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View Full Version : Announcing Zoom Player v8.1.1 final


Blight
13th February 2012, 23:33
http://zoomplayer.com/v811final.jpg

Hi Everyone,

Keeping to a steady release schedule, this time around, the new version is focused on bug fixes, optimizations and a preview of usability enhancements to come.

Download:
Zoom Player Home FREE (http://inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_download.shtml)
Zoom Player Home Professional (http://inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_dlpro.shtml)
Zoom Player Home MAX (http://inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_dlmax.shtml)

Premium users, you can still download your copy here (http://dl.zoomplayer.com/zp811prm.exe).

Here are the fixes, enhancements and new features introduced since version 8.1 :

* 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.

+ 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.

- 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.

25minutes
22nd February 2012, 06:29
Blight, I encounter the same issue that italospain is facing.

I've tested Zoom Player latest version 8.1.1. My main display is 1920x1080 LCD, secondary display is 1280x720 TV (Component Video Connection) in extended mode.

Starting ZP with /F:1 works fine. However, /F:2 doesn't show anything on TV, though I can see ZP running on task bar. If I click on ZP from task bar multiple times, finally it can show on TV. The same configuration works fine on Zoom Player 7.

Let me know what I can provide to tshoot the issue.

italospain
22nd February 2012, 12:03
Blight, I encounter the same issue that italospain is facing.

I've tested Zoom Player latest version 8.1.1. My main display is 1920x1080 LCD, secondary display is 1280x720 TV (Component Video Connection) in extended mode.

Starting ZP with /F:1 works fine. However, /F:2 doesn't show anything on TV, though I can see ZP running on task bar. If I click on ZP from task bar multiple times, finally it can show on TV. The same configuration works fine on Zoom Player 7.

Let me know what I can provide to tshoot the issue.

great i am not the only one :D

One thing i noticed it seems only to happen with windows xp.

i have upgraded one system to windows 7 and it works fine there.

are you using xp ?

25minutes
22nd February 2012, 12:45
Yes, Windows XP SP3.

Blight
26th February 2012, 16:43
Hi,
I'll try to recreate this issue under XP and hopefully get it fixed in the next beta.

25minutes
27th February 2012, 01:22
Thanks Blight. Please don't hesitate to let italospain & I know if anything we can provide to help identify the issue.

25minutes
29th February 2012, 07:44
Blight, one more question about the sendmessage API. Has it changed from Zoom Player version 6/7?
I used HIP to control Zoom Player since Zoom Player 6, but some keys work different in version 8.1.1 now. For example, postmessage {@32817,70,0} was used to switch subtitle, but now it flips the display.
Any suggestions to make my existing HIP configuration work with minimum changes? Thanks again.

Remicade
29th February 2012, 07:58
Tell me one reason to use Zoom instead MPC HC ?

Zulithe
3rd March 2012, 02:32
Frequent updates, great support from Inmatrix/Blight, can auto detect/update/install filters and codecs for you making it really easy to keep current, tons of power user features. It's a dream for advanced users.

Check out all the features here:
http://www.inmatrix.com/zplayer/pro/versions_home8.shtml

I bought the MAX version and have been really happy with it. It's on sale right now, might want to check it out. You get free updates to major versions too.

nx6
3rd March 2012, 08:41
Tell me one reason to use Zoom instead MPC HC ?

The full-screen media library browser. (10-foot UI)
The on-screen display can be set to font sizes actually readable when you're not sitting right in front of the PC.
Real REW/FF controls (instead of "jumps" in MPC).
Easier control over what decoder handles what codec with SmartPlay.

Blight
11th March 2012, 12:07
25minutes:
I posted a patch for the fullscreen on XP SP3 on the ZP forum.
I don't have the link handy right now or I would have posted it here.

With regards to HIP, no, there was no change, BUT! ZP v8.10+ uses the new xy-vsfilter component, make sure to download it off the install center.
If the problem persists with the new sub filter (which is backward compatible, but includes a few new features that are a must in ZP 8.1), let me know.


Remicade:
Pretty much what NX6/Zulithe said.
MPC-HC is strong in back-end features (decoding, rendering, etc), Zoom Player development concentrates more on a flexible/usable GUI and provides back-end features from other devs (LAV/MadVR/MPC-HC/FFDShow/etc).
So essentially you get the best from both worlds.

italospain
11th March 2012, 13:36
great fullscreen on Monitor 2 works now.

One bug more:

if you detach the Controlbar and leave the bar on Monitor 1 playing the video on Monitor 2 and you press on the detached Controlbar stop and then play ReClock reports the wrong Display Frequency from monitor 1.

25minutes
11th March 2012, 13:38
Awesome! I have a quick test and both issues are fixed. I will play around and report back if I find new issues.
Thank you so much! Enjoy the weekend, Blight.

Blight
13th March 2012, 23:40
italospain:
I'm not sure what the connection between detaching the control bar and the display frequency...
The only thing I might think of is if you're using MadVR and maybe it's changing the refresh rate for you?
Does it even make a difference if you press stop on the control bar or "S" on the keyboard?

italospain
14th March 2012, 08:59
italospain:
I'm not sure what the connection between detaching the control bar and the display frequency...
The only thing I might think of is if you're using MadVR and maybe it's changing the refresh rate for you?
Does it even make a difference if you press stop on the control bar or "S" on the keyboard?

I want the control bar permanent on Monitor 1, playing the Video on Monitor 2. If i do so pressing Stop and then play on the detached control bar on Monitor 1. ReClock suddenly turns Yellow reporting the display frequency from Monitor 1. Opening the Video file again ReClock turns green and all is fine.

Im using Ovelay Mixer without any automatic refreshrate changer.

Blight
15th March 2012, 11:53
italospain:
But you didn't answer my question if the same issue occurs if you press play from the keyboard rather than the control bar.
I'm asking to understand if the issue is coming from the control bar click or from the stop/play command.

In any case, if you want smooth playback, I recommend using MadVR, it has the smoothest image pans and better quality scalers.
And v0.82.5 is finally stable enough to use in day to day operations.

I've personally been using MadVR every day since v0.82.4 and it's stable enough so I can finally recommend it to a wider audience.

italospain
15th March 2012, 12:33
italospain:
But you didn't answer my question if the same issue occurs if you press play from the keyboard rather than the control bar.
I'm asking to understand if the issue is coming from the control bar click or from the stop/play command.

In any case, if you want smooth playback, I recommend using MadVR, it has the smoothest image pans and better quality scalers.
And v0.82.5 is finally stable enough to use in day to day operations.

I've personally been using MadVR every day since v0.82.4 and it's stable enough so I can finally recommend it to a wider audience.

yeah i am using madVR too in my second home (girlfriend) with powerfull hardware. But at home i am using a Notebook with Intel IGP and there is no way to use madVR.

if i use the keyboard (S and P) it works fine.

Blight
16th March 2012, 01:54
italospain:
The only thing I can think of is that the focus being moved to a different window somehow interferes with reclock's ability to synch.
But there's nothing I can do about that...

You can control ZP externally to perform actions without taking focus, just by creating a windows shortcut that will call a ZP function from the command line, or if you want to go more advanced, ZP has a TCP/IP interface.

One last thing, you should be able to use MadVR on even lower-end hardware. You'd have to lower the scaler quality to the max your hardware can take, but you'd still gain the smooth image.

mezo
26th March 2012, 21:21
Guys, does Zoom player play Blu-ray discs?
I found in the online documentation the following line "Blu-Ray Decrypted Main-Movie Playback (with subtitles)." What does it mean exactly?
On the other hand, according to this article (http://www.reviewmaze.com/2012/02/3d-blu-ray-player-software-for-windows.html) there are only a few software blu-ray players and zoom player is not listed among them. What is the truth?

dukey
26th March 2012, 22:08
Means it'll probably play decrypted video files, without menus etc.

mezo
27th March 2012, 18:01
Thanks dukey. So, it doesn't play directly from the disc but you have to rip the Blu-ray disc on a hard drive first, right?

DigitalLF
4th April 2012, 13:22
is there a way to downmix truehd/dtsma 7.1 to 2.0 in Zoom Player? and if so how?

Blight
10th April 2012, 17:04
mezo:
There are programs like 'AnyDVD HD' which should be capable of decrypting the disc in real-time, so you can play directly from the disc if needed.

DigitalLF:
You can usually do that in the decoder.
Play the video and press Alt+A to bring up the audio decoded dialog you can control some settings,
Another way to do it is to have windows itself set to downmix the audio by setting the speaker settings in window's control panel.