items section from the Windows taskbar button's right-click menu. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse / Settings) that allows you to specify the number of seconds to seek when using the mouse wheel while hovering over the timeline area. The default seek distance is 5 seconds. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Playlist) that allows you to play the next media file in the same folder when using the Del key to erase the currently playing media (or using the home theater delete option). You can see me code this feature here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs2QS5gd4VU * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Actions) that allows to force the OSD Actions (Play, Pause, Volume, etc) to appear on a monitor of your choice. You can see me code this feature here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs2QS5gd4VU * New "/infojson" command line parameter that can be used to query a running instance of Zoom Player for information. The results are returned in the windows clipboard as a UTF8 encoded JSON string. This feature can be used in combination with Window's Powershell to monitor and control Zoom Player entirely through the command line, without requiring a TCP/IP connection to access the more advanced API. Special characters are encoding using standard JSON character encoding. If no additional parameters are specified, all fields are returned. To get specific results, you can use a combination of one or more of the following: PlayState - A number representing the current play state where 0 : Closed 1 : Stopped 2 : Paused 3 : Playing MediaName - UTF8 string containing the playing file name or URL. Title - UTF8 string containing the playing media's title. Position - The playing position in seconds. Duration - The playing duration in seconds. PlayIndex - The current playlist play index. Playlist - UTF8 string containing the current playlist, each media entry is specified as a part of a JSON array. AudTrack - The current audio track number. SubTrack - The current subtitle track number. Example to get the playing media name, title, duration and position: zplayer.exe /infojson:MediaName,Title,Duration,Position * New "Pause closes unseekable live stream (otherwise ignored)" setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Contrls) that controls whether Zoom Player closes a live stream when pausing or if the pause action is ignored. Previously the hard-coded default was to close the stream, the new (configurable) default is to ignore the pause command. * The IPTV dialog now allows you to filter the stream list by playlist name. You can see me code most of this feature on this live-stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSjr8ExbZmM * You can now define custom names for IPTV playlists and Electronic Program Guide sources (Adv. Options / Playback / IPTV). You can see me code this feature on this live-stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSjr8ExbZmM * Added support for 2 more IPTV archive playback modes. * The IPTV EPG (Electroic Program Guide) will now add EPG "No Info" entries for missing time blocks, allowing archived playback for these time blocks. You can see me live coding this feature here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQldufSuJfU * In order to clear up some screen real estate, I added a new setting (Adv. Options / Playback / IPTV) that hides the EPG program end time. This setting is enabled by default, but can be disabled to restore the previous program listing style. * You can now press Ctrl+"C" with an IPTV EPG program selected to copy the program name to the Windows Clipboard. * New button on the IPTV interface to quickly open the IPTV settings page in the advanced options dialog. * To support IPTV providers that require a specific user agent text to access automated downloads, you can now set a custom User Agent for each IPTV auto update entry (for both playlists and EPGs downloads). * Selecting a URL based IPTV playlist or EPG entry in the options dialog, now displays the full text in a hover-hint. * The media library YouTube plugins can now detect Live and Upcoming videos and display this information on the thumbnail. * The media library YouTube plugins now filter out private videos. * New setting on the media library's YouTube plugins (disabled by default) to filter videos shorter than a specified number of seconds with a default value of 62 seconds (to hide shorts). You can see me live coding this feature here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7V_F62j4C4 * New "Activities" search strategy option on the media library's YouTube plugins. I was hopeful the "Activities" entry point into YouTube's DATA v3 API would provide more reliable results, but it seems limited to uploads in the last 2 months and some uploads will simply not show up. * New "Configure" button next to the Video Renderer selection drop-down list (Adv. Options / Playback / Video). * New "Configure" button in the Advanced Options' Audio Renderer selection dialog. Mainly useful when using the MPC Audio Renderer option. * New "exMediaVidRender" extended function that allows you to switch the media video renderer at any point. As an extended function, this functionality can be accessed through the command line or TCP/IP APIs. You can see me code this feature here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr3FmIi8crI * New "exSetAudioBalance" extended function (not assigned to any key) that can be used to specify an exact balance percent value from "-100" (left) to "100" (right). A value of "0" resets the balance changes. Please note that using this function will not update the balance widget in the user interface, only the actual audio balance on the output device. * New "fnMPCVRinfo" Zoom Player function to toggle MPC-VR's video rendering information overlay. The new function is assigned by default to the Ctrl+"J" keyboard macro. * New "1510" Zoom Player API message that is triggered when using next/previous chapter. Returns the chapter's position in seconds. * New label for the skin selection dialog to make it clearer that you can scale the skin resolution by a factor of 100% - 800%. + The keyboard shortcuts list (F1 keyboard shortcut) is now a single dialog which opens much faster and is no longer a part of the options dialog which takes longer to open. + The media library's YouTube Playlist plugin now retrieves the playlist, channel name and thumbnail automatically. Since the playlist image usually reflects the last uploaded video, the plugin will use the channel's thumbnail for the playlist instead, but you can disable this behavior in the plugin's configuration dialog. Previously you had to manually specify the playlist name and a generic thumbnail was used. You can see me live coding a portion of this feature here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7V_F62j4C4 + You can now configure the media library's YouTube plugins to select the number of entries to download at one time, either 25 or 50. 25 being the default value to preserve YouTube's API quota limitations. + Double clicking on a media library category in the media library category editor no longer tries to configure the category, instead Zoom Player now opens the media library within the clicked category, allowing the category editor dialog to be used as a navigation hack to quickly switch between categories. + Trying to open the media library category editor when the dialog was already open but obscured now brings the editor window to the top. + The options window's search feature does a better job at highlighting the selected element from the search result. + Opening the play history dialog (Alt+"H") for the very first time now uses reasonable initial values for the columns. + The default mouse wheel function on new install is now set to volume adjustments instead of the previous default that Zoomed in/out. + Using Zoom Player to browse the web (for example, using the "/browse" command line parameter) now uses Microsoft's Chromium based WebView2 browser engine and only falls back to the old Chakra engine is WebView2 is not installed (available on the install center, comes preinstalled in Windows 11). You can see me code this feature here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs2QS5gd4VU + The "Toggle Control Bar" right-click menu option has been re-located to the menu's root level. + Using the Next/Previous Track features now ensures the newly loaded track is visible in the playlist editor. + If the playing media has only one audio track, it will no longer be listed in the Stream Selection section of the right-click menu. + If MadVR is selected as the Video Renderer without being installed, Zoom Player now notifies you and falls back to the EVR renderer. + To support chapters (bookmarks) using the VLC Media Engine, I had to rewrite nearly all of Zoom Player's code related to managing chapters. Please let me know if something broke. As a bonus, you can now use emojis and other special Unicode characters in the chapter names. + Media chapters with no titles will now show a "no title" title. + The IPTV stream list group layout (open/close) is now saved and restored even after closing Zoom Player. + Made a small user experience update to the IPTV advanced options dialog page. You can see me reworking the UI in this video: https://youtu.be/BvRb6spGuN8 + The Custom Action button's hint when hovering with the mouse now lists the assigned function and not just a general "Custom Action". + Cleaned up a few of the advanced options dialog pages. + Cleaned up some dialogs that had elements that were too close together, especially under Windows 11. + If you previously used a Custom Video Renderer for media playback, you must re-select the custom option (Adv. Options / Playback / Video). + The keyboard editor dialog now appears faster, resizes faster and you can press a key combination to instantly find its current assignment or use the search box to search by the feature description assigned to a key. Watch me code this feature live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zav2jFDmmjs + The Open-Source media library YouTube plugins will notify you when Zoom Player's YouTube API key quota has been reached. Since YouTube is limiting API calls, you can work-around this issue by creating a personal API key using the instructions in Zoom Player's blog: https://www.inmatrix.com/blog/a_guide_to_creating_a_personal_youtube_api_key.shtml + The download tracking home theater interface keyboard macro has been moved from Ctrl+"J" to Ctrl+"X". + The information dialog ("I" keyboard macro) now prefixes a "~" symbol before the frame rate (FPS) value when the frame rate is not properly detected in the media file (can happen quite often with formats that use variable frame rate). + Playing a media from the play history without clearing the playlist now shifts the playlist track listing to make sure the newly played item is visible. + The "Please upgrade" dialog now shows the current Zoom Player version. - Fixed a freeze when trying to close the IPTV window while logos were still being downloaded. - Scraping TheMusicDB should work once again. - Zoom Player's "Export Settings" function did not include 4 setting files: 1. Media Favorites (files and URLs). 2. Media Library TAGs. 3. Media Library Collections. 4. IPTV Favorites. - When creating a media library YouTube channel with an "@" channel name prefix, for example "https://www.youtube.com/@zptechnology", YouTube can return multiple channels if they share the same name. The fix now checks all the channel to make sure their customURL field matches the name in the specified URL. - Fixed a few cases where changing the current play position was not shown correctly in the active playlist entry. - When playing media of unknown video resolution, the timeline will no longer display "0x0" if you enabled resolution display on the timeline. - When Zoom Player's DSP filter is unable to connect to the audio renderer, the DSP filter is now removed so Smart Play will not fail (fallback to Microsoft's method of choosing components can be unstable), increasing overall stability for badly authored media files. - Fixed a bug that caused the media library background image to be overlaid twice with a slight offset, slowing down opening a folder in the media library a little bit and causing visual ghosting effects (was really hard to see with the default background image). - Trying to switch to the next audio track no longer tries to set an audio track if there is only one track present (caused muted audio for a second or two). - Failing to play an IPTV stream will no longer highlight that stream as the active stream. - You should no longer be able to erase embedded chapter entries (it didn't really do anything). - A bug caused some information dialogs to show the information in the window's title and the actual title in the windows body. - Fixed all sorts of goofs that were possible through the chapter editor. - The playlist's "Move to Top" and "Move to Bottom" functions did not function well, clearing the currently playing media index and introducing cosmetic glitches. - Fixed a bug that caused the background image to show for a split- second when dragging & dropping a media file on top of the player window. - The Play History editor and fullscreen navigation interface can now re-play files with a path longer than 255 characters. - The playlist entries in the IPTV stream list drop-down would get duplicated after updated playlists were downloaded in the background. - Pressing Alt+S to bring up the subtitle component's configuration dialog did not show the correct window title in some cases. - Pressing Shift+"B" to disable the subtitles caused the subtitles to remain enabled when reloading the media, even if the setting to restore the previous subtitle track was enabled in the advanced options dialog. You can see me fix this code here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs2QS5gd4VU - Fixed a really weird stability issue with the IPTV window that could have caused a freeze when trying to close the window and stream logos to never appear. - Wrote a work-around for a bug in the MPC Audio Renderer and MPC Audio Decoder filters where their property pages appeared in windows that did not show all the available controls. You can see me live fixing the issue in this video: https://youtu.be/BvRb6spGuN8 - Under very rare conditions, the media library's highlight on the active entry would not show for the right-most column. - Loading an ".M3U" playlist would not always get the track's title correctly. - Detaching the control bar, moving it to another monitor and then hovering with the mouse pointer over the timeline area would show the current position indicator window on the wrong monitor. - With the "Show all filters in Stream Selection sub-menu" setting enabled, the right-click's "Stream Selection" section would show a small cosmetic glitch (an empty section). - Setting the YouTube Channel media library plugin's "channel list strategy" to "Use 'upload' playlist" did not list the videos returned by YouTube in the correct air date order and the air date was not displayed at all. - Using the media library category editor to add a broken link as a YouTube playlist based category would create an "unknown" category that didn't work. Now an error is returned in such cases. - When an IPTV playlist contained multiple streams using the exact same name and ID, but with a different URL or Archive Catch-up source, playing such a stream would highlight all the streams as "playing". - Setting the timeline to display the media's remaining time would result in displaying odd values when streaming live content that doesn't update the stream's duration. Now "??:??" is displayed instead. - Fixed a glitch that showed new an IPTV EPG/Playlist are ready to refresh message and enabling the refresh button after initiating and completing an update download from the options dialog. - If two IPTV channels share the same channel name and EPG entry, playing one of the entries could later highlight the identical program entry on another channel as playing. - Fixed a bug that prevented the newly played playlist from entering into view in the playlist editor window under some circumstances. - Fixed a rare case that could have caused the skinned right-click context menu to appear twice on screen with one of the menus remaining stuck on screen. - Enabling the stop button to close the playing media (local file or stream) would not update the taskbar button hover controls. - Even when fullscreen navigation safe mode was enabled, the Trash icon was still visible in the playlist and file browser interfaces. - Configuring the various media library YouTube plugins could cause old setting to appear when trying to configure two different YouTube plugins (e.g. "Channel" and "Trending") within the same session. - Fixed a few cosmetic glitches in the default Charcoal skin.What's new in Zoom Player v18:
* A completely new IPTV (streaming live TV and VOD) interface (Adv. Options / Playback / IPTV) with support for: 1. Stream list with Channel Logo and filtering. 2. An Electronic Program Guide with live-highlighting and filtering. 3. Automated downloading of Stream Lists and EPGs (every "x" days) in raw XML/M3U formats or in zip/gz archives. 4. Smart Stream Grouping. 5. Archive (VoD) playback support. 6. Create easily accessible "Favorite" channels. 7. Time-shift the EPG to ensure it matches your current time zone. 8. Set a reminder to view programs directly from the EPG. 9. Set a reminder to automatically play a program's stream right before it airs. 10. A "Safe Mode" to prevent kids from altering favorites, hiding groups or time-shifting the EPG. 11. Hiding unwanted Groups. 12. Hiding old EPG entries. 13. Merging channel information from multiple EPG files. 14. Extracting a Chanel's logo from either the M3U playlist or XML EPG. 15. Matching M3U channel with EPG information based on both ID and Name. Any many settings to customize how IPTV dialog looks and behaves: 01. Full customization of colors and font sizes used to display the Stream List and Electronic Program Guide. 02. Disable Stream Grouping (show every stream in one list). 03. Selecting the number of program description lines to show in the EPG. 04. Selecting the Stream List logo size. 05. Increasing the Stream List font size along with logo size. 06. Alphabetically sort the Stream List. 07. A button to toggle the EPG display on/off. 08. A button to toggle IPTV window transparency on/off. 09. A setting to keep the IPTV window on-top while in fullscreen mode. 10. A setting to control the size ratio between the Stream list and EPG. And much more ... You can open the IPTV interface using the "Ctrl+G" keyboard macro or through the right-click menu, under the "Open Interface" sub-menu. * Opening the IPTV interface for the first time now offers you the option to automatically download free, child-friendly, publicly available IPTV channels from around the world through the Free-TV project: https://github.com/Free-TV/IPTV * New "Custom Action" button on the main window (near the top-left) that allows you to set any standard Zoom Player function to the button. By default this button opens the new IPTV interface. * This feature has been requested by many. The ability to scale Zoom Player's skinned windows to make them easier to use on 4K and 8K displays: New Setting (Adv. Options / System) that allows you to resize the current windowed skin by 200-800%. Please note that this setting may not work well with some older Zoom Player skins. * You can now easily multiply Zoom Player's windowed skin resolution from the skin selection dialog (press "N" to open) to better match Zoom Player's skin to your monitor's resolution. * New Wakeup on LAN feature (Adv. Options / System) that allows you to turn on PCs. This feature is extremely useful when using NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices as your source for the media and you only want to turn them on when using Zoom Player. With this new feature, you can specify multiple MAC addresses to wake several PCs and you can trigger the wake-up action with a choice of conditions such as: 1. When starting Zoom Player 2. When opening the Media Library 3. When opening the File Navigator If there are other use-cases where you would want Zoom Player to wake-up remote PCs, let me know. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface) that allows you to assign a function to the new "Custom Action" button. * New setting (enabled by default) to automatically hide the control bar when clicking the video area, making it much easier to quickly hide the control bar. * You can now edit the last play time and date directly from the media library meta-data editor. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Bar / Timeline Area) that allows you to control whether the timeline displays the current playlist track number. You can also toggle this setting through the control bar menu by right-clicking the timeline with nothing playing (or middle-clicking if something is playing). * Two new settings (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) that allow you to override the poster image and backdrop for Movies and TV show categories. The backdrop setting is an easy override, just place a "backdrop.jpg" or "fanart.jpg" in the same folder and Zoom Player will use it automatically. Updating a movie poster image requires you enable the "Do not use scraped image as thumbnail / backdrop" setting for each of the media library's TV or Movie categories, otherwise the poster image will still use the scraped image (due to image-caching maintaining a copy of the old image) and then re-scrape the movie folder. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Playlist) to prevent embedded playlists (playlist files within playlist files) from loading when Zoom Player loads a playlist. This setting is enabled by default as embedded playlist can lead to unfortunate infinite-loops cases and other stability problems. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface) to control whether text that has no room to display fully starts scrolling. Currently this only applies to the main window's title text. * The Advanced Playlist Control interface is now accessible through the right-click menu under the "Open Interface" section. * On a clean install, Zoom Player now multiplies the skin resolution based on your screen's resolution. 200% for 4K skins and 400% for 8K screens. + Redesigned the media library category editor layout. Hopefully it's clearer and easier to work with. + The playlist editor's search feature has been enhanced to support repeated search. Simply press Enter to cycle between all entries that contain the searched term. + Zoom Player's title text now scrolls if there is no room to show the entire text (can be disabled in the options). + Playing media from the Advanced Playlist Control now ensures the newly played item is visible in the Playlist Editor. + The Station Manager window now has an "X" in the corner to close the window (previously you had to click the "close" button). + Pressing ESC with the player window in focus now closes the IPTV interface window. + Pressing ESC now closes the "Patterns" interface instead of having to cycle through every pattern. - Trying to play a video with an external audio track, for example: "myvideo.mkv" and "myvideo.mp3" in the same folder with the "Load External Audio tracks" setting enabled, resulted in a lot of instability. I rewrote the whole interface and now it's much more stable. Please note that this feature also requires Zoom Player's DSP filter to be enabled (Adv. Options / Playback / Audio - Enable Internal DSP Filter). - Filtering the media library by Genre stopped working. - Using unicode characters in the ISO Auto-Mount command would not save the path properly after restarting Zoom Player. - The Advanced Options "System Sounds" and "Audio" sections did not scroll smoothly when using the scroll bar. - In the media library's category editor, specifying a category name containing unicode characters would not highlight the entry in the category list after clicking. - Media Title containing certain unicode characters (e.g. emoji) did not show when loading some playlist formats (m3u, asx, b4s, wpl). - The Media Libary's category editor's "Playlist" category option did not display categories correctly if they had certain unicode characters in the name (e.g. Emojis). - Loading M3U playlists containing links to other M3U playlists, no longer tries to insert the embedded playlists as part of the loaded playlists, which can cause many unforeseen issues. - Loading some M3U playlists in the playlist editor did not always show the media's title. - Under some conditions, the "Add Folder to Category" and "Remove Folder" buttons in the media library category editor were enabled for Plugin based categories which would have allowed you to mess up these categories if you were not careful. - When adding a new plugin based Media Library category, you can no longer add duplicate entries even after renaming the category. - In the media library category editor, you could press the "Remove Folder" button when selecting the "Folders:" entry instead of an actual folder. - Right clicking a history entry and selecting "copy" in the playback history interface returned a jumble result when copying links. - Trying to use Ctrl+V to paste a search term into the playlist editor's search field would result in "????" when trying to paste unicode characters or emoji. - Playing an entry from the Advanced Playlist Control interface no longer loses the entry's selection. - The Playlist Editor's search box did not support unicode characters. - Fixed a bug that could cause Zoom Player to freeze when trying to play YouTube URLs containing a space character after the URL. - The Playlist Editor's "Load Playlist" feature accidentally listed media files instead of playlists by default. - The Folder Browser dialog should no longer appear partially off-screen or hidden by the task bar. - Under some conditions, the play history fullscreen navigation interface could show a value of "00:00:-1" for the last play position. - When using a non-default font, the play history fullscreen navigation interface's last play position could mess with the alignment of the file/url. - IPTV Logo caching from EPG files did not work properly for some entries based solely on channel name. - Playing too many broken URLs or files is sequence could have resulted in play history entries being generated even though nothing was played. - Reduced the chances of showing IPTV EPG information for the wrong channel when using badly crafted playlist or EPG sources.What's new in Zoom Player v17.2:
* The Media Library category editor has been redesigned for clarity and ease of use. * The Media Library category editor can now be used to select and re-order multiple categories in one click, making it much easier and faster to re-order categories. * The Media Library category editor has been extended with a "Move top" and "Move bottom" buttons to more easily arrange your category listing. * New "Sort by Runtime" media library feature. In TV categories it sorts by the number of episodes in a folder and in Movie categories it sorts by the Movie's specified Runtime (not the media's duration which may include additional content such as credits). * New "Resume Playback" media library feature that's accessible from the media library's functions page and the media library's mini-menu (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View). Resume playback looks for the first unwatched media in the folder and then resumes playback from that media. If no media from the folder has been previously played, it will play the first media in the folder (in alphabetical order by Title or File name). If the last played media in the folder is over the "Consider media as watched" percentage threshold, the next media will play in alphabetical order by title (if previously scraped), otherwise by file name. * New "Filter by Star Rating" media library feature. Filtering by Star Rating allows you to filter TV and Movie categories based on the media's Star Rating. You can easily customize each media's star rating to your own personal value using the integrated metadata editor, accessible by right-clicking a media's thumbnail or through the media library's functions page. * New "Filter by Content Rating" media library feature. Filtering by Content Rating allows you to filter TV and Movie categories based on the MPAA rating assigned to the TV Show or Movie, for example "PG-13" or "TV-MA". * New "Hide Mouse Cursor in Windowed mode" setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse / Setting) that allows the mouse cursor to auto-hide even when playing in a window (disabled by default). * New setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Smart Play / Settings) that adds a delay before connecting the Audio Renderer. This delay can help avoid audio connection errors when dealing with external Receiver/Amp that require a few seconds to initialize their audio interface after changing video resolution or refresh rate. * Added support for new YouTube URL format when adding YouTube channels as media library categories: Example: https://www.youtube.com/@CowboyKentRollins * Support for a new YouTube LIVE URL structure, usually used when sharing a video the YouTube mobible app. Example: https://www.youtube.com/live/L5QXreqOrTA?feature=share * Double-clicking a TV show thumbnail in the media library's TV Jukebox mode will now play the episode. * New "Edit Last Played" option added to the windowed play history's right-click menu, allowing you to manually edit the "Last Played" field without actually playing the media. * You can now reorder the Available Tags and Collections in the media library's cached metadata editor. + Zoom Player no longer requires "freeimage.dll" to load. The library which is used to display the ".WEBP" image format is now loaded dynamically as-needed, saving a bit of RAM while allowing Zoom Player to start slightly faster. - The media library's unplayed media counter will now adjust the background box size if the unwatched media counter is 3 digits or more. - Fixed a bug that prevented the media library's right/left bump actions from working after a PC was not reset for over a month. - Some information was not displayed correctly in the media library for YouTube channels containing the "|" character in their channel name, video names or video description. - Fixed a bug causing ".df" definition files not to save properly when playing from shared network paths (e.g. "\\my_server\shared_folder\media.mkv"). - Wrote a work-around for a bug in Media Portal's TS File Reader filter to prevent Zoom Player from freezing on re-play. The bug prevents ZP from seeking to 0 and re-playing by returning invalid media position values, requiring the media to be fully reloaded. - Under some conditions, the media library's filter function would not highlight any of the available filtering options and would draw the scrollbar widget in the wrong position. - Under some conditions, the media library's filter function would not bring the active filtering mode into view. - Fixed an issue in the Media Library filtering function that would allow entries with a similar enough Collection/Tag to the active filter to be listed.What's new in Zoom Player v17.1:
* New "Display unwatched counter on TV Show category folders" setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumbnail Cust.) that counts the number of unwatched episodes in "TV Show" categories and displays the count in a corner on the folder's thumbnail. * Full customization for the TV Show unwatched counter: 1. Size (relative to thumbnail) 2. Margins (relative to Size) 3. Font Color 4. Background Color * New "Display thumbnail season progression bar" setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumbnail Cust.) that shows a season progression bar (similar to the last play position bar) in TV Show category based on the number of watched/unwatched episodes in a folder. * New "Reset" option in each individual media library filtering mode (Genre, Tag and Collection). * Two new Pixel Shader scripts you can use with MadVR as the video renderer to flip the video both horizontally and vertically. + Filtering the media library will now reset the selected entry to the first item, unless the "Auto-select last viewed file/folder on entering a folder" setting is enabled, in which case the last viewed file or folder is selected automatically. + If you previously used a download tracking plugin, you must now re-enable it. Plugins were previously enabled by default which could have caused delays when exiting Zoom Player. + Having ZP set to automatically show the media library when opening will no longer show the media library if a media was set to load using the command line. + Zoom Player will no longer display the default background image if a media is set to load via command line, removing the slight flicker of the image and slightly speeding up load time. - Setting Zoom Player to pre-load fullscreen navigation graphics while trying to play a media from command line could cause ZP to freeze. - When taking a screenshot of the playing video (Alt+F), the generated filename included a wrong position value (just the file name, the image was taken from the correct position). - The "Stop function closes streaming media (instead of just stopping)" setting was accidentally applied to every playing media and not only live streams. - Fixed a bug that would break URL links in the active playlist when closing and then re-opening Zoom Player.What's new in Zoom Player v17:
* New metadata editor accessible by right-clicking TV and Movie entries in the media library (also available through the functions page and as a mini-menu option). The metadata editor allows you to replace thumbnails and backdrops along with editing the Title, Sort Title, Release date, Rating, Overview, Genre, Tags and Collections. * New media library filtering by Genre, Tags and Collections. Accessible through the functions menu or by clicking the new "funnel shape" filter icon in the path area. Your filtering choice is remembered on a per-category basis and is stored across sessions (even after exiting Zoom Player). * New "Sort by Release Date" media library sort option (Only works on scraped media [TV & Movies]). * New "Sort by Play Date" media library sort option to sort your categories by the most recently played files (or folders containing files that have been played). * New "Sort by Sort Title" media library sort option (Only works on scraped media [TV & Movies]). This sorting mode allows you to use the meta-data editor to specify an "invisible" custom title that Zoom Player will use for sorting while still displaying the original title. When no sorting title is specified, Zoom Player automatically uses the media's title (if one exists) or file name. * New "Sort by Star Rating" media library sort option (Only works on scraped media [TV & Movies]). Initially populated with scraped data, you can adjust the Movie/TV Show's star rating using the metadata editor. * The media library mini-menu has been extended with two new functions you can select : "Filter list" and "Edit metadata". * The mouse's backward and forward button can now be assigned custom functionality when a navigation interface is visible. * New ".ISO" drive mounting and playback settings to help automate the process of mounting ISO images and playing their content. An external mounting tool (such as Virtual CloneDrive) is required. Accessible under "Adv. Options / File Format Association / File Extensions." Please note that with this change, it is no longer possible to extract and play ISO files as if they were archives. * New setting (Adv. Options / Playback) to select the web engine used to render the YouTube IFRAME player, either the old Edge Chakra engine or the newer (and much better quality) Edge Chromium. Please note that that Edge Chromium requires the WebView2 component installed. WebView2 comes pre-installed in Windows 11 and is an optional download for Windows 10. The WebView2 component is available for download directly from Microsoft or using Zoom Player's install center application. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) that controls whether filtering lists in the media library can use multiple parameters (e.g. "Genre" and "Tag") at the same time. * YouTube kids URLs should now work with the IFRAME player. * Added support for YouTube Shorts URL parsing and playback, for example: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5TTNpKFy_10 * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Playlist) to automatically hide the Playlist editor when entering fullscreen mode. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video / Subtitles) that limits the "next subtitle" feature to specified languages. For example to limit the subtitle tracks to Spanish, English and Directory Commentary, you only need to specify "spa;eng;dir" and any subtitle track not containing these values will by skipped when switching to the next subtitle track. * New "9:16" thumbnail aspect ratio option for media library thumbnails suitable to vertical videos. * The ".WEBP" image format is now supported when using the internal image decoder. * New feature that replaces the TV Jukebox thumbnail for the currently playing media with the currently displayed image. This feature is limited to "TV Shows" media library categories and can be triggered through the Alt+Ctrl+"F" keyboard macro and the "fnCaptureScrapedImage" function. * New "Edit Metadata" option in the media library's functions page for TV and Movie categories. * New configuration option for TheMovieDB scraping plugin that allows you to select the poster/backdrop/still image sizes. * New Smart Play profile for the Apple ProRes codecs. * New "exSetAudioSync" extended function that allows you to set a positive or negative millisecond accurate audio synchronization offset. + YouTube media library plugins no longer return a star rating or dislike count since YouTube removed public dislike data. + The "Pause playback when minimizing the player window while playing video content" setting is now ignored for live streams with no duration specified as it just caused the stream to close. + Disabled the Startup sound if a media was already in the process of loading. + The Media Library's function page is now more dynamic, removing entries that may not be useful in some contexts (e.g. using plugins). + TheMovieDB scraper plugin will now download movie poster images at full resolution (previously limited to 500x750px). This change means you will see sharper looking posters on 4K displays. This fix requires that you re-scrape movies to download the higher resolution poster images. + To prevent longer copy times, when using the Media Library's Cut/Copy/Paste functionality, Performing a "Paste" operation in the root virtual folder of a category containing multiple folders, ZP will now try to paste the file(s) to a folder on the same drive when possible and only use the folder of the currently highlighted entry if no folders in the pasted category are on the same drive. + In combination with the new ISO mounting feature, ISO files are now always visible in media library video categories. + The YouTube IFRAME player's preferred video quality setting has been removed as YouTube depreciated this feature. - The YouTube IFRAME player did not function properly in regions using the "," character as a decimal separator. - Play history features such as "resume playback" and "previous play position on thumbnails" did not function on files with over 128 characters. - Playing files with over 128 characters in their name created duplicate play history entries. - Pressing "Stop" twice to perform a Stop/Resume action did not work when using the YouTube IFRAME player. - When customizing the media library to use full height in combination with the category display set to list mode, using the Up/Down arrows at the Start/End of the category list would not roll-over to the Start/End of the list correctly. - When the setting to show file extensions in the navigation interfaces was disabled, URLs appeared cropped in the play history fullscreen navigation interface. - Opening a subtitle file for a playing video when using MadVR as the video renderer could cause the video to appear in a new window. - Fixed a bug in TV jukebox mode that prevented some file meta-data from displaying when the file name contained Unicode characters. - Seeking Ahead/Back on YouTube streams using the IFRAME player would reset the play position to 0 if the windows decimal separator was set to something other than ".". - Restoring last play position for YouTube videos played using the IFRAME player did not function currently on some PCs with a slower internet connection. - Displaying the current video resolution on the timeline while using the YouTube IFRAME playback engine displayed a fixed value instead of the value returned by the YouTube IFRAME engine. - The "Open Media Library" button on the Media Library category editor did not function if the category mode was set to view all (prism). - YouTube channels containing the "&" character in the name would not show the correct channel name under some conditions. - Fixed a cosmetic bug in the play history dialog that would show the current position with a negative value. - Edits to the playlist using the playlist editor should now be reflected in the advanced playlist control interface. - The playing information fullscreen navigation interface was not updating in real time and didn't update at all when playing new SHOUTcast content. - The "Open Drive" feature broke down for multiple use cases, including using Zoom Player to auto-play a drive. - The Media Library's "mark as seen:archive" option will now close the currently playing media if it's being archived. - Under some conditions, pressing the ESC/Menu keys to close the right-click context menu would break some keyboard functionality. - You could actually click on media library path icons even when they were invisible in the category list. - When viewing the media library's categories page, you could click above/below the scroll-bar area and it would still affect the scroll position.What's new in Zoom Player v16.5:
* Introducing Charcoal, Zoom Player's new default skin! Charcoal includes the same layout and functionality as the previous Onyx default skin but uses more subtle shading and cleaner elements to better fit with Windows 10's look and feel. The onyx skin is still included with Zoom Player, you can switch by opening the skin selection dialog using the "N" keyboard macro or through the right-click menu. * New interface Sound-FX system that triggers sounds when certain actions are triggered (Adv. Options / Interface / Sounds) : 1. Zoom Player Startup. 2. Navigation motion (left/right/up/down). 3. Navigation actions (enter/back/esc). 4. Seeking (forward/backward/tracks). 5. Edge-Bump (media library). You can pick the volume level and the output sound device and limit some of the sounds if a video is currently playing or when using the mouse to perform actions. * The media library can now display a media file's approximate bitrate (e.g. 9.2 Mpbs). You will need to re-scrape old media to see this update. * It is now possible to play videos from Twitch.tv. * New "Confirm when resuming playback from previous position" setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) to request confirmation before resuming playback from the last saved position when playing media from a TV or Movie media library category. Please note, this setting is on by default and requires play history enabled to function. * New "Mark as Seen" media library feature accessible through the functions menu (toggle the cogwheel, or right-arrow in list mode). When marking media or entire folders as seen, you will be prompted to "Mark as seen now" or "Mark as seen archive". Depending on your choice the marked entries will appear at the start or end of your play history. * New "Select all Unseen" media library feature that selects every media or folder containing media that was seen (listed in your play history). * New "Select all Seen" media library feature that selects every media or folder containing media that is not listed in your play history. * You can now perform subtitle searches on movie folders, Zoom Player will automatically use the first video file within the folder to find matching subtitle tracks. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) that controls whether the Media Library's media scraping indicator and counter are visible within the path area. * New "Thumbnail icon size" setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) that controls the icon sizes in thumbnail view mode. * New "Prevent mouse actions from moving or resizing the main window" setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Position & Size" that blocks the mouse from being able to resize or move the main player window. * New "Skip requesting confirmation to erase file" setting (Adv. Options / Interface) used to skip the confirmation request dialog when erasing the playing media to the recycle bin. * New "Do not use scraped image as thumbnail" media library category setting. When enabled, Zoom Player ignores any thumbnail downloaded using a scraping plugin and depending on other category settings, Zoom Player will try to extract a thumbnail from the video file itself. * New "Do not use MediaInfo.dll to extract file metadata" media library category setting. When enabled, Zoom Player will not try to use MediaInfo.dll to extract metadata from files such as file format, codec, audio channels, etc. This can speed up scraping operation, but it also means the metadata displayed in the media library will be limited. * New "exPLSortOrder" extended function capable of choosing the playlist sorting order (ascending, descending). A value of "0" sets ascending and a value of "1" sets descending. Please note that this function doesn't actually sort the list. * New "exPLSort" extended function to sort the current playlist. Possible values are: 0 : Sort by Name 1 : Sort by File Type (file extension) 2 : Sort by File Date 3 : Sort by File Size 4 : Sort by File Path (folder) 5 : Sort by Media Duration (in seconds) 6 : Sort Randomly (random order) * New "exPLRemoveItem" extended function that allows you to directly remove a playlist item. Please note that the first playlist item has an index of "0" and not "1". + A major redesign of the media library's scraping operation. Scraping of new content should no longer block thumbnail and meta-data updates for previously scraped content. The redesign should make Zoom Player feel more responsive. + Rewrote the audio TAG/ID3 scraping code for enhanced efficiency and reliability. + When reaching the top/bottom position in the media library's thumbnail view, Zoom Player now tries to maintain the current column when the top/bottom bump bar is triggered twice to perform a scroll to top/bottom action. + Improved support for long paths (over 250 characters) in the media library and file browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces (especially over network shared paths). + The file meta-data edit window's title now features only the file name and not the full path. + The media library's YouTube Playlist plugin is now more flexible when parsing YouTube playlist URL structures. YouTube uses multiple URL structures to present playlists and now the plugin should support all of them. + The "Force the navigation list or thumb view display to full width" and "Force the navigation list or thumb view to maximum width" settings now apply to the path area and not only to the media area. + The minimum number of media library category columns has been changed from 3 to 2. + The "erase playing media" and "fullscreen navigation erase" dialogs now display the media's title alongside the file name. + Double-clicking the media library's category entries in list-view mode now performs an "Enter" navigation action instead of "Right". + Replaced the "Right arrow" icon with an "Enter" icon on the mini color control interface. - Fixed a hidden crash that destabilized Zoom Player when closing the media library while the thumb view was in the process of smooth scrolling. - You can no longer open the windowed go to time/chapter editor if no media is currently playing. - YouTube has a bug in it's API that can cause duplicate entries to show when loading more entries. Previously in such cases, Zoom Player didn't show a thumbnail for a duplicate entry, at least this bug is fixed, can't do much about YouTube's API bugs. - The media library's scraping counter did not update if you exited the folder currently scraping until some action updated the screen. - Stopped the Create Ringtone function from attempting to work with network streams (it never worked with URLs, but still allowed you to select the position and fill in details into the save dialog). - Fixed a rare case where the media library would not respond to input correctly when playing a movie and then exiting to the main navigation interface and then returning back to the media library. - With the "opening media library always selects the playing media" setting enabled, renaming a file or creating a new folder could change the active path. - Fixed high-DPI issues with unskinned confirmation dialogs. - Fixed an erroneous OSD notification when using the media library's mini-menu to add a category "refresh" or "append" entries to the playlist. - Fixed an issue that caused the media library to freeze if there were missing bitmap files in the navigation skin folder. - While in fullscreen mode, clicking on the playlist editor or equalizer windows when positioned over a hot-corner would activate the hot-corner action. - Opening a streaming YouTube URL using DirectShow would not show the video's title in the play history until after the video was closed. - Showing the control bar for the very first time showed a black rectangle in the top left corner of the screen for a split second. - Fixed a crash in the Media Library's playlist category plugin when parsing certain ".m3u" playlists. - When using the media library's refresh button on a plugin based category, it accidentally cleared the media's titles. - The advanced option dialog audio visualization configuration options were completely broken. - The "fnRestart" and "fnRestartWithParam" functions restarted Zoom Player without first saving settings, which caused the restarted copy to revert some settings. - Playing a network shared file from command line would miss an external subtitle file in the same folder and no subtitles were shown. - With the "Disable the Control Bar in Window Mode" setting enabled, exiting fullscreen briefly showed the control bar. - When Two movie folders shared a similar base name (e.g. "Men in Black" and "Men in Black 2"), the wrong progress bar position would show for the first folder. - Fixed a cosmetic glitch in the media scanner that caused paths to draw over icons. - Setting the image slideshow duration for loaded images to "0" would show an incorrect "remaining time" value on the timeline. - Fixed a few small memory leaks.What's new in Zoom Player v16:
First a couple of notices : ! This version includes many enhancements throughout the fullscreen navigation interface. If you previously purchased Zoom Player's 4K navigation skin pack and have not received links to download the updated version by email, contact Booga (https://reddit.com/user/Boogafreak), my helpful support person with a DM and he'll take care of you. Please include the purchase ID number in your request to speed up the process. ! If you do not own the more expensive lifetime serial number or activation key, and you've purchased Zoom Player within the last 12 months, you are eligible to receive a free upgrade to v16! We have already sent you an email with new serial, but if for some reason you did not receive it (after checking spam and other folders), please contact Booga (https://reddit.com/user/Boogafreak). And now for the good stuff: * Optimized drawing of media library category thumbnails, up-to 43% faster. * Optimized drawing of media library media thumbnails, up-to 38% faster. * Optimized the time it takes to open the media library, in some cases up-to 50% faster. * Optimized loading of the playcache file by up-to 17%, which should help Zoom Player open faster when storing play history over a long duration. * Rewrote scroll update polling to improve smoothness when scrolling within the media library's thumbnail view. * Due to a bug fix (see below) and optimizations to the code, Zoom Player should close a little bit faster. * Media library folder based categories are now sorted on a per-folder basis. When entering a folder for the first time, it will always start sorted by name, but any change to the sorting mode will now persist without affecting other folders in the category. * The media library category editor has been restructured. New categories are no longer automatically sorted in alphabetical order and instead always added to the bottom of the category list. New "Move up" and "Move down" buttons now allow you to manually re-order categories. * The media library category editor can now be set to show "All" categories to allow sorting across category types. * You can now sort the media library in Random order. * You can now sort the media library by "Remaining Play Time" based on a percentage of the media's remaining play remaining. * New "Preferred audio device cycle list" (Adv. Options / Playback / Audio) that allows you to select your preferred audio renderers and quickly switch between them". * New Shift+"A" keyboard macro that switches between audio rendering devices on the Preferred audio device cycle list". * TheMovieDB.org's media scraper is now capable of scraping U.S. Movie (G/PG/PG-13/R/NC-17) and TV (TV-Y/TV-Y7/TV-G/TV-PG/TV-14/TV-MA) content rating. The content rating appears as an icon next to the other codec/format icons appearing in jukebox mode. You will need to re-scrape your media in order to see content rating on previously scraped media. * TheMovieDB.org's media scraper's configuration can now be set to scrape for "no language" content. * When going up to the base folder in the file browsing fullscreen navigation interface, there is now a "Return to path list" option to make navigation more intuitive. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) to hide the media library's meta-data and category filter sections, using the extra space to display more media. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / History) that controls whether erasing files to the recycle bin also removes their record from the play history. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface) that uses the fullscreen navigation UI to confirm when deleting the currently playing file. * New (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) "Show play position bar on list icons with the this color" setting (disabled by default) * New (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) "Show Previously Played counter in path area" setting that displays the number of yet to be played media within the current media library folder next to the folder's path (disabled by default). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) to control whether opening the media library should always try to show the currently playing file. With this setting disabled, the currently playing file would only show once each time a file is played and the media library is opened. * New YouTube Playlist media library plugin which allows you to easily import YouTube playlists as Zoom Player media library categories. * New network keep-alive feature (Adv. Options / Playback Files & Paths) that instructs Zoom Player to access the specified paths to make sure a network share does not disconnect for inactivity. * You can now refresh a media library category with a new "Refresh" button to update the display if the folder content was changed in the background. * The "Start player in" setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Position & Size) has been split to provide a more granular control of how the player should start. Please note that this change required resetting this setting to it's default value. * When going up to the base folder in a media library file list view, there is now a "Return to categories" option to make navigation more intuitive. * Zoom Player's Event Ghost plugin has been updated to support all the latest Zoom Player functions: http://www.eventghost.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3498&p=55891#p55891 * The navigation skinning engine has been enhanced to add more granular support for the path area's icons. * Pressing the media library's refresh button will also refresh the scraped images, reflecting any manual changes to poster images. + The "Auto-select last viewed file/folder on entering a folder" setting now works better when used in combination with the "Nav-Enter on media library category list opens the category at the root folder" setting. + When both "Auto-select last viewed file/folder on entering a folder" and "Nav-Enter on media library category list opens the category at the root folder" settings are enabled, entering a category will highlight the folder containing the last played file. + Erasing files/folders from the media library will now erase their scraped meta-data/thumbnail cache from the "MediaCache" folder. + Using the "/LASTNAV" and "/MAINNAV" command line parameters no longer switches the user interface to fullscreen automatically, you must now add the "/F" parameter to maintain the same functionality. + Clicking the media library's "<" button now respects the "Nav-Left goes up a folder before entering the Drive/Category list" setting. + The "Show system library folders in the Media Library Navigator" setting has been removed and replaced by a new button in the media library category editor that lets you add the windows library folders with a single click. With this change, you are now able to easily customize the windows library folders. + The play history's "Erase" entries has been renamed to "Remove from Play History" to make it clearer the files themselves are not touched. + Switching to the 'system' sub-menu in the main fullscreen navigation interface will now switch the title from 'main' to 'system'. + When completing playback of a media, the play history dialog and fullscreen navigation interfaces will no longer show a zero position or no position at all and will instead show the media's duration to signify the media has been played all the way through. + You can now use the Home/End keys within the media library fullscreen navigation interface's category filter section to access the top/bottom of the category list. + Removing the currently playing media from play history will now close the playing media. + The fullscreen information navigation interface now splits long information into multiple lines. + For clarity, the media library's "Select / Unselect" and multiple selection functions have been split into two separate entries. + Opus audio duration is now retrieved when used with an ".ogg" container. + Opus audio duration is now retrieved by default when adding ".opus" files to the playlist. For existing Zoom Player users, to enable this feature you must click the "default" button next to the "Auto-Get Duration" section of the Advanced Options' "File Extension" page. + APE audio duration is now retrieved by default when adding ".ape" files to the playlist. For existing Zoom Player users, to enable this feature you must click the "default" button next to the "Auto-Get Duration" section of the Advanced Options' "File Extension" page. - The caching mechanism for media library category thumbnail caching was mostly broken, not actually caching most of the thumbnails. With this fix, subsequently browsing the category list should be much snappier. - Scraping meta-data for TV series where the folder contained an ".nfo" file didn't support IMDB IDs longer than 7 digits. - Scraping meta-data for TV series where the folder contained an ".nfo" file with an IMDB URL didn't write the IMDB id into the meta-data cache. - The RSS feed media library plugin wont show duplicate entries if the server moves from http:// to https:// links. However, old entries that were already downloaded before this fix may remain as duplicates. - Enabling 'Force the navigation list or thumb view display to full width' caused cosmetic issues in the equalizer fullscreen navigation interface. - Restoring after minimizing the user interface from fullscreen mode, no longer restores the user interface to windowed mode instead of fullscreen. - Fixed a freeze when playing JPEG files with malformed exif headers. - Renaming files/folder in the media library no longer causes the play position to be forgotten and the media no longer requires a re-scrape operation. - The YouTube Channel media library plugin now support YouTube channels that use a slightly different URL structure. For example "https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFighterAndTheKid/videos". It will not work 100% of the time as google didn't release an API call to translate custom channel names to a channel ID required to get a 100% reliable result. For more information, see: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/174903934 - The YouTube Media Library plugins did not take into account time-zone and daylight saving differences when displaying a video's publish time. - Clicking the 'show volume bar' button on the control bar showed the volume bar in a slightly-off position. - The Adjust Image fullscreen navigation interface did not list the active Aspect Ratio correctly. - The fullscreen information navigation interface did not display in the correct width under some conditions. - The full path displayed in the play history fullscreen navigation interface is now correctly truncated to more clearly display long file names. - Disabling the "Flash active thumbnail on navigation actions" setting, prevented the media library thumbnail view from updating when resizing the screen and until a navigation action was triggered. - Network paths specified in the 'File Browser "Network / Disk" mapping' setting no longer allow you to 'folder-up' once reaching the specified base path. - Disabling the "Flash active thumbnail on navigation actions" setting, at times prevented the media library thumbnail view from updating when entering categories. - Switching to audio mode with calibration patterns visible didn't hide the patterns, messing up the UI. - When opening the media library's functions page in an empty category, a cosmetic glitch showing a "-2 B" size would appear in the file size area. - Fixed a few cosmetic issues with residue text remaining on-screen after existing the media library's function menu. - When the current monitor used a high-DPI setting, the icon on confirmation /warning/information dialogs appeared cropped. - Skin tinting did not affect confirmation/warning/information dialogs. - The play position bar in the media library's TV jukebox mode was not properly integrated when the thumbnail frame used round corners like in the Sunset skin. - The file browser fullscreen navigation interface suffered some issues when working with empty drives/root folders. - Fixed multiple issues when trying to erase network shared folders from within the file browsing fullscreen navigation interface: 1. Currently playing file did not close. 2. File was not removed from play history. - The main fullscreen navigation interface's 'system' sub-menu did not show relevant icons, only showing the system icon. - The Advanced Options dialog's "Help / Export" button's pop-up menu did not draw correctly on high-DPI displays. - The playlist's "Open item folder", "Save playing file" and "Rename/Move file" features did not work with network paths. - Deleting all play history entries could leave some entries listed in the dialog until the dialog was closed and reopened. - Trying to show a fullscreen navigation interface while Zoom Player is minimized now restores Zoom Player's window. - The Play History and Play History fullscreen navigation interfaces will now display the play position for the currently playing file correctly. - Creating folder using the file browsing fullscreen navigation interface failed when used under a network path. - Under some conditions, Zoom Player's media cache folder containing scraped metadata and images (thumbnails, posters, backdrops) would prune every time you tried closing Zoom Player, instead of once per week. - Fixed several glitches related to the media library's mini-menu accessible through a long mouse click on a thumbnail. - Clicking the 'back' button in the media library's movie poster view and then using the keyboard to move the active thumb left would exist the category entirely. - The main fullscreen navigation interface's system menu used a different brightness value compared to the home menu. - Under some conditions, using the options dialog to customize the media library while a media was loaded would switch the category/path. - You could not erase the currently playing media file from within Zoom Player if the media was loaded from an external source (e.g. explorer) over a network shared path.What's new in Zoom Player v15.5:
* New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) that controls whether a progress position bar appears on the bottom of thumbnails instead of the current position time. * New "Play position bar Position and Color" settings (Adv. Options / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) allowing you to select where the position bar appears in thumb view mode, the options are: 1. Bottom of thumbnail 2. Top of text area 3. Bottom of text area * New "Show TV series name when scraping TV episodes in JukeBox mode" setting (Adv. Options / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) that controls the percentage of a media you need to see before it is marked with the "seen" overlay (eye icon). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface) that controls whether playback should be paused when exiting fullscreen using the ESC key. * New setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse / Settings) that allow you to customize the right-click on timeline seek distance. * New setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse / Settings) that controls whether the control bar should hide automatically if the mouse cursor is currently hovering above the control bar (enabled by default). Previously the control bar would never hide if the mouse cursor hovered above it, now you are in control. * New settings (Adv. Options / Interface / Playlist) that instruct Zoom Player to scan the media library scraped information for media titles when adding files to the playlist. Please note, this feature is disabled by default as it adds disk access and is not suited for very large playlists. * New settings (Adv. Options / Interface / Playlist) that instruct Zoom Player to scan the media library scraped information for media titles based on the parent folder of the playing media (usually applies to movies) when adding files to the playlist. Please note, this feature is disabled by default as it adds disk access and is not suited for very large playlists. * New setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) that control whether the current play position is drawn on movie folders. * When the current position bar is enabled, it is now drawn on movie posters in jukebox mode. Please note, this feature will only work properly if there is only one video file within the movie's folder. If the movie is split across multiple files, the bar's position may show an incorrect value. * The playlist fullscreen navigation interface now displays the path to the currently highlighted playlist entry on the bottom of the screen. * When using the correct folder structure for the Movie scraping (folder named for the movie+year and one video file within), the last play position will now appear on the movie's folder thumbnail. * New "Disable automated cache clean-up" setting (Adv. Options / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) that prevents the automated clean-up of the thumbnail cache. While cleaning the cache is a once per week operation, when using a large cache size, it can take up to a minute to clear the cache when using a mechanical HDD drive (on an SSD drive it takes 1-2 seconds). * The play history window now includes a last play position column. * The play history window now includes the last play time along with the play date. * The play history window's right-click menu can now be used to remove selected entries. * New entry in the play history's right-click menu to try obtaining titles for the selected entries using meta-data scraped through the media library. * The YouTube Media Library plugin now includes an option to set your own YouTube API Key. To get your own key, all you need is a google account and filling in a few forms: https://developers.google.com/youtube/registering_an_application By using your own API key, you can gain analytics insights from google. * Double clicking a category in the category editor dialog now opens the category's configuration dialog. * New "fnRestart" function to restart Zoom Player. * New "fnRestartWithParams" function to restart Zoom Player with the same command line parameters it was executed with. + In previous version, the seen icon (eye) would show on a media library thumbnail if that media has been played previously. Now the seen icon is only displayed when at least 95% of the media has been seen (you can customize this value). + When playing a media file all the way through to the end, it's position will now display as fully played instead of no position at all. This does not affect playback, playing the media file will start at the beginning. + Zoom Player should close much faster when closing the player while a download plugin was refreshing content. + The RSS media library plugin can now display more than 5000 entries, it can now display any number of entries fitting under 10mb of RAM. + The play history window can now be used to select multiple entries. + Ctrl+"A" now works to select every item in the play history window. + You can now enter empty (folder based) media library categories in order to perform file operations (copy/paste) instead of Zoom Player displaying a "The Category is Empty" message. + When using the AB-Repeat feature, the on-screen markers now hide after setting the repeat end position, no longer obscuring parts of the video. + Added support for new YouTube channel URL structures that included '/c/' instead of '/user/' or '/channel'. + Due to a YouTube licensing requirement, OSD messages will no longer appear when playing YouTube content. - Fixed a bug that triggered a re-scrape of media information whenever daylight saving was enabled/disabled. - Fixed an issue that caused the wrong track to play when opening a media file from explorer (or other external process) if the option to clear the playlist was not enabled. - Using the Advanced Playlist Control to sort items would not work as intended if two items with the same file name were present in the playlist using different titles. - The OpenSubtitles.org subtitle search plugin did not save non-English characters in the username correctly. - The YouTube plugin now correctly displays the video's publish date after YouTube changed the date format May/2020. - Fixed a rare crash when resizing the media library window in thumbnail view mode. - Fixed a bug that prevented maximizing to fullscreen if the "Prevent exiting Fullscreen / Zoom mode" setting was enabled in some cases. - When using the same media library category name for two different category content types (e.g. TV & Movies), re-opening the media library after playing content from one of the categories could result in the wrong category showing. - A bug in the DVD auto-loading bookmarks code caused bookmarks to be ignored. - Using the internal copy/cut & paste operation on folders did not maintain the folder's date, causing it to be re-scraped and any custom artwork to be ignored. - Using the internal copy/cut & paste operation on folders did not update the media history play cache, causing the last play position to disappear. - The Guard Dog feature was incorrectly activated when exiting sleep mode. - With the "Use Media Title if Available" setting disabled, the media title could still become visible in the main window's title area under some conditions. - Fixed an issue that slowed down loading large playlists when drag & dropping the playlists into Zoom Player. - Fixed an issue where the media library's "refresh" entry could become selected for file operations (copy/paste). - The media library's category editor's "Open Media Library" button did not open the media library with the selected category highlighted if the category was not listed due to a category filter. Now the category filter is reset to ensure the correct category is highlighted. - Updated the user-agent ZP uses when downloading data from web servers as some servers were blocking ZP thinking it was an older browser. - The YouTube media library plugins did not save the "Maximum thumbnail- resolution (720p, more bandwidth)" setting. - The control bar's timeline seek preview image is now hidden instantly when closing the control bar. - Opening certain dialogs (e.g. the "Media library category editor") when Zoom Player's window was close to a screen edge would open the dialog partially off-screen. - When enabling the "Force the navigation list or thumb view display to full width" or "Force the navigation list or thumb view to maximum width" settings, some of the main navigation interface's icons did not appear. - The GuardDog feature could have automatically executed if it took Zoom Player too long to close. - At times, a media library scraped backdrop image would remain in use after re-opening the media library in category listing.What's new in Zoom Player v15:
* Live YouTube stream support using the latest version of the 3DYD YouTube source and LAV Filters. * New YouTube channel listing strategy (not enabled by default) which you can now enable through the Media Library category editor. The new strategy works by listing videos in a channel's "Uploads" playlist. The downside to this strategy is that some videos may not be ordered by Publish date. For this reason, 50 videos are requested instead of the usual 25 and these videos are then sorted by the plugin instead of just listing them as-is. The upside is that you get longer descriptions for the videos. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Audio) to control whether the Equalizer and Pre-Amp controls should process DTS/Dolby audio (and their sub-formats such as DTS-HD, Dolby Atmos, E-EAC, etc). By default, these formats are not processed as they are intended for decoding by an external receiver over S/PDIF or BitStreaming. However if you decode these formats on your PC, disabling this setting will allow the Equalizer and Pre-Amp controls to function. * New Setting "Adv. Options / System" (disabled by default) to allow the Command & Control API to remotely control the PC's mouse cursor. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Controls) that lets you specify the number of milliseconds Zoom Player should wait after closing a streaming media before resuming operations. * New setting (Adv. Options / System / Screen Saver & Capture) that controls whether playback should be paused before trying to capture a video frame. Please note that it's possible that some video renderers may not be able to capture a frame if the media is playing. * New setting on the media library YouTube plugin to enable listing live streams. To playback live YouTube streams you must use the IFRAME player or use D3D YouTube Source filter v2 or newer. * New setting on the media library YouTube plugin to use the maximum thumbnail resolution YouTube provides (now disabled by default). In previous versions getting the maximum resolution thumbnail was the default behavior, however there are rare instances where the maximum resolution and extra bandwidth are merited. Additionally, there is a YouTube bug that lists a URL for the maximum resolution thumbnail without the file actually being available, so this change works around this issue. * The media library can now display a format icon for the new AV1, DTS:X and Dolby Atmos audio/video codecs. * The Play History fullscreen navigation interface now lists the last play time (not just the date), the last play position and the full path to the currently highlighted entry. * The Favorite media fullscreen navigation interface now shows the full path to the highlighted entry. * New "Go" button on the station editor to make search practical without access to a keyboard. * New "Close on Play" checkbox on the Advanced Playlist Control dialog to control whether the dialog remains open or closed after playing a new media from the dialog. * New Smart Play profile for the "ADTS" streaming audio wrapper format. * New Smart Play profile for the ".DSF" file format. * New Smart Play profile for the "DSD" (Direct Stream Digital) codec. * Zoom Player Command & Control API has been expanded: 1. New command to open a streaming URL. 2. New command to Get & Set the current playlist sorting order (Ascending/Descending). 3. New command to sort the playlist (by name, size, date, etc). * Zoom Player Command & Control API has been expanded with support for remotely controlling the PC's mouse cursor. For additional security, this capability requires you to enable the new "Allow remote mouse control" setting. * New "/SHOWOSD:[Text]" command line parameter used to show a pop-up OSD on an already running instance of Zoom Player. + Ctrl+"V" now works in the playlist editor's search box. + The GoTo time fullscreen navigation interface has been enhanced to work more intuitively and with less clicking required to reach the desired time. + The Media Library category editor has been restructured to make it easier to use when working with many categories. + Changed how information (text/icons) are aligned on the right side of fullscreen navigation interfaces so the information does not shift around when the selected line is changed. + Tweaked the list based fullscreen navigation interfaces to squeeze out a little more horizontal space. + The Torrents download plugin has been updated to support qBitTorrent API v2, requiring qBitTorrent v4.2 or newer, please upgrade. + You can now drag the meta-data edit window more easily by dragging from anywhere in the windows. + Newly created YouTube media library categories will no longer show a video icon overlay by default (as all content from YouTube is video). + YouTube changed their text encoding scheme which caused Zoom Player to show the encoding of certain characters instead of the actual characters. + Trying to open a navigation interface while in audio mode simply didn't do anything, now Zoom Player will automatically switch to media mode and show the navigation interface. + Trying to seek backward/forward on a live stream with no duration will no longer show an OSD message as if a seek was performed. + TheMovieDB scraper plugin will now scrape movies that do not contain a poster image. + The fullscreen navigation information interface no longer closes automatically when opening a new media file. + When safe mode is enabled, instead of completely hiding the main navigation interface's "System" sub-menu, now only the "Exit Zoom Player" entry is hidden. + The Next/Previous frame functions are now ignored when playing audio-only content (there was no real use for it and it caused weird behavior with some decoders). + Hovering with the mouse cursor over the timeline no longer pops up a "00:00" position hint when playing a live stream with no duration. + To prevent instability, if Zoom Player's options dialog is open, all API/Keyboard processing (for the main window) are now disabled. + Using the "fnTitleToClipboard" function with no media playing will now try to get the title from the currently highlighted playlist entry. + The "Close Navigator when opening a new file" setting now applies to the streaming fullscreen navigation interface. Previously it would always close the interface regardless of the setting. + Opening a streaming URL now closes the fullscreen navigation interface. + Extended the Command & Control API message 1870 to support passing a title along with the URL to stream. + When playing an MP3 with ID3v2 TAGs that contain multiple images, now the first embedded image is displayed instead of the last. + Right clicking a track in the playlist editor will now select the track less than 2 other tracks are currently selected. - Rewrote the entire system that handles the currently selected audio device. Previously, if you were to disconnect an audio device (e.g. a BlueTooth headset), Zoom Player would switch to the default audio device, but when the the audio device was reconnected, Zoom Player would continue to use the default device instead of the previously selected device. Now Zoom Player always tries to use the previously selected device and only temporarily switches to the default device if the selected device is not currently available. - A major bug that was introduced in v13.5 prevented the Equalizer and Pre-Amp controls from functioning when decoding audio using a filter that outputs the WAVE_FORMAT_EXTENSIBLE" structure (Which LAV Audio Decoder uses for most audio formats it decodes). - Fix for a possible freeze when opening the media library. - The default 16:10 skin was showing a 1px clear line to the right of the movie poster in jukebox mode. - Streaming audio with non-English characters encoded in the stream's meta-data would sometimes display the wrong characters. - Fixed an issue where pressing next track in a playlist containing an executable file would not stop playing the previous media track after executing the playlist entry, which also caused a cosmetic glitch in the playlist editor. - Furiously Clicking the mouse's right button to open the context menu while a track was loading caused multiple context menus to appear on screen and could even lead to a crash in some cases. - Under some rare conditions, Mouse Gesture actions could trigger without the left mouse button being held down. - Unchecking "Limit 'Hot Corners' to fullscreen mode" caused issues trying to move the player windows in Audio Mode. - Pressing DEL to erase the currently playing media will no longer prompt you to delete to recycle bin if the playing media is a URL. - Stopped the two settings that control automatic switching between Audio and Media mode from working while the player is in fullscreen mode: Auto Switch to Audio Mode when a Media File does not contain a Video Stream Auto Switch to Media Mode when a Media File contains a Video Stream - Deleting the active entry in the playlist editor (orange highlight when using the default onyx skin), did not reset the active entry if that track wasn't currently playing. - Using the "fnPLEditMetaData" function (for example using the command line "/func:fnPLEditMetaData" parameter) several times would cause multiple windows to appear. - The internal screen saver no longer activates if a track is currently in the process of loading or if an error dialog is currently visible. - Using the Advanced Playlist Control to move items to the top or bottom while a media was playing messed up the playlist active item display as well as the ID3/TAG on-screen information. - When the media library displayed a movie with no poster in JukeBox mode, the poster area showed random junk. - Trying to switch to Audio or DVD modes while a media was in the process of loading triggered a crash. - Trying to close the Playlist editor while a track was in the process of loading triggered a crash. - Deleting the currently playing file did not remove the file from the current playlist. - Enabling fullscreen navigation's "Safe Mode" broke the functions screen on the "Favorites" navigation interface. - Enabling fullscreen navigation's "Safe Mode" prevented access to the stream selection navigation interface. - It's no longer possible to erase files in safe mode from within the media library mini-menu. - Enabling "Force the navigation list or thumb view display to full width" or "Force the navigation list or thumb view to maximum width" settings would break the visual integrity of the information fullscreen navigation interface (and the Main navigation interface if it was used in list mode). - The Media Library's "Run Application" plug-in did not run applications correctly if some command line parameters were used. - Fixed a freeze when using the MPC Audio Renderer combined with the "Show all filters in Stream Selection sub-menu" setting. - Fixed an issue where certain characters used in a media library's category path could corrupt the category list or prevent the afflicted category from functioning correctly. - Under some condition, the previously played media title would appear in the timeline area and invalid entries were being added to the play history. - Erasing entries from the favorite media list did not actually save the list your drive. Unless a new entry was added (which did save the list), restarting Zoom Player would restore the erased entries. - The sub-folder selection within the media scanner fullscreen navigation interface would draw outside the defined line boundaries. - The media scanner no longer allows you to add folders to plugin based categories (which are not folder based). - The "Refresh" button on the media library category configuration dialog was accidentally left enabled for folder based categories. Clicking it would trigger a "list index out of bounds" error. - Playing a media through the Advanced Playlist Control dialog and then trying to close the dialog before the media finished loading would cause a non-fatal crash. - Removing entries from the playlist editor did not always select the current remaining track. - Rewind, Fast Forward and Slow Motion are now disabled when playing live streams with no duration (these functions were interfering with playback). - Enabling fullscreen navigation's "Safe Mode" broke the functions screen on the "Favorites" navigation interface. - Enabling fullscreen navigation's "Safe Mode" prevented access to the stream selection navigation interface. - The chapter selection pop-up OSD appeared in the wrong screen position. - In the playlist editor, clicking the blank area under the playlist entries would select the last entry without clearing the currently selected entry. - Manually editing a Zoom Player ".CHP" chapter file using an external text editor could have triggered a freeze when trying to load the associated media file. - Changing the internal screen saver's slideshow path did not take affect until the next player restart if the screen saver was previously active (changing the folder didn't clear the cache). - Streaming audio-only YouTube with visualizations would not always enable the ZP DSP Filter, causing synchronization issues between the audio and visualization. - Pressing the next-track button with the next tracks being a series of executable files would execute all files at once instead of just the first executable and pausing. - Trying to close the Install Center during an install could have resulted in a crash. - The "Trash" icon no longer shows up at the bottom of the media library fullscreen navigation mode when Safe Mode is enabled. - Since they were causing playback issues, the Fast Play, Slow Motion, Half Speed Fast-Play, Half Speed Slow Motion and Increase/Decrease Play Rate functions are no longer accessible when playing a live stream with no duration. - Using Shift+Delete to delete the currently selected playlist entries did not work properly if one of the selected entries was the currently playing media. - When Zoom Player was minimized to the taskbar, instructing Zoom Player to switch to fullscreen mode did not work as intended. - Trying to play a URL straight from the windows clipboard will no longer try playing if the clipboard does not actually contain a URL. - Opening the previously open navigation interface did not work when the previous navigation interface was the 'Favorites'. - Going back from the favorites fullscreen navigation interface to the main interface highlighted the playlist icon instead of the favorites icon. - Using the play history fullscreen navigation with safe mode enabled would trigger a crash or cosmetic glitches when trying to access the functions page. - Assigning functions that auto-execute when a secondary screen is attached or detached did not execute under some conditions. - Some functions called from command line using the "/func" or "/exfunc" parameters could have run before Zoom Player finished loading, triggering unexpected behavior. - You can no longer try to erase the "refresh" and "more" (plus) entries in the media library. - The "Scrapers file name blacklist:" label disappeared under "Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View". - TheMovieDB scraper plugin can now display information on multiple directors of one movie instead of just the first director. - In very rare cases where a corrupt media file was played and the "Continue to the next Playlist item when an invalid file is played" setting was enabled, if the next entry in the playlist was an executable, the user interface would think the previous item was still playing, leaving the player window in a sort of in-between state that didn't show some text. - The delete icon was visible in the download manager fullscreen navigation while safe mode was enabled. - The playlist editor's right-click menu's "Add Streaming URL" feature caused a visual glitch where the highlighted playlist entry was not the one actually playing. - Pressing the Enter key on the playlist editor right after running the player would play the first track instead of the last played track. - Under some rare conditions, the play history dialog could show duplicate entries of the same media. - When playing certain live feeds, right-clicking the timeline could wrongfully show a "Seeking 0 seconds" OSD. - Hovering with the mouse cursor over the timeline will no longer show the timeline position or a preview image if the playing media has no duration (e.g. when viewing a jpeg image). - Some UTF8 encoded ".txt" files did not display anything when viewed. - Loading ".wpl" playlists that contain URLs did not load the URL entries correctly. - Using the Advanced Playlist Control's "Move to Bottom" function caused issues if the currently playing media was moved.What's new in Zoom Player v14.5:
* Extended video streaming support for the following web sites: Facebook (facebook.com) Vimeo (vimeo.com) Dailymotion (dailymotion.com) VK (vk.com) LiveLeak (liveleak.com) Break.com (break.com) Veoh (veoh.com) eBaum's World (ebaumsworld.com) VKMag.com (vkmag.com) Team Four Star (teamfourstar.com) GodTube (godtube.com) StreetFire.net (streetfire.net) Daily HaHa (dailyhaha.com) TCMag.com (tcmag.com) Bofunk (bofunk.com) Some sites (e.g. facebook) may require you to enable the extended analysis mode for the 3DYD filter through the Zoom Player Install Center. * Automatic fullscreen navigation skin switching based on the display's aspect ratio. For example, by specifying a 16:10 and selected a Zoom Player navigation skin designed for 16:10 displays. (e.g. https://www.inmatrix.com/zplayer/nav/default1610.shtml) Note: Skin switching is currently only triggered when opening a navigation interface. * TheMovieDB.org media library scraping plugin has been enhanced and can now return non-english meta-data (texts and images). * The playlist editor (when using the default Onyx skin or the bundled Alba skin) now draws alternating line highlights making the playlist easier to track visually. * The playlist editor's right-click menu now features Colorize actions that let you easily color-code track(s) text and background colors. The color information is automatically saved and restored when using Zoom Player's default ZPL format playlists. * New "PlayListData/Background2" skin script parameter that specifies the alternating playlist editor line highlight color. * New "Thumb rendering threads" setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) to specify the number of CPU threads used to render the thumbview display. Previously, this setting was hard-coded to use 2 threads, but now you can specify any value from "Auto" to "16". Auto mode uses either 2 or 3 threads depending on your PC, but performance can be improved further with additional threads on systems containing many cores or high bandwidth RAM. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback) that automatically tries to use the YouTube IFRAME player if DirectShow playback of a YouTube stream fails. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Controls): "Next / Previous Track" plays the next/prev media in the same folder if playlist contains 1 file. This function behind this setting was previously always enabled. This setting remains enabled by default, but from now you can disable this behavior from the advanced options dialog. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Controls) to mute the audio when enabling Slow Motion or Fast Play. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) to force the navigation list or thumb view to maximum width. Unlike the "full width" setting, this setting will make the navigation list area take the display device's maximum resolution, which can cause some cosmetic issues (like the thumbnail highlight getting cropped). * New "Support folders as playlist entries" Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Playlist). This setting was previously hardcoded and is still enabled by default to support advanced playlist functionality. However, supporting folders as playlist entries triggers a spun-down HDD drive to spin back up when a playlist is loaded. With this new setting disabled, you can now prevent drives from accidentally spinning up. * The advanced playlist control (accessible through the playlist editor or by pressing "J") now shows the number of items remaining in the playlist as the search filters the playlist. * New "Refresh" option (Media Library Category Editor / Configure Category) for YouTube channels and RSS Streams that refreshes the channel's Name & Thumbnail. * New "exVidMoveHorz" and "exVidMoveVert" extended functions that move the video area (fullscreen) or player window (when not in fullscreen) horizontally and vertically. Command line usage example: zplayer.exe /exfunc:exvidmovehorz,-200 /exfunc:exvidmovevert,-100 * New "fnToggleOverlayCover" function to toggle the "Video covers entire display area" setting on and off. + Optimized the Media Library's thumbnail drawing code, increasing update speed and smoothness. + The Maximum number of scraping threads used by the media library has increased from 8 to 16. + The advanced playlist control's filter search was searching the entire playlist on each letter pressed, this caused a sluggish user experience when dealing with very larger playlists (over 30,000 entries). To enhance the user experience, the search action is now only performed 350-400ms after the last key-stroke, ensuring that the user interface does not stall while typing. + When a media library scraped movie did not contain a backdrop image, the default background image is now used instead of a black screen. + Zoom Player now does a better job at extracting album art images from media files if the JPEG image contains junk in front of the actual image. + The Install Center now includes two configuration profiles for the 3DYD YouTube Source filter that enable HD/4K streaming. + Visualization are now supported when the 3DYD YouTube Source filter is set to "audio only" output. + The Command & Control API now notifies when subtitles are enabled/ disabled when using the "fnToggleSub" and "fnDisableDVDsub" functions. + Updated the PNG and zLib libraries to newer versions. - TheAudioDB.com scraper plugin is now functional again after the API used by the site moved to encrypted communication (https), breaking backward compatibility. - TheAudioDB.com media library scraper can now better handle artist names containing the "-" character, for example "Alt-J - This Is All Yours" will now properly scrape. - Starting Zoom Player with the "Do not check if a file exists when adding to the playlist" setting enabled no longer triggers spun-down HDD drives to spin-up. - The GuardDog feature tried to restart Zoom Player if Zoom Player's load time was taking too long (due to HDD drive spin-ups or a network drive reconnection), from now the guard dog feature will only start functioning once Zoom Player has finished loading. - When viewing the media library's TV/Movie in JukeBox mode, the backdrop images was not scaled and cropped properly on non-16:9 displays (e.g. 1920x1200 monitor) leaving black bars instead of filling with the backdrop. - Kinetic scrolling in the media library did not work well using a mouse cursor, stopping when attempting to scroll multiple times while the kinetic movement was still in mid process. - Fixed a possible TheMovieDB.org scraper freeze (could have caused slow-downs on exit or more rarely, a player freeze) when used in combination with the "Scrape using media derived title (instead of file name)" category setting. - The Media Library's Jukebox mode would not enable if the only file in the folder was a playlist. - Fixed a case where a media library scraped movie not containing a backdrop image showed a backdrop from another movie. - When the "Scrape using media derived title (instead of file name)" category setting was enabled, under some conditions, the media's thumbnail would not display after closing and reopening the media library. - Playing media that contained certain special characters in the media's title caused multiple unplayable entries to appear in the play history. - If a media title contained a 'line feed' or 'return' characters, it would corrupt the play history. - With the "Adv. Options / Interface / Position & Size - Auto-Size User Interface to maintain Video Aspect Ratio (when resizing)" setting enabled, playing audio files with folder/album art could cause Zoom Player's main window to display partially off-screen. - The latest version of mediainfo DLL changed how it extracts cover art for audio files, breaking Zoom Player support for displaying the album art with some audio formats (mainly M4A). - Better album art image extraction from audio files with ID3v2 TAGs when the image header included some junk data. - When opening a media file by double-clicking from explorer (or other file managers), the currently playing track wouldn't highlight correctly and show the playing position in the playlist editor. - Using the "Stop" function while a JPEG/PNG image was loading, combined with a setting that closes the playing media when using the "Stop" function, caused the image to remain on screen under some conditions. - Double-clicking an entry on the skin selection dialog could sometimes trigger an access violation error. - When opening the playlist editor, under some conditions the bottom entries would not show up until the playlist screen was refreshed by a click or scroll. - The "&" character wasn't showing up in the playlist editor. - Pressing under the last item in the playlist editor did not visually select the last item in the list. Then if you pressed the "Enter" key, it would start playing the last item in the playlist which was a bit confusing without the visual cue of a selected entry. - Fixed a crash when trying to play a video file with too many external audio tracks. External audio tracks are now limited to a maximum of 10 tracks. - When the "Force the navigation list or thumb view display to full width" setting was enabled in combination with the "Use dynamically visible scroll bar" setting, the thumbnail would not highlight correctly. - Zoom Player will no longer try running MediaInfo.dll when playing a URL, removing the 'unknown error' message from the play information dialogs. - Using the "^" character in a file name to force the media library scraper to ignore any text after this character did not work properly in some cases. - The "Mute audio during forward and backward seeks" setting was muting audio when attempting to seek forward/backward in a live stream even in cases where seeking was not possible.What's new in Zoom Player v14.4:
* Initial support for the AV1 video compression format: AOMedia Video 1 (AV1), is an open, royalty-free video coding format designed for video transmissions over the Internet. It is being developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), a consortium of firms from the semiconductor industry, video on demand providers, and web browser developers, founded in 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AV1 The AV1 codec should eventually provide a 20% superior image quality/bitrate compared to HEVC (H.265). * New "Run Application" media library plugin that lets you run applications and scripts directly from a media library category thumbnail. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface), Station manager should stay on top of other application when switching to fullscreen mode. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback), Load .URL files as streaming media (otherwise load as web page). * New (Adv. Options / Playback) "On play complete" option to execute an application or script as soon as the playlist completes playing. + Media library meta-data scraping had issues with long file paths and URLs (over 200 characaters, depending on Zoom Player's installation path) due to an early design decision to make the cached entries easy to identify using their file names and URL addresses. However, to this day, windows does not support paths longer than 255 characters correctly. As a work-around, if a long file name or url is processed, the cache mechanism now uses a short hash instead of the full file name or url. + Enhanced support for RSS feed thumbnails. More thumbnails should show up when adding RSS feeds as media library categories (including more category thumbnail for feeds that support them). + If an RSS Feed has multiple entries with the same publish date, the entries will now be second-level sorted by URL. + The number of RSS entries cached by the media library plugin has been raised from 2000 to 5000. + Two Sonique visualization resolution settings have changed from an aspect ratio of 4:3 to 16:9 : 320x240 -> 320x180 640x480 -> 640x360 This change may not be reflected in the drop-down list if you are not using an updated language pack, but this is just cosmetic, the new resolutions are set according to the numbers above. + Enhanced the SHOUTcast station sorting. + When downloading playlists, Zoom Player now uses the windows temp folder instead of the 'my documents'. + When playing archive files (zip/rar), the archive is now extracted to the windows temp folder instead of 'my documents'. + Meta-data returned when playing streaming audio is now trimmed to remove superfluous spaces before/after the returned text. - A race condition caused the scrape manager thread not to signal it is terminating correctly, causing Zoom Player to freeze on exit. - The media library playlist plugin now supports playlist URLs longer than 255 characters long. - RSS feeds containing a special unicode line-break character in the description would trigger a freeze when opening the RSS media library category a second time. - Enabling the "Share Play History at a custom path" setting and not specifying a trailing "\" in the folder name would cause the play history to be saved incorrectly. - The "Continue to the next Playlist item when an invalid file is played" setting would skip tracks if the unplayable media was the last playlist entry. - Opening a playlist from the file-open dialog would not always preserve the active playlist entry as specified in the playlist file. - Some unicode characters did not show up correctly in the playlist editor and music OSD if the selected font did not support the characters. Now a different windows text-rendering function is used, one that takes unsupported character from a system-default font. - When including an executable entry in the playlist, playback did not progress to the next track correctly and would cause the wrong title to appear in the playlist editor. - Playing an audio file with visualization could cause the right click menu to show multiple "close navigator" entries when right-clicking on a fullscreen navigation interface. - The SHOUTcast station browser would show duplicate entries after opening the dialog multiple times on different days. - When playing SHOUTcast/ICEcast streams, playing the next track would cause the previously playing title to overwrite the new track's title in the playlist editor. - Opening a streaming URL from clipboard (Alt+Ctrl+"U") failed to work if the URL was a playlist. - Pressing the "Play (add to playlist)" button while a navigation interface was visible and the "Stop closes the navigation interfaces" setting was enabled prevented playback of the station from starting. - Parsing ".CUE" files failed when the an entry contained the word "TRACK" in either the performer or title tags.What's new in Zoom Player v14.3:
* You can now perform sorting (by Listeners, Name, BitRate & Format) in the SHOUTcast station browser dialog. + When the up/down arrow keys are assigned to next/previous chapter or track, the up/down keys were not set logically, now pressing down will go to the next track/chapter and pressing up will go to the previous track/chapter. + Opening a YouTube channel with no internet connection now shows a refresh option instead of a message that the category is empty. + Using the 'Open subtitle file' to add a subtitle to the currently playing media now initializes the file selection dialog to open in the playing media's folder. + The stream selection fullscreen navigation interface will no longer automatically close when switching between tracks. + You can now open the stream selection fullscreen navigation interface even if no media is currently playing. - Due to a language file that was not updated in version 14.2, the titles on navigation interfaces showed the wrong title. - Pressing the "Load More" button in media library categories with a plugin capable of showing multiple pages (e.g. YouTube) would cause the "refresh" option to disappear if there were no more media to list. - The RSS feed media library plugin was not showing the correct publishing dates for some RSS feed (e.g. YouTube RSS). - Trying to load a playlist through the Open URL (Shift+"U") dialog failed with an error message. - The media library playlist plugin did not function properly under some conditions, reporting an empty category. - The media library playlist plugin did not use a clean category name when a playlist URL was used instead of an actual file.What's new in Zoom Player v14.2:
* New "Favorites" fullscreen navigation interface. Any media can be added to the favorites list through the media library or file browsing navigational interfaces. Please note that this change required resetting the "Navigation interfaces on main navigator" feature to it's default value (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation). * When using the "Open URL" function, a new "Clear playlist" checkbox is now available (previously the playlist was always cleared). * With LAV Filters v0.71, a D3D11 hardware decoding mode has been added. You can instruct LAV to use this mode automatically by setting the option under "Adv. Options / Playback / Video". + The "Play History database may be corrupted" message will no longer appear unless the play history file is actually corrupted. + You can now set the "Retain Media Playback History for" value to 99999 days (~2738 years), up from the original 9999 days (~27 years), just in case one of you finds immortality and wished to use Zoom Player forever. + The torrents plugin should now shutdown a little faster if Zoom Player closes while the plugin was fetching an updated file list. - Fixed a bug that prevented the previously active audio track from being restored when re-playing a video with multiple audio tracks. - Opening a playlist from navigation interfaces loaded the playlist but did not automatically start playing it. - The fullscreen navigation's text Anti-Aliasing setting was being reset after restarting the player. - Bug Fixes.What's new in Zoom Player v14.1:
* Automatic support for native Windows 7-10 media library folder structure (previously only the more basic Windows XP-Vista library structure was supported). * New setting (Adv. Options / File Format Association / File Extensions" to instruct Zoom Player to process ".m3u8" playlists. This setting is disabled by default as it can cause conflicts with services that require DirectShow filters to process this type of playlist format. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / File Tracker) to specify the download tracking plugins refresh rate. This value only affects the media library and file browsing navigation interfaces, the download tracking navigation interface refreshes at a higher rate automatically. Please note that using a low number (under 10 seconds) may impact performance when tracking large file lists (over 10,000 entries). * New setting on the Torrents download & tracking plugin to prevent it from passing file entries to Zoom Player that do not actually exist on the disk drive. This setting is off by default but can increase performance when dealing with a large number of torrents that were only partially downloaded. * New setting on the Torrents download & tracking plugin to prevent it from passing file entries to Zoom Player that are marked as "do not download". This setting is off by default. Enabling this setting can reduce some computations and speed up the listing process but at the same time it prevents you from later changing the download priority on these files. * New setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Audio / Visualizations) to enable Zoom Player's DSP filter only for visualizations. * New setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Audio / Visualizations) to set an initial audio re-synchronization value for visualizations (Zoom Player's DSP filter is required for this setting to function). * The last play position is now drawn over the thumbnail in TV Jukebox mode. + Windows 10 creators edition changed how fonts are rendered by enabling clear-type rendering at higher resolutions. Clear-type is a lot slower to draw and at resolutions above 1080p causes severe performance degradation in Zoom Player's fullscreen navigation interfaces. Previously, to solve this issue, you could set Zoom Player to override windows' font rendering. From this version, the setting is enabled by default (you can still change it manually under "Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization"). + Zoom Player's default window size for the onyx skin was changed to present a default video size of 960x540 (up from the previous 604x340) and for the alba skin, the default video size was changed to 1280x720. + You can now press the escape key to cancel a 'play all files in folder' feature mid-action. Accidentally playing an entire drive could have caused Zoom Player to appear unresponsive. + You can now press any navigation key to cancel a 'play all files in folder' feature mid-action. + The download plugins synchronization has been completely rewritten, and should no longer cause any user interface slow-downs. + The torrents plugin has been greatly optimized, working much faster with large file lists. + The download fullscreen navigation interface should scroll much smoothly when dealing with a large number of files. + The YouTube (Channel/Search/Trending), Playlist and RSS Feed media library plugins have been optimized for greater performance. + Optimized core string handling routines, improving script parsing (e.g. Skin parsing) and other areas. + Media Library plugin result entries now display the media's title instead of the file name or URL in list mode (previously the title only showed in thumbnail mode). + A 'processing, please hold ...' message now appear when it takes Zoom Player longer to close due to background tasks (media scraping, download plugin sync) still being active. + Switching between fullscreen and windowed mode while the media library is opened should be cleaner and faster (less visual junk in the transition). - Opening the media library, especially on 4K displays showed a low resolution image of the media library for a split second before displaying the full resolution version. The double-draw event caused both the described visual glitch as well as a performance penality. - Resizing the Zoom Player window while the media library was visible in thumbnail mode could cause the thumbnails to display in the wrong size. - Selecting a custom Audio Renderer for audio visualizations did not work well (the wrong audio renderer was used at times). - Loading a text file would not display the file name in the title area. - Using the Stop function to close the playing media did not work if the playing media was a text file. - Fixed a scraping bug where the ".nfo" file detection algorithm would fail with files/folders names containing unicode characters. - Fixed a possible crash that would trigger sometimes on an initial run after a fresh install. - Fixed a crash when playing a live video stream using MadVR as the video renderer and trying to use the pause button on the control bar. - Opening the file browsing and download manager fullscreen navigation interfaces will no longer freeze for two seconds if the Torrents download plugin is enabled and qBittorrent isn't running. - Opening the file browsing and download manager fullscreen navigation interfaces will no longer freeze for long periods if qBittorrent is seeding many torrents. - The media library should no longer freeze for a few seconds when retrieving large file lists from qBittorrent using the Torrents plugin. - The information dialog ("I" keyboard macro) did not show up when playing in fullscreen on a secondary monitor. - The torrents download plugin was not recognizing a file's download priority correctly after the latest qBittorrent release. - The torrents download plugin was listing files returned by qBittorrent but no longer existing on the disk drive in the root folder instead of their (no longer existing) path. - The currently selected playlist editor entries would lose their selection if a playlist update was triggered after the listed media's duration has been scraped. - Trying to play a streaming media URL that contained trailing spaces would fail. Trailing spaces are now trimmed (you can still use encoded space characters in the URL). - The Lock-UI (user interface) feature used to prevent accidental clicks did not block some click and double-click actions. - The Dolby Digital Plus audio format was not being displayed with an icon on the TV and Movie jukebox screens. - The play position tool-tip was sometimes displayed in the wrong screen position on multi-monitor displays. - MIDI audio playback should be more reliable. - The media library's playlist plugin no longer shows an invalid duration value if the playlist entry has no duration.What's new in Zoom Player v14:
* New Download & Tracking plugin API has been developed. The API specifies which file extensions or URL sub-string matches to pass to the Download & Tracking API instead of trying to play. This information is specified under: Adv. Options / File Format Association / File Extensions : Download The API can be used create a plugin that integrate with 3rd party download software or directly download the content itself. The tracking portion of the API shows the currently download state and whether there's a good chance the download is currently playable. This information is displayed in the media library, file browsing and download tracking fullscreen navigation interfaces. * The download tracking navigation interface has been enhanced with the ability to predict when you can begin playing a media file while it is still downloading. When using the new Torrents plugin, the prediction is based on the number of torrent pieces that have successfully downloaded from the beginning and end of the media file. By default this is 2% from the beginning of the file and 1% from the end. The Torrents plugin requires qBittorrent version 4 or newer to work. qBittorrent is now available to download through the Install Center. A quick slideshow demonstrating how to use the Torrents plugin: https://www.facebook.com/zoomplayer/videos/1475689062513061/ We are building a library and possibly a seed-box to show case public- domain and creative commons videos. If you would like to expose your video to Zoom Player's user base, please contact us at: https://inmatrix.com/email/business.shtml * Download tracking plugins can be enabled, disabled and configured through a new interface under "Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / File Tracker". * New Playlist media library source plugin that lets you assign any playlist as a media library category. * The media library fullscreen interface's settings page can now be used to select the Audio Rendering device (audio output), making it easy to switch between different output modes (switching audio between rooms, speaker setups, headphone output, etc). * The media library fullscreen interface's settings page can now be used to select the Video Rendering device, making it easy to test out different rendering qualities or in cases where a particular video may not play correctly in your preferred video renderer. * New "Facebook" smart play profile for playing facebook video URLs using the 3DYD directshow filter. * New "Vimeo" smart play profile for playing viemo video URLs using the 3DYD directshow filter. * New "Daily Motion" smart play profile for playing Daily Motion video URLs using the 3DYD directshow filter. * New "Streaming Services" smart play profile supporting streaming videos from: - bofunk.com - break.com - ebaumsworld.com - godtube.com - liveleak.com - tcmag.com - teamfourstar.com - veoh.com - vk.com - vkmag.com - yourepeat.com * New feature (Adv. Options / Playback / History) to prevent files or URLs from being saved to the play history. All you need to do is specify a partial string, for example "\some folder name\" or "someurl.org". * New feature (Adv. Options / Playback / History) to hide files or URLs from being displayed in the play history dialogs while still remember the last playback position, volume, subtitle track, etc. All you need to do is specify a partial string, for example "\some folder name\" or "someurl.org". * New feature (Adv. Options / Playback / Controls) to disable seeking controls when playing files or URLs containing a specified path or text. * New feature (Adv. Options / Playback / Audio / Visualizations) to override the audio renderer when playing with visualization. This allows you to use the "DC-Crossfading Audio Renderer" to support a volume fading effect on Start/End/Play/Stop/Seek only when playing with visualizations. This is similar to how WinAmp fades audio between tracks. Download the DC-Crossfading Audio Renderer here: (http://www.dsp-worx.de/?n=14) * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation) to display all navigation interfaces on a secondary monitor. * New setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Controls) that controls whether Zoom Player switches to the next/previous track when using next/previous chapter function on a media that does not contain chapters. This setting is enabled by default. * New setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Audio / Visualizations) that can force playback to delay for a specified number of milliseconds after finishing to play a track with audio visualizations. * New setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Audio / Visualizations) that specifies the visualization rendering frame rate, by default 30fps. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback) that reloads a live stream if the stream disconnects unexpectedly. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Playlist) to automatically play the next media in the playlist after deleting the currently playing media. This setting is disabled by default. * New "Scrape using media derived title (instead of file name)" media library category setting used to scrape online for content based on the media's title (instead of the file name). * New "Do not display the media's position/duration on top of thumbnails" media library category setting to prevent the current play position and the media's duration from appearing on top of thumbnails. * New "Do not display a media format (audio/video/picture) icon on top of thumbnails" media library category setting to prevent the drawing of a media format indicator icon from appearing on top of thumbnails. * New Setting (Adv. Options / On Screen Display) that controls the OSD clock position. * You can now create and save chapter points (bookmarks) for streaming URLs. * When taking screenshots of the playing video (Alt+F keyboard macro), the current play position is now saved as part of the file name. * The fullscreen information navigation interface now includes media format information extracted using the MediaInfo.dll plugin. * New (optional) control bar button to open/hide the fullscreen stream selection navigation interface. * New "exSetAudTrack" extended function that sets the current audio track. * New "exSetSubTrack" extended function that sets the current subtitle track. + The media library "TheMovieDB" plugin's Movie/TV detection accuracy has increased by cropping out more undesired key-words from file/folder names, using a fuzzy search algorithm to better detect non-exact movie names matches and preferring a release year with a partial name match to an exact name match with a mismatched release date. + The internal image decoder (JPEG/GIF/PNG/BMP) is now capable of downloading and displaying images directly from web servers (e.g. a playlist full of image URLs). + Using the "open streaming link" or "open streaming link from keyboard" functions will now relay downloadable URLs to any matching download plugin (for example .torrent/magnet links) without affecting the current playback. + The media library 'RSS Feed' plugin now caps the maximum cached entries to 2000 and the description length to 3500 characters. Otherwise, over time the RSS plugin data would become too large and would stop displaying. + The playlist fullscreen navigation interface now draws a playing icon next to the currently playing track. + The YouTube Search and Trending media library plugins will now use a search/trending thumbnail when creating new categories. This change does not apply to previously created categories. The new images can be manually assigned using the category configuration dialog. By default the new images are located here using Windows 32bit: "c:\Program Files (x86)\Zoom Player\MediaNavPlugins\YouTube_Search.jpg" "c:\Program Files (x86)\Zoom Player\MediaNavPlugins\YouTube_Trending.jpg" And here using Windows 64bit: "c:\Program Files\Zoom Player\MediaNavPlugins\YouTube_Search.jpg" "c:\Program Files\Zoom Player\MediaNavPlugins\YouTube_Trending.jpg" + The new version update notification will now include a condensed highlight list of what changed in the latest version (will only appear in the next version released after this one). + The "Scrape folder thumbnails by using the name of the first video file within the folder instead of the folder name" media library category setting now works better in TV Jukebox mode by scraping only for the show name, no longer scraping season/episode numbers from the file name. + Pruning the play history (using the button) no longer erases URL entries, only local files that were erased from the disk drive. + The thumbnail and meta-data cache folder is now cleared once a week instead of on every exit, improving the time it takes Zoom Player to close. + Many of the main navigation icons were polished to give the default navigation theme a more consistent look. + The "unknown" icon has been updated to better suit the UX design. + The media library plugin API can now accept local-file thumbnails when creating new categories. - Fixed a major issue with random play that would cause it to stop working after the entire playlist has been finished playing one time. - Installing an audio device or a custom audio renderer filter would change the selected audio renderer for DVDs and WMP ActiveX playback. - Fixed a crash when trying to open a URL from the clipboard when the clipboard contained junk text. - Using local settings files while running multiple Zoom Player instances from different folders prevented changed settings from being saved. - Zoom Player didn't look for subtitles in the XySubFilter's paths definition, causing subtitles not to load when they were not in the same folder as the video. - Playing a media from the windows explorer (or other 3rd party software) would show an "are you sure?" prompt by accident. - Fixed a crash when trying to load a malformed play history cache file. - The Zoom Player Install Center and Zoom Player itself were out of sync, triggering a new components update notification to appear within 2 weeks after running the Instal Center. - Registry entries were not being saved/loaded properly when running Zoom Player in Windows Vista compatibility mode (and possibly other compatibility modes). This of course lead to instability. - When enabling the "Seek to key-frames when using LAV Video decoder (faster, less accurate seeking)" setting, some file handles were not properly closed, preventing the playing media from being erased until Zoom Player was closed. - The key-mapping editor's search feature did not work. - Fixed a freeze triggered by the media library's 'RSS Feed' plugin on certain RSS feeds that used an ASCII #13 as a line break. - When playing a SHOUTcast stream, the playlist editor cleared the selected entry every second. - Smart Play's "Configure File Source" dialog did not set a default value for the "Use with" field when a non-english language pack was used. - The "stay on top" setting would stop functioning when exiting fullscreen mode with the playlist editor visible. - The Windows Picture Library and Music Library (system folders) may not have displayed with the correct thumbnail layout in the media library. - The controlbar's volume pop-up slider did not appear in the correct position under some circumstances. - Fixed a glitch where TAG display for a local file playback would show "???" instead of international characters. - Fixed an issue where audio visualization wouldn't render in the correct resolution when changing the visualization display size. - Wrong duration displayed in the playlist when using Windows Media Player's ActiveX control to play streaming media. - Double-clicking a station list entry to begin playback while the media library was opened could trigger a playback of whatever was highlighted in the media library instead of the station list entry. - Hiding the "Media Scanner" and "Remove Category Folder(s)" from the media library's category listing would break keyboard quick search from working on the last category listed. - In some cases, when using the "Media Close Delay" feature, the delay would be twice as long as the specified value. - Playback of ASX playlists did not work. - With some language packs, the text for the station manager's left column would cut-off. - Debug logs related to kinetic scrolling were being saved by the non-debug version. - The Double-Click function did not work when clicking audio visualizations. - The default value for the new "Navigation on Monitor" setting was accidentally set to as fullscreen on a the first monitor instead of the current monitor (within the window or fullscreen). - Fixed a crash when trying to close the media library just as it was being opened. - Fixed a bug in the smart play source filter "new profile" dialog which caused the "use with the following URLs" entries to be lost when pressing smart play's auto-configure button. - The OSD clock is now closed when the options dialog is open as it caused other windowed opened through the options dialog to hide behind the options dialog window. - Fixed a few small memory leaks.What's new in Zoom Player v13.7.1:
+ Adding chapters using the chapter editor will now instantly show the chapter's position in the timeline (if timeline display is enabled). - Fixed a bug in countries with a comma decimal symbol where the media library thumbnails text height and spacing got truncated. For example: A thumbnail's Text Height of "1.95%" resulted in an actual text height of "1%". - Loading ".PLS/.XSPF" playlists where the first item in the playlist did not play (e.g. "server down") would trigger an infinite loop and Zoom Player froze. - The inactive navigation txt-lines background was not being drawn. - The "I" key will again close the information dialog if it is visible. - The media library category sorting order and last folder position could get reset under some conditions due to insufficient registry memory allocation. - Setting the control bar to appear with a fixed width while in fullscreen did not show the control bar in the right position (or at all) on secondary monitors. - Setting the control bar to appear at the top or bottom of the screen did not show the control bar in the right position (or at all) on secondary monitors. - The media library category editor did not show the currently enabled scraping mode, thumbnail aspect ratio and thumbnail columns when a language pack was installed. - The playlist editor line-spacing did not work well with every font. - Slight adjustment to the media library's thumbnail text drawing to better account for fonts with less-uniform character heights. - It was possible for a new components/filters notification to trigger without new components being available. It was triggered due to a new version of Zoom Player being available on the install center. Since player updates has its own notification, this message is redundant.What's new in Zoom Player v13.7:
* The Media Library's settings page has been expanded to configure the layout of each category and the category list itself without ever exiting the fullscreen navigation interface. The following customization options are now available, Per-Category: 1. Aspect Ratio 2. Text-Box lines 3. Text height 4. Horizontal spacing 5. Vertical spacing Globally: 1. Categories columns 2. Categories Text-Box lines 3. Categories Text height 4. Text margins * The default fullscreen navigation skin has been tweaked a bit and now includes a new variant with larger fonts for the visually impaired and small displays. * Support for automatically scaling of un-skinned dialogs based on the monitor's DPI setting. This should help greatly on 4K or higher resolution screens (disabled by default, see "override scaling of un-skinned dialogs" below). For 4K/8K skinned interfaces, there are several options at the Inmatrix.com shop. * Support for high DPI scaling of Windows standard dialogs (Open/Save file, folder browser, font selector, color selector, etc). * YouTube subtitles are now supported when playing using DirectShow. * The YouTube plugin has been tweaked to include the channel name in a more prominent position. * The bottom-meta data for regular media now includes a field for the format (file extension, e.g. MP4/MP3/etc). * The equalizer full screen navigation interface has been polished to include translucent equalizer bars. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) that specifies the number of columns drawn for the media library's category list thumbnails. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) that specifies the text height used for drawing the media library's category list thumbnail text. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) that specifies the number of text lines drawn for the media library's category list thumbnails. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) that specifies the margin area around the media library's thumbnail text. * New Setting (Adv. Options / System) to override scaling of un-skinned dialogs by using a custom value (Automatic/100%/125%/150%/200%/300%/400%). This manual control further enhances usability for the visually impaired, regardless of screen resolution. * Support for qBitTorrent v3.3.13 new security enhancements. For older versions of Zoom Player, you must use qBitTorrent v3.3.12 to continue tracking your downloads. * Media Titles are now properly extracted and displayed with M4V/MP4 files. * Audio Visualization will now work for streaming audio stations if they are defined as "Radio" stations through the station manager. * New Smart Play setting to control which DirectShow filter is used to stream SHOUTcast and ICEcast streams. * New Smart Play profile setting that determines if Zoom Player should use a profile if the input is a file name, URL or both. * New Smart Play "MP3 (streaming)" profile used to specify which filter should be used with streaming MP3 files (by default LAV Source). * When playing live SHOUTcast/ICEcast streams, the on screen display now updates with the currently playing track name. * The internal screen saver now displays the playing media's current play position. * New "fnTitleToClipboard" function to copy the currently playing media's title to the clipboard. * New "fnToggleSub" function to toggle subtitles on and off. * New "fnMediaSrcToClipboard" function that copies the playing media file or URL directly from the playing DirectShow source filter to the Windows clipboard. * New "fnWMPActiveX" function to enable/disable Windows media content streaming using Windows Media Player's ActiveX control. * New "exWMPActiveX" extended function to directly set whether Windows media content streaming will use Windows Media Player's ActiveX control. 0 = Disabled 1 = Enabled + A cooperation with TheAudioDB.com resulted in an improved album-name identification algorithm (used for scraping Album meta-data and cover art within the Media Library). + The media library's thumbnail font size configuration was calculated in a poorly conceived manner that made it difficult to change a thumbnail's font size and line numbers while maintaining consistency across different thumbnail aspect ratios. This has led to a complete rewrite of the text rendering code and new defaults being applied which may affect your previous thumbnail layout settings. + Switching between categories should update the thumbnails a bit quicker (~300ms) if they were previously memory cached. + Adding a station to the station manager now automatically highlights the newly created station. + LAV Source is now used by default for SHOUTcast type streams. + When using LAV Source to stream SHOUTcast/ICEcast content, the playing track's now is now properly displayed in the title and timeline areas. + Opening a ".PLS" playlist containing URLs is now assumed to contain SHOUTcast streaming audio stations. + The Options dialog search window still appeared too small on very high resolution screens, will now show more result lines. + Slightly tweaked the SHOUTcast station browser dialog to increase space for translated texts. - Fixed a crash when listing some RSS streams in the media library. - Fixed a list index out of bounds error when starting in HTPC mode. - The Windows media library categories are now properly presented with Zoom Player's default Audio/Video/Picture layouts. - Fixed a "category is empty" message when trying to list RSS streams with very long descriptions. - Playing ICEcast ".xspf" streams did not work with some servers. - Deleting a media library category using the media library "remove category" feature left some cache files behind when clicking the trash can icon (pressing enter or double-clicking did not trigger this issue). - An "new components update on the install center" notification was accidentally triggered by Install Center update entries for Zoom Player itself (which has a separate update notification), resulting in a double notification. - The Mouse Wheel, Navigation Style, Information, Main, Stream Selection, Media Scanner and Play History were showing the wrong number of text lines which caused the list to appear slightly off-center. - Pressing the "Auto-Scan System" button on the Audio Visualization Adv. Options dialog page would trigger a crash with some Sonique plugins preventing the scan from functioning. Now the crashing plugin is skipped. - Adding too many audio visualization plugins would cause the plugin list to reset once Zoom Player was restarted. - Disabling Smart Play by specifying a file extension to ignore would also break Smart Play for URLs or files that did not contain a file extension. - Adding a station using either the Station Manager's SHOUTcast station browser or using the fullscreen station navigation interface did not work if a non-english language pack was in use. - In the Station list fullscreen navigation interface, the "Previous Folder" function worked on the root level even though there was no folder above it, resulting in an empty screen display. - In the Station list fullscreen navigation interface, navigating left from the functions page would go up a folder instead of returning to the station list. - When setting the thumbnail text to appear above the thumbnail, the media library's category thumbnail display would improperly position the thumbnail under the text. - The media library category cache did not function properly, leading to a slight performance hit when initially opening the media library. - The Graph Information dialog did not display unicode text correctly. - Fixed a cosmetic issue with the background of the media library's category thumbnails which would appear with some skins or thumbnail configurations. - Using the Windows Media Player ActiveX control to play an audio stream could have resulted in some UI functions not working correctly. - Fixed a few crashes when zpresampler.dll was not found. - Cosmetic fixes to various dialogs.What's new in Zoom Player v13.5:
* The default fullscreen navigation interface has been replaced with a clean new style that looks better and extends the available thumbnail area to squeeze in more pixels. * The media library category thumbnail view will now darken the area behind the thumbnail's text or media icon depending on the skin's script and advanced options customization settings. * Zoom Player support for streaming radio station is now fully integrated with the SHOUTcast Directory API, providing easy access to thousands of streaming radio stations. Unlike previous versions where Zoom Player used a static database which over time included more and more dead stations, the SHOUTcast directory is now downloaded in real time, ensuring that every station should be operational. * Zoom Player now supports 3DYD YouTube Source filter's DASH streams, enabling DirectShow YouTube streaming at resolutions of 1080p/4K/8K. * A major performance issue was triggered by the Windows 10 Creators Edition update. In the update, Microsoft forced ClearType font anti-aliasing at larger font sizes. This lead to a massive navigation performance slow-downs on QHD (2560x1440) and 4K (3840x2160) screens. Click here for more information As a work-around, Zoom Player introduced a new setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) that lets controls the font anti-aliasing mode used to render the fullscreen navigation text. * The Media Library's RSS feed plugin now caches previous entries that may no longer reside on the RSS feed and shows you cached entries even if the RSS feed server is temporarily down. * New "fnPLEraseFiles" function assigned to the Shift+"Delete" keyboard macro. When used it erases all selected files in the playlist to the window's Recycle Bin (with confirmation prompt). * New "fnOpenStreamInBrowser" function that opens the currently playing stream in a web browser (might be helpful for YouTube links). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video) to force LAV Splitter to seek to key frames (faster seeking, less accurate) instead of the accurate seek position (slower seeking, perfectly accurate). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback) to select the YouTube IFRAME Player's preferred streaming resolution, allowing you to stream 1080p/4K/8K content using the IFRAME player. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback) that allows interactivity when playing YouTube content using the IFRAME player. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Display) to show the playing file's extension in the window title (default off). * The Media Library plugin API has been extended with per-category storage path (e.g. RSS feed caching) and a new function which is called when a category using the plugin is deleted (for cleanup purposes). * New function to activate the internal screen saver. This means that you can now hook user interface actions (like a hot-corner click) with activating the screen saver. * New function to copy the currently playing media's Path/URL to the windows clipboard. * You can now define web pages as "stations" in the station editor to have the web page opened inside Zoom Player's integrated web browser. * New skin script parameters to control the text line count on each fullscreen navigation interface. + The integrated keyboard mapping editor has been rewritten to better support high-DPI displays. As a bonus, the dialog is now resizable as well. + The integrated keyboard mapping editor now shows a 'code' column which signifies a keyboard scan-code or other code used to identify an interface index. + Optimized fullscreen navigation lists line-drawing code by about 10% in cases where the skin didn't specify a background for unselected/empty lines. + The thumbnail duration display position should now be easier to read. The text's background is now using a different effect which should make the text stand out more against bright noisy thumbnails. + The Hot Mouse Tracking on the main fullscreen navigation interface has been disabled as it was inconsistent with the other interfaces' user experience. + The main fullscreen navigation interface's click logic has been changed to make it behave the same as the media library's thumb-click logic. + The "Open Streaming Link from clipboard" keyboard macro has changed from Alt+Shift+"U" to Alt+Ctrl+"U" to prevent conflicts with the DirectShow YouTube source filter which detects the held "Shift" key and pops a video streaming quality options dialog. + Error dialog are now limited in size to 94% of the Zoom Player interface width. + The Zoom Player news feed that's accessible through the options dialog has been simplified and will hopefully eliminate the javascript error some users have been experiencing when trying to view the news feed. - The optimizations in v13 broke the play history dialog's unicode support. - A missing DLL prevented the Pixel Shaders from being compiled and used to post-process a video image. - When loading .ZPL playlist files, playback did not resume from the the last file played in the playlist under some conditions. - The kinetic scrolling feature did not work in the media library's category list. - The file browsing fullscreen navigation interface was not updating the screen when scrolling by holding the down/up keys for a long period. - If the monitor's DPI setting was set to a really high value (when used in 4K monitors), it would cause the options dialog's search window to appear really small, hiding the search result area. - Fixed a possible conflict between Zoom Player's internal DSP filter and bit-streaming DTS-HD and possibly other multi-channel audio formats. - The play history dialog's "Show All" button did not refresh the screen. - The scroll wheel did not function correctly in some of the advanced options dialog's scroll boxes. - Playing a new track from the fullscreen playlist navigation interface no longer pops the playlist editor to the top. - Fixed a bug in the Media Library plugin API that prevented unicode (non-english) language searches from working using the YouTube search plugin. - The Media Library's function menu was missing the "Go to Top" entry. - The Media Library's "Safe Mode" feature was semi-broken allowing access the a category's setting from the media library's function menu. - Opening the media library through the main navigation interface would take longer than normal due to the highlighted category's content being read before actually entering the category. - Under some conditions, the media libary's scrollbar widget did not appear on the categories page. - Navigating the fullscreen file browsing interface's subtitle search result page with the keyboard did not scroll the results when reaching the bottom of the screen. - The playlist fullscreen navigation interface used the wrong icon for URLs. - Opening a ".URL" file and then opening a media file resulted in the web page remaining on screen while the media played in the background. - The "Please Wait" window was trying to write debug information to "C:\Log" and silently failing each time. - Aggressively hiding the mouse cursor has been disabled when HTML/YouTube/Flash interactivity modes are enabled as it prevented the mouse cursor from being restored on motion. - Quick Search using the keyboard in the media library did not scroll down to the searched category thumbnail. - Quick Search using the keyboard in the media library did not work at all unless you previously entered a category. - Using higher level scan-code keys (like Volume keys on certain keyboards) in fullscreen navigation interfaces that support quick search using the keyboard would trigger a quick-search lock that caused the interfaces to not respond properly. - The RSS media library plugin was showing links containing ".MOV" as audio. - The RSS Feed media library plugin would show duplicate entries on some RSS feeds. - Fixed a small cosmetical glitch that caused the scrollbar background area in the media library category to be drawn twice in slightly different vertical positions. - Fixed a small memory leak when using the options dialog.What's new in Zoom Player v13:
* New media library plugin system allowing 3rd party developers to create media library categories based on content meta-data provided by the plugin. * To demonstrate the capabilities of the new media library plugin system, an open-source project has been created to implement a 'YouTube channel', 'YouTube Search' and 'YouTube Trends' media library category plugins. - YouTube Channels: After specifying a YouTube channel's URL, the plugin automatically downloads the channel's category image, retrieves the channel's name and sets up the default category settings and layout best suited to display a YouTube channel. - YouTube Searches: Simply specify a search term and the plugin will return results based on relevance (as determined by YouTube). - YouTube Trends: Select a country and the plugin displays the available trending categories as determined by YouTube for that country. Choose from the trending category list or simply select 'everything'. - Using the plugins: The new plugins are accessible through the Media Library category editor (Shift+"M") as entries on a new drop-down list that is located right next to the "Create Category" button. The source code for the YouTube media library category plugins can be found on GitHub: https://github.com/bLightZP/Delphi-YouTube-Channel-parsing-plugin-for-Zoom-Player Please contribute! * To demonstrate the capabilities of the new media library plugin system, an open-source project has been created to implement a 'RSS Feed' category plugin. Any media specified in the RSS feed URL will be listed in the media library category. The source code for the 'RSS Feed' media library category plugin can be found on GitHub: https://github.com/bLightZP/Delphi-RSS-feed-parsing-plugin-for-Zoom-Player * New subtitle download plugin system allowing 3rd party developers to create plugins that download subtitles for your media library collection. * To demonstrate the capabilities of the new subtitle download plugin system, an open-source project has been created to implement an 'OpenSubtitles.org' subtitle download plugin. The new plugin is accessible on the newly re-designed Advanced Options dialog's "Subtitle" page (Playback / Video / Subtitles). Note: OpenSubtitles.org limits anonymous downloads by IP, use the configuration dialog to specify a user name and password to bypass any anonymous login limits (registration is free and passwords are saved as MD5 hashes not as clear text). The code for the 'OpenSubtitles.org' subtitle download plugin can be found on GitHub: https://github.com/bLightZP/Delphi-OpenSubtitles.org-API-support-for-Zoom-Player * New YouTube IFRAME (web based) player support, providing official YouTube playback. All YouTube URLs automatically use the new IFRAME player interface. You can disable the IFRAME player support in the options to force Zoom Player to use DirectShow for playback (Adv. Options / Playback > Use YouTube IFRAME video player to play YouTube content). * New media library scraper that uses TheAudioDB.com's API to download album art and meta-data for audio files. If you previously created music categories, you will need to use the category editor to configure the category to use the scraper and then re-scrape the category. New categories will automatically use TheAudioDB scraper. The source code for the TheAudioDB.com scraper can be found on GitHub: https://github.com/bLightZP/Delphi-theaudiodb.com-Zoom-Player-media-scraping-plug-in * The Zoom Player Install Center has been enhanced to support installation of new versions of Zoom Player without having to use the downloader tool (this will only apply for updates post v13 release). * The internal audio scraper now uses MediaInfo extract ID3/TAG information and display it in the media library's bottom information area. You will need to re-scrape your audio files for the new content to appear. * New Alt+"/" keyboard macro to search for subtitles based on the currently playing video. You can access this function using the right-click context menu under the new "Download" sub-menu. * New function to download subtitle file(s) for any selected video file. The new function is accessible using the right-click context menu under the new "Download" sub-menu. * You can now assign extended functions and execute external programs using the Hot Corner feature. Sadly, this enhancement forced the reset of the previously assigned Hot Corner functions. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Smart Play) that allows you to select the default filter used when streaming "http/https" URLs not covered by a Smart Play profile. The default option is now "LAV Splitter Source", but you can also choose "File Source (URL)" or "Let DirectShow decide". * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) that switches the media library's thumbnail view category list aspect ratio between Album Art (1:1) or Widescreen (16:9). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface) that can disable the new "Please Wait" / "Loading" pop-up window that appears for long lasting operations (e.g. opening a network stream for playback). * New Media Library option for the "Start Player in" setting. (Adv. Options / Interface / Position & Size). * New Setting (Media Library category editor / Configure Category) that specifies if scraper errors should appear in the meta-data overview display. The debug information was always enabled in previous versions and will now be disabled by default. * New "Loop Current Track" setting on the playlist fullscreen navigation interface's function menu. * New "On Playback Complete" setting on the playlist fullscreen navigation interface's function menu. * New smart play profile for media files encoded with the DNxHD codec. * New "Please Wait" / "Loading" window that pops-up when there are operations that are taking a long time (like fetching a YouTube channel's video list). * New Alt+Shift+"U" keyboard macro to play a streaming URL directly from the clipboard. For example, right-click and "copy link location" on a youtube video and then press Alt+Shift+"U" in Zoom Player to start playing the video. This open streaming link function is also available in Zoom Player's right-click context menu under the 'Open' sub-menu. * Media titles are now used instead of the File name/URL on the system tray hint and on the windows taskbar button. * The play history now saves media titles, making play history clearer, especially with network streams and media library plugins. * New skin script code to control the media library's bottom meta-data's font and font style of each meta-data element. * Placing a "zplayer_skipfolder.txt" file in a folder will prevent this folder and any folders within it from being listed in the media scanner. + The fullscreen navigation icons are now loaded on demand instead of all in advanced, reducing memory usage and cutting down the initial startup time by approximately 33%. + The default navigation interface has been reduced in size by 15%, improving Zoom Player's initial fullscreen navigation interfaces start time on PCs with slower HDD/Flash drives. + TheMovieDB's scraper initialization code has been cleaned up so Zoom Player should start quicker, especially if there are network connection issues. + The play history search feature is now a bit more flexible by ignoring certain spacing characters (".","-" and "_"). For example, In previous versions searching for "a series" would fail to make a match if the file name was "a.series.of.unfortunate.events". + The playlist fullscreen navigation interface's function menu entries have been re-ordered. + The Alba's skin timeline design has been visually enhanced. + Pressing the "Open Media Library" button on the media library category editor now opens the media library with the current edited category selected. + The play history dialog will now display the recently played items first in the list. + The play history dialog should now open significantly faster (nearly instantly), especially with a play history database of over 10,000 entries. + You can now use the HOME/END/PGUP/PGDN keys in the Media Library's thumbnail mini-menu to quickly access one of the four mini-menu actions. + The DVD Bookmark editor generates more descriptive bookmark names and includes the text specified next to the "Add Chapter" button. + The DVD Bookmark fullscreen navigation interface will now let you seek to a DVD Chapter. A new icon is displayed next to each entry to signify if it's a DVD Chapter or a Saved bookmark. + The time display on thumbnails used to show videos with a duration of under 10 minutes as "09:30", this have now changed to show "9:30", saving a bit more of the thumbnail area. + When opening the media library, the last played position for the currently playing media is now updated straight away (previously it would update when the playing media was closed). + The station list dialog now remembers and restores the scroll offset within the station list, restoring the dialog to it's last display position each time. + As an extra security measure, the "DefaultSettings.exe" tool that helps you reset Zoom Player to its default setting now asks for confirmation before starting. + To prevent accidental clicks, the eject disc drive keyboard macro has been changed from "/" to Ctrl+"/". + The media library category editor dialog doesn't reset the category type each time the dialog is closed. + The Quick Search function on the Media Library and File Browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces now tries to use media titles instead of file names/urls when titles exist. + Searching the media library using the keyboard will now search the media title instead of the file name (if a media title exists). + To prevent the media library opening in a confusing category, after editing the media library category list, opening the media library will always open in the category list (instead of cases where it previously opened in the media list). + Updated MediaInfo to the latest version at release time. - Fixed a case where multi-threaded DLL flag wasn't enabled which triggered random crashes and cause ZP to freeze on exist at times. - The Movie Database (TheMovieDB.org) scraper stopped downloading thumbnails due to a change in API handling of user agents. - Renaming a media library category will no longer forget the category's last position and sort mode in the media library. - If two media library categories of different type (e.g. Audio vs Video) shared the same category name, it could trigger unexpected media library behavior. - Certain characters in a media library's category name could have triggered parsing errors which would result in a category's settings being set to unwanted values. - Re-ordering the playlist by selecting and dragging entries with the mouse cursor didn't work properly if the same file appeared more than once in the playlist (all same file name entries were accidentally selected and moved). - When Zooming to 4:3 on a 16:9 video, using the function, exiting Zoom Player did not restore the previous non-zoomed position, which could cause incorrect zoom value if trying to use the function again. - Pressing the "Windows" keyboard key would trigger a quick search action and block certain key/mouse inputs from working. - Shifting/Zooming the video screen position while in fullscreen would break the Hot Corners feature. - Duration for audio files was not being displayed on their thumbnail. - Fixed a very rare case where opening a media file could trigger a freeze if the background thread that grabs the media's duration was active. - The trial-ended message in Zoom Player MAX could trigger an eventual crash if left open for a long period. - Play history should now restore position for URL streams. - Fixed an issue where playing a SHOUTcast/ICEcast streaming station and then restarting Zoom Player would not allow you to resume playing the previous station from the playlist. - The media library's category list would use the wrong aspect ratio thumbnail in some cases where the active category was password protected. - Switching the Media Library's category filter mode would reload the active category's content. Now the content is only read when entering the category, speeding up the category filter switch. - Fixed an issue where the media library's path would not show any text at all. - Accessing the media library's category screen could at times trigger an unnecessary reload of the category's content. - Fixed a stack-overflow crash when trying to open a playlist that contained the playlist's file name as an entry (creating a loop). I would like to thank Sultan Albalawi for the report: https://www.exploit-db.com/author/?a=8741 - Using the "Open Webpage" function did not work for secure HTTP (links starting with "https://"). - Switching the Zoom Player language pack to a non-english language could have caused the favorite station list to be wiped. - The word "PreAmp" was hard coded into Zoom Player instead of using the translated text when using a non-english language pack. - Open the equalizer without ever opening the playlist editor could trigger a weird state where the equalizer always initially show up docked under the main window. - Using the backspace key after using the media library's movie jukebox mode's file view now returns to jukebox movie view instead of thumbnail view. - Adding media entries to the playlist using the media library's function menu did not add the media's title (only the file name/URL). - The playlist editor's "Add streaming URL" button did not use the newer open URL dialog. - Opening the fullscreen chapter/bookmark navigation interface did not pause playback when the setting to do so was enabled. - Ejecting a drive/device while playing a stream would cause the stream playback to stop. - When the media library is opened and the previously opened folder no longer exists, the media library will try to go up the folder tree to the first parent folder that exists. - Trying to take a screenshot from a live stream or a media file with a very long file name did not work. - Fixed an issue when OSD messages would not appear if the "Use Exclusive Fullscreen with VMR9 Renderless mode (use with care)" setting was enabled in some cases. This same bug caused screen-refresh issues with some of the fullscreen navigation pages under some conditions. - Setting "On Play Complete" to "Auto-Rewind" did not work with non- DirectShow playback (playback would loop instead of pausing on the first frame). - Using the quote (") character in a media library category name would cause the category name to get cropped. - Media Library categories containg the "&" character in their name did not list correctly in the category editor, showing up as "_" instead of "&". - Fixed a category rename bug that allowed you to merge categories by renaming to an existing category name. - Fixed a category create bug that allowed you to merge categories by creating a category with an existing category name. - When the media library's dynamic scrollbar was disabled, it still triggered unnecessary screen updates. - When the media library updated the clock, it would not clear the background behind the path area, causing small cosmetic glitches. - Can now stream from URLs containing space characters as part of the URL. - Opening a ".url" pointing to a web page ignored the "HTML Interactivity" setting. - Pressing "update" on the "Audio Device Filter Manager" dialog with nothing selected/entered would trigger a crash. - Wrote a work-around for M3U UTF8 encoded playlists that were not properly marked as UTF8 using a BOM. - Fixed a cosmetic glitch where file names on the playlist fullscreen navigation interface's function menu could overlay the action icon. - Fixed a few small memory leaks.What's new in Zoom Player v12.7:
* New Zoom Player settings Export/Import feature that saves all of Zoom Player's settings, profiles and configuration files to a single ZIP archive and can later on restore Zoom Player's settings from within Zoom Player itself (making it compatible with the Windows Store version of Zoom Player). Both settings are accessible through Zoom Player's advanced options dialog by pressing the "Help / Export" button. The following settings are supported by the export feature: 1. Activation Key file. 2. Options dialog settings. 3. Smart Play profiles. 5. Skin color tinting profiles. 6. Equalizer presets. 7. Media library categories. 8. Play history cache. 9. Playback scheduler schedule. 10. Streaming station manager entries. 11. Custom right-click context menu script file. 12. Custom Media/DVD background images. 13. Custom Media/DVD keyboard mapping files. * The smart play source filter configuration dialog now allows you to specify a partial URL instead (or in combination) with file extensions, allowing you to setup custom filters based on the site's URL. This allows using such filters as the "3DYD YouTube Source" to stream youtube content directly (https://ys.3dyd.com/). * Two new category types have been introduced "TV Shows" and "Movies". Zoom Player tries to automatically assign previous categories to these new types based on the 'scrape content mode' previously assigned to the category. * The media library filter icons that appear under the category list are now accessible using the keyboard by pressing the up or down arrow keys on the first/last category entry. Once activated, you can use the left/right arrow keys to switch between the filtering modes. * The playlist editor and the playlist fullscreen navigation interface now show the current play position next to the actively playing track. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) to switch the category layout between list and thumbnail view modes. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) that controls how the thumbnail memory cache encodes the images. The default value is to store as JPEG images which uses the least amount of RAM. But for higher performance, especially on lower end CPUs, switching to RAW 24bit or 32bit will improve performance. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) to control whether the Media Library's fullscreen navigation 'Media Scanner' is displayed. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) to control whether the Media Library's fullscreen navigation 'Remove category folder(s)' is displayed. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Playlist) to prevent Zoom Player from trying to parse ".PLS" files and instead lets directshow choose a filter to parse the files. This improves SHOUTcast streaming reliability. If you use .PLS files as SHOUTcast stations outside the station manager, you will need to enable this setting. * New "/MediaFilter:[Number]" command line parameter to set the media library's filter mode. Valid values are: 0 = ALL 1 = Movies 2 = TV Shows 3 = Videos 4 = Audio 5 = Pictures 6 = Executables * The media library's filter mode is now saved/restored when re-opening Zoom Player. * With the "Continue to the next Playlist item when an invalid file is played (otherwise show error)" setting enabled, you can now press the Stop button to stop from continuing to the next Playlist item. * The station manager has been enhanced with an integrated search box. * New "fnPlayingToClipboard" function that copies the currently playing media file/URL to the clipboard. + Zoom Player should start between 10%-300% faster, especially if there are many items in the play history. + Optimized the default fullscreen navigation skin to require less resize operations improving load/open time and taking up to 20% less RAM. + Optimized the file name hashing algorithm which should improve performance in several areas. + When fullscreen navigation 'Safe Mode' is enabled, the media library's 'Media Scanner' and 'Remove category folder(s)' are no longer displayed. + Disabling the "Show media content specific to the media library's category type" setting now shows all media files in a category (previously it would show the content based on the category filter). + The selected entry on the station manager is now restored when re-opening the interface. + The station manager now lets you specify a "SHOUTcast" station type. Any station set as SHOUTcast are now opened as SHOUTcast streams even if the "Assume audio streaming (SHOUTcast, ICEcast) if no file ext. is specified in the URL (link)" setting is disabled. + SHOUTcast stations added from station browser or the fullscreen navigation station list are now automatically marked as SHOUTcast. + The Station Browser dialog entries no longer resets each time the dialog is closed and reopened. + The Add station dialog (station manager) remembers the last station mode (TV/Radio/SHOUTcast) used. + The default media library folder scraping blacklist has been cleaned up. + The "Assume audio streaming (SHOUTcast, ICEcast) if no file ext. is specified in the URL (link)" advanced options setting is now disabled by default and reset to default on initial run. This setting may be removed entirely in future versions as it conflicts with streaming video and is no longer necessary when playing shoutcast streams through the station manager or fullscreen navigation interface. + The playing track on the fullscreen playlist navigation interface has changed from green to blue. - Removing every entry from the "Scrapers folder name blacklist" or "Scrapers file name blacklist" would crash and freeze Zoom Player. - Resizing the media library window could trigger a crash or show an improperly-sized thumbnail. - Fixed several memory leaks. - Fixed a freeze when trying to open the media library before the scraping DLL finished initializing. - Fixed several cases of "List index out of bounds" errors when trying to use the media library with no thumbnail selected. - Switching media library filter mode would reset several values changed since opening the media library (e.g. sorting). - Opening a new media file while the media information dialog was visible did not update to the new media's date and file size. - Fixed a small memory leak when re-scraping modified media library folders. - The mouse scroll wheel did not work within the media information window while in fullscreen mode. - The integrated keyboard-mapping editor did not show the correct key-value for multimedia keys (play/stop/etc), which prevented assigning new functions to multimedia keys. - Using the station manager's "Play (Add to Playlist)" button would not actually start playing the new station. - In Windows 10 with the "Blank non-Playing Monitors while in Fullscreen / Zoom mode" enabled and Zoom Player set to start in fullscreen mode, Zoom Player appeared as a blank black box. - The timeline thumbnail preview appeared in the wrong position on some multi-monitor setups. - The windows task bar icon was not correctly updated with the specified task list after restarting Zoom Player. - Fixed a crash when trying to close Zoom Player while Zoom Player was in the process of opening a media file or URL. - Fixed a crash when trying to play over a 1000 non-existant files or non-responding URLs. - Trying to switch stations through the station manager while the previous station did not complete loading could have triggered unforeseen issues. - Trying to close Zoom Player while a track was loading could have caused instability in certain cases. - When using the media library category filter and then loading a media file that's currently in a filtered-out category, Zoom Player will now switch the category filter to match the playing file and then show the file highlighted when opening the media library. - If you enabled the video resolution display on the timeline, it should now display even when playing live streams. - Error messages should no longer appear partially offscreen if the message's content is wider than the resolution of the screen. - The play history no longer lists duplicate entries for URL streams. - Zoom Player failed to identify "https://" and "rtmp://" URLs with no duration as live streams, which could trigger a freeze when trying to seek. - Panning a Zoomed video with the mouse would trigger the mouse's click-event (by default play/pause) after letting go of the mouse button. - The station manager dialog was showing character tags instead of the actual characters (e.g. "&" instead of "&"). - The station manager wasn't updating the station list display after editing a station. - With "Show OSD filename when opening a new file" enabled, failing to play would show a blank OSD message. - The error dialog wouldn't show "&" characters correctly.What's new in Zoom Player v12.6:
* New Advanced Options page that controls Zoom Player's behavior when a monitor is attached or detached, when Windows 10's tablet mode is enabled or disabled and when a 2 in 1 laptop's screen is docked or undocked. Each of these mode changes can be assigned a different set of actions and custom functions, even if the mode changed while Zoom Player was not running (optional). * New "Switch to TV JukeBox list view without having the parent folder scraped first" media library category setting. This setting is enabled by default on new categories and I recommend manually enabling this setting on your pre-existing TV JukeBox categories. * The last play position is now displayed on media library thumbnails for audio and video files next to the media's duration (only works with newly played media). * New "/CBar" command line parameter to automatically show the control bar when starting Zoom Player. * The playing media's Title (if one exists) is now displayed in Zoom Player's playing item text and in the timeline area if showing file names in the timeline is enabled. * The skin installation process has become simpler with the addition of a new "Install Skin" button on the skin selection dialog. * Zoom Player can now extract Album art and meta-data from ".M4A" and possibly other audio formats. * The open URL dialog now remembers the last visited URL and keeps a history of the last 10 URLs. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) to specify the number of threads to use while scraping. If your operating system drive ("C:") is mechanical, it may require lowering the thread count to "1" to prevent the user interface from being overly affected by the disk writes. * New "Darken thumbnail background" setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) to override's a skin-script parameter that decide if to draw a dark rectangle behind a thumbnail. * New "Darken thumbnail text background" setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) to override's a skin-script parameter that decide if to draw a dark rectangle behind a thumbnail's text. * The ".pls" playlist format is now supported for non-shoutcast streams and files with additional support for displaying file/stream titles. * New right-click "Copy" menu that copies the options search dialog's selected entry into the windows clipboard. * New "Scrape folder thumbnails by using the name of the first video file within the folder instead of the folder name" media library category setting. * You can now instruct the media library TheMovieDB.org's scraper to ignore part of a file or folder name by using the "^" character, for example "Moonrise Kingdom^(1.85)" would ignore the "(1.85)" portion of the file/folder name, allowing you to add special tags to the file/folder name without breaking scraping. * New "ThumbActiveHighlightMode" skin script variable that controls whether the media library's thumbnail highlight is drawn with the aspect ratio of the thumbnail or as a fixed-size frame around the thumbnail as well as new modes to draw a tiled highlight overlay. + TheMovieDB.org's scraper plug-in has been enhanced with ".nfo" hinting for TV content and improved naming convention detection. + The media library's "Scrape for parent folder name when file name scraping using metadata scrapers fails" category setting is now automatically disabled when JukeBox mode is active. + The entry for opening the Media Library on the right-click context menu has moved out of the 'navigate' sub-menu and toward the top of the menu. + The "deinterlace" toggle has been removed from the right-click context menu. It is still accessible by keyboard macro (Ctrl+Shift+D). + The "Stream Windows Media content using Windows Media Player ActiveX control" setting is now disabled by default. If you previously relied on this setting, you will need to re-enable it in the advanced options dialog. + The media library's category configuration "Darken thumbnail background" setting has been depreciated in favor of the new options dialog setting. - Closing Zoom Player using the Alt+F4 key would trigger a crash under some circumstances. - Fixed a possible freeze when using MadVR and switching in and out of fullscreen while a timeline preview thumbnail/position hint was visible. - The media library's thumbnail memory cache was cleared when switching between categories if new category used a different thumbnail resolution. - Double clicking a media library unselected and partially visible thumbnail would not trigger the play/mini-menu action. - Fixed a visual glitch in the media library's bottom meta-data area when scrolling and the active thumbnail scrolls off screen. - Switching video renderer should no longer affect restoring the last play position (only works with newly played media). - The "Auto-Play next file in the playlist" setting did not work as intended and at times did play the next file even when disabled. - Random play would not include randomly playing newly added playlist tracks until at least half the original playlist tracks were played. - Some JPEG images with either embedded as Album art or with a mislabeled file extension were not properly recognized as valid JPEG images and were not used/shown. - Depending on the function assigned to the left mouse button, clicking a hot-corner may activate both the hot-corner functionality and the functionality assigned to the left mouse button (instead of only triggering the hot corner action). - Closing Zoom Player while the playlist was retrieving the duration of media files prevented Zoom Player from closing properly. - Pressing on the "disabled" subtitle entry when it was already selected incorrectly displayed an "Unknown error" message. - TheMovieDB.org's scraper plug-in has did not properly detect movies and tv shows containing the "-" character as part of their name. - The Time/Date display area in the fullscreen navigation virtual keyboard would re-draw over and over instead of just once when showing and when the time/date changed.What's new in Zoom Player v12.5:
* The media library's TV JukeBox mode is now fully functional. With jukebox mode enabled in a TV video category, a new list view mode is used to display meta-data (overview, rating, duration, etc) and a thumbnail ("still image" from an online database or a screenshot extracted from the video itself) on the right side of the screen when entering a folder containing media files. For best performance, use the proper TV JukeBox mode folder structure: Show Name\Season [Number]\MediaFiles For example: Game of Thrones\Season 1\Game.of.Thrones.S01E01.mp4 Game of Thrones\Season 1\Game.of.Thrones.S01E02.mp4 etc... * New Media Icons display in the media library information area at the bottom of the screen and in the Movie Jukebox presentation mode. Media icons display the Format (AVI/Matroska/etc...), Video Codec (H.264/HECV/etc...), Video Resolution (1080p/UHD 4K/etc...), Audio Codec (DTS/AAC/etc...), Audio Channels (2.0/5.1/7.1/etc...). Media icons are detected during the scraping process, to display the icons you must re-scrape the content of your media library. This is done the Media Library Category Editor (Shift+"M") or through the media library's function page's 'scraping' menu. * New setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) to display Media Icons in the media library information area and in movie jukebox presentation mode. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) that specifies whether thumbnail display should used a dynamically visible scroll bar (suitable for tablets and touch devices) or a fixed scroll bar (suitable for PC and Mouse input). * The "Navigation Scrollbar Size" setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) has four new possible values: 1. Dynamic Smallest 2. Dynamic Small 3. Dynamic Large 4. Dynamic Max * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) to force the navigation list or thumb view display to full width. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) to override the skin-script's font effect (used in lists) that now include a "drop shadow" option (replacing the previous setting that only let you force an "outline" effect). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) to override the skin-script's font effect (used in thumbnails) that now include a "drop shadow" option (replacing the previous setting that only let you force an "outline" effect). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Keyboard) allowing you to assign keyboard functionality to the "Insert" key when fullscreen navigation is not in use. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Bar / Timeline Area) to show thumbnail previews even if the playing media does not report key-frame. Note that allowing media with no key frame reporting to display thumbnails over the timeline can take much longer. * New Setting (Media Library Category Editor / Configure) to re-scrape a folder's thumbnail if the folder's "modified" time-stamp changes. * The advanced playlist control has become more powerful with integrated sorting that does not affect the main playlist until items are moved. * The playing media information dialog ("I" keyboard shortcut) has been restructured and expanded to include the media's file size and date as well as full information on the file from MediaInfoLib (MediaInfo DLL). * Zoom Player is now listed as a Windows "AutoPlay" option for Music, Videos and Pictures. * The Mini color control fullscreen navigation interface will now display the name (brightness/saturation/etc...) and not only an icon. * Scraped poster/backdrop/still images are now downloaded concurrently using multiple threads to speed up the online scraping process. * The mouse's "back" and "forward" buttons now act as "back" and "enter" when used in the fullscreen navigation interfaces. * New function and keyboard macro (Alt+Ctrl+"T") to toggle the TAG display when playing audio files. * New "Copy to Clipboard" button on the playing media information dialog that copies the content of the "format" box into the clipboard. * New skin-script parameter used to enable a drop-shadow effect on the fullscreen navigation list font. * New skin-script parameter used to enable a drop-shadow effect on the fullscreen navigation thumbnail font. + For additional security, password protected media library categories no longer show path information on the category list screen. + The media library scrape icon and count now reflect the scrape queue and processing threads and not only the queue, giving a more accurate picture of the background scraping process. + The default keyboard mapping for the numbers pad has changed to make the same button functions trigger regardless of the num-lock state. This means the configured functionality for the arrows and insert keys will function even if the num-lock key is enabled. + The advanced options dialog's 'Keyboard' page has been restructured for enhanced clarity and the addition of more features. + Optimized media library disk access by improving meta-data caching. + Changed the default text background color in audio playback (when a folder image is not used) to a much darker gray. + The fullscreen navigation clock text is no longer affected by the text effect/outline setting. - The virtual keyboard did not accept physical keyboard input if the "Use keyboard input to quickly search and enter data through navigation interfaces" setting was disabled. - It was impossible to use the GoTo fullscreen navigation interface without a mouse. Now a new "Apply" button makes the interface usable again. - Media files or folder flagged never to be scraped were scraped again under some circumstances. - Fixed a bug that caused the media duration to disappear from a media library thumbnail. - Selecting several files and choosing to flag them for re-scraping would not clear the selected file count at the top-right section of the media library interface. - The fullscreen navigation scroll acceleration (when holding or fast clicking the up/down buttons) now resets itself as the list loops, preventing a crazy level of acceleration that may make the list appear to freeze. - The thumbnail view's "drag to scroll" was triggered after 1 pixel of movement, making selecting a thumbnail with a single click fail if the mouse cursor moved a bit during the click. - Clicking a media or folder in the media library's thumb view mode and then trying to click the close or back buttons would not work on the first click (requiring a second click). - The text labels on the virtual keyboard keys is now more uniform in size. - Clicking a media library thumbnail and then trying to click the "back" or "close" icons would fail on the first click (and work on the second). - In the FREE version, the screen saver would over-tax the CPU (the streamers were always used and it was impossible to turn off). - The Advanced playlist control, Chapter editor, Scheduler, Scene-Cut, Skin selector and Play history dialogs would not save their last window size and position if you closed the player without first closing the dialog. - Clear the search box text of the advanced playlist control using the "DEL" key would also remove any selected entries from the playlist. - The "Hide all control bar buttons" setting stopped saving in v12.1. - Switching directly to the Play History fullscreen navigation interface using a keyboard or other macro from another fullscreen navigation interface would not update the title area. - The internal screen saver would still activate even after calling functions when using the TCP/IP command & control API. - Folders marked not to be scraped were still being scraped if no online database scrapers were specified for the media library category. - Setting the left mouse button to open the context menu didn't work. - ".CUE" chapter files indexing a single audio file longer than 99.9 minutes would have failed to load.What's new in Zoom Player v12.1:
* Kinetic scrolling has been rewritten from scratch, it should now be a lot more responsive and accurate, especially when used on lower-end PCs and Tablets. The kinetic acceleration/deceleration speed settings have also been tweaked and are now more reasonable. * Zoom Player FREE now provides a trial period for using most of Zoom Player MAX's features (e.g. fullscreen navigation interfaces, play history, audio visualizations, playback scheduler and more!). * You can now assign custom functions to XInput (e.g. XBOX controller) left and right thumb stick clicks. By default the left and right thumb clicks do nothing. * The two left media library mini-menu entries are now fully customizable. * Three new functions added to the media library mini-menu: 1. Add to playlist 2. Open the function menu 3. Play / Enter * Changing some of the setting on the media library category editor's "Category Configuration" dialog now prompts you to flag the content of the category for re-scraping. * New media library category setting to completely disable the category from scraping for metadata. * The "Re-scraping" media library function page has been renamed "Scraping" and contains a new setting to flag selected files and folders not to be scraped. * New Setting (Adv. Options / System), allowing you to choose the Zoom Player task bar icon (either current, version 11 or old school icon). Note: This setting will have no effect if the windows taskbar is set to combine buttons. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Playlist) to automatically show the playlist editor when exiting fullscreen mode. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Control Bar) to disable seeking when using the mouse wheel over the control bar (and use the default mouse-wheel functionality instead). * Three new extended functions: exSeekAheadPercent : Seek Ahead (percent of duration) exSeekBackPercent : Seek Back (percent of duration) exSeekToPercent : Seek To (percent of duration) * The fullscreen navigation scrollbar source image can now be any resolution, adding skinning support for sharp 4K resolution scroll bars. * The control bar's fixed position close and volume slider buttons have received mouse-hover visual cues. + The notification to upgrade an old license is no longer shown every time Zoom Player is launched. It will show up every few days instead. + When notified of a new version release, a special message will now show up to notify you that your current license may be too old to use with the new version. + Clicking/Touching an unselected thumbnail in the media library now selects the thumbnail and displays any related meta-data instead of automatically starting playback. + You can now use the mouse wheel to scroll through the entirety of the media library's fullscreen navigation mini-menu. + Mouse wheel scrolling in the media library now scrolls the list instead of scrolling by changing the active thumbnail. + The playlist editor and equalizer dialogs now restore automatically after exiting fullscreen exclusive mode when MadVR is used as the video renderer. + The media scraping error list is now auto-saved more often to prevent system failures from losing information. + Content images used in Zoom Player FREE now come in full 1080p HD resolution (Zoom Player MAX already included the higher resolution images). + Some sections of the options dialog now more clearly turn to a "disabled" state when a parent setting that enables the functionality is turned off. + The XInput advanced options dialog section has been restructured. - Pressing Smart Play's "Auto Configure" button on the basic options dialog would trigger a crash under some conditions. - Fixed a "Cannot focus a disabled or invisible window" error when pressing enter on an entry in the playlist fullscreen navigation interface. - Fixed a "List index out of bounds" error that triggered by bad audio visualization configuration. - Clicking the media library's thumb area did not always play the clicked thumbnail (it would play the media in the thumbnail above it). - Under some conditions, opening the media library would use a thumbnail aspect ratio from a different category. - Dragging to scroll the media library's thumbnail area did not work in the entire thumbnail area. - Clicking the left mouse button on a media library thumbnail and holding for a few seconds to activate the mini-menu caused the next mouse click to be ignored in some areas of the screen (like going back to the category menu). - Fixed a small cosmetic issue with the ring tone generator dialog. - People who have purchased the Zoom Player lifetime license were accidentally shown an upgrade notice in some cases. - The media library bottom category-type filtering icons were accessible using the mouse even when they were not visible. - Fixed a possible rare freeze in cases where the media library navigation dialog was opened at the exact same time one of the file tracker threads (emule/utorrent/qbittorrent) was trying to synchronize. - Using the mouse wheel in combination with kinetic scrolling in the media library fullscreen interface would result in chaos. - When the media library's thumb view left/right bump actions were disabled, thus allowing you to use the left/right keys to scroll through thumb rows, the scroll bar did not appear when the active thumb jumped up/down a row. - Zoom Player should close much faster now. - Opening the media library's function menu would wipe clean the meta-data display area.What's new in Zoom Player v12:
* The media library has a new metadata-scraping capability that automatically downloads Movie and TV show posters, backdrops, still images and displays them in a JukeBox mode. This is a major feature, Here is a full guide explaining the best methods to ensure your media library collection is scraped correctly: https://inmatrix.com/zplayer/mediascraping.shtml * The default fullscreen navigation interface has been cleaned up and polished. If you have previously used a non-default navigation skin, you will need to re-apply the skin through the skin selection dialog. * Within the Media Library fullscreen navigation interface, the area below the file list/thumbnail view that previously showed the filter category icons is now replaced with metadata and file information. The category filter icon are still accessible on the category selection page. * New Zoom Player icon on the taskbar and desktop. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface) to specify whether Zoom Player should use the enhanced (Windows Vista+) open file dialog. This setting is enabled by default. The older open dialog has issues with high DPI monitor setting, causing some of the icon to appear extremely small. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) to add Extended Controls (Delete Media and Functions Menu) to the path area of the media library, playlist and file browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) that prevents the "Previous Folder" entry from being added to the media library and file browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces. * New Setting (Media Library Editor / Configure Category) to use a video frame from the media file as thumbnail if the meta data scrapers fail. * New Setting (Media Library Editor / Configure Category) that controls whether the thumbnail's background is darkened or not. The default value for this setting is determined by the category type. * New Setting (Media Library Editor / Configure Category) that controls the number of text lines to display under each thumbnail. Depending on the media file's name length, the file name will be word-wrapped across multiple lines. * New Setting (Media Library Editor / Configure Category) that enables JukeBox mode, where the movie poster, backdrop images and metadata are scraped from an online database (TheMovieDB.org) and then displayed as a full-screen presentation when opening a folder. For more information, see: https://inmatrix.com/zplayer/mediascraping.shtml * New Setting (Media Library Editor / Configure Category) that controls whether folders with thumbnails should display the folder icon in the background or only the thumbnail. * New Setting (Media Library Editor / Configure Category) that determines whether the metadata derived title or file name is drawn on thumbnails. * New folder scraping blacklist (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View), enabling you to prevent scraping of folders. The main use of this new feature is to prevent "sample" and "subs" folder from being scraped, especially when downloading movie posters from TheMovieDB.org or other online databases. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / BluRay) to let DirectShow filters handle BluRay parsing. This setting is enabled by default and allows 3rd party filters (such as LAV filters) to parse the BluRay structure and decide on the best title selection. * New media library scraping indicator to make the scraping process clearer by displaying the number of media files waiting to be scraped. * New media library fullscreen navigation thumbnail view mode's folder icon designed to better display poster aspect ratio (1:1.5) thumbnails. * When creating a new media library video category, a new dialog prompts for the type of video category, either "Videos", "TV shows" or "Movies". The category type is then use to control the category initial configuration and layout. * On a fresh install, the Play History dialog's column width are now automatically spaced to better cover the grid's width. * New skin script variables that control the position and height of the thumbnail drawing area (previously it was set to the file-list height), allowing the thumbnail grid to better utilize the available screen space. * The media library category editor now remembers the last selected tab and category mode when re-opening the dialog. * Clearing the playlist through the playlist editor now prompts you to confirm you want the playlist cleared. + The media library category editor (use Shift+"M" or access using the right click menu) has been redesigned for enhanced simplicity and user experience. + The thumbnail layout setup (Media Library Editor / Configure Category) has been rewritten. Instead of manually specifying the thumbnail width and height or using the built-in calculator to do so, you can now directly select the thumbnail's aspect ratio and number of columns to display along with a new horizontal spacing layout option. When changing the thumbnail's aspect ratio, you are now given the option to reset the category settings to a new default based on the selected aspect ratio. + The clear media cache button has moved from the options dialog to the media library category editor dialog (Shift+"M"). + The "Scrape for parent folder name when file name scraping using metadata scrapers fails" setting has been moved to the category editor's "Configure Category" page. This makes the setting now per-category instead of global for all categories. + The "Create folder thumbnails from first media file within the folder (if scraping is disabled or fails)" setting has been moved to the category editor's "Configure Category" page. This makes the setting now per-category instead of global for all categories. + The thumbnail view's thumbnail memory cache now syncs cached thumbnails directly with the main thread without waiting for other scraping threads, ensuring memory cached thumbnails show up faster while scraping for new content. + The subtitle overlay icon, displayed over a thumbnail in the media library has been enhanced for extra clarity (the sub-bits are now highlighted in yellow). + The media library fullscreen navigation thumbnail view mode's folder icon has been enhanced to give extra space to the thumbnail image. + When the 'Treat the "Play" function as "Open Media" or "Enter"' setting is enabled, using the "Play" function on a folder within the file browsing or media library fullscreen navigation interfaces will now play the content of the entire folder instead of just entering the folder. + Setting thumbnail mode's left/right bump action to 'do nothing' will now move the selected entry up/down a row instead of doing nothing. + Installing a new skin now prompts you to apply the skin to all skin modes (Media/DVD/Audio/Navigation) supported by the newly installed skin. Previously, you were only prompted to open the skin selection dialog. + Opening a new file through file association (for example, opening a media file through explorer) now closes the media library and file browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces before playback starts. + Input boxes and error/warning/confirmation/information dialogs are no longer skinned when triggered from a non-skinned dialog for both consistency and to prevent issues with monitor DPI values not matching the current skin's resolution. + Zoom Player now tries to automatically reduce the font size in the options dialog to ensure certain elements fit inside the dialog regardless of windows font or DPI settings. + The Playlist and Equalizer dialogs are now automatically closed when entering fullscreen while using MadVR with "Fullscreen Exclusive Mode" enabled if either dialog is opened on the playback monitor. - Fixed several high DPI layout issues, especially evident when using a high DPI value (300%) used by 4K monitors/TV sets. Thank you Adam Howarth for the in-depth 4K testing. - The "LAV Hardware Acceleration" setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video) was not applied correctly, forcing the LAV Video Decoder filter to drop back to software decoding. - Trying to create a new folder through the media library while in thumbnail view mode could trigger a "list index out of bounds" crash. - Extended functions that can use a negative value parameter (like "exFastForward") did not work when a negative value was used. - The background image no longer flashes when opening media files through explorer (or other applications) while Zoom Player was already playing. - The "Chapter editor/Seek to" dialog did not scale properly with monitor DPI adjustments. - Entering and leaving a media library folder in thumbnail view mode extremely quickly could result in a crash or thumbnails not appearing. - When two or more media library categories shared the same folder paths and the same thumbnail width but with a different thumbnail height, it would have prevented the thumbnails from drawing in some of the categories. - When using the media library in thumb view mode with the media names sorted by date, erasing a file within a folder and then going up a folder would no longer show the highlighted folder (the folder itself changed position as the folder date changes when files inside are modified). - When "Automatically restore last media position on replay" was disabled, the "Retain Media Playback History for [x] days" setting became inaccessible. - The audio device list would re-list the same device multiple times under some circumstances, possibly causing audio issues. - Using the media library category editor's 'Configure Category' dialog to edit a category's settings would reset the category's password protection. - Switching to some video renderers in the options dialog when running under Windows 10 would incorrectly notify you that your version of Direct-X is too old. - The title area in the bundled fullscreen navigation skins did not properly account for the width of Time display when using 12H AM/PM format. - The "Multi-Part file loader" automatic match mode did not always load multi-part GoPro sequences into the playlist correctly. - Smart Play's "Auto-Configure" option could improperly set a partially unregistered profile comprising of multiple filters if the unregistered filter was sandwiched between two registered filters. - Zoom Player should now terminate properly even if there are scraper threads busy or stalled. - The "Select category type" dialog would not always draw properly and you could not use the keyboard to navigate to the "OK" button. - Fixed small cosmetic glitch in the "Registered Filter Manager" dialog, where a text area was overlayed by an edit box. - The options dialog's search box did not return values for settings with a description over 100 characters long. - Fixed a "Is not a valid integer value" crash when playing a DVD and adding chapters with the "Show chapter points on the Timeline" setting enabled. - DVD bookmarks were listed with a cosmetic glitch (an added ".z" at the end of the chapter name). - Closing Zoom Player with the Station Manager window open would not save any changes made to the station list. - Double-Clicking the title area to maximize Zoom Player would also trigger a single-click action (default play/pause). - If the options dialog was originally opened on a monitor that is now turned off, the options dialog will appear screen-centered on the main Zoom Player window.What's new in Zoom Player v11.1:
* New Direct3D Pixel Shader image processing script support when using MadVR as the Video Renderer (Adv. Options / Playback / Video / Pixel Shaders). Pixel shaders are script text files with the ".HLSL" file extension that can be compiled in real-time by the GPU (display card) to perform various image processing effects. The options page allows you to specify pixel shader presets, the first 8 of which can be activated directly by using a keyboard/remote control macro (by default Alt+Shift+"F1..F8"). The current pre-image resize pixel shader scripts can be toggled by pressing Alt+Shift+"F9". The current post-image resize pixel shader scripts can be toggled by pressing Alt+Shift+"F10". Both Pre and Post-image resize pixel shader scripts can be toggled at once by pressing Alt+Shift+"F11". * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) to treat the "Play" function as if it was "Open Media" or a click on Enter when a fullscreen navigation interface is visible (bypassing the mini-menu in the media library's thumbview mode). Enabled by default. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) to use the "Stop" function to close any currently visible fullscreen navigation interface. Enabled by default. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) that controls whether folders are marked as seen if they contain a previously played media file. By default, this setting is disabled. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) to create additional thumbnail scraping threads when current threads time out while parsing a video. This can happen with partially downloaded media files. The upside is that scraping will not pause when problematic files are encountered. The downside is that by creating additional threads, CPU usage may rise during the scraping operation and slow down screen updates, making the user interface a bit more sluggish. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Paths & Files) to disable the multi-part file loader when opening or adding multiple files. This setting is enabled by default. * New "Previous Navigation" option for the "Start player in:" setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Position & Size) that opens Zoom Player fullscreen and directly in the previously used navigation interface. * New "/LASTNAV" command line parameter to open Zoom Player fullscreen and directly in the previously used navigation interface. * The WTV format is now associable with Zoom Player. You may need to click the "Default" button in the advanced options dialog under "File Format Association / File Extensions -> Video. Once clicked, WTV format files will start listing within the media library and other video-format specific features. * You can now use the "Time" seek box in the chapter editor ("g" keyboard macro) to seek to a percentage of the video, for example, specifying a value of "8%" seeks to 8 percent from the start of the video. * Added support for WMV files with the GoToMeeting codec. + The video rotate feature (Shift+"R") now uses a new MadVR feature that no longer crops part of the image while rotating. The latest version of MadVR is now required to perform video rotation. + Optimized Zoom Player's load time by about 10-30%. + The fullscreen navigation interface's on-screen clock should now respect the 24h/12h AM/PM system setting. + Some of the options dialog elements have been spread out to enhance clarity of use. + The configuration wizard allowing you to select between PC, HTPC and Tablet modes now sets Zoom Player to open in the previously used fullscreen navigation interface instead of the main navigation interface. + You can now set a value of "0" to OSD Visibility (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Actions). + Code optimization should improve skin loading time and other code elements. + You can now dismiss the internal screen saver by clicking with the mouse "left/right/X" buttons or using the mouse wheel. + The "/LastNAV", "/MainNAV" command line parameters and the "Start Player in" setting when set to "Previous Navigation" or "Main Navigation" no longer open the last navigation interface when a file name is passed in the command line, instead only switching to fullscreen mode. - Scrolling with the mouse wheel no longer generates a double action when used in Windows 10 or earlier versions of windows with a custom mouse utility that sends scroll events to inactive windows. - When a language pack is in use, the media library category editor's 'configure category' button would cause an access violation. - Disabling the "Show File Extensions (playlist, file and media library navigators)" setting would corrupt the play history when opening the play history fullscreen navigation interface. - When a language pack is in use, the media library category editor would not automatically show the 'video' category by default. - Pressing enter on the playlist editor to play the selected file maintains the keyboard focus on the playlist (previously, the keyboard focus would move to the main window, preventing using the keyboard again to play the next file). - When using MadVR as the video renderer with the "Auto-Size User Interface to maintain Video Aspect Ratio (when resizing)" setting enabled caused the player window to resize and screen-center when opening certain media formats (MOV, WebP and other formats may have been affected). This fix requires the latest version of MadVR, otherwise support for black-bar crop detection by MadVR will cease working. - The Media Library fullscreen navigation interface did not respect the "Show File Extensions" setting in thumbnail view mode. - The "Remove folder(s) from categories" section of the media library fullscreen navigation interface was not clearing the background between screen updates, causing the path area to become unreadable and the current scroll position to become unclear. - The "Remove folder(s) from categories" section of the media library fullscreen navigation interface did not use the current font size. - Folders containing previously viewed media were highlighted even if the "Highlight previously viewed files" setting was disabled. - The options dialog's search feature did not find searches for radio group listed elements (lists with bullet-point selection). - Pressing the TAG display script's "Default" button when using a language pack could show a corrupt script (??? characters appearing instead of the script text). - The "Center user interface on initial load" setting did not work as intended when opening the player by double clicking on a media file in an external program (e.g. explorer) while the "Auto-Size User Interface to fit Source Video Resolution (on load)" setting enabled. - The "DVD Settings" advanced options dialog page was not searchable through the options dialog's search feature. - Using Alt+PgDn and Alt+PgUp to move items in the playlist up or down the list did not work if the keyboard focus was on the playlist window. - The internal screen saver would still display even when moving the mouse cursor over the timeline or control bar areas. - The multi-part file loader did not detect the last file in a series if the file names were comprised completely of numbers, for example: 01.mp3 02.mp3 03.mp3 04.mp3 <- would not add automatically. - The qBittorrent file tracker did not show the download progress of some torrents with nested folders. - Pressing Alt+"V" to fetch the playlist media entries duration would not work the first time (had to press twice). - Re-ordering playlist entries in the playlist editor using the Alt+"PgUp/PgDn" keyboard macros or by dragging using the mouse cursor caused the moved entry to auto-select when playback started. - The internal screen saver would not always appear on secondary monitors.What's new in Zoom Player v11:
* New thumbnail based view mode for the Media Library fullscreen navigation interface with kinetic scrolling! You can specify which media library category should display in thumb view mode using the Media Library category editor or through the "functions / settings" page in the fullscreen media library navigation interface. Thumb view mode automatically uses background threads to scrape for information (thumbnails and other meta-data) from media files within the media library. Bumping on the left/right sides using a keyboard or remote control brings up custom functionality such as "Go to first entry", "Go up a folder" or "Switch sorting mode". Bumping the first or last thumb rows using a keyboard or remote control shows a momentary glow effect to signify navigation has reached the start or end of the thumbnail display. Pressing up or down once again using the keyboard or remote control scrolls to the other end of the thumbnail display. Holding down on a thumbnail (with the mouse button or by touch) or Pressing Enter with a keyboard or remote control brings up a mini-menu with options to "play the media file", "erase the media file", "open the full function menu" and "go back to the category list". The mini-menu automatically times out after 3 seconds or you can close it manually by pressing left on the left side. The two functions on the right side of the mini-menu ("erase media file" and "go back to the category list") are customizable through the advanced options dialog. To return to the category list using a keyboard or remote control, you can press "Left" on the first entry. By default, bumping left will go to the first entry, so a few left clicks will quickly show the category list. * New thumb view section in the advanced options dialog featuring all the settings available to control Zoom Player's thumb view user experience. * The media library category editor has gained a new category configuration dialog used to enable thumbnail view mode, control the thumbnail layout for the category and lock the category with a password. * The media library fullscreen navigation interface's "Settings" page can now be used to switch between list view and thumbnail view as well as control whether thumbs are scaled or cropped to fit within the thumbnail area. * The default Onyx skin and the bundled AlbaHD skins have been enhanced with clean mouse-hover animation effects for all buttons on the main user interface, the playlist editor and the equalizer window. * The 'Navigation Style' fullscreen navigation interface can now be used to switch between background patterns on skins that allow you to set a custom background pattern. * You can now password protect a media library category to prevent children from accessing prohibited content directly from the media library fullscreen navigation interface. * Features that highlight a portion of the timeline (AB-Repeat, creating ring tones, etc) now show position markers for the start and end points as well as the duration of the highlighted range. * New 4K resolution version of the Alba skin control bar, now accessible through the skin selection dialog (press "N" or access through the right-click menu). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) that controls whether the media library lists content that matches a category type or shows the content based on the media library filter. The new default is to only show content based on the media library category type. To restore the previous default, uncheck this setting. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) to Automatically select the last viewed file/folder when entering a folder. This setting requires play history's "save last play time" setting enabled to function. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Bar / Timeline Area) that determine if timeline markers are shown with features that highlight a portion of the timeline * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface) to force the Playlist editor to remain on-top when switching to fullscreen mode. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface) to force the Equalizer to remain on-top when switching to fullscreen mode. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface) to invert the text view's colors. The new text file viewing default is Black background with white text. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Tags) to use the folder/embedded image as a stretched and darkened background for the image itself. Enabled by default. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) that enables using the navigation "Enter" key action on a media library category list to open the category at the root folder. This was the previous default behavior, which have now been disabled. Pressing enter with this setting disabled, opens the category in its previous position. * Volume widgets now show the volume percentage as a hint when hovering over with the mouse cursor. * Zoom Player now supports MadVR's automatic black-bar video detection and window size changes when the "Auto-Size User Interface to maintain Video Aspect Ratio (when resizing)" setting is enabled. * The Multi-Part file loader's "Automatic Match" setting can now detect and add into the playlist GoPro series of media files. Thanks Dimitar Pankov. * The "Options / About" page will now specify if your copy of Zoom Player is a life time (free upgrades for life) license. * The internal image decoder now supports GIF decoding (only still images, does not support animating GIF files). * New "fnThumbViewMiniMenu" function that Shows/Hides the media library's ThumbView mode's Mini-Menu. * New "unchecked" icon used throughout several fullscreen navigation interfaces to clarify usage experience. + All media library categories have been automatically converted to thumbnail view mode. You can restore each category to list view mode using the media library category editor (Shift+"M") or through the settings page on the media library fullscreen navigation interface. Dependant on the content type (Audio/Video/Picture/Executable), a default thumbnail aspect ratio and column count is applied. + Modified how Zoom Player loads, shaving about 900ms off the load time, which on the development system accounts for a 36% faster load time. + Zoom Player file tracker is now compatible with qBitTorrent v3.2. + The backspace key can now be used with all fullscreen navigation interfaces to quickly go up to a previous folder or all the way back to the main fullscreen navigation interface. + The backspace key no longer clears the playlist on the playlist fullscreen navigation interface. + The "Media Scanner" and "Remove folder(s) from categories" entries in the fullscreen media library's category list, now display a message indicating these interfaces are not available when navigation "safe mode" is enabled. + The media library fullscreen navigation interface's "Filter List" page has been renamed to a now more expanded "Settings" page. + The checkboxes on the Media Library's fullscreen navigation "Sort" and "Settings" pages are now clickable with the mouse or touch input. + The checkboxes on the File Browsers's fullscreen navigation "Sort" and "Filter List" pages are now clickable with the mouse or touch input. + Zoom Player used the term 'Directory' and 'Folder' interchangeably, to prevent confusion, all references should now appear as 'Folder'. - When viewing the main fullscreen navigation interface in grid mode, the description could appear as "???" when using a non-english language pack. - The media library fullscreen navigation interface did not highlight previously seen image files when the setting to 'Highlight previously viewed files' was enabled. - Navigation scroll acceleration (when holding down or quickly tapping a keyboard or remote control button) didn't reset the acceleration when using a different navigation key. For example, pressing the down arrow quickly would scroll real fast down a list, but then pressing the UP key would scroll back up by more than one item. - The keyboard macro list and right-click context menu file were not updated to the latest version in the original v10.0.0 release. - Maximizing and then Minimizing the main player window lost the maximized window state and non-maximized window size. - Playing a new video with MadVR set as the video renderer while the player window was in a maximized state lost the maximized window state and non-maximized window size. - Using functions that shows a file open/save dialog and keeping the dialog window open until the internal screen saver started, caused the user interface to become unresponsive. - Fixed a few small memory leaks. - With the "Nav-Left goes up a directory before entering the Drive/Category list" setting enabled, clicking the "<" icon in the media library triggered a "folder up" action instead of returning to the category list. - Fixed a crash when trying to close the player with certain fullscreen navigation interfaces open and uTorrent/qBittorrent/eMule file tracking was enabled. - The "Screen-Center Playlist when switching to Fullscreen / Zoom mode" setting did not actually screen-center the playlist editor. - Trying to set file association with UAC enabled under Windows 7 would erroneously show a 'this feature is not supported by the FREE/PRO version' dialog. - Pressing the "5" key on the keypad with num-lock disabled would interfere with fullscreen navigation's 'quick search' functionality and regular keyboard navigation until ESC was pressed. - Fixed a few possible crashes when closing Zoom Player.What's new in Zoom Player v10:
* New pre-configuration wizard! The wizard opens automatically on a fresh installation or can be manually triggered by using the Alt+Shift+F12 keyboard macro. The wizard lets you automatically configure Zoom Player based on the playback PC device profile: 1. PC This is the default configuration used in previous versions of Zoom Player. 2. HTPC (Home Theater PC) When choosing the HTPC profile, the following settings are adjusted: A. Buttons added to the Control Bar: * Subtitle Cycling. * Open the Media Library fullscreen navigation interface. * Maximize video to fullscreen. B. Buttons removed from the Control Bar: * Fullscreen on/off toggle. C. The mouse left button-click is assigned to 'Mouse Gestures'. D. The open file function is assigned to open the file browsing fullscreen navigation interface, affecting the control bar button and the 'Open file' right-click menu entry. E. Zoom Player automatically starts in fullscreen mode with the main fullscreen navigation interface open. 3. Tablet When choosing the Tablet profile, the following settings are adjusted: A. Buttons added to the Control Bar: * Seeking controls * Lock user interface function * Maximize video to fullscreen. B. Buttons removed from the Control Bar: * Fullscreen on/off toggle. * Open File C. The mouse left button-click is assigned to 'Mouse Gestures' with the static mouse click set to toggle the Control Bar on/off. D. The open file function is assigned to open the file browsing fullscreen navigation interface, affecting the control bar button and the 'Open file' right-click menu entry. E. Zoom Player automatically starts in fullscreen mode with the main fullscreen navigation interface open. F. Zoom Player prompts for the tablet screen's physical size. Zoom Player uses the screen size information to adjust the following settings to ensure they work well with touch input: * Fullscreen navigation scroll bar size. * Control Bar size. * Hot-Corner click-region size. * Color Control UI size. G. The control bar auto-hides after 15 seconds instead of 3. H. The number of lines displayed in the fullscreen navigation interfaces is reduced, making line selection easier. I. Do not show timeline position when hovering with the mouse over the timeline since tablets do not use mouse as input device by default. J. Disable quick searching using the keyboard. K. Set LAV Video hardware acceleration to DXVA2 Native L. Hide button hints (no mouse to hover with). * New "Media Scanner" fullscreen navigation interface (Ctrl+Shift+"M"). The Media Scanner scans the PC's drives, searching for media content (audio/video/images) and presenting a clear list featuring the content of each folder identified to contain media. Each media folder can be browsed, added to existing media library categories or used as a base for a new media library category. With the new Media Scanner, you no longer have to leave the fullscreen navigation interface to setup the media library. * New "Stream Selection" fullscreen navigation interface (Shift+"E"). The stream selection navigation interface allows you to easy select which of the playing media's Audio and Subtitle streams to enable. * New "Mini Color Control" fullscreen navigation interface that by default replaces the old color control fullscreen navigation interface. The new minified version uses as little screen-space as possible to ensure color changes are clearly seen as they are being applied. * New "Control Bar" button on the skin selection dialog, introducing a new class of skinning specifically for the control bar, allowing you to pick custom control bar designs, regardless of the currently used skin. By default, Zoom Player ships with 5 custom control bars: 1. Onyx Very Small 2. Onyx Small 3. Onyx Medium 4. Onyx Large 5. Onyx Very Large * Zoom Player is now "Large Address Aware". This means that Zoom Player and filters in use by Zoom Player can now allocate more than 2GB of RAM. Large Address Aware is required when playing 4K video content through MadVR using a very large frame buffer. * New "Media Scanner" entry on the media library fullscreen navigation category list giving easy access the new media scanner fullscreen navigation interface. * New "Remove folder(s) from categories" function on the media library fullscreen navigation category list enabling easy removal of folders from existing media library categories. * New "Hot Corner" feature (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse / Settings) that triggers customizable functions when the mouse (or finger with touch input devices) clicks on one of the screen's corners while in fullscreen mode. By default the functions are: Top-Left corner : Main fullscreen navigation interface Top-Right corner : Playlist fullscreen navigation interface Bottom-Left corner : File browsing fullscreen navigation interface Bottom-Right corner : Media library fullscreen navigation interface * New setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse / Settings) to limit "Hot Corner" feature to fullscreen mode (enabled by default). * New settings (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse) to set which function is triggered when using the 4th (Forward) and 5th (Backward) buttons on the mouse. By default the forward and backward buttons are set to perform a medium distance seek, but any Zoom Player function can be assigned to the buttons using the 'Custom' option. * New setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video) to control LAV Video Decoder's hardware acceleration. By default, Zoom Player now sets the hardware acceleration to DXVA2 Copyback (which falls back to software mode if it is not supported by the hardware/drivers) in tablet mode and "Use LAV's setting" on PCs and HTPCs. * New setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) that controls whether clicking the right/left screen edges navigates to the left/right. This behavior was previously enabled and hard coded, it is now optional and disabled by default. * New setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation) that switches between the old color control navigation style and the new mini-color control navigation style. The current navigation skin must support the mini-color control navigation mode for the setting to have an affect. * A few great looking background patterns for the customizable dark/light fullscreen navigation interfaces are now included with the installer. The browse button next to the "Override navigation background image" setting now opens the new patterns folder by default. * The advanced playlist control can now be searched with either an "OR" or an "AND" type Boolean search when using multiple words. * New "Lock user interface" control bar button. When enabled, the mouse and keyboard interfaces are disabled until the top-left corner of the screen is quickly clicked 3 times or the space bar is quickly pressed 3 times. * New "/MainNav" command line parameter that starts the player with the main navigation interface visible and fullscreen. * New "Main Navigator" setting for the "Start Player in" feature (Adv. Options / Interface / Position & Size). * New Text Viewer font size settings for both ASCII and ANSI (used to display art in NFO files) under "Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display". * New "exLAVHWAccel" extended function that specifies the type of video hardware acceleration used by the LAV Video Decoder filter. Values: 0 = Use LAV's setting 1 = None (software decoding) 2 = NVIDIA CUVID 3 = Intelｽ QuickSync 4 = DXVA2 (copy-back) 5 = DXVA2 (native) Extended functions can be mapped to keyboard events to make switching between different hardware acceleration modes more accessible. * New smart play profile to support decoding of Apple's ProRes format. * Media can now be played directly from the fullscreen download manager navigation interface. * New API message #1935 to add a file to the playlist and automatically start playing it. + Zoom Player should load faster, especially on a fresh install or when upgrading to a new version. + Rewrote the entire fullscreen navigation mouse click/touch code to prevent clicking and double clicking outside list boundaries selecting the first/last list entry. + The Image Adjust, Image Blanking, Equalizer and Color Control navigation interfaces are now much more reactive when quickly clicking the mouse or touch input devices. + The GoTo Time fullscreen navigation interface is now much more touch-intuitive with +/- icons under the Hours/Minutes/Seconds fields to quickly change the values without having to use the more cumbersome directional arrows interface. + The file browsing fullscreen navigation interface no longer displays the volume label of network drives as it caused massive slow downs if the network drive was disconnected. + The fullscreen navigation interfaces' close button now only reacts when the mouse button is released or when the finger is moved off the touch surface. The change makes the interface more intuitive when used with touch interfaces. + Double clicking on the fullscreen media library category or file browsing drive list now opens the last position instead of the first item in the list. + When hovering with the mouse over the main fullscreen navigation interface's grid, the active entry is now set to the item selected instead of just highlighted, making use of a keyboard+mouse setup more intuitive. + The order of the navigation interfaces has been changed along with the default navigation interfaces listed in the main navigation interface. You can still choose which navigation interfaces to list through the advanced options dialog. + The on-screen clock is now hidden when a fullscreen navigation interface is visible. + The default value for "Navigation Scroll Mode" is now set to "Middle Centered". + The icon in the path area was removed from several fullscreen navigation interfaces. + The path text was changed to be more subtle in several fullscreen navigation interfaces. + Played items in the media library and file browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces are made easier to spot by changing played media's icon to 25% transparency (compared to 50% in previous versions). + Several actions, (for example trying to open a category in the media library that contained no files) would not show any visual cue to indicate why no action took place. These action will now Pop-up an OSD message to indicate the cause. + When opening the options dialog for the very first time, it will now open centered within the active monitor (previously it would open centered on the main UI window). - Due to a bug, the scheduler interface became impossible to enable even when using the MAX version. - The "Check for updates" setting was broken and may have notified of new components on the install center even though they may have not been any. - Closing a fullscreen navigation interface by clicking/touching the "X" area located at the top-right corner of the screen could accidentally trigger a "right" navigation function, which by default is to seek forward 20 seconds. - Long-presses on buttons now work when used with a touch screen (instead of the default windows behavior of a long-press being used to right-click). - Double-click action will not trigger accidentally when trying to quickly select/unselect entries in the Playlist, Media Library and File Browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces. - The selected file(s) attribute in the Media Library, Playlist and File Browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces would not clear after performing several actions (Cut, Paste, Add to Playlist, Remove from Playlist and Clear Playlist). - Fixed a memory leak when using the main navigation interface in grid mode. - Certain mouse actions and features did not perform well when the text viewer was used. - When playing a file using the file browsing fullscreen navigation interface, opening the interface will now mark the file as seen without requiring you to exit and re-enter the folder. - Scrolling quickly through the "image adjust" and "image blanking" fullscreen navigation interfaces could cause values to change using a multiplier instead of accurately one at a time. - In the FREE and PRO versions, the chapter points on the timeline could not be disabled. - Pressing Backspace before typing anything else in a fullscreen navigation interface that had QuickSearch enabled could cause the dialog to appear frozen until other characters were entered. - Using the "End" key to go to the end of the line when using the fullscreen keyboard navigation interface would go one character after the line's end. - If the "Auto-Show the Control Bar on Mouse Movement" setting was enabled and the "Limit Control Bar Auto-Show to Fullscreen / Zoom mode" was disabled, it took two clicks to close the control bar. - Using the CommAPI #1930 message to add files to the playlist now automatically translates "/" characters to "\" if the path is local, fixing cosmetic issues in the playlist.What's new in Zoom Player v9.5.0:
* The main fullscreen navigation interface index is now drawn using an icon grid array instead of a list, making it much more touch/mouse friendly. * There is now a dedicated close button for all fullscreen navigation interfaces, making them more suitable for usage with touch devices. * New text-file viewer, opening any of the following text extensions uses the new viewer: csv, css, ini, json, log, nfo, txt, xml, yaml. Files with the 'nfo' extension will open using the Terminal font at a fixed size of "9" to preserve the ASCII art. While the text-file viewer is in use, the UP/DOWN navigation keys and the mouse scroll wheel are used to scroll through the file instead of their usually assigned function. * You can now rename files directly from the playlist fullscreen navigation interface's function menu. * The GoTo time fullscreen navigation interface is now more usable with a mouse or touch input : 1. You can now click to select the Hour/Minute/Seconds fields. 2. Clicking the current position pastes the current position to the Hour/Minute/Seconds entry fields 3. The arrow controls are larger and more accessible. * A clickable "Trash" icon is now displayed next to the erase entry on fullscreen navigation interfaces' function menu. * New setting "Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) to override a skin's icon grid array viewing mode for the main fullscreen navigation interface index. * New setting "Adv. Options / Interface" that overrides the mouse scroll wheel and UP/DOWN navigation keys functions when the HTML or Text file viewers are in use. Instead of the assigned functions the mouse wheel and UP/DOWN keys are used to scroll through the HTML/Text content. * New setting "Adv. Options / Playback / Video / Subtitles" that determines whether the XySubFilter high resolution subtitle renderer is used (MadVR set as the video renderer is also a requirement for XySubFilter to work). * New setting "Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings" that determines if text files are listed in the media library and file browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces. This setting can also be accessed through the media library and file browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces' function menu. * New setting "Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization" specifying that the selected custom background image should be treated as a pattern and tiled instead of stretched. * New setting "Adv. Options / Playback" that determines whether text files are added to the playlist when opening an entire drive or folder. * You can now select "Text & HTML" from the open dialog's drop-down format list. * New control bar buttons that opens the 'Main' and 'Media Library' fullscreen navigation interface. * New button on the Install Center's options dialog to open the cache folder in explorer. * You can now click an arrow icon on the media library, file browsing and playlist fullscreen navigation interfaces' quick search function to reach the selected entry with one click. * New skin-script code to better position the 'GoTo Time' fullscreen navigation interface's "current" and "seek-to" position texts. * New Smart Play profile for opening local ".NSV" media files. Improved NSV streaming should appear in a future version. + The default configuration has been improved to better account for new and updated features. + The 'Navigation Scrollbar Size' setting can now be set to "Dynamic Mode" which changes the scrollbar's size dynamically based on the interface's width, restoring the previous default scrollbar behavior. + "Dynamic mode" is the new default 'Navigation Scrollbar Size', restoring the scrollbar size to v9.3 values. + When the HTML viewer is in use, the UP/DOWN navigation keys and the mouse scroll wheel are now used to scroll through the web page instead of their usually assigned function. + The icon next to the 'Play all files in this Directory' and 'Randomly Play all files in this Directory' has been changed from a checkbox to a play icon. + The notification about bad sub-types in a smart play profile will no longer appear by default. These messages will now only appear if the 'Show Smart Play graph creation errors' setting is enabled. + The default panning rate when using an XInput (XBOX 360/ONE) controller has been slowed a bit. + A few of the fullscreen navigation icons were tweaked for clarity and enhanced visuals. + Some of the icons on the bundled Customizable Background fullscreen navigation skin have been made semi-translucent in sections to better integrate with the background image. + The GoTo time fullscreen navigation dialog now always opens on the "Seconds" field (previously it would on the "Hours" field). + Improved keyboard time to seek input when using the GoTo time fullscreen navigation interface. + Added more space between some buttons in fullscreen navigation interfaces (Equalizer, Image Adjust, Color Control, Image Blanking). + The Image Adjust fullscreen navigation interface layout has been optimized for additional clarity. + The Mouse wheel function fullscreen navigation interface has been optimized for additional clarity and enhanced touch input. - Disabled the "Press & Hold" windows touch-input feature on the fullscreen navigation interfaces. The "Press & Hold" feature adds a delayed response to touch events, which interfered with smooth operation on tablet devices. - Enabling a file tracker feature while the download manager fullscreen navigation interface was already visible could cause a crash. - Trying to play streaming audio without the DC-Bass component installed would trigger a crash. - Trying to play a station listed under the favorites section would trigger a crash. - Adding a station to the favorite station list would not save the new favorite item after restarting the player. - Long Path text in the media library and file browsing fullscreen interfaces would cause the text to overlay the selected item count and icon. - Renaming a file in the media library or file browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces would cause the some of the playlist navigation interface icons to appear in the wrong size. - Renaming a file using one of the fullscreen navigation interfaces would not rename the playlist entry for that file. - Clicking in an empty space under or above a file entry's icon in the playlist, media library and file browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces no longer selects the last entry in the list. - Clicking in an empty space under or above an entry in all fullscreen navigation interface would wrongly interpret the click as if it was on the first or last entry in the list, leading to accidental actions. - Switching to fullscreen with the Zoom Player window in a maximized state would lose the window's maximized state upon exiting fullscreen mode. - Hovering with the mouse cursor over a timeline area containing a chapter/bookmark would cause the hint window containing the bookmark name and position to flicker if the hint window would appear on the edge of the active screen. - Setting the mouse's middle-click (mouse wheel click) to reset DirectShow Zooming, instead of resetting, the maximum zoom value was applied. - Opening a folder through several means (drag & drop for example) would not always respect the "Opening a drive or directory includes opening image files" setting. - Rotating the screen/tablet now hides the date & time display from the navigation interfaces (previously they would overlap due to the lack of space). - Category names would overlap the right-side icons in the fullscreen media library navigation interface. - Clicking the left/right edges of a fullscreen navigation interface to navigate left/right now works again.What's new in Zoom Player v9.4.1:
* Clicking the selected item count checkbox in the playlist, file browsing and media library fullscreen navigation interfaces now acts as a shortcut to the extended file selection page. * New scenecut editor "Pause Playback" entry type. * Introduced stricter sub-type format checking to prevent errors. + Auto-Showing the control bar when the mouse cursor is moved to the top or bottom of the screen (selectable in the options) now triggers when the mouse cursor is up to 4 pixels away from the top/bottom instead of the just the top/bottom pixel. - Trying to play all files in a directory did not ignore unknown file extensions, adding them to the playlist instead. - With the "Auto-Size User Interface to maintain Video Aspect Ratio" setting enabled, triggering an action OSD (like "Pause") would cause the window to auto-resize. - A bad sub-type in the H.264 video decoder smart play profile could have caused issues under certain conditions. - Selecting "all matching multi-part files" from fullscreen navigation interfaces could select non-file entries such as "Previous Directory" and others.What's new in Zoom Player v9.4:
* New feature to load DirectShow filters directly from a DLL even if the filter is not registered/installed on the system (Adv. Options / Playback / Smart Play / Info & DLL Paths). The external DLL paths are searched when Zoom Player tries to create a filter that is not registered with the operating system. Note: + All paths are relative to Zoom Player's EXE's folder. + Some filters may require registry entries to work. * New "<" icon next to a fullscreen navigation interface's icon/title to provide a clear visual indicator that clicking the location navigates to the previous navigation page. * New setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) to set the scrollbar's width. * New clickable icons for "Play all files in this directory" and "Randomly Play all files in this directory". * New "Play" icon next to playable entries in multiple fullscreen navigation interfaces (media library, file browser, etc). * You can now select MadVR as the Windows Media DRM playback video renderer. + Large playlist load time has been optimized by up to 200%. + You can now single-click previous directory icon to go to the previous directory. + New "Unknown" icon now used with unknown file types in file listing fullscreen navigation interfaces (media library, file browser, etc). + When loading a playlist comprised of multiple playlists, each with a sort method specified in the playlist, the playlists will now be individually sorted and appended instead of the final playlist being sorted. + The fullscreen navigation scrollbar width is no longer dependant on the width of the dialog as that didn't make sense rotating displays (such as tablets). The scroll bar width is now fixed size. + The icon used to access the fullscreen navigation interface's functions page has been modified to more clearly indicate the action taken by clicking the icon. + On the fullscreen navigation function pages of the media library and file browsing interfaces, on the "Add to Playlist" entry, the icon has been changed from a right arrow to a playlist icon to better indicate that clicking the icon opens the playlist navigation interface. + The playlist icon has been replaced with a new, polished design. - The "Create Contact Sheet" feature got completely broken in v9.3. - The fullscreen navigation interfaces did not resize when rotating the screen orientation. - When playing a media with external audio track files, the used filters may not have been released properly from memory, causing all sorts of possible issues (for example, MadVR would not release it's overlay, covering the video area when playing audio files afterwards). - The fullscreen playlist navigation interface's font did not adjust in size to match the "Navigation Line Count" setting and was not perfectly centered within each line. - The Alt+"S" keyboard macro that opens the subtitle configuration page did not work if the "XySubFilter" subtitle renderer filter was used. - When using a detached control bar on the primary screen to display preview thumbnails from a video playing on a secondary screen, the thumbnails would always appear below the timeline, even when there was space above it. - When using a detached control bar on the primary screen to display preview thumbnails from a video playing on a secondary screen, the thumbnails would initially appear on the secondary until the mouse was moved at least 1 pixel over the timeline. - The previous fullscreen navigation customization settings were not restored if the options dialog was closed using the "Cancel" button. - Resizing the fullscreen station navigation interface width could cause the station name to overlap the station format and bitrate text fields. - The Install Center would list an update as available even if a newer version was already installed if the update's build number was higher than the currently installed version's build number, for example: v9.3.0.102 would appear newer than v9.4.0.3 - The "DefaultSettings.exe" file did not reset the Steam Edition's settings.What's new in Zoom Player v9.3.0:
* Support for registering the GXF, MXF media exchange formats file extensions. * New Smart Play profiles for GFX, MXF, Motion JPEG2000 and DVCPro formats. * Clicking on the fullscreen navigation interfaces title area now navigates to the previous interface (like using the navigate "left" function). * The current navigation icon is now drawn next to the fullscreen navigation interface's title. * Clicking the "Main" fullscreen navigation interface now toggles back and forth between the function page and the navigation interface selection index. * The playlist, file browsing and media library fullscreen navigation interfaces display item and selected item counts on the right-side of the path section. * New "Main" entry on the main fullscreen navigation interface functions page that returns to the main navigation interface selection index. * The fullscreen virtual-keyboard navigation interface's text box can now be clicked to move the text-caret to the clicked position in the text. * The fullscreen navigation skinning code has been enhanced to control whether navigation arrows are displayed on each navigator interface. * The fullscreen navigation skinning code has been enhanced to allow specifying a specific file for each navigation icon. Navigation icon sizes are no longer fixed at 160x160 pixels (source resolution). * New setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) to pre-load navigation graphics, improving load time at the cost of additional memory usage. * New setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) to prevent the navigation icon from being displayed next to the title text. * New setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) to prevent the navigation title from being displayed. * New setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / File Tracker) that tracks and displays download progress in the media library and file browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces when using the qBittorrent BitTorrent download client: http://www.qbittorrent.org/ * New skin-script code specifying the fullscreen navigation interfaces' icon position and scale next to the title text. + Several fullscreen navigation customization features have been moved from other pages to the new customization page on the advanced options dialog. + Several fullscreen navigation widget have been polished to better fit the navigation style. + Multiple fullscreen navigation skin files can now reside in the same folder, allowing graphical element re-use for a smaller distribution. + All settings on the fullscreen navigation customization options dialog page are now updated in real time, making it much simpler to customize the fullscreen navigation interfaces. + Using the fullscreen navigation's navigation skin selection interface now updates the navigation skin as soon as you highlight a skin entry. + Detaching the control bar now overrides all other control bar positional settings. + Adding files/folders to the playlist using the media library or file browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces now reports the number of files actually added to the playlist. + The Advanced playlist control now works 200% faster by pre-allocating some RAM (10mb ram for a playlist with 40,000 entries). - Image rotation was completely broken (did nothing) in v9.2. - Fixed a vulnerability when loading specially crafted ".BMP" files. - The information dialog ("I" keyboard macro) will no longer appear partially off-screen when the playback window is positioned at a screen corner. - When applying file extension association, the confirmation dialog appeared in the wrong screen position. - Adding a streaming URL using the playlist editor would clear the entire playlist instead of appending the URL to the end of the playlist. - Hardened the language-pack parsing code to better handle several types of translation errors. - The "DefaultSettings.exe" application that resets Zoom Player's settings to their default values did not work with the Steam Edition of Zoom Player. - Fixed several issues related to conflicts between assigned double-click and single-click mouse functions, like the inability to exit fullscreen mode when double-click is set to switch to "Fullscreen on/off" and single click set to "Move Video / Window". - The "ESC" key no longer closes the keyboard editor's key mapping dialog, allowing the "ESC" key to be mapped. - Loading playlists with embedded media-duration information skips the media-duration scanner's background operation from trying to get the media's duration from the media file itself. - The advanced playlist control dialog would take twice as long to open if the 'Search' was set to "Starting with...". Only noticable on massive playlists.What's new in Zoom Player v9.2.0:
* XBOX controller sticks can now be used to Pan & Scan directshow zoomed video. * New "Speed" parameter assignable to XBOX controller stick and trigger functions specifies the number of operations per second to perform, customizing motion accuracy for each function. * The mouse left-click button can now be assigned to Pan & Scan directshow zoomed video. * When the mouse left-click button is set to "Mouse Gestures", a new function can be assigned to a static click, by default the function is Play/Pause. * The DirectShow Zooming & Panning features now apply to the internal image viewer (JPEG/PNG/BMP) as well. * The internal image viewer (JPEG/PNG/BMP) now supports image rotation by 90 degree increments using the Shift+"R" keyboard macro. * Video streaming over http is now supported when using the "Open->Streaming link" feature from the right-click context menu. * New virtual meta-data editing accessible through the playlist editor's right-click context menu or for the currently playing media using the Ctrl+Shift+"T" keyboard macro. The virtual editor saves the meta-data in Zoom Player's ZPL playlist format without modifying the meta-data within media files themselves. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Smart Play / Settings) that specifies whether http media streaming builds a video or audio graph when the specified URL does not contain a file extension (for example "http://my.ip.com"). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Playlist) to auto-sort playlists on load (excluding the default playlist used when restarting the player). * The right-arrow appearing on multiple fullscreen navigation interfaces is now clickable and equivalent of using the right arrow key keyboard macro. * New button and right-click context menu entry on the playlist editor to add streaming URLs (e.g. "http://www.somesite.org/folder/channel1.ts"). + The chapter-points graphical elements in the bundled Onyx and Alba skins is now better color-coded to make it easier to see behind text. + The auto-part loader now ignores space characters when trying to decide if the next file in the directory should be automatically inserted into the playlist. + Added a warning to reload the playing media when enabling "Show time seek position over Timeline" setting with "Show position preview thumbnail" previously enabled. + Added a warning to reload the playing media when enabling the "Display OSD through MadVR's OSD API (preserves fullscreen exclusive mode)" setting. + The options dialog is now slightly wider to better account for the width required to display the entire settings tree. + When playing a live stream, pausing now stops the graph instead of being completely disabled. + The multi-part file loader will no longer try to find multiple parts when the file loaded is a playlist. + The play history fullscreen navigation interface now has a small arrow on the active line signifying access to additional functionality. - The ZPL playlist parsing code ignored meta-data such as the title if the playlist entry was a URL (link). - Fixed multiple issues with M3U playlist parsing, including parsing of UTF8 encoding and meta-data parsing of titles for streaming links. - Mouse gestures could conflict with the mouse left-click combined with holding the Alt or Ctrl key functions. - With the "Auto-Save Media Chapter files (".ZPCHP" files)" setting enabled, chapter files were not being saved automatically under some circumstances. - A few JPEG orientation modes were not displaying in the correct orientation. - Setting the "Screen-Align the Control Bar to" setting to "Top" or "Bottom" caused MadVR to drop out of fullscreen exclusive mode every time the control bar was shown. - With the "Screen-Align the Control Bar to" setting set to "Top" or "Bottom", the control bar would align within the video in fullscreen mode instead of the top/bottom positions. - With EVR set as the video renderer, the first time a media was loaded caused a momentary glitch in the skin (black box appearing behind the skin's button). - The PreAmp equalizer slider would get reset when the audio was muted if the "Link volume up/down functions to PreAmp volume..." setting was enabled. - Adding a web page to the playlist and then saving and loading the playlist or just restarting the player would cause the playlist entry to be played as a media file (and failing) instead of opening as a web page. - The extended fullscreen navigation interface would show "???" instead of displaying unicode language-specific texts. - Fixed a typo in one of the function descriptions.What's new in Zoom Player v9.1.0:
* The left mouse click can now be set to "Mouse Gestures". * You can now assign 4 mouse gestures (up/down/left/right) when gesturing with the mouse cursor while holding down the left mouse button or by swiping a finger on touch displays a forth of the way across the screen. By default the assigned functions are: Left : Medium seek backward Right : Medium seek forward Up : Previous Track Down : Next Track All gestures can be assigned a custom function in the MAX version. * xySubFilter support for full resolution subtitle rendering when playing lower resolution video content. MadVR must be used as the video renderer for xySubFilter to function. Please note that the current version of xySubFilter may break ffdshow subtitle rendering if the xySubFilter filter is registered. * The XInput (XBOX360 and compatible controllers) interface can now assign Zoom-in and Zoom-out functions to the left and right Trigger buttons. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Bar / Timeline Area) that displays chapter points on the timeline. When the mouse hovers over a chapter point, a pop-up shows the chapter name. This feature requires a skin that includes additional chapter-point graphical elements. The Onyx and Alba skins include this support. * New Setting (Adv. Options / System / Screen Saver) to always disable the windows screen saver and monitor powerdown while Zoom Player is running. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse) that enables the Mouse's middle click (wheel click) to reset DirectShow Zooming. * New Settings (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse) that enable the Mouse's left click combined with holding either the Alt or Ctrl keys to pan the DirectShow Zoomed video (panning is currently limited to the EVR video renderer). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse Wheel) that allows the DirectShow Zoom In/Out functions to be assigned to the mouse wheel. * New extended "exDirectShowZoom" function used to specify a zoom-in factor when using a DirectShow video renderer. Unlike standard Zoom-in, DirectShow based zooming works even in windowed mode. * New "fnDSZoomIn" and "fnDSZoomOut" functions that Zoom into and out of the video area when using a DirectShow video renderer. Unlike standard Zoom-in, DirectShow based zooming works even in windowed mode. * New Comm API message #1705 notifying of a subtitle stream change. * New Comm API message #1605 notifying of an audio stream change. * New "TimelineChapters" and "TimelineCBarChapters" skin scripting functions used to specify coordinates for the timeline chapter marks. + Comm API message #1702 (get subtitle stream names), only worked in DVD mode. It now works for media mode subtitle steams as well. + The 'Current Position' is now horizontally centered in the chapter editor. + The font size used when creating contact sheets was too small, making the text unreadable when creating lower resolution contract sheet images. + Restored subtitle compatibility with the latest version of ffdshow. Using the ffdshow subtitle rendering option should now work. - Playing media files with both embedded and external subtitle tracks with the embedded subtitle tracks set as both not-default and not-forced, the next subtitle track function would require several tries to properly show the correct subtitle track and at times, the OSD pop-up may have shown the wrong active subtitle track name. - Adding a chapter point to a media file would list the new chapter in the wrong order within the chapter editor. - Removing chapters using the chapter editor did not prompt to erase the chapter files when all chapters were removed, causing the chapters to re-appear after re-loading the media. - Using the next/previous chapter buttons would pop an action OSD containing character encoding instead of the actual character. For example "&comma" instead of ",". - The 'Show OSD filename when opening a new file' setting stopped working. - Detaching the Control Bar when using MadVR as the video renderer would cause the control bar to appear twice under certain circumstances. - Setting the control bar to appear at the top/bottom of the screen instead of the video area would not work when using MadVR as the video renderer. - Disabling the "Auto Play" setting broke the "Automatically restore the last media position on replay" feature. - With "Auto-Size User Interface to fit Source Video Resolution (on load)" and "Limit Auto-Size to User Interface Height" settings enabled, playing a video while fullscreen and then exiting fullscreen would have resulted in a window the same size as the source video's full resolution instead of only adjusting the height to compensate for the aspect ratio. - Searching for some buttons using the options dialog's search feature would prevent the searched buttons from being clicked until the search dialog was closed first. - Enabling the 'Always start with media subtitles hidden' setting would cause a 'Play' OSD to pop-up when playing a media file containing subtitles. - The current time and date did not appear on any fullscreen navigation interface based on the virtual keyboard (Rename, New Folder, etc).What's new in Zoom Player v9.0.2:
Changes : + Pressing Alt+"A" to open the Audio decoder configuration page when no media is loaded, now tries to show the LAV Audio decoder instead of ffdshow's audio decoder. If LAV Filters are not installed the ffdshow audio decoder will open instead. Fixes : - Fixed a small cosmetic glitch when maximizing the audio skinWhat's new in Zoom Player v9.0.1:
New : * When maximizing the Video or Playlist windows, the curved window corners are now transformed into a solid frame, preventing accidental clicks on background applications. This applies to both the Onyx (default) and AlbaHD skins. * New Skin API command block "ifmaximized" and "endmaximized" used to draw an additional skinning layer when the playlist or video windows are maximized. Changes : + The keyboard macro list (F1 to show) is now cleaner and easier to read.What's new in Zoom Player v9:
New : * Support for XInput (XBOX360 and compatible) controllers: 1. Each button can be assigned a Zoom Player functions. 2. The DPAD can be used for fullscreen navigation. 3. The thumb sticks are assigned special functions that change in strength based on the pressure applied to the stick. This feature is limited to the Steam Edition of Zoom Player. * New thumbnail preview when hovering over the timeline (MAX only). Thumbnail preview currently works only on media formats that report key frame position. Enable under: Adv. Options / Control Bar / Timeline Area * Extensive changes to the Smart Play profiles, enabling newer, better codecs for many profiles. Please report any issues playing a format that previously used to play. * New "Automatically restore the previously active subtitle track on replay" Play History setting. * New "Automatically restore the previously active audio track on replay" Play History setting. * The slate navigation interface has been tweaked and now displays the current time & date. * A 'New Folder' function has been added to the Media Library and file Browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces. * New rename function accessible either through the playlist's right-click menu or using the Alt+Shift+"M" to rename the currently playing file. * The fullscreen navigation interface now display an integrated clock (date, time and day). * New Smart Play profiles for H.265 (HEVC) and VP9. * The Microsoft Windows TV '.WTV' file extension is now supported by Smart Play using the 'MPEG2 Program' Smart Play profile. * New "GIF" smart play profile to better support animated GIF playback. * New Alt+Shift+"O" keyboard macro used to enable/disable MadVR's 'Smooth Motion' feature. * New Setting "Adv. Options / Playback / Video" that controls whether MadVR's smooth motion feature is enabled, disabled or MadVR default. * New setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse / Settings) that controls mouse cursor visibility for all dialogs in both fullscreen and windowed mode (useful when only using a remote control or keyboard). * New video rotation function (fnVideoRotate), assigned to the Shift+"R" keyboard macro that uses MadVR along with Pixel Shader scripts to rotate the video image. Each use turns the video 90 degrees clockwise. This feature requires using MadVR as the video renderer and using a display card capable of at least Pixel Shader model 2 (supported by most display hardware purchased in recent years). * New Function "fnMadVRSmootMo" that enables/disables MadVR's smooth motion feature. * New Extended Function "exStayOnTop" used to set StayOnTop mode. * New "exSlideshow" extended function used to specify the slideshow delay (wait period) between two images. * New "exFastFoward" and "exRewind" extended functions, used to set a custom fast forward or rewind rate on the fly by assigning the new functions to a button or interface hardware (keyboard/remote/etc). * New "exSlowMotion" extended function, used to set a slow motion rate on the fly by assigning the new functions to a button or interface hardware (keyboard/remote/etc). * The playlist editor's sort menu can now sort by ascending or descending order. * The contact sheet settings are now saved. * New "/FMax" command line parameter that starts with the Player set to fullscreen across all connected monitors. * New skin script code used to display the time & date within fullscreen navigation interfaces, for more information see: https://inmatrix.com/zplayer/highlights/navskin.shtml * New Comm API message #0110, returning the current system time in multiple time formats. * New Comm API message #0120, used to request the monitor layout. * New Comm API message #0130, used to request available audio devices. * New Comm API message #0132, used to set the active audio device. * New Comm API message #0134, used to request the active audio device. * New Comm API message #0142, used to set the active video renderer. * New Comm API message #0144, used to request the active video renderer. * New Comm API message #0150, used to enable or disable mouse cursor visibility for all dialogs in both fullscreen and windowed mode. * New Comm API message #6040, returning the current playlist with path relative to the share path specified using the /SharePath command line parameter. * New Comm API message #6105, used to enable/disable the scheduler. * New Comm API message #2310, used to adjust the audio volume level. Changes : + The file association for Windows 8 now opens the Windows file association interface as Microsoft completely locked down any external changes to file association starting with Windows 8. + In previous versions, trying to play a DVD would initially open a dialog to choose the audio/video decoders to use for DVD playback. Now, If installed, LAV Filters are used as the default audio/video decoders. So now, on a fresh install, you only need to switch to DVD mode and hit play. + The Shift+"R" keyboard macro has been changed from "reverse aspect ratio" cycle to "video rotation". + The play next media file in the same directory feature no longer tries to open playlist files which could be abused and cause the feature to play media files outside the original playing folder. + Incomplete AVI files can now be played using LAV Filters as the source filter, making the 'Gabest AVI Splitter' filter obsolete (and no longer available for download through the install center). + The Shift+"A" and Alt+"A" keyboard macros for opening the audio decoding filter configuration dialog have been merged into the Alt+"A" macro. + The active/inactive buttons on skinned dialogs are now clearer. + The "Still Image" smart play profile is no longer used for GIF images. + The "Open Item Directory" entry on the playlist editor's right click menu now opens an explorer window with the file highlighted. Previously, only the directory would open. + The load-playlist button on the playlist editor will now open in the "default media open path" folder if one is specified. + Updated the HuffYUV Smart Play profile to support HuffYUV files created using ffmpeg/ffdshow encoder. + Comm API message #6010 now returns the number of files verified to exist on the system. Fixes : - Windows 8.1 multi-monitor DPI is now supported, the Zoom Player user interface will maintain its correct size and sharpness regardless of the monitor's DPI setting. - Disabling the windows screen saver and monitor powerdown now only works while in fullscreen as intended (previously, the powerdown was completely disabled while Zoom Player was running). - Trying to shutdown windows while Zoom Player is playing a media file could cause Zoom Player to close improperly. - Fixed glitch that caused the FPU accuracy to drop, causing sorting issues with files having a time difference of less than a minute. - Opening a DVD Menu using LAV filters may cause the menu not to refresh properly. - Under some condition, DVD Fast Forward and Rewind could cause the displayed subtitle to remain fixed on-screen. - Some settings on the 'Adv. Options / Playback / Video' were accidentally showing a dialog stating a different version of Zoom Player was required. - Some Play History settings were not being grayed out in the options dialog when they should have been. - When the multi part file loader feature is set to 'Automatic Match', playing a file with a name comprised only of numbers that converts to a very high value, triggered a crash. - Trying to use the "Random play a file with the same extension from the playing directory" or "Random play a media file from the playing directory" functions would result in an instant access violation error. - Using Zoom Player's playlist format to specify the "SR=6" (sort Randomly) tag would result in a corrupted playlist. - Delayed DVD seeking was always active when seeking backwards, even when the "Delayed DVD seeking" setting was disabled. - After the operating system has been up for more than 25 days, the mouse double-click functions in the fullscreen navigation interface would cease working. - Double-clicking the 'previous directory' icon in the media library and file browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces could automatically select a file or folder in the parent directory. - The "SPACE" button on the virtual keyboard did not work when the text carrot was at the end of the line. - Trying to seek in a DVD that was authored to disable seeking in certain title will now show an OSD pop-up message informing that this is the case. - Clicking too quickly on the virtual keyboard keys would type in the same character twice. - The Smart Play profile for OPUS audio is now using the LAV Audio Decoder by default as the DC-Bass decoder did not properly support all OPUS files. - DVD that contain disc titles with invalid file name characters now properly save any disc-specific information (such as resume from last position). - Going up a folder from the fullscreen station navigation function interface would not work correctly and could lead to a crash. - Opening a web page will now cover the entire display area, ignoring aspect ratio settings. - Worked around a uTorrent bug that prevented download percentage from appearing in media navigation fullscreen interfaces for certain file names. - When the "Save Position" checkbox is unticked in the Skins Selection window, while using the "F6" skin mode, clicking the "Switch to Standard User Interface" button did not retain the user interface when switching. - In F6 mode, clicking the "Switch to Standard User Interface" button doesn't retain the size of the interface when switching has been fixed. - A minor visual glitch in the Audio skin's bottom right buttons down state has been corrected. - Fixed a crash when closing the player with the 'Show time seek position over timeline' setting enabled. - The volume skin widget did not support unicode (non-english) characters. - Fixed two vulnerabilities identified by researcher 'Kaveh Ghaemmaghami' and brought to our attention by 'Secunia Research' related to malformed BMP files. - Using the playlist editor to sort by file size would not work when the "Don't check if a file exists when adding a file to the Playlist (faster loading)" setting was enabled. Trying to sort by file size will now notify you of this issue. - A single frame shift would occur when pausing video with the EVR/VMR video renderers. --- What's new in Zoom Player v8.6 : New : * The default fullscreen navigation style has been replaced with the new "Slate" design. A lot of work was invested in making the new design much more visually polished than the previous "Drapes" design. * New Slate style background images for the DVD and Media modes. * Support for MadVR Color Controls. * The color control, adjust image and the image blanking fullscreen navigation interfaces now uses the more intuitive input mode previously demonstrated in the Equalizer fullscreen navigation interface. * Clicking on media file icons within the file browsing, media library and playlist fullscreen navigation interfaces now selects and unselects the clicked entry. * New Media Scheduler interface, accessible through the right-click context menu or by clicking Alt+Ctrl+"S". The scheduler lets you set times & dates for specific media or entire playlists to begin and stop playing automatically. * The internal JPEG decoder is now based on GDI+ requiring "gdiplus.dll" installed on your system. The "gdiplus.dll" file comes pre-installed with Windows XP onwards and is available for download for Windows 98/ME systems. As a bonus, Zoom Player can now display JPEG image files encoded with the CYMK color-space (used in printing). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation) allowing you to select the navigation scrolling mode when using the keyboard or remote devices. Always Centered: This is the default from v8.5 and earlier. When scrolling, the selected item always remains in the screen-center. Middle Centered: When scrolling, the selected item remains in the screen-center except for the top and bottom of the list. Windows Default: When scrolling, the selected item can reach the bottom or top of the screen before any scrolling is performed. * New Settings (Adv. Options / Interface / Display) that controls whether the right-click context menu is skinned or if Windows should draw the context menu. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / History) that controls the number of seconds to seek back when restoring media position on replay. For example, when playing a media file to position "1:10:12", setting the seek back value to "2" seconds, replaying the same media file resumes playback at position "1:10:10". * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Audio) that specifies the Audio re-synchronization step accuracy in ms. Previously, the value was hard coded to 25ms. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Audio) that specifies the Initial Audio re-synchronization offset value. This means that every media with decoded audio will start playing with the specified audio re-synchronization offset value. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Controls) that determines whether clicking the next/previous track buttons (or functions) while in Fast Forward or Rewind mode performs a forward/backward seek action instead of next/previous track. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Controls) that controls whether using the "Stop" function causes Zoom Player close the graph (the new default) or just stop the graph (previous default). * When using a custom right-click menu script, you can now pass the currently playing file name and path to an external application, for example "MediaInfo". * New "exScheduler" function, allowing you to enable or disable the scheduler. * New "exPlaylistMode" function used to specify the 'On Playlist Complete' mode. * New "exPartLoader" function used to specify the 'Multi-Part file loader' mode. * Two new functions (Alt+Shift+"T" and Alt+Shift+"R") for increasing and decreasing the Derived aspect ratio width. * The keyboard arrows can now be assigned two new functions: 1. Zoom In/Out (previous Zoom option was only based on Axis) 2. Long Seek forward/backward. The default values for the arrow functions have been reset, If you have previously set a non-default value to the arrow keys, make sure to re-apply your settings. * New Smart Play profile for the FRAPS raw video capture format. * New "Select Audio", "Select Video" and "Uncheck Selected" buttons on the basic options dialog's file association page. * New Skin Script variables that specifies the GoTo fullscreen navigation interface's text size and position. * It is now possible to create a non-square scroll widget for the fullscreen navigation interfaces. * New "HoverColor" navigation skin script parameter that specifies the font color used for the currently highlighted line in the fullscreen navigation interfaces. * New "WindowWidth" and "WindowHeight" fullscreen navigation skin parameters that specify the relative width and height of the adjust image and image blanking fullscreen navigation interfaces. * The ".TSP" file extension was missing under the 'video' section in file browsing interfaces. You need to press the "Default" button in the options dialog (Adv. Options / File Format Association / File Extensions). * The fullscreen background color (set under "Interface / Display") is now used to fill the black-bar area in video renderers that support it: 1. Standard Overlay 2. Overlay Mixer 3. Haali Video Renderer 4. MadVR * New Zoom Player API Command (#6020) that saves a remotely created playlist to a local file. All paths are relative to the 'Share Path' parameter specified using the "/SharePath" command line. * New Zoom Player API Command (#6030) that sends a specified local playlist file (only when using the parameter). All paths are relative to the 'Share Path' parameter specified using the "/SharePath" command line. * Two new Zoom Player API Events (#6100 and #6101) that trigger when a scheduled entry is about to begin playing and when that entry ends playback. * New Zoom Player API Command (#6110) that returns an event with same number indicating the current Scheduler state (Disabled/Inactive/Active). * New Zoom Player API Command (#6120) that returns an event with same number listing the current schedule list. The format is identical to the local "zplayer.schedule" file, except using the "|" character to separate schedule entries. * New Zoom Player API Command (#6130) that specifies a new schedule list. The new list overwrites the currently active schedule. This command returns an event with same number, listing the number of schedule entries received. Changes : + The 'Adjust Image' and 'Image Blanking' fullscreen navigation interfaces are now placed in a better default on-screen position. You can restore the previous position by modifying the 'Screen Position' and 'Navigation Side Margins' values under: Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation + The Internet Radio Station database has been cleaned up and the fullscreen station navigation interface has been enhanced to highlight the audio format and bitrate of each station. A small side-effect of the station database clean-up is stations you may have previously set as favorites may no longer exist. + The 'Multi-Part file loader' Automatic mode now supports image formats and requires less character matches to identify parts. In addition, file names comprised of only numbers are now auto-loaded with no requirement of a minimum number of characters to make a match. For example, opening "1.mp3" would automatically open "2.mp3", "3.mp3" and so forth. Multi-Digit numbered file names such as "0001.mp3" and "0002.mp3" are supported as well. + The Create Contact Sheet feature is now much faster and more reliable. + The code used to get a media's duration and properties has been enhanced. + Smart Play now strips ".part" and ".!ut" file extension when evaluating which source filter to use. This change should improve playback stability of incomplete downloading media files (eMule, Firefox and others may use the ".part" file extension, ".!ut" is used by uTorrent). + The keyboard fullscreen navigation interface used in such features as the "rename" function now uses a clearer distinction between the actively selected button and the "shift" states. + When overriding the playlist colors, the entry number is now colored using the 'Playlist font color' value instead of remaining in a fixed color. + The "Auto-Hide the Control Bar while paused" setting has changed to "Auto-Hide the Control Bar while stopped or paused". + The Source filter name now appears under the 'Filter Properties' sub-menu. + You can now move error dialogs using the mouse cursor. And the error dialogs can not appear partially offscreen anymore. + Several options dialog entries have been updated to reflect third party technology changes, for example MadVR now supports color control. + The options page's information dialogs now appear in list format with a scroll-bar instead of trying to fit all the text into one big dialog. + API message #6010 will now return a code once processing has finished. Fixes : - The FREE version was not supposed to support Audio Visualizations, but a bug allowed you to enable support which resulted in a 'list index out of bounds' error. - An exploit that could cause arbitrary code execution when loading a specially crafted JPEG file has been fixed. We would like to thank security researcher 'Debasish Mandal' for notifying us of the exploit. - The fullscreen navigation skin loading code now falls back to the default navigation style if the previously selected navigation skin file no longer exists. - The "Player should stay on top of other applications when switching to Audio Mode" setting caused a crash when exiting Zoom Player in Audio mode and then launching Zoom Player with an audio file. Another glitch with this setting caused the Equalizer and Playlist editor dialogs to appear corrupted on initial load. - Looping videos in EVR no longer blink black between loops. - Fixed a crash when Zooming to a resolution over 8192x8192. 8192x8192 is now the maximum zoom-in resolution. - Fixed a crash when using an invalid parameter value in a custom context menu file. - Fixed a potential crash when closing Zoom Player under certain circumstances. - Fixed an bug that could wipe the play history cache under certain rare circumstances. - The subtitle selection dialog would erroneously show the currently visible subtitle as "Disabled" even though subtitles were showing under certain circumstances. - The uTorrent file tracking feature that lets you see the download progress of torrent files in the file browser and media library fullscreen navigation interfaces did not display the download progress if uTorrent appended the '.!ut' file extension while downloading. - Under some circumstances, saving a playlist would have caused the path prompt window to appear behind the main Zoom Player window, making it appear as if Zoom Player is frozen. - The skinned context-menu would show sub-menus off-screen under certain spacing conditions. - Fixed a 'Focus' error dialog that would trigger when opening a skinned right-click context menu and then the window that was hidden. For example, opening the Control Bar's context menu and then having the control bar automatically disappear while the context menu remained visible, followed by pressing escape to close the context menu. - In some cases, streaming radio stations would incorrectly open using the Windows Media Player's ActiveX component instead of using DirectShow, leading to bad performance and at times GUI corruption. - Fixed issues playing Icecast URLs from the Xiph database. - Saving playlists with relative or no path now saves the active playlist entry with a relative or no path (previously the entire path was saved for the active playlist entry). - Using the options dialog's search function with a non-English language pack would display some of the section names as garbled text. - When using the function selection dialog's search function, pressing ENTER would not loop to the top of the list when repeating the search. - Pressing "ALT" while using the skinned right-click context menu now closes the menu (similar to standard windows context menus). - The "Remember Window State on Exit (fullscreen / width / height)" setting did not save/restore the window's Maximized state and position. - The "Center user interface when exiting Fullscreen / Zoom mode" did not take affect when using the F2 keyboard macro to exit fullscreen mode directly into audio mode. - When using MadVR as the video renderer and overriding the pop-up action OSD to disable skinning and enabling the transparent background option, the pop-up action OSD's background did not become transparent. - When using MadVR to render OSD elements and having the action OSD set to "Don't Skin the OSD Background" and "Transparent Background" and if the background color was set to black, the pop-up OSD would not appear (MadVR doesn't allow 'black' to be used as a background color). - When using MadVR with automatic subtitle stream selection enabled, in some cases, playback would pause at the beginning of the media instead of playing the media straight away. - Chapter content embedded in media files would appear truncated if the chapter's title contained a quote character. - Audio files with ID3v2.4 tags encoded as UTF8 did not display TAG info. - The Audio Visualization feature did not work correctly with some Sonique visualization plugins. - The "DefaultSettings.exe" application was not able reset Zoom Player to it's default settings under some circumstances. - Running "DefaultSettings.exe" would wipe the registry key that provides the Zoom Player uninstaller with the location of the data directory, preventing a clean uninstall. This issue is now resolved by re-creating the registry key on the next Zoom Player run (previously the key was only created during the installation process). - If the "Override the active skin's Action OSD display" was unchecked and the "Transparent Background" setting was checked, the Skinned OSD actions would lose transparency. - When the "Override the active skin's Action OSD display", "Don't Skin the OSD Background" and "Transparent Background" settings were enabled while the "Outline Font" setting was disabled, the pop-up OSD messages would appear with a font outline using the background color if Anti-Aliased windows fonts (cleartype) were enabled. - While in fullscreen, Zooming out to the point where the video area becomes very small truncated the pop-up OSD actions. - With the "Save Position" checkbox enabled on the skin selection dialog, the maximized window state did not properly save the original window size and position after exiting Zoom Player. - The scroll bar did not work on the Main fullscreen navigation interface's "Function" page. - The Playlist fullscreen navigation interface's "Search" page was not accepting any mouse input. - The scroll bar did not work on the "Adjust Image" fullscreen navigation interface's "Aspect Ratio" page. - The Command & Control API message #5130 used to execute navigation functions did not work as planned when an anti-repeat rate was enabled and possibly in other circumstances. - Using Zoom Player on a monitor with a negative virtual position value caused some dialogs not to center properly. - Uninstall now removes the 'zpshlext.dll' file from the installation directory when running under a 32bit version of windows. - Some of the language packs had a glitch that caused Zoom Player to start with an access violation and then appear as an empty black box.What's new in Zoom Player v8.5
New : * The Onyx (default) skin has undergone a modernization process, making the icons clearer, sharper and everything a little more intuitive. * Introducing the 'Alba HD' skin. A clean elegant white design for higher resolution screens, Alba HD is 25% higher resolution than Default while retaining all the functionality. Alba HD replaces the Fusion skin, still available for download through the Zoom Player Skin Gallery: https://inmatrix.com/zplayer/skins/ * Confirmation dialogs are now skinned by default with new skin script parameters that control their appearance. * Under Windows 7 (or newer), the Taskbar thumbnail, which appears when hovering with the mouse cursor over the Zoom Player task bar button now features 4 functions: 1. Mute 2. Previous Chapter/Track 3. Play / Pause 4. Next Chapter/Track * The Install center can now install language packs. * The Install Center now remembers the 'Silent Installer' and 'Automatic Configuration' checkbox values after restarting. * The Install Center is now fully translatable into multiple languages. You must download an updated language pack to see your language. For more information, read 'how to translate.txt' in Zoom Player's 'Language' folder. * The OPUS Audio format is now fully supported. Existing users may want to click on the 'Default' button next to the audio file extensions under: Adv. Options / File Format Association / File Extensions * The LAV Video decoder can now be selected as a DVD video decoder. LAV's DVD support is still experimental. * LAV Filters are now used in many more Smart Play profiles. * A new Theora Video sub-type has been added to the Smart Play profile. * The PowerDVD 12 video decoder is now supported for DVD decoding. * Zoom Player now supports the Open-Source DVD Navigation filter: http://sourceforge.net/projects/dslibdvdnav/ * When selecting items in the fullscreen navigation interface, for additional clarity, an icon is now used to mark the selected entry. * The Play History cache (used to store last media position and display the play history) has been rewritten from scratch, performance has been greatly improved. * New Short,Medium,Long seeking buttons option on the Control Bar when using the default skin. * New Settings "Adv. Options / Playback / Audio / Visualizations" that control whether visualization displays when playing audio or video media. * New Setting "Adv. Options / Playback / History" used to override the Play History cache file save path. By specifying a shared network path, media can be pause on one computer and playback resumed on a second computer. * New Setting "Adv. Options / Playback / History" to automatically save the play history cache on pause. * New Setting "Adv. Options / Playback / Paths & Files" that controls whether archive files are automatically extracted and played when opening an entire drive or folder. In previous versions, opening and playing of archive files was always on and could cause stability or accidentally unforseen consequences (long extraction times). * New Setting "Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings" that when enabled, add a 'Randomly Play all files in this directory' entry to the Media Library and File Browsing navigation interfaces. When used, the function adds all the files in the current directory to the play list and then sorts the playlist randomly before beginning playback, making it very useful when playing music. * New Setting "Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings" that overrides the "Open File" dialog, accessible through the main user interface, the right-click context menu and by pressing the "O" key with the fullscreen file navigation interface. * New "Very Long Seek" Backward and Forward functions using the Ctrl+Shift+"," and Ctrl+Shift+"." keyboard macros. By default the seek action is 10 minutes. This value is adjustable through the Advanced Options dialog under the [Playback / Controls] sub-menu. * New Function "fnMainContextMenu" that opens the right-click context menu used by the main user interface. * New Function "fnPLContextMenu" that opens the right-click context menu used by the playlist editor user interface. * New Function "fnResetBalance" that resets the Audio Left/Right balance to the center. * New function "fnResetPlayRate" that resets the Play Rate to normal speed. * A new warning dialog now pops-up when trying to enable certain conflicting settings in the options dialog. * The Playlist editor's scroll bar background is now skinnable. For more information, visit the skinning tutorial: https://inmatrix.com/zplayer/highlights/skintutorial.shtml * The Playlist editor's search-box font and background are now skinnable. For more information, visit the skinning tutorial: https://inmatrix.com/zplayer/highlights/skintutorial.shtml * The Playlist editor's scroll bar widget is now skinnable with an Alpha (translucency) bitmap, as used by the modernized default onyx skin. * The Skin Script 'CreateExButton' function has been enhanced to support a disabled button state image. * The Skin Script 'CreateExButton' function has a new parameter that adds finer button animation smoothness control. * The Skin Script 'CreateExButton' function has a new parameter that adds auto-repeat capabilities with a custom repeat rate value. * New fullscreen navigation skin-scripting parameter to set the playlist's active playing track color, when it is the selected entry. * When running "Zoom Player FREE" with a Zoom Player PRO or MAX activation key installed, a notification dialog asking you to install the version matching the key now appears. Changes : + The Playlist editor's scroll widget now moves smoothly. + The Auto-Update feature no longer notifies you of new components on the Install Center if the new components are not automatically enabled. In the previous version, an update to a language pack would display a 'new component' notification window. + If you previously used a Zoom Player trial version and the evaluation period ended, Installation the latest version lets you re-evaluate Zoom Player for another 30 days. + The uTorrent and eMule download percentage in the fullscreen navigation interfaces has been changed to a more suitable color and is now aligned to the left of the file name. + The mouse wheel's Increase/Decrease play rate function now works in 10% increments. + The Extended menu fullscreen navigation interface has been cleaned, removing functionality that exists in other navigation interfaces and adding better structuring to the stream selection options. + The 'Opening a drive or directory includes opening image files' setting is now disabled by default (applies to old and new installations). You can re-enable the feature in the options dialog. + The Equalizer preset editor has been redesigned. + The Red error message dialogs are now skinned with an improved layout. + The function list dialog's search function has been enhanced for clarity. + Auto-Update notification now issues a notification that a new final version has been released if you are currently running a beta version. + The Playlist editor's search box now uses the Advanced Playlist Control's search method ('starting with' or 'containing' text). Previously, all searches were based on 'starting with' text. + The default change value for the volume up/down functions is now "4%", replacing the previous "5%" default. + Changing the play rate using the play rate bar now pops an OSD listing the play speed. + Smoother Audio Track folder image updates when using the 'PgUp/PgDn' keyboard macros to play the 'previous/next' audio track in a directory. + Right-clicking the fixed clock display now hides it. + Version display is now more consistent with web (8.1.x vs. 8.1x). API version structure remains the same for backward compatibility. + The keyboard editor no longer shows scan code character value for MultiMedia keys (since multimedia keys are not mapped to characters). + A few optimizations to the skin parsing code. + With the new Play History caching optimizations, the Advanced Options [Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings - Highlight previously viewed files] is now fast enough to work with large (1000's of files) directories on modern hardware. + Smart Play now strips the '.!ut' file extension when evaluating which source filter to use. This change should improve playback stability of incomplete media files downloaded with uTorrent. Fixes : - When using Windows 7 with a non-default Font DPI value (125%/150%), Windows incorrectly scaled the user interfaces, causing the interfaces to appear blurred and preventing Zoom Player from covering the windows task bar in fullscreen mode. - Fixed several memory leaks, especially when loading skins or expanding/contracting skin elements. - The Random Play feature wasn't as random as it should have been. Zoom Player now tries not to repeat the same track until at least 50% the number of items in the playlist have played. - The playlist editor's items were not vertically centered inside their box, this was especially evident when using large playlist fonts. - When using MadVR as the video renderer, Zoom Player now exits fullscreen exclusive at the end of each track, increasing MadVR stability (no more fullscreen freezes between tracks on some systems). - Several bug-fixes to the FFDShow and VobSub's Subtitle rendering filter's subtitle track cycling. - Multiple bugs fixed in the subtitle track selection dialog, including: Active subtitle track was not always detected. A 'disabled' subtitle track entry was not always present. - When using 'automatic subtitle stream selection' with multiple 'text match' values, the last matching text was used instead of the first matching. - The current media's Scene-Cut list would get wiped clear when switching skins or expanding/contracting skin elements. - The wrong folder image was used when playing audio media. The first image in the folder was used instead of the 'Background image search mask' value specified in the adv. options. - The 'Open Drive' and 'Add Directory' functions would accidentally add non-media files if their file extension was a sub-set of a proper media file extension. - Fixed a bug introduced in v8.1.5 that listed all file sizes as "0 bytes" in the play history. - The 'Open Drive' dialog did not allow you to select the first drive in the list. - Opening a folder from the playlist editor ignored the setting that controlled whether image files are loaded and always included images. - The Scene Cut 'Mute Audio' feature is now more accurate, especially when seeking into an area marked as muted. - Fixed a skin color-tinting bug in skins that did not contain fully skinned dialogs (Playlist, Equalizer, etc). - Fixed several crashes that occurred when playing an audio file while in fullscreen and then resizing the folder image down to a postage stamp size. - Fixed a crash in the Chapter editor when playing a media file with embedded chapters containing a negative time frame. - The Play History databases will no longer corrupt if you see a message saying 'Zoom Player has failed integrity check'. - When the "Pause playback when minimizing the player window while playing video content" was enabled, playback didn't pause if the Zoom Player task-bar button was hidden. - Certain ripped DVDs with a modified VIDEO_TS.IFO file would play and stop in an infinite loop. - Fixed a small crash that caused a 'ding' sound to be heard just as Zoom Player was closing when 'On Playlist Complete' was set to 'Close Player'. - The user interface maximized window state was lost when minimizing with Zoom Player only showing in the System Tray. - Pressing Alt+Enter after clicking an item in the playlist editor caused that item to play instead of going fullscreen. - The Smart Play profile for the 'VP7' video format accidentally included an ffdshow entry (ffdshow doesn't decode VP7 video). - When a text formatting error occurs due to a translation error in a language pack, it is now caught instead of displaying an unclear message and a possible crash. - Trying to use the '/config', '/datapath', '/multinst' and '/winname' command line parameters in Zoom Player FREE or PRO would crash the player instead of showing a notification screen that these command lines require Zoom Player MAX. - When opening a media file from a network path, hovering with the mouse cursor over the task bar button or system tray icon would show the file name with full network path when only the file name should have displayed. - A few text elements in the Open Directory and Open Drive dialogs were not translatable. - Setting a custom mouse/keyboard function that opened the Volume Bar would crash with an 'out of system resources' error. - The 'Disabled' subtitle track was not initially selected when no subtitles were visible by default. - When maximizing the player window and then minimizing the player window to the taskbar, the maximized window state and the previous window size were lost. - The "Fix window movement glitches" setting that was used to work-around a window glitch that caused the player window to jump when trying to move the player window by clicking on the video area is now disabled by default (even for users who previously had this feature enabled). An alternative fix is now in place that should hopefully resolve the jumping window issue without having to enable this setting. - The Options dialog search function results prevented certain buttons from being accessible while the search results were visible. - The Options dialog search function now supports unicode text. - The options dialog's Help button's context menu now supports unicode text. - A Zoom Player tab would briefly appear on the desktop when running Zoom Player with a windows shell other than 'explorer.exe'. - The #1601 API message returning the number of audio tracks for the playing media returned the wrong number at times. - Under certain conditions, the 'filter properties' sub-menu would list filters with a '#2' suffix even though there was only one instance of the filter in the graph.What's new in Zoom Player v8.1.6
- Fix for v8.1.5 that prevents the erroneous 'trial period is over' message in Zoom Player FREE.What's new in Zoom Player v8.1.5
New : * New installer option to "Associate with Media Formats", disabled by default. When enabled, Zoom Player automatically associates itself with every media file extension on the "Options / File Format Association" page. Once associated, opening/clicking the file extension (".AVI" for example) in explorer and other shell programs prompts Zoom Player to execute and play the selected media file. * The install center can now list optional items without automatically selecting the item for installation. * The default Onyx skin's title area has been refined. * You can now directly configure the LAV Audio, Video and Splitter filters through the "Adv. Options / System / Filter Management" dialog. * A 'Play in Slowmotion' button has been added to the Control Bar. * The Tray icon right-click menu has been added two functions: 1. Next Chapter/Track. 2. Previous Chapter/Track. * New "ZPEXEIcon" icon library you can apply through the "File Format Association" page under "Adv. Options". The icon library applies the Zoom Player executable icon to all file extensions (replacing the labeled format extensions badges). Changes : + The player window's video area no longer blanks black when playing multiple JPEG images in succession even when the file are not part of the playlist (playing the next directory file for example). + Smart Play's 'Source Filter' configuration dialog makes it clearer that selecting a profile that works as both a source and a splitter, overrides smart play's 'Splitter' profile for the media file extension. You can only split a media format once ... + Smart Play profiles tweaked to increase stability. + The custom key file settings (Adv. Options / Interface / Keyboard) now accept relative file paths. + The play history cache file verification system was overly sensitive, causing it to notify you the file may be corrupted even when it wasn't. + If "Adv. Option / Interface - 'On Media / DVD Play'" was set to 'Zoom mode' or 'Fullscreen mode' and the player window was minimized, the player window was restored and set to fullscreen each time a new media was loaded. Now this action only takes place if the player window is not minimized. Fixes : - Fixed switching to fullscreen on a secondary monitor with Windows XP, which stopped working in version 8. - Fixed several small bugs related to how Zoom Player is minimized and restored. - JPEG images with EXIF rotation mode "6" were not rotated correctly. - The '"Derived" mode Automatically Adjusts Aspect Ratio for badly encoded content' setting did not adjust for dynamically changing aspect ratios. This was especially bad with MadVR which throws a Aspect Ratio change event every time. - ID3 v2.2 tags with embedded images were not parsed correctly, causing the embedded image not to display. - Using the "zplayer.regpath" file did not apply the new data path. More information @ https://inmatrix.com/zplayer/highlights/multicopy.shtml - Pop-up OSD messages would not appear if MadVR OSD services was used with a fullscreen navigation interface visible. - MadVR now show the first frame in the video when pressing stop. - The Pop-Up OSD (Play/Pause/etc) would stick on-screen when using MadVR as the video renderer and tabbing away from Zoom Player. - If 'On Playlist Complete' is set to 'Do Nothing' and MadVR is used as the video renderer, the fullscreen OSD interface would stop updating when the video finished playing. - Playing MP3 files with embedded album art created by Samsung Kies could crash the player (Kies is creating invalid ID3v2 tags). - The default "MPEG2 Program" video decoder Smart Play profile has been changed from DScaler to LAV as DScaler did not support dynamic aspect ratio changes with the EVR (Enhanced Video Renderer). - DirectShow filters with stored filter data bigger than 4096 bytes would not appear in the 'Registered Filter Manager' dialog (LAV Video for example). - When deleting a station from the station manager, the station name would not appear in the delete confirmation dialog. - Due to conflict with Real Player, the RealMedia decoder pack is no longer included in the Install Center and the RealMedia Smart Play profiles have been modified to use LAV in its place. - Fixed a cosmetical glitch in the options dialog search results.What's new in v8.1.1:
New : * The Equalizer fullscreen navigation interface usage framework has changed. The new design is simpler and easier than ever: Simply scroll up/down to reach a setting you would like to modify. Notice the Plus/Minus icons on the right hand side. The active icon is opaque and the inactive icon is transparent. Moving right/left switches the active state between addition and subtraction whilst Enter performs the action. New reset and enabled/disabled icons are displayed next to their corresponding action for additional clarity. * The fusion skin's control bar now supports brightness, contrast and saturation adjustments. * New Setting "Adv. Options / Interface" that controls whether the player's user interface is restored when loading new content while the player is minimized. * New Setting "Adv. Options / Interface" that controls whether the player interface is brought on top of all other windows when switching to fullscreen. In previous versions, this feature was always enabled, but since it can cause conflicts with MadVR and there's no real benefit keeping this feature enabled for everyone. It is now disabled by default. * New Setting "Adv. Options / Playback / Smart Play" that when enabled, all graph creation error messages are saved to a log file. * New Setting "Adv. Options / Playback / Control" that specifies that the Frame Advance code uses an alternative method of seeking. The default method is using DirectShow's "IVideoFrameStep" interface, The alternative method is by guesstimating the frame and performing a direct seek (the same method always used by the previous frame function). * New Setting "Adv. Options / Playback / Video" that controls whether The Enhanced Video Renderer (EVR) should permit dyanmic aspect ratio changes (usually triggered by clips captures from live TV where the content can switch from 4:3 to 16:9 dynamically). In v8.0, the default value was disabled (Dynmaic AR changes disabled). In v8.1, the default value was enabled (Dynmaic AR changes enabled). * The last play position is now saved automatically when the internal screen saver becomes active. Changes : + The navigation icons are now scaled "on-demand" and the result is cached to improve performance. Some of the fullscreen navigation interfaces may open a bit faster thanks to this enhancement. + The right-click "Stream Selection sub-menu now lists audio tracks even if there is only one track available. + The information dialog's ("I" keyboard macro) format section now clearly labels the source, splitter, audio and video decoders used. + Scene-cut files saved for read-only media now use both the file name and date in order to distinguish between two media files of the same name, an increasing issue when playing blu-ray disc images. Fixes : - The update message notifying you of a new Zoom Player version or new updates on the install center could appear behind the user interface if the user interface was set to 'Stay On Top'. - Saving scene-cut files for read-only media other than DVDs was broken. - External subtitle files with unicode file names were not listed with their proper name (either an empty line would be listed or '????' would appear instead of the actual subtitle file name. - When using FFDShow as the subtitle renderer and playing a media file with external audio track, the external audio tracks would get listed as subtitle track by ffdshow, breaking the 'cycle subtitle track' feature. - Closing the navigation interfaces automatically after a specified number of seconds would cause the navigation interfaces to close even if remote control commands were received. - When the "Playing new content moves the player window to the top" setting was enabled with MadVR as the video renderer, pressing play/pause caused MadVR to lose exclusive mode for a split second. - Switching to Audio Mode now hides the clock display. - Changing the volume level through the Equalizer fullscreen navigation interface did not always update the skin volume widget. - Changing the volume level through the player user interface while the Equalizer fullscreen navigation interface was visible did not update the equalizer navigation volume values. - Drag & Scroll was broken in the Equalizer preset list. - Fixed a crash when trying to close Zoom Player if the clock display and screen saver were active at the same time. - The information dialog's ("I" keyboard macro) format section did not include the splitter used for the playing media. - Running the Install Center with no internet connection would show three error messages instead of one. - Message dialogs could appear with the mouse cursor hidden, making it more difficult to dismiss them. - When using a language file, the default LIRC function type wasn't selected. - Cosmetical glitches in the options dialog search function.What's new in v8.10:
New : * The default Onyx skin has been enhanced: 1. Contrast, Brightness and Saturation are now adjustable through the expandable toolbar. 2. The expandable toolbar is now accessible through a button on the user interface instead of pressing F5 or F9 using the keyboard. 3. The volume, balance, play rate and equalizer bars have been redesigned. 4. Less framing around buttons. * The F4-F9 skin modes used by the Default Onyx skin have changed, the new modes are: F4 : Default mode. F5 : Smaller user interface. F6 : Minimal user interface. F7 : No user interface. F8 : Show/Hide Top Bar. F9 : Show/Hide Bottom Bar. * The Audio and Subtitle stream selection interface has been rewritten. The new 'Stream Selection' right-click sub-menu groups all streams into clearly labeled 'Audio' and 'Subtitle' groups. * The back-end for the Audio track cycle function (Ctrl+"A") used to switch between multiple audio tracks has been rewritten. Audio tracks from internal and external sources are now switched seamlessly. * The back-end for the Subtitle stream cycle function (Ctrl+"B") used to switch between multiple subtitle steams has been rewritten. Subtitle streams from embedded and external sources are now switched seamlessly. * Zoom Player now has integrated LIRC support. LIRC transmits and receives remote control signals. This allows computer control using almost any remote control. See: http://winlirc.sf.net for the Windows port by Jim Paris & Ian Curtis. http://www.lirc.org for the original project. Using the LIRC section of the options dialog, you can directly assign remote control buttons to Zoom Player Standard, Extended and Navigation functions. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface), that controls how to display the right-click "Stream Selection" sub-menu. With "Show all filters in Stream Selection sub-menu" enabled, all filters exposing a stream select interface are displayed in a sub-menu, cleaning up the dialog. With this setting disabled, only detected Subtitle, Audio and Video streams from known sources are listed. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Bar), that prevents the Control Bar and Timeline context menu from opening. Useful if you have kids and you don't want a control bar setting changed by accident. * Two new "On Playlist Complete" modes (Adv. Options / Playback) : 1. Random play a media file from the playing directory. 2. Random play a file with the same extension from the playing directory. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video / Subtitles), that resets the Subtitle Renderer's filter subtitle synchronization value, ensuring that the default value is restored when opening a new media after manually adjusting subtitle synchronization. Enabled by default. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video / Subtitles), that forces automatic stream selection to work only with external subtitle files. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video / Subtitles), that specifies whether to enable the first embedded or external subtitle stream if no automatic stream selection match is found (or if the auto stream selection is disabled). * New "/CONNECTTCP:[address or IP]:[port]" command line parameter. By default, The TCP/IP interface works as a server by waiting for 3rd party applications to connect to Zoom Player. With the "/CONNECTTCP" parameter, Zoom Player initiates the connection itself with a local or remote server right as it launches. A server must be listening on the specified address and port for a connection from Zoom Player. Example: "c:\program files\zplayer\zplayer.exe" /CONNECTTCP:127.0.0.1:4770 * New extended function "exSkinMode", which activates the F4-F9 skin modes. * Five new functions "fnResetBright", "fnResetContrast", "fnResetGamma", "fnResetHue" and "fnResetSatur" that reset the Brightness, Contrast, Gamma Hue and Saturation to their default values. * The skin script code has been extended with "StartAndGroup" and "EndAndGroup" blocks that allow skin script authors to limit sections of the script to specific combination of active groups. * When connecting to the TCP/IP control interface, Zoom Player automatically issues a "3000" notification message if an error dialog was visible prior to establishing the TCP/IP connection. * Zoom Player now notifies you of known buggy filters when running a new version of Zoom Player for the first time. * New Smart Play profile for embedded Apple Lossless Audio (ALAC). * New Comm API message #1090, used to get the current timeline text, including the current position and any other value specified in the options dialog under "Adv. Options / Interface / Control Bar / Timeline Area". Changes : + The F4-F9 keys no longer modify skin groups, but rather activate Skin modes which are programmable directly from the skin script, providing greater flexibility and control to skin designers. + When using the default onyx skin in F6 or F7 mode, a smaller control bar is now used. + The Zoom Player Install Center now notifies to close any active media playback software. Fixes : - Dynamic aspect ratio changes are now supported when using EVR as the video renderer. - Running on Windows 7 with the windows shell set to an application other than "explorer.exe" would cause Zoom Player to crash. - With "Aggressively Hide Mouse Cursor" (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse / Settings) enabled, the mouse cursor no longer re-appears when opening a fullscreen navigation interface. - The "/SKINDVD" command line parameter used to set the DVD skin actually set the audio mode skin by accident. - The Video icon was being shown for Blu-Ray movie index files instead of the Blu-Ray icon. - ID3v2 unicode tags are now supported automatically without specifying a country code. - Fixed ID3v2 URL tags that are marked as Unicode but in actuality are ASCII. - Auto-Save media chapters (".ZPCHP" files) was automatically creating chapter files when playing media files with embedded chapters (such as matroska ".MKV" files). Now, the chapter files are created only if you edit the chapters. - The option to disable natural language sorting is fixed. - Maintaining fast-play between playlist items is fixed. - Fixed a few small cosmetic glitches. - Pop-up OSD messages are now truncated to fit the video display area. - Pressing F11 to reset color control values while the color control fullscreen navigation interface was visible, did not update the color control navigation interface. - Selecting the Microsoft image source no longer notifies you that the filter is unregistered. Note that the microsoft image source filter is limited to 2000x2000 resolution, so it's not recommended for anything other than animated GIF files.What's new in v8.00:
New : * Support for Windows 7 (or newer) task bar progress button. Using the new Taskbar settings interface (Adv. Options / Interface / Task Bar), you can enable a progress bar that shows either the current media play position or your position within the playlist. * Support for Windows 7 (or newer) Task lists. Using the new Taskbar tasks interface (Adv. Options / Interface / Task Bar), you can assign any standard Zoom Player function to the Task Bar button. * Support for Windows Vista (or newer) mouse wheel left/right Tilt (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse / Mouse Wheel). You can choose between using the mouse wheel tilt for left/right navigation in menus or assign a Zoom Player function to the right and left tilt motions. * Support for Windows Vista (or newer) AutoPlay handlers, allowing you to select Zoom Player from the Windows Control Panel AutoPlay configuration dialog. Supported auto play handlers include CD, VCD, SVCD, DVD and Blu-Ray discs. * The default media center navigation skin has been refreshed with a more eye-pleasing colorset. You can download the old skin here: https://skins.inmatrix.com * New virtual-keyboard navigation interface. Used for renaming files through the media library and file browsing navigation interfaces. The virtual-keyboard layout is fully scripted and supports native (unicode) language input. * New Out of Process Automation interface API that allows you to control Zoom Player through the COM inter-process interface. A sample application will be posted on the web site and forum. * You can now search the Options dialog to quickly bring up settings you need changed. * The fullscreen Station navigation interface has been redesigned. All previous stations have been moved into a "Favorites" category. Beyond your favorites, you can now browse through radio genres and play stations directly. * The Station List Media Center interface now has a "Go To top of list" function. * You can now search the Station Browser dialog. * Zoom Player can now load ".xspf" IceCast streaming radio playlists. You can now tune-in directly by clicking on an icecast station entry. IceCast Station Directory: http://dir.xiph.org/index.php * You can now associate the ".xspf" IceCast streaming radio file extension. * The ".BDMV" BluRay Movie extension can now be associated with Zoom Player. * The BINK media format used by many games is now supported by Smart Play and the ".BIK" extension can be associated with Zoom Player. * Updated Smart Play profiles and file association option for the "3gp2, 3gpp, m2t, mp2v, mp4v, mpe, mpv2 and tts" video file extensions. * Updated Smart Play profiles and file association option for the "adt, adts, aif, aifc, aiff, au, midi, mid, rmi, mp2 and snd" audio file extensions. * The "Filter List" section of the Media Library and File Browsing fullscreen navigation interface now includes an option to show "All Files". * The Media Library and File Browsing fullscreen navigation interface's sort function now displays a checkbox to clearly indicate the active sorting mode. * The Fullscreen Playlist navigation interface now draws the media duration when available. * The Media Library Category editor has been redesigned for greater simplicity and clarity and is now fully keyboard accessible, no longer requiring mouse access. * The Skin selection dialog has been redesigned for greater simplicity and clarity and is now fully keyboard accessible, no longer requiring mouse access. * The GoTo time/Chapter editor dialog is now fully keyboard accessible, no longer requiring mouse access. * The play history dialog is now fully keyboard accessible, no longer requiring mouse access. * The play history dialog has been slightly tweaked for clarity. * The Chapter editor dialog has been redesigned for clarity and ease of use. * The Scene-Cut Editor dialog has been redesigned for clarity and ease of use. * The Scene-Cut Editor dialog is now fully keyboard accessible. * The Station Editor dialog is now fully keyboard accessible. * The Station Browser dialog is now fully keyboard accessible. * The Smart Play configuration dialogs were redesigned for clarity and are now fully keyboard accessible. * The Playing Information dialog (Keyboard Macro "I") has been cleaned up and the formats section text can now be copied to the clipboard. * With uTorrent v3 installed, you can now track download progress in the media library and file browsing navigation interfaces for torrents downloaded into a non-default directory. * The LAV Splitter is now supported for AVI, MOV, MP4, FLV, OGG, OGM and MPEG2 Transport Streams. Please take note that if the LAV Splitter is installed. * EXTINF (Duration/Title) data in M3U playlists is now supported. * Zoom Player can now extract chapter information when using LAV Splitter. While mainly used by Matroska (MKV) files, all format is supported as long as LAV Splitter exposes the chapter interface. * You can now use the Ctrl+"A" macro to cycle through the available audio channels when using the LAV Splitter. * PowerDVD 10 profile and DVD Navigator added to "Adv. Options / Playback / DVD". * New "VP8" profile added to the Smart Play options dialog. VP8 is used by the WebM format and can be decoded using FFDShow and the MPC Video Decoder (FFDShow may need configuration to enable VP8 support). * New "TSFileSource" MPEG2 Transport Stream Smart Play profile. Please note that the "TSFileSource" filter is not compatible with Zoom Player's default MPEG2 Transport splitter. To ensure compatibility, switch the MPEG2 Transport splitter to the microsoft profile. * New "TWOS Audio" profile added to the Smart Play options dialog. Requires LAV Audio Decoder. * New "Dolby TrueHD" profile Smart Play profile. * New ADPCM audio decoder Smart Play profile. * New Nellymoser audio decoder Smart Play profile. * New "E-AC3" Smart Play profile. * FRAPS (FPS1) videos can now be played. You may need to enable FRAPS/FPS1 support in FFDShow's codec configuration dialog to enable decoding. * New MadVR H.264, VC1 and MPEG2 decoding smart play profiles. Requires MadVR 0.69 or newer with the decoding options enabled. * You can now select FFDShow DXVA (hardware assisted) decoding for H.264 and VC1. There are a lot of restrictions when using DXVA. Not all video renderers are supported, subtitles wont display, etc... The minimum hardware requirement is NVIDIA 8xxx series cards or ATI 4xxx series cards. For more information, visit the ffdshow development thread over at the doom9 forums : http://forum.doom9.org * MediaPortal's TS File Reader filter is now supported by Smart Play. * A new sub-type used by the AAC format is now supported by Smart Play. * The installer now includes an icon library for the most popular file formats supported by Zoom Player. On initial install, the new icons are applied automatically. * The RingTone creation dialog has been improved: 1. You can manually modify the Start/Stop positions. 2. You can seek to the start/stop positions. 3. You can seek in the player and use the current media position as the start/stop positions. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface) that controls whether Zoom Player uses Natural or Alphabetical sorting. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface) allowing you to password protect the options dialog. For additional security, the password is kept in an encrypted form. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface) that prevents the Zoom Player user interface from opening on a disabled (turned-off) monitor. Enabled by default, the main user interface is moved to the primary monitor when running Zoom Player on a disabled monitor. * New settings (Adv. Options / Interface / Keyboard) allowing you to set a keyboard/remote anti-repeat rate separately for navigation functions (up/down/left/right/etc) and general functions (play/pause/etc). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse / Settings) forcing a more aggressive Mouse Cursor hiding code. The mouse cursor should no longer pop-up even when background applications steal focus from the player. This setting is enabled by default. If it causes problems with your mouse cursor hiding too much, it can be disabled. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display) controlling how the clock function displays the time & date. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Actions) that extends the visibility of OSD Action Pop-ups (Play/Pause/etc) by 38ms per character. This allows the OSD to remain visible when longer text is displayed (e.g. when renaming files). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Audio Tags / Paths & Script) allowing you to enable/disable the aspect ratio for the default folder image. This is useful when the default folder image is an abstract picture (as the included default image is). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation) allowing you to override a navigation skin's font outline setting. Disabling the navigation interfaces font-outline can speed up interactivity on lower end systems. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) that controls whether the system 'Pictures, Music and Video' library folders are listed in the media library navigation interface (enabled by default). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) controlling whether the line background for empty text lines is drawn. This setting is enabled by default. If you would like to return to the previous look, you can uncheck this setting. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) allowing you to prevent access to the main navigation interface from all other navigation interfaces. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) allowing you to completely prevent access to the navigation interfaces function sub-menus. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Playlist) that controls whether the playlist editor displays item numbers next to each entry in the playlist. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Playlist) that controls whether the playlist editor displays the media duration (length). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Position & Size) allowing to prevent exiting Fullscreen / Zoom mode. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Position & Size) that determines whether the 'Keyboard Video Window Move' function works by percentage of the screen size or in pixels. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback) that Auto-Rotate JPEG images according to embedded EXIF data when using the internal image decoder. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Smart Play / Settings) that determines whether Zoom Player auto-configures the Smart Play profiles when it first detects a new version of Zoom Player is installed. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Smart Play / Settings) allowing you to choose whether Zoom Player or Windows selects the Audio/Video renderers when a file extension is selected for Smart Play exclusion. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Blu-Ray) allowing you to add secondary Blu-Ray movie tracks (based on their duration) to the playlist automatically (by default, 21minutes or longer). Newly added tracks are sorted by duration, longest track listed first. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / DVD / DVD Settings) allowing you to control the way the player seeks in DVD mode. Since DVD seeking can be slow, by default Delayed seeking is used so the actual seek is performed only after 1-2 seconds, allowing you to drag the timeline without actually seeking until you let go of the mouse cursor. However, if you would like the seeking to be instantaneous, you can now disable the delayed seek. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Controls) that determines whether Zoom Player resume function (pressing Stop twice) should resume playback or only restore the previous media position and remain paused. * New Settings (Adv. Options / Playback / Controls) allowing you to specify the maximum play rate (used with the "fnIncRateEx" and "fnDecRateEx" functions) and the play rate step value (default 10%). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Controls) that mutes the audio for two seconds when using the seek forward and seek backward functions (to prevent garbled audio as the video is seeked frequently). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Controls) that instructs Zoom Player to close itself if the stop button/function is called. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video) which enables a fix when moving the player window from video area causing the window to jump to an unexpected position. Affects only Windows VISTA (or newer) when the video renderer is set to 'Haali Video Renderer', 'MadVR', 'VMR7' or 'VMR9'. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video) that controls whether Zoom Player should use MadVR's API to display the Control bar, pop-up OSD (play/pause/etc), Screen Blanking and Clock. By enabling this setting, Fullscreen Exclusive mode is preserved when displaying these OSD elements. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video) allowing you to enable MadVR's seek-bar. By default the MadVR seekbar is disabled as its functionality duplicates Zoom Player's Control Bar. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / History) allowing you to auto-save the play history after playing each media file. * New Setting (Adv. Options / File Format Association / File Extensions) allowing you to only show or use the first part in a Multi-Part RAR archive. For example "myarchive.part1.rar" will display while "myarchive.part2.rar" and "myarchive.part999.rar" wont display. * New Setting (Adv. Options / System) allowing you to change the windows font used in most Zoom Player dialogs. * New Setting (Adv. Options / System / Goard Dog) enabling the Guard Dog feature to re-use the command line parameters Zoom Player was launched with. * New Setting (Adv. Options / System / Screen Saver) allowing you to optionally set the number of second the player should remain in screen saver mode before automatically exiting the player. * The "Background image base name" value (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Audio Images & Tags / Paths & Script" now accepts masks. For example, you can use a value of "folder*" which will have Zoom Player search for JPG/PNG/BMP folder images that start with "folder", i.e. "folder_view.jpg". * The Zoom Player news feed page is now accessible through the options dialog, presenting you with the latest Zoom Player news and updates. * Blu-Ray subtitles are now supported when using FFDShow or the latest version of DirectVobSub as the subtitle renderer. * The activate chapter is now auto-highlighted when opening the chapter/bookmark fullscreen navigation interface. * New function "fnZoomInLevel" which cycles through 4 Zoom-in levels (16.6%, 33.3%, 50% and 100%). The keyboard macro is Alt+Ctrl+'Z'. * New function "fnIncRateEx" which increases the play rate by a user specified value (10% by default). The keyboard macro is Alt+Ctrl+'.'. * New function "fnDecRateEx" which decreases the play rate by a user specified value (10% by default). The keyboard macro is Alt+Ctrl+','. * New function "fnResetWindows" which resets the user interface windows to their default location. This function is accessible by right-clicking the Zoom Player task-bar button. * New function "fnSkinSelectNav" which opens the Fullscreen navigation skin selection navigation interface (switch fullscreen navigation skin style). * You can now play and associate Blu-Ray decrypted ".mpls" Playlist files. This means that multi-part Blu-Ray movies (a Blu-Ray movie composed of several ".M2TS" media files) can now be played as one seamless media. * You can now associate the ".WebM" and ".WebA" HTML5 video extensions. * The Fullscreen Playlist navigation interface now highlights the currently playing media files. * New navigation skin scripts variable "ActiveColor", used to highlight the currently playing media file. * The Skin Script "CreateExButton" function can now execute external files and open URLs in your browser. * New Skin Script "InstallFont" command which allows you to use font files in your skin without having to register them with Windows first. * New navigation skin script variables controlling the virtual keyboard text colors: KeyActive = Active state of the virtual keyboard interface KeyInactive = Inactive state of the virtual keyboard interface KeyEditActive = Active state of the virtual keyboard edit box KeyEditInactive = Inactive state of the virtual keyboard edit box KeyKeyActive = Active key virtual keyboard interface For more information, see the default "Drapes.nav" script file in the Zoom Player 'skin' folder. * New navigation skin scripts variable "KeyEditOutline" controlling whether the virtual keyboard text edit is outlined. * New navigation skin scripts variables controling the layout of the virtual keyboard interface: KeyXOfs = Key-List X-Offset (Percent of Interface Width) KeyYOfs = Key-List Y-Offset (Percent of Interface Height) KeyHeight = Key-List Height (Percent of Interface Height) KeyWidth = Key-List Width (Percent of Interface Width) KeyPHeight = Height of path/filename area KeyPWidth = Path Width (Percent of Interface Width) KeyPXOfs = Path X-Offset (Percent of Interface Width) KeyPYOfs = Path Y-Offset (Percent of Interface Height) * New navigation skin scripts variables "ProgressActive", "SizeColor", "SizeActive" used to specify the color states when displaying file sizes and progress states. * New navigation skin scripts variables "CursorActive" and "CursorInactive" used to specify the brightness adjustment value for the fullscreen virtual keyboard navigator cursor. * The WebServer Remote API now accepts a new "&play=[filename]" command, allowing you to open files (and URLs) directly from the web browser. * Media duration for "M2TS,MKA,MKV,MOV,MP4" files is now detected automatically, to enable, click on the "Default" button at: Adv. Options / File Format Association / File Extensions / Auto-Get Duration * The screen saver date/time display and currently playing media display layouts have been redesigned for better clarity. These changes also fix the issue where the currently playing media display would alter the font size depending on the length of the playing media name. * Three new internal screen saver modes "Sinus Plasma", a Power Saving version of "Sinus Plasma" (lower brightness) and a Power Saving version of "Plasma Cloud". * New "Open Subtitle File" option accessible through the right-click context menu under the "Open" sub-menu. * New "/SkinMedia", "/SkinAudio" and "/SkinDVD" command line parameters that let you specify which skin should load directly from the command line. Please note that this parameter must be called first (before "/Media", "/DVD" or "/AudBar"). * New "/SharePath:[Path]" command line parameter. This Parameter sets the initial media sharing path. The share path value allows external applications to instruct Zoom Player to list and play media from the shared path folder from a remote location, using Zoom Player's TCP/IP API. * Pressing the Ctrl+"A" keyboard macro with the playlist editor in focus will now select all items in the list. * Single-clicking an item in the playlist editor with items previously selected will now clear the current selection and re-select only the clicked item. * Holding the "Shift" key in combination with the UP/DOWN arrow keys in the playlist editor will now select the items above/below the current selection without clearing the previously selected item(s). * Holding the "Shift" key in combination with the PGUP/PGDN/Home/End keys in the playlist editor will now select the items above/below the current selection without clearing the previously selected item(s). * The minimalistic skin modes (F6/F7 keyboard macros) for default Onyx skin now switch the playlist layout to a minimalistic design. * New "Filter Properties" button on the Smart Play Source and Splitter configuration dialogs, allowing you to configure the selected filter (if the filter allows it). * The "Automatically check for player updates" setting now checks the Install Center for codec/filter updates and notifies you if new/updated components have been found. * New Comm API message #6000, used to browse the shared directories specified using the "/SharePath" command line parameter. * New Comm API message #6010, used to add shared media files to the playlist. * New Comm API message #1920, used to notify that the playlist has been cleared. * New Comm API message #2670, used to set the monitor used in fullscreen mode. * New Comm API message #0100, used to Ping the player to check that it's still responsive. * New Comm API message #1852 which instructs the currently playing media to close. * New Comm API message #2650 which enables you to position the player window. * Embedded Windows Bitmap (.BMP) format album art TAG is now supported. * The configuration path (registry or file based) and the current data directory are now listed on the Options Dialog's 'About' page. Changes : + We are no longer using an EXE compressor, which means that the Zoom Player EXE files will be larger, but you wont get any false-positive virus warnings. + The Install Center has been redesigned for greater simplicity and clarity. + When running Window XP (or newer), Zoom Player now uses a Natural Sorting algorithm rather than the default ASCII Sorting. For example, using ASCII sorting, files would be listed as: 1.avi 10.avi 2.avi 3.avi With Natural sorting, the same files would be listed as: 1.avi 2.avi 3.avi 10.avi + The default navigation skin no longer uses font-outline. The design doesn't really require it and the performance benefits merit the change. You now have the option to override the navigation interface's font-outline in case you're not satisfied with the change. + The Local setting file saving procedure has been hardened to make it more resilient to system crashes. + The Play History saving procedure has been hardened to make it more resilient to system crashes. + You will now be prompted to restore the Play History database from a backup if Zoom Player detects that the database may be corrupted (due to a system crash). + The Action Pop-up OSD auto-hide is now more accurate (250ms vs the previous 1000ms). + The Fusion skin's control bar now contains a close button and a few other minor changes. + Matroska (MKV) chapters read using the MPC Matroska splitter are now automatically converted to ZP chapters. Enabling chapter tracking and chapter edit to an external chapter file (override internal chapters). + The "Show Date and Time" (Alt+Ctrl+"D") clock function has been modified so that it displays or hides the clock instead of just popping the clock through the standard OSD messages for a few seconds. The clock display is transparent, allowing you to see behind the text and in Windows Vista and newer, the text is slightly translucent. + When the "Auto-Play media file when opened" is disabled, the first video frame is now displayed. + The "Clear History" (Adv. Options / Playback / History) now erases the play history file. + Tuning in to a radio station directly from the SHOUTcast.com web site is now possible. All you need to do is select the "TUNE IN" option. You may be promoted to play through the browser or through the player, make sure to select the player. Your browser may prompt you for the application to open the playlist, make sure to select Zoom Player. + Improved Blu-Ray main movie detection with some titles. + Added a new H.264 sub-type for CoreAVC 2.5.1 compatibility. + MadVR support for non-fullscreen images while in fullscreen exclusive mode (zoom in/out, panning, etc). + Selecting MadVR as the video renderer automatically enables the "Overlay covers entire video area" setting. + You can now right-click play history entries to copy them into the system clipboard. + When opening an MMS stream, the buffering percentage value is now displayed. + When the 4:3/16:9 Zoom compensation or one of the Zoom-in levels are enabled, playing new media content displays an OSD notification letting you know that Zoom mode is enabled (this notification will not show if you specifically set a viewing region that is not fullscreen). + If the "Pause playback when opening file browsing interfaces with a video playing" setting is enabled, opening the play history navigation interface now pauses the video. + The "View" section of the media library and file browser navigation interfaces has been renamed to "Filter List". + The default process priority given to Zoom Player is now set to "Above Normal" by default when running under Windows 2000 or newer. Previous users of Zoom Player should note that their previous value for this setting has been reset to the new default. + When clicking on an extension's icon in the Options Dialog's file association section or clicking the "Apply Icon to Selected Extensions" button, now applies an extension-specific icon taken from the default icon library that ships with Zoom Player. + The Re-Synch Audio Ahead/Back now works in 25ms increments rather than the 10ms used previously. + The default volume control change value is now 5%, up from the previous 3%. + The default Zoom In/Out value is now 10%, up from the previous 1%. + The default 'Keyboard Video Window Move' value has changed to 5%, up from the previous 4 pixels. + The "fnVidLeft", "fnVidRight", "fnVidUp", "fnVidDown" functions now use the 'Keyboard Video Window Move' value while in fullscreen. Previously, these functions only moved by 1 pixel. + On first showing, the Playlist Editor dialog and the Equalizer dialog appear in a docked position rather than in the top left corner of the screen. + The "Adv. Options / Interface / Playlist - Use Media Title if available" setting will now display the media title (if available) in the fullscreen playlist navigation interface. + The default values for the internal screen saver have been changed and the screen saver is now enabled by default after 30 minutes of idle activity. + Updated Media Center navigation icons. + The Internal screen saver mode setting has been reset. + The default visible buttons on the control bar have been changed. + The default values for the Arrow keys have been changed: Te LEFT/RIGHT keys are used to seek 20 seconds backward/forward. The UP key opens the Media Library navigation interface. The DOWN key opens the Playlist navigation interface. The previous defaults can be restored through the Advanced Options dialog. + The default fullscreen navigation interfaces appearing in the main (root) navigation interface have been changed. + The Equalizer Magnetize state is now enabled by default. + The Equalizer Magnetize state now positions the equalizer interface centered to the bottom or top of the main user interface (depending on space). Previously, the equalizer interface was aligned to the left edge of the main user interface. + The "Pause playback when opening file browsing interfaces with a video playing" setting is now enabled by default. + The "Use Media Title if Available" Playlist setting is now enabled by default. + The Station Browser dialog can now be translated to other languages. + Now that the "Goto Time" dialog and the "Chapter/Bookmark editor" were combined into one interface. Using the GoTo time function opens the dialog with the keyboard focus on the Time entry box and the Chapter editor function opens the dialog with the keyboard focus on the Chapter Name entry box. + The "Context Menu" fullscreen navigation interface has been renamed "Extended Menu". + The Extended Menu fullscreen navigation interface has been brought in line with the rest of the navigation interfaces and now displays icons instead of ASCII characters to represent folders/active state. + The Next/Previous chapter functions will now update the fullscreen chapter navigation interface if it's currently visible. + The guard-dog function now forces Zoom Player to close if it detects a freeze during shutdown. + The Zoom-In/Zoom-Out (+/- keypad keys) functions when used in windowed mode now snaps the player window back into the monitor's work area if the zoom function partially moves the player window off-screen. + Zoom Player no longer lists the ".DAT" extension for file association. This extension was used by VCD discs, which are no longer popular. Combined with the fact that the ".DAT" extension is somewhat generic and used by other applications for DATA storage, it was decided that removing this extension would increase stability. + You can delete the Install Center cache by clicking on the Install Center "Options" button. + Pressing "D" to open the Video Decoder configuration dialog now opens FFDShow's Video Decoder configuration dialog if no media is playing. + Pressing Alt+"A" to open the Audio Decoder configuration dialog now opens FFDShow's Audio Decoder configuration dialog if no media is playing. + The Advanced Option's "Show fullscreen Color Controls when values are changed through the keyboard macros" setting has been moved to "Playback / Video / Colors". + The Advanced Option's "Audio Tags (ID3)" has been renamed to "Audio Images & Tags". + The Advanced Option's "Enlarge folder image to fit Video Area, otherwise Center and Shrink only" setting has been moved to "Interface / On Screen Display / Audio Images & Tags". + The Advanced Option's "Load folder image file" setting has been renamed to "Load external folder image file" and moved to "Interface / On Screen Display / Audio Images & Tags". + The "Guard Dog" settings were moved to the "Adv. Options / System / Guard Dog & Events" section. + The "Draw Folder (Background) Image under "Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Audio Images & Tags" setting has been renamed to "Draw embedded background image". In addition, a fix was made so that disabling this setting, no longer disables folder images from loading. + The Zoom In/Out functions will now display the video display resolution in a pop-up window. + All references to "Skip, Jump, Seek" functions have been replaced with "Short Seek, Medium Seek, Long Seek". + Some of the options dialog entries have been rephrased for clarity. + The default window size is now slightly bigger to account for the overall increase in resolution of entry level monitors sold today. + Automatically restoring media volume levels from history is now disabled by default. You can re-enable these settings through the advanced options dialog. + Comm API change to message #1100. Instead of listing whatever the timeline display is showing, it now always shows [Position / Duration]. For example: 00:00:12 / 01:02:35 You can request an #1100 message output by sending an #1100 message with a parameter value of "2". + Comm API change to message #3000. Each line of the returned value is now separated by the "|" character rather than a new line (CRLF) which would complicate parsing. + The "exInterface" extended function can now discretely enable/disable the pop-up OSD messages. + The color-tinting skin values have been reduced to a more reasonable -160..160 range. + The PlayListData's skinning function "FontSpace" variable is now calculated automatically. Any value supplied by the skin is ignored. + The Smart Play configuration dialogs now prompt you to update a modified profile when clicking on a different profile in the list or clicking the OK button to close the configuration dialog. + The "Show Smart Play graph creation errors" will now include the smart play profile name as part of the error message. + Blanking is now disabled when closing the playing media. + Blanking is now hidden and restored when opening and closing fullscreen navigation interfaces. + Pressing ESC now closes any open navigation interfaces prior to restoring blanked secondary monitors when pressing the ESC key multiple times. + The "Show currently playing title on the Task Bar button and the Tray Icon", "Blank non-Playing Monitors while in Fullscreen / Zoom mode" and "Show "Places" in Open / Save Dialogs" settings have moved from "Adv. Options / System" to "Adv. Options / Interface". + The "Show Time Seek Position Over Timeline" setting has moved from "Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Actions" to "Adv. Options / Interface / Control Bar / Timeline Area". + The "File Browser 'Network / Disk' mapping" interface has moved under "Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Paths" + The "Start Player in" setting has moved from "Adv. Options / Interface" to "Adv. Options / Interface / Position & Size". + The "System Overview" and "Missing Formats" options dialog sections have been removed as the Install Center provides more accurate information. Fixes : - The installer used administrator privileges to write the profile files (Smart Play, Equalizer, Skin tint), preventing the player from modifying the profiles when running with UAC enabled (user privileges). The new installer fixes this issue on existing systems. You can to erase the old "virtualstore" files under: "C:\Users\\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\ProgramData\Zoom Player" - Depending on your version of windows and if UAC is enabled, the file association options dialog would show incorrect information (wrong icon, or indicate that Zoom Player was associated with the extension even if it wasn't). - Exporting Zoom Player's setting from the options dialog, would fail if UAC is enabled. - The Zoom Player Install Center auto-configuration did not work on systems with UAC enabled or limited account access. - The Install Center now identifies 3rd party 64bit installations (e.g. 7-zip). Thanks Gleb Egorych, Midiboy. - CD Audio Playback was broken when used in Windows 7. - There was a problem with Windows 7 hiding the Zoom Player tray icon even when setting the icon to always show. This was caused by the tool-tip for the icon containing the playing file name, which differs greatly between multiple files. To fix this issue, 'Zoom Player' is now displayed before the playing file name. - Opening files from the command line would cause the file path to be modified to uppercase, breaking playback from Linux based NAS devices. - Fixed compatibility with uTorrent v3. - Fixed the following visual glitches when a high DPI system font is used: 1. The options dialog "File Association" icons did not display correctly. 2. The "Add Filter" dialog's legend section did not draw correctly. 3. Some text was truncated in the options dialog. 4. The station manager station list items were partially cropped. 5. The skin selector skin list items were partially cropped. 6. The Install Center items were partially cropped. 7. The Smart Play Source, Splitter and Decoder configuration dialogs cropped some of the displayed entries. 8. The Smart Play filter blacklist cropped some of the displayed entries. 9. The Options dialog archive playback extension list cropped some of the displayed entries. 10. The registered filter manager dialog was improperly sized to the point where buttons could overlap. - When setting a large font for the playlist editor or setting a higher Font DPI value for windows as whole, the playlist fonts would become truncated at the bottom. - The "Switch resolution on Fullscreen" setting did not perform as expected. - Trying to open a ".lnk" ShortCut file that pointed to a folder would show an error message instead of opening the folder's content. - When using MadVR fullscreen exclusive mode in combination with auto-changing monitor resolution on fullscreen, exiting fullscreen did not restore the original monitor's resolution. Thanks Hawke. - Dragging the player window by clicking "Ctrl + Left mouse button" (or other configured setting) within the video area was broken in Windows Vista and Windows 7 when certain video renderer were used (VMR7/VMR9/ Haali/MadVR). Now there's a workaround in place that ensures the window is dragged to the correct location (with minor flickering at times). - The "Adv. Options / Interface / Display - Enlarge folder image to fit video area" setting now performs as expected. - The ID3/TAG display used the character set (used to convert ANSI to Unicode) defined by the Navigation font instead of the ID3/TAG font. - When the "Auto-Size User Interface to fit Source Video Resolution" setting is enabled, opening a media file with an image resolution larger than the current screen, now limits the image resolution to the screen's resolution. If the new resolution causes the player window to resize itself beyond the screen's resolution, the player window will be pulled back into the screen automatically. - The "/OpenDrive" command line parameter did not detect Blu-Ray drives properly. - The "Prefer HD content as the main movie if the track duration is longer than (minutes)" Blu-Ray setting didn't compare the track time correctly. - The fullscreen monitor (Adv. Options / System) value would get reset if the selected monitor was no longer available (the monitor was off). The value is now preserved and if the monitor is not available, the player will go fullscreen on the primary monitor. - When playing DVR-MS files, the "Stop" function didn't seek to the beginning of the media file. - Pressing "R" to cycle through the aspect ratio modes no longer resizes the player window if "Auto-Size User Interface to maintain Video Aspect Ratio" is enabled. If you try to move or resize the window after setting the Aspect Ratio, it will snap into shape. - The right-click Open URL feature is now better adapted to opening SHOUTcast radio stations using the following format: http://yp.shoutcast.com/sbin/tunein-station.pls?id=[number] - If Smart Play was disabled, Zoom Player would not use the selected Audio Renderer if the "MPC Audio Renderer" was installed and not chosen. - When using the "Disable Smart Play for files with the following extensions" feature, the selected Audio and Video renderers weren't used, but rather windows (DirectShow) selected its own renderers. Now, you can select if you want Zoom Player or Windows to select the renderers (see above). - Trying to play a DVD's "VIDEO_TS.IFO" file in media mode would not remove the background image before starting to play the DVD. - You can now seek, pause and play streaming MMS content. - The "CUE" chapter parsing code has been rewritten. It now parses unicode/ascii charsets correctly and loads meta-data information (Perfomer/Genre/etc). Thanks Orf. - The Open-URL dialog was limited to 255 characters. - The Play History stored the played files in lower case instead of their original case. - The Stop/Resume function didn't work if stop was pressed in the first 3 seconds of playback. - The next/previous chapter and track functions can now continue to the next file in the directory when a file fails to load. - When a custom video renderer does not support the "IBasicVideo2" interface, the Derived aspect ratio value is taken from the source video aspect ratio. - The "xvid" profile is no longer used to verify that SmartPlay is properly configured. - When using FFDShow as the Subtitle renderer, subtitles are now ordered alphabetically. - Fixed a crash when using the FFDShow Subtitle renderer. - Fixed a crash when trying to play MP3/FLAC/APE audio files with an embedded "BMP" album art image. - Unchecking the "Enable TAG display" setting would hide the entire display, including the background image rather than just the TAG display. - When disabling "Draw Text Background" for Audio TAG display, the bottom line (usually the "YEAR" field) would get cropped out. - Fixed a complete freeze when playing audio files containing corrupt ID3 tags. - Folder image base names did not recognize the use of paths. Thanks Orf. - Unchecking "Save last play time and date" from "Adv. Options / Playback / History" would cause Zoom Player to forget any new items played the next time Zoom Player was restarted. - Clicking the "Switch to Basic Mode" or "Switch to Advanced Mode" Options dialog buttons lost any modified settings. - The "Automatically restore volume level on replay with video files" setting was not remembered after a Zoom Player restart. - Choosing to hide the Zoom Player task bar icon would fail (the icon would reappear) under certain circumstances. - The GuardDog feature no longer restart Zoom Player if the internal screen saver is active. - Fixed a memory leak when trying to open corrupted JPEG/PNG images or JPEG images in the CYMK print format (which is not supported). - Fixed a list index out of bounds crash when Random Play was enabled and the "On Playlist Complete" setting was not set to "Auto Replay". - Fixed an "Out of Resources" crash when trying to set the Zoom resolution to a extremely high value (over 16384x16384, which is now the limit). - Fixed a very old bug where opening a media file through non-media library interfaces would prevent the fullscreen media library navigation interface from automatically displaying the currently playing media (if the media's path resides within a media library category). - When using the Media Library or File Browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces, using the "Add to Playlist" function no longer adds media files that are not selected if the "Auto-Part Loader" function is enabled. - When playing audio media, the player now uses folder or embedded images as the pseudo video resolution for functions that require it (such as auto-sizing the user interface to fit the source video resolution). - Auto-Correction of video aspect ratio is no longer applied when viewing stand alone, folder and embedded images. - Switching between audio and media modes after playing an audio file would show remnants of the TAG display in the GUI window if the audio file was closed. - An LPCM sub-type was accidently listed under the AC3 audio decoder profile. - The Smart Play configuration dialogs now selects the first profile from the list when erasing a profile so the previously erased profile's filters do not remain active. - Switching Stay On Top on/off followed by pressing the "Enter" key would reload the currently playing media instead of the action assigned to the "Enter" key. - You can now play URLs from the Play History dialog. - You can now play URLs from the command line if Zoom Player is currently running. - There is no longer a limit of 255 character when trying to open a URL or file from the command line while Zoom Player is currently running. - When first loading, the keyboard focus is now set to the main player user interface rather than secondary interfaces (Playlist editor, Equalizer). - When the "On Playlist Complete" setting is set to close Zoom Player or shutdown the computer, the action is no longer performed if the options dialog is open. - When the "Auto-Play next file in the playlist" setting was disabled, pressing Play when reaching the end of a media file would not perform the "On Playlist Complete" event. - When the "Move the Playlist Editor display to follow the currently playing media file" setting was enabled, the playlist tried to change position and follow a new item even if the new item was already visible. - When setting the screen saver mode to "Image SlideShow", re-opening the options dialog would disable the Image Directory browse button. - When switching between different screen saver modes, the mode switch would not work well if you didn't restart the player. - When a language or custom context menu script used unicode characters for sub-menus, the root menu name was not properly identified and sub-menu items did not show up. - When using a language pack, some translated window titles using unicode characters would appear as "????" - Using the "Del" keyboard macro to delete the currently playing media now removes the entry from the file browsing navigation interface cache. - Deleting the default "Drapes" navigation skin, will now allow you to select other navigation skins when listed as the first entry in the skin selection dialog. - Loading image files with the internal image decoder, depending on the image's apsect ratio, could display in the wrong aspect ratio if the "Auto-Fix Aspect Ratio for badly encoded content" setting was enabled. - The A-B Repeat and RingTone creation timeline highlights were not updated properly on the Control Bar's timeline. - Ejecting certain drive types would cause Zoom Player to stop the currently playing media even if the media was not on the ejected drive. - The "Open the Options Dialog on the active monitor" setting wasn't being applied to the Basic Options dialog. - When using FFDShow as the Subtitle renderer while using a video decoder other than FFDShow, combining this setup with Haali Video Renderer, would result in a pin connection error. - The 'forcibly hide the windows taskbar in fullscreen mode' setting will now hide the Start Orb (button) in Windows VISTA and Windows 7. - Skins with no hint value for the Volume/Balance/Play Rate bars showed unrelated hint text. - Skins with no playlist skinned would show the default onyx skin for the playlist interface with broken button transparency (red borders). - Selecting a skin or applying a skin tint from the skin selection dialog no longer causes the player window to pop over and obscure the skin selection dialog. - Installing a Skin file would ask you to open the Skin selection dialog even if it was already open. - Fixed the "FolderImage" skin script code function that got broken in v7. - When sorting by Size in the Media Library and File Browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces, the "Play all files in this Directory" entry was listed before the "Previous Directory" entry. - With "Stay on Top" enabled along with "Screen-Align the Control Bar to" set to either Top or Bottom of the screen, the control bar would lose it's on-top status and would disappear if you clicked the video area or if a new media loaded. - Performing a legacy install (where all installed files are placed in a single folder) no longer warns you of a problematic installation if UAC (User Account Control) is enabled and you installed under a directory other than the "Program Files" directory. As well as the above, the warning dialog now contains an additional checkbox to dismiss it from showing on future runs. - The 'forcibly hide the windows taskbar in fullscreen mode' setting will now hide the Start Orb (button) in Windows VISTA and Windows 7. - The Adjust Image (formally "image resize") and Image Blanking fullscreen navigation interfaces were incorrectly affected by the "Navigation Line Count" setting. - The "Click here to search list" text in the playlist editor could overlap the scroll widget if the playlist editor font was large enough. - Fixed a rare 'List index out of bounds' error when deleting items from the playlist. - The main application window should now appear in Flip3D under Windows Vista and Windows 7. - Deleting a media library category, would erase other categories if their name was very similar (example "movies" and "movies2"). - The "Custom Mouse Wheel Down" function was not being saved. - The Screen Saver and clock function accidentally labeled 'October' as 'Saturday'. - With "Adv. Options / On Screen Display / Actions - Show Time Position Over Timeline" enabled, pressing Alt+F4 would close the position window rather than the player window. - Opening a display pattern (Shift+"P"), no longer stops the playing video before closing it. This ensures the previous play position is saved correctly. - Fixed crashes related to corrupt language files. - Using the Station Edit button would not display the edited station type correctly (would always show 'Radio'). - The "Null" filter no longer appears as Unregistered. - TCP/IP API Message #1810 (Request Play List), did not implement a separator character between each media entry, making it harder to parse. Now each entry is separated by the ">" character. - TCP/IP API Message #1811 (Playlist items changed) was not being triggered on every playlist change. - Changing the navigation keyboard layout could cause a crash when closing the skin selection dialog through the keyboard. Thanks Gleb Egorych. - When Smart Play is disabled, the Zoom Player DSP filter is no longer part of the graph if no audio streams are detected. - The red error dialog messages were limited to 255 characters. - Loading external icon definition files did not apply the icons to all file extensions in some cases. - Cleaned up some of the ffdshow profile/filter names. What's new in v7.00:
New : * Zoom Player can detect a Blu-Ray disc structure, parse the Blu-Ray playlist and automatically load the longest video in the playlist (which is assumed to be the main movie). Thanks Christophe. This feature can be accessed through several ways: 1. Switching to DVD Mode and pressing Play. 2. Opening the Drive (through the right-click menu). 3. Opening the BluRay folder. 4. Opening the "index.bdmv" file, which is now listed in the various file browsing dialogs. This feature is limited to Zoom Player Home MAX. * Zoom Player now notifies you of new versions automatically (can be disabled under "Adv. Options / System"). * The Audio TAG display system has been rewritten and includes the following new features: 1. Enhanced scripting of displayed data. 2. Text Background with customizable translucency levels. 3. Additional text color for additional clarity. 4. Selectable background color. * New Mini-WebServer support (Adv. Options / System), allowing you to control Zoom Player through any web browser. The Mini-WebServer is fully HTML scriptable. * Zoom Player can now control FFDShow's DeInterlacing setting, allowing you to Enable/Disable deinterlacing support from the keyboard (ctrl+shift+"D"), right-click context menu and the fullscreen navigation interface (through the Adjust Image interface). Make sure to use the latest version of ffdshow (at least beta 6) for this to function. * Zoom Player can now control FFDShow's Sharpen setting, allowing you to Enable/Disable sharpen support from the keyboard (ctrl+shift+"S") and fullscreen navigation interface (through the Adjust Image interface). * Support for MadVR Video Rendering technology. * Support for FLAC Vorbis Audio TAGs, including display of embedded image (as folder image, PNG/JPEG formats supported). * Support for ID3v2 embedded image display (mostly in MP3 files) (displayed as folder image, PNG/JPEG formats supported). * Support for APE TAG embedded folder image (PNG and JPEG image formats are supported). * New Fullscreen Information Navigation interface, showing you information on the currently playing media (Name, Resolution, TAGs, Folder Image etc...). This interface uses the new TAG display script system to display more advanced information. * If a fullscreen navigation interface is visible, right-clicking it will show a "Close Navigator" option. * New position value for the TAG display allowing you to set it to "Animate". * Support for the new QuickTime v7 ActiveX control. The new QuickTime control seems better and has better stability. QuickTime v6 (and older) ActiveX control is no longer supported. By default, the ActiveX control is not used for playback, but rather DirectShow is used (as it's more responsive and supports more features), ActiveX mode is for compatibility with QuickTime content that may not play properly through DirectShow. You can enable ActiveX support for QuickTime under: Adv. Options / Playback * You can now use the Microsoft Windows Media Player ActiveX control to stream Windows Media content (mms://, rtsp:// and http://www.website/stream.asx type links). Using the ActiveX control means you'll be losing any advanced DirectShow based features (such as color-controls and video renderer selection) but bypassing any microsoft bugs in their DirectShow bridge to Windows Media Streaming (such as streams suddenly stopping of their own). This feature is enabled by default, you can disable it under : Adv. Options / Playback / Windows Media * The resize fullscreen navigation interface now allows you to directly set the current Aspect Ratio as well as see the aspect ratio values for all Aspect Ratio modes. * Right-Clicking the Equalizer's bars will now reset each bar clicked to its default value. * Hovering the mouse cursor over an Equalizer bar now shows its exact value. * The equalizer fullscreen navigation interface now allows you to set the volume level. * Pressing Left on the Main Navigation interface now brings you into a system function menu allowing you to close the navigation interface, start the screen saver, blank secondary screens or close the player entirely. This menu is not accessible if you are using Safe Mode navigation. * You can now choose from three screen saver modes: 1. Plasma Cloud CGI. 2. Image Slideshow 3. Blank power-saving ode. * You can now select if the Internal Screen Saver covers the entire monitor or only the active video area. * You can now specify the slideshow value for the internal screen saver. The Default value is 15 seconds (previously it was once per minute). * You can now select a transition effect for the internal screen saver. * The play history fullscreen navigation interface now allows you to play back web addresses (mms streams for example) and such links are now identified by the URL icon. * You can now Right-Click the volume bar to the left/right of the current volume level to increase/decrease the volume in small steps instead of directly setting the volume level with the mouse cursor position (which is done with the left mouse click). * New "Save Playing file as ..." Function accessible through the Playlist right-click context menu or by using the Alt+Shift+"S" keyboard macro. When used, a save dialog will pop-up allowing you to save the currently playing media file to a new location on your computer. * New Function (Alt+Shift+"Z") which compensates for badly encoded widescreen (16:9) content that is encoded in fullscreen (4:3) format by Zooming 33% into the Video (and returning to the previous video position when called a second time). This function will also view widescreen (16:9) content as fullscreen on fullscreen (4:3) Monitors/TVs by Zooming in and cropping the left/right sides of the video. * New Function (Ctrl+"E") allowing you to create Ring Tones by selecting a start and a stop position in many supported audio/video formats and extract the selected section in MP3/ACC formats supported by most mobile phones. This feature requires the FFMPEG components installed on your system (which is available through the Install Center application). * New Function (Alt+Shift+"W") to activate the White Wash screen-burn repair directly instead of accessing the function through the patterns function. * All Subtitle settings have moved to "Adv. Options / Playback / Video / Subtitles". * Opening a subtitle file with a media playing will try to display the subtitles within the playing media. * The file-open dialog now has a "Subtitles" filtering category. * You can now select the preferred subtitle renderer filter. Options are 1. DirectVobSub, also known as "VSFilter" (default). 2. FFDShow. When selecting FFDShow, Zoom Player will try to use the FFDShow video decoder filter to render the subtitles. If the FFDShow video decoder is not used, the FFDShow subtitle renderer filter will be used instead. Please note that this feature requires FFDShow build 2998 or newer to function and wont work on versions of Windows older than Windows 2000. Previous FFDShow builds had a bug that limited subtitle functionality. * The "Remember the last Media Position" setting has now been overhauled into its own separate "History" sub-section under the "Playback" section within the advanced options dialog. * The "Remember the last Media Position" setting has been split in two, with a setting for "Retain Media Playback History" and a setting for "Automatically restore last media position on replay". This gives more flexibility as to which aspects of playback should be restored when replaying a media file. * The Play History fullscreen navigation interface implements a new function interface (accessible by clicking right). The functions are: 1. Erase Completely erase the selected item. 2. Hide Hide the selected item, but keep media information to maintain functionality (Last media position, volume). 3. Go to top of list Moves the focus to the top of the history list. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface) allowing you to select the active player mode (Previous/Media/DVD/Audio) that Zoom Player should start in. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface) allowing you to set the player to stay on top of other applications when switching to audio mode (and restoring a normal window state after returning to media mode). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Bar), allowing you to auto-hide the control bar after the specified number of seconds even when playback is paused. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Position & Size) affecting the "Auto-Size User Interface to fit Source Video Resolution". When enabled, only the user interface height is adjusted. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Audio Tags) allowing you to choose whether the Folder (Background) image is drawn. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation) allowing you to set the navigation scroll acceleration speed. After some tweaking, the default value has been sped up to "Very Fast" scrolling. The previous default value was "Average". * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation) allowing you to set the navigation scroll acceleration reset time in MS. The new default value is 300ms, in v6 the fixed value was 500ms. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation) allowing you to specify if keyboard searches are matched against the start of the line or any position in the line. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation) allowing you to set the keyboard input timeout (a value in MS indicating how much time should pass before the search query is reset). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) controlling whether subtitle files are listed in the Media Libary and File Browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) allowing keyboard input to be used for Quickly Searching in many of the navigation interfaces. This setting is enabled by default. * New Settings (Adv. Options / Interface / Mouse) allowing you to change the functionality of the mouse right-click button. You can choose between Disabled, Context Menu (default) and a Custom function. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback) allowing you to control whether loading entire directories also loads image files (Used by Open Directory function, Play all files in this directory navigation function and when opening archives). Does not have an affect on Media Library image categories. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback) allowing you to choose whether to interact with QuickTime content or treat it as a media file. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback - On Playlist Complete) allowing you to play the next file in the directory with the same file extension. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Smart Play) which determines if Zoom Player falls back to DirectShow graph creation mode if Smart Play fails to create a media file graphic. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video) allowing you to disable Zoom Player control over FFDShow's video Sharpening values. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video) allowing you to disable Zoom Player control over FFDShow's video DeInterlacing values. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video) allowing you to disable VMR7's mixing mode (can fix VMR7 issues with some hardware). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video / Color Control) allowing you to instruct Zoom Player to try use FFDShow as the preferred color control interface (overriding any hardware supported controls). Please note that this feature requires FFDShow to be used as either the Video Decoder or as a Post Processing filter. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video / Subtitles) allowing you to select whether Zoom Player disables FFDShow subtitle rendering when DirectVobSub is used as the Preferred Subtitle Renderer. By default, FFDShow subtitle renderer is disabled when using DirectVobSub. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video / Subtitles) allowing you to specify the subtitle synchronization adjustment value used by the subtitle synchronization functions. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video / Colors) which allows you to select whether FFDShow should be used for software color control. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / BluRay) allowing you to specify when a detected BluRay playlist containing HD content of a specified duration will be detected as the main movie over an SD (DVD quality) of longer duration. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / DVD / DVD Settings) that determines whether Zoom Player searches only CD devices (CD/DVD/BluRay/etc...) or all drives for content when pressing play in DVD Mode. Default is to only scan CD devices, but if you map network-shares as drives, you may want to turn this setting off. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Audio) allowing you to link the 'Volume Up'/'Volume Down' functions to the Equalizer PreAmp function so when the volume level reaches 100% and you continue using the 'Volume Up' function, the Equalizer PreAmp value is increased. Clicking volume down will first reduce the PreAmp value and when the PreAmp value reaches its previous level, the volume level is reduced. Setting the volume level through other means, will reset the PreAmp value to its previous level. PreAmp is a digital amplifier function which can reduce audio quality if the audio recording volume is normal, but can be very useful if the original recording volume is low. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / History) which controls whether the last play time and date is saved for the playing media. If disabled, the play date is not saved and the playing item will not be listed in the play history and play history navigation interfaces. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / History) which controls whether the audio volume should be restored to its the previous level when replaying the media file. With this setting enabled, the audio volume level is retained for every media file played within the Playback History retention period (default is 30 days). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / History) which controls whether the audio volume should be restored to its the previous level when replaying audio-only files. * New Settings (Adv. Options / System / Events) allowing you to execute an external program when Zoom Player is starting and closing (with an option to wait for the starting program to close). Usage Example: Set a custom monitor resolution using an external command line tool and then set the resolution back when Zoom Player closes. * New Settings (Adv. Options / Playback / Paths & Files) allowing you to hide the archive extraction window (the external program executed to extract the archive). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) allowing you to display file sizes. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) allowing you to pause the video when opening a navigation interface while a video file is playing (audio playback is unaffected by this setting). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) controlling whether right-clicking the navigation interface closes it. This was the previous default behavior, but the new default action is to display the context menu. Enable this setting to restore the previous default behavior. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) controlling whether the new Fullscreen Information navigation control routes keyboard input to the player (using the keyboard arrow keys to control the player rather than the fullscreen interface). * New "/DATAPATH:[PATH]" command line parameter which can be used to specify an alternative path to any user-changeable configuration files used by Zoom Player, including: 1. "MediaAutoGraph" directory (Controls which decoders are used) 2. "DVD-Bookmarks" directory (DVD Bookmarks and Last Position data) 3. "zplayer.playcache" (Play History and Last Media Position) 4. "zplayer.library" (Media Library paths) 5. "zplayer.radio" (Streaming Station list) 6. "zplayer.eq" (The Audio Equalizer values) 7. "default.zpl" (The last active Playlist) Usage: /DATAPATH:Z:\ZP_DATA\ When using this parameter, it's vitally important that at the very least, the "MediaAutoGraph" directory exists in the Data Path, otherwise, playback may fail. * New "/DEINT:[0/1]" command line parameter to enable/disable DeInterlacing. Usage: /DEINT:0 - DeInterlacing disabled. /DEINT:1 - DeInterlacing enabled. DeInterlacing requires the use of FFDShow as either the Video Decoder or as a Post-Processing filter. * New "/CLOCK:[n]" command line parameter that allows you to set the media synchronization timer for DirectShow playback. Usage: /CLOCK:0 - Default (same as not using the parameter at all) /CLOCK:1 - Disables Synchronization entirely /CLOCK:2 - Sets Synchronization to the System Timer * New "/WinName" command line parameter allowing you to set the Zoom Player Window Name. For example: zplayer.exe "/winname:ZoomPlayer2" * The Playlist Fullscreen navigation interface now allow you to enable/disable the Random Play state. * New File Association and Smart Play profiles for the MOD/TOD/MTS camcorder file extensions. (MOD = MPEG2 Program, TOD/MTS = MPEG2 Transport Stream). Sadly, when JVC, Panasonic and Canon came up with the ".MOD" file extension, they didn't take into account its existing use as an Audio Tracker format. Due to this, ".MOD" extension is no longer associated with the MOD Audio Tracker format. You can change this default behavior by modifying Zoom Player's Smart Play profiles. * Playback support for the AMR audio format and file association of the ".AMR" extension. * Playback support for the VP7 video format and file association of the ".VP7" extension. * Playback support for the Theora video format and file association of the ".OGV" extension. * Playback support for the AIFF audio format and file association of the ".AIFF" extension. * Playback support for the MPEG2 Transport Stream media format and file association of the ".M2TS" extension. * Playback support for LPCM audio in M2TS files. * Smart Play profile support for the latest DivX filters: MPEG4.ASP (DIVX) MPEG4.AVC (H.264) AAC Audio MKV Splitter * Support for the Gabest MPEG2 Splitter audio stream switching using the keyboard macro Ctrl+"A". * New Open Web Page function (Ctrl+"W") accessible from the right-click context menu, allowing you to open web pages in Zoom Player. * New "Prune History" button (Adv. Options / Playback) which erases any play history entries that are no longer pointing to an existing file. * New "VolumeWindow" Skin Script code, allowing you skin the new pop-up volume bar associated with the "fnVolumeWindow" function. * New "" dynamic script variable that is used to display the current position in a playlist. * New " " dynamic script variable that stores the currently playing media file path. * Some of the fullscreen navigation interfaces have a new right-arrow on the active line indicating additional functionality when clicking right. * Zoom Player now uses uTorrent's WebUI Token authentication for an additional security layer. * The Station fullscreen navigation interface now indicates if a station is a TV or Radio station. * The Station fullscreen navigation interface now remembers the last selected station when exiting the player. * The Media Library and File Browsing Fullscreen Navigation interfaces now support sorting by file size. * The File Browser, Media Library and Playlist fullscreen navigation interfaces "Select" function has been expanded to allow selecting "Select all matching multi-part files", "All Audio", "All Pictures", "All Video" and "All matching the currently highlighted file Type" (file extension). * The File Browser and Media Library fullscreen navigation interfaces can now access a "View" function which brings up a selection of files/information to view in the file list: 1. File Size 2. File Extension 3. Subtitle files 4. Archive files * Pressing Right with the "Add to Playlist" function highlighted in the File Browser or Media Library fullscreen navigation interfaces will now take you to the Playlist navigation. Pressing left from the playlist navigator will take you back to the original navigation interface (either file browser or media library). * New "Go to top of list" fullscreen navigation function (Applies to the Playlist, File Browser and Media Library interfaces). * The default skin's Control Bar now includes a pop-up volume window, allowing you to more accurately and easily set the volume levels while fullscreen. * Support for UTF8 encoded skin files (which can include UTF8 encoded text for button hints and other skin text elements). * The Folder image base name (Adv. Options / System & Files / Paths, Folders & Files) can now accept multiple values for the base name separated by the "|" character. For example, setting the Folder image base name to "folder|album" would cover image files starting with "folder" and "album", such as: Folder.jpg Album.png * Zoom Player will now save FFDShow's color control values in Zoom Player's media definition files (".df" file extension). * New Menu script command allowing you to execute external programs through the right-click context menu. See "English.Menu" in the "Language" Zoom Player directory for more information. * New "1100" CommAPI command which enables/disables timeline updates. Changes : + The default video renderer has been changed to VMR9 Windowless for Windows XP and EVR for Windows 7/Vista. + Scroll Acceleration is now active system-wide in all fullscreen navigation interfaces (where appropriate), making navigation faster and easier using remote devices and keyboards. + The media library fullscreen navigation interface now remembers the sorting order for each category independently. + The DirectShow filter registration options dialog feature (Adv. Options / System / Filter Management) has been rewritten to support configuration of popular DirectShow filters directly from the options dialog. Older unused filter profiles were removed and new updated profiles have been added. + You can now used Keyboard input with the GoTo navigation dialog to directly set the GoTo time. This requires that Keyboard Input for navigation be enabled. + Improved Screen Saver image selection randomness. No image will appear twice until all images were displayed first, even after the screen saver restarts. + Pressing PgDn/PgUp to play the next/previous media file in the same directory now works even after erasing the currently playing file, making it much easier to browse through a media or image collection to erase unwanted files. + Using the Next/Previous playlist track with random play enabled and only one file in the playlist no longer plays the same file again, but rather plays the next file in the directory. + The Advanced Options "Fullscreen Navigation" pages have been moved under the "Interface" section (previously it was within the "On Screen Display" section). + By default, the Media Library Filter Selection fullscreen navigation page will no longer appear when pressing Left on the Media Library category page (user-selectable through the options dialog). + The "Windows Media Video" Smart Play profile has been split into two distinct profiles: 1. Windows Media Video (used in WMV files) 2. VC1 (used in BluRay discs) + For clarity, the "Auto Segment Load" feature has been renamed "Multi Part file loader". + For clarity, the Multi Part file loader's "Segment Script" setting has been renamed "Name Masking" . + The "Multi Part file loader" feature has been disabled by default due to user confusion over files being added to the playlist automatically. You can re-enable this feature through the options dialog. + Pressing the ESC key with a fullscreen navigation interface enabled and secondary monitors are blanked will now remove the blanking first (In previous versions, the navigation interface was closed first). + Pressing the ESC key in the options dialog is now treated as if the Cancel button is clicked. + Frame Capture (Alt+"F") now works with the EVR video renderer. + Starting the screen saver from the main fullscreen navigation interface no longer pauses if an audio file is being played (only pause on video file). + To maintain backward compatibility, the Zoom Player chapter (bookmark) file extension has changed from ".chp" to ".zpchp". Zoom Player will still look for the ".chp" file when the newer format file doesn't exist. + The Color Control interface (Adv. Options / Playback / Video / Color Control) has been rewritten and now supports FFDShow as a mode of color control. Zoom Player will first try to use Hardware Color Control (Overlay Mixer, VMR9 and EVR). But if a certain function isn't supported, it will try using FFDShow to supplement the functionality. For example, neither EVR or VMR9 support Gamma controls, when these video renderers are in-use, Zoom Player will try using FFDShow to control the Gamma while the other color control remain hardware based. Please note that FFDShow must be used as a decoder or post-processor for this modified feature to work. + Using Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista SP1 should improve the open file dialog responsiveness. + The Media Library path editor has been further streamlined for simplicity. + All browsing for directory dialogs now allow you to specify a path through an edit box, making it easier to specify direct IP network paths. + When detaching the Control Bar, it now snaps to other interfaces such as the Video Window, Equalizer and Playlist Editor. + Opening the Main Navigation interface should now be faster, especially on multi-core CPUs. + The internal screen saver is now capped at 50fps. + Previously, when enabling text display for the internal screen saver, you had both the time and playing information displayed. You can now choose to display each individually. + The Station Editor interface has been redesigned for simplicity. + The Advanced Playlist Control interface has been redesigned to be more intuitive. + Random Play now remembers the random order of play so that you can go to a previous random track in the same order as it was played. + Support for more Flash Video and VP6 sub-types. + The Media Last Position database (used in play history and restoring the last position of a played media file) is now automatically saved every 30 minutes and a backup file is kept in case something goes wrong (previously it would only save when exiting the player, which could cause position data to be lost in cases where the computer or player crashed). + The Play History interface has been restructured to make it a bit easier to use. + The Search function within the play history dialog now filters the item list and only shows items that match the search value. + The "Adv. Options / System & Files / Paths, Folders & Files" page has been divided into more logical areas: 1. Adv. Options / Playback / Path & Files. 2. Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Fullscreen Navigation / Paths. 3. Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Audio Tags / Paths & Script. + The Frame Capture (screenshot) feature has been moved to: Adv. Options / System & Files / Screen Saver & Capture + Drives with no volume name no longer display empty brackets in the fullscreen file browsing navigation interface. + Playing a single file with random play enabled no longer plays that file in a loop if the "On Playlist Complete" setting is set to do something else. + The Volume Up/Down keyboard macros have been changed from Shift+"Home" and Shift+"End" to "+","=" (volume up) and "-" (volume down). The Previously associated Video Zoom-In/Zoom-Out functions are still accessible through the keypad "+" and "-" keys. This should make it easier to control volume, especially on netbook/laptop type devices which don't have access to the keypad without using a special function button. + The active playlist is now automatically saved every 15 minutes (to prevent data lose in case windows crashes). + The "5000" CommAPI command used for seeking in time can now accept a fractional value indicating MS. For example, "122.500" will seek to 2 minutes,2 seconds and 500 ms. + The "Image Resize" fullscreen navigation interface has been renamed to "Adjust Image". + The "/Sort" command line parameter now works even if Zoom Player is already running. + The "File Extensions" Adv. Options Menu has been moved under the "File Format Association" menu (was previously under the system menu). Fixes : - Fixed a video stuttering issue when using certain video renderers with Aero Desktop Composition enabled (Windows 7/Vista). - An "ACCESS VIOLATION 00000000 READ ADDRESS 00000000" error when using the advanced playlist control has been fixed. - Closing multiple player instances at once with Zoom Player set to save its setting to a local file could cause the settings file to corrupt. - A bug in the ID3v1 parser caused playlists containing audio files with ID3v1 tags not to save/load properly if the ID3v1 TAG contained in the audio file was semi-corrupt. - Opening the options dialog through a skin button while a new audio file starts playing and the skin automatically changes to audio mode would cause a "not enough timers" crash. - The "Default media open path" (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Paths) used by the standard open dialog and the file browsing fullscreen navigation interface can now accept network paths. For network paths to work with the file navigator, you must add the path under as an "Additional File Nav path" (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation). - Chapters are now time based rather than frame based as different components (filters/renderers) would report different frame rates for the same media file, causing chapter files created with one set of filters playing invalid when using a different set of filters. - Adding/Removing audio devices (such as a Skype Phone which acts as a speaker device), will no longer change the audio device settings Zoom Player uses. If you insert a new audio device while Zoom Player is already running, opening the options dialog or restarting the player is required. - Zoom Player no longer requires "wmvcore.dll" on the system to run. (it may be required for WMV playback, depending on your setup). - The Adjust Image fullscreen navigation interface lost the H-SIZE/V-SIZE values. They are now back. - Fixed a crash when trying to open a DVD title over a network path. - Fixed a rare crash when trying to show the Control Panel while the media library navigation interface is opening. - The eMule File Tracker did not work with files between 2 and 4gb. - The uTorrent File Tracker did not work if the Torrent folder and the torrent file name used the same name. - The FFDShow Subtitle Renderer would sometimes display subtitles from previously played videos. - Using the previous chapter function with only one chapter would go to the previous track rather than seeking to the first chapter. - When enabling "Close on Inactivity" for the fullscreen navigation interfaces, Opening a navigation interface through the SendMessage WinAPI command would have caused the dialog to time-out and close instantly. - Selecting files in the file Browser and Media Library fullscreen navigation interface and adding them to the playlist now adds them in the correct sorting order and doesn't re-sort the original list. - Fixed a bug introduced in v7 RC1 which caused a "list index out of bounds" error when Random Play was enabled while only having one file in the playlist. - Using the Quick Search function on the File Browser and Media Library fullscreen navigation interfaces with a directory containing a low number of files would previously show a blank screen. - The "Play all files in this directory" navigation function would not appear if there was only one directory listed. Applies to both the media library and file browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces. - Using the Quick Search function in a directory containing 1000's of files could cause the file names to be cut short. - You can no longer set image-blanking values greater than the video size. - Pressing Enter after closing the options dialog could cause a play command to be issued (instead of the assigned function). - The internal screen saver will no longer activate when the White Wash pattern is in use. - If "On Playlist Compelete" was set to "Do Nothing" and the video renderer was set as EVR, reaching a media's end would result in the video disappearing. - The Filter Profiles list (Adv. Option / System / Filter Management) would not list any filters when doing a Standard install. - Transparent buttons on the control bar would lose their transparency region under certain conditions. - Fixed a memory leak when playing web (HTML) files. - Fixed a few rare occurrences of Floating Point errors. - The "Export Settings" function would not properly save some unicode paths. - The Skin Tint profiles did not support unicode names. - Fixed a division by zero error in the Download Navigator when downloading 0bytes sized files from uTorrent or eMule. - Fixed a memory leak in the Download Navigator. - The Zoom Player Install Center application could show a newer version of an installed component as requiring an update. - Having track information (Duration/TAGs/etc...) loaded in the background would not properly read non-english character sets. - Sorting randomly didn't maintain the playing index which could cause the wrong TAG information to be displayed. - When playing a media file from the fullscreen navigation interfaces, Zoom Player will now hide the default background image beforehand so there's a smoother transition into the video. - Associating a file extension (".avi" for example) through the open-with Windows Explorer dialog under vista would disable Zoom Player's ability to associate the file extension. - Doing a Standard (non-legacy) Zoom Player install with UAC disabled would sometimes break file association (usually due to a bad install). - M3U playlists with directory-relative file paths would not always load. - Trying to register Zoom Player automatically by double-clicking the registration file would fail if the evaluation period has ended. - Loading or Dropping a subtitle file no longer reloads the file to display the subtitles if the subtitle rendering filter is already in the graph. - Cycling through Subtitle tracks in ".MKV" files containing no internal subtitles with one external subtitle file, didn't work. - You can now associate shortcut files (".lnk") with Zoom Player DVD external program execute events (On PAL/NTSC DVD detected and On DVD Stop events). - An access violation crash could occur if you have the stop function set to closing the playing media (instead of seek to start), move the previously played file to a different directory, try playing it again (and fail since the file is no longer there) and then try playing a DVD. - If you had the "Hide extension for known file types" enabled in Explorer's folder view options dialog, Zoom Player's open dialog would not list the correct files. - The "/Sort" command line parameter did not function if no files were specified as part of the command line. - The Open Dialog did not list CD Audio files when the media type was set to CD-Audio. - The Open Dialog did not list the DVD file (VIDEO_TS.IFO) when setting the media type to "Video". - The file browser fullscreen navigation interface did not list download percentage for eMule/uTorrent downloads under some conditions even when correctly configured. - When enabling "Continue to the next item on the playlist when an invalid file is played", the next playing file could display an incorrect aspect ratio and may even not load if the next file was the last in the playlist. - When drag & dropping files to the playlist editor, the currently playing file would not highlight correctly and going to the next/previous track (file) may load the wrong one. - When drag & dropping files to a specific spot in the playlist editor, the files would appear in reverse order. - The file association options dialog page would show incorrect icons if you were using Windows Vista with UAC enabled. - Newer version of the Flash ActiveX component are now detected. Previously flash playback would work, but the player would list it as missing. - The "Open Directory" function should now work properly with network paths. - The ".3G2" extension was missing from the default video extension list. - Having the control bar auto-hide when the mouse cursor is moved away didn't work properly on secondary monitors. - If the internal screen saver was active in combination with the Guard Dog feature (Adv. Options / System), the Guard Dog would misidentify the player as unresponsive and close it. - The internal screen saver would not activate if the secondary monitors were blanked out. - The internal screen saver no longer shows or moves the mouse cursor. - The internal screen saver did not respect the aspect ratio of images displayed when the Source Relative Stretch (Pixel Aspect Ratio) feature was enabled. - With the internal screen saver's streamer function disabled, the transition effects got broken. - The internal screen saver would take CPU power even if the streamers were disabled. It now takes a lot less CPU power (only during transitions). - The "1950" CommAPI command used for removing items from the playlist did not properly adjust the currently playing item index when an item was removed. In addition, it would not close the currently playing file if it was removed. - You can now paste (Ctrl+V) into the Chapter editor's "Go To time" and "Go To Frame" dialogs. What's new in v6.00:
New : * Since a lot of people don't appreciate the changes microsoft made to Windows Vista with its UAC limitations, the Zoom Player installer now lets you choose between two modes: Standard install where dynamic files are saved in the AppData (Application Data) directory and static files are saved in the install directory. This is required when running Windows Vista with UAC enabled or running Windows XP with a limited user account. Legacy mode where all the files are saved in the selected directory. This is easier to backup, but wont work properly when running Vista with UAC enabled or Windows XP on a limited user account. With Legacy mode selected, the file extension association functionality is restored to Windows XP levels (UAC under Windows Vista limits some file extension association functions such as changing file icons). * To maintain compatibility with Windows Vista's user account control (UAC) mechanism, the Zoom Player installer (using Standard Install) will move all files that require modification to the windows Application Data directory (Can be reached by typing "%AppData%\Zoom Player" in any folder window). In addition to the move, user-specified skins must be re-selected through the skin selection dialog. * Zoom Player now warns you when it detects you are running in legacy mode under restricted file access (UAC in Vista or a limited user account under XP/Vista). * New "Auto-Configure" button on the Smart Play options dialog. When clicked, all current decoder configuration will be reset and then the system is scanned for the best decoder configuration using the currently installed decoders. * New F8/F9 skin modes (equivalent to the Onyx Lite skin). * Full EVR (Enhanced Video Renderer) support. Please note that due to a Microsoft issue/bug, you must use YUY2 as the colorspace, otherwise color control features will not function. * Added support for Haali's Video Renderer technology. Haali's Video Renderer uses Bicubic interpolation of video using 3D hardware. This means improved video quality, especially when up-scaling to higher resolution. Older 3D Graphic card may not be supported (Cards with PS 1.4 or better should work well). * Zoom Player can now communicate with uTorrent's Web UI interface in order to display download progress within the Media Library and File Browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces. This feature is accessible under "Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Fullscreen Navigation / File Tracker". Press the "?" button on this page for additional information. * Zoom Player can now keep track with eMule's temporary files directory in order to display download progress within the Media Library and File Browsing fullscreen navigation interfaces. This feature is accessible under "Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Fullscreen Navigation / File Tracker". Press the "?" button on this page for additional information. * New "Download Manager" navigation interface (Ctrl+"J"), allowing you to get an overview of your currently downloading files (compatible with eMule and uTorrent). * You can now specify additional paths for the File Browser (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Fullscreen Navigation). New paths appear as drives. You can add network shares (for example "//USER/Video/" and even local paths such as "C:\Media" creating instant shortcuts to important directories on your system. * The File Navigation interface now shows the drive sizes and free space. * The Chapter editing interface has been modified with a chapter name history drop-down list and instead of a dialog opening up when adding a chapter, now you can just type in the chapter name (or pick from the drop-down history list) and press enter or click the add chapter button, making it easier to add chapters. * The Scene Cut editor has been simplified and enhanced. The Scene cut editor no longer requires you to click on the save button, saving is done automatically now. A new edit button allows you to edit entries without having to remove an old entry first. Lastly, the scene cut interface layout has been updated to make it simpler to use. * Zoom Player's ".zpl" playlist format has been extended to support TAG data (author,composer,artist,etc). All TAG data read from a media file (ID3,ApeTAG,WMA Tag,etc) is automatically saved within the play list format (allowing you to override TAG data display without actually modifying the source media file). * New "Configure Subtitle Filter" button (Adv. Options / Playback / Video & Subtitles) allowing you to configure the Subtitle filter more easily. * Options dialog tree nodes now have an icon to make them easier to navigate and remember. * The Media Library, File Browser and Playlist fullscreen navigation interfaces now offer a "Quick Search" option allowing you to more easily browse through large listings. The Quick Search option is accessible by navigating to the right and selecting the "Quick Search" entry. * The Media Library and File Browser navigation functions have been restructured so that the sorting function is now part of a sub-menu. * "Select All" and "Clear Selection" functions have been added to the Media Library and File Browser navigation interfaces as a sub-menu under the "Select" function. * The Playlist navigation interface has been restructured so that the sorting method is now a sub-menu with more sorting options available (by Size, Directory, Date and Randomly). * Pressing right on the Playlist history navigation interface now brings you to the top of the list (the most recently played item). * New "Navigation Style" Navigation interface, allowing the navigation skin to be replaced from within the navigation interface itself. * New "Open Navigator" button on the Media Library Path Editor. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Video / Aspect Ratio) instructing Zoom Player "Derived" Aspect Ratio mode to Automatically Adjust (fix) the Aspect Ratio for badly encoded content. This would convert 4:3 content encoded as 720x480 to display as 720x540, 720x576 to 768x576, 352x240 to 352x264, 352x288 to 384x288, etc... Badly encoded 16:9 content is also adjusted in a similar fashion. This setting also fixes small aspect ratio inaccuracies caused by a requirement made by video encoders for the video pixel width or height to be dividable by 16 (or 8 or 4). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface) allowing you to disable the delete key from erasing the currently playing file. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface) allowing you to lock filter/decoder configuration (property) pages to the main user interface (otherwise they appear as a floating window). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display) allowing you to select custom DVD & Media background images. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) allowing you to skip the "Library Filter Mode" page. With this setting enabled, navigating left on the media library category list will go straight to the Main navigation menu. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Fullscreen Navigation) allowing you to specify the minimum number of characters that appear when using Quick Search. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) restoring the ability to "Play all files in this Directory" from the main file list (file and media library navigators). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) allowing you to select if Cut, Copy & Paste operations allow you to overwrite files. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) allowing you to highlight previously viewed files. This setting with the "remember last media position" setting (Adv. Options / Playback) and will highlight any previously viewed file in the Media and File Navigation interfaces by making its icon semi-transparent. Please note that this feature can tax the CPU if the play history (generated by remembering the last media position) is over a few 100 files. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback) allowing you to set the "On Play Complete" event (which triggers when a playlist has finished playing) to "Randomize & Replay", giving you another random play method. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback) allowing you to limit remembering the last media position to media files longer than a specified amount of minutes. This is useful when you don't want the last media position remembered when playing short media files. * New Button (Adv. Options / Playback) allowing you to reset the Remember Last Position cache (and play history, which use the same data). * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video & Subtitles) allowing you to enable/disable Closed Captions support for media files. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video & Subtitles) allowing you to automatically hide Closed Captions when playing media files. * New Setting (Adv. Options / Playback / Video & Subtitles) allowing you play media files with the subtitles not showing by default. * New "Guard Dog" feature (Adv. Options / System). When enabled, the Guard Dog periodically tests that the Zoom Player process is responding. If the process stops responding for a specified number of seconds, the Guard Dog will close the player and start a new instance using a specified command line parameter list. * New Setting (Adv. Options / System & Files / Paths, Folders and Files), allowing you to select the Frame Capture (screenshot) format. BMP, PNG and JPEG are supported. * New Auto-Segment load setting (Adv. Options / System & Files / Paths, Folders and Files), allowing you to match file names automatically by how similar they are. Press the "?" button for more details on how the matching works. This feature is on by default for versions that support it. * New Function (fnBlankMonitors) assigned to the Alt+Shift+"K" keyboard macro, allowing you to manually toggle blanking (black-out) of non-playing monitors. The automatic-blanking of non-playing monitors is accessible through the options dialog (Adv. Options / System - Blank non-Playing Monitors while in Fullscreen / Zoom mode). Pressing ESC restores any blanked out monitor. * New Function (fnFSActMonitor) assigned to the Alt+Shift+"Enter" keyboard macro, allowing you to go fullscreen on the currently active monitor, overriding the fullscreen to monitor "X" setting. * New "fnPosToClipboard" function (Alt+Ctrl+"C") allowing you to copy the current playing position to the windows clipboard (which can then be pasted in another program). * The Zoom Player function selection dialog is now split into three categories: Content, Interface and Control. The function list is also sorted, making functions easier to find. * New Vista specific feature allowing you to make the entire Zoom Player window semi-transparent. This also requires that you use a video renderer that would work (Haali's/VMR9/EVR) and that VISTA Aero is enabled. To use: Alt+Ctrl+F4 = Fully visible window. Alt+Ctrl+F5 = 80% visibility. Alt+Ctrl+F6 = 60% visibility. Alt+Ctrl+F7 = 40% visibility. You can also specify exact transparency values using the new "exTransWin" extended function. * New "exTransWin" extended function, allowing you to specify a transparency value (1-255) for the Zoom Player window. This function requires Windows VISTA with Aero enabled. * New "exRandomPlay" extended function, allowing you to discretely set the Random Play setting to on/off (compared to the fnRandomPlay function which toggle between on/off). * New "exSkinTint" extended function allowing you to set the skin's RGB tinting value. Example: zplayer.exe /exfunc:exskintint,$7F3000 * New "/Browse" command line parameter instructing Zoom Player to open the specified web address in its internal web browser. This command line works even if Zoom Player is already running. Example: zplayer.exe /browse:https://inmatrix.com * New "/SP:[n]" command line parameter allowing you to turn Smart Play ON/OFF. To turn Smart Play off use "/SP:0" to turn it on use "/SP:1". * New "/Color" command line parameter allowing you to set the skin's RGB tinting value Example: zplayer.exe /color:$7F3000 * New "/Config" command line parameter. Using this parameter, you can specify which local (non-registry) configuration file Zoom Player should use. This parameter is very useful when running multiple instances of Zoom Player, each with a different configuration. If the specified configuration file doesn't exist, Zoom Player will create one (using the default configuration). Usage: zplayer.exe "/config:z:\path to config file\filename.local" Note that the "" characters are required as this command line parameter contains spaces. * New "/Func" command line parameter. This parameter allows you to instruct Zoom Player to execute functions directly from the command line. This parameter can also be used while Zoom Player is running, enabling simple command-line based automation. Example for always starting with the Main Navigator open: zplayer.exe /Func:fnMainNav For a full function list, see the Function List: https://inmatrix.com/zplayer/highlights/zpfunctions.shtml * New "/ExFunc" command line parameter. This parameter allows you to instruct Zoom Player to execute extended functions directly from the command line. This parameter can also be used while Zoom Player is running, enabling simple command-line based automation. Example for always starting with the Playlist Editor open: zplayer.exe /ExFunc:exInterface,2 For a full function list, read the Skinning Tutorial: https://inmatrix.com/zplayer/highlights/zpfunctions.shtml * New "/MultInst" command line parameter. Using this parameter instructs Zoom Player to start another instance of the player even if Zoom Player's multiple-instances setting is set to disabled. * New "/nCols", "/nRows", "/Col" and "/Row" command line parameters allowing you to divide the active monitor into columns and rows which can be used to position the player window. The "/nRows" defines the number of rows, "/nCols" defines the number of columns, "/Col" defines the active column (starting with column "0") and "/Row" defines the active row (starting with row "0"). Example: zplayer.exe /ncols:3 /nrows:3 /col:1 /row:1 * New "/StartPath" command line parameter allowing you to set the initial path for the file-open dialog and the file browsing navigation interface. * New "IconScale" parameter for the "ListData" navigation skin-script command, allowing you to set the size of list line icons relative to the size of the line height. * New "" skin script dynamic variable that returns the current playing index. * New " " skin script dynamic variable that returns the current playlist item count without adding the "file(s)" text to the returned value. * All screen saver settings have been moved to: Advanced Options / System / Screen Saver * The internal screen saver has been enhanced to support image slideshows in addition to the plasma background. * You can now specify if the text information and animated streamers are displayed by the internal screen saver. * Added support for the Microsoft DVD decoders (part of Windows Vista). * Support for PowerDVD v8 filters (CD Audio/H.264/MPEG2 and DVD Navigation) * Added support for the "ffds" XVID sub-type created by the ffdshow encoder. * New "default" button next to the Archive Playback configuration dialog (Adv. Options / System & Files / Paths, Folders and Files). * Added support for DCoder's Bass Source filter. The bass source filter adds support for the following audio formats: AAC, ALAC, APE, FLAC, MP3, MPC, TTA, WV, MO3, IT, XM, S3M, MTM, MOD, UMX. * Added support for DCoder's Bass Source filter SHOUTcast streaming. DCoder's Bass Source filter is more reliable and supports streaming of SHOUTcast MP3/OGG/AAC content. * Added support for the Illiminable FLAC decoder as an alternative to CoreFLAC. * Added support for FLV4 type Flash Video (".FLV" files). * The Keyboard Shortcut list (F1) has been restructured, making it easier to find keyboard macros. * Can now quickly get duration for Windows Media Audio (".wma") files. The default value for auto-get duration now includes the "wma" format, If you are upgrading from a previous installation, you will need to go to "Adv. Options / System / File Extensions" and press the Default button next to the "Auto-Get Duration" edit line. * The ".DVR-MS" file extension can now be associated with Zoom Player. * The ".EVO" file extension can now be associated with Zoom Player. * Added support for the ".CBR" and ".CBZ" comic book formats to the archive extraction tool. To enable, you must reset to the default archive extensions (Adv. Options / System & Files / File Extensions). * Initial EVO/EVOB (HD-DVD video files) playback support, If you are upgrading from a previous installation, you will need to go to "Adv. Options / System / File Extensions" and press the Default button next to the "Video" edit line. * You can now activate a Zoom Player registration by double-clicking on a valid "zplayer.regkey" file from within Explorer. * New "ProgressColor" parameter for the "ColorData" navigation Skin-script command, allowing you to select which color will be used when displaying download progress within the Media Library, File Browsing and Download Manager fullscreen navigation interfaces. * New "PathColor" parameter for the "ColorData" navigation skin-script command, allowing you to select which color will be used for the path text within the Media Library, File Browsing and Download Manager fullscreen navigation interfaces. * New "PathOutline" parameter for the "ColorData" navigation skin-script command, allowing you to select which outline color will be used for the path text within the Media Library, File Browsing and Download Manager fullscreen navigation interfaces. * New "PathExtraColor" parameter for the "ColorData" navigation skin-script command, allowing you to select which outline color will be used for the extra path text within the Media Library, File Browsing and Download Manager fullscreen navigation interfaces. * New "PathExtraOutline" parameter for the "ColorData" navigation skin-script command, allowing you to select which outline color will be used for the path extra text within the Media Library, File Browsing and Download Manager fullscreen navigation interfaces. * New "ConfirmColor" parameter for the "ColorData" navigation skin-script command, allowing you to select which color will be used for the confirmation fullscreen navigation interface. * New "ConfirmOutline" parameter for the "ColorData" navigation skin-script command, allowing you to select which outline color will be used for the confirmation fullscreen navigation interface. * The DVD AutoGraph script format now supports a parameter that connects the Video Decoder's Subpicture pin to the Video Renderer directly (to support DXVA with subtitles). * New DVD profiles for the Convolver filter: http://convolver.sourceforge.net/ * The Main fullscreen navigational interface is now accessible directly through the right-click context menu. * Support for the ".WAX" ,".WVX", ".WMX" playlist file extensions. + Newly supported file extensions: M4B, HDMOV. * New "1130" CommAPI command that retrieves the currently playing frame rate per second (FPS). This is the same value seen on the information dialog ("I" keyboard macro). * New "1140" CommAPI command that retrieves that estimated frame rate per second (FPS). This value is not 100% accurate as some formats do not have a fixed frame rate or simply do not report a frame rate. In cases where the real FPS is unattainable, an estimated FPS value is returned. * New "1811" CommAPI command allowing you to retrieve the number of items in the current playlist. This message is also shown when the playlist item count is modified. * New CommAPI message 1860 allowing you to pass a web address (URL) for Zoom Player to open. Changes : + "Zoom Player WMV Professional" has been renamed to "Zoom Player Home Premium". "Zoom Player Standard" has been renamed to "Zoom Player Home Basic". + Dropping items into the playlist now drops the items at the mouse cursor position in the playlist. + The Color Control and Equalizer navigation interfaces have been redesigned to take less screen space. + The default skin is now selected directly from the skin list, (as the first skin listed) instead of clicking on the default skin button. + The skin selection interface is now sorted alphabetically. + The skin selection interface behavior has been changed slightly. In order to apply a custom tint, you must now click the Apply Tint button. + The default Audio mode skin now has a wider volume bar and includes a new button that opens the station manager. + The Control Bar and OSD Pop-ups are now accessible even when the player window is set to "Stay on Top". + Pressing stop twice was set to resume playback from the position prior to the stop function being called. This wasn't too clear so now a "Resume" OSD message pops up. + The Navigation interfaces should work slightly faster, especially in situations where more complex navigation skins are used (skins with large transparency effects). + When setting the navigation interface's line count, the Equalizer and Color Control interfaces ignore a value of "-2" as they are only 3 lines to begin with. + The Frame Capture Alt+"F" (screenshot) function should now work in all video renderers except Overlay Mixer, VMR9 Renderless (VMR9 Windowed and Windowless should work) and EVR. + The archive configuration now allows you to specify dynamic system paths. For example: "%programfiles%\7-Zip\7z.exe" x "%n" "-o%p" Instead of : "C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" x "%n" "-o%p" The default values have been updated and you can use the new default button to set them. + The ".iso" and ".img" extensions have been moved from the executable extension list into the archive extension list. With the latest version of 7-Zip (www.7-zip.org) installed, you can now extract and play CD/DVD images directly from within Zoom Player. Make sure to press the default buttons (Adv. Options / System / File Extensions). + The Main Navigation interface should appear much quicker now, especially when accessed while a video is playing. + The "/X", "/Y", "/W" and "/H" command line parameters now function even if Zoom Player is already running, allowing you to re-position & size the main user interface window from the command line (previously, these parameters only worked when initially running Zoom Player). + The Media Library and File Browser navigation functions have been re-ordered for increased usability. + The File Association options dialog has been restructured for additional clarity. + You can now specify a +6,+8 or +10 values for the navigation interface line count. + Function descriptions have changed to make them easier to Read, Understand and Search. + The Girder Exported commands are now sorted and split into categories, making it easier to program remote devices and home automation systems. + Mouse left click while holding the Alt key now zooms in 10% instead of 50% (which wasn't as useful). + The Alt+"S" keyboard macro that shows the subtitle filter configuration dialog can now be used without any media playing. + Ctrl+"C" now enables/disables closed captioning when used by media files (it was previously limited to DVDs). + You can now select a custom playlist font without having to customize the playlist colors as well. + Synchronizing the Subtitles Ahead/Back is now done in 100ms increments (instead of the previous 25ms). + The Mouse Wheel "function-cycle" function and the Mouse Wheel Function navigation interfaces now list the custom function as the actual function name instead of "Custom". + The AB-Repeat function (Alt+"R") used to loop a specific section of audio/video will now highlight the timeline to indicate the looping section (only on the default and newer skins). + When using the File Browsing and Media Library navigation interfaces, the Copy & Paste functions will now show an OSD message while moving files and a success/fail OSD message when the file operation completes. + The File Browser and Media Library navigation interfaces will now display the file's icon when using the function pane. + If no navigation interfaces are enabled through the options dialog, the main navigation interface will no longer be accessible. + The DVD Fast Forward and Rewind rate now support two more values: "8/16/32" and "12/24/48". + Opening "mms://" addresses should now work a little better. + When opening the player with secondary windows open (playlist editor, equalizer, etc...) the keyboard focus did not remain on the main window. + Several items on the right-click menu have been renamed for clarity. + The "Add Chapter" function's keyboard macro has been changed from "C" to Ctrl+Shift+"C". + Real-Time Frame rate reporting on the information dialog should now work with Custom Video Renderers as long as they support the IQualProp interface. + The "1600,1601 and 1703" Audio Track CommAPI commands are now accessible for media files (no longer limited to DVDs). + The "1700,1701,1703 and 1704" Subtitle CommAPI commands are now accessible for media files (no longer limited to DVDs). + Updated description of video renderers. + When opening the options dialog on a monitor with resolution too low to display the entire dialog, the dialog will now cover more of the screen area. + Enabling/Disabling the DVD & Media Background images has moved to "Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display" Fixes : - A bug in the archive extracting code could cause extracted archive to extract in the wrong directory under some conditions. - When random play was enabled and only one file was playing, the "On Play Complete" event was called if the same file was opened twice. - The external command to "Enqueue/Play with" Zoom Player has been moved to a shell extension under Windows 2000/XP/Vista, making it faster and more reliable. - Playing the next/previous file in the directory, or using similar functions such as playing the next/previous file of the same type in the directory didn't work with UNC paths (network paths). - When extracting and playing the content of an archive file, the first file in the archive would be loaded twice in succession. - Some M3U playlist files wouldn't load properly if the files within contained ANSI characters which conflicted with UTF8 decoding. - Setting a custom aspect ratio with a "0" value could cause Zoom Player to crash with an invalid division by zero error. - A sorting glitch was fixed in the file browser and media library navigation interfaces where the "Go to previous directory" option appeared at the bottom of the file list instead of at the top. - Deleting entries from the Chapter Browser navigation interface no longer causes a "Divide by Zero" error in some cases. - Having both "Auto-Size User Interface to maintain Video Aspect Ratio" and "Prevent moving the user interface off the primary monitor" enabled could cause a freeze when using the Alt+"4" or Alt+"5" functions to Zoom the video window beyond the size of the monitor. - When using the internal image decoder, Zoom Player can now detect badly named image files (such as PNG files with JPG extension). Supported mislabeled image formats include: BMP, JPG, PNG. - Some MJPEG files may not have been detected properly by Smart Play. - Fix for the Zoom Player Install Center where it wouldn't recognize certain updates as up to date if they were installed to a unicode file path. - The Zoom Player registration key is now searched for in both the Zoom Player directory and in the application data directory. - Pressing "Del" to erase the currently playing file with other entries selected in the playlist would not remove the erased file from the playlist. - ID3/TAG display of unicode file name would show "???" if the audio file had no ID3 data. - ID3/TAG display of unicode file name would show "???" if the audio file ID3 data containing unicode text and the Windows country code was non-english. - ID3/TAG display wouldn't always update when loading certain audio file formats. - When trying to select a DVD auto-execute software (Adv. Options / Playback / DVD / DVD Tools), typing in the "New" field would not enable the "Apply" button. - The Skip to the next file in the playlist when an unplayable file is encountered function no longer skips to the next file if the entire playlist is unplayable. This fix prevents the playlist from looping in error messages forever. - Improved Network path support for paths starting with "//". - The internal image decoder can now load images from network paths. - Ejecting a drive while listening to streaming media could cause playback to stop. - Using the "," character as part of a chapter name would truncate the chapter name. - When specifying a transparent color for the Timeline, loading a different skin that didn't contain timeline transparency would not clear the transparent regions properly. - Fixed a bug where applying a custom File Extension Association icon would not always work properly. - Failing to load a media file with a background image enabled could cause the background image to display in an incorrect aspect ratio. - The TV Pattern mode would incorrectly draw a red vertical line at some resolutions. - The background image and circle pattern would not respect the source relative stretch feature when it was set to a specific monitor (the stretch value was applied to all monitors). - Cosmetic fix for the navigation scrollbar widget being slightly inaccurate position wise. - Under some conditions, the TCP port would not become accessible. - File Association should now be working under Windows VISTA with UAC mode enabled. - The "Continue to the next item on the playlist when an invalid file is played" didn't work when the file was missing rather than corrupt/problematic. - Using the play next file in the same directory should no longer flash the media background images between files. This fix also makes the images load faster. - When the player was set to "Stay On Top", some options dialog sub-menus would appear beneath the options dialog, making them inaccessible. - When Stay On Top was enabled, some interfaces were appearing behind the main user interface. - Setting a Playlist Font/Color override would return to the skin values when switching skin modes. - When the player window would lose focus, the control bar stopped auto-hiding. - With some file formats, the playlist would not update the total playlist duration properly. - Enabling the "Show Time Seek Position Over Timeline" feature would cause the Zoom Player window to become the top-most window if the mouse cursor hovered over the timeline. - Trying to open the Options dialog with the main window set to "Stay on Top" and Zoom Player set to only show an icon on the tray area would cause the options dialog to appear behind the main window. - Monitor Powerdown will no longer be disabled when playing in windowed mode (Powerdown will only be disabled when fullscreen). - Exporting Girder commands while using a local configuration file would not use the correct window name, preventing the exported girder file from working. - More cases of unsupported hardware color control are now detected by the color control navigational interface. - Disabling the "'Del' key moves media files to the recycle bin (with confirmation)" setting would erroneously disable the erase function from working in the media library and file browsing navigation interfaces. - Trying to play Audio-CDs through the file browsing navigation interface would not play the file. - Detaching the control bar would not snap its position to the previously saved detached position under some conditions. - With a detached Control Bar, it was possible for the mouse wheel functions not to work if the control bar was moved. - Trying to play streaming content while in DVD Mode would not switch to media mode automatically and then fail to play. - The Context Navigator did not use the scripting parameters assigned to it correctly. - The Contact Sheet creation form didn't allow you to select the contact sheet color values. - Some navigation interface titles could not be translated into other languages. - The "exSetMode" function would not switch modes properly under some conditions. - Switching between Media/DVD/Audio mode could result in an Audio mode skin loaded in DVD mode. - Switching between skin modes in the skin selection dialog would not update the available skin lists properly between modes. - Opening the skin selection dialog with a navigation interface visible would not show the correct tint values (it showed the skin's tint values rather than the navigation tint values). - When Stay On Top was enabled, the seek-to hint window would appear behind the main user interface window. - The "Scrollbar Highlight" color for forced Playlist colors was not being saved properly. - If the internal screen saver got activated with the open file dialog already open, it could cause Zoom Player to become non-responsive. - Navigation interfaces would not appear when using VISTA Aero and having the blank secondary monitor feature enabled. - Pressing Insert in the File Navigator with no files listed would raise a List out of Bounds error. - The File Navigator would forget the last active drive if you opened and closed Zoom Player without opening the navigator. - The "/F:[x]" and "/Z:[x]" parameters did not go Fullscreen on the right monitor if Zoom Player was in window mode. - Fixed a buffer overlow issue thanks to Luigi Auriemma. - Fixed a number is not integer error with the uTorrent file tracker. - The Zoom Player install center would not allow you to configure filters if Zoom Player was installed in a unicode directly. - Loading ".WPL" playlist containing network addresses should now look for the files over the network rather than in a local path. - The basic options dialog tree list wouldn't translate properly. - Windows Media files that required a password to play would fail to display the password prompt and fail to play. - Switching the Navigation Interface color-tint through the skin selection interface could cause a crash under certain circumstances. - Playing a media file from one of the navigation interfaces no longer shows the media background image before playing the file. - Having the Control Bar Auto-Show and then having it Auto-Hide if the distance is too big could cause the Control Bar to remain on-screen under some circumstances. - The Scene-Cut Jump and Mute Audio functions were not working correctly. - Clicking on the Zoom Player tray icon while fullscreen on a secondary monitor would cause the Zoom Player window to resize without drawing the skin properly. - Improved stability for DCoder's DVB filter's graph building. - Ejecting a non-playing CD/DVD/USB device while a DVD is playing would cause the DVD to stop. - The Next/Previous chapter functions were not working properly in the default DVD skin. - On some non-standard resolution, the fullscreen navigation interface would not cover the right-most pixel. - Playing audio files with file extensions that could also be used for video files (such as ".MP4") would have Zoom Player remember the last media position for the audio file, even if remembering audio file last position was disabled. - Playing a Matroska file with External subtitles would not allow you to cycle through the external subtitle tracks with Ctrl+"B". - Having On Play Complete set to "Do Nothing" while having "Remember Last Media Position" enabled would cause the video to rewind, even though it should have paused on the last frame. - CommAPI message 5130 (call navigation function) was not working. - Under Windows VISTA, pressing Alt+Tab with some interfaces would cause several buttons/checkboxes to disappear. - Filter property pages will now appear on the same monitor as the Zoom Player user interface. - Several small cosmetic glitches fixed in the default skin. - Cosmetic glitch fixed in the advanced playlist control (buttons could overlap). - Several navigation interfaces were not showing unicode text correctly. What's new in v5.02:
Fixes : - Bug Fixes.What's new in v5.01:
Fixes : - Fixed a possible exploit involving malformed ZPL playlist files. - The Next/Previous Chapter buttons didn't work as intended using the default skin in DVD mode.What's new in v5.00:
New : * The default skin has been replaced with a new cleaner, clearer and more versatile skin. * All navigation interfaces have been rewritten from scratch. Navigtion is now much simpler, only using 5 directional controls (UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, SELECT/ENTER). All interfaces are inter-connected through the "MAIN" navigation interface and are much more easy to control using a mouse or touch-screen. Furthermore, navigational interfaces are now scriptable using a simple text-based scripting language, allowing you to easily reposition the layout and introduce alternative graphical elements. Clicking the right and left most pixels in any of the navigation interfaces is equivalent to clicking RIGHT/LEFT on the arrows. The mouse wheel can be used for UP/DOWN and Double Clicking is the same as SELECT/ENTER. Multiple navigation styles are now available for download. * Smart Play (previously Customized Media Mode) has been vastly simplified. In the simple mode, only the available profiles and the currently used filters are visible. If the currently used filter matches a profile (which it most always will), the profile will be highlighted. Smart Play is now available in all version of Zoom Player to a lesser degree. * The Advanced Options dialog has been rewritten from scratch. The new dialog layout is much more logical and should help make Zoom Player's powerful features much more easy to access. * A new install center application is now available, allowing for easy updates and filter configuration without the need to manually install each component. * The Keyboard Editor will now let you create Global HotKeys. These are functions assigned to keys that are active even if Zoom Player itself is not the active application. Global HotKeys also have (on a per-key basis) the option to bring Zoom Player to the front. * The Auto-Get Duration for media files has been rewritten to get the duration in the background (working only on unused CPU cycles), allowing you to load massive play lists without having to wait. Getting durations for media files also supports more formats and is now enabled by default. * You can now drop Subtitle files on the main user interface in order to display the subtitle track with the currently playing media file. Requires DirectVobSub installed and Smart Play enabled. * New Equalizer Navigator (Shift+"Q"), allowing you to access Equalizer settings through the navigation system. * New Play History Navigator (Shift+"H"), allowing you to return to previously played files (if they still exist). * New "ZPS" Skin Installation System. Simply opening any "ZPS" file (file with a .zps extension) will run Zoom Player and prompt you to install the skin. * New Navigation Skin selection option within the Skin Selection interface ("N"). * New Contact Sheet creation dialog (Alt+Shift+"C"). Using this new interface, you can easily create contact sheet for the currently playing media file (doesn't work with DVDs). You must also set the video renderer to VMR9 Windowless. * New Functions allowing you to play the Next and Previous files in the same directory as the currently playing file with a matching file extension. These functions are now assigned to the "PgUp" and "PgDn" navigational keys when navigator interfaces are not visible. For example, when viewing "MyImage.jpg" in a directory that looks like this: MyImage.jpg MyImage.avi MyImage2.jpg Pressing "PgDn" will show "MyImage2.jpg", skipping "MyImage.avi" These functions enhance Zoom Player's capability as an image viewer. * New Functions (Accessible on the Play List's right-click context menu) allowing you to move selected items to the top/bottom of the play list. * New Function (Alt+"E") that enables you to Open/Close the last visible navigator. This last visible setting is saved between sessions, thus allowing you continuous navigation through multiple sessions. * New Function (Shift+"L") allowing you to show/hide the all Control Bar buttons (without the need to select/remove which buttons are visible). This function has also replaced the Hide/Show All Control Bar buttons on the Control Bar Context-Menu. You will now be presented with a "Hide All Button" toggle (with a checkbox indicating ON/OFF state). * New Function (Shift+"J") that reloads the currently playing media file. * New Function "fnDeleteCurrent", Assigned by default to the Delete key (when the navigational interfaces are not in use), allowing you to erase the currently playing file (with confirmation). * New Function (Shift+"Esc") allowing you to close all navigational interfaces. If no navigators are visible, this function does nothing. * New Functions allowing you to go to the Next/Previous DVD Title. This requires that the DVD is authored to accept this functionality (some DVDs are authored to prohibit certain types of access). The macro keys are Alt+Shift+"]" for Next DVD Title and Alt+Shift+"[" for Previous DVD Title. * New Extended Function (exZoomTo). This function can be set to Zoom the video area to a specific Zoom percentage (for example, Zoom to 125%). You can access this function using the keyboard editor. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Interface) allowing you to have Zoom Player switch to fullscreen/zoom modes when starting to play new content. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Interface / OSD), allowing you to force all OSD Displays (Navigators, OSD Actions, Control Bar, etc...) to display relative to a specific position on screen (while in fullscreen) or locked to fullscreen on the active monitor. When enabled, it allows you to Zoom/Move the video without it having an effect on the positioning of the On Screen Display elements. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Interface / OSD / Fullscreen Navigation), allowing you to choose if you want to sort directories first (list the directories before listing any of the files) in the File and Media Library navigators. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Interface / OSD / Fullscreen Navigation), allowing you to choose if you want to include sub-directories when playing all files in a directory. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Playback), which by default tells Zoom Player to play the next file in the play list when the current file ends, but when disabled, Zoom Player will pause at the end of each file (useful for presentations). * New Setting (Advanced Options / Video / Aspect Ratio) allowing you specify which monitor you want Source Relative Stretch (Pixel Aspect Ratio) to apply to. * New Setting (Advanced Options / System) allowing you to blank (black-out) all secondary monitors (any monitor not currently playing video). * New Setting (Advanced Options / System) allowing you to enable the Internal Screen Saver for Audio-Only files (so that the Internal Screen Saver would kick-in even if the file is playing). * New Setting (Advanced Options / Playback / Windows Media) allowing you to use the "WMAPro over S/PDIF" DMO filter to output Windows Media Audio through the S/PDIF port. This setting requires that you use an external Receiver with Windows Media Audio capabilities. * New Setting (Skin Selector / Save Position). When enabled, each skin's position (window position and size) will be remembered on an individual basis. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Interface / Control Bar / Display), allowing you to position the control bar at the Top, Center or Bottom of the video area. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Fullscreen Navigation) allowing you to choose which navigation interfaces are to be listed on the Main Navigator. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Fullscreen Navigation), allowing you to enable a Safe Mode where potentially unsafe navigation functionality (cut/copy/paste/erase files) is hidden from the function list. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Fullscreen Navigation), allowing you show hidden files (default off). * New Setting (Advanced Options / Interface / On Screen Display / Audio Tags) allowing you to choose Auto-Hide the background folder image along with the tags. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Interface / Control Bar) allowing you to show the Control Bar when the mouse cursor is at the top of the screen. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Control Bar) allowing the Control Bar to hide automatically if the mouse cursor is moved a certain distance away from the control bar (50 pixels). * The mouse left click (DVD/Media), double click and middle click can now be assigned custom functions. * New Mouse Left-Click setting to only move the user interface window (without the ability to move the video while in fullscreen). * Support for DCoder's DC-DVB filter (a filter capable of using Zoom Player to view Digital-TV with TimeShifting) has been improved with new Teletext funtionality (number 0-9 to enter page numbers and Ctrl+"B" to switch Teletext on/off). Download the filter at "www.dsp-worx.de". * The Chapter Editor and GoTo dialog have been merged into a single interface. The new interface is easier to use and more powerful. * The Chapter Editor now allows you to input a time to seek to using an HH:MM:SS.ms structure. The input is pretty flexible, allowing variants such as H:M:S, M:S, S.ms, etc... * Pressing Ctrl+"V" in the Chapter Editor pastes the clipboard value into the "H:M:S.ms" Time field. * New Setting on the Chapter Editor allowing you to keep the dialog open even after seeking to a new position. (Useful for FanSub Editors) * The current time in MS is now visible on the Chapter Editor. * The Navigation Keyboard Macros (Up/Down/Left/Right/Select) can now have a custom function assigned to them when a navigator is not in use. * New "Remove Non-Exisiting Entries" button on the Play History interface, allowing you to remove old entries where the file no longer exists on the system. * New "On Play Complete" value of "Open Media Library". * New "/MEDIACAT:category name" command line parameter allowing you to open the media library navigator within the category selection screen when Zoom Player starts. Using "/MEDIACAT" alone will open the category list in the previously saved position, while specifying a category name would highlight a specific category, for example "/MEDIACAT:Music" would highlight the Music category. * Automatic support for Audio file folder image support by base name. For example, if you have "song.mp3" and "song.jpg" in the same directory, "song.jpg" will automatically load as a folder image. * New "FolderImage" Skin-Script function allowing you to draw the folder image anywhere within the main user interface. * The "VolumeExData", "BalanceExData" and "RateExData" Skin-Script functions can now use a Target parameter allowing you to place a Volume, Balance and Rate Control interfaces on the Play List Editor, Equalizer and Control Bar. * New Skin Script Active tag for determining if the main user interface window is maximized. * New Skin Script Active tag for determining if the skin selector interface is active. * New Skin Script Active tag for determining if the station manager interface is active. * New Skin Script Active tag for determining if the color control navigator is active. * New Skin Script Active tag for determining if the equalizer interface is active. * New Skin Script Active tag for determining if any navigation interface is active. * New Skin Script Active tag for determining if the media library editor interface is active. * New Skin Script Active tag for determining if the chapter editor/GoTo interface is active. * New Skin Script Active tag for determining if the play list editor interface is active. * New Skin Script Active tag for determining if the play list editor interface is maximized. * New Skin Script Commands allowing you to have Transparent elements within the timeline (both on the control bar and on the main user interface). * New Skin Script CreateExButton "ActiveHint" value, allowing you to change the button's hint value depending on the button active state. * New Skin Script CreateExButton "ActiveHoverX" and "ActiveHoverY" values, allowing you to set a button image when the button is both active and the mouse is hovering over it. * Entering a negative FunctionParam value on any of the group skin script functions ensures that the skin's window size remains unchanged (use with care). * New Skin Script "SearchFG" play list parameter, allowing you to set the font color for the search box. * New Skin Script command "CBarFontMargin" allowing you to specify side margins within the Control Bar timeline in which the font shouldn't be drawn. * New Skin Script command "TLineFontMargin" allowing you to specify side margins within the main GUI timeline in which the font shouldn't be drawn. * SHOUTcasted audio information (Title, Author, URL, Copyright, Description) can now be accessed by the following Skin-Script tags: <trackname>, <artistname>, <urllink>, <copyright>, <comment>. * New "<Volume>" Skin-Script tag, allowing you to display the current Audio Volume level percentage (0-100). * New "<FileIndex>" Skin-Script tag, allowing you to display the currently playing file's index number. * New "<VideoZoom>" Skin-Script tag, allowing you to display the current video zooming used in the window interface (affected by the Alt-"1..5" keys and the new "exZoomTo" function). * New "cBarTLMinWidth" Skin-Script constant allowing you to specify the minimum width of the Control Bar's TimeLine (default 64 pixels). * The Skin Selection dialog now has an "Uninstall" button. * New "RN" tag for the Zoom Player Play List file format (".zpl") instructing Zoom Player to randomize the play list once loaded. * New Communication API Messages "2610, 2611, 2620, 2621, 2630, 2631, 2640, 2641" allowing you to query the current video display area located within fullscreen mode and to set a new location/size. * New Communication API Messages "2700, 2701" allowing you to get and set the current Play Rate (Media Mode Fast Play/Slow Motion and DVD Mode Fast Forward/Slow Motion/Rewind rates). * New Communication API Message "5130" allowing you to execute navigational control functions. * New Communication API Message "2710" allowing you to query the Random Play state (it is also sent when the user changes the Random Play state). * New Communication API Message "1450" allowing you to request the Unique DVD Identifier information. * New DVD "Additional Filter", the "Trombettworks Channel Downmixer", http://www.trombettworks.com/directshow.php * The Nero DVD Navigator is now a DVD Navigator option. * New support for ".FLV" (Flash Video) files (used on YouTube and several other locations). You need a recent version of ffdshow (with the FLV1 codec support enabled) and the Gabest FLV Splitter to get the files to play. * New Smart Play support for WMV:AP (Windows Media Video:Advanced Profile). You also need updated Windows Media decoders to play this new format (the decoders come with WMP 11 and possibly in a decoder pack from Microsoft). * New Smart Play profiles for several uncommon AVI/MOV codecs. * New Smart Play profiles for WavPack Audio. * New 256x256 Windows VISTA icon. Changes : + The WMV DRM license acquisition code has been improved and you should no longer be required to use Windows Media Player to acquire licenses. + Zoom Player's image-scaling code has improved. This means a very nice speedup when drawing scaled image elements (navigators, background/folder images, etc...) and a slight improvement in image quality. (Licensed from Avery Lee's VirtualDub) + The Media Library Path Editor ("Shift+"M") interface has been restructured, making it clearer and easier to use. + The Skin Selection ("N") interface has been restructured, making it clearer and easier to use. + The Station Editor ("X") interface has been restructured, making it clearer and easier to use. + When running a new version for the first time, you will now be prompted only for important missing decoders. The full list can still be found in the options dialog. + The missing decoders list in the Advanced Options dialog has been split into a list of Important decoders and All decoders in order to emphasize that not all decoders listed are required for general day to day media playback. The Simple Options dialog will only show the Important decoders. + The Media Library navigator interface should work faster on networked drives and use less drive access. + The Media Library navigator will now only highlight the currently playing file once instead of constantly trying to highlight it. + The Media Library navigator now remembers the last path location for each category. + The erase navigator confirmation dialog now returns to the navigator it was called from. + The navigation interfaces can now work without any graphics (without the "NavData" directory). Won't look very good though. + Using the Next/Previous Track function with only one file in the play list will play the Next/Previous media file in the same directory (useful for picture browsing). + The Auto Show control bar when the cursor is at the screen's bottom now also Auto Shows the control bar when the cursor is at the screen's top. + The control bar no longer closes when opening a navigation interface while the control bar is detached. + When stay on top is enabled, the control bar remains accessible if it is detached from the user interface. + "Advanced Options / Interface / Control Bar / Buttons" no longer lists inaccessible functions. + The Information Dialog ("I" with a media file playing) now shows format information for the playing file (requires Smart Play enabled). + Integration into Windows Vista file association interface. Zoom Player should now appear as a supported program for all association extensions supported by Zoom Player. + A new value has been added to the "Select" (Enter key) allowing it to open the previously open navigator. + Switching display resolution while in fullscreen should now react better with the main window covering the full display in the new resolution. And if the display area covered the entire monitor, the display area is now modified to cover the new resolution. + Pressing Stop while already stopped (in media mode) will now return the playback position to its previous position. + The Default Play List skin has been tweaked a bit for usability and clarity. + The File and Media Library Navigators will now dynamically update their content when a removable media is inserted/removed. + When opening the File Navigator and the previous saved directory position no longer exists, the file navigator will go up through the directory path until a valid directory does exist or the root path for the drive is reached (previously, it would go straight to the root path). + The Blanking Navigator will now allow you to Enable/Disable Blanking. + The Control Bar will now have a minimum width of 64 pixels for the timeline and whatever space the active Control Bar buttons take. + The Mouse Cursor over the Volume, Rate Control, Balance and Equalizer bars will now use the "Hand Point" mouse cursor. + The Fast Play/Slow Motion rates have changes slightly. + Showing the Control Bar now hides the navigator interfaces. + Better streaming support. + Customized Media Playback has been renamed to "Smart Play". + Updated Smart Play profiles to account for Elecard v4's change of filter identifications. + The "Mouse Wheel" section of the Options Dialog has been renamed to "Mouse" and the "Mouse Toggles" section has moved under it. + The Skinning Constants "<filename>", "<filetitle>" and "<filebase>" in DVD Mode will now display the DVD Title instead of the file name (which when playing DVDs always points to "VIDEO_TS.IFO". This is simply more informative. + Pressing Enter in the Chapter Editor without any fields filled will now seek to the current position (useful for Subbing). + The Information Dialog (Press "I") now shows an approximate bitrate as calculated using size of the file being played when DirectShow doesn't return a valid bitrate. + Playing external audio tracks should now maintain proper synchronization when seeking. Playing external tracks will also create improved graphs. + The Sort by Date feature now sorts new files first. + "Play List Editor display moves to follow currently playing track" setting now centers the currently playing track within the list (instead of having it appear at the top of the list). + The White Wash pattern (Shift+"P") now ignores aspect ratio and moves the bar somewhat faster (previously it was too slow). + The Smart Play Source Filter selection now allows you to add DMO filters as post processors. + Improved shortcut support. When loading shortcuts, instead of loading the shortcut into the play list, the entry is replaced by the file the shortcut is pointing to. Furthermore, you can now use shortcut files in the file and media library navigators. + The TAG-Display background color now uses the user-specified Fullscreen Background color instead of Black. + The Browse for Folder dialog is now resizable. + The Sub-Type list on the Audio/Video Smart Play configuration dialog will now display the FourCC code for each Sub-Type. + The Girder Command export function now exports Zoom Player's functions in a more orderly list grouping function types into Girder categories. + The Key Edit dialog is now a bit more friendly. + The Blanking Navigator key has been changed from "K" to Shift+"K" in order to prevent accidental activation. + The File Navigator key has been changed from "E" to Shift"F" in order to prevent accidental activation. + The Scene-Cut and Chapter Editor interfaces now require the use of Zoom Player Professional. Fixes : - Executing external applications on Windows 95/98 could cause a crash. - Audio Renderers containing "00" in their device name (such as the "SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [A400]") could have disabled audio under some conditions. - Under certain conditions (such as logging a user out while Zoom Player is still running), Zoom Player would have crashed with an "Unhandled OS Exception" error. - Trying to run multiple instances all using the same TCP/IP port will no longer crash with a bind error. - Opening non-standard URLs (tivo:// for example) should now work from command line. - The Hide TaskBar setting could cause issues in VMR9 Renderless Exclusive mode. - Flash files should now play in the proper aspect ratio on display devices that do not use square pixels. - OSD Messages wider than the monitor will now be cut to fit the monitor. - Possible fix for VMR9 Renderless Exclusive fullscreen mode where tray icons may have flashed. - Shortcuts with targets using unicode paths are now supported. - Auto-Get duration would not work under certain conditions. - Under certain cases, loading play list files with relative paths would not always find the files. - Parameters in shortcut files are no longer ignored. - Zoom Player can now use/display BMP files created with Photoshop. (Recent versions of PhotoShop create improperly formatted BMP files). - Zoom Player user interface elements will now snap to the Visible Work Area (Task Bar rather than the Monitor border). - The mouse cursor would not hide properly when using the internal image decoder or the Flash/HTML/QuickTime ActiveX controls. - When Zoom Player was set to save its configuration file locally, or when using an alternative window name, Zoom Player would not load files from external programs if it was already open. - Auto-Disable DVD Subtitles and Preferred DVD Subtitles are now mutually exclusive (with warning message). - Opening a new file with the mouse cursor hidden and the control bar visible would hide the mouse cursor to the point it wouldn't show again. - When Detached, The Control Bar can now be resized from the right as well as the left sides of the interface. - Better handling of filters that change the duration of the currently playing media in real-time (such as TSFileSource). - The navigation interfaces would not display properly on a secondary monitor under certain conditions. - You should now be able to erase the currently playing file from within the Media Library Navigator. - Mid-Stream aspect ratio changes should now work better (was not working well when switching DVB TV-Channels). - Switching to Audio Mode from DVD Mode and then back to DVD Mode would load the Media Mode skin instead of the DVD Mode skin. - A few stability tweaks to the skin parsing engine (better handling of badly written skin-script). - The setting to prevent Zoom Player from using Smart Play by the extension of the file being played was not working properly. - Fixed a possible stability issue with Smart Play and problematic filters. - A System-Sound would play when trying to exit Zoom Player using the TCP Interface. - The Hand Icon used over the Volume/Balance/Play Rate controls was not the windows hand icon, this is now fixed. - The Definition File "SetAudioSync" setting wasn't being applied when playing DVDs. - Using the "/F" or "/Z" parameters while Zoom Player is already fullscreen on a secondary monitor could cause the display to move to the primary monitor. - The Change Resolution on Fullscreen feature may not have properly covered the video area. - The Search area background color on the Play List Editor was not being set properly for the default skin. - External Control Bar buttons (not part of the control bar button list) would not show under certain conditions. - Having blanking enabled should no longer obscure the navigation interfaces. - Audio TAGs (ID3) would not position properly in some cases. - Opening directories would not always sort them properly. - When ejecting DVDs as they are playing, Zoom Player may have tried to automatically replay them causing a DVD Not Found error to pop. - Setting the mouse left click to move the video area would not work in fullscreen mode. - The Navigator Background skin code definition would only accept the image if it existed in the root skin directory. - The Navigator Background skin code definition was ignored if no icon file was set. - Automatic Save/Restore of the last position for ".dvr-ms" and ".ts" files was not working correctly. - Scene-Cut would malfunction under certain conditions (especially when trying to use it in combination with ".dvr-ms" files). - The Play List Editor Window sizes would glitch if closing Zoom Player while the Play List Editor was maximized. - When Zoom Player was set to disable the Windows Screen Saver in fullscreen mode, it could under some conditions cause hardware powerdown not to activate after Zoom Player was closed. - Having a Volume/Balance/Play Rate bar on either the Control Bar, Equalizer or Play List interfaces would disappear when going fullscreen. - When scrolling on the Play History or the Key Editor, the screen will now update while scrolling. - Audio files will now be listed in the Play History even if the setting not to remember the last position for audio files is enabled. - Removing the currently playing file from the play list would not clear the file name from the Task Bar or Tray Icon. - Adding Chapters/Bookmarks would not automatically make the new Chapters/Bookmarks accessible in certain cases. - The "<track>" Skin Script value wasn't being cleared when a file was closed. - Sorting the play list could lead to the currently playing item highlight on the play list editor to show the wrong file. - Moving items in the Play List up/down could fail on unicode files. - The Bookmark/Chapter Navigator would not support unicode chapter descriptions. - The Gradient skin commands were not being effected by the skin tint. - Several Option dialog tabs may have not translated properly when a unicode translation was used. - Using a forced duration value in a Zoom Player Play List file would carry over the duration to the next file in the play list if it did not have a forced duration. - The Pop-Up OSD Action message would not show Unicode characters properly under some conditions. - Pressing Enter in the Station Navigator when the navigator contained no entries would have caused a crash. - Switching from DVD Mode to Audio Mode and trying to select a different skin, would set the skin to the DVD Mode and not the Audio Mode. - Closing the Player when the screen saver is active on a secondary monitor caused Zoom Player to crash and not close properly. - Opening a URL from the command line would have caused it to open using uppercase, which some servers would not accept as a correct location for the item. - Communication API Message 2500 would only transmit if a specific play on insert setting was enabled. It will now always transmit if a new disc/drive was inserted. - Communication API Message 1850 did not properly support UTF8 file names. - Enabling the TCP/IP interface using an Extended Function did not properly enable the interface. - Holding Alt+Enter (fullscreen) for a several seconds straight could cause a crash. - Some cosmetic glitches when using XP Themes. - Grid Interfaces (Play History, Key Editor etc...) now respect the windows color scheme.What's new in v4.51:
New : * The Zoom Player Function Selection dialog (accessible through several interfaces) contain a new search function, allowing you to search through Zoom Player's 100's of functions. * New button on the Keyboard Editor's Add/Edit key interface allowing you to select a function from the Function Selection Dialog instead of the drop-down list. * The Intergrated Keyboard Editor contains a new search function. * New Search function on the Play History dialog. * New "Dot Crawl" Test Pattern (Shift+"P"). Dot Crawl is the effect caused by using Composite cables where the Color and Brightness signals are transferred on the same wire. S-Video partially eliminates this problem and Component Cables should eliminate it completely. * New H263 Customized Media Playback video profile. * New AMR Customized Media Playback audio profile. * With the two changes above, you can now play 3GP files over DirectShow. Currently, this requires the use of the Haali Media Splitter with the MP4 setting checked during installation and FFDShow with AMR enabled for the Audio Decoder and H263 enabled for the Video Decoder. * New Communication API #2600 Message, allowing you to set the Derived Aspect ratio of the currently playing video. * New Comm API messages #1704. Changes : + Resizing of Skinned Windows (Main UI/Play List/Control Bar) should now be (quite?) a bit faster. + The "Allow EXT anywhere in name" checkbox for the Archive Playback function now requires that the extension contained within the file name be followed by a period. + Changes to how DVD Next/Previous chapter operates, might be a bit faster (on our test systems, chapter changes are now instantaneous). + The setting that controls whether the Increase/Decrease Rate function uses Fast Forward/Rewind or Fast Play/Slow Motion will not effect the Increase Rate/Decrease Rate functions and not only the user interface control. + The Customized Media Playback profile for MP4 files will now support the 3GP file format (which is basically the same file format). + Zoom Player no longer defaults to using the QuickTime Active-X control for the playback of 3GP files (video format used mainly on cell phones) as there is a DirectShow alternative which is much more reliable. + The "exSetMode" function can now be used to discretely set Zoom Player to Audio Mode (instead of the usual function which is an ON/OFF toggle). + Added a few safety checks so that badly formatted Communication API messages won't cause Zoom Player to crash. + Erasing a file through the navigator interfaces should no longer erase all the files with the same base name. Fixes : - Dragging the video window to a different monitor or switching resolutions while a video is playing should no longer cause DVDs to restart! This has been a long time issue which is hopefully finally resolved. - Fixed a "List Index out of Bounds" error when using the Halli Media Splitter filter along with the Preferred Subtitle stream feature. - Sending Comm API message #1600/#1700 would return a stream's name instead of its index number. - If the Play List Editor was Magnetized and the Equalizer was not, opening the equalizer would open it in a magnetized position instead of its last position. - The Random Play button on the Play List Editor would show an incorrect bitmap when enabled (cosmetic glitch). - Color control changes should work better when the color changes are done while paused in Media Mode. - It should now be impossible for the Control Bar to appear if the internal screen saver is visible. - Manual DVD Graph mode would keep prompting you to set the DVD decoders if Customzied DVD Graph mode did not have decoder entries selected. - You can now switch to Audio Mode even when in fullscreen. - You can now switch to Audio Mode from DVD Mode.What's new in v4.50:
New : * IMPORTANT! All VMR7/9 settings have changed. If you have previously selected VMR7/9 as your video renderer, make sure to re-select. * IMPORTANT! Several key Microsoft features that involve the playback of WMV/WMA files have changed. It is required that you to re-install Windows Media Player 10. Even if you already have it installed or are not planning to use it as a player (Windows Media Player contains component that effect playback of all other players). You need at least version "10.00.00.3802" installed. * Zoom Player can now play WMV (Windows Media Video) DRM level 2000 content! * New Advanced Play List Control Interface in Zoom Player Professional. Can be opened by pressing "J" (Or the "Wand" button on the Play List Editor). This new interface opens up advanced search and management controls to the play list. Similar to WinAmp's jump dialog, but allowing multiple search queries, moving selected items to the top/bottom of the list, removing selected items from the list, etc... * The Play List Navigator has been enhanced to accept the Navigational Insert key to toggle selection of the currently highlighted play list entry. This ties into the above functions to allow you to re-order multiple items at once. The color used for file selection is selectable under "Advanced Options / OSD / Navigators". * New Magnetic Hard Docking functions (fnPLMagToggle, fnEQMagToggle) and Buttons on the Equalizer and Play List Editor. When activated, Zoom Player will try to make these interfaces always-docked onto the main user interface and auto-adjusting to remain on screen and retain position as the user interface is moved and resized. When either interface is magnetized, the standard snap-docking is disabled for that interface. * New functions "fnIncPreAmp" (Ctrl+Home) and "fnDecPreAmp" (Ctrl+End) allowing to Increase/Decrease the PreAmp volume. * The "fnPLItemUp" and "fnPLItemDown" functions which allow you to move items up and down within the Play List have now been assigned keyboard macros of "Alt+PgUp" and "Alt+PgDn". These functions have also been extended to update the Play List Navigator, so that you can now re-order items within the Play List using a remote. * Zoom Player now includes an integrated key editor allowing you to assign Zoom Player functions to any key or compatible Multimedia device (such as Multimedia keyboards and 4-Button Mice). You can edit the keys separately for either DVD or Media modes through the Advanced Options Key dialog by pressing the "Edit" button next to the custom key file selection. Pressing Edit with no key file specified will allow you to select a new file in which to save the updated key map. * New Station Navigator allowing you to navigator through Radio Stations. * With the Gracious help of Milenko Mitrovic, The Station Manager can now fetch the Top-500 SHOUTcast radio stations (Internet connection required) and let you add them to the Station Manager or play them directly. * New Button on the Station Editor allowing you to play a new station by appending the station to the play list instead of clearing the play list. * Zoom Player now supports playback of segmented MPEG-2 Transport files (as in multiple files representing one video) as one file using the NVIDIA MultiSource DirectShow filter (shipping with ForceWare 4.xx). When the filter is specified as a source filter in Customized Media Playback (Options / Filter Control / Customized Media Playback), Zoom Player will try to automatically match additional file segments using the Zoom Player auto segment matching feature (Options / Values / Other) which can now use Regular Expressions (see below). This feature requires Zoom Player Professional. * Zoom Player now supports the PNG image format for Background Images, Folder images, Skinning Elements and the Internal Image Viewer (which now can also view Windows BMP files). * New "White Wash" Pattern (Shift+"P"). White Wash is a mechanism that allows you to wash out the burn-in effect of Plasma Televisions. Prolonged use of Plasma televisions can sometime burn a signal onto the screen if left on for too long. Popular examples of this is when watching a lot of the same TV Channel and having the Station's Logo burned into the screen. When enabling white-wash, a white bar will move very slowly across your screen (one pixel every 10 seconds) which over a few hours should wash away any of the burn-in effects. * New "Gradients" Pattern (Shift+"P"). Useful for seeing the color range of your display device. * Zoom Player now supports external Matroska Chapter files (".mtxchp" extension). The support is optional (Advanced Options / Settings / Playback) as doing file searches when opening files causes a slight slowdown (probably not noticeable, but it accumulates). * Zoom Player now supports CUE Chapter files (".cue" extension). The support is optional (Advanced Options / Settings / Playback) as doing file searches when opening files causes a slight slowdown (probably not noticeable, but it accumulates). * Zoom Player now supports internet based playlists. This should help some MMS streams which are linked to by an ASX file. * You can now specify different file names to be used for different skinning elements (such as Equalizer, Play List and On Screen Display). * New Enchancement to the Skinning code, allowing you to specify a negative group value to make sections of the skin only activate if the specified skin group is disabled. * 12 new Dynamic Skinning Variables allowing you to display TAG Information (ID3/APE/WMV/OGM/etc...) on the skin. The new constants are: <trackname>, <genre>, <track>, <language>, <artistname>, <albumname>, <year>, <authorname>, <encoder>, <comment>, <urllink>, <copyright>. * New "NoTintSource" Skin script command enabling you to exclude sections of the skin bitmap from being tinted by the skin selection dialog's tinting controls. * New "ToggleInterface" Skin script command that can be used to show or hide some of the Zoom Player user interfaces as the skin loads. * Extended the "PlayListData" Skinning script command to enable specifying the font used by the play list. You can still override the font through the Advanced Options dialog. Furthermore, the "PlayListData" command now included extended documentation for additional functionality. * New Target Parameter on the CreateExButton and DrawExText skin commands allowing you to create Button and Text labels on the Control Bar (outside the Dynamic-Button area). * Extended the "DrawExText" Skinning script command to support all function modes previously only supported by "CreateExButton". * DVD External (as-in not part of the DVD itself) subtitles can now be loaded automatically by placing a subtitle file with "disc" as the base name within either the directory the VIDEO_TS.IFO exists in, or in the DVD Bookmark directory for the playing disc (which is created once the disc is played once). For example: C:\Movie Backup\My Movie\disc.sub or C:\Zoom Player\DVD-Bookmarks\MY_MOVIE.2F751008DCF7124A\disc.srt You must also make sure that DirectVobSub is set as an Additional DVD Filter. Any subtitle extension with the base name of "disc" is searched when trying to auto-load a subtitle file. * Trying to run Zoom Player when it's already running will bring the current Zoom Player window to the front. * New Control file ("zplayer.regfilters") allowing you to automatically and dynamically register/unregister and set/remove registry settings when Zoom Player is opened/closed. This is especially useful for USB Flash Drives (UFD Devices), See: https://inmatrix.com/zplayer/highlights/mobile.shtml * New Setting (Advanced Options / DVD / DVD Setup / Customized) allowing you to specify the Video ColorSpace that the video renderer should try to connect at. This should be a relatively safe option as Zoom Player will try to fall back to the default ColorSpace connection if the specified mode doesn't connect. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Aspect Ratio) allowing you to Enable/Disable support for Anamorphic Matroska files. This is optional as when DirectVobSub (VSFilter) is enabled with the option to extend the video to a different aspect ratio, it will corrupt the aspect ratio on such files. * New Setting (Advanced Options / OSD / Actions) allowing you to have a hint box pop when the mouse cursor is over the timeline indicating where the seek would go when clicked (enabled by default). * New Setting (Advanced Options / Settings / Interface) allowing automatic switching to Audio Mode when a media file containing no video stream is loaded. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Settings / Interface) allowing automatic switching to Media Mode when a media file containing a video stream is loaded (and you are currently in Audio Mode). * New Setting (Advanced Options / Settings / Interface) that controls whether the options dialog is forced to appear on the active monitor (default to on). When disabled, the Options Dialog position is remembered across multiple monitors. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Settings / Other), enabling you to have Zoom Player save its configuration in a local file within the Zoom Player directory ("zplayer.local"). The benefit of this feature is that it allows you to run Zoom Player from external devices such as USB Flash Drives (UFD devices) while maintaining your personal settings across multiple systems. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Filter Control / Settings) allowing you to have VMR9 Renderless mode work in exclusive fullscreen mode. When this mode is enabled, certain ZP features will get broken. Basically any OSD and Navigation interface, including the context-menu. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Filter Control / Settings) allowing you to enable YUV Mixing mode on the VMR Video Renderers (VMR7/VMR9). This mode may reduce CPU/GPU use on some systems. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Filter Control / Settings), allowing you to force VMR Video Renderers from trying to compensate for the Video Aspect Ratio. This setting can help prevent resize artifacts with certain video formats (similar to the VMR9 Resize Fix). You need at least Windows XP Service Pack 2 for this feature to work. * New Value (Advanced Options / Filter Control / Customized Media / Settings) allowing you to disable Customized Media Playback for a list of specified extensions. * New Value (Advanced Options / DVD / DVD Tools) allowing you to automatically execute an external application/script when a PAL disc is identified. * New Value (Advanced Options / DVD / DVD Tools) allowing you to automatically execute an external application/script when an NTSC disc is identified. * New Value (Advanced Options / DVD / DVD Tools) allowing you to automatically execute an external application/script when a DVD is stopped. * New Setting (Advanced Options / DVD / DVD Tools) allowing you to have Zoom Player wait for "On NTSC/PAL/DVD Stop" executed programs to close prior to Playing/Stopping the DVD. * New Value (Advanced Options / Values / Play List) allowing the Title extracted from Media Tags (ID3v1/ID3v2/APE Tag/WMA Tag/Etc...) to be used instead of the file name. Media Tags are only extracted when a file is opened, Scanned by the "Get Media Duration" function on the Play List Right-Click context menu or Automatically scanned by specifying the file extension under: "Advanced Options / Values / Extensions -> Auto-Get Duration/Title". * New Setting (Advanced Options / Values / Play List) allowing the Play List Editor display to follow the currently playing track. * New Value (Advanced Options / Values / Interface) allowing you to specify the distance (in pixels) the mouse cursor needs to move to be shown once it was automatically hidden. * New Value (Advanced Options / Values / Interface) allowing you to specify a delay after closing a media file. This can be useful with some filters that may not close themselves properly if not given such a delay. * New Value (Advanced Options / Values / Other) allowing you to specify a default file to open in the web navigator if no specific file exists for the currently opened Media/DVD. * New OSD Value (Options / OSD / Actions) allowing you to have a hint box pop when the mouse cursor is over the timeline indicating where the seek would go when clicked (enabled by default). * New "/DVDBM" Command Line Parameter allowing you to specify a DVD bookmark file from command line. For example: "/dvdbm:c:\zplayer\DVD-Bookmarks\DVDVOLUME.2E662BB6D20F0ECF\start.chp" * New "/CPR" command line parameter allowing you to set a color present. For example: "c:\program files\zoom player\zplayer.exe" /CPR:2 * New "/TCP:[port]" command line parameter which enables the Zoom Player TCP/IP interface. Using just the "/TCP" parameter will enable the interface on the current port, using "/TCP:4096" will enable the interface on port 4096. * New Command Line Parameter "/CLOSE" allowing you to close a currently running instance of Zoom Player from the command line. * New Customized Media Profiles for Nero Digital filters, including H264 playback (using nero file-reader with FFDShow as the decoder). * New Customized Media Profile for ".ms-dvr" files. For it to work, you must download the MS-DVR patch from the Microsoft Windows Update web site. * New Customized Media Profiles for the new OpenSource DScaler decoders (MPEG/AC3/DTS Audio and MPEG-2 Video). * New Customized Media Playback profiles for LPCM MPEG Audio. * Radio Stations are now based on user defined names instead of just the URL. You can also rename stations now. * New Button on the "Advanced Options / Association" page allowing you to set the Zoom Player icon to all associated file extensions. * New Button on the "Advanced Options / Association" page allowing you to select all Audio Extensions. * New Button on the "Advanced Options / Association" page allowing you to select all Video Extensions. * New Button on the "Advanced Options / Association" page allowing you to remove all selected extensions. * Zoom Player should now appear on the "Open With" windows dialog on all supported formats, even if they are not specifically associated with Zoom Player. * Support for the NVIDIA DVD Navigator. Not really sure it works well as a DVD Navigator, but feel free to give it a shot. * Support for the FFDShow RAW Video Processor Sub-Filter as a DVD Post-Processing filter. This filter comes with newer (as of the last few months) of FFDShow and doesn't require you to enable RAW mode in the filter dialog itself. * New Customized DVD Profile for the GPL DVD/MPEG decoder: http://sourceforge.net/projects/gplmpgdec/ * New Customized Media Profile for DV Video. * New profiles to support the Haali Media Splitter under Customized Media Mode. * New Functions (Alt+Shift+"+" and Alt+Shift+"-") allowing you to reposition the Subtitle vertical position in media files (when the DirectVobSub filter is used to display subtitles). * New Functions (Alt+Ctrl+"+" and Alt+Ctrl+"-") allowing you to resync Subtitles in media files (when the DirectVobSub filter is used to display subtitles). * New Function (Alt+Ctrl+"D") that pops an OSD with the current date and time. * New Function allowing you to open the directory of the currently highlighted file in the play list within Explorer. This function is now accessible on the right-click Play List context menu. * New Extended Function "exEjectDrive" allowing you to Eject/Insert a specified removable drive. * New Extended Function "exEnableTCP" allowing you to enable the TCP/IP interface on a specific port. * New File Definition function allowing you to set the Audio Synchronization offset value. * New "zplayer.zdf" Definition function allowing you to automatically save the Audio Synchronization offset value. * New Dummy Function (doesn't do anything, can be useful for skinning). * New Keyboard Macro (Ctrl+"U") and Function (fnSceneCutToggle) allowing you to enable/disable the Scene Cut feature. * Ctrl+C now copies the content of a Red error message to the clipboard. Changes : + The Main GUI on the default skin has changed. Some buttons graphics have been changed to be more windows-centric. The Eject and Options buttons have been dropped (still accessible through the keyboard and the right-click context menu). The Equalizer and Switch to Audio Mode buttons have been moved in place of the Options and Eject buttons. The Minimalistic mode button has been removed (still accessible in several modes through the keyboard F4-F7 keys). + The Play List Editor GUI on the default skin has changed. By default, most of the buttons are no longer visible (their functionality is accessible through the right-click context menu). However, by pressing the "+" button, you can have the Extra Controls appear. + When Customized Media Playback fails to create a working graph for media files, standard mode will now retain the Audio and Video Renderer selection as used under Customized Media. + The Windows Media settings have been moved under the Filter Control section of the Advanced Options Dialog. + Using the Next/Previous Track function while in Fast Forward or Rewind will do a Time Seek (default 2 minutes). + Using the Next/Previous Chapter function while in Fast Forward or Rewind will do a Time Jump (default 20 seconds). + The DVD Next/Previous Chapter buttons now also act as Next/Previous titles when you're currently playing the last or first chapters. + Using Next/Previous frame while playing will now pause the video (instead of doing nothing). + Auto-Get of Media File Duration/Title should now work better with formats such as CD Audio, Monkey Audio, FLAC Audio and MPC. + Playing Radio Stations will now show the station name on the Play List Editor if "Use Media Title" is enabled under "Advanced Options / Values / Play List". + Zoom Player can now use Regular Expressions (www.regexpstudio.com) when matching Auto-Segment (Options / Values / Other) file loading (this feature is disabled by default). Regular Expressions allow for much greater string matching capabilities but take quite a bit more CPU power. Using the open dialog to open 100's of files may mean a massive CPU hit (opening directories doesn't have this issue). If you previously set a customized Auto-Segment mask, you will need to update your Auto-Load masking values. The previous method of auto-loading segments is still available as it's much easier to use than Regular Expressions and takes much less CPU power. + Zoom Player's Window Snapping has been improved. When a window is docked to the main user interface, dragging the main user interface will now also drag any attached windows. + You should now be able to click badly authored DVD Menus and Interactive DVD Branching (DVD Menus within actual DVD Footage). + The Customized Media Mode Source Filter configuration dialog now allows you to specify a filter-chain (previously you could only select one filter). + With "Prevent VMR Video Renderers from correcting Aspect Ratio" (Advanced Options / Filter Control / Settings) enabled, you should now be able to turn off "Fix VMR9 Scaling Bug" and have improved aspect ratio compatibility when playing certain WMV titles (T2:UE, Taxi3, etc...) in VMR9 mode. + The Pattern Images (Shift+"P") now respect the current Aspect Ratio and the Pixel Aspect Ratio (Source Relative Stretch) which makes them better suited for manually aligning the Aspect Ratio. + Removed the white border on the gradients pattern, it was bleeding and making gradients harder to evaluate. + The skin selection dialog has been changed so that single clicking on a selected skin will apply that skin while double clicking will apply the skin and close the dialog. + When loading a skin that is missing a skinning element (such as skin data for the Equalizer, Play List or On Screen Display), the default skinning elements will be used instead. + Extended the "exInterface" function to support more interfaces. + You can now set a Hint value for the Volume, Play Rate and Audio Balance Controls. + Major Enhancement to the Communication interface. + When entering hours/minutes/seconds on the GoTo dialog, entering two digits will now go to the next cell automatically. + The Internal Format database has been updated with newly released decoders (such as the DScaler filters and the improved MP3 decoder). + Shoutcasted currently playing audio track will now be listed in the tray icon tool tip and on the application task bar (if the setting to show the currently playing file in the task bar is enabled). + You can now specify a Down Active bitmap using the CreateExButton Skin script function. + Any RGB value entered as part of the skin script can now contain an "NT" suffix to specify that the color shouldn't be tinted. For example: FillRect(4,4,<VidWidth>,<VidHeight>,000000NT) + The FillRectNT skin function has become obsolete as you can now specify which RGB values should not be tinted. + The "AddBarButton" skinning function has become obsolete. It is now replaced with the CreateExButton with a target value of "CBar". This allows access for a few more settings for the buttons. There are some limitations, read the function documentation (within brownish.skn) for more information regarding the limitations. + The "DrawExText" skinning function can now show a hint label. + Zoom Player will now automatically associate the ZPL (Zoom Player Play List) extension upon first run. + The Media Library navigator will now open to the location of the currently open file if the file resides anywhere within the media library paths (previously it would only open the root locations). + When deleting items using the Navigator interfaces, the deleted item name will now appear as part of the confirmation dialog. + Context Navigator now supports the Tab (Ascii #9) Character for use in right-alignment of text as used in the regular Context Menu. + Communication messages 1600 and 1700 have changed. They now give an audio/subtitle track index instead of the name (which is now delivered for all available streams in a new message). + The Filter selector interface is now resizable. + The "Dock Play list to Main user interface" setting has been dropped as it has been replaced by the screen snapping and magnetized hard docking features. + The "External" tab on the Advanced Options page has been updated to support the latest version of the WinDVD Decoder. + Auto Stream Selection should now work with the Haali Media Splitter. + Zoom Player now supports stream switching with the Haali Media Splitter filter (which can be used to split Matroska and MP4 files). + Extended the "exInterface" function to support more interfaces. + The Brownish skin is no longer part of the official distribution, but would still be available through the Zoom Player Skin site. Fixes : - Zoom Player should function again on Windows NT4. - Fixed a "Divide by Zero" problem with some decoders that returned invalid aspect ratio information. - The /AR command line did not accept "0" (disabled AR) as a valid parameter. - Some language files may have gotten only partially loaded under certain conditions. - The "click here to search" text entry on the play list editor may not have gotten its translated text to appear properly. - When switching between various DVD decoding/rendering filters, a DVD bookmark may not get loaded properly (due to how Microsoft handles DVD Bookmarks) and cause playback to stop. Zoom Player will now intercept this call and erase the offending bookmark so once Play is clicked again, the DVD should play normally. - Playing DVDs in VMR9 Windowless mode may not always clear the top/bottom sections of the screen when the aspect ratio mode changes. - "DVD Auto-Execute" values should now properly pass parameters to the executed programs. - Inserting a CD/DVD with no content should no longer close the playing media and clear the play list. - Zoom Player now Intercepts when applications try to artificially maximize its window when loading and will maximized itself accordingly (instead of weird glitches showing up). - Zoom Player no longer checks if a file exists before adding it to the play list when the file is in fact a URL address. - While in Audio Mode, the Audio Bar will not be resized when a new file is loaded and Auto Set user interface to Source Resolution is enabled. - Trying to load an 0 byte play list or playing a non-existant play list off the internet could cause a crash. - Fixed "List Index out of Bounds" error when trying to play SHOUTcast streams that contained no actual audio streams. - Loading a QuickTime ".MOV" file using the ActiveX component with the Zoom Player user interface set to auto-resize to the content source size should no longer show a cropped initial image. Now try saying that fast 3 times. - Fixed a problem when Enqueue from external applications that could cause a ghost window to flash and possibly cause the Zoom Player skin to corrupt. - Loading "ASX" play lists that contain certain character tags should now work. - Loading an ASX play list with non-UTF8 encoded non-english character sets should now work more reliably. - Having Auto-Size user interface to maintain video aspect ratio enabled would prevent resizing of the user interface in audio mode. - Fixed a cosmetic navigator display issue where the width of unicode strings was not calculated properly. - Unicode text may not have been displayed properly in some of the dialog bevel elements. - Timeline text may have not been properly centered if unicode characters were part of the text. - Fixed a small memory leak when playing SHOUTcast streams. - Fixed a problem with WMA/APE tags containing unicode characters. - Fixed a problem with Zoom Player's Next/Previous Chapter commands not working properly with certain media files. - Fix for error "10054" in the TCP/IP communication interface. - Setting the Player Thread Priority would not have an effect until the player was restarted. Now the effect is instant. - When specifting a default file navigator starting path, the starting file index was not always correct. - The Context Navigator should now show the correct stream selection list each time it is opened. - Sorting by "Date" was actually only sorting by "Day" and not the exact date. - When exporting the Zoom Player settings, you would get a message saying that there was an error. This was cosmetic as the settings were exported correctly. - You can now use negative values on Text/Button skin positioning. - Under some conditions the File Navigator would not remember the last path. - DVD NumPad commands should now work outside of menus. - Could not create new Customized Media profiles. - Using the Mouse Wheel to move the window/video was broken. - When extracting Archive files, Zoom Player will now let you know when it's unable to extract the file. - Switching Audio Mode skins (or skin modes) would wrongly accept a skin width below the minimal skin width specified by the skin author. - Switching skins while in fullscreen would not show proper active value for certain buttons. - Fixed a bug where enabling auto-size window to fit source size could cause the image to appear in the wrong position and possibly corrupt the skin. - The Scene Cut feature was not saving MS values properly. - The mouse wheel video positioning functions should now work regardless of what the keyboard arrow functions are set to. - When the "Remember Last Media Position" and "Stop closes media files" settings are enabled, the last media position will be remembered properly. - The Internal Screen Saver will now cover the entire screen area and not just the screen area active by the current Aspect Ratio (navigator interfaces were not hidden by the screen saver). Also, file names appearing in the screen saver can now contain unicode characters. - Enabling/Disabling Button Hints on the Basic Options dialog wouldn't have had an effect until you restarted. - Couldn't toggle Button Hints for the Equalizer dialog. - Loading GraphEdit ".GRF" files will no longer throw an error when Customized Media Playback mode is enabled. - Fixed a bug in the SendMessage API that would report a wrong DVD/Media mode. - Comm Message #1930 wasn't updating the play list properly.What's new in v4.03:
New : * Some new functionality in the Communication interface. Changes : + If you were using a custom keyboard file with versions prior to 4.02, navigation keys may not work unless you rebuild the custom file with the new "nvAddKey" commands (see default.key). Fixes : - Fixed a "List Index Out of Bounds" error on the customized media playback configuration dialog when pressing the "Update Selected Profile" button with no profiles selected. - Fixed a "List Index Out of Bounds" error when trying to open an Archive file that contained no media files. - The Disable VMR7 Overlay setting (Options / Filter Control / Settings) had the opposite intended function. - Fixed Freezes when opening files with multiple audio tracks. - Fixed a cosmetic glitch on the DVD Context Menu under certain languages.What's new in v4.02:
New : * When enabling Customized Media Playback, Zoom Player will now scan all the customized media profiles to make sure each profile is registered on your system. If a profile is not registered then Zoom Player will go through all the profiles in a category to see if it can find one that is registered. This removes the requirements for initially setting each profile manually. * More functions added to the TCP/IP interface. * New Setting that allows you to disable Overlay on the VMR7 renderer (Advanced Options / Filter Control / Settings). * AC3Filter profile for Customized DVD filters. * H264 profile for Customize Media Mode using the VideoSoft decoders. http://www.videosoftinc.com/decoders.html * Skin files can now be grouped within directories under the Skins dir. * New skin constants <LTimeRemain>, <LTime> and <LDuration>. Changes : + Quite a few error and warning messages have changed from the standard windows error dialog to the Red-Box Zoom Player dialog so that the error messages could be dismissed using a remote device (requires a new export of the girder command file). + Zoom Player Girder GML export now uses PostMessage instead of SendMessage, which is required to close certain dialogs. + Zoom Player no longer reserves any keys, you can now assign any function to any key for complete keyboard automation. + Per the change above, The Space key has been set as a standard function (fnSpace). The navigation keys have been split to a new set of navigation class (see default.key for more information). + Workaround for certain versions of the NVIDIA ForceWare (NVDVD) v3.xx filters not working with Zoom Player. + When the main window is minimized, opening a new file through an external program (such as explorer) won't make the window reappear. + MPEG-2 Transport has been given its own path in customized media mode so that you can pick a different video decoder for standard MPEG-2 and for MPEG-2 Transport. Since the formats are essentially the same, the distinction is done by the file extensions of the playing files (TS/TP/TSP considered MPEG-2 Transport, every other extension is assumed to be standard MPEG-2). + The Red Error dialog now resizes to fit the content of the error message. + Switched to a different EXE compressor. Fixes : - Filter Blacklisting was broken in Zoom Player Standard. - When not logged in with administrator privlages, a user should still be able to see which decoders are missing on the system and which decoders are currently installed for the various formats. - Color Controls were not working in DVD VMR9 Windowed mode. - With Control Bar disabled from showing in Window Mode and set to always show in Fullscreen mode when playing Audio files, the control bar wouldn't hide when exiting fullscreen mode. - Auto-DVD Subtitle selection could fail under certain conditions. - Aspect Ratio with certain WMV files (T2:UE, Taxi3) should now work correctly as long as you use VMR9 as the video renderer and disable the "Fix VMR9 Scaling Bug" setting (Advanced Options / Filter Control). - The "Auto-Get Duration for Media Extension" value didn't save properly under some conditions. - Fix for a crash when playing Matroska files with a stream description over 127 characters long. - When using Inverse Scene Cut, the current file would play in a loop between the cut segments instead of moving to the next track. - The filter versions shown on the Formats / System dialog were for the wrong files. - File sorting in the File Navigator would glitch on certain conditions. - Zoom Player should now catch file-corruption error when opening the zplayer.playcache file. - Fixed a 1-pixel cosmetical glitch in the playlist editor. - Fixed a few cosmetic glitches with the Windows XP theme.What's new in v4.00:
New : * Zoom Player Professional has been split into a third version. "Zoom Player WMV Professional" is a seperate version of Zoom Player which is capable of playing DRM encoded Windows Media files. Due to the licensing fees involved in playing DRM content files, Zoom Player WMV Professional requires a purchase upgrade from any previous version of Zoom Player. In order to play DRM files you must first obtain the DRM license by using Windows Media Player 9 to obtain the license, or with certain WM-DVD discs, just by inserting the disc in the drive for the first time (note that license can expire after several sessions). You must also download this patch from microsoft which fixes important issues with Windows Media DRM playback: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;823738 * Zoom Player now has an Audio-Bar mode. Playing files in the Audio-Bar mode will disable any video output and certain features that relate to video output and navigation. There is also a new Audio-Bar default skin element with 3 visual configuration (F4/F5/F6). You can switch to Audio-Bar mode by pressing F2, or using the new skin button. * Double clicking on the file name area will now switch between Audio mode and DVD Mode. * The Navigator Interfaces have been rewritten from scratch. Most of the functionality has remained the same, but the graphical elements have a clearer look and are now skinnable. Here are the usability changes: - The File Navigator 1. Switching between the file and drive listing is now done using the left/right (directions switched). 2. The right direction in the file navigator will go up a directory where possible. 3. The current path is now always visible. - The Play List Navigator: 1. The design has changed entirely, the display is now split into three regions, the main play list, the current directory for the highlighted file and a mini file browser. 2. When the Play List items are active, pressing the Left button will remove the currently highlighted item from the list. 3. When using the Up/Down buttons within the Play List items, the file browser will automatically switch the current location of the highlighted file. 4. The Right button switches between the Play List items and the File Browser. 5. Pressing Enter in the file browser will add a highlighted file or enter a directory. 6. Pressing the Left button in the file browser will add an entire directory or all the files in the directory if a file is highlighted - The Media Library Navigator: 1. Similar to the File Navigator design, the media categories are now visible on the left pane at all times. 2. The Right/Left buttons always switch between categories and the active category is highlighted on the left pane. * The Professional version of Zoom Player can now automatically extract and play any Archive Format (default presets for 7Z,ARJ,BZ2,CAB,RAR and ZIP using the freely available 7-Zip extraction suite). You can configure your own extractors under "Options / Values / Other", but I recommend grabbing 7-Zip at www.7-zip.org as it's free and fast. This new feature can also be used to extract AlbumWrap MP3 files using the freeware "mp3splt.exe" tool from "http://mp3splt.sf.net". * New Stream Selection Interface (Only for the Professional version) allowing you to automatically select Audio and Subtitle streams according to Language Codes, Stream Name text matching and specific stream numbers. * Zoom Player can now filter out filters that can cause playback instability in standard playback mode through a Filter Black List. By default I have included the following filters that are known trouble-makers: BiCubic Resizer DivX Antifreeze DeDynamic Audio Filter Morgan Stream Switcher Subtitle Mixer Subtitle Parser TFM Audio Filter You can easily add/remove filters to the black list through the options dialog (Filter Control / Standard Media Playback). This should make Zoom Player a lot more stable on systems where a lot of 3rd party software have been installed. * On a fresh install, Zoom Player will look for missing components required to play popular file formats. If no components are detected for a specific file format, you will be prompted to go to the media setup guide. This check is only done once when installing a new version. * Zoom Player will now try to load JPEG image files outside of DirectShow. It seems that DirectShow is very resolution-limited and even the best display hardware doesn't support a video-surface with the resolution captured by recent Digital Cameras. The new JPEG Module uses a software bilinear scaler to resize the images, so quality should be better than standard image viewers, although a bit slower. You can disable the JPEG Module and let DirectShow try to load these images under "Advanced Options / Filter Control / Settings". * Customized Media Playback Splitter, Audio and Video profiles can now blacklist themselves according to the file extension being played (previously you could only whitelist extensions). * New Entry (Advanced Options / Values / Other) allowing you to Auto-Get the duration of Media Files according to file extensions. The default is not to Auto-Get as this slows down loading of play lists, however an entry of "AVI;MP3;MPA;OGG" won't slow it too much. * New Setting (Options / DVD Setup) allowing you to hide the Audio/Video decoder profiles that are not currently registered on your computer. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Mouse Wheel) allowing you to reverse the direction of the mouse wheel with regards to the functions it calls. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Settings / Playback), allowing the Media Definition File (a file containing information on the file being played such as color values, volume, balance, etc...) to be saved automatically (default:off). * New Setting (Advanced Options / OSD / Navigators) allowing you to have the Play List Navigator opened if the Chapter Navigator is opened and doesn't contain any chapters. * New Setting (Advanced Options / OSD / Navigators) allowing you to select whether the Left Pane on the File and Media Library navigators is visible. When the Pane is invisible, the top-directory box will show additional details about the media category and drives. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Control Bar / Settings) allowing you to limit the control bar so that it only shows up on mouse movement when in fullscreen mode. * New Setting (Advanced Options / Control Bar / Settings) allowing you to have the Control Bar always visible when playing an Audio file in fullscreen. * New Button (Advanced Options / Filter Control / Management / Registered Filter Manager) on the Registered Filter Manager allowing you to Re-Register the DirectShow filters that come as default with windows. This should help in such cases where a 3rd party program can destabilize the default system or in case you want to unregister all filter and restore your system to a default state. * New Color Selection (Advanced Options / OSD / Navigators) for Navigators Internal, External and Select Framing Colors. * You will now be prompted to install DirectVobSub if it's not installed on your system (only one time when a new version is installed). * New "/SPEAKER:[value]" command line parameter allowing you to set the Windows Speaker setting. Zoom Player will restore the default speaker value when exiting. Possible values are: /SPEAKER:0 - Direct Out /SPEAKER:1 - Headphone /SPEAKER:2 - Mono /SPEAKER:3 - Quad /SPEAKER:4 - Stereo /SPEAKER:5 - Surround /SPEAKER:6 - 5.1 /SPEAKER:7 - 7.1 * New "/AUDBAR" command line parameter starting Zoom Player in Audio-Bar mode. * New "/LOCKFS" command line parameter which locks Zoom Player in fullscreen mode (useful for Kiosk-Type operation). * New "/VOL" command line parameter allowing you to set the Zoom Player volume level on start-up. Value can be 0-100. Example: "x:\path\to\zoom player\zplayer.exe" /vol:75 * New "/MEDIANAV:[CATEGORY]" parameter allowing you to start Zoom Player opened in the Media Library Navigator at a specific category. Example: "x:\path\to\zoom player\zplayer.exe" "/MEDIANAV:TV Shows" * New "/EJECT:[n]" command line parameter allowing you to eject a CD/DVD drive from the command line. Example: "x:\path\to\zplayer.exe" /EJECT:F * Zoom Player can now associate and play CellPhone 3GPP (.3GP) s263 video files (Must have QuickTime installed for it to play). * You can now associate the OptimFROG (.OFR) extension and play OptimFROG files once you the decoder installed. OptimFROG is yet another lossless audio compression format (in the nature of APE and FLAC). You can get the OptimFROG decoder here: https://inmatrix.com/zplayer/formats/optimfrog.shtml * You can now associate the ".FLAC" extension. FLAC is an Open-Source lossless Audio Format. You still need a decoder for it to play. For more information see: https://inmatrix.com/articles/mediasetup.shtml * You can now associate the ".MPC" extension. MPC is a lossy audio format similar to MP3 and Vorbis. * Two new sections have been added to the Menu file. These new sections allow you to define the menu used for the Context Menu Navigator in DVD and Media modes. I have included useful default entries for these. * Zoom Player should now support WMV PAR (Pixel Aspect Ratio). You must set the Aspect Ratio mode to Derived for PAR to kick in (you should always set the Aspect Ratio to Derived unless you have other special requirements). * The LCD interface has been extended and can now be used to call Zoom Player standard and extended functions. * New Toggle (Advanced Options / Settings / Toggles) allowing you to choose how text is truncated to fit the desired space. This effect a lot of text elements within Zoom Player such as the Navigator display and ID3 display. The default setting is to "Vowel Decimation" which tries to remove vowels so that more text remains readable. The alternative is to cut the end of the text. * Two new ID3 display tags "<Length>" returning the length of the currently playing file and "<PlayListTotal>" returning the total duration for the entire play list. * The DVD AutoAR feature can now execute an external program when a DVD Aspect Ratio mode changes. * Zoom Player can now display APE Tags from MPC/MP3/APE/FLAC files. * Zoom Player can now display WMF Tags from WMA files. * Zoom Player can now play UTF8 encoded M3U play lists. * Zoom Player now has 4 default skin visual configuration modes, one with only the volume control (Press "F4"), the same layout with the Balance and Play Rate controls (Press "F5") or the minimalistic layout (Press "F6") or the Video Only Layout (Press "F7"). * New Profiles for Nero Digital filters. These filters seem to be capable of decoding MPEG-1 audio (including MP3), MPEG-1 Video, XVID and DIVX. Playback is not perfect, I noticed big issues with DIVX playback. These filters are also supposed to decode MPEG-2 video and possibly even DVD, but I was unable to get them to work. * New Profile for the Elecard Video Decoder as a DVD Video Decoder. It may only work for unencrypted DVDs. * New "Select All" button on the Association Page. * The ScanCode button (Options / Keys) now shows you when a multi-media key is pressed so you can now identify such keys and add support for them in the keyboard file using the "mcAddKey" function. * Two new skin variables "cBarNoText" and "tLineNoText" allowing you to disable text display on the timeline and control bar timeline. * Two new skin variables "tLineFontHeight" and "cBarFontHeight" which are superseding "tLineFontSize" and "cBarFontSize" which were ill suited for Large Fonts. Support for the older variable remains to keep compatibility with old fonts. * New skin variable "AudioSkin" implying that the specified skin doesn't contain any video area. * New skin constant "<TimeLineText>", showing the user selectable entry that usually shows within the timeline (useful to use if you want to disable the text on the timeline itself and show it elsewhere). * New Keyboard Macro (Shift+"V") to enable/disable the Internal Screen Saver. This macro uses the new "fnSSaverToggle" function. Changes : + Zoom Player now supports VMR7 Windowed playback in all play modes. If you previously used a customized video renderer, make sure to update your settings. + Audio DSP should take less CPU power, especially under SSE/SSE2 capable processors. + The External Audio Track support has been greatly expanded. You can now specify an alternative search path for External Audio Tracks (Advanced Options / Values / Other), audio track naming is now more flexible, for example: MyVideo.avi MyVideo.english.mp3 MyVideo.spanish.wav MyVideo.japanese.mpc All are valid names now. You can use any file format specified as an audio extension under "Advanced Options / Values / Extensions". + The Customized Media Playback configuration dialogs should now be a little easier to understand. + The Segment Matching Code has been enhanced to support "*" masking. This new method only works when used at the end of the mask. For example, a mask of "x??.*" would match the following: Andromeda.4x01.answers_given_to_questions_never_asked.avi Andromeda.4x02.pieces_of_eight.mpg Andromeda.4x03.waking_the_tyrants_device.avi And so forth ... + SHOUTcast Playback should now be more reliable, Zoom Player will now try the alternate servers if one fails to connect. + The "System" Options dialog entry has been replaced with a "Formats" entry. The content of the previous "System" dialog has been moved to the "System Overview" tab within the new "Formats" section. Another tab on the formats section now contains a list of detected missing playback components with links to where you can download and get more information about each component/format. + If Windows Animation is enabled (in windows), Zoom Player will no longer animate the window when going fullscreen or when minimizing as it's not very elegant. + The "zplayer.regpath" file now allows you to specify a second line with the new Zoom Player Window Name so that you can run multiple instances of Zoom Player and control each remotely as a unique entity. For example, the content of the "zplayer.regpath" file would look like this: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VirtuaMedia\ZoomPlayer2 Zoom Two + The "System" Options dialog section now displays the merit of each listed filter and also lists known "bad filter" offenders (filters can cause cause audio-loss, flipped video image and so forth). + The Flash (SWF files) background color is now set to the fullscreen background color (Advanced Options / Values / Interface), default to black. + The Flash and QuickTime playback experience should be better now. The Right-Click context menu should now work perfectly and the keyboard/mouse should be a bit more responsive. + DVD "VIDEO_TS.IFO" files are now ALWAYS listed on the File and Media Library navigators. + OGM Audio Selection should now work even if the OGG Splitter is not set to Output all Streams. + Zoom Player will now check your DirectX version when you try to select the VMR9 as the Video Renderer and inform you if you don't have DirectX v9 installed. + The external Minimalistic and Ultra Minimalistic skins have been removed as their functionality is more than covered by the new skin layouts within the default skin. + Zoom Player now checks the DirectVobSub path list when looking for subtitle files instead of only looking in the same directory as the media file. + The Customized Media Playback Audio/Video Decoder configuration dialog now fits 800x600 resolution in advanced mode. + The /F:[n] and /Z:[n] will now allow you to force Zoom Player to fullscreen/zoom mode on a selected monitor even if Zoom Player is already running. + DVD Auto-AR values are now applied only once each time the Aspect Ratio mode changes instead of every chapter. + The screenshot function will now save the screenshot to the "My Documents" folder if no alternative folder is specified. + New "function" parameter on the "DrawExText" skinning function allowing you to specify a double-click function for text labels. + Vowel decimation is now used to ensure ID3 display fits within the display area. + The Resize Navigator now displays the current Video Aspect Ratio. + Adding a chapter from the chapter editor dialog will now enter the specified text as the chapter name if such a text was given. + You can now select the Custom Mouse Wheel function from a list instead of manually typing it in. + Going fullscreen now moves the Zoom Player window to the front. + The System Overview now lists the filter version numbers when the filter files contain them. + The Alt+"A" macro will now also open the AC3Filter property dialog. + The F1 keyboard macro now opens the key-help dialog with the focus on the search field. Fixes : - Zoom Player could stop responding when trying to load a new media file while the first media file was still being loaded. - Wrong date encoding error could pop when opening files with no creation dates (could happen with some VCD/SVCD images). - Playing multiple VIDEO_TS.IFO file through a play list should now work again (as long as the IFO files are not looped in a DVD Menu). - Going to fullscreen on a second monitor using the setting on "Options / Values / Interface" would set the fullscreen size according to the resolution of the monitor the user interface currently resides on instead of the real monitor resolution. - Using Zoom Player to execute external files could cause certain Zoom Player features to stop responding. - Opening a DVD while another DVD is already playing would not save the last position properly for the original DVD. - Remembering the last position on media files would ignore the number of days to save this data and would in fact save it forever. Furthermore, several entries were kept for each file played. It is recommended that you erase the old "zplayer.playcache" file as old entries may stick forever. - The Increase/Decrease Play Rate wasn't working in the correct order when increase after decreasing or the other way around. - Dragging the Zoom Player window across monitors or changing resolution should no longer disable the VMR9 scaling fix. - Dragging the Zoom Player window across monitors or changing resolution should no longer reset the VMR9 color control values. - Dragging the Zoom Player window across monitors or changing resolution should no longer reset the Overlay color control values. - The /Q parameter now works when used in combination with the scene-cut end playback event. - Flash end-of-file should now be detected better. - Flash clipping should now be OK when setting to the Source or Derived AR modes. - The Setting to have ZP not clear the play list when opening files externally, wasn't really working (play list was getting cleared anyhow). - Enter will now open the selected navigator in DVD Mode as long as there is no DVD playing. - If customized media playback failed to renderer a graph, it was possible that a valid standard graph would get created, but the video would wrongfully appear in an external window. - Changing the Customized Media Mode Splitter twice would throw an error about the file being in use. - The Screen Snap Pixel value would not save properly. - Could not save a Scene-Cut file for DVD discs if they were not previously played. - Trying to play a truly locked media file (most applications allow you to read files even if they are using them, so not a lot of files are truly locked) could cause ZP to stop responding after an error dialog popped. - The DrawExText "ShadeBottom" parameter was actually using the value from the "ShadeTop" parameter. - Switching skins would not set the active skin elements correctly. - The Control Bar and TimeLine fonts should now appear properly when Windows is set to 120dpi Large Fonts. - Can now load UTF8 file names from WPL play list files. - Fixed too many unicode related issues to even begin listing them here. - "SetOPMWReversed" wasn't exported properly for translation. - Possible "Insert Disc in Drive" dialog opening inappropriately when opening an ejected DVD drive. - The /OpenDrive parameter would open a dialog asking you to insert a disc if a CD drive has been ejected and the drive then opened. - Mouse wheel would not work properly when the play list editor window was visible before going to fullscreen. - Custom Media Playback should now work with WMV file that use internal scripting code. - With Random Play enabled, items would play that were previously removed from the play list. - Tab switching in options dialog is now more logical.What's new in v3.31:
New : * VERY IMPORTANT: The Zoom Player registration key structure has changed! Updated registration keys have been sent to all registered users by eMail. However, if you are a registered user and have not received your key, go to the Zoom Player forum and post on the registration section and post your purchase details (TransactionID or Invoice number, or if you haven't kept these, the Name or eMail used). Changes: + Upgraded to NSIS 2.00 installer (smaller file). Fixes : - Trying to execute a Media file with Zoom Player running under Windows 95/98/ME would not work. - The DVD Bookmark Navigator was completely broken. - Trying to use the Web Navigator when no file to display would cause Zoom Player to throw an error. - The "/Q" parameter stopped working for DVDs with no Menu. - Older Girder files should now work again without having to re-export. Newer exports are not effected.What's new in v3.30:
New : * I highly recommend that on the first run, you should go to "Options / Values / Extensions" and press on all the default buttons so that all the latest file formats will be properly listed on the open dialogs. * The Options Dialog has been split in two. The Basic options dialog (default) will show a very limited feature-set that is should simplify setup. The Advanced options dialog is the same dialog as in previous versions. This should now make Zoom Player much less intimidating to new users. * New "System" Options dialog, allowing you to see an overview of which codecs on your system are available for the various audio and video formats and wrappers and which are missing which may prevent proper playback. * Zoom Player now has limited capability Flash (*.swf) playback capability. You must have Flash previously installed for this to work and playback isn't as flexible as standard media playback. * Customized Media Entries are now split into two files. One for the actual entry in use and another for available profiles. This should help you keep the current Custom Media Playback settings when upgrading. If you do manual installation, just make sure to only copy the "*.profiles" over from the "MediaAutoGraph" directory. * Created a few Customized Media profiles for the new ffdshow Audio Decoder filter. This filter can't play DVD AC3 quite yet, but it can decode AC3 in media files along with MPEG-1/2 Audio and MPEG Layer 3 audio (MP3). It also has a few interesting DSP features. Not sure if they are all active though. * Created a Customized Media Profile for the Sorenson Video 3 video format. This is the format used by nearly all the QuickTime trailers! You need a recent version of ffdshow for this to play (I used the ffdshow-20021029.exe version). Between this decoder and the 3ivx QuickTime parser, you can play quite a bit of QuickTime content without having to resort to using the somewhat unpredictable (and CPU hoggish) QuickTime ActiveX component (Which you can disable under "Options/Filter Control/Settings". * It seems that Vorbis Audio in an OGG container is not the same thing as Vorbis Audio in a Matroska container. The only way to get proper 100% smooth playback for both formats is to use the older Vorbis decoder that comes with the OGGDS package along with the CoreVorbis decoder (http://corevoribs.corecodec.org) set to a higher merit. If you don't like to mess around with filter merits, I have created properly working Customized Media Playback profiles as well (Requires Zoom Player Professional in Custom Media Playback mode). * You can now specify a forced Sub-Type identification on Customized Media Mode Source Filter profiles. In some cases, source filters may not properly identify the file being played and may not assign a proper Sub-Type. By entering one manually, you assure that the correct Splitter filter will get connected. You can see an example of this in the MPEG-2 Transport source profile. * You can now use filters with no output pins within the Customized Media Audio/Video Decoder Profiles (such as renderer filters). Doing so will automatically force Zoom Player to ignore any specified rendering filter. * Can now associate the ".MID" Midi Audio extension. * New setting (Options / Settings / Playback) that allows you to select whether the Speed Control on the User Interface is used for "Fast Forward/Rewind" or "Fast Play/Slow Motion" as it was in previous versions (v3.10 and older). * New Setting (Options / Settings / Interface) allowing you to show the Zoom Player version within the FileName area of the user interface when nothing is playing. * New Setting (Options / Values / Interface) that slows down the Zoom Player internal screen saver so that it won't hog the CPU. * New setting (Options / OSD / Navigators) allowing you to decide whether you want "Play all files in this Directory" to appear in the File and Media Library Navigators. * New Settings (Options / DVD / AutoAR) allowing you to set default Video Position, Blanking and Aspect Ratio presets when a DVD Starts. * New Settings (Options / Filter Control / Settings) allowing you to determine whether Zoom Player will try to use the ActiveX control or DirectShow to play Macromedia Flash files. * New Settings (Options / Filter Control / Settings) that makes Zoom Player check if the file size changed when playback ends and if it does, reload the file at the last position. This is useful if you are streaming a file and it keeps growing as you watch it. This feature is limited to the professional version. * New Toggle (Options / Settings / Toggles) allowing you to select if the video is aligned to the top, center, bottom, left or right side of the screen. * New Toggle Entry (Options / Settings / Mouse Toggles) allowing the middle mouse button to pop the Mouse Wheel Navigator. This makes selection of a mouse wheel function a breath. * DVD Forced/Commentary subtitle tracks are now identified as such. * DVD Audio Tracks with Commentary are identified and the khz and bit value of each track is displayed. * Included support for Matroska Aspect Ratio handling. This works well as long as no filter modifies the Aspect Ratio (like DirectVobSub does when set to enforce an aspect ratio). * When playing matroska files with multiple audio tracks, you will now be able to see the track name alongside the language (as long as a track name is entered by the original author). * Alt+"I" will now Minimize the Player. * You can now Customize the Play List right-click Context Menu. * Menu files are now fully unicode. * Some new icons on the options dialog. Changes : + Due to a Class name change, you will have to re-export the girder command list as previous versions would no longer identify the Zoom Player window correctly. Sorry for this snafu, but it was required for unicode support. If you have no idea what Girder is, don't worry. + DVD Definition files can now modify registry entires before the DVD Graph is constructed, allowing you to change filter properties (which are saved in the registry) on a per-disc basis. + The Customized Additional DVD Filters can now be ordered so the connection order in the graph can be determined. You can also load multiple instances of the same filter. + More changes to the default settings to make them friendlier to a new user. + Restructured the Right-Click context menu to be a bit more useful and less cluttered. It also context the keyboard context for activating each of the functions. Only relevant if you use the default keyboard mapping. + Playing a Media file containing two video streams in Customized Media mode will have Zoom Player intercept the second video stream and connect it to a null renderer so no other video window will pop-up. Customized media playback could still fail as certain filters will not allow themselves to be loaded twice (ffdshow, corevorbis, etc...). + Zoom Player will now properly highlight subtitles that contain a language string (MyMovie.Eng.sub for MyMovie.avi). And will also automatically add DirectVobSub in customized mode if such subtitle files exist. + Window snapping is now smoother and also made on vertical/horizontal matches. + The mouse wheel can now be used for seeking when over the time line on the main user interface and not only on the control bar. + There seems to be some weirdness in the XCard DVD support, at some point, the XCard DirectShow filter allowed for SubPicture decoding (Displaying DVD Subtitles), but this functionality seems to have been removed, causing the Zoom Player Customized DVD Mode profile not to load. I've made some modification and now a "NoSub" profile for the XCard is available for experimentation. + I have restored the Filter File (filename.filters) functionality. This feature has a very specific usage which is not required under normal circumstances and as such I put a few warning messages when using this feature. + Using "exInterface" function you can now discreetly set Zoom Player to Window or Zoom Modes. Fixes : - 8 Bit Buffer Processing fix to the Zoom Player Audio DSP filter. This can fix the No Audio issue some people experienced with v3.20. - Updated to work with QuickTime v6.5. You MUST have QuickTime v6.5 or newer installed for QuickTime to play properly. - Pressing Insert or Delete on the Media Library Navigator will no longer throw an "List Index Out of Bounds" error. - The Next/Previous buttons on the DVD Skin Control Bar were set to the wrong function. - Fixed a couple of inaccuracies in the Auto-Segment loading code. - A chapter file saved when the media file was on a read-only media (such as a CD) wasn't saved under the right name and was basically useless. - Play List formats were not being listed on the File and Media Library navigators. - Having the Internal Zoom Player Audio DSP filter enabled with the InterVideo Audio Decoder could cause audio issues if you change the number of audio-channel output while playing. - Small cosmetic bug fixed dealing with folder images scaling to fullscreen even though the setting was set not to. - You could not access all of the Resize Navigator functionality using the mouse. - You could not access all of the Resize Navigator functionality using the mouse. - Using the Eject function will now only close currently playing Media File/DVD if it is being played from the ejected drive. - When the Search box on the Play List Editor was disabled, you couldn't use the mouse to highlight the bottom items on the list. - Switching skins should no longer disrupt the maximized window state. - Erasing files using the file navigators should now refresh the list when reopening the navigator. - Detaching the Control Bar would restore it to the primary monitor once it was toggled. - Folder images now work properly in unicode subdirectories. - Should now be able to open Ripped DVD Images from unicode paths. - ID3 display with non-english characters should now work. - Couldn't read ID3v2 from certain MP3 files. - Exporting Girder file and selecting Cancel will no longer export the file anyhow. - Girder export should now work with Zoom Player even if it's minimized (as long as it's not only minimized to the system tray as girder doesn't seem capable of finding Zoom Player there).What's new in v3.20:
New : * You can now select an alternative DVD Navigator filter when using Customized DVD Playback mode. Currently supported are the Microsoft, InterVideo and Cyberlink filter (previously, only the Microsoft filter was used). However! Both the Cyberlink and the InterVideo filters are SERIOUSLY flawed. If you use either one, expect problems. * You can now define a Customized Video Renderer when using Customized Media and DVD Playback. This is useful when using a customized rendering device. * Zoom Player now incorporates a new DSP engine filter courtesy of Milenko Mitrovic (DCoder). Right now it's charge of the Internal Equalizer, PreAmp controls ("Q" on the Keyboard or the EQ button on the GUI), Audio ReSync and Audio Track Identification (Matroska/OGG) and Switching (Any multi-track audio format). But I'm hoping to expand it to support user controlled DSP and Visualization plugins. This filter is enabled by default, but if you installed any of the beta version and didn't enable it, you need to enable the filter support under "Options / Filter Control / Settings". You will also be prompted for this when opening the EQ dialog. * New skin grouping code that allows you to segment the skin code into groups and then select which groups are active at any one time. This allows you to create modular skins, skins with different color sets that can be toggled through a button on the skin itself, or even an internal minimalistic skin. * New Internal minimalistic skin ("F4" on the keyboard or the inner-arrowish button on the top of the default skin). Switching to this skin hides nearly all of the user interface elements, making it ideal if you quickly want to pin the video in the corner of the screen (remember, by default holding ctrl while dragging with the left mouse clicked will move the entire window). This new skin is created using skin groups and you can see how it works by viewing the default.skn file in any text editor. * 4 new "ex" functions allowing you to toggle, enable or disable skin groups for the active skin, open "default.key" file in any text editor for more information. There's also some examples in the default skin and some more background in the Brownish.skn file. * New "ex" function allowing you to set the volume level, open the "default.key" file in any text editor for more information. * New Skin Code variable "ActiveGroups" which determines which Skin Groups are enabled by default when first loading the skin. * The entire Fast Forward, Rewind and Rate Control systems have changed for Media Mode (DVD Remains the same). Fast Forward is now based on Quick Seeking as rewind has previously been used. A new Fast Play function (Shift+"Z") is now in place and acts the same as the previous method of fast forwarding (In Media Mode only). The Rate Control bar on the user interface now works as Fast Forward/Rewind in media mode as well and you can actually specify the rates under "Options / Values / Playback". * New Play List Editor right-click context menu which makes it easier to access the Play List Editing functions. * New "Play all files in this Directory" meta tags on the File and Media Library Navigators allowing people using a remote to skip the use of the INSERT button. * Two new functions "fnResyncAhead" (Shift+"+") and "fnResyncBack" (Shift+"-") allowing you to dynamically resync the Audio in 10ms increments. The Internal Audio Processing filter must be loaded for this function to work (Options / Filter Control / Settings). * New "fnOpenURL" function (Shift+"U", also available through the right-click context menu) allowing you to open URLs directly. * Zoom Player now supports the Morgan Stream Switcher just in case it is installed and so you can retain Multi-Audio support for media files. However! Certain versions of the Morgan Stream Switcher breaks support for the Zoom Player Audio Filter (EQ/DSP), so make sure you use at least version 0.99 of this filter. * New Definition File function "SetBalance" allowing you to set the Audio LEFT/RIGHT balance. There's an additional "SaveBalance" function to be used with the "zplayer.zdf" file which instructs Zoom Player as to which values are automatically saved in Definition Files. See "default.df" for more information. * New Definition File function "SetEQ" allowing you to set the Equalizer Values. There's an additional "SaveEQ" function to be used with the "zplayer.zdf" file which instructs Zoom Player as to which values are automatically saved in Definition Files. See "default.df" for more information. * New Definition File function "SetPreAmp" allowing you to set the PreAmp Values. There's an additional "SavePreAmp" function to be used with the "zplayer.zdf" file which instructs Zoom Player as to which values are automatically saved in Definition Files. See "default.df" for more information. * New Sigma Designs XCard profile for Customized DVD Playback. Haven't tested it myself as I don't really have an XCard. * Improved the Customized Media Playback Audio/Video decoder and splitter setup dialogs to allow forcing a decoder only to accept specific file extensions. This allows you to create two or more different profiles for playing back the same media types. For example, you could use one decoder entry to use a specific decoder for "TS/TP" MPEG-2 Transport files, another decoder for "MPG/M2V" for standard MPEG-2 decoding such as SVCD and yet a third decoder for "VOB" to be used on extracted DVD Content. To associate forced extensions, open up the decoder entry and click on the advanced button, from there you can easily add extensions. Only these extensions would be played by this entry. Duplicate the entry and use a different set of extensions and filter profiles as you see fit. * New "Filter Properties" button on the Customized Media Playback Audio and Video Decoder profile editor allowing you to open the filter property page of the selected filter (may not work with all filters as some require a Playing File). * When saving Zoom Player Play Lists (ZPL), the last played item is remembered and restored once the lists are reloaded (Can be disabled under "Options / Settings / Playback"). * New "DefaultSettings.exe" Mini-Utility to reset the Zoom Player registry settings in case you need to return Zoom Player to its default state. * Support for one-level Matroska Chaptering (Next/Previous Chapter and Chapter Navigator). No idea what happens if you try to feed in a multi-level chaptered Matroska file as I haven't encountered any so far. * Automatic Support for Gabest AVI Splitter when dealing with incomplete AVI files. For this to work, you must have the filter registered and the Load Incomplete AVI Files setting enabled (Only on Professional version). The benefit of Gabest' filter is that it allows you to seek in the middle of AVI files even without seeking to keyframes. You may see corrupt motion vectors until a key frame is reached, but at least seeking is instantaneous. Download Filter at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli * Along with Dimitar Pankov, I've formulated a structure in which Masked Automatic Segment loading works. By specifying a mask string, you can control how additional Media File Segments will be loaded automatically into the Play List. The formula is pretty flexible, allowing you to specify multiple masks which can include both a prefix and a suffix. For Example, "?of" would work for "My Video 1of2.avi" -> "My Video 2of2.avi" "CD?" would work for "My Movie CD1.avi" -> "My Movie CD2.avi" "[?" would work for "Movie [1 of 2].avi" -> "Movie [2 of 2].avi" "(?" would work for "Movie (1 of 2).avi" -> "Movie (2 of 2).avi" And so forth... Auto Segment Load is optional under "Options / Values / Other" and can slow down play list loads when dealing with massive play list (1000's of items, no slow down on on small play lists). * Zoom Player now supports Extended MultiMedia control devices such as MultiMedia keyboards and additional buttons on explorer-type mice. I've included a few default commands, but you can expand/modify these, so take a look at "default.key" using a text editor. I've also included a list of known commands codes here: https://inmatrix.com/zplayer/mediacommandlist.shtml * New Button on the Association options dialog allowing you to load Icon Definition Files to automatically set the icons for all the extensions that have an association. * With the new filter support by Gabest, Zoom Player (and any other directshow based player) can now be used to play most Real Media files! For more information, see: https://inmatrix.com/articles/mediasetup.shtml * New Customized Media Playback profiles for VP6 video content. Please note that the latest version of Gabests' AVI Splitter seems to be incompatible with this video format and will cause division by zero errors if installed and customized media mode is not used. * Added customized profiles for Real Media. * Can now associate the Real Media file extensions. * Can now associate AAC and APE extensions. * Can now associate the MKA (Matroska Audio) extension. * Can now associate the VP6 (On2 VP6) extension. * You can now specify the Width and Height of the virtual video are when no video or folder image is present for a playing file (Options / OSD / ID3). * You can now load ".Trailers" files through the open dialog just through a standard parameter in order to have them insert trailer files prior to other specified media/dvd files. Example: "x:\path\to\zplayer.exe" "x:\trl\intro.trailers" "x:\vid\movie.avi" When passed through a command line parameter, Trailer files will always insert their specified media files before any other files passed in a parameter. * New "LoadMaskRandomTrailer" Trailers function allowing you to recursively load specific random file masks as trailers, see "default.trailers" file in any text editor for more information. * New Graph Information dialog under the Right-Click Filter Properties context menu. Within this dialog you can see a lot of useful information about the currently playing graph, such as which filters are connected, the library in which each filter is contained, the currently loaded file within source filters, etc... * New Setting (Options / Filter Control / Settings) *Professional ONLY* allowing Zoom Player to open files as they are being written to by other applications (such as DVB captures and P2P networks). Thanks to Gabest for the idea and Mathias Rauen for help with the implementation. * New Setting (Options / Filter Control / Settings) allowing you to enable/disable the Equalizer and PreAmp. The setting is also linked to a button on the EQ Window. * New Setting (Options / Filter Control / Settings) allowing you to enable/disable QuickTime ActiveX support. At this point in time, not all QuickTime files can be played by DirectShow, this setting when enabled (enabled by default), uses the QuickTime ActiveX control to play QuickTime files. Using the ActiveX control instead of DirectShow means that you lose certain capabilities and stability may be sketchy, but until such a time where there are DirectShow decoders available for the various QuickTime codecs, there is no other choice. * New Setting (Options / Filter Control / Settings) allowing you to to set the Equalizer Range. The default is 12db (like WinAmp 2.xx), but by enabling this setting you can set the range to 20db. * New Setting (Options / OSD / Navigators) that determines whether the Source Folders for the Media Library Navigator is visible (default on). * New Setting (Options / OSD / Navigators) that determines whether the "All" Category is included in the Media Library Navigator. * New Setting (Options / Settings / Interface) allowing you to have a media file name pop when opened. * New Setting (Options / Settings / Playback) allowing the Zoom Player window to be moved to the front when play is pressed. * New Setting (Options / Settings / Playback) that allows skipping to the next file in the play list if the file currently being played is invalid. * New Value (Options / Values / Other) allowing you to set the default directory for the Open Dialog and the File Navigator. When a path is specified, the Open Dialog and the File Navigator will always open in the specified folder. * New Value (Options / Values / Playback) allowing you to set the preferred Media File Audio Track (with formats that support multiple audio tracks). * New Value (Options / Values / Playback) allowing you to set the preferred Media File Subtitle Track. * New Navigator Value (Options / OSD / Navigators) allowing you to specify a margin if the navigator is set to align with one of the screen corners. * New "/AUDIO" Command Line Parameter allowing you to start a media file with a specified Audio Track enabled. Usage: "/AUDIO:[n]", where "n" is a number from 0 onwards (0 being the first audio track). Example: "/AUDIO:2". * New "/SUB" Command Line Parameter allowing you to start a media file with a specified Subtitle Track enabled. Usage: "/SUB:[n]", where "n" is a number from 0 onwards (0 being the first subtitle track). Example: "/SUB:2". * New "/SEEK" Command Line Parameter allowing you to start a media file in a specified position. Usage: "/SEEK:hh:mm:ss" where HH = Hours, MM = Minutes and SS = Seconds Example: "/SEEK:01:15:32" In which playback would start at 1 hour, 15 minutes and 32 seconds. * New "/KEYDVD" Command Line Parameter allowing you to set the DVD Key file. Example: "/KEYDVD:C:\Program Files\Zoom Player\dvd.key" * Three new "ex" functions: exSeekAhead allows you to seek forward a specified number of seconds. exSeekBack allows you to seek backward a specified number of seconds. exSeekTo allows you to seek to a Specified position. See "default.key" file for more information on using "ex" functions. * Several new functions added to the Mouse Middle Click toggle. * I have added support for FLIC file playback to the customized media mode. For decoding to work, you'll need the open-sourced filter at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/ * Can associate the DTS extension and a few Customized Media Mode DTS profiles (Source & Decoder) thrown into the mixed. * Additional Customized Media Profiles for DTS in AVI files. * Zoom Player now supports GTSDLL: http://www.adv-clan.com/gts-stuff/ Changes : + All the navigator interfaces (with the exception of the Web URL Navigator) are now only accessible in the Professional version of Zoom Player. I felt this step was required as to further differentiate between the Standard and Professional versions. + Made some modification to the Graph Creation code that disables FPU exceptions. Hopefully this will bypass issues with filters that raise these exceptions (such as the "InterVideo Audio Processor FX" filter). + When using the Next/Previous Skip/Jump/Seek commands in DVD Mode, the Microsoft DVD Navigator used to queue all these commands in sequence and then perform them one after the other rather slowly, in some cases, it may actually freeze. I modified DVD seeking so that instead of actually seeking after each command, Zoom Player will queue these commands internally and not execute them until after about 2 seconds. Each consecutive seeking command resets this timer, so at the end, only one seek command is being sent to the DVD Navigator. This actually allows for faster DVD Seeking as the DVD Navigator isn't messing up multiple seek decoding buffers and other nasty stuff. This modified DVD seeking mode also applies to seeking using the timeline. + Redesigned the Control Bar. It's now more unified and the buttons are slightly bigger. + Fast Forward and Rewind in DVD Mode will now work even if you were previously paused. + Pressing Enter on the right-pane of the File Navigator will only open CD-ROM type devices and not hard drive in order to prevent accidental issues where Zoom Player would search your entire hard drive for media files. + When saving a Play List you will now be prompted with a dialog asking you how the file path information should be saved: 1. Full Path to files 2. Relative Path to files 3. Don't save any Path information + I have split the keyboard file into a DVD and Media entry. Using two keyboard files you can have the same scan keys (or remote buttons) mapped to two different commands dependant on DVD or Media mode. + The DVD Play & Stop functions have changed a bit. When opening an IFO file off the hard disk, and then pressing Stop and Play again, the image playing from hard disk will resume, instead of scanning the drives checked for a DVD Disc. Pressing Stop twice and then pressing play will search the drives as before (an OSD message "Stop & Clear" will show on the second Stop). + The "exDVDChapter" function has been renamed to "exChapterTrack" and now works for both DVD and Media modes. In DVD Mode it allows you to key-in a two digit chapter. In Media mode it allows you to key-in a two digit play list track number. This function is only really useful for remote control devices. + New safty code that prevents the options dialog from opening off-screen. In some cases, you could have had the options dialog moved off screen (multi-monitor display), then the next time you'd open it, the dialog would be invisible (off-screen). + New safety check that prevents more than 999 chapters to exist on a DVD Title (per-DVD Specification). May help issue with screwed up DVXCOPY XPRESS authoring prior to version 5.2.1. + The Chapter/Bookmark Editor is now resizable. + The order Zoom Player checks for Chapter Files has been changed. Zoom Player will first look at the specified alternative path, then at the local path and finally at the same location as the media file. + Zoom Player now assumes that Media files that don't specify a frame rate are playing at 29.976fps. If the actual playback is not at this rate, it has no real significance, however assuming this frame rate gives a more accurate seeking. + When the mouse hovers over the Control Bar, using the mouse wheel will now Skip Backward/Forward, regardless of any other mouse wheel setting. + Snap to Screen Edge has been renamed to "Snap to Screen/Windows" and will now snap the Zoom Player user interface (along with the EQ and Play List Editor) to both screen edges and to other Zoom Player Windows (Main Interface/Equalizer/Play List). + Can now accept Radio stations and URLs as command line parameters. + The Reset Window Position function available by right-clicking the Zoom Player Task Bar entry will now also reset the position of the Play List and Equalizer dialogs if they somehow get forgotten off-screen. + The Scene Cut Editor now works on a Millisecond accuracy rather than a Second accuracy. This should provide for a slightly more accurate seeking. + Added MainConcept MPEG Decoder profiles to the pertinent sections on the Customized Media Playback dialog. + The "|..|" to go up one directory in the navigators has been changed to "|.. Previous Directory ..|" to be more Wife Friendly. + In the media library there were two different type of "All" functionality. One would be the ALL media navigator category which would show every file on every category and the other was the ALL category association which would mean that a specified directory would be assigned to all categories. To minimize confusion, I've changed the naming to "Global" instead of "All". + Opening the Chapter Navigator will now highlight the current Chapter when the Internal Zoom Player chapters are used. + Modified the Customized Media Mode so that it could automatically accept source filters which are also splitter filters. + Modified the way Multi-Audio AVI/MKV/OGM is handled so that it could copy with multiple WMA audio tracks. + The /R parameter allowing you to change the display resolution now accepts a 5th parameter indicating which monitor you want the new resolution set to, for Example: "/R:(1024,768,32,85,2)" where the "2" is the second monitor. + When changing the resolution using the "/R" command line parameter, the original resolution is restored when exiting Zoom Player. + You can now pass the "/OpenDrive" command line parameter to a running instance of Zoom Player. + If running Zoom Player for the very first time from a CD drive, Zoom Player will no longer prompt you for the preferred CD drive, but instead use the drive it's running from (to prevent any pop-up dialogs from showing in case you want to use Zoom Player for instant playback on a new system). + The last played items will now be moved to the bottom of the Play History list. + The keyboard macro for "Source Relative Stretch" has been changed from "H" to Ctrl+"H" to eliminate accidental activation. + Possible improvement to QuickTime playback. + The options dialog is now more spacious. + A "play" OSD Message is now shown when pressing play after a rewind/fastforward in DVD Mode. Fixes : - Wrote some work-around code for filters that raise FPU exception errors when they are created (Like the InterVideo Audio Processor FX filter). These filters should now work as they do in GraphEdit, but they may still be unstable. - Possible crash when trying to use an unsupported color control. - Possible crash with seamless playback and overlay mixer. - Fixed a scanline error crash if DVD Image was disabled and an Audio-Only file was played. - Preferred DVD Subtitle Language should now work properly. - Preferred DVD Audio Language should now work properly. - When using Multiple Video Filters in a Customized Media Mode profile and then playing a video file with subtitles would have inserted the DirectVobSub filter in the middle of the filter list instead of at the end. - Opening entire directories or drives will no longer open play lists (so that multiple entries of the same file won't be opened at once). Opening directories may even be a bit faster now. - The Customized Media Mode Profile for the "XVID MPEG-4 Decoder" actually pointed by accident to FFDShow instead, fixed. - Using the arrow keys to move the user interface window could actually make the window disappear on a single click. - The /F:[n] and /Z:[n] parameters were not always working properly. - ID3 tags on unicode file names should now load properly. - ID3 should now displays even if the setting to load the folder images is disabled. - Minimizing to System Tray only, should no longer steal focus when playing new tracks. - Playing several IFO files in the Play List will no longer stop playback after the first IFO file. - The Goto Navigator can no longer be scaled beyond the size of the screen. - The Source Relative Aspect Ratio Calculator button couldn't be clicked. - Mouse Cursor doesn't move offscreen while you're in fullscreen and using some interface. - Mouse Cursor will now re-hide when opening a new track in media mode if an Overlay was in use. - The File and Media Library Navigators no longer displays hidden directories. - Clips that report zero duration should no longer seek to the start every second. - The /AR command line now has range checking so you won't be able to set non-existing aspect ratio modes. - Exporting the settings would not export any changed settings since the options dialog was opened. - Changing the resolution on fullscreen should now work with non-primary monitors. - Can now use decimal points in the Custom AR preset lists. - Double clicking the Play List Editor Scroll Bar won't play the item next to the mouse cursor anymore. - Cosmetic issue, when deleting items off the play list, the selection bar disappeared. - The Play History was not saving the current "Last Played" date.What's new in v3.10:
New : * New Customized Point & Click Media Playback system bypassing the somewhat flawed DirectShow Merit System. *PRO ONLY*. The Manual Filter section of the options dialog has been redubbed "Filter Control" and have been split into 3 tabs. The "Customized Media Playback" tab controls the new playback interface. Instead of letting windows decide on its own which filters to use with which file types, you can now define this behavior yourself in a "rather" pain-free profile system. The default profiles more or less mirror the Media Setup article: https://inmatrix.com/articles/mediasetup.shtml I have created multiple filter profiles for every file format that has more than one popular decoder. For a more in-depth explaintion of this new system, see this article: https://inmatrix.com/articles/custommedia.shtml * The Options Dialog can now be translated into different languages. To export the current language settings, press on the Export button and select "language". To switch languages, go to Options / Values / Other and browse for a language files. Since this is the initial release, there aren't any active translations yet, but when there are some, they'll be posted on the forum at: https://forum.inmatrix.com * New Incomplete AVI Playback support. *PRO ONLY* (Options / Filter Control / Settings). This Professional Only feature allows playback of incomplete AVI files. When opening an incomplete AVI, there may be a prolonged (1-20 seconds) delay while Zoom Player will reconstruct the header section. Seeking does work, but it's VERY slow (as the entire media file must be decoded from the start in order to get to the new position). * New Play Caching system (Options / Values / Interface) *PRO ONLY* When enabling "Remember last media position", Zoom Player will cache the last position played on media files and when opening the files again, will resume from that position. You can specify the number of days you want the files to remain in the cache. Cache matching works by comparing the file name, date and size. If all three match, Zoom Player will resume from the last position. These checks are made to make sure that in the case of files that may get overwritten on a regular basis, false matches won't be made. As stated by the *PRO ONLY* tag, this feature is limited to the professional version of Zoom Player. * New Play History Interface *PRO ONLY* This new interface uses the cached information from the Play Caching system to display a list of all files played within the cached duration. You can even play the files directly from this interface. * New Customized DVD Video Renderer Mode. By Default Zoom Player used VMR9 Windowless mode when VMR9 was picked as the video renderer. This was done as recommended by the Microsoft documentation. Unfortunately, there's a severe bug in this mode that prevents DVD Menus from being accessed properly. Toward that end, I've enabled support for VMR9 Windowed compatibility mode (this is being used by the NVDVD player, or so I'm told). * Digital CD-Audio support using the new open-source CDDA Filter, see: https://inmatrix.com/articles/mediasetup.shtml * Basic QuickTime support. Zoom Player can now play QuickTime content with limited functionality. Due to the process involved, it can't be 100% compatible with all Zoom Player functions. When used, the following features suffer: 1. ALT/Ctrl+Left Click are broken. 2. Quicktime content can actually launch your browser automatically, this isn't something that I know how to prevent. Also, the QuickTime components can be unstable with certain quicktime codecs. Some of these codecs will crash if you starve the CPU. This isn't related to Zoom Player itself. * New Context Navigator (Shift+"X"). The context navigator is an exact mirror of the Right-Click context menu of both the Media and DVD Modes (depending on which one is active). This allows you to use any feature on the context menu with an easy to navigate interface. And... Since these context menus can be customized (see "default.menu" file), this allows for a very powerful control interface indeed. * URL files are now listed on the open dialogs and within the File and Media Library Navigators. Open running, the URL will be opened within the Web Navigator. * The "Export" button on the options dialog can now export the current Zoom Player Language Strings. Once exported, you can translate the generated language file (english.lng) and then publish it on the Zoom Player forum for others to use. Currently, you can only translate the Options Dialog, as that is probably the most important interface. * New Setting "Fix VMR9 Scaling Bug" (Options / Filter Control) which is a fix for bugs in both the NVIDIA drivers and the Microsoft VMR9 interface. When enabled the scaling artifacts and resolution loss (slight blurring) should be fixed. This fix may interfere with DVD Hardware acceleration. Changing resolution with a video loaded may break the fix so you'd have to re-load the video for the fix to be applied again. * New Settings to Flip the Video Horizontally and Vertically. This only works when the VMR9 renderer is in use and accessible through "Options / Filter Control". * New Setting "Don't check if file exists when loading into play list", (Options / Settings / Playback). Can be useful at certain times and will also speed up loading of play lists. * New Setting "Auto-Save Media Chapter files" (Options / Settings / Playback). When enabled and media file chapters have been set, they will be automatically saved when the file is closed. * New Setting "Play Next file in Directory repeats when all files have played" (Options / Settings / Playback). This is related to the Play Next File in Directory function and "On Play Complete" toggle. * New Setting "Close On New File" (Options / OSD / Navigators). This setting was always on by default, but now you can disable it which would prevent the File, Media Library and Play List Navigators from closing when you open a new file or directory through them. * New Setting "Del moves media files to recycle bin" (Options / OSD / Navigators) which allows to disable send to recycle bin confirmation request (files will just be removed from the play list if disabled). * New Setting & Value "Close on Inactivity". (Options / OSD / Navigators) allows you to have all navigators (except the Web Navigator) automatically closed after a specified period of inactivity (number of seconds). * New Color Control Setting "Only show the Active Color Bar". (Options / Color Controls). When enabled, instead of drawing the entire color control interface, only the active item is visible. This clears up most of the screen space so you can see how the colors are applied. However, this breaks proper use of the mouse, so it's only recommended for remote devices or keyboard use. * New DVD Setting "Auto-Disable Subtitles" (Options / DVD / DVD Settings) allowing you to automatically disable subtitles by default. This will not work with discs that contain forced subtitle tracks. * New Value "Fullscreen to Monitor" (Options / Values / Interface). Using this function you can set fullscreen or zoom modes to go to a specified monitor. * New Value "Frame Capture Path" (Options / Values / Other). When a path is entered, all Frame Captures (Screenshots) will be saved under that path. If none is specified, the captures will be saved to the Zoom Player directory. * New Function "fnPLGetDuration" (Alt+"V") fills in the duration of all recognized media files within the current Play List. This function may interfere with standard playback if the list contains certain file formats, so it's best called when Zoom Player is idle. * Zoom Player now supports execution of specified file extensions (Options / Values / Extensions) through the Media and File Navigator interfaces. The default extensions are basically CD/DVD image extensions as this feature can be used to mount disc images into DaemonTools without lifting your ass off the sofa (but I'm sure you creative folks can think of other uses). You can also select which color is used for highlighting these files within the navigators (Options / OSD / Navigators). * New Customized DVD Filters: DMO_V Movie Effector Intervideo WinDVD Audio Processor * New Definition File function "SetMPEG1Audio", allowing you to set the audio channel on MPEG-1 files (stereo/left/right). See "default.df" for more information. * New "/MAX" command line parameter to start the main window maximized. * New "/CDPLAY" command line parameter which will search all CD/DVD drives and the first matching CD Audio disc found will be played (all tracks loaded into the play list). * New Search box on the Play List Editor (Options / Values / Play List). * When clicking on the icon within the association dialog, you will now be prompted to switch the icon to the Zoom Player icon. Selecting "no" will allow you to browse for any other icon. * Can now associate the ".PART" extension used by eMule/eDonkey. * Can now associate the ".MP4" extension used by MPEG-4 ISO. * Can now associate the ".CDA" extension used by CD Audio. * Can now associate the ".MKV" extension used by Matroska. * You can now open and associate Windows Media Play Lists (.WPL). This format has a weird way of storing unicode data, I have no idea what microsoft did here, so only non-unicode files can be loaded. * You can now specify the Play List Editor Search Box background color (within the skin code). * New "Default" buttons on the extension dialog in order to restore the extension lists (that are used in open dialogs and navigators). * The registered filter manager will now show the file name used by filters, along with their location on the hard disk and their ClassID. * Pressing Alt+Shift+Ctrl+"V" will pop an OSD showing the current Zoom Player version. * Middle Click (Or Mouse Wheel Click) on the Navigator windows is now the equivalent of pressing Enter (opening the highlighted file/dir and such). * DMO Filter Properties may now be accessible through the filter properties sub-menu (Haven't really extensively tested this). * New Scene Cut setting "Inverse Cut". When enabled, all "Cut" entries inverse and become "Play Only the specified time line". * Zoom Player can now set the default program to run when a CD Audio disc is inserted (Options / DVD / DVD Tools). * Navigators interfaces dealing with large number of items (Play List, Media Library, etc...) now have the UP/DOWN navigational controls accelerated if pressed repeatedly over a short period of time. This helps speed things along when scrolling long lists. * The Audio Renderer under the Customized DVD mode now has a tooltip which will allow you to see the device name if it got truncated. * Zoom Player now checks if the current position is greater than the duration of the entire video and then tries to update the duration. This may work when viewing captured video in real time. * New "Random" Play List sort command. Changes : + The Video Renderer selection dialog under Filter Control has been changed, so if you've changed the default setting (to select VMR9 or another renderer), you will need to do so again. + The VMR9 and Overlay color controls have been split. They are still controlled through the same interfaces, but each has it's own independent values within the options dialog. The rational behind this is that if you switch between VMR9 and Overlay Mixer, you wouldn't want the color values to conflict. This also means that the definition files have an additional function "SetVMR9ColorControls" which is the VMR9 equivalent of saving the color values (also "SaveVMR9ColorControls" under "zplayer.zdf"). These changes require you to re-save any changes you've made to the Default values. + The Play List Navigator controls have been changed. Now pressing "LEFT" will clear the play list while pressing "RIGHT" will open the File Navigator in a special Play List Queue mode. In this mode, instead of opening a file/directory/drive, any selected item will be queued into the Play List. + The "/F" and "/Z" parameters have been expanded to support multi-monitor configurations. Example: "x:\path\to\zoomplayer\zplayer.exe" /F:2 "x:\path\to\zoomplayer\zplayer.exe" /Z:3 + You can now specify which subtitle extensions are used for highlighting in the navigator dialogs. (Options / Values / Extensions) These extensions are also searched for when using Customized Media Mode to add the DirectVobSub filter. + The Open Drive Dialog can now be used to open multiple drives at once. + The "/OpenDrive" command line parameter has been expanded to support opening multiple drives. Example: "x:\path\to\zoomplayer\zplayer.exe" "/opendrive:c,e,f" + The "/OpenDrive" parameter should now be more fleixble. You should now be able to do "/OpenDrive:C:\" where as in the previous builds only "/OpenDrive:C" would work. This should make Zoom Player work better with the Windows XP general-media auto-run capabilities. + Chapter files are now saved to the "Alternative Path for Media Chapters" (Options / Values / Other) if one is specified instead of the default path. + The GoTo dialog (not navigator) can now be used to set the Video Size (not the window size). + Toggling the Control Bar will now Unhide the ID3 display if it was set to Auto-Hide (it will hide again on Auto-Hide timeout). + The Zoom Player Settings Export is now exported in a format that can be used on Win9x even if the exporting was done on Win2K/XP. + The Resize Navigator now supports Horizontal/Vertical Resizing in addition to the positioning controls. + The GoTo Navigator counter now goes scrolls into minutes/hours instead of blocking at 59 (when moving up/down). + When the mouse is hidden, you now need to move it at least 4 pixels in order for it to become visible again, this is to prevent little earthquakes from unveiling your stealthy cursor. + The Media File Chapter Navigator is now more Spacious. + The Girder Command export has been moved under the main Export button at the bottom of the options dialog. + The DVD Setup Verify button can now report if DMO filters are properly registered (or not). + Play List Editor Drag & Scroll now works a bit better. + Selected items on the Play List editor are now highlighted in a better way (no lines between selected items). + Customized Media mode now has better support for embedded OGM and Matroska subtitle tracks. I do recommend that you install the latest version of DirectVobSub (v2.26 at this moment) for it to work properly. + Zoom Player can now distinguish which CD/DVD drive is inserted so instead of checking the specified disc drive, the actual inserted disc drive is scanned for new content (if the toggle to do is enabled). The code to do this was requested and pointed out by Eric Gur. + The Mouse Cursor hiding code has been changed once again. Hopefully, with this new code, the cursor should remain hidden while reappearing properly in other interfaces. + The Reset ZP window position function accessible through the taskbar right-click menu or from the tray icon will now work even if the you're currently in Fullscreen mode. + Little bit less Windows 9x/ME resource usage. + Zoom Player should load a bit faster. Fixes : - Fixed file association under Windows XP (file not found issue). Re-Associating the file extensions should fix this issue. - Fixed a few crashes with media files returning invalid durations. (A bug in the elecard demux returns media durations for MPEG-2 transport streams of several years). - Fixed a bug that could cause DVDs to stop by themselves on initial run. - The Open Drive function now opens DVD Discs correctly when called from DVD Mode. - Media/DVD Definition files now support unicode file names. - Media Chapter files now support unicode file names. - Scene-Cut files now support unicode file names. - Open Drive function wasn't 100% unicode friendly. - Frame Capture (screenshot) now works with unicode file names (requires VMR9 to be active). - Unicode text wasn't showing up in the navigators if outline font wasn't enabled. - Running a unicode file name would not always set the right path for the file navigator. - The File Navigator wouldn't always open on the location of the currently open file. - The Mouse Cursor should no longer hide when a filter property page is open. - Floating point bug when DVD Image was enabled without an image file existing and trying to play a DVD. - Random Play wasn't working when launching external Play Lists while Zoom Player was already running. - Under certain conditions it was possible for the ID3 display not to appear at all. - Fixed a rare occurrence where the OSD could pop on the wrong monitor. - Maximizing videos with Reize while maintaning AR would not maximize properly. - Fast Forwarding in Media Mode, then Rewinding would not reset the play speed properly when the rewind was stopped. - Zoom Player now makes sure to restore the Overlay Color values to their initial values after closing (was causing issues with the ATI driver on some systems). - The Color Control interface height now respect the Navigator screen coverage specification so that it won't exit the screen area. - Auto-by-Extension Media Graph mode can now accept unicode file names. - Enabling Control Bar Auto-Show when moving the mouse cursor to the bottom of the screen should now work with multi monitor setup. - Closing a media file may not properly cleared the chapter listing. - Cosmetic issue where trying to play a DVD in Customized mode without selecting an Audio Decoder would say that the Video Decoder was not selected. - Failing to load a media file will no longer mess up the navigator positioning.What's new in v3.00:
New : * New default skin. The old "Brushed Silver" default skin has been replaced with a new Silver Chrome default skin. This skin took about 50 hours to draw and looks very well when tinted. * Zoom Player should now work with VMR9 under DirectX-9 in both DVD (as long as the decoder also supports it) and Media modes. On a personal point, I feel DirectX-9 was rushed as there are still a few issues with it... In any case, backward support is still working, so you don't have to use VMR9 if you don't want to. * Support for VMR9 ProcAmp (Color Controls). These integrate into the same control as the overlay color controls. Unlike the overlay color controls, the ranges are different and reported by the card itself, so it's more accurate. Also, the card reports which color controls it supports and only these will be active. There is no gamma support (don't know why, ask Microsoft). Due to the different ranges, you should reset the default values for the color control. There is also a new button on the color control options dialog allowing you to fetch the default values for the VMR9 color controls if a video is currently playing. * New DVD Playback system. Instead of using a specific graph file or gambling that windows can build it's own DVD Graph, you can now specify which Audio/Video Decoder/Renderer to use in any combination you want with an easy to use interface. Maximum flexibility, minimum effort. In addition to this interface, there's a new verification tool that checks if the selected filters are properly registered on your computer. * New Media Library Category System (Optional). By enabling (Enabled by Default) the system on the "Options -> OSD -> Navigators" interface, the Media Library navigator will now be divided into categories, which can be set on the Media Library Editor (Shift+"M"). Each Directory can be assigned one of two states, either assigned to ALL categories or assigned to a Specific category. You can create as many categories as you desire. When enabled, the Left/Right navigational controls will now be used to switch between categories. * New Video Orbiting System (Options -> Values -> Playback). Video Orbiting allows you to specify a video position movement range in order to prevent screen burns on movies that don't cover the entire screen area. * New Shell Integration feature (Options -> Association) allowing you to right click directories and associated files and select to either Play or Enqueue them. When playing/queuing Directories, they are checked for DVD Structure and would be queued/played as a DVD if such a structure exists. * The association dialog now allows you to manually select the icons of associated file extensions. * Implemented support for Windows Media High-Definition Audio playback and Speaker Setup Selection (Options/Settings/Windows Media) * Support for DVD Parental Control Levels (Options / DVD). * Extensive code rewrite to support a unicode based file system (Win2K/XP) with localized file names. * Zoom Player now utilizes it's own Play List Format (yes, another one). It's a very simple Unicode format which was designed for loading speed and extendibility. The new format uses the ".ZPL" extension, which can be associated using the File Association Options Dialog. Large Play Lists should now load a bit faster. * New recursive Play List opening code. When you now open a play list file (any supported format), it will be automatically expanded. This allows for recursive play lists. The only caveat is ... don't create a loop (two lists referencing each other) or basically you'll end up in a situation where the playlists load each other ad infinitum. * The Zoom Player registry location can now be altered by creating a file called "zplayer.regpath" within the Zoom Player directory and entering one line of text containing the new position. For example: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VirtuaMedia\ZoomPlayerDeus By creating this file, you can have multiple versions of the player running at once with different settings assigned to each. (as long as each copy is being run from a different directory) * You can now use a MediaGraph file instructing Zoom Player how to play a specific media file even when using a MediaGraph is disabled in the options dialog. This is useful for specific files that require special filters to play while not altering your default playback method. To use this, simply create a MediaGraph file with the same base name as the media file you are trying to play and using the MediaGraph extension. For Example: "My Video.avi" "My Video.MediaGraph" For more information on building MediaGraph files, open "example_avi.mediagraph" within the MediaGraph directory in any text editor. * New example MediaGraph file for use with the Elecard MPEG-2 decoders. I use it with the feature above for really corrupted MPEG-2 files which only the Elecard decoders seem capable of playing. * New Function "fnBringToFront" allowing you to force the Player window to the front. The assign keyboard macro is Alt+"0", but really, it can't be used (since the window doesn't have focus), but it can be assigned to remote devices such as Girder, which is the whole point. * New Functions "fnZoom50", "fnZoom400" and "fnZoom800". These functions are mapped to the Alt+"1", Alt+"4" and Alt+"5" keys and allow you to set the Zoom Player window to 50%, 400% and 800% of the source video size (100% and 200% already existed in previous versions if you were wondering). * New "fnPLMax" function allowing you to maximize the Play List window (as long as it's not docked to the main window). * New Web URL Navigator. The Web URL Navigator allows you to assign a web address, Text or HTML file to a specific DVD or Media file. Media Files: Create a URL file with the same base name as your media file, but with the ".URL" extension. DVD Discs: Create a URL file by the name of "disc.url" in the local DVD-Bookmarks directory (within the Zoom Player directory) each previously loaded disc should have a directory if the last position or disc definition data were saved. The URL files are standard windows URL files, structure is very simple. Create a text file that contains the following information: URL=http://www.tomysite.com/mypage.html or, for local HTML files: URL=file:///c:/my local info/mydata.html (Yes, the slashes are correct in both numbers and direction, this is how windows stores paths in URL files) You can also use the Dynamic "<FileName>" tag like this: URL=http://www.scriptpage.com/process.php?<FileName> Any spaces in the filename are automatically converted to the "_" underscore character as HTML urls do not allow for spaces. If you open web pages that contain pop-ups, there's not much I can do, you may be able to install pop-up prevention software to combat those. Or simply don't assign cheesy sites. When the Web URL Navigator is open, you can use the arrow keys to scroll the pages and press Enter to close it. Furthermore, instead of creating a URL file, you can create an HTML or Text file. The following extensions are valid: ".HTML" + ".HTM" + ".TXT" + ".NFO". * You can now use Higher Fast Forward values in Media Mode if you have the ReClock filter installed. You get get the ReClock filter at : http://ogo.nerim.net/reclockfilter/ or at : http://www.doom9.org * You can now load ".GRF" GraphEdit files as standard media files. * You can now use ".GRF" GraphEdit files as DVD Graph files by putting them in the DVDGraph directory. However, using GraphEdit Graph files, you can't register the used filters using the register button, nor will you get a detailed error listing if one of the filters refused to connect properly. Using this method, you would not be able to use Extended VMR9 capabilities. * New Default Definition File Value (Options -> Values -> Other), allowing you to specify a definition file that is to be loaded if the DVD/Media being loaded doesn't have a definition file of it's own. * The List Based Navigators are now more easy to navigate using the mouse. Not too intuative as they were designed for TV-Display and not the Monitor. * New Scene Cut feature allowing you to "End" Playback (and proceed to the next file on the Play List). This works for both Media and DVD. With DVD this allows you to play multiple DVDs in sequence. For safety reasons (to prevent infinite loops), the last Stop Position on a DVD isn't saved if the playback was stopped by an End Playback Scene Cut event. * The Arrow keys Toggle has been split into Left/Right and Up/Down toggles, each can be assigned a different set of functions and more functions can now be assigned to the arrow keys. * New Function ("H" on keyboard) to Enable/Disable Source Relative Stretch. This is useful if you're switching a lot between a monitor and a non 4:3 display device such as a Projector or a TV. * You can now save general-purpose Skin Tinting Profiles. These are accessible through the Skin Selection dialog. I've even made a few default profiles. * New Animate Buttons setting (Skin Selector Dialog). When enabled, button states are transitioned transparently. * New "TintSource" skinning function. This function allows you to RGB tint the source image as the skin loads so that you can modify parts of the image to create diverse color schemes for your skin without actually modifying the source image yourself for each skin. * New "cTransColor" skinning variable allowing you to create color-keyed transparent Control Bars. * New "cBarRightMargin" skinning variable allowing you to set the right margin of the control bar so that you can better draw it to interconnect with button graphics. * New "AniSpeed" parameter for creating buttons. This parameter allows you to specify the animation speed of buttons when the "Animate Buttons" setting is enabled on the Skin Selector. * New "<cBarFullWidth>" skinning constant allowing you to get the full width of the Control Bar, including the area used for the Buttons and Right Margin. * New "<Clock>" Skinning Constant for displaying the Current Time. * New "<Date>" Skinning Constant for displaying the Current Date. * New "<PlayListItems>" skinning constant allowing you to display the number of items currently loaded within the Play List. * New "<PlayListTotal>" skinning constant allowing you to display the total duration of the items currently loaded within the Play List. * Now "<PLWinWidth>", "<PLWinHeight>", "<PLWinHalfWidth>" and "<PLWinHalfHeight>" skinning constant allowing you to position items within the Play List window. * New Setting (Options -> OSD -> Navigators) allowing you to have Zoom Player check each media file if it has an accompanying subtitle file and highlight it accordingly. This applies to the Media Library, File and Play List Navigator interfaces. * New Setting (Options -> OSD -> Navigators) allowing you to reposition the navigators. * New Setting (Options -> OSD -> Navigators) allowing you to disable file extensions from showing up on the File, Media Library and Play List Navigators. * New Seting (Options -> Values) allowing you to Screen Snap the Main Window and the Play List Editor. * New Setting on the Play List Editor allowing you to set playback to loop on the currently playing item. * New Setting (Options -> Settings -> Playback) allowing you to have Zoom Player pre-buffer the next video file 10 seconds before it starts playing. This Seamless Playback setting can cut the time it takes Zoom Player to switch between media tracks. There are a few limitations: 1. Doesn't work for Random Play at the moment. 2. For it to work with MPEG-2 files (VOB/SVCD) you must use the VMR9 renderer (this is a limitation of the MPEG-2 decoders that won't work if there is a running overlay surface already, since the VMR9 doesn't use an overlay surface, it doesn't suffer from this). You can enable the VMR9 renderer at Options->Manual Filter. Note: DirectX-9 is required for the VMR9 to work. 3. It may not work well with custom media graphs. 4. The code is experimental, some display card drivers or other system components may not like it. * New Setting (Options -> Settings -> Playback) allowing you to have the Media Definition file saved in the Zoom Player Media-Data directory (Within the install dir) rather than the location of the open media file. * New Setting (Options -> Settings -> Interface) allowing you to fix the user interface aspect ratio to the video's aspect ratio. * New Setting (Options -> DVD -> Values) allowing you to maintain audio while in fast forward or rewind. Frankly, I've tried it with both the PowerDVD and WinDVD filters and neither is capable of this feature. Hopefully in the future they will be. * New Setting (Options -> Values -> Playback) allowing you to modulate the speed the Skip/Jump/Seek functions work when used repeatedly. If used quickly (within 1.5 seconds), each use makes the distance moved x1/x2/x3 ... faster than the specified value. * New Setting (Options -> Values -> Playback) allowing you to have the currently playing Media File closed when the stop command is issued. Useful for people who'd like to have the Media Image pop back up. * New Setting (Options -> Values -> Resolution) allowing you to set the screen resolution when going into Zoom/Fullscreen modes. You can specify Width/Height/Bits/Refresh Rate/Interlaced. Your display driver must support the specified values. * You can now set Zoom Player to close the open Media file when playback ends. * You can now set Double Click to Play / Pause. This can be useful when using minimalistic skins with no buttons and the single click is assigned to dragging the window. * New Extended Function (exOpenDrive) allowing you to open the entire content of a drive using a keyboard/button/remote device. * New "Query Overlay" button on the Overlay Color Dialog allowing you to check the Overlay Color capabilities and to grab the default values of the Overlay Color (if the interface was disabled when a video was loaded) for your specific Display Card. Useful for setting a default value. * Pressing "E" will now open the File Navigator, regardless of the navigator the Enter key is set to. * New "Search" entry on the Keyboard list so you can quickly find a specific keyboard function. * New "/MOUSEOFF" command line that sends the mouse cursor off-screen. * New "/OPENDRIVE" Command Line Parameter that allows you to open an entire drive while respecting VCD/SVCD/DVD structures. Usage Example: "x:\my\path\to\zoomplayer\zplayer.exe" "/opendrive:z" * New "/QUEUE" Command Line Parameter that works when Zoom Player is already running. When used, any specified directories will be enqueued at the end of the Play List. When used when Zoom Player isn't running, it works the same as the "/ADD" Command Line. Usage Example: "x:\my\path\to\zoomplayer\zplayer.exe" "/queue:z:\music videos\" * The Cycle Audio Track function (Ctrl+"A") will now cycle through MPEG-1 Audio Tracks (Left/Right/Merged). Useful for multi-language MPEG-1 Audio discs. Code written due to incessant nagging and research on the part of civic5zigen. * The Cycle Audio Track function (Ctrl+"A") will now cycle through MPEG-2/VOB Audio tracks (as long as the MPEG-2 Splitter filter is in use). * New "UseSystemClock" function for Graph Building scripts. This function tells Zoom Player to create a System Clock and use it to keep Sync. It may help with microstutter issues but may also cause Audio Desync. * The Information Panel ("I") now shows these additional details: 1. Video Aspect Ratio. 2. Derived Aspect Ratio. 3. Source Aspect Ratio. * New Source Relative Stretch calculator to help you setup display for display modes with non-standard pixel ratios. I'm not entirely sure the math is correct at the moment, so the usefulness is in question. * You can now have ".df" Definition Files automatically add additional media file segments to a multi-segment media file. Zoom Player will scan the current directory and the root directory on every drive for the additional segments. * You can now have ".df" Definition Files apply Audio Volume when opening media/dvd files. * The zplayer.zdf file now instructs Zoom Player to save audio volume within definition files. * Improved the function description within the "Brownish.skn" file, hopefully each and every Zoom Player function should now be well understood. * You can now associate the ".TS" and ".AC3" extensions. * You can now associate the ".AVS" (AVISynth Script Format) extension. * You can now have the current time show up within the Timeline. Middle click the to enable this feature. * You can now have the remaining time show up within the Timeline. Middle click the timeline to enable this feature. * You can now have the source resolution show up within the Timeline. Middle click the timeline to enable this feature. * Pressing Ctrl+"C" on the Information Panel moves the currently playing file name into the Clipboard. * The Playing and Path fields on the Information Panel are now selectable. * New Reset button on the ID3Script section in case it somehow got messed up and you want the original back. * The beta version is now listed in the About box. Changes : + Completely rewrote the code behind the Association system. While the interface looks the same, I dumped the previous DDE system which was in all honesty faster. However, it was somewhat limiting and had some compatibility issues with certain systems. Due to this change, you must re-associate all used extensions with Zoom Player otherwise you may get certain pop-up errors from the OS. Do this even if you had previously installed a v3.00 beta! Also, when you DeAssociation, ZP cleans better after itself. + The Play List Editor has been modified, you can now drag around files using the mouse and further customize the color scheme. + The Play List Editor is now fully skinnable. Backward support for older skin that didn't include code for the Play List, a simplistic yet functional play list is made available. + The OSD Action Pop-Up window is now fully skinnable. + The Play List editor will now display the duration for some file formats and you can sort the list by it as well. + The text drawn on the Navigators and Play List Editor is now reformatted to better fit the interface. Long names will have their vowels removed first and if room is still an issue, you see the standard cropping. + The "CreateExButton" skinning function has been expanded with a few more parameters, and can now be used to add buttons to the Play List Editor. + After installing Windows Media Player 9, opening and seeking in Windows Media Video files (".WMV" and ".ASF") within Zoom Player is significantly faster, as the Microsoft installer also adds a new Reader filter which FINALLY! doesn't think that you are always trying to open a file from the internet and doesn't try to buffer 5 seconds ahead. + Made some adjustment to DVD Seeking, it may be a bit faster now. + Play Next/Previous File in Directory is now loopable (after playing the last file in the directory, the first file is then played again). + The Custom Audio Device setting no longer applies to DVD Mode. Using the Customized DVD Mode you can choose which Audio Renderer is used. With standard graphs, the Audio Renderer defined in the graph is preserved. + Opening a Directory through the Navigators is now "DVD Aware". If the directory contains a VIDEO_TS.IFO file, the directory would be opened as a DVD. + Using the File Navigator, pressing Enter on a Drive listed on the right-side panel will now open the entire drive while respecting VCD/SVCD/DVD disc structure. + Zoom Player now properly supports ID3v2.4 and OGGVorbis tags. If no tags exist, the file name will be used as a Title Tag. The script has changed somewhat so if you modified it, you'll have to re-enter your modifications. There are also several new tags: <language>, <encoder>, <urllink> and <copyright>. + Cycling through subtitles (Ctrl+"B") using the DirectVobSub filter will now cycle through the "Hide Subtitles" entry. + Play List Editor entries are now numbered. + When the MPEG-2 Splitter filter is used for MPEG-2 playback and Zoom Player encounters more than one audio stream, by default the first audio track will now played (before the MPEG-2 Splitter filter chose a stream according to an unknown criteria). + You can now set the OSD to be Screen Centered. + The "/ADD" Command Line Parameter can now accept files and not only directories. + You can now use the Delete key with the following navigators: 1. Media Library Navigator 2. File Navigator 3. Play List Navigator When pressed you will be prompted if you want to send the file (or directory) to the recycle bin. + On Play Complete toggle can now Eject the CD. + Changing the Skin-Tint is now done without having to reload the skin. + From now on the Control Bar and Timeline Text are never outlined. The control over the outline color has been relegated to the skinner and can be set using the "TimeLineFontShade" and "TimeLineCBarFontShader" values. + Switching audio tracks will now always show an OSD Message, even if there is only one audio track (will show the current audio track). + Switching DVD Angles or OGM Video Tracks will now always show an OSD Message. + Switching Subtitle tracks will now always show an OSD Message. If none is available, this will be indicated. + Switching between DVD and Media mode now tries to match the Video area of both skins so it remains unchanged. + The ResizeBox skin function can now be used multiple times to define more than one resize area point. + Slight modification to the default DVD Context Menu. + Unused context menu entries are now disabled. + When playing a DVD with no DVD-Path specified, Zoom Player will first scan the specified DVD-Drive for a disc and only them scan the rest of the drives. + The Zoom to 100% and Zoom to 200% functions are no longer hard coded and can be assigned through a function. + Enhanced method of preventing Power Saving modes (monitor/system) when the setting is enabled (Options -> Settings -> Other). + To prevent some user-support headaches. A clean installation will now have the following settings enabled: 1. Force Overlay Mixer. 2. Prevent Screen Saver/PowerDowns. + Using the "/F" or "/Z" parameter now goes to fullscreen before loading any files (so you don't see the user interface). Also applies to "/M" and Minimize. + Right clicking the navigator interfaces now closes them. + Skin Script commands can now accept the , character as long as the entire script is encompassed within "" and doesn't have superfluous spacing. For Example, this would now work: DrawExText(DestX=12,DestY=6,Width<WinWidth>-85,Height=15, Align=Center,FontName=Tahoma,FontSize=12, FontColor=E4E4E4,FontStyle=Bold, "Text=<FileBase>, <Time>") The lines are split only to fit the margins of this document, in the actual script, this should be one line... + The DrawExText function has been expanded to allow you to shade or outline the text using any color you want. + The Information dialog now shows proper playback information even when the Overlay Mixer or VMR9 renderers are used. + The Overlay Color setting for "Brightness" Range has been changed from "0 to 10000" to "-10000 to 10000". + When using the Skip/Jump/Seek commands, the changed time delta is now displayed in the OSD. + The File Navigator will always start with the currently playing file highlighted (if one is playing). + Expanded the control over the Play List color display. + The following settings have been moved from to the Control Bar Section of the options dialog and are also accessible by right clicking the Control Bar (non-timeline area), or middle clicking the Control Bar: Auto-Show Control Bar on Mouse Movement Auto-Show Control Bar when Mouse is moved to Bottom of Screen Detach Control Bar from User Interface Disable the Control Bar in Window Mode (Limit to Fullscreen/Zoom) Position Control Bar relative to Video (Taking Aspect Ratio into consideration) Prevent Control Bar from moving off-screen (keeps it on-screen when video is zoomed) Center Control Bar Vertically within Video area Skip/Jump/Seek functions Pop Control Bar Play function Pops Control Bar in Fullscreen/Zoom modes Pause function Pops Control Bar in Fullscreen/Zoom modes Rewind function Pops Control Bar in Media Mode when in Fullscreen/Zoom modes Show Play State within the Timeline area Show Time within the Timeline area Show Total Video Length within the Timeline area Show Media File Name / DVD Title & Chapter within the Timeline area Show Idle State within the Timeline area Control Bar Align (Toggle) + All the Control Bar settings are now duplicated on the control bar context menu and the control bar section within the options dialog. + Play List clicks react the same as toggles set to the main window. + Girder Exports are now a bit more descriptive. + Cosmetic modification of the Control Bar within the default skin. + Slight optimization to the Skin Drawing code. Fixes : - Multi Monitor Fixes: 1. Fit to Source with centering now centers on the active monitor. 2. Exiting Zoom with centering now centers on the active monitor. 3. Maximizing wouldn't maximize properly on secondary monitors. 4. Prevent OSD from moving off-screen no longer pops the OSD to a different screen. 5. Prevent Control Bar from moving off-screen no longer pops the Control Bar to a different screen. - When Extended VMR mode was enabled, opening a second video file would pop an error message (and playback would continue normally once closed). - Zoom Player should no longer steal focus when using an overlay surface to play videos. - Fixed a bug where DVD playback would not always find the DVD if it wasn't in the specified DVD Drive. - Zoom Player should (hopefully) react better when exiting from Hibernate mode while playing. - Zoom Player can now handle DVD Discs that don't contain a menu structure and will now end playback when the disc ends. - Support for switching OGM Audio, Subtitle and Chapters is now more reliable and future-proof, especially with non-english versions of windows. Better support for disabling subs as well. - Fixed a few crashes relating to an open context menu. - Fixed a crash when closing Zoom Player right after playing a DVD. - Fixed a crash with the DVD Bookmark loading dialog crashing after the 10 second timeout. - Multiple Audio Track Media Files should now work with ReClock as the Audio Renderer. - Fixed "List Index Out of Bounds" error when enabling a custom Audio Renderer without actually selecting one. - The Internal Zoom Player screen saver could crash after a while. - Few fixes for Large Fonts. - Ejecting a CD should not stop playback unless you're playing something off the ejected CD. - Fixed a bug which caused a CD-Insert request when mapping a removable drive (such as a CDRom) to the Media Navigator and then ejecting it. - When closing a video in Extended VMR mode, the video area is now cleared properly. - List out of bounds error when pressing right on the Media Library Navigator when no items are listed. - A clean installation would not apply Video Position preset #5 correctly. - Applying Blanking values through the Blanking preset dialog would not apply the displayed numbers correctly. - Some Media Files (MPEG-2 files mostly), and possibly some DVDs would not have the Overlay Colors set properly. - Fixed a crash with Media Library when pressing INSERT on a dir-up. - Fixed a crash when trying to load a new video with the GoTo Navigator visible. - Fixed Scene Cut/Jump issues with MPEG-2 media files and the WinDVD/CineMaster decoders. The fix however created an inaccuracy of about 1 second in the cut area. - DirectVobSub v2.23 changed something that made it's Property dialog unopenable. Changed the method used to open the property dialogs and now it works fine again. - Maximized state wasn't being saved properly when going in and out of fullscreen. - Fixed a few issues dealing with maximize and settings that changed the window size when loading a new video. - Pattern Display wasn't showing up properly in Window mode. - Zoom Player now accepts the "File:///FileName.AVI" method of executing media files. - Control Bar is now hidden when a Navigator is opened. - Fixed a Scanline out of Range bug dealing with the background image when an image didn't exist while the setting was enabled. - Background Media Image wasn't covering entire video area under some conditions. - SetDVDPath Trailer file command would be ignored under some conditions. - The Play List Editor window wouldn't remember it's last position. - Enqueing an item externally (through explorer) when nothing was playing didn't start playback. - You can now use command line parameters to save the Window position to a negative off-screen value. - When taking away associations from another application, The "keep current icon" setting should now be more reliable. - "Auto-Size User Interface to fit Source Video Size (on load)" and "Center User Interface when loading new Media" are now respected when opening a new DVD Disc. - Fixed possible conflicts between definition files and non-english versions of windows. - Going backward frames in DVD Mode has been disabled as DirectShow doesn't really allow it and it was only causing weirdness. - Few other small tweaks and fixes not really worth a mention.What's new in v2.90:
New : * Completely redesigned the default skin. The Brownish skin is still part of the distribution so if you favor it,you can just re-select it. * You can now Color-Tint any skin, simply open the skin selection dialog and modify the Red/Green/Blue values with either a positive or a negative value and click on the skin you want to load. * You can now access a DVD's Number Pad by pressing Alt+Ctrl+"0..9" on the keyboard (or through a remote). The only real use of this feature is for discs with hidden content that require number pad activation (Such as "Terminator 2:Ultimate Edition"). * New Media Library Navigator (Alt+"M") allowing you to group specified directories (even from different drives) into one virtual listing. Similar to the file navigator, this interface can be navigated using the following keys (or remote-mapped alternates): Left - Go up one Directory. Right - Play Selected File or Directory. Up/Down - Scroll through the List. Insert - Play all files within the selected directory or Play all files in a directory when a file is selected. Enter - Enter Directory or Play Selected File. PgUp/PgDn - Scroll a page through the List. Home/End - Go to Beginning/End of the List. * New Media Library Path Editor (Shift+"M") allowing you to select the paths used by the Media Library Navigator as a Virtual Drive. * New "/MEDIANAV" command line parameter which starts Zoom Player with the Media Library Navigator opened. * New Toggle (Options -> Key Toggles) allowing you to select which Navigator to open when the Enter key is pressed while in Media Mode. Previously you could only open the File Navigator, with this toggle you can now choose from: 1. Disabled 2. File Navigator 3. Media Library Navigator 4. GoTo Navigator 5. Play List Navigator 6. Chapter/Bookmark Navigator * New Toggle (Options -> Toggles) allowing you to have the Control Bar aligned to the Tom/Bottom of the Monitor when in windowed mode. Set to either Top or Bottom, overrides all other Control Bar position settings. * New Setting (Options -> Settings -> Interface) allowing you to detach the Control Bar from the user interface. The position of the Control Bar in Window and Fullscreen modes are remembered independently. Can also be accessed by middle clicking the Control Bar. * New Registered Filter Manager Interface (Options -> Manual Filters) allowing you to select any registered filter(s) and unregister them quickly and easily. It further allows you to set the merit value on each filter which determines which filter has precedence when two filters of the same function are registered at one time (such as two types of MPEG-2 filters). By adjusting the filters merit, you may be able to prevent filter conflicts to some degree. * New Setting (Options -> Manual Filters -> Extended VMR Mode). In preparation for DirectX-9, I've implemented support for Extended VMR modes. The VMR uses 3D hardware to accelerate video graphics. At present it depends on the Display Driver implementation as to whether VMR improves or degrades video quality (and yes, it can degrade it). This mode only works under Windows XP as it's the only OS with VMR support, but this may change with DirectX-9 (I'm not really sure). Similar to the overlay mixer, the VMR can fix aspect ratio modes for WMV9 and MPEG-2 content. However, unlike the Overlay Mixer it does so without lying to the player about the actual video resolution, so playing back SVCD content will show the actual 480x480 resolution, but when setting the Aspect Ratio mode to "Derived" in Zoom Player, you will see the correct aspect ratio. At this time, there is no Overlay Color Control interface on the VMR, so you still need to use the Overlay Mixer to access this. I am told that DirectX-9 may change that, so we'll have to see. * New DVD Setting (Options -> DVD -> DVD Settings) allowing you to set the Closed Caption Background to Transparent (otherwise Opaque). * New Audio Balance (stereo) interface. Using the Alt+Shift+"," and Alt+Shift+"." keys you can move the Audio Balance Left to Right. * New Open Drive Function (Shift+"D") allowing you to open every file on the drive according to the allowed extension list (Options -> Values -> Other). The code also checks if the drive contains a VCD, SVCD or DVD disc and only opens the appropriate files accordingly. * If the Tray icon is visible, hovering the mouse cursor over it will now show the open File Name or DVD Volume. * New Command Line Parameter allowing you to set the keyboard file, Example: "c:\path\to\exe\zplayer.exe" "/key:c:\path\to\key\keyfile.key" * New Skinning interface (not implemented on default skin) allowing you to create an Audio Balance Control on the user interface. It works similar to the Play Rate Control and implemented through the BlanaceExData skinning function. * New Skin Button type allowing you to have a switch the active skin. * The CreateExButton Skinning interface has been expanded so you can Optionally specify the position of the button down bitmap rather than having it aligned to the right of the up bitmap. * New "TimelineCursor" Skinning Variable allowing you to set the cursor used for timeline seeking. * New Skin Constant "DVDVolume" allows you to write the DVD Disc's volume label. * New FillMask skinning helper function for easily filling skin areas with a mask of another bitmap (useful for backgrounds with transparent buttons). * OGG Audio files can be used as external audio tracks. * New Extended Function (exDVDNumPad) allowing you to activate a DVD's Number Pad through either the keyboard, remote or context menu command. * Shortcut ".lnk" files are now parsed and the files they are pointing to are now properly loaded. One use can be a DVD Archive where you create shortcuts in one directory for the VIDEO_TS.IFO files that reside in multiple hard drives/paths. * When Pausing, the OSD will now show the current position. Changes: * VASTLY! Reduced the Windows 95/98/ME system resources used by Zoom Player, Zoom Player now takes around 6% resources compared to around 30% v2.80 used. This of course doesn't have any effect on Windows 2K/XP as they don't have such a limited widget resource bank to begin with. * Zoom Player should load a bit faster now (not that it was slow to load to begin with). * The Custom Context-Menu interface has been completely revamped, there are no more fixed items and more functions are accessible. Backward support for the previous custom menu interface won't be supported, however, it doesn't take more than 2 minutes to manually convert. * The default Context-Menu for the Media, DVD and Tray interfaces has been sorted and expanded. * The Open Directory function is now "DVD-Aware". This means that if you open a directory with a VIDEO_TS.IFO file in it, the directory would be played as a DVD. * The Association dialog now shows you which extensions are associated and allows you to remove association. * The File Navigator interface now uses the Open Drive button when using the Insert key on a drive letter. * Separated the Custom Audio Device to Media and DVD so you can decide if it affects one or the other (or neither). * The Next/Previous Chapter buttons now act as Next/Previous Tracks when no chapters are defined. When Chapters are defined they will only change tracks if you are on the last/first chapters. This allows you to cross-chapter media files. * New Overlay Color automated verification system that double checks if DirectShow is returning the correct overlay color used in OSD transparency. This is required due to bugs in such filters as the WinDVD v4 Video Decoder which modifies the overlay color code for some unknown reason. * The vlLeft and vlTop skin parameters have been moved into the VolumeExData function and should no longer be used in future skins. * The rtLeft, rtTop parameters and RateData function has been integrated into a new "RateExData" function for further skinning simplification. * The skinning documentation has moved from the plasticblue to the brownish skin as it is updated to much all the new functions. * Several of the Red Error messages have been converted to an OSD message, especially those involving missing a DVD disc or wrong path. * The red error dialog now has a "Close" button on them, some people were unaware they could be closed by pressing Escape or Clicking on the dialog. * The Previous/Next filter file functions have been removed, if you plan to use a filter file, you must select it through the options dialog. * Screen centering functions should now center on the active monitor and not on the virtual screen coordinates for better multi-monitor support. * When the Extended VMR setting is enabled (see above) under Windows XP, the frame capture function (Alt+"F") is more accurate and captures any file format (including MPEG-2, ASF and WMV). * Some speed up to the ASX play list file parsing. On a P3/733 it now takes around 40 seconds to load a 17000 entry list (verifying that each file actually exists), down from 233 seconds with the previous code. An improvement of over 500%. * Improved Overlay ColorKey detection. * The Minimize to Tray setting has been removed as it had the same function as the Tray location selection toggle. Fixes: * Wrote a DirectShow workaround a bug that failed to notify the player when exiting a Menu mode when playing from a Bookmark. * The Next Audio Track didn't work with the new OGM DirectShow filter. * Fixed a problem when the Override VMR setting was enabled and you simply wouldn't see any video. * The TransBitmapCopy function was not working properly. * Fixed a bug that could cause crashes on non-english versions of windows. * Fixed a problem that would alter the DVD Background Image aspect ratio. * Using the new DrawExText would cause position covered by the text not to react to mouse clicks. * Open Filter Property Pages should no longer mess up buttons with Hover Graphics. * Fixed possible crashes (multiple divide by zero) with Scene Cut files. * Clicking the mouse on the Play List Navigator could pop an error dialog. * Fixed a few possible crashes involving versions of windows that didn't use "." as a fraction separator. * Certain DVD Discs (ones without the "AUDIO_TS" directory) would not have been identified as DVD when Insert Auto-Play was enabled. * The "CopyTransBitmap" skinning function was faulty. * The Red Error dialog should now close properly when using a remote. * The DVD Background Image would not always return to it's correct aspect ratio after stopping a DVD.What's new in v2.80:
* New Scene Cut Editor (Shift+"T"). The Scene Cut Editor allows you to modify the way content is played. You can manipulate it in the following ways: 1. Cut: Dynamically remove segments of the time line so that these segments will cut be when encountered. 2. Jump: Create Jump points which can jump anywhere within the time line, including backwards, this way re-editing the chronological playback order in any way you desire. 3. Audio Mute: Mute the Audio for a specific duration. 4. Hide Subtitle: DVD Only, Hide the DVD Subtitle for a specific duration. Similar to the Chapter Editor, a file is kept for every DVD Disc and Media File with the ".cut" extension. If such a file is encountered it will be applied to the Disc/File. * New Interface ("G" on the keyboard) to GoTo any position within the timeline. The interface allows you to pick between HH:MM:SS:MS and a specific Frame. * New Navigator (Alt+"G" on the keyboard) allowing you to go to any position within the timeline (HH:MM:SS interface). Full navigational through the keyboard or a remote device. * New Navigator (Alt+"W" on the keyboard) allowing you to navigate through the MouseWheel functions. Only the selected MouseWheel functions will be visible. * New Custom Audio Device selection dialog (Options->Manual Filters). This should work for both Media and DVD Graphs. Regardless of the audio device selected in the DVD/Media Graph file. * New Custom Aspect Ratio Presets (Options->Presets->Custom AR) allowing you to have up to 10 Custom Aspect Ratio modes. * New Overlay Color Presets (Options->Presets->Overlay Color) allowing you to have up to 10 Custom Overlay Color settings. * New Toggle (Options->Settings->Toggle) which lets you select where you want Zoom Player to appear. Options are: - Task Bar - System Tray - Task Bar & Tray * New Toggle (Options->Settings->Toggle) allowing Zoom Player to be minimized after play is complete. If the Minimize to Tray option is enabled, then Zoom Player will be minimized to the System Tray. * New Toggle (Options->Settings->Toggle) allowing you to select how Zoom Player starts. Options are: - Window Mode - Zoom Mode - Fullscreen Mode - Minimized This new toggle supersedes previous Zoom on Start setting. * New Toggle (Options->Settings->Toggle) which determines if Zoom Player changes Display mode when a CD or DVD is Auto Played. Options are: - Do Nothing - Go to Zoom - Go to Fullscreen - Restore if Minimized * New Setting (Options->Settings->Other) allowing you to have a media image file visible in the video area when no media file is being played. The file name Zoom Player is looking for is either "mediaimage.bmp" or "mediaimage.jpg". By default this setting is off. * New Setting (Options->Manual Filter) allowing you to force the Overlay Mixer to be loaded. This is the same as setting the SVCD filter profile but easier to enable/disable. * New DVD AutoAR Value (Options->DVD->AutoAR) allowing you to set the Video Position Preset once Playback is stopped. * New Value (Options->Values->Playback) allowing you to set the Image Slideshow delay in seconds. This value determines the number of seconds Zoom Player waits before moving to the next track when playing a media file with zero duration (usually implies a image file as audio/video always have a duration). If a value of 0 is given, no action will take place. * New Function (Ctrl+"Z") that allows you to Pause Playback at the end of the currently playing file. * New Function (Alt+"B") that allows you to add a DVD Auto-Loading bookmark at frame zero of the currently playing title (or as close to it as possible). There may be up to a 3 second miss-rate due to DVD buffering. * New Function (Alt+Shift+"0..9") allowing you to apply one of 10 Custom Aspect Ratio presets. When called, the Aspect Ratio mode will first be changed to Custom Aspect Ratio. * New Function (Ctrl+Shift+"0..9") allowing you to apply one of 10 Custom Overlay Color presets. * New Ex Function "exPlayComplete" allowing you to set the PlayComplete toggle to a specific value. * The Mouse Wheel Options Dialog now allows you to set 5 new functions, 1. Next/Previous Media Track or DVD Chapter. 2. Next/Previous Media Chapter or DVD Bookmark. 3. Move Window/Video Up/Down. 4. Move Window/Video Left/Right. 5. Custom Functions The custom function entry allows you to assign any standard Zoom Player "fn" function (see "plasticblue.skn" for list) for both the wheel up and wheel down controls. * You can now switch the Tray Icon by right-clicking it, selecting "Actions->Change Tray Icon" and pointing to an Icon file. * The Play List Editor display has been reworked. Using the "Options->Values->Play List" dialog you can now pick the colors, font and weather icons should be visible. Icons represent which file is currently playing. * The Play List Editor and Navigator will now show the current path of the highlighted file. You can Disable this behavior on the "Options->Values->Play List" dialog. * The Overlay Color Control Navigator "Default" function can now be accessed through the keyboard or a remote device. * The Information Dialog ("I" on the keyboard) will now show you the current Width and Height of the video with respect to the current aspect ratio. * The Screen Capture function (Alt+"F") has been changed to work with more files and not require any special setup. HOWEVER! due to a bug in DirectShow, the accuracy of the capture is not 100%, which means that it won't capture the right frame with some files. Some formats (WMV/ASF/MPEG-2) can't be captured at all. If you REALLY want something more accurate, use Hypersnap-DX. * The Internal screen saver has been revamped to take a ton more CPU power. * External Screen Savers are now disabled on Play and not on when going fullscreen. So as long as you're playing a video, external screen savers should not kick in. * The Menu customization file now allows you to enter menu values for the System Tray Context Menu. * The Default System Tray Context Menu has been expanded. * New "/M" Command Line Parameter. The "/M" parameter will instruct Zoom Player to start Minimized. If the proper setting is enabled, Zoom Player will start minimized on the system tray. * New "/RAND:[0=Off/1=On]" Command Line Parameter. Using the "/RAND" parameter you can enable/disable random play from the command line. Possible values are: /RAND:0 - Disable Random Play /RAND:1 - Enable Random Play * New "/SORT:[n]" Command Line Parameter. Using the "/SORT:[n]" parameter you can have Zoom Player automatically sort the play list prior to playing. "[n]" is a numerical figure specifying the type of source. Here is a list of the possible values: /SORT:0 - Sort by File Name /SORT:1 - Sort by File Type (Extension) /SORT:2 - Sort by File Date /SORT:3 - Sort by File Size /SORT:4 - Sort by Directory Path and File Name * New "/PLAYNAV" Command Line Parameter. Invoking this parameter opens the Play List Navigator on start. * The "CreateButton" function has been replaced by "CreateExButton". The previous function is still working through an internal translation code for backward compatibility, but when writing new skins, the updated function is recommended as it's slightly faster loading. The benefits of this new function are many. First it uses a slightly different method of assigning parameters that allow the function to easily expand without breaking backward compatibility. The new features supported by this new function are: 1. Access to the EX functions (see "default.key" file for list). This allows you to set specific Aspect Ratio modes, Custom Aspect Ratio Modes, Play Rates, Blanking Presets, and so forth. 2. Allowing you to create buttons that open the property dialog of a specific Filter (if one exists) by passing the name or part of the name. One button can work for multiple filters as long as they share part of the name. You can also have the button react to multiple different filter names. Thus covering any contingency. 3. Alpha Blended Buttons (useful for buttons which don't have a fixed position, like screen-centered buttons. A bit CPU intensive when resizing/redrawing the skin (relatively speaking). 4. Hover (Mouse-Over) optional graphics for the button. See "plasticblue.skn" for the full documentation and "brownish.skn" for multiple examples. * The "DrawText" function has been replaced by "DrawExText". The previous function is still working through an internal translation code for backward compatibility, but when writing new skins, the updated function is recommended as it's slightly faster loading. The new features supported by this new function are: 1. Support for more dynamic constants such as <Time>, <TimeRemain>, <Duration> which are automatically updated on-screen every second. 2. Fixed with and Height of text drawing area for clipping. 3. Word Wrapping in case text doesn't fit in specified width. 4. Text Alignment (Left, Center, Right). The "Brownish.skn" skin file contains a few examples. * New "CopyStretchedBitmap" Skinning function, allowing you to do copy a bitmap using biliniar stretching. This is somewhat CPU intensive. A Control Bar "CopyCBarStretchedBitmap" function also exists. * New "CopyTransBitmap" Skinning function, allowing you to copy a bitmap using a Transparency ColorKey. Every pixel that matches the specified RGB color won't be copied over. This function can be CPU intensive if used extensively. A Control Bar "CopyCBarTransBitmap" function also exists. * New "CopyMaskedBitmap" Skinning function, allowing you to copy an alpha masked bitmap. The alpha mask is aligned to the right of the bitmap, similar to how buttons are defined. This allows you to make translucent bitmap copies with translucency ranges defined within the masking. This function can be CPU intensive if used extensively. A Control Bar "CopyCBarMaskedBitmap" function also exists. * New "ResizeBox" Skinning function to help resize skins that have transparent edges that hide out the resize mouse cursor. * The "VolumeData" Skinning function has been replaced with "VolumeExData". This new function allows you to specify the number of volume bitmaps used to cover the volume rage and weather the Volume is calculated Horizontally (like it currently is) or Vertically (allowing you to have vertical volume bars). * You can now use combinations of Alt/Ctrl/Shift when defining keyboard functions using keyboard files, for example when using: AddKey(Shift+Ctrl,115,fnExit) With this key definition, pressing Shift+Ctrl+F5 would exit Zoom Player. * You can now use combinations of Alt/Ctrl/Shift using the message interface. See "default.key" for more information. * The File Navigator now respects the Play List queueing settings as set on the "Options->Settings->Playback" dialog. It also respects Random Play. * Definition files can now be saved for Media files played off a CD, the data is saved to the "Media-Data" directory (under the Zoom Player directory). * The association interface now has values for the XVID and DIVX extensions. * Zoom Player now contains a 48x48 icon for you XP folks with the big icons. Also revamped the standard 32x32 icon a bit. * The Video Presets Editor has been integrated into the Options dialog and a few small bugs with this dialog as been fixed. * The Video Blanking Editor has been integrated into the Options dialog. * Fixed the Overlay Color Control interface so that sliding the mouse up and down with the left button clicked, doesn't change the focus of the active slider. * The Information dialog should now appear on-top of the main user interface even if stay-on-top is enabled. * The Girder export now supports keyboard files that have combinations of Alt+Ctrl+Shift assigned to a function. * Slightly improved load time. * Some optimization to the skin drawing and loading code. * Wrote code to close all open filter property pages when closing a video (to prevent possible crashes). * Screen Saver wasn't kicking in when Media was in stop mode. * Fixed a bug that would cause a Background image and ID3 data to remain displayed if a playing audio file would be closed. * Fixed possible crashes when quitting Zoom Player without first stopping a playing DVD Disc.What's new in v2.71:
* Fixed a bug where transparent skins wouldn't show transparently when switching skins. * Fixed a bug that would cause Zoom Player to crash if the Override VMR setting was enabled. * Fixed a bug that would cause Zoom Player to crash if a Transparent skin was used under certain conditions. * Fixed a bug that could cause Zoom Player to crash when the DVD Trailer feature was used.What's new in v2.70:
* Some functions in this version were developed using the latest versions of the OGG DirectShow filter (v0.9.9.1) and the DirectVobSub DirectShow filter (v2.16). It is advised you use the latest versions available. * It has come to my attention that the Zoom Player crashes with the Terratec and Game Theater cards are related to a buggy DirectShow filter installed by these cards. For more information on how to resolve this issue load this address in your web browser: https://inmatrix.com/zplayer/faq/faq_entry0031.shtml * The Rewind command now works in Media Mode. Since DirectShow doesn't really support rewind in Media Mode, this function uses time-based seeking instead. It works well with MPEG-1 files, with AVI files which have low number of key-frames or slow seeking (MPEG-4/DivX/etc), it will still work, but may not update the image properly as it rewinds. I did notice that FFDShow does update the screen while DivX 5.02 will just display frames not relative to the actual position. When playing OGM, you must disable the "Always Search to Keyframe" setting in the OGG Splitter or the rewind will seek to the same frame over and over. You can set the rewind rate at "Options->Values->Playback". Since there is no limitation imposed by DirectShow, I've set the maximum rewind speed to 50 (50 seconds per second). * New setting (Options->Settings->Interface) allowing the Control Bar to pop when Rewinding in Media Mode. The importance of this is that some files may not properly show a video image while rewinding, so having the video position visible while rewinding may be important. This setting is enabled by default. * New setting (Options->Settings->Interface) allowing the Control Bar to pop when Pausing. * New Value (Options->OSD->Navigators) to enlarge the navigators font size when in fullscreen mode. This only effects navigators with non-fixed font size such as the File Navigator. * New Value (Options->OSD->Navigators) allowing you to select how much of the video area will be covered by the navigators. By default this is 75%. * New "Double Click" Toggle (Options->Settings->Mouse Toggles) that allows you to open the File Open dialog if no file is currently loaded. * New "On CD / DVD Insert" toggles (Options->Settings->Toggles) allowing you to automatically load (and play) a Media CD. All valid media files on the CD will be loaded into the Play List (clearing any previous Play List). Prerequisites are that the CD drive is specified (Options->Values) and that Zoom Player is actually loaded. VCD and SVCD discs are considered a Media CD and are only the MPEGAV (VCD) and MPEG-2 (SVCD) directories are loaded. * Menu Context Menu Specification interface(Options->Values->Other). Using this interface you can specify which functions are available within the Right-Click Context Menu. For more information, see "default.menu" in the Zoom Player directory. * New internal screen saver option. By default it is active after 30 minutes of inactivity. Inactivity is defined as "not playing, no keyboard, no remote, no mouse activity and in Fullscreen mode". A DVD Menu is considered "not playing". * New Definition File function allowing you to run external programs. This can be used in both DVD and Media files and can be useful for running such programs as PowerStrip to pre-configure your hardware on a per-title basis. * New Definition File function to delay processing for a specified number of seconds. Useful when running external programs. * New Definition File function to bring the Zoom Player window back to the front (in case some other application stole focus). * New DirectShow Filter Registration dialog (Options->Manual Filters), allowing you to register/unregister DirectShow filters with ease. Default Profiles include support for DivX 3.11, DivX 4&5, XviD, FFDShow, Elecard MPEG-2, Microsoft MPEG-4, WinDVD, PowerDVD, CineMaster, DirectVobSub, etc... * New Skinning value (iTransColor) that allows you to specify an RGB transparency color. By specifying this value part of the form will become transparent allowing background windows to be visible through it. This basically enables you to draw non-rectangular skins. Transparent skins requite a bit more CPU time to redraw so they're probably not the best for low-end systems. * New Skinning constants allowing you to center objects within the main user interface and within the control bar. The constants are: <WinHalfWidth>,<WinHalfHeight>,<cBarHalfWidth> and <cBarHalfHeight>. * New Skinning function that allows you to specify a bitmap to be drawn at the active timeline position. You can see this in practice in the default skin by looking at the timeline area between the active/inactive areas, there's a slight shading in between them now. * New Skinning functions that allow you to specify a bitmap for the beginning and end areas of the timeine. Using this function allows you to display a non-rectangular timeline area. * The Transparency value of a created Button will now actually create a non-rectangular button. This allows you to have overlapping buttons areas which don't interfere with clicking. A good use for this feature would be a DVD Navigational control wheel. * Removed the following redundant skinning codes: 1. "RateVis" Now set to Visible when RateData function is called. 2. "VolVis" Now set to Visible when VolumeData function is called. 3. "tLineVis" Now set to Visible if tLineColor or TimeLineFG is called. 4. "tLineBitmap" Now set to bitmap when TimeLineFG is called. 5. "cBarTLBitmap" Now set to bitmap when TimeLineCBarFG is called. No actual changes in pre-existing skins is required. * New Setting (Options->Settings->Other) to enable outlining of the timeline display text. * New Setting (Options->Settings->Interface) to "Remember Window State on Exit". When enabled, the Window size is remembered. If Zoom Player is currently in Zoom Mode, it is also remembered. * New Setting (Options->DVD->Auto AR) allowing you to Enable/Display the Automatic DVD Aspect Ratio. This setting can be toggled by pressing Ctrl+"T" or by using a system message. This setting is useful if you want to temporarily disable Automatic Aspect Ratio support without having to enter the options dialog. * New Value (Options->Overlay Colors) allowing you to set the percentage the overlay color controls will be modified by when using the keyboard/remote commands. * New Toggle (Options->Settings->Toggles) to switch between various functions assigned to the navigational arrow keys (when not in a DVD Menu or a Navigator). By default the arrow keys are assigned to reposition the video. However, you can also assign it to: - Seek within the Timeline - Zoom Width/Height - Volume Control - Tracks and Chapters - Disabled You can also switch between the active arrow functions by using Ctrl+"PgUp" and Ctrl+"PgDn". * New item on the Task Bar right-click Context Menu allowing you to reset the window position (in case it somehow disappeared off the screen). * New Context Menu for the Tray Icon (when used). * New Command line Parameter, Using the "/Trailer" parameter allows you to set the DVD Trailer definition file. For example: "zplayer.exe" /trailer:"z:\my config\dts.trailers" "zplayer.exe" /trailer:"" The second example disables the use of the trailer definition file. * New Command Line Parameter, Using the "/Blank" parameter, video blanking will be automatically enabled when Zoom Player is started. * The Ctrl+"B" Subtitle cycle function is now OGM compatible. In DVD Mode it will cycle through the DVD Subtitle tracks. In Media mode Zoom Player will first look to see if VobSub is loaded and contains active subtitle tracks. If none are found then OGM subtitle tracks will be used. There seem to be a bug in VobSub that causes it to display a ghost subtitle entry on some systems. In these cases, OGG subtitle tracks will get precedent. This function will also enable the Subtitle if only one was found. * The Shift+"B" Subtitle Disable fuction is now OGM compatible. Any active subtitle track will be disabled once this function is called. * The Ctrl+"A" Audio Track cycle function is now OGM compatible. In DVD Mode it will cycle through the DVD Audio Tracks. In Media Mode it will first check there are more than one audio renderers (like in the case of Multi-Audio AVI files) and switch between them. If only one audio renderer is found, it will look for OGG Audio Tracks and cycle through them instead. The only problem with this now is that there's a bug in the OGG DirectShow filter that causes it to generate two audio renderers when an AC3 audio is encoded into the OGM file. Even so, Zoom Player should work well in this situation. * The Ctrl+"N" Angle cycle function is now OGM compatible. In DVD Mode it will cycle through the DVD Angles. In Media Mode when more than one OGG Video tracks are found, this function will cycle through the Video tracks. * The Next/Previous Chapter functions will now switch between OGG chapters as long as no Zoom Player chapters are defined for the playing file. * The Chapter Navigator interface is now OGM compatible. If no Zoom Player chapters exist for a specific Media file, OGG Chapters will be navigated (if available). * Zoom Player will now automatically determine when it can't save a chapter file to the same directory as the media file and in such cases, it will save the chapter files in a local directory (within the Zoom Player directory). When loading media files, this directory will also be checked for the existence of a chapter file. This makes chapter support for files on CD transparent. * New chapter scripting command "AddChapterBySecond" allows you to specify a chapter position in seconds rather than frames. * New chapter scripting command "AddChapterByTime" allows you to specify a chapter position in hours minutes and seconds instead of frames. * The Default DVD and Media skins have been updated with a few more buttons (especially to support the new OGM feature-set). * Zoom in/out is now calculated on a sub-pixel level, allowing for more accurate video position. * The Fit to Source function now respects the Zoom 200% status. * The File Navigator is quite a bit faster now (especially in directories containing a lot of files or network drives). * Zoom to Fullscreen is now part of the Girder export group. * Pressing [BACKSPACE] on the Play List Navigator will now clear the play list and close the navigator. * The Language Media context menu entry can now control multiple IAM_StreamSelect (OGG Splitter / DirectVobSub) interfaces. I did notice that there still is some instability between OGG, XviD (DivX as well?), the various and complex OGG structures (lots of chapters, subs, audio and video tracks). OGG will simply kill Zoom Player, no message no nothing, Zoom Player will simply vanish. And note that this isn't specific to Zoom Player, The OGG filter will also do the same to Media Player. * A lot of the error dialogs dealing with the main user interface have been replaced with a special error dialog that can be closed using a remote (by sending either the [Enter] or the [Escape] navigational keys). * Ejecting under Windows 95/98/ME should no longer open a dialog informing you that the disc is in use (when playing a file on that CD). * Playing a file off CD, then exiting Zoom Player, ejecting the CD and then reloading Zoom Player should no longer pop a notification dialog asking to insert the CD. * The File Navigator should no longer prompt you to insert the CD if one was removed. * The Navigators should no longer close when a new file is loaded. * Ejecting in Media Mode should now close the playing media file. unfortunately, There doesn't seem to be a method to identify which CD was ejected, as such any CD ejected Media will close a media file if it was playing off a CD. * The "Auto-Size User Interface to fit Source Video Size" setting now effects the window size even if the video was loaded while in fullscreen. * Using INSERT within the File Navigator now works properly under Windows 95/98/ME. * There was a one second offset error to the Mouse and Control auto-hide delay functions. * Vastly reduced Windows 95/98/ME system resource usage. * Fixed a "List Index out of Bound" bug involving deleting items off the Play List Navigator. * The mouse cursor now hides properly when placed over the location of the hidden Control Bar. * The Screen Saver prevention code now works differently and should no longer conflict with other applications. * Fixed it so that the Chapter list would clear when a new video is opened. * Fixed a problem where the Overlay Color Controls were not being applied initially on DVDs that don't contain a chapter notification on their starting title. * Made a few changes to the DVD Subtitle/Audio menu listing code, this "may" fix problems non-english versions of windows. * A few minor changes and fixes to the File Navigator.What's new in v2.60:
* New File Navigator Interface (Shift+"F" or "Enter" in Media Mode). The File Navigator Interface allows you to navigate your entire file system using simple keystrokes which can be mapped to a remote control device. General: [LEFT/RIGHT] arrows switch between Files and Drive selection. when [LEFT] is pressed when on the left pane, the Navigator will go up one directory. Files: [UP/DOWN] arrows cycles through the available files in the current directory. [ENTER] pick which file to play or Enter/Exit directories. [BACKSPACE] is used as a shortcut to go UP one directory. [INSERT] when a directory is highlighted will play the entire directory, including sub-directories. When a file is highlighted, the current directory+sub-directories will be played. When a drive is highlighted (bottom of file list), the entire Drive will be played. Drives: [UP/DOWN] arrows cycle through the available drives, the path used is for the active drive is the last path visited. The visited paths are remembered between sessions. [ENTER] on a drive will set the file path to the drive's root directory and set the focus to the file panel. [INSERT] the entire drive will be played. * New DVD Trailers Definition System that allows you to have Random and Specific trailers play before every DVD, for more information, see the "default.trailers" file in the Zoom Player directory. You can specify which file is used at: Option->DVD->DVD Tools. * New DVD Auto-AR interface (Options -> DVD -> Auto-AR). Using this new interface you can set the Video Position, Blanking Position and Aspect Ratio automatically for the three types of DVD content: 4:3 - Full Frame 16:9 - Letterbox 16:9 - Anamorphic * OSD Customization of the Navigator Interfaces. You can now pick the font Face, CharSet, Bold, Italics, Colors that will be used on most of the Navigator Interfaces. I've also consolidated the look of the interfaces so that they look more coherent. * New LCD Communication Interface. While not directly controlling LCD devices, this interface allows external programs to use certain Zoom Player playback information for LCD display. See online-help for more information. * New Context Menu for the Control Bar. Accessible by right clicking the non-Timeline area of the Control Bar or by middle clicking the Timeline area. Using this context menu you can access Control Bar related settings without having to open the options dialog. * The "Keys" interface on the Options dialog now has an additional function. It can now export the active Zoom Player key list (the one currently loaded) into a Girder 3.1 compatible GML file. This should allow you to easily map remote control functions using girder (www.girder.nl). * New "External" entry on the Options dialog. * You can now set the WinDVD DeInterlace and Audio Output modes. These settings only take effect if the WinDVD filters are not currently active (playing some video) and may not work with the trial version of WinDVD. * You can now set the PowerDVD DeInterlace and Audio Output modes. These settings only take effect if the PowerDVD filters are not currently active (playing some video) and may not work with all versions of PowerDVD. * Faster Folder/DVD image resize code. Not as good at downsizing compared to the previous filtering code, but it's A LOT faster and the image still looks very good. It also gives better quality when enlarging the image. * The Timeline display items (Current Position, Total Length, File Name, etc...) are now independent so you can display them in any combination you desire. * New Timeline display setting allowing you to show an idle state mode within the Timeline (enabled by default). * The Pop-Up OSD messages are now outlined for better clarity (can be disabled at Options->OSD->Actions). * Faster Gradient draws (skin script). * The Ctrl+"B" Cycle Subtitle track function will now work for subtitles displayed using VobSub. * The Shift+"B" Disable Subtitle function will now work for subtitles displayed using VobSub. * New Alt+"U" DVD Play from Start function. When used, Zoom Player will play the DVD from the Start, bypassing any auto-loading bookmarks/stop position. * New "/CD:[n]" Command Line Parameter to set the Active CD/DVD drive. Example: "zplayer.exe /CD:F" will set the Active CD/DVD to drive "F". * New "/ADD:[path]" Command Line Parameter that adds entire paths to the play list. For Example: "c:\program files\zplayer\zplayer.exe" "/add:e:\my video files\" Notice the "", if this parameter isn't encased, spaces in the given path would be considered a different parameter. * New "/FILENAV" Command Line Parameter which starts Zoom Player with the File Navigator interface active. * New keyboard/remote mapping function "exInterface" to explicitly Toggle specific interfaces. * New "On Play Complete" toggle that allows the next file (alphabetically ordered) in the same directory to be played. * New DVD Setting "Assume DVD Menu at all times". This setting will make Zoom Player assume you're in a DVD Menu at all times forcing the arrow keys to work only as menu navigation controls. This is useful for problematic discs which seem to confuse DirectShow into thinking they are not in a DVD Menu while they are in fact in one. When this setting is enabled, you can't use the Arrow keys to position the video in DVD Mode, however, you can still use the Shift+Arrow keys to perform the same task. * New Interface Setting "Move Mouse off-screen when Mouse is hidden by inactivity". I think it's pretty self-explanatory, it just moves the mouse cursor off-screen when it's hidden due to inactivity. * New Playback Setting "Reset Play-Rate when Playing/Pausing Playback". By default it's enabled and acts as previous version of Zoom Player. However, when disabled, pausing/resuming playback will not alter the play rate. * New "Set as Default" button on the Overlay Colors dialog that allows you to save the current Overlay Color settings as the default values which are used each time you press the "Restore Default" button. * New "Anamorphic Aspect Ratio is relative to" selection box that allows you to define if the Anamorphic AR mode is relative to the source aspect ratio or to the defined video dimension. * The mouse double click can now be assigned to Toggle the Overlay Color Control interface. * The Media mode "Subtitle" context-menu entry has been changed to "Language". It should now behave exactly as the Media Player "Language" entry works, and as such should also display OGG Audio/Video selection entries. * As per the change above, OGG stream selection should now work. If both OGG and VobSub are in use, OGG takes precedent. So make sure your OGG subtitles are actually within the OGG file. * You can now set the CD/DVD drive through the "DVD->DVD Values" interface. This is EXACTLY the same setting as the one at "Values & Tools->Interface", I duplicated the setting so people could find it when looking for it in a DVD Context. * New Value (Options->Values->Other) allowing you to specify the base name for Folder Images. By default folder images are either folder.jpg or folder.bmp. But by setting this value to "cover", cover.jpg and cover.bmp will be looked for instead. * You can now associate the M3U play list extension. * You can now associate the OGG and OGM file extensions. * The MP3 ID3 OSD settings have been moved to the OSD tab and will now allow you to set the font (so it is no longer shared with the standard OSD display). * When saving a play list, you will now be prompted if you want to save the full path to the file names. This is useful if you want to save CD-Based play list which shouldn't have the file path listed. * You can now disable the Mouse Cursor from Auto-Hiding. Also, the Auto-Hide setting for the Control Bar has been moved next to the "Hide in [n] Seconds" value in order to make it more accessible. * The Volume Increase/Decrease keys has been changed from "Home"/"End" to Shift+"Home"/Shift+"End". I've also changed the play previous/next files in directory keys from "PgUp"/"PgDn" to Shift+"PgUp"/Shift+"PgDn" The idea behind these changes is that now these keys are available for use in the navigation interfaces. * Modified the DVD Menu detection code once again, this time it's a hybrid between the old system and the newer system, hopefully this should work best with most discs, especially the odd ones with very deep menus which confuse DirectShow. * Fixed a skin issue with the Volume and Rate bars. * Going in and out of Fullscreen mode no longer breaks Drag&Drop onto the Play List editor. * Pressing Space in Checkbox lists should no longer jump to different settings. * Enter key now works in the Play List Editor and the Chapter/Bookmark editor to play an Item. * Removing items from the play list, no longer interferes with the playback order. * Removing the currently playing video from the Play List will now stop playback and close the video. * Fixed a few bugs dealing with Random Play. * Exiting Zoom Player while in Zoom/Fullscreen mode will no longer set the window position to the top left corner. * Mute status is now remembered upon exiting Zoom Player. * Opening a Directory will no longer add files that contain acceptable extensions as part of their base names. For example, this file name is no longer considered a valid media file: "my.avi.list.txt". This also applies to the Next/Previous file in dir playback option. * Zoom Player by default would make sure that the OSD display would always stay on-screen even when the video was zoomed. This can be problematic for multi-monitor displays and can now be disabled: Options->Setting->Interface->Prevent OSD from moving off-screen * While not really designed for it, the Play List Editor should now be easier to navigate using a remote device. * Deleting items through the Play List Navigator now works. * Add Directory should now work under Win9x when adding the root drive. * Context Help should now open the associated web page rather than just showing it's URL. * You can now separately hide the mouse cursor and the control bar. * Screen saver no longer remains disabled if you exit Zoom Player while in Zoom/Fullscreen mode. * Made a possible fix so that on multi-monitor configurations, going to Fullscreen should not set the video resolution to the size of the first monitor, but rather to the size of the current monitor. * Can't see how I forgot to put this one in ... Alt+"X" will now exit Zoom Player.What's new in v2.50:
* The FAQ.TXT files has been re-written and moved online, it can be opened by pressing the "FAQ" button on the Options dialog or by going to: https://inmatrix.com/zplayer/faq * Restructured the Options dialog so that it is a easier to navigate and the various settings are more logically ordered. * Revised the DVD Menu detection code. It should be more reliable and you should be able to see the position of video where seeking is disabled (such as DVD Trailers). * After some investigation it seems that the Elecard MPEG-2 decoder package contains an MPEG-2 Demultiplexor filter that allows SVCD playback directly off a CD or from a mounted BIN/CUE file. I further modified the code so the "file not found" issue should not pop for SVCD CD files. * The left mouse button can now be assigned a different function if the player is in DVD Mode. An additional DVD Mode-Only function is to force menu select. * You can now modify the OSD size so that it will be bigger while in Zoom/Fullscreen modes (Options -> OSD). * New DVD/MediaGraph function, The "SetFilterSync" allows you to choose the filter which will be used for Audio/Video Synchronization. This "MAY" help with some Audio/Video lip-sync issues, but probably not. I'm including it here for "completeness" and for the Power Users to experiment with. * New Interface (Options -> Values -> MP3). Using this interface, you can have MP3 ID3 data made visible during playback. Select how the information is displayed, it's position on the screen and more. * New Feature. Right-Clicking a Play List editor item will pop-up an information dialog containing the full file name and path. * New Setting (Options -> Settings -> Playback) that allows you to control weather the Media Play Rate is reset each time a new media file is loaded. By default the play rate is reset, but if you disable this setting, loading a new media file, or looping the current media file, will maintain the same play speed. * New Setting (Options -> Settings -> Other) to enable filtering of the DVD/Media Folder images. With filtering enabled, the image is filtered so it isn't as "jaggy" when stretched. This filtering takes more CPU power (when you actually resize the form, not when it's idle). I'm currently using a Factor scaling code of my own design. It's pretty fast (considering it isn't ASM/MMX optimized), but it's not as good at enlarging the image as it is at shrinking it. * New Setting (Options -> Settings -> Other) to disable the drawing of Navigator backgrounds. This should further offload some CPU usage. I don't recommend turning off both outlining and background as that will make the fonts hard to read. * New Setting (Options -> Settings -> Other) to have the currently playing title appear in the Zoom Player Task Bar button. * New Setting (Options -> DVD -> Settings) that allows you to have the DVD Stop Position auto-loaded only if the disc played is the same as the last played disc. * New Audio Selection System (Options -> DVD -> Values) that allows you to specify the preferred Audio track. The system is comprised of three values. 1. The Language 2. The Audio Type (AC3/DTS/Etc...) 3. The Number of Audio Channels When a DVD presents Zoom Player with a new list of Audio Tracks, Zoom Player gives each track a merit according to the number of values it matches against the user specified entries. The highest value (4) is given to the Language, a medium value (2) is given to the Audio Type and the lowest value (1) is given to the number of channels. The first audio track with the highest merit points is consistently activated throughout the disc (some discs have different audio tracks for different sections of the disc) until the user manually specifies a different Audio Track. At that point, the Audio Select System (Or "ASS", hehe - I just had to put that in here) is temporarily disabled until playback is stopped (Stop button). * New Value (Options -> DVD -> Values) that allows you to select the preferred Subtitle language. The first language matching the specified subtitle language will be selected and enabled. * New Value (Options -> Values -> Other) allowing you to select which file extensions will be used when opening directories and when using the Open dialog (the files that will appear in the dialog). * New Value (Options -> Values -> Other) allowing you to specify a default folder image if one is not found in the current playback folder (for audio media files). * New Value (Options -> Values -> Other) allowing you to set an alternative path to look for Media Chapter files. If a chapter file isn't found in the same directory as the Media file, this directory will also be scanned (useful if you want to create chapter files for files that are already burnt on CD). * New Value (Options -> Values -> Other) allowing you to set the Zoom Player process priority. When using a non-normal priority, you should make sure you set the priority prior to playback. * New Value (Options -> DVD -> Values) allowing you to set the DVD play rate speeds. By default they are 2/4/8, but you can also set them to 3/6/12, 4/8/16 and 5/10/20. * New Function (Alt+"]") to cycle through the Video Presets. * New Function (Alt+"[") to reverse cycle through the Video Presets. * New Function (Ctrl+"]") to cycle through the Blanking Presets. * New Function (Ctrl+"[") to reverse cycle through the Blanking Presets. * New Function (Shift+"B") to disable DVD Subtitle (if active). * New Function (Ctrl+"R") to turn Random (Shuffle) Play ON / OFF. * New Function (Shift+"S") to Show/Hide the Resize Navigator. The resize navigator is an easy to use interface that allows you to adjust the position and size of the video on a pixel level. This is especially useful for remote devices. * New Definition File command (see "zplayer.zdf") to save the Custom Aspect Ratio values into the definition file. And of course a command (see "default.df") to set this data from Definition files. * New Skin Scripting Constat "<ovColor>" allows you to fill parts of the Control Bar using the Overlay Chroma Color-Key thus making it transparent. * Two new skin functions, "GradientRectH" and "GradientRectV" allowing you to fill areas of the user interface with a color gradient either vertically or horizontally. This is a bit CPU intensive, but gives skin authors an option to create a more dynamic interface. * Restructured how files are being loaded. By default, opening a file through the main user interface or command line/externally will clear the play list. You can set it so that the files will be appended instead (Options -> Settings -> Playback). In earlier versions, the newly loaded files would be automatically played, from this version, the files will be queued instead and playback won't be disturbed. Unless! you select the "Appending to Playback plays new track" setting, in which case the new tracks will be played as-in the previous version. * The Override VMR buttons on the toggles tab didn't have the desired effect. It seems that DirectShow would restore the VMR after a while, and as such the button wasn't really doing anything. As a solution to this issue, I replaced the button with a check box on the Manual Filters dialog that finds the VMR filter during the initial file playback and instantly replaces it programmatically with the standard Video Renderer (if the check box is enabled). * The various "Move Window" toggles have been revamped! Now when in Window mode, they move the video, however in Fullscreen/Zoom mode, they move the Video area! This makes it extremely quick to position the video using the mouse. * The Increase/Decrease Play Rate functions now loop back to Normal Play once they've reached their max/min settings. * Changed the language code a bit so that it may work better with non-english versions of windows. * You can now use the Right/Left arrows on the PlayList and Chapter/Bookmark Navigator interfaces to jump half pages at a time for quicker scrolling. * You can use the mouse wheel to scroll through navigator interfaces and the left mouse button to select. * The Random Play can now be additionally accessed through the Play List editor. * The double click mouse toggle can now be used to Maximize the user interface. * The maximize function now resizes the user interface without covering the task bar. * Completely rewrote the Multi Track AVI Audio code. It should now compatible with more Multi Track AVI files and have less "issues". * The Timeline will now show all the text it can and crop it on the right when there's no room (instead of hiding the fields). * When setting Zoom Player to the On-DVD-Insert application, the "/PLAY" parameter is also given so that Zoom Player will auto-play and not only run. * The "Seek to Start" command wasn't listed in the keyboard list, pressing "T" will seek to the first frame of the Video. * For VORBIS playback to work properly under Zoom Player, you must make sure you have the latest Ogg DirectShow filter installed as previous versions were highly unstable. You can find the latest version at: http://www.doom9.org P.S. I'm not even sure if current versions are very stable ... a bit early to tell. * Going to Fullscreen doesn't break the Play List "Add Dir" button. * You should no longer get "File not found" errors when trying to play MPEG files from VCD/SVCD. * The DVD Angle Cycle function should now cycle properly. * When playing audio files with folder images active at times the folder image would not disappear correctly. * Using ALT-F4 to close the player while the Task Bar was hidden didn't restore the Task Bar. * Updated the version of the NSIS installer. Installing to non-english versions of Windows should now create the shortcuts in the proper "programs" sub-menu. The installer is a bit smaller too.What's new in v2.40:
* New Preset dialog to control Video Blanking. Video Blanking is the process of covering a certain video area in black in order to hide unwanted data. This is mostly the case with widescreen video where the actual widescreen area may contain gray video (rather than black) which can be rather annoying. The preset dialog allows you to define the number of pixels to hide from the Top, Bottom, Left and Right sides of the video. You can store up to 10 presets and easily apply them using the Shift+"0..9" keys. To open the Blanking Presets dialog, press Ctrl+"K". * With the new Blanking interface, you can now toggle the blanking ON/OFF with Alt+"K". Blanking is automatically activated if you use one of the Blanking presets or the Blanking Navigator. * New Blanking Navigator interface, fully controllable through a remote, this interface allows you to easily use either the keyboard or a remote to reposition the active Blanking area. * The Blanking color is linked to the fullscreen background color as set on the "Options -> Values" setting. You can experiment with blanking by changing the color there. Default color is Black of course. * Blanking information is now saved by default through the file/disc definition interface, but only if blanking is currently active. * The Auto-Repeat setting has been replaced with an "On Play Complete" toggle (on the Toggles tab). This new toggle enables you to activate one of five options once a play list has completed playback. 1. Do Nothing (last video frame remains on-screen). 2. Auto Rewind (rewind to first frame of first video in the list). 3. Auto Replay (rewind and play the first video in the list). 4. Close Player (auto closes Zoom Player). 5. Shutdown Windows (pops a 10sec delayed system shutdown window). Setting #3 is the default setting. * The Auto Repeat function (Alt+"P") has been replaced with a cycle function allowing you to cycle through all 5 options above. * New "Custom" Aspect Ratio setting. Using this setting you can apply any aspect ratio to the video, by default it's set to 2.35:1. * New "On Disc Insert" toggle allowing you to Auto-Play DVDs. For this to work properly, you must make sure that the DVD drive is defined on the (Options -> Values) tab. * New Value (Options -> Values) to set the percentage the audio volume changes when increasing/decreasing the volume. The default is 4%. This setting has no effect when using the mouse cursor to set the volume using the volume bar. * New option (Options -> Settings) to prevent the user interface from moving off-screen. Disabled by default since it prevents support for multi-monitor. This setting also makes sure that the user interface width/height are not larger than the screen resolution. * New option (Options -> Settings) to auto-center the user interface when loading a new media file (only applies in window mode). * New option (Options -> Settings) to force the "Scale Video size to it's original size" function to respect a set aspect ratio (by default the internal file resolution is used to size the window). * New option (Options -> Settings) to disable the Control Bar from being active in Window Mode (thus limiting it to Fullscreen/Zoom mode). * Under certain older versions of windows, if the Task Bar is set to auto-hide, it leaves a small stub at the bottom of the screen when going to Fullscreen/Zoom mode. In order to circumvent this issue, I included a new setting allowing you to hide/show the Windows Task Bar when Entering/Exiting these modes (Options -> Settings). * The Alt+"A" function besides opening the TFM Audio Filter property page will also open the DeDynamic Audio Filter property page is if it is in use by the active Media Graph. * When first run, Zoom Player will now prompt you for a CD / DVD drive to be used for Eject/Insert and for the Insert management system (auto play and such). * The Folder and DVD Images are now always set to their internal aspect ratio rather than conforming to the Media Aspect ratio. Images should no longer appear stretched. The image aspect ratio does respect the "Source Relative Stretch" value so images should have the correct aspect ratio even when non-square pixels are used. * In Media mode,Folder images are now only set to shrink if they are larger than the available display area. When the display area is larger than the folder image, the image will be screen-centered. Optionally you can set the image to be enlarged to fit the display area (Options -> Settings). This only applies to Media Folder Images, The DVD Image is always set to match the display area. * Using a DVD Background image should no longer break OSD transparency. * DVD Background image now respects non 4:3 aspect ratios. * When the main user interface is minimized to the System Tray (not standard minimize), playback is paused. * The Play List, Bookmark/Chapter Navigator interfaces are now snazzier, making for an easier selection of items. * Slight modifications to the Context Menu. * Included a few more Control Bar buttons. * New Discrete DVD/Media mode function, accessible through the Ex-Functions, see "default.key" file for more information. * Certain DVD Discs (in my case Toy Story 2) had a problem where they would issue an event saying they are entering a new title, but would refuse to load a bookmark at this point, basically breaking the Auto-Bookmark system for these discs. As a work-around, I changed the code that auto-loads a bookmark. The code now it tries to load the bookmark 3 times, once per second after entering the initial title. This seems to be working great with Toy Story 2. * Wrote a work-around for certain DVD Decoders not supporting OSD transparency. Hopefully OSD transparency will work for everything now. * Wrote a work-around for the Zoom Player DDE server. If you now send a file play request through DDE (pressing enter in explorer), multiple files can be played (selecting several files in explorer and pressing enter). The assumption is, if you send more than 1 DDE request every 2.5 seconds, it's part of the same request and only the first file will be played while the remaining files will be added to the play list. The actual order of playback depends on how windows sends the DDE commands, which isn't always in the order you'd expect it. * Folder Images no longer require the DVD Image to enabled in order to work properly. * The Control Bar will now auto-hide if you are in Fullscreen/Zoom mode and no Media/DVD is loaded. * The DVD Image should no longer pop up even if it was disabled. * Cosmetic bug, previous Media Chapter function was showing wrong OSD chapter name (but seeking to the correct position). * Cosmetic, Text used in navigator interfaces is now outlined in black so it contrasts better against bright backgrounds. Outlining takes more CPU power, so you can disable the outlining if you find it takes too much CPU power (Options -> Settings). * Few Cosmetic bugs fixed in the Play List editor. * Changed the Folder/DVD Image search order, JPG images are looked for first and then BMP images. * Modified the 0..9 keys and all their ALT/CTRL/SHIFT states so that they are no longer hard coded and instead are assigned through the keyboard files and as such allowing you to use the 0..9 keys for other functions if required. * CD-Insert should now work on Win95/98/ME. * Fixed a few bugs with Random Play. * Fixed a few possible incompatibilities with non English operating systems. However for the fix to work, you must first uninstall any previous version (the important bit is removing the Zoom Player registry entries at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VirtuaMedia\ZoomPlayer). * Fixed a problem with certain AVI files that would not replay correctly. Usually AVI files that were chopped or reconstructed. * Multiple Instances should now be working properly. * Stay-On-Top should now be remembered even if Zoom Player is started in Fullscreen/Zoom modes. * Media files with "," in their file name can now be loaded successfully using Media Graph files.What's new in v2.30:
* New interface for manually creating Media Graphs according to Media Extension. Now you have three options. 1. Let DirectShow decide on the filters automatically (default). 2. Insert certain filters in the graph and then let DirectShow complete the graph on it's own. 3. Build the graph manually according to the extension of the media file, and if a graph doesn't exist for that media file, fallback to option #1. * New OSD DVD Chapter changer. It's supported through the keyboard/message services and I posted an example in the "default.key" file. This should allow easy chapter switching through Remote Devices. * New Bookmark(DVD)/Chapter(Media) Navigator OSD. Using this new interface you can easily pick a bookmark using a remote control. You can access it using the Alt+"N" keyboard macro or through the windows message service. * New Play List Navigator OSD. Using this new interface you can easily select a play list item using a remote in fullscreen mode. You can access it using the Shift+"N" keyboard macro or through the windows message service. * The Overlay Color Controls can now be controlled through the keyboard and remotely by using the Arrow keys. Works exactly the same as DVD menus where the up and down arrows move between the five settings, the left and right arrows increase and decrease the setting value and the enter key closes the interface. * The DVD AutoLoad confirmation dialog can now be controlled through a remote properly. * Support for a default DVD Menu language. You can pretty much pick any language and if it is supported by the DVD, it will be used. * Support for DVD background image (when playback is stopped), simply put a BMP/JPG image by the base name "dvdimage" in the Zoom Player directory and that image will appear when in DVD Mode. The DVD image position respects the video positioning and aspect ratio. A sample image is provided. This setting is enabled by default and can be disabled under the "Options -> DVD Settings" dialog. * Support for Audio Background image. Simply place a BMP/JPG "folder" file (example: "folder.jpg") in the playback directory, and it will be loaded when an Audio file is played from that Directory. Make sure that the image is in an 4:3 aspect ratio or it will appear stretched. This setting is enabled by default and can be disabled under the "Options -> Settings" dialog. * New setting to disable CD/DVD AutoPlay while Zoom Player is running. This is useful for DVDs that contain the PC-Friendly software which tends to run automatically. By enabling this setting you can disable PC-Friendly from popping. * You can now Title the Preset values through the preset dialog. This is also reflected when applying a preset and in the Save as Preset context-menu. * Added a Toggle to Override the VMR Renderer. The VMR renderer is a new Windows XP Video-Renderer filter which is ON by default and which BREAKS backward compatibility for certain functions. By overriding it, backward compatibility is restored. * Modified the Randomize algorithm. Now it will play the entire play randomly and then re-shuffle the order and play again. * The Next / Previous track buttons will load a random track if random play is enabled. * Improved Keyboard Macro interface that supports extended keyboard commands such as applying Aspect Ratio and Saving/Applying Presets. * The "Show File Name on Time Line" now doubles as "Show Title and Chapter" in DVD mode. * New function and keyboard macro ("B" Key) to add the current DVD position as an Auto-Load bookmark. * New function and keyboard macro ("T" Key) to seek the video to it's starting position. * The DVD Disc Definition file is no longer Auto-Loaded when the Auto-Save option is enabled. There is now a second option to Auto-Load. This is useful if you want to manually save the definition file and still have it auto-loaded when a disc is played. * Switching between DVD and Media modes no longer exists fullscreen mode. * You can now have the Resume form last DVD position dialog auto-close within 10 seconds. * The Installer now gives you the option to "Start in DVD Mode by Default" This is for all the people who were confused by the mode Switch. * The Options dialog position is now remembered. * New DVDGraph function to Indirectly connect filters. * New function to return from a previous DVD Sub-Menu. If the DVD is already at the Top menu, then playback will resume. You can access this function using the Ctrl+"'" key. This function doesn't seem to be working with all DVD Decoders be aware. * Several new mouse click toggle functions when used in combination with the Alt and Ctrl keys. * In Media mode, when you enabled the setting to have the file name visible on the time line. The file name extension will no longer be displayed. * New skinning constant to display the file name without an extension. * A clearer message should now be shown informing the user that Direct-X v8 or newer is required for DVD playback when an older version is in used. * Fixed a memory corruption bug that caused weird error messages to pop every once in a while. * Modified the Context Menu so that it pops on the left side of the click-area. This should make the sub-menus more accessible. * Using the drive's eject button should now stop the movie gracefully. (may not work with non-IDE drives). * When the Multiple Instances setting is disabled, you should no longer be able to run the player more than once (unlike previously which just meant that the player would intercept new requests for files to be played). * The unpause button/function can now be used to exit FF/SM/RW modes. * Scaling down the window using the +/- keys will no longer make the window drift to the lower right side once it's at it's smallest dimensions. * Cosmetic Bug. When switching Mouse Wheel function through the options dialog, the context menu wouldn't be updated, however the selected function was active. * Cosmetic Bug. Updating the Mouse Wheel function list wasn't being done in real time. * A few other Cosmetic fixes.What's new in v2.21:
* Fixed a bug where DVD discs with no volume label wouldn't play properly. * If the "Auto-Load Bookmark" DVD Setting was enabled without the "Auto-Save position on Stop" being enabled, trying to Auto-Load a bookmark would throw an error.What's new in v2.20:
* Completely redesigned the Default Media and DVD skins. From this version, the Default skin is now "Future Brownish". The previous Default skin, now dubbed "Blue Plastic" is still available if anyone feels the need to use it. * A new system for manually constructing DVD Graphs. This is for advanced users only! You can enable it on the DVD Options tab and control it through the zplayer.dvdgraph file. * Instead of relying on DirectX to work properly, you can now have Zoom Player use manual settings to build a DVD graph for you. I have included several presets for popular players which you can select through the "Options->DVD Setup" dialog. This interface can also automatically search and register/unregister the appropriate filters for you. * You can now have the last DVD play position automatically saved when playback is stopped or the player closed. When trying to play the same disc again, you will be prompted if you desire to resume playback at the last position. If an auto-load bookmark was specified, you will be given a choice at which position to resume. This dialog is disabled by default, but can be enabled through the "Options->DVD Options" dialog. * You should now be able to use DVD IFO files in play lists. Although once the DVD IFO file is loaded, you will no longer be able to use the rest of the play list. This is useful if you to make a play list with an intro video before the DVD is launched. * The volume control now allows for up to 50 different settings using either the keyboard or the user interface (compared to 8 setting in previous versions). * A new graphical on-screen interface for setting the Overlay Color Controls. You can access it either through the Right-Click context menu, or by pressing Shift+"O". * New function and keyboard macro to Apply the Overlay Color control setting (F12). And to Reset the Overlay Color control (F11). * In some cases, the Overlay Color Control setting may be lost due to driver issues. In such cases you may want to enable the "Brute-Force Overlay Color Controls every second" setting which can be found under "Options->DVD Settings". This only applies to DVD playback. * New functions to Increase/Decrease all the Overlay Color Controls (Brightness, Contrast, Gamma, Hue, Saturation). These are also keyboard mapped to F5 -> F9 with Alt/Ctrl controlling weather the value is increased/decreased. You can also choose weather these functions pop the Overlay Control interface. * You can now save the Overlay Color Control settings to a definition file. This is saved by default. If you want to disable this information from saving, see the zplayer.zdf file. * New DVD Disc Definition File. It's similar to the File Definition file used for Media files. It has a constant name ("disc.df") and it resides in the disc's bookmark directory. This setting is disabled by default and you have to enable it in the "Options->DVD Options" dialog. By default the Overlay Color Controls, the Aspect Ratio and the Video Positions are saved. However, like the standard definition files used for Media content, you can also set it to save registry data, which may be useful for a per-disc decoder filter data for each movie. For more information, open the "zplayer.zdf" file in any text editor. * The "Save Definition File" macro now works for DVD Discs (although not really required since it can be auto-saved on stop). * You can now decide if the Right-Click Context Menu appears in either one or two (default) columns. This is accessible through the "Options->Toggles" dialog. Please note that at one column, you need to be at least at 1024x768 in order to have it fit the screen, otherwise you'll be forced to scroll. * A new system for external control of the player through Window messages, see "keys.txt" for more details. * You can now Drag & Drop whole directories onto the player or play list. * In DVD Mode, the Rate Bar now works as Rewind/Fast Forward instead of Slow Motion/Fast Forward. * You can now assign the Mouse Wheel to control the Play Rate. In Media Mode it controls Slow Motion/Fast Forward and in DVD mode, it controls Rewind/Fast Forward. * You can now assign the Mouse Wheel to Frame Advance/Rewind. * While this could have been done through a command line, some of you have requested that you could start Zoom Player directly in Zoom Mode. This can now be done on the "Options->Settings" dialog. * You can now force the control bar to remain on-screen even when the video is scaled beyond the screen boundaries. * You can no longer move the OSD off-screen by zooming the video. * New "Unpause" or "Discrete Play" function/macro ("U" on keyboard). It acts the same as the standard Play function except that it only plays and never pauses the video. * The Next/Previous chapter functions now display the chapter name on the OSD in Media mode. * The Next/Previous chapter functions now display the chapter number on the OSD in DVD mode. * You can now disable PopUp hints from showing on GUI Buttons. * Added support for Transparent User-Interface Buttons in the skinning script. * You can now assign PopUp hints to Control Bar buttons through the skinning script. This is optional of course. * Script commands can now take "()" chars as string values. * The Maximize button when used in Window mode now acts more like the standard Windows Maximized function. * New functions and keyboard macros to cover the rest of the DVD Menu selection (Subtitle,Audio,Chapter,Angle). * New keyboard macro for the Eject function, The "/" char. * Added a "Context Help" button to the Options dialog which should make it easier to locate information pertaining to the various options settings. * The overlay color controls are now applied every chapter for DVD output. Hopefully this will assure they are applied consistently throughout the movie. * When the overlay mixer filter is enabled through a filters file, SVCD Aspect Ratio should now work properly even with decoder filters which in the past didn't cooperate. * Bookmarks directory for hard disk play now get their directory name from the directory name above the VIDEO_TS structure. If the VIDEO_TS directory structure resides in the root directory within the drive, then the drive's volume label will be used. * The Increase/Decrease Play Rate functions were broken. * Fixed a small memory leak when adding new directories to a play list. * Fixed a possible stability bug when the default skin was used. * Chapter frame numbers no longer have to have leading zeros in order to be sorted in order.What's new in v2.12:
* New interface to control the Overlay Color Controls. I've only tested this on an ATI Radeon card. Not all cards support this interface! For it to even work, you must either load a DVD, or make sure that the Overlay Mixer Renderer is enabled in the "zplayer.filters" file. The Information dialog (press "I" with video playing) lets you know the current setting. * "IRE 0" setting for the overlay controls. This setting is supposed to assure optimum color settings for the display card (which means that you should adjust the Monitor/TV/Projector around this setting). This setting was designed for the Radeon series of cards and may give inappropriate results on other cards. * You can now rename DVD Bookmarks from within the Bookmark editor. * You can now select which bookmark is Auto-Loaded on play rather than having the first book mark loaded. The selection is done through the Bookmark editor. You can also do this manually by adding "AutoLoad." to the file name of a previous bookmark. Make sure only to have this "tag" on file per directory. * As requested, an Eject button. You can eject more than just CDs, basically any removable media. You can specify which drive to eject on the Options->Values dialog. * Added an SVCD filters file. This files basically set the video renderer to the Overlay Mixer so that you can control the Aspect Ratio of SVCD files. * You can now have the Control Bar appear when the mouse is moved to the bottom of the screen. (Except when it is moved to the bottom-right pixel of the screen, as not to conflict with the option that moves the mouse there when going fullscreen). * New Command line Parameter to switch screen resolution: Usage : /R:(Width,Height,ColorBits,RefreshRate) Example : /R:(640,480,16,100) No validity verification is done, so be careful not to set a mode your screen doesn't support. * New pattern mode, pressing Shift+"P" cycles through the various pattern modes. * Expanded the "zplayer.zdf" examples to cover all the video relevant settings used by DivX 3.11 and DivX 4.xx * You can now set a negative value to the Control Bar Y-Offset. * Few more skinned Control Bar buttons. * The "M2V" extension is now looked for when opening files/dirs. * I disabled Manual Filter loading by default. * Since the arrow keys are used to navigate DVD Menus when a DVD is played and a menu is active, you can now use Shift+"Arrows" in order to position the video area regardless of the current DVD position. * When the Aspect Ratio Source Relative Stretch is enabled, it will no longer effect the "Fit to Window" setting, as that simply didn't make any sense. * Changed the method DVD filters are being registered. However, in my limited experience, I couldn't get DVD decoder filters to manually load. There might be some design flaw in the DVD graph building system which prevents this from working. * The Next/Prev Chapter macros now work with the updated chapter format. * Add Directory interface doesn't get disabled when going to fullscreen mode anymore. * Changing the background color while in fullscreen mode will now change the color instantly.What's new in v2.10:
* Revamped the installer configuration. It now gives you more options and creates more shortcuts to important files. * Zoom Player should now work on older operating systems, even on NT4. However, some of it's functionality may suffer if you use older versions of DirectX which lack the interfaces required by some of the newer functions. * Added a system to manually insert specified filters into the Filter Graph. This should allow for all sort of interesting effects. By default the "zplayer.filters" filter file is loaded. * New Manual Filter File selector within the options dialog. You can use it to determine which filters are assigned to the next loaded media file. You can also disable the Manual filters interface through this dialog. * New Manual Filter File keyboard macros to switch between files, Alt+"PgDn" switches to the next filter file. Alt+"PgUp" switches to the previous filter file. * Since filters can now be inserted manually, I have reintroduced the Frame Capture function. For it to work, you must insert a Sample Grabber filter, to save you the work, I already set it up in the "default.filters" file, all you need to do is uncomment the "LoadFilter" line. Frame Capture is turned off by default so that it won't disable the overlay support and slow down decoding, you should only use it when you want to take frame captures. * You can now load an additional external audio track. Enable this feature in the options dialog and then simply name the audio track with the same name as the video you are loading, with either the ".MP3" or ".WAV" extension. * This is a bit complex so read carefully. I have written a system that allows you to dynamically save specified information about media files which can be automatically restored the next time you open the file. This system is comprised of two parts. The first part is defined in a file called "zplayer.zdf" within the Zoom Player directory. This file contains definition as to what information should be saved about the currently opened file. The second part is the actual Definition File (".DF" extension), there is a sample definition file called "default.df" which explains the structure used by the file. Furthermore, I have added a keyboard macro to save the specified information for the currently open file. You can use it by pressing Ctrl+"D". Once pressed a file will be created with the same name as the currently opened file, but with the ".DF" extension. The file will contain all the data specified in the "default.zdf" file. I have intentionally disabled this entire system by default. If you want to active it, you must do it through the Options->Settings interface. Furthermore, since this system can also import and export registry entries (so you can save Codec-specific data [such as DivX brightness]), I have also made it so you must specify that you want the registry data to be loaded (for additional security ...). * Definition files can be loaded as if they were a standard file, this allows you to make a specific definition file and plant it in a play list so it effects the settings of every file played after it. * Revamped the Chapter Editor for Media files. The format now supports a name for each title. Backward support has been maintained for the older format. * You can now select the DirectVobSub subtitle track through the right-click context menu. This also gives you access to an option that vertically flips the screen through the DirectVobSub filter. * You can now automatically disable closed captions when opening a DVD (if the DVD allows it). * DVD Access to all menu types through the right click context menu. * The left mouse button can now optionally be used to move the window when dragging the video area (Thanks to theSelkie for supplying me with the undocumented code to do this). * You can now move the window using the arrow keys as long as you're not zoomed. You can specify the number of pixels moved in the options dialog (Keyboard Window Move). * New Ultra Minimalist skin. It's basically just a 3-Pixel border around the video with no GUI controls at all. I recommended setting the left mouse button to move the user interface, otherwise you'll be forced to move the window using the keyboard. * New keyboard commands (and associated functions) for changing the play rate (play rate bar). Alt+"Home" increases Play Rate. Alt+"End" decreases Play Rate. * New keyboard command for opening an entire directory, pressing Alt+"D" will let you select a directory to load. All sub-directories will also be searched for playable files. * You can now resize the main user interface using any of the window borders. * Switching skins through the skin selector will now screen-center the window. * The Filter list will now display ALL filters. Only filters with property dialogs are enabled (well, duh). * The Keypad numbers can now be used again for setting presets (numlock must be on). * Overlay color key should be retrieved directly off hardware in Windows XP now (when the filters file is set to use the uncrippled Video Renderer, which it is by default). * When exiting Zoom mode, the window size will now return to the same size it was prior to entering Zoom mode. * You can now enable/disable the "Places" bar on the open/save dialogs. * You can set the Play List and Presets windows not to screen center when appearing and going to fullscreen mode. This is useful for multi-monitor support. * The play list window position is now saved in case you have it set not to dock or screen center. * The currently playing item is now highlighted within the play list. * By default the play list is cleared when you open files or directories from the main user interface. You can now disable this and instead have the files appended to the play list. * The Play List is no longer automatically sorted. Multiple files will be added to the end of the list and sorted alphabetically according to their directory. * You can now select multiple entries within the Play List and move them around or remove them with a single click. * The Play List "Add Dir" function will now recursively add all directories under the selected directory. * The Play List will now stay on top of main window and position itself properly in Zoom mode, even when the docking setting is enabled. * For some reason, I have seemed to overlook a keyboard macro for accessing the Play List. So now you can open the play list window by pressing Alt+"L". * I also forget a keyboard macro for opening the chapter editor, You can now open the chapter editor by pressing Shift+"C". * File association is handled slightly differently which may fix any previous issues. * Fixed a rare bug in which slowly loading clips (huffyuv codec) would load, close and load again when run through an association. This basically caused a slight blink at the start of playback, this was a rather cosmetic bug. * If you had the video positioned outside the visible screen area and loaded a new video, the new video wouldn't position properly until you resized it. * When Auto-Size user interface was used, opening a new clip may not have resized the video properly. * If minimized to the system tray, zoom player should no longer pop any other tray icons by accident when it's restored. Also updated the icon graphics. * Fixed a lot of cosmetic bugs when Zoom Player is run for the very first time on a clean system. * Keyboard macros now work when Zoom Player is run on a clean system for the very first time. * The "/PR" command line parameter wasn't functioning correctly. * Hopefully fixed some issues when windows was set to Large Fonts. * Optimized some of the skin math code.What's new in v2.00:
* Due to new features, Direct-X v8 or newer is now mandatory. * Implementation of DVD Playback controls, including a DVD specific right-click menu, all the various DVD controls, etc... * New "DVD.TXT" file. Highly recommended reading if you plan to use Zoom Player for DVD Playback. * New "FAQ.TXT" file containing Frequently asked questions (and their answers). * Support for a dedicated DVD mode, where the Play button plays a disc. You can switch between Media mode and DVD mode by pressing "F10". * DVD Mode now has a separate skin. Which means, you can assign a different skin to either the DVD Mode or the Media Mode. The moment a mode is switched, the corresponding skin is loaded automatically. * When in DVD Menu mode, the keyboard Arrow keys will function as menu item directional selectors instead of moving the video position. * When in DVD Menu mode, the Enter key will select the currently highlighted menu item. * New DVD bookmarks support. The design is quite nice if I do say so myself. When you add a bookmark (through the editor), it will create a unique directory for the DVD being played under the Zoom Player directory. The directory name is comprised of the Disc's volume label and a unique 64bit serial number. Each actual bookmark is a file within this directory. And what's really nice about it, is that once you create a bookmark, you can go there anytime, even during menus, which can come in handy. If you remove all bookmarks from a DVD, it's directory will be automatically removed. * You can have Zoom Player automatically load the first bookmark when a disc is played. * Radical change to the Control Bar button system. You now can basically assign any of the scripted button functions to the Control Bar as long as there is an associated graphic specification within the skin script. The default skins comes with some additional button selection compared to the previous version, but any skin author can easily enable any of the other functions. This change also effects the DVD Mode, basically there are two set of active Control Bar buttons, one for media mode and one for DVD mode. The DVD Mode buttons also include a Rewind and Root Menu functions. Another benefit is that the buttons are queued in the order the skin specifies, so buttons can appear in any order deemed logical by the skin author. And lastly on this feature, it sort of cripples support for older skin as it no longer uses the BarFileName bitmap. All the skin graphic data is now concentrated in one bitmap file. * New customized keyboard layout. You can now specify a keyboard file that can use any of the functions supplied through the skin interface and map it to a keyboard key. I supplied a sample keyboard file that contains the default keyboard specification for Zoom Player. So take a look at "default.key" for more information. * New "Derived" Aspect Ratio setting. This setting is the setting reported by the file as the correct aspect ratio to display it. Please note that this may required DirectX 8.1 to work properly! When I initially tried implementing this in DirectX 8a it only gave the correct aspect ratio for MPEG-1 files and basically threw out bogus numbers for AVI files. * I have removed the "Source Relative" aspect ratio mode and replaced it with an assigned setting so that you can have the Relative Stretch effect all aspect ratio modes. This should allow you to set all aspect ratio modes with correct aspect ratio on non 4:3 display modes such as 720x480. * Source relative percentage entry can now have a negative value. * 4 more positions for the On-Screen-Display. You can now center the OSD on the top, bottom, left or right sides of the screen. * You can now set the number of seconds the On-Screen-Display remains visible. * The volume control OSD display is now shown in percentage. * Disabling the Screen Saver will also disable the monitor power-down. * New command line parameter, "/DVD" makes sure Zoom Player load in DVD mode, regardless of the mode it was exited at. * New command line parameter, "/MEDIA" makes sure Zoom Player load in MEDIA mode, regardless of the mode it was exited at. * New command line parameter, "/PLAY". If in DVD Mode, Zoom Player will try to play the DVD, if in Media Mode, it will play if there are files in the playlist. If a file is passed through the command line interface, this parameter is ignored. * New command line parameters (ignored if /F or /Z is used): /X:[n] - Force GUI Window X-Position /Y:[n] - Force GUI Window Y-Position /W:[n] - Force GUI Window Width /H:[n] - Force GUI Window Height * New command line parameters: /VX:[n] - Set Video Window X-Offset (in zoom mode) /VY:[n] - Set Video Window Y-Offset (in zoom mode) /VW:[n] - Set Video Window Width (in zoom mode) /VH:[n] - Set Video Window Height (in zoom mode) * Re-Enabled the Stay-On-Top feature. You can enable it through the right click Media menu, or by pressing ALT+"T". There are some restrictions though. When StayOnTop is enabled, it automatically disables the OSD and ControlBar support. This was due to window's inability to properly handle Z-Order correctly. This shouldn't be too annoying as the ControlBar and OSD do work when Zoomed, as StayOnTop is temporarily disabled when entering Zoom Mode. * Internal support for the TFM Audio Filter. You can now access it's property dialog by press ALT+"A". You still need to get and install it for this feature to work, the filter's home page is "http://www.tfm.ro". I've also included a scripted button feature for this if someone want to design a skin with this in mind. * Instead of having the Control Bar width defined by the video width and a specified margin, you can now have the Control Bar width fixed to a specified size while in Zoom Mode. This is useful if you intend to scale the video size beyond the screen width. * New toggle support for the left mouse button. It can either be set to "Play / Pause" (default), or it can pop the context menu. And it can even be disabled completely. * You can now used Shift+"R" to cycle backwards through the aspect ratio modes. * New key, Ctrl+"A" will cycle through a DVD / Media Audio Tracks * New key, Ctrl+"B" will cycle through a DVD Subtitles * New key, Ctrl+"N" will cycle through a DVD Angles * New key, Ctrl+"C" will turn ON/OFF a DVD's Closed Caption * You can now associate the DVD "IFO" extension. * You can now set the DVD Auto-Run on insert program through the DVD Options dialog (can be set to Zoom Player or any other program for that matter). * Using the "`" Fit To source key will now screen-center the video. * The Fullscreen and Maximize functions will now alter the active preset, which means that you can go fullscreen and then resize the video window from that resolution. * Zoom Player can now accept file masks through the command line interface. Example: "zplayer.exe *.avi". * You can now set the overlay so that it will cover the entire specified window size, not just size relative to the aspect ratio. This may be useful with certain subtitle filters. * You can now switch skins even when in Zoom mode. * Instead of the time Jump being a 4*Skip, you can now manually specify the number of seconds to skip. Default being 20. * New Time Seek function, Similar to Skip or Jump. Basically giving you a third timeline mobility feature. Default value is 60 seconds and can be accessed using the Ctrl+"," and Ctrl+"." keys or through a Skin Script generated button. * You can now select a custom icon when associating the player. * The overlay color key is now retrieved through DirectShow rather than the previous hack I used to get it earlier. This means that the OSD transparency should work 100% of the time now (as long as an overlay is active). * In another WinXP oddity, using WinXP and DirectX v8.1 (the version that comes pre-installed on WinXP), doesn't seem to give DirectShow access to the overlay color key used for OSD transparency! It also seems that the renderer filter has been modified and it now gives a lot less details on it's property dialog! In any case, to combat this silliness, I've implemented a fail-safe mechanism that if the transparency color key isn't delivered directly by DirectShow, Zoom Player will try to grab it off the screen as it did in v1.81. * Fixed a few weird WinXP bugs, such as the oversized default play list window. * If the middle mouse button was used to toggle the Mouse Wheel function, the active function wasn't being highlighted properly in the right-click menu. * Fixed a case bug in the "DrawText" skin function. * Fixed a bug where a selected skin was removed and the player would then load as a black square. Now the default skin is used if an older skin is no longer found. * Fixed a bug that would throw an "invalid floating point" error if you tried to switch a track before the previous track was even loaded. * Fixed a bug that would throw an "invalid floating point" error if you tried to seek in a video before it was actually loaded. * Few cosmetic fixes.What's new in v1.81:
* Disabled the frame capture feature as it was disabling the overlay and slowing playback.What's new in v1.80:
* Support for two or more selectable audio streams. The default DirectSound device is always the initially played audio, but you can now using the right-click menu, you can select any other DirectSound streams. * You can now have the mouse cursor moved automatically to the bottom right corner of the screen when going into Fullscreen/Zoom mode. This is useful as windows tend to pop the mouse cursor every once in a while. * Restructured the Information dialog. This new dialog gives dynamic information about frames dropped in the renderer and the actual playback FPS as achieved by the video renderer. * Using the Ctrl+"C" combo you can now take screen captures if the decoder filter allows it (DivX and MPEG-1 seem to work fine, WinDVD's MPEG-2 filter does not allow it). The screen captures will be saved in BMP format in sequential order. If previous screen captures exist, they will not be overwritten and instead the sequence will resume from the last captured frame. You can also add this feature as a button through the skinning script. * The DivX dialog function will now open the OpenDivX dialog as well. * Play List is no longer remembered by default (some people found it annoying), you can re-enable this feature through the options. This should also help with CD-Based playback (when the zoom player executable is on the actual CD). * The presets dialog will now appear screen-centered when docking is disabled. * OSD is now positioned relative to the displayed video area rather than the defined window size. This can be disabled on the "Options -> Setting" tab. * Disabled some useless OSD messages such as the pause/play when opening a file with auto-play enabled and all messages in between a Play List next file load. * ESC is now smarter. Pressing ESC will first try to close any open dialogs, if none are open, it will try exiting Fullscreen/Zoom mode. If the GUI is in a Window state, it will check to see if exit by ESC is allowed and if it'll exit the player. * New "Mute" ON/OFF function, accessible by pressing Ctrl+"M". Can also be made into a button by through the skinning functions. * You can now specify a case alternation in the DrawText skin function. * New <FileTitle> skin script variable that gives the loaded file name without the path. * Enabling Multiple Instances will no longer cause the Zoom Player registry settings to be partially reset. * There was a bug in the rate control skinning that caused it to flip out if it's width wasn't the same as the volume control. Fixed. * The Player does a directory check when it first loads. If the previous directory no longer exists, it will not give a prompt anymore. This was especially noticeable if the previous directory was on a CD-ROM.What's new in v1.70:
* Skinnable Rate Slider on GUI with 7 speed settings. * Skinnable Volume Slider on GUI. * Volume level is now saved and remembered across videos. * You can now position the Control Bar relative to the Video rather than relative to the specified window position. * You can now access the customized mousewheel functions through the right-click menu. * The preset selection dialog is now accessible through the right-click menu. * Skip and Jump should now work with files that report the wrong frame rate (such as MPEG-2/VOB files played using the WinDVD filter). * While not really an audio player, Zoom Player should now be able to associate and play various audio formats such as MP3, WAV, WMA, etc... * You can now load .M3U play lists. * Play list window now has a file counter. * Associated files now pass a long file name to the player. * Association should now work even when Media Player 7+ previously associated the same extensions. * You can optionally have the Zoom Player Icon appear on associated extensions. * You can now associate the .DAT format through the association tab. * New skinnable button function "Auto-Repeat" enable/disable. * You can now enable/disable Auto-Repeat by pressing Alt+"P". * Fixed a bug where auto-play wouldn't kick in when a play list completed playing and you tried opening a file. * Disabled GUI Window scaling using the Zoom functions, it caused instability. * If scaling the video size to a very very small size, you can still enlarge it back with the zoom functions now. * Made a few fixes so that the Player won't flip out when it's being run directly off a CD (as in "no ability to write the default.asx file to it's home dir"). * Pressing ALT+"2" will Zoom the user interface to 100%, Pressing ALT+"3" will Zoom the user interface to 200%. This setting is remembered and will effect opened files if the "Auto-Size interface to fit video" setting is enabled. * The playing item will now be highlighted in the play list. * You can now minimize Zoom Player to the system tray. * You can now disable font smoothing (anti-aliasing) from being used within the OSD. * If there is only one video in the play list, auto-repeat of that track will be far faster. * If you removed all the mouse wheel functions it would cause the player to crash badly on load.What's new in v1.61:
* Made the mouse wheel a lot more useful. You can now turn on/off which functions are associated with the mouse wheel, which currently includes the following: 1. Zoom Width,Height 2. Zoom Width 3. Zoom Height 4. Time Skip 5. Time Jump 6. Volume * Added the Zoom Axis selector to the right-click menu. * You can now have the player play videos randomly. Mainly useful for music videos. The random generator tries to make sure that no video will repeat itself until at least half the videos have already played. So, if for example you have 30 videos in the play list, a video will not repeat until at least 15 different videos have played. * You can now enable multiple instances (running zoom player more than once through file association). Please note that most newer sound card will mix the audio of all running applications and playing 2 videos at once may sound a bit jumbled. * You can optionally disable the screen saver when going to zoom/fullscreen mode. * Fixed a bug that would crash the player if you scaled the video area to a tiny square and toggled the control bar.What's new in v1.60:
* Extensive new skinning system, complete with dynamic button generation for nearly every function. Two skins are supplied, the new "Default" skin (which is there only to document the entire feature-set used to create a skin) and a new minimalistic skin, which is ... well very minimalistic. * New skin selection dialog, can be opened by pressing "N". * When exiting, the current play list will be saved to "default.asx" within the same directory as zoom player. If default.asx exists in this directory when loading zoom player, it will be loaded automatically (as long as a different play list wasn't specified). * All "playback" is now done through the play list. Opening a file will open it to the play list. This is similar to the way WinAmp handles play lists and playback. * New "keys" tab on the Options dialog. This information is actually kept in keys.txt and loaded when the options screen is opened. * New "what's new" tab on the Options dialog. This information is actually kept in whatsnew.txt and loaded when the options screen is opened. * The "Skip Frames" feature has changed to "Skip Seconds". This was done due to that fact that several filters seem to "lie" about their frame rate and it would seem that this function was not having an effect. This setting will now default to "5" (seconds), so if you want a different value make sure you set it. * New AB-Repeat function. Used by pressing the Alt+"R" key. Pressing once starts the function, pressing again sets the end position and the section in between will be played over and over until the key is pressed for the third time. Accuracy of the repeat is about 250ms and actual repeat rate depends on the seek speed of the played format. * The Window-Docking settings are now remembered. * If the Play List docking is disabled, when appearing, it will always appear in the screen center. * You can now disable ESC from quitting the player. * You can now disable the middle mouse button. * You can now have Zoom Player center the GUI within the screen when exiting Zoom mode. * The BGColor setting has been moved into the Options menu. * The window position settings have been moved into the preset dialog. * Using the "/F" or "/Z" parameters should switch faster now, without displaying the GUI first. * You can now use the "/Q" parameter to Quit the player once playback is complete (either single video, or play list). * You can have Zoom Player quit once playback is complete when associating it with file extensions. * You can now use the "/AR:[n]" command line parameter to set an aspect ratio at run time. Example: "zplayer.exe /AR:0 myvideo.avi" Value can currently be 0-5, where 0 is the first Aspect Ratio setting (fit to window) and 5 is the last Aspect Ration setting (Source Relative Stretch). * You can now use the "/PR:[n]" command line parameter to set a preset at run time. Example: "zplayer.exe /PR:3 myvideo.avi" Value can range from 0-9 and will set the preset accordingly. * You can now have the playing file name appear on the time line. * The OSD font can now appear in italics and bold. * File name and Total Time will now be dynamically removed from the time line if there is no space to draw them. * The mouse cursor should hide in fullscreen even if the cursor isn't on the video area. * Rearranged some of the keys: "{" and "}" will now go to the previous and next chapters. "[" and "]" will now go to the previous and next tracks. "<" and ">" will now go to the previous and next frame (new feature). "," and "." will now skip backward and forward. * F1 will open the keys help dialog. * Ctrl+"O" will now open the options dialog. * Ctrl+"P" will now open the presets dialog. * Combined the "M" and Ctrl+"M" keys. One works while in fullscreen while the other works when windowed. * The "+" and "-" zoom keys now work even when in Window mode. * New cursor for timeline seeking.What's new in v1.51:
* New Relative Stretch aspect ratio in which you can specify the relative stretch of the image. Useful when viewing in non 4:3 TV Modes (such as 720x480). * Added an option to set the file association to start Zoom Player in either the normal Window mode, or in the Zoom or Fullscreen modes. * New toggle setting that allows you to control which Axis the "+" and "-" keys effect (width / height). * Pressing ALT+"Z" will cycle through the Zoom Axis toggle. * Pressing "D" should now pop the interface on more MPEG-4 decoding filters (including SMR). * Made a fix to the detection of the overlay color key. * You can now disable the mouse wheel. * Small fix to window video positioning.What's new in v1.50:
* New integrated time line for windowed mode, should allow for more visible buttons in this mode without sacrificing the time line resolution. * Added an option to disable sorting on the play list and two button to shuffle around the playback order. * New Anamorphic Aspect Ratio mode. Works with 4:3 image sources. (which means it won't work with VCD. But then again, VCD doesn't have the resolution that requires anamorphic display). * Added an option to force height-only adjustment on Aspect Ratio in Zoom mode, this is useful with anamorphic video that has the black bars encoded into the video. * Added an option to make the background of the OSD messages transparent. This only works properly with overlay surfaces and takes about 3 seconds to initialize once you start playing the video. * Can now scale the user interface on the bottom and right and not only in the bottom right corner. * Having the Control Bar pop when skipping/jumping is now optional. * The Control Bar no longer pops when skipping in window mode. * Pressing ALT+"O" will enable/disable on-screen display. * Pressing ALT+"S" will open the VobSub property dialog (if the filter is in use). * Pressing ALT+"+/-" will scale only the video Height. * Pressing CTRL+"+/-" will scale only the video Width. * Pressing CTRL+"F" will now fast forward at half the speed specified in the options dialog (half as fast). * Pressing CTRL+"L" will now slow motion at half the speed specified in the options dialog (half as slow). * Pressing CTRL+"M" in windowed mode will maximize the GUI to encompass the entire screen. * The "I" key informational dialog no longer pauses playback and provides some more information about the playing video.What's new in v1.41:
* Made a few more fixes to support fractional Fast-forward and Slow-motion speeds with non-english versions of windows. * It was possible for playback to stop at the end of a track without proceeding to play the next track automatically. * New option to auto-repeat playback at the end of a clip. If playing from a play list, then the auto-repeat will only repeat playback at the end of the play list.What's new in v1.40:
* Entire back-end switched from the Media Player component to DirectShow. This took hours upon hours of digging through obscure microsoft documentation, samples and delphi reference. Hopefully it didn't introduce too many bugs. * Due to the new DirectShow interface, there is a spanking new right-click menu. * Due to the new DirectShow interface, you can now access the property dialog of any DirectShow filter used in rendering the file (basically useful for accessing the DivX control panel). This is accessible through the right-click menu. * Due to the new DirectShow interface, you can now set the playback aspect ratio. You can cycle through the four aspect ratio modes by pressing the "R" key, or through the right-click interface. The four modes are: 1. Fit to Window (basically manual aspect ratio). 2. Source Video 3. Fullscreen 4:3 4. Widescreen 16:9 With these settings you should be able to play anamorphic AVI/MPEG files! (not to mention fixing the aspect ratio on MPEG-1 files once and for all). * On Screen Display support for probably more features than I care to list, including all the logical ones and others such as visible window size when resizing the window using then Alt-Arrow keys. * Sorting support for the Play List Editor, supported sorting modes: 1. by Name 2. by Type 3. by Date 4. by Size 5. by Directory * You can now toggle the space key functionability to be either the default toggle for the Control Bar, or to the more traditional Play/Pause setting. * You can now use Alt+[Space] to toggle the control bar. * Volume support using the Home/End keys. * Slightly restructured the interface buttons. * Added a Play and Stop buttons to the main interface. * Added an option to use the "," char in the fast forward and slow motion fields. This should help people with non-english versions of windows to enter fractional numbers (maybe). * If Play is clicked and you are in fast-forward or slow-motion modes playback will continue and the play rate will be returned to a normal rate. If play rate is normal, playback will pause. This seems far more logical. * Pressing Ctrl+"S" when playing off a play list will stop the video to the first track in the play list. * You can now use Ctrl+(0..9) to store the current zoom settings in any of the 10 presets. * Pressing the "C" key will save the current position to the chapter editor (same as pressing the "Add Current" button). * Pressing the Alt+"C" key save the chapter list to disk (same as pressing the save button on the chapter editor). * Pressing the "D" key with a DivX movie loaded will pop the DivX property dialog. * The key list has gotten so big, It's now only kept on the help pages. Pressing the Keys Help button will open the web page. * Pressing on the Control Bar preset button when not in a Zoom mode will now open the normal preset dialog and not the one used in Zoom mode. * Fixed the slowness in MPEG-1 seeking. This was in fact some sort of bad-design on microsoft's part, it was caused when seeking in frame mode (vs. time mode) in DirectX-8, something that worked just fine in DirectX-7. Go figure... In any case I've used some translation code to get over this issue. * Removed the support for the non-floating control bar, frankly, it was something that should have never went in.What's new in v1.32:
* Integrated Chapter Editor with frame-accurate seeking support. Makes creation of chapter files completely automated. * Using the file open dialog you can now select multiple files. When multiple files are selected, they are loaded into the play list and play starts automatically.. * Using the Play List Add Files button you can now select and add multiple files. * Play List window is now resizable (size is remembered). * You can now disable the docking of the Play List and Presets windows. * New Parameter "/F" which goes to directly fullscreen when running. * Fixed a bug in the play list which could cause certain files in a play list not to be loaded. * Fixed a bug that caused a movie to be loaded twice if opened through a DDE command (you've probably noticed this as the movie blinking for a second before starting to play).What's new in v1.30:
* Zoom Player can now resize it's non-fullscreen area to display the video area in it's original size as long as the video area is bigger than the minimum video area size (which is 320x240). You can activate this feature in the options dialog. * New button to resize the video area to it's source size. When not in fullscreen mode, this button will also resize the user interface. * New Button for going to and from Fullscreen mode. * New Slow-Motion button. * New buttons and keyboard macros for Next and Previous chapter. This used to be controlled through the Next and Previous track buttons, but it may have caused conflicts with play list, so a separate button was required. * New entries on the options dialog to manually set the speed of the fast forward and slow motion. Notice that Fast forward is limited due to a built in limitation of the decoder, nothing I can actually change. * Modified the behavior of fullscreen mode. Now pressing the full screen button (or keyboard macro) will go to fullscreen. If the screen is zoomed but not fullscreen, then pressing the button will maximize the display. * You can now manually scale the user interface by dragging the bottom right corner. * Fixed a bug in the Play List where movies may not load in the correct order. * The Play List has a smarter ASX parser now. * Fixed a time jump problem when pressing the Zoom or Maximize buttons. * Drag & Drop support for the Play List. Any files drop on the Play List will be added. * Drag & Drop support for the Player. Any files drop on the Player will be automatically loaded into the Play List and playback will start immediately. * You can now Zoom in and out when in zoom mode using the mouse wheel. Or optionally you can skip forward and backwards. * You can now select if the middle mouse button (or mouse wheel click) will toggle the Control Bar ON/OFF or instead switch the toggle on the mouse wheel function so you can use it for both it's functions. * New command line parameter, "/Z" will now automatically zoom after loading. * Not all buttons are now visible by default (there's too many of them). * Modified the behavior of the play button/macro. If you are stopped or paused it will start playing, if you are playing then it will pause without changing the play rate (preserving the fast forward/slow motion speed), this is useful for one button play/pause when used in remote controls. * Made an option to center the control bar position within the video area, this makes it's position more stable when modifying the video size. * You can now specify how long before the mouse and control bar automatically disappear in zoom mode. * Cosmetic fix, time is no longer drawn if there is no space to draw it on the control bar. * Cosmetic fix, time line should always be visible. * Right-clicking the Control bar allows you to skip back/ahead a predefined number of frames (you can define the number within the options dialog). If you click to the left of the current time it will skip back in time, if you click to the right of the current time, it will skip ahead in time. * You can frame skip using the "<" and ">" keyboard macros as well. * Chapters information file is now included in the archive, doh! * Added a link to the forum in the options dialog.What's new in v1.20:
* Implemented support for file associations. * Implemented a simple ASX Play List editor which can create ASX Play Lists compatible with any media player based player. With this new editor in place, it's no longer necessary to keep QASX as part of the archive. * Replaced the microsoft ASX parser to provide better support for play lists. ASX parsing is now done by the player and the entries are automatically loaded into the Play List. This also fixed numerous bugs involving playback of ASX files. * The Next and Previous track functions had their keyboard macros changed to [.] and [,]. * The [PgDn] and [PgUp] keyboard macros will now look through the directory of an opened file and will play the Next/Previous file in that directory according to alphabetical order. For example, if you opened "bonny1.mpg", pressing [PgDn] will automatically open "bonny2.mpg" and pressing [PgUp] will return to "bonny1.mpg". This is useful when playing multi-part movies. * Double clicking the video area can now either pop the Control Bar or optionally Zoom/Unzoom. * Added an option to auto-hide the Control Bar. It's on by default, Hides when there is no mouse activity for several seconds, but only when the movie is playing and the mouse isn't hovering over the control bar (to avoid accidental hiding which can be annoying). * Added an option to auto-show the Control Bar. It's off by default, The Control Bar reappears when the mouse is moved over the video area. * Added an option to display the current time position within the played video on the Control Bar. * Fixed a bug where chapter files wouldn't load if the video file was executed from command line (or file association). * You can now drag the left mouse button over the seek bar in order to seek-through the file. Most useful for file with high-frequency key frames such as MPEG files. * Small bug fixes.What's new in v1.10:
* New Option to make the control bar floatable over the video area. This is now the default option but can be disabled in the options screen. This new method allows positioning of the control bar over any part the video area * New option to set the margins (spacing) to the left and right of the control bar (in case it's a bit overscanned). This has been defaulted to 10 pixels. * New option to set the Y-Offset of the floating control bar. This has been defaulted to 10 pixels. * New extension to add chapters to any playable format, for more details see the accompanying "chapter_format.txt" file. * To help in chapter creation, pressing the [I] key will pop an information dialog containing the current frame number. * Can select which buttons are visible on the control bar. * Pressing the middle mouse button will also pop the control bar. * New buttons on the control bar: + Next Track (PgDn) + Previous Track (PgUp) + Maximize video area (M) + Open File (O) + Zoom preset pop-up + Zoom-In + Zoom-Out * Pressing [M] will now go to full screen when zoomed and back when pressed again (seemed logical). * Going to full screen using alt+[Enter] will now go to full screen again. * I included a small program I wrote called QuickASX which allows you to create ASX playlists through a simple command line. Source included.What's new in v1.00b2:
* Added the option to AutoPlay when a file is opened. * Hopefully the playback window should be restored to it's correct location when unzooming on occasions that it didn't. * The Shrink/Enlarge keys can now be customized to scale by pixels or percentage, and you can also change the scale size. * Various small bugs/glitches fixed.What's new in v0.99:
* Open beta test, Initial version. Make sure you read the readme.txt file as it's very important to know the keys and the general principle behind this player.