Introduction:
Zoom Player while looking very simple at first glance, supports a lot of features and functions. On this page you will find an in-depth description of each major feature.



Specific DVD Features (All DVD features require Zoom Player Professional):

"DVD Front-End navigation using any DirectShow compatible combination of DVD Decoder filters in Overlay, VMR7 and VMR9 modes."
Zoom Player as a DVD Front-End can use any combination of DVD Decoding filters, combined with any post-processing filters to achieve the best possible image. This includes support for advanced Video Rendering hardware interfaces such as Overlay, VMR7 and VMR9.

"Point and Click DVD Graph integration, including automatic inclusion of Audio and Video Processing filters (including DMO)."
Configuring advanced combination of filters for DVD Playback is as simple as point and click.

"DVD Overlay and VMR9 Hardware Color Controls including an easy to use on-screen interface (For cards that support it)."
Support for Hardware (no CPU impact) Color Controls (Hue/Saturation/Brightness/Contract/Gamma) with an easy to use on-screen interface on display cards that support the Hardware interface.

"Smart DVD bookmark system."
An easy to use DVD Bookmark management system.

"Auto loading of selected bookmarks on Play to bypass previously seen DVD menus."
DVD Bookmarks can be marked as Auto-Loading, once a DVD is reloaded, the bookmarks can either load automatically, or optionally, a timed dialog will appear asking if you want the bookmark to load.

"Auto saving last disc's position for automatic resume at a later time."
Automatic saving/loading of a DVD's last position, including the currently playing audio and subtitle tracks.

"Auto saving of disc definition file which includes a per-disc setting for later use."
Automatic saving/loading of a DVD Disc's viewing preferances (Video Aspect Ratio, Video Position, Color Values, etc...).

"Ability to assign DVD-Insert notification to Zoom Player or any other program."
A Tool allowing you to select which program is executed when a DVD Disc is inserted.

"Auto-Execute external programs when a PAL/NTSC disc is detected (prior to playing)."
Zoom Player can execute different external programs when it detects you are trying to play a PAL/NTSC disc. Optionally, Zoom Player can also wait for these programs to close prior to starting playback.

"Multiple play speeds including manual specification."
Support for both Fast Forward, Rewind and Multi Increase/Decrease Play Rate speeds, All with user-selected speeds.

"DVD playback from hard disk."
Support for playing ripped DVDs directly from a Hard Drive (or other data-storage).

"Preferred DVD Menu Language selection."
The DVD's Menu language can be pre-selected automatically (if the disc contains a menu in that language).

"Preferred DVD Audio Track selection by Language, Number of Channels and Audio Format (AC3/DTS/ETC...)."
The DVD's Audio language can be pre-selected automatically. This also includes special selection for the audio type and number of channels.

"Preferred DVD Subtitle selection."
The DVD's Subtitle language can be pre-selected automatically (if the disc contains a subtitle track in the language).

"External (Auto-Loading) DVD Subtitle selection."
DVD External (as-in not part of the DVD itself) subtitles can now be loaded automatically by placing a subtitle file with "disc" as the base name within either the folder the VIDEO_TