Announcing Zoom Player v8.5 Release Candidate 1

[Blight]

I am very happy to announce Zoom Player v8.5 Release Candidate 1.

In version 8.5, we worked diligently to improve the user experience by:

1. Polishing the user interface, making it look modern & sleek.
2. Creating alternative user-interfaces for higher resolution screens and touch interfaces.
3. Improving over-all stability and robustness.
4. Improving the user-experience by adding Task-Bar thumbnail control buttons, better color-keying of visual elements and extending fine-control over the skin-engine.
5. Improving performance of several sub-systems by rewriting the systems from scratch using improved methodology.
6. Including 1080p fullscreen navigation interfaces and background images with the PRO and MAX versions.
7. Making Zoom Player even more flexible & customizable.

Download:
Click here to download v8.5 Release Candidate 1.

Change list from v8.1.6:

 Legend :

 "*"  = New
 "+"  = Change
 "-"  = Fix


 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:
    http://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 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.

  * The Playlist editor's scroll bar background is now skinnable.
    For more information, visit the skinning tutorial:
    http://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:
    http://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.

  * 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 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.

  + 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.



 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.

  - 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.

  - 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.

[Sylt]

I've tested this Player. Apparently large parts of the code under the hood were taken from the MPC-HC project. If you see the renderer selection of Zoom Player, then it is quite obvious. Furthermore, many open source projects are used for this player (ffmpeg, Gabest Filters, ect.). I would be interested if the developer of the ZoomPlayer contributes code to the open source community, anyhow he earned many money with the ZoomPlayer, but the Player can't exist without the work of the open source community.

[dukey]

Apparently large parts of the code under the hood were taken from the MPC-HC project.

Not that I'm the author, but I am pretty sure Zoomplayer is written in a totally different language to MPC ..
Also the guy has actually contributed to my open source remote control project. So ..

[Superb]

Originally Posted by Sylt

I've tested this Player. Apparently large parts of the code under the hood were taken from the MPC-HC project. If you see the renderer selection of Zoom Player, then it is quite obvious. Furthermore, many open source projects are used for this player (ffmpeg, Gabest Filters, ect.). I would be interested if the developer of the ZoomPlayer contributes code to the open source community, anyhow he earned many money with the ZoomPlayer, but the Player can't exist without the work of the open source community.

Wow, do you always write false statements and slander someone's hard work based on your 2 seconds impression?

[pirlouy]

Ouch ! You're wrong and the main developer is a nice guy.
Let's hope you confuse 2 projects (KM player ? PotPlayer ?). But it would just be provocation anyway.

[jmonier]

Originally Posted by Sylt

I've tested this Player. Apparently large parts of the code under the hood were taken from the MPC-HC project. If you see the renderer selection of Zoom Player, then it is quite obvious. Furthermore, many open source projects are used for this player (ffmpeg, Gabest Filters, ect.). I would be interested if the developer of the ZoomPlayer contributes code to the open source community, anyhow he earned many money with the ZoomPlayer, but the Player can't exist without the work of the open source community.

I think that you are confusing the DirectShow filters with the player code. Many players (including MPC-HC and Zoomplayer) use DirectShow filters (since these are a Microsoft standard). Most of the renderers shown in ZP (including EVR) are from Microsoft and are installed with Windows. The exceptions are Haali and madVR, neither of which originated with MPC-HC. I believe that MPC-HC has it's own EVR variant, but that specific version is not available in ZP.

So, before you mount an attack like this, you need to research the subject thoroughly and not depend on a superficial analysis.

[Asmodian]

I have been using Zoom Player for at least eight years! Zoom Player was up to version 2 before Media Player Classic even existed, let alone MPC-HC.

It is an amazing player and has only been getting better and better over the years.

[Sylt]

I hope I was not misunderstood. It was just a matter, no accusation! I only was focused on the visual similarities, not the history, that the Zoom Player longer exists.

[jmonier]

Originally Posted by Sylt

I hope I was not misunderstood. It was just a matter, no accusation! I only was focused on the visual similarities, not the history, that the Zoom Player longer exists.

Perhaps you're a non-English speaker and thus wrote things that, in English, mean something totally different than what you intended.

What I (and probably others) read from your post was that ZoomPlayer is not an original work and instead makes use of code originally developed for MPC and MPC-HC. Your statement: "Apparently large parts of the code under the hood were taken from the MPC-HC project." seems to say just this. To an English speaker, there doesn't seem to be anything to be misunderstood in that.

What I (and others) have been saying is that this is not true. The "history" that you refer to proves this, since ZoomPlayer existed BEFORE MPC.

[Blight]

Thanks for the support everyone.

Just for clarification:
Zoom Player is written in Delphi, Not C++ like MPC.
Zoom Player does not contain GPL code.

[bsw11]

I bought this player a number of years ago and at the time I requested that he add in the ability to play in slow mo without pitch change. Something PotPlayer and SM have had all along.

Well it is still not in there so I will continue to not use it. Too bad because it has a lot a great features like the selectable scrollwheel that I really like.

So one more time PLEASE ADD speed control without pitch change. PLEASE!

[Blight]

bsw11:
I think you can achieve slow motion without pitch change by using ReClock as the audio renderer.

[bsw11]

That is not a good solution - you need to integrate the ability into the interface completely - especially the keyboard and mouse wheel. And you should know if it works or not, that was what I was told last time and I never got it working.

And if your going to do it, make sure the audio stays in-sync. That is the one thing Pot-Player does not do a good job at.

You have a great product and this is one key feature that is lacking.

[Blight]

bsw11:
It may be possible to do something more integrated, but I lack the resources for it right now.
Perhaps in v9, but I'm not sure.

[Asmodian]

Originally Posted by bsw11

That is not a good solution - you need to integrate the ability into the interface completely - especially the keyboard and mouse wheel. And you should know if it works or not, that was what I was told last time and I never got it working.

And if your going to do it, make sure the audio stays in-sync. That is the one thing Pot-Player does not do a good job at.

You have a great product and this is one key feature that is lacking.

What are you trying to do with slow playback? Reclock w/ Zoom Player works quite well for me doing 25 -> 24 fps slow down without pitch change.

@Blight
8.5 is running very well, I like the new skin too. Great readability of the right-click menus.

[bsw11]

The way PP does it is very simple and usable - with a simple keystroke it changes the speed UP or DOWN in 10% increments down to 50% and up 3 or 4x.

There are many videos that can use this feature-
On the slow down side:
Sports vids, personal vids, training vids, and yes adult vids.

On the speed up side - boring vids you have to watch for work or school.

It would be even more useful controlled by the scroll wheel. It is too bad he does not have the time to do it as I can't imaging it taking more than a few days time if there is already the audio code available.

[Asmodian]

I wouldn't expect it to be so easy. Remember Zoom Player is not open source so Blight cannot just use others' GPL'ed code. I don't think he would be happy with PP's solution anyway, if it cannot keep sync.

Unless you are quite familiar with the code base I wouldn't make assumptions about how much work a feature would take.

[Blight]

bsw11:
Zoom Player has a +/- 10% play rate adjustment functions, they are "Alt Ctrl ," and "Alt Ctrl ."
If ReClock maintains the correct pitch, then you have the same functionality as in PP.

Asmodian:
Thank you! we worked really hard on polishing the GUI in v8.5, check out the screenshot we're working on for the release (the Onyx skin image is still under construction):

[bsw11]

OK so looks like we are closing in on this. I remember now one of the issues and I need some help on the reclock deal.

The problem is in the mouse wheel - the play rate does not actually do what the ALT-CTL ,. keys do - can you just make that work or add another option for the wheel that actually changes the real play rate?

On the reclock - I have no clue how to implement that function -a simple step by step including where to get the function if its not included would do the trick!

Thanks!

[cyberbeing]

Install ReClock from http://forum.slysoft.com/showpost.ph...73&postcount=1, set it as the default ZoomPlayer audio renderer, and make sure you have ReClock's TimeStreching enabled for speed-up & slow-down as desired.