Highly customizable, feature rich media player and HTPC media center
There are tens, even hundreds of software solutions out there that could help you play your favorite file, but finding your favorite can be a difficult task.
Zoom Player Professional is one of the candidates that aim for the top spots in their category, coming equipped with everything you will ever need.
To prove that it is indeed a complex app, the developers included a pretty advanced installer, so you're prompted to pick which components you wish to use from the very first steps. Plus, once the setup kit finishes copying all files on the computer, you can download additional files, including the ones that the program might need to work, such as codecs and plugins.
Zoom Player Professional comes with a rather pleasant interface, as it usually happens with video players nowadays. It also includes theme support to let you add your personal touch to the way the player looks.
With the right codecs at hand, the program managed to open all video files on our test machine, and it did so without putting too much stress on the system resources.
An interesting feature of Zoom Player Professional is the remote control ability it comes with, allowing you to operate the player via a Web interface.
The Settings menu is very complex and it seems to be much more appropriate to power users because it comprises tons of features that enable you to modify almost every single bit of the app.
All in all, Zoom Player Profession is indeed a very good, a highly customizable solution that packs loads of features and comes with support for all common media formats.
Zoom Player was originally conceived to fill a void in Multimedia playback. Prior to Zoom Player, playing media files on the PC was either overly simplistic for the Power User or overly cryptic to the common user.
Zoom Player tries to both simplify the playback experience for the common user, while giving the Power Users all the tools and interfaces they may require to manipulate their playback environment to their exact specification.
To that end, Zoom Player employs a slick and simple user interface, combined with easy to access features while at the same time providing advanced control dialogs over every feature imaginable.
Zoom Player was designed from the ground up to load quick, take as little system resources as possible, provide user feedback/direction as appropriate and maintain as much isolation from other applications and system components as not to undermine overall stability.
Zoom Player is fully scalable, supporting all the latest media formats and interfaces. New features are incorporated on an ongoing basis with release schedules and feature integration clearly announced on our support forums.
Zoom Player is capable of playing all common media formats and quite a few of the not so common, including: AVI, Matroska (MKV), QuickTime (MOV), Cellphone 3GPP (3GP), Flash (SWF), RealMedia (RA/RM/RMVB/RAM), Windows Media Format (ASF/WMV/WMA including DRM with WMV Professional version), OGG Movie (OGM), MPEG-1 (MPG/VCD), MPEG-2 (MPG/SVCD/VOB), MPEG-4 (DIVX/XVID/ISO), VP3-VP6, MPEG Layer 3 (MP3), Vorbis Audio (OGG), Dolby Digital (AC3), Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), MusePack Audio (MPC), FLAC Audio (FLAC), OptimFROG Audio, Monkey Audio (APE), True Audio (TTU), Wave Audio (WAV), CD-Audio.
Zoom Player Professional, which on top of being a great Media Player with additional power-features, incorporates the most powerful DVD Front-End you could imagine (and even a few features you didn't think of imagining).
Zoom Player Professional is one of the candidates that aim for the top spots in their category, coming equipped with everything you will ever need.
To prove that it is indeed a complex app, the developers included a pretty advanced installer, so you're prompted to pick which components you wish to use from the very first steps. Plus, once the setup kit finishes copying all files on the computer, you can download additional files, including the ones that the program might need to work, such as codecs and plugins.
Zoom Player Professional comes with a rather pleasant interface, as it usually happens with video players nowadays. It also includes theme support to let you add your personal touch to the way the player looks.
With the right codecs at hand, the program managed to open all video files on our test machine, and it did so without putting too much stress on the system resources.
An interesting feature of Zoom Player Professional is the remote control ability it comes with, allowing you to operate the player via a Web interface.
The Settings menu is very complex and it seems to be much more appropriate to power users because it comprises tons of features that enable you to modify almost every single bit of the app.
All in all, Zoom Player Profession is indeed a very good, a highly customizable solution that packs loads of features and comes with support for all common media formats.
Zoom Player was originally conceived to fill a void in Multimedia playback. Prior to Zoom Player, playing media files on the PC was either overly simplistic for the Power User or overly cryptic to the common user.
Zoom Player tries to both simplify the playback experience for the common user, while giving the Power Users all the tools and interfaces they may require to manipulate their playback environment to their exact specification.
To that end, Zoom Player employs a slick and simple user interface, combined with easy to access features while at the same time providing advanced control dialogs over every feature imaginable.
Zoom Player was designed from the ground up to load quick, take as little system resources as possible, provide user feedback/direction as appropriate and maintain as much isolation from other applications and system components as not to undermine overall stability.
Zoom Player is fully scalable, supporting all the latest media formats and interfaces. New features are incorporated on an ongoing basis with release schedules and feature integration clearly announced on our support forums.
Zoom Player is capable of playing all common media formats and quite a few of the not so common, including: AVI, Matroska (MKV), QuickTime (MOV), Cellphone 3GPP (3GP), Flash (SWF), RealMedia (RA/RM/RMVB/RAM), Windows Media Format (ASF/WMV/WMA including DRM with WMV Professional version), OGG Movie (OGM), MPEG-1 (MPG/VCD), MPEG-2 (MPG/SVCD/VOB), MPEG-4 (DIVX/XVID/ISO), VP3-VP6, MPEG Layer 3 (MP3), Vorbis Audio (OGG), Dolby Digital (AC3), Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), MusePack Audio (MPC), FLAC Audio (FLAC), OptimFROG Audio, Monkey Audio (APE), True Audio (TTU), Wave Audio (WAV), CD-Audio.
Zoom Player Professional, which on top of being a great Media Player with additional power-features, incorporates the most powerful DVD Front-End you could imagine (and even a few features you didn't think of imagining).
Here are some key features of "Zoom Player Professional":
· Advanced Smart Play controls (Create your own Smart Play profiles, select & configure filters, etc).
· Media Center navigation Safe Mode (hide dangerous functions from inexperienced users).
· Audio Re-Synchronization Adjustments.
· Communication & Control API (TCP/IP, WinAPI's SendMessage or COM), supported by many 3rd party applications.
· Windows Media (WMV/WMA) DRM Support.
· Playlist Power Manager (enhanced search/playlist manipulation).
· Control Zoom Player through a Web Interface (web remote).
· Password protected options dialog, preventing other people using the computer from modifying your configuration.
· Blank Secondary Monitors (when switching to fullscreen or by calling a function).
· Automatic Audio/Subtitle media file stream selection.
· Lock the On Screen Display to a region of the screen.
· Auto-Execute external programs when a PAL/NTSC DVD disc is detected (prior to playing) and when the DVD playback is stopped.
· Map network paths into the File Browsing Media Center navigation interface.
· DVD Password Protected Parental Control.
· DVD Trailers interface allowing you to play trailers prior to starting the movie.
· Automatic Aspect Ratio, Video Size and Blanking depending on the DVD type (Fullscreen, Letterbox or Anamorphic).
· Reload & Replay media files as they are being saved.
· Closed Captions Support in Media Files.
· Pattern Calibration System with White Wash Anti Burn-in mode.
· Enhanced Screen Saver controls (Computer generated backgrounds, image slideshows and power saving modes).
· Integrated eMule/uTorrent File Tracker (shows download progress within the Fullscreen Media Center navigation interfaces).
· Extended Command Lines "/lockfs", "/tcp".
· Create Contact Sheet (Image indexes).
· No bloat, intuitive interface with a user-friendly design.
· Install Center application, capable of detecting and securely installing up-to-date decoders and missing system components to improve stability and versatility.
· Windows 7 Integration (Task-Bar position coloring, customizable right-click functions, etc).
· Media Center navigation interfaces with easy to use (Up/Down/Left/Right/Select) controls.
· 10-Band Equalizer with Digital PreAmp and Presets.
· DVD Playback from Disc, Hard Drive or network connection.
· Remember/Resume from last media position.
· Quickly jump between multiple saved positions using media Chapters (or DVD Bookmarks).
· Go-To Interface to quickly and accurately seek into any position within a media file.
· Play History (Date, Last played position, Volume level and more).
· Automatically Extract & Play Archived (zip/rar/7z/etc) content.
· Video Post-Processing (DeInterlacing, Sharpening, etc).
· Play incomplete AVI files.
· Play files locked by third party programs.
· Powerful, category based Media Library interfaces.
· Automatically play multi-part media files.
· AB-Repeat (Repeat a section of the playing media in a loop).
· Choose from Multiple DVD Audio & Video decoders for improved compatibility and reliability.
· Smart DVD Bookmarking tool, including auto-loading bookmarks.
· Auto-Remember DVD position per-disc (each DVD's position saved separately).
· Multiple DVD play speeds with adjustable speed values.
· Preferred DVD language selection (Audio, Video, Subtitle and DVD Menus).
· Auto-Save definition file per-disc (remember Aspect Ratio Video Position, Color Values, etc).
· External DVD Subtitle Support (Use subtitles from an external file).
· Temporarily disable Auto-Play to prevent other programs from popping up when a DVD disc is inserted.
· DVD, Media, Audio and Media Center navigation skins.
· Advanced media format support (multiple language tracks, subtitles and chaptering in AVI, OGM, MKV and more).
· Integration with Windows VISTA's Media Library folders (auto-mapped to Zoom Player's media library).
· Start player window locked to Fullscreen mode (Hide the fact that your computer is your media center backend).
· DXVA (hardware assisted) decoding with H.264 and VC1 video formats.
· High Quality Icon library containing extension-specific system icons (used when the Player is associated with a file format).
· Mouse Wheel Tilt (left/right) support with user selected functions (Windows VISTA or newer).
· Automatically load and display embedded/external background images when playing audio files (APE/FLAC/ID3/etc).
· Fullscreen Virtual Keyboard (used for renaming files from the fullscreen interfaces and elsewhere where appropriate).
· Extensive Playlist support ZPL/B4S/M3U/WPL (including native Unicode and UTF8 file names).
· Smart Play support (Faster loading files, no decoder conflicts and smoother playback on less powerful computers).
· Microsoft 'MMS' Audio/Video Streaming.
· SHOUTcast Radio streaming
· Definition system which saves and restores information on the playing media (Aspect Ratio/Color Values/etc).
· Easy access to popular filter interfaces such as XVID/H.264 dialogs, DirectVobSub language selection, etc.
· Fast Play support for most media formats (as long as your CPU can handle the extra load).
· Fast Forward and Rewind support with all media formats.
· User-Specified accelerated list scrolling speed (for large playlists and other content).
· Quick 'starting with' or 'containing' keyboard searches of large lists.
· Enhanced 'On Playlist Complete' setting, allowing control over what actions are taken when playback ends.
· Auto-Aspect ratio compensation for badly encoded 16:9 (widescreen) and 4:3 (fullscreen) content
· ID3, APE, FLAC and WMA Tag information visualization.
· 4 Level Zoom-In Toggle (16.6%, 13.3%, 50%, 100%).
· Windows Media Format 9 High Resolution Multi-Channel Audio Rendering.
· Auto-Play Media CD/USB/External drives.
· Bicubic, smooth scaled image slideshows.
· Easily associate any file format, including an icon navigation interface that allows you to easily decide which icon is used.
· Play random trailers before or after your Movies.
· Multilingual (Translated into multiple languages) with Unicode 16bit Character support.
· Basic and Advanced options dialog, making Zoom Player easy for new users while giving ultimate flexibility to power users.
· Mute audio while seeking.
