Zoom Player

[Blight]

Hi everyone, I created a specific thread to help make it easier to keep up with Zoom Player development instead of creating an announcement with each final version.
The first post will always be updated with links to the latest beta and final versions along with a useful change list.
I will update this thread with announcement of new version releases, answer any of your questions and even discuss a few technological issues I encounter from time to time.

DOWNLOAD (http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_download.shtml) . The full Change history (http://inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_whatsnew.shtml)

[Blight]

I have been doing more and more work trying to polish elements of the user interface to make everything work better on tablets. For reference, I am play testing on an Asus Transformer Book T100 10" tablet.

By default, windows enables a few usability features that are very un-tablet like. For example, if you click the screen and hold for 1-2 second, it will perform a right-click event. This may be useful for handling legacy apps, but it's far from perfect when trying to design an app specifically for tablet use, it causes issues when trying to use a scroll bar in Zoom Player's fullscreen navigation interfaces. Luckily, I managed to find a method to prevent windows from enabling this feature on a per-window basis and disabled it for the fullscreen navigation windows.

But then, there's a second issue. I expected that the touch screen would essentially work like clicking with the mouse, however, that's not the case. When you touch a touch based input device (tablet), the running application does not get any mouse event, unlike with the mouse where you get an event that tells you when a mouse button is down. What happens instead is that only when you let go of the screen does it trigger a mouse down event, instantly followed by a moues up event.

For those of you still following me here, what that behavior does is make scrolling far less reactive. Only when you move the finger does the mouse event get sent, this means scrolling is a lot more sluggish and slippery than it should be. I believe I found a solution for this behavior as well, but the fix is complex, requiring a testing period, so it will available in beta builds post v9.5.

It's a shame Microsoft is not making things a bit easier for developers in this regard.

[Blight]

Zoom Player MAX v9.5 release candidate 4 is available for download.

This beta includes bug fixes, new & enhanced icons, improvement to the UI logic and touch-accessibility to multiple fullscreen navigation interfaces.

[Milardo]

Hi, i would like to know if zoom player can support roxio game capture hd pro and record using hardware encoder of the device? Can it be implemented? Does zoom player support nsv files? Can one use 3rd party directshow filters with zoom player? is zoom player portable and can one create custom gui skins?

[Blight]

Milardo:
Zoom Player does not encode video, it's only used for playback.

I haven't tried NSV files in a while, Zoom Player is directshow based and supports easy integration of 3rd party filters, so if there's a filter that can parse NSV (I can't recall off-hand if LAV does it) then Zoom Player can play it.

Zoom Player can be skinned, both in windowed mode and fullscreen navigation mode. There are quite a few existing skins out there (http://www.inmatrix.com/skins.shtml) and using the latest betas, you can use custom background images or patterns for full screen navigation (samples: https://www.facebook.com/zoomplayer/posts/730936590321649).

You can make Zoom Player portable, but there are a few limitations, for example, not all directshow filters work perfectly well without being registered with the system. ZP can create the filters from the DLL without having to register the filters with the system, but then their property page becomes inaccessible.

[Milardo]

Is there capture card support?

[Blight]

Milardo:
Not officially, you can create a grf file for a capture device and load it, but more standardized support is planned for a future version.

[Milardo]

Would you consider adding support for roxio game capture hd pro and similar devices? Would one be able to capture the video output?

[Blight]

Zoom Player MAX v9.5 release candidate 5 is available for download.

This beta includes more bug fixes, enhanced icons, improvement to the UI logic and touch-accessibility to multiple fullscreen navigation interfaces.

Milardo:
Can you describe the usage scenario you'd like to achieve?

[Milardo]

Well i know that a lot of directshow media players have capture card support, but for this particular capture card, none have it yet, and there are no freeware programs that support the hardware encoder of the card either. I want to watch through a directshow player and record the output with its hardware encoder.

[huhn]

Well i know that a lot of directshow media players have capture card support, but for this particular capture card, none have it yet, and there are no freeware programs that support the hardware encoder of the card either. I want to watch through a directshow player and record the output with its hardware encoder.

the hardware encoder from what?

[Blight]

Milardo:
What you're asking is a bit confusing. Looking at the device, it seems like an external encoder, taking input from an HDMI (or lower quality) source and passing it on to the PC.
I don't think you can just tell it to encode whatever content you want, you have to pass it through the HDMI input on the device.

huhn:
He's referring to this:
http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/game-capture/hd-pro/overview.html

[Blight]

Zoom Player v9.5 final has been released:

[ Change Highlights ]
- Many fullscreen navigation interface touch enhancements targeted at tablet users.
- User-selected pattern background image for customizable fullscreen navigation interfaces.
- New control bar optional buttons.
- Integrated text viewer.
- NSV local-playback support.
- Bug fixes.

