Announcing Zoom Player v3.20 final

[Blight]

Here it is, the final version.

If you would like an overview of the entire change list since 3.10.1 final, click here.

This version represents the culmination of over 4 and a half months of work. Tons of new features, fixes and improvements. There's something in it for everyone.

I hope everyone will be satisfied with this new release, let me know if there are any issue.

Here are the changes since v3.20 RC3:

 * New Play List Editor right-click context menu which makes it
   easier to access the Play List Editing functions.

 * You can now define a Customized Video Renderer when using
   Customized Media and DVD Playback.  This is useful when using
   a customized rendering device.

 * 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.

 + The Zoom Player Audio Filter (enabled under "Options / Filter Control
   / Settings") is now in charge of identifying the languages of Audio
   Tracks (OGG and Matroska formats) and of switching between audio
   tracks (All multi-audio track formats).  So now when playing Matroska
   tracks and switching tracks, you will be able to see which language
   audio is playing.

 + Some modifications to the internal minimalistic skin.

 + Zoom Player Audio Filter now Enabled by default.

 - Fixed a show stopper error when starting to play a DVD
   with the WinDVD decoders.

 - Wrote a few more workaround filters that seem to throw FPU errors.

 - 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.

 - 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.

Download Zoom Player v3.20 final here.

[bond]

lo Blight

i wanted to ask if there are any plans to implement video switching in zoomplayer, as mp4 can handle multiple video streams in 1 file

currently, when i try to play such a file in zp, there are always additional windows opened, which show all video streams at the same time

currently mpc seems to already ignore all video streams but the first one during playback, but i like the possibility to switch between the streams more, which bst told me will be implemented in bsplayer soon (it isnt ready in rc1 atm, but the interface for video switching is already there in bsplayer)

[Blight]

Ideally, the MPEG4 splitter filter would handle this, only exposing one pin and using an IAMStreamSelect interface to switch between outputs.

This is how the OGG Splitter works and it does work with ZP, including switching video tracks.

Seriously though, multiple video tracks in one media file is not the most stable things, not all display drivers would handle it properly, not to mention video-processing filters that aren't used to the media-type switching mid-way through decoding.

[bond]

hm, shitowax told me that their 3ivx splitter already supports the ds interface which lets the player switch audio and video (audio switching works this way in wmplayer6), but when i play a multiple audio/video mp4 with the latest 3ivx d4.1alpha in zp there are two video decoders and two video renderers listed in zp (for 2 audio streams: two decoders, 1 renderer)

[Blight]

It means that their filter is still exposing the output pins ... There should only be one pin for audio/video and then an IAMStreamSelect interface for each to switch the streams with.

[bond]

so
MPC is ignoring all additional video renderers (only plays the first one)
bsplayer implements video switching
zoomplayer, will not pay much attention to this issue (well it isnt that much used atm, but this will perhaps change)

[Stux]

If the splitter didn't expose all output pins how would you remux?

[Blight]

Stux:
You expose an IAMStreamSelect interface that lists the available streams (first stream rendered by default). Then when the stream is changed through the IAMStreamSelect interface, you switch over (on the same pin).

It may not work with different resolution streams (unsure), but this is how the OGM Splitter does it and it works for multiple video streams.

[shitowax]

You're right, the OGM and MPEG-2 splitter output a single pin for each media type. It's nice, but the Quicktime and mp4 file format let you enable or disable tracks independantly, so we should be able to play two audio or video tracks at the same time, which is not possible when creating a single pin. After that, people should REALLY avoid muxing more than one video tracks into an mp4 for the moment as it's pointless without MPEG-4 system...

Originally posted by Blight
Stux:
You expose an IAMStreamSelect interface that lists the available streams (first stream rendered by default). Then when the stream is changed through the IAMStreamSelect interface, you switch over (on the same pin).

It may not work with different resolution streams (unsure), but this is how the OGM Splitter does it and it works for multiple video streams.

[bond]

Originally posted by shitowax
After that, people should REALLY avoid muxing more than one video tracks into an mp4 for the moment as it's pointless without MPEG-4 system...

well it is important when i comes to how to playback systems mp4s (with multiple video streams) with directshow based players/filters which cant handle systems (and thats the majority)

and as i see it 3ivx also doesnt create 1 output pin for 2 audio streams, i dont really get what the difference is to video? what makes video switching that hard, when audio switching already works???

and not to talk about the possibility that the player can also ignore all video renderers except the first one...

hm, well i will stop that now i dont try to force anyone to anything

[Blight]

It's the resolution mostly, you have the width/height thing...

I am going to adjust the Customized Media Playback mode in ZP to hook up a null renderer and not to show up multiple windows... just for stability sake.

Edit:
Made the change, but there are other issues as well, it seems as if certain filters won't allow for multiple versions of themselves to be loaded at once. One example of this is the version of ffdshow and corevorbis decoder that I'm using. Possibly fixed in a newer version of ffdshow/corevorbis, but I wouldn't count on it.

[bond]

Originally posted by Blight
I am going to adjust the Customized Media Playback mode in ZP to hook up a null renderer and not to show up multiple windows... just for stability sake.

would be great if the first video stream in the file gets displayed (and all others get ignored)

Made the change, but there are other issues as well, it seems as if certain filters won't allow for multiple versions of themselves to be loaded at once. One example of this is the version of ffdshow and corevorbis decoder that I'm using. Possibly fixed in a newer version of ffdshow/corevorbis, but I wouldn't count on it.

i noticed when testing multiple video mp4s in zp that the first video stream gets opened in an additional window (outside zp) and that the second stream tries to get played inside zp (btw that would be better the other way round )
but
the picture inside zp stays black (so to say the second stream doesnt get decoded) -> perhaps thats the same thing you described!?

if yes, than this is definitely a zp related problem, cause i hadnt problems decoding multiple video streams (with multiple windows) at the same time in other players, with ffdshow (latest official version from sourceforge)!

[Blight]

I'm using ffdshow-20030523.exe

If I try to play a file with multiple video streams, it will load one instance of ffdshow and one instance of the xvid decoder. Under no condition could I get two instances of ffdshow to connect to the splitter filter (I'm using a multi-video ogm file for testing, I don't have an mp4 file of that nature).

I can see the picture decoded, but then again, I'm using VMR9, overlay may fail due to the multiple video windows...

[bond]

Originally posted by Blight
I'm using ffdshow-20030523.exe

me too (and i didnt change anything in zp settings)

well i dont know how the ogg splitter handles multiple video streams, i only tested mp4
i can send you multiple video mp4 for testing if you want

[Blight]

Yeah, send away, I have a growing list of freakishly encoded test files building up.

[bond]

the sample is to big to send via mail! do you have a ftp to upload?

[suspiciousBob]

Hi Blight - great player you have made! But recently I have had problems with it (zp 3.20 final + previous betas) - playback is sometime jerky.

This is most noticable with credits; instead of smoothly scrolling up the screen, they jerk their way up. If I keep reseeking to the same parts in the credits, sometimes they will continue to play back jerkerly, other times they will start to play back smoothly.

This usually happens with OGM files, and using ffdshow or divx to decode. Sometimes when it happens (jump to the credits, credits move jerkily) it will suddenly sort itself out.

Don't really know if it happens on AVI files or others, as the majority of my files are OGMs. This strange behaviour didn't used to occur in zp.

[Blight]

bond:
Not really, post a url for me to grab it at... Although I would prefer a smaller sample file.

suspiciousBob:
I doubt this has anything to do with ZP itself. The state of OGG under DirectShow is pitiful, the state of the vorbis decoder and the OGG splitter is unstable.

[suspiciousBob]

I'll take your word for it Blight, but (1) It doesn't happen in other players (2) it never used to happen in zoomplayer (can't remember which version is started in, definitely the 3.20 branch (all RCs)) but before that I don't remember any problems with it.

[Blight]

suspiciousBob:
Two things,
1. Try changing the video and audio renderers, see if that makes a difference.
2. Disable the ZP Audio DSP Filter (Options / Filter Control).