· Automatic Skin-Mode Switching depending on type of content played (DVD/Media/Audio).
· Dynamic skinning engine with full support for color-tinting.
· Powerful Aspect Ratio controls, including support for non square pixels (Pixel Aspect Ratio), manual Fit-To-Specified-Area Aspect Ratio, Anamorphic Aspect Ratio and even a Custom user-specified ratio.
· Easy control of Video Size and Positioning while in fullscreen, allowing you to position the video anywhere and at any size on screen.
· Fully keyboard mapped features and dialogs, covering every function used by the player (useful with Remote Control, keyboard devices and HTPC systems).
· Programmable keyboard editor, including support for chaining multiple functions to one key and Global Hot-Keys (keys that work even when the player is not focused).
· Advanced mouse controls with customizable functions, including a wide array of mouse-wheel supported features (extremely useful with HTPC systems).
· Custom Video Position, Aspect Ratios, Color Control and Image Blanking presets.
· Dynamic Control Bar, providing easy navigation while in full screen mode, complete with user-selected on-bar functions.
· Detachable Control Bar, allowing you to easily control player functionality from a secondary monitor.
· 3 x Speed seeking (short/medium/long) with customizable speeds for quickly seeking forward/backward within the playing media.
· Extensive command line support.
· Override the system-default Audio Output device and assign output to any other audio device on the system.
· Support for legacy and cutting-edge Video Rendering technologies (Overlay, VMR7, VMR9, EVR, Haali, MadVR and Custom).
· User specified registry location, supporting multiple running copies of the player using different configuration profiles.
· Web URL Navigation system, allowing you to associate DVD and Media files with a URL or local information file.
· Fully Multi-Monitor compliant with powerful multi-monitor features.
· Multiple Skin-Modes within a single skin (default/small/minmalistic/frame-only/etc).
· Docking user interface elements to Window Borders and Advanced Magnetic Docking capabilities.
· Translucent user interface (Requires Windows Vista or newer with the Aero interface enabled).
· DVB Support using DCoder's DC-DVB filter, including tuning and time shifting.
· Change screen resolution when going into fullscreen and restore when leaving fullscreen.
· Screenshot support in JPG, PNG and BMP formats.
· Shortcut File Parsing for easy redirection of DVD and Media content from a centralized location.
· Multiple Customizable Context Menus with extensive support for both DVD and Media modes.
· Blanking feature used to cover up non-black area of encoded Video (useful when playing widescreen DVDs or badly encoded media files).
· Girder Command file export for maximum control through a remote device and System Automation.
· Full support for GraphEdit ".GRF" files.
· Backward and Forward compatible with most versions of windows (including Windows Vista and Windows 7).
· Advanced Smart Play controls (Create your own Smart Play profiles, select & configure filters, etc).
· Media Center navigation Safe Mode (hide dangerous functions from inexperienced users).
· Audio Re-Synchronization Adjustments.
· Communication & Control API (TCP/IP, WinAPI's SendMessage or COM), supported by many 3rd party applications.
· Windows Media (WMV/WMA) DRM Support.
· Playlist Power Manager (enhanced search/playlist manipulation).
· Control Zoom Player through a Web Interface (web remote).
· Password protected options dialog, preventing other people using the computer from modifying your configuration.
· Blank Secondary Monitors (when switching to fullscreen or by calling a function).
· Automatic Audio/Subtitle media file stream selection.
· Lock the On Screen Display to a region of the screen.
· Auto-Execute external programs when a PAL/NTSC DVD disc is detected (prior to playing) and when the DVD playback is stopped.
· Map network paths into the File Browsing Media Center navigation interface.
· DVD Password Protected Parental Control.
· DVD Trailers interface allowing you to play trailers prior to starting the movie.
· Automatic Aspect Ratio, Video Size and Blanking depending on the DVD type (Fullscreen, Letterbox or Anamorphic).
· Reload & Replay media files as they are being saved.
· Closed Captions Support in Media Files.
· Pattern Calibration System with White Wash Anti Burn-in mode.
· Enhanced Screen Saver controls (Computer generated backgrounds, image slideshows and power saving modes).
· Integrated eMule/uTorrent File Tracker (shows download progress within the Fullscreen Media Center navigation interfaces).
· Extended Command Lines "/lockfs", "/tcp".
· Create Contact Sheet (Image indexes).
· No bloat, intuitive interface with a user-friendly design.
· Install Center application, capable of detecting and securely installing up-to-date decoders and missing system components to improve stability and versatility.
· Windows 7 Integration (Task-Bar position coloring, customizable right-click functions, etc).
· Media Center navigation interfaces with easy to use (Up/Down/Left/Right/Select) controls.
· 10-Band Equalizer with Digital PreAmp and Presets.
· DVD Playback from Disc, Hard Drive or network connection.
· Remember/Resume from last media position.
· Quickly jump between multiple saved positions using media Chapters (or DVD Bookmarks).
· Go-To Interface to quickly and accurately seek into any position within a media file.
· Play History (Date, Last played position, Volume level and more).
· Automatically Extract & Play Archived (zip/rar/7z/etc) content.
· Video Post-Processing (DeInterlacing, Sharpening, etc).
· Play incomplete AVI files.
· Play files locked by third party programs.
· Powerful, category based Media Library interfaces.
· Automatically play multi-part media files.
· AB-Repeat (Repeat a section of the playing media in a loop).
· Choose from Multiple DVD Audio & Video decoders for improved compatibility and reliability.
· Smart DVD Bookmarking tool, including auto-loading bookmarks.
· Auto-Remember DVD position per-disc (each DVD's position saved separately).
· Multiple DVD play speeds with adjustable speed values.
· Preferred DVD language selection (Audio, Video, Subtitle and DVD Menus).
· Auto-Save definition file per-disc (remember Aspect Ratio Video Position, Color Values, etc).
· External DVD Subtitle Support (Use subtitles from an external file).
· Temporarily disable Auto-Play to prevent other programs from popping up when a DVD disc is inserted.
· DVD, Media, Audio and Media Center navigation skins.
· Advanced media format support (multiple language tracks, subtitles and chaptering in AVI, OGM, MKV and more).
· Integration with Windows VISTA's Media Library folders (auto-mapped to Zoom Player's media library).
· Start player window locked to Fullscreen mode (Hide the fact that your computer is your media center backend).
· DXVA (hardware assisted) decoding with H.264 and VC1 video formats.
· High Quality Icon library containing extension-specific system icons (used when the Player is associated with a file format).
· Mouse Wheel Tilt (left/right) support with user selected functions (Windows VISTA or newer).
· Automatically load and display embedded/external background images when playing audio files (APE/FLAC/ID3/etc).
· Fullscreen Virtual Keyboard (used for renaming files from the fullscreen interfaces and elsewhere where appropriate).
· Extensive Playlist support ZPL/B4S/M3U/WPL (including native Unicode and UTF8 file names).
· Smart Play support (Faster loading files, no decoder conflicts and smoother playback on less powerful computers).
· Microsoft 'MMS' Audio/Video Streaming.
· SHOUTcast Radio streaming
· Definition system which saves and restores information on the playing media (Aspect Ratio/Color Values/etc).
· Easy access to popular filter interfaces such as XVID/H.264 dialogs, DirectVobSub language selection, etc.
· Fast Play support for most media formats (as long as your CPU can handle the extra load).
· Fast Forward and Rewind support with all media formats.
· User-Specified accelerated list scrolling speed (for large playlists and other content).
· Quick 'starting with' or 'containing' keyboard searches of large lists.
· Enhanced 'On Playlist Complete' setting, allowing control over what actions are taken when playback ends.
· Auto-Aspect ratio compensation for badly encoded 16:9 (widescreen) and 4:3 (fullscreen) content
· ID3, APE, FLAC and WMA Tag information visualization.
· 4 Level Zoom-In Toggle (16.6%, 13.3%, 50%, 100%).
· Windows Media Format 9 High Resolution Multi-Channel Audio Rendering.
· Auto-Play Media CD/USB/External drives.
· Bicubic, smooth scaled image slideshows.
· Easily associate any file format, including an icon navigation interface that allows you to easily decide which icon is used.
· Play random trailers before or after your Movies.
· Multilingual (Translated into multiple languages) with Unicode 16bit Character support.
· Basic and Advanced options dialog, making Zoom Player easy for new users while giving ultimate flexibility to power users.
· Mute audio while seeking.
· Automatic Skin-Mode Switching depending on type of content played (DVD/Media/Audio).
· Dynamic skinning engine with full support for color-tinting.
· Powerful Aspect Ratio controls, including support for non square pixels (Pixel Aspect Ratio), manual Fit-To-Specified-Area Aspect Ratio, Anamorphic Aspect Ratio and even a Custom user-specified ratio.
· Easy control of Video Size and Positioning while in fullscreen, allowing you to position the video anywhere and at any size on screen.
· Fully keyboard mapped features and dialogs, covering every function used by the player (useful with Remote Control, keyboard devices and HTPC systems).
· Programmable keyboard editor, including support for chaining multiple functions to one key and Global Hot-Keys (keys that work even when the player is not focused).
· Advanced mouse controls with customizable functions, including a wide array of mouse-wheel supported features (extremely useful with HTPC systems).
· Custom Video Position, Aspect Ratios, Color Control and Image Blanking presets.
· Dynamic Control Bar, providing easy navigation while in full screen mode, complete with user-selected on-bar functions.
· Detachable Control Bar, allowing you to easily control player functionality from a secondary monitor.
· 3 x Speed seeking (short/medium/long) with customizable speeds for quickly seeking forward/backward within the playing media.
· Extensive command line support.
· Override the system-default Audio Output device and assign output to any other audio device on the system.
· Support for legacy and cutting-edge Video Rendering technologies (Overlay, VMR7, VMR9, EVR, Haali, MadVR and Custom).
· User specified registry location, supporting multiple running copies of the player using different configuration profiles.
· Web URL Navigation system, allowing you to associate DVD and Media files with a URL or local information file.
· Fully Multi-Monitor compliant with powerful multi-monitor features.
· Multiple Skin-Modes within a single skin (default/small/minmalistic/frame-only/etc).
· Docking user interface elements to Window Borders and Advanced Magnetic Docking capabilities.
· Translucent user interface (Requires Windows Vista or newer with the Aero interface enabled).
· DVB Support using DCoder's DC-DVB filter, including tuning and time shifting.
· Change screen resolution when going into fullscreen and restore when leaving fullscreen.
· Screenshot support in JPG, PNG and BMP formats.
· Shortcut File Parsing for easy redirection of DVD and Media content from a centralized location.
· Multiple Customizable Context Menus with extensive support for both DVD and Media modes.
· Blanking feature used to cover up non-black area of encoded Video (useful when playing widescreen DVDs or badly encoded media files).
· Girder Command file export for maximum control through a remote device and System Automation.
· Full support for GraphEdit ".GRF" files.
· Backward and Forward compatible with most versions of windows (including Windows Vista and Windows 7).
Limitations:
· 30 days trial
· 30 days trial
What's New in This Release:
- Some of the language packs had a glitch that caused Zoom Player to start with an access violation and then appear as an empty black box.
| Publisher | : | InMatrix |
|---|---|---|
| License | : | Trial / USD 19.99 |
| Size/OS: | : | 11 MB / Windows XP / Vista / 7 |
Download | : | Zoom Player Professional 8.7.0 Beta 33 |