Complete Change List
http://inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_whatsnew.shtml

Download
http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_download.shtml

[Blight]

Zoom Player v9.6 MAX beta 1 has been released.

Download:
http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_beta.shtml

What's new:
http://inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_whatsnew_beta.shtml

The biggest new feature is support for hot-corner customizable click-action.

[Blight]

We have released the 4K version of the Zoom Player onyx skin:
http://www.zoomplayer.com/skins/gui/Onyx%204K.zps

To install, simply open the "Onyx 4K.zps"file within Zoom Player.
Make sure you are running version 9.5 to ensure it works correctly.

This skin can be used on a regular 1080p TV to help the visually impaired as it uses really big buttons and timeline fonts that are much easier to read.

[Blight]

We are running a Zoom Player PRO giveaway today, if you would like to receive a free copy, read this facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/zoomplayer/photos/a.213906875357959.52355.213681038713876/740661966015778

[Asmodian]

Thanks, I got another copy of MAX! :D

[Blight]

Zoom Player MAX v9.6 beta 2 has been released.

This beta introduces a pre-configuration wizard for PC/HTPC/Tablet setups.

[Blight]

Zoom Player MAX v9.6 beta 3 has been released.

Major rewrite dealing with how ZP handles mouse/touch input in the fullscreen navigation interfaces.

Hot corners can be used in windowed mode (optional, default off), an ability to lock the UI to prevent accidental clicks and bug fixes.

[Blight]

Zoom Player MAX v9.6 beta 5 has been released.

A few new small features and lots more work on making the touch interface more reliable and logical.

[Blight]

Zoom Player MAX v10 beta 6 has been released (skipped v9.6).

Many new features introduced, including two new fullscreen navigation interfaces (a media scanner and audio/subtitle stream selection), support for assigning functions to the 4th and 5th mouse buttons and more...

[Asmodian]

Zoom Player MAX v10 beta 6 has been released (skipped v9.6).

Many new features introduced, including two new fullscreen navigation interfaces (a media scanner and audio/subtitle stream selection), support for assigning functions to the 4th and 5th mouse buttons and more...

Very nice! Thanks!

I especially like the extra mouse button support. What about mouse buttons 6 to 10? Maybe with only the "Custom" option to keep the UI from exploding any more? ;)

The audio/subtitle stream selection interface is nice too.

What does the "Install Codec pack" option install? Anything that is not in the Install Center?

[romulous]

What does the "Install Codec pack" option install? Anything that is not in the Install Center?

It installs LAV and DC-BASS, the installers of which are now included in the Zoom Player download. So if you already have those two installed via Install Center, you can deselect the codec pack option in the installer.

[Blight]

Asmodian:
I've added support for the 4th and 5th button as there's a clear API for that.
It seems that additional buttons may not be using the same API and may in fact just do keyboard shortcuts (which you can hook using ZP's keyboard editor) or must use custom drivers to support.

[Blight]

Zoom Player MAX v10 beta 7 has been released.

It introduces the new mini color control interface that simplifies changing of color values (brightness/contrast/saturation/hue/gamma) while taking minimal screen space.

[Asmodian]

Asmodian:
I've added support for the 4th and 5th button as there's a clear API for that.
It seems that additional buttons may not be using the same API and may in fact just do keyboard shortcuts (which you can hook using ZP's keyboard editor) or must use custom drivers to support.

Ah yes, that makes sense. Thanks. I had forgotten Windows has an identity/api for the 4th and 5th mouse buttons but nothing beyond those. With tilt-wheel support, 5 buttons, and gestures I think I have everything I really wanted bound to the mouse already. The smart corners to control stream selection and that is it. It is great, now I have full Zoom Player control with only the mouse! :D
Zoom Player really has become an amazingly feature complete touch-enabled video player. :thanks:
Now I need to get a Windows 10 tablet to replace my iPad! ;)

[Blight]

Asmodian:
I bought a Win 8.1 tablet for $83+$32 shipping (still waiting for it) so I can test how well ZP works on these Sub $100 windows tablet with atom baytrail processors.

I'm also working on adding kinetic scroll support to give that as an option instead of the current scrolling method, it works reasonably well on my current test system (ASUS Transformer T100).

[Blight]

Zoom Player MAX v10 release candidate 1 has been released!

This build is mostly bug fixes and may in fact be the final version if no bugs are reported.

[Asmodian]

I'm also working on adding kinetic scroll support to give that as an option instead of the current scrolling method, it works reasonably well on my current test system (ASUS Transformer T100).

That is excellent news. Painful scrolling speed is one of the major drawbacks of touch compared to mouse. I understand it is also quite tricky to get right. :)

I really like the time tool tips and chapter markers on the control bar but is there a way to change the color of the chapter markers that I missed? Not that magenta is bad but I might like something less visible. :o

Also, have you looked into enabling Large Address Aware? I found it was required when using advanced ass subtitles with xySubFilter and MadVR on a 4K display.

Zoom Player is better than ever. I have been liking the minimal mode with seek bar (F8). Combined with binding exit to middle click it seems like I am not missing anything but I also have an almost border-less video player. :D

[Blight]

Asmodian:
You'll have to edit the skin to change the chapter's tick-color.

I'm not really sure why you need to have ZP be large address aware, ZP doesn't use anywhere near 2GB so having 4GB addressable space shouldn't really have any effect.

[huhn]

Asmodian:
You'll have to edit the skin to change the chapter's tick-color.

I'm not really sure why you need to have ZP be large address aware, ZP doesn't use anywhere near 2GB so having 4GB addressable space shouldn't really have any effect.

ZP seem to be capped at 1.5 GB.
just take a UHD sample set madVR CPU queue to over 48 and zoomplayer will crash.
some filter can take quiet some RAM like a subtitle renderer and with UHD this is going to take more than 1.5 GB of RAM from time to time.
one P010 UHD frame is about 20 MB

[Asmodian]

Asmodian:
You'll have to edit the skin to change the chapter's tick-color.

I'm not really sure why you need to have ZP be large address aware, ZP doesn't use anywhere near 2GB so having 4GB addressable space shouldn't really have any effect.

Thanks, I'll have to poke at skins a bit. :)

I think I saw nearly 3 GB of RAM used at the worst (busy animated ass with xySubFilter) playing P010 1080p on a 4K screen after patching zplayer.exe. I am positive it was regularly over 2 GB.

Of course this memory usage it isn't really Zoom Player and switching to xyVSFilter was also a solution in my case. I only thought rendered at 4K subtitles were worth fighting for. ;)

[Blight]

I enabled the large address aware flag:
http://zoomplayer.com/t/zplayer_large_address_aware.zip

However, I have not tested this and I'm not sure if there is impact on performance or stability, so this won't be part of v10 final.

Please test and report if there are any issues.

[Asmodian]

Wow thanks! I happen to be traveling and do not have access to my sample or system to test. I will have to report my results is four days. :/

No need to rush it in, patching has always worked well for me. I just need to redo it every time I update Zoom Player and enabling large address aware by default might help others with 4K displays. :)

I am also curious what impact it would have on 32 bit systems.

[huhn]

this doesn't help 32 bit OS user.

read this https://helloacm.com/large-address-aware/

[nevcairiel]

However, I have not tested this and I'm not sure if there is impact on performance or stability, so this won't be part of v10 final.

There is not. It only tells windows that the app does nothing stupid and doesn't store information in the highest bit of memory addresses (apparently, this was a thing some code did a long time ago), and instead Windows can use the full 32-bit for memory addresses itself, instead of only 31-bit.

Thats really all it does, so unless you use crazy evil code that stores a flag in the highest bit of memory addresses, you are fine. :p

[Blight]

Version 10 release candidate 2 has been released:
http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_beta.shtml

[Asmodian]

I enabled the large address aware flag:
http://zoomplayer.com/t/zplayer_large_address_aware.zip

However, I have not tested this and I'm not sure if there is impact on performance or stability, so this won't be part of v10 final.

Please test and report if there are any issues.

I finally got a chance to do some testing, this version works well for me; I found no issues and I cannot make it crash by turning up the CPU buffer setting in madVR. :)

Version 10 release candidate 2 has been released:
http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_beta.shtml

Thanks, after patching for LAA this version is also working well for me. ;)

[Blight]

Admodian:
v10 will come with LAA enabled by default in v10.

I just spent hours trying to figure out why Zoom Player window would auto-maximize on launch on a 7" windows tablet I just got in for testing.

Looks like another "feature" built into Windows 8.1 that auto-maximizes EVERY window, with no clue on how to disable this behavior.
Managed to write a work-around, but it wasn't the cleanest of code.

[Blight]

Version 10 release candidate 3 has been released:
http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_beta.shtml

This RC includes quite a few fixes related to tablet/touch-input.

[Blight]

Announcing Zoom Player v10 final!

In version 10 we made great strides in making Zoom Player's fullscreen user interface and user experience much more accessible and intuitive.

But that's not all, a new pre-configuration wizard lets you automatically configure Zoom Player based on the device used, be it a regular desktop PC, a Home Theater PC or a Tablet/Touch device.

New fullscreen navigation interfaces can be used in v10 to easily configure the media library without having to exit fullscreen mode and switch between Audio and Subtitle streams with ease.

New "Hot Corners" usability feature that easily accesses dialogs or additional functionality with the mouse or touch input.

New support for custom functionality assigned to the 4th and 5th mouse buttons.

New patterns for the customizable fullscreen navigation interface, including visually enhanced default patterns.

Better 4K video playback using MadVR and a large frame buffer.

In v10, load time was improved, especially when running an initial configuration.

Download the latest FINAL:
http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_download.shtml

[Snappy Phoenix]

When I used Zoon Player in the past, it was a huge pain to set CUDA to be the default for everything as I couldn't set it globally but had to select CUDA for every extension which would take ages. is it still the same?

Zoom Player had the worst non intuitive settings I have ever used in a media player, very not user friendly so I got a refund for my purchase

I hope this has changed

[Asmodian]

CUDA? CUDA isn't something you set in Zoom Player.

When I re-install I don't need to change any setting in Zoom Player to use LAV Video for everything I play and I would set CUDA in LAV. You could simply set Zoom Player to use Direct Show merits like any other direct show media player. I have used Zoom Player for over a decade now so maybe I am used to the settings but I don't understand what your problem could have been. Changing the default Smart Play settings is still painful due to the number of formats, etc. but you do not need to use Smart Play at all to use CUDA and the default Smart Play settings now use LAV filters for most formats.

I like Zoom Player because it gives enough options so I can configure it to behave exactly the way I want. Most other media players simply don't have the options at all. What about the settings was not user friendly?

The settings have definitely improved over the years but in advanced mode the shear number might be overwhelming if you were looking for a particular setting and did not know where it was. Try out the free version if you want another look but remember it does not allow you to change Smart Play settings.

[xabregas]

one thing i notest with zoom player is the sound. the sound is somehow better with zoom audio decoder, not sure why, seems better :)

[Snappy Phoenix]

CUDA? CUDA isn't something you set in Zoom Player.

When I re-install I don't need to change any setting in Zoom Player to use LAV Video for everything I play and I would set CUDA in LAV. You could simply set Zoom Player to use Direct Show merits like any other direct show media player. I have used Zoom Player for over a decade now so maybe I am used to the settings but I don't understand what your problem could have been. Changing the default Smart Play settings is still painful due to the number of formats, etc. but you do not need to use Smart Play at all to use CUDA and the default Smart Play settings now use LAV filters for most formats.

I like Zoom Player because it gives enough options so I can configure it to behave exactly the way I want. Most other media players simply don't have the options at all. What about the settings was not user friendly?

The settings have definitely improved over the years but in advanced mode the shear number might be overwhelming if you were looking for a particular setting and did not know where it was. Try out the free version if you want another look but remember it does not allow you to change Smart Play settings.
What I didn't like is, I wanted to specify LAV for everything. It's not like MPC-HC where it's a global setting, I had to do it for each and every extension! I guess whoever developed Zoom Player wanted to make sure to make it a daunting task to do some basic settings with no global setting for all. Steered me off as a paying customer and got my refund. Seems things haven't improved if the way to set LAV for everything is still the same.

and CUDA is part of LAV which uses the nVIDIA GPU to have everything rendered by the GPU :stupid:

[Asmodian]

Seems things haven't improved if the way to set LAV for everything is still the same.

LAV is used for everything [LAV supports] by default. It is very easy to set it up that way. :rolleyes:

I guess whoever developed Zoom Player wanted to make sure to make it a daunting task to do some basic settings with no global setting for all.

Blight is the Zoom Player developer. Smart Play is for advanced setup. Smart Play configures different formats individually because no single option works for everything. Simply turn it off if you do not like it.

It is only fairly recently when we got a decent "almost-all-in-one" splitter and decoder in the form of LAV. Why do you need an option? What would you set it to except LAV?

and CUDA is part of LAV which uses the nVIDIA GPU to have everything rendered by the GPU :stupid:

That is what I said. You said it was hard to use CUDA when what you meant was that it was hard to use LAV. :stupid:

It seems like you only tried Zoom Player in the window of time between LAV being released and the updated Smart Play default settings.

[Snappy Phoenix]

I tried it when it was @ v9 if I remember correctly.

What I usually do in MPC-HC is set the external decoder to LAV and set it to use CUVID. When I tried doing that in Zoom Player, I couldn't simply select it globally and had to set LAV manually for each extension under the moon which is why I said what I said. Additionally, saving the settings and reloading them upon installation did not keep my LAV preference for every extension which is why I asked for a refund and got it.

I told them back then I wish there was an easy preset to have Zoom Player work with SVP properly and use LAV for everything.

[Asmodian]

I told them back then I wish there was an easy preset to have Zoom Player work with SVP properly and use LAV for everything.

And they made it use LAV for everything without changing any setting at all so you are good to go.

[Blight]

Version 11 final has been released, please review the first post of this thread for the full information.

[Blight]

Version 11 FREE has been released, download:
http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_download.shtml