Blight
21st February 2004, 20:08
The Powers that be decided that due to the increased usability (Audio Bar), stability (Filter Black Listing, Detection of missing filters and the easier installation procedures for most components) that this new version be dubbed v4.00.
Let us know what you think.
Changes since v3.31:
* 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.
* 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 / Management).
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.
* New Setting (Options / Mouse Wheel) allowing you to
reverse the direction of the mouse wheel with regards
to the functions it calls.
* You will now be prompted to install DirectVobSub if it's
not installed on your system (again, only one time when a
new version is installed).
* New Setting (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 "/AUDBAR" command line parameter starting Zoom Player
in Audio-Bar mode.
* 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"
* 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:
http://www.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).
* 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 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 MPEG1 audio (including MP3),
MPEG1 Video, XVID and DIVX. Playback is not perfect, I
noticed big issues with DIVX playback. These filters are
also supposed to decode MPEG2 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.
* Two new skin variables "cBarNoText" and "tLineNoText"
allowing you to disable text display on the timeline
and control bar timeline.
* 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).
+ 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 (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.
- Zoom Player could stop responding when trying to load a new
media file while the first media file was still being loaded.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The Screen Snap Pixel value would not save properly.
- 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.
- Can now load UTF8 file names from WPL play list files.
- Fixed too many unicode related issues to even begin listing
them here.
Download Zoom Player v4.00 beta 1 here (http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_beta.shtml).
Let us know what you think.
Changes since v3.31:
* 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.
* 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 / Management).
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.
* New Setting (Options / Mouse Wheel) allowing you to
reverse the direction of the mouse wheel with regards
to the functions it calls.
* You will now be prompted to install DirectVobSub if it's
not installed on your system (again, only one time when a
new version is installed).
* New Setting (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 "/AUDBAR" command line parameter starting Zoom Player
in Audio-Bar mode.
* 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"
* 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:
http://www.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).
* 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 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 MPEG1 audio (including MP3),
MPEG1 Video, XVID and DIVX. Playback is not perfect, I
noticed big issues with DIVX playback. These filters are
also supposed to decode MPEG2 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.
* Two new skin variables "cBarNoText" and "tLineNoText"
allowing you to disable text display on the timeline
and control bar timeline.
* 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).
+ 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 (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.
- Zoom Player could stop responding when trying to load a new
media file while the first media file was still being loaded.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The Screen Snap Pixel value would not save properly.
- 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.
- Can now load UTF8 file names from WPL play list files.
- Fixed too many unicode related issues to even begin listing
them here.
Download Zoom Player v4.00 beta 1 here (http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_beta.shtml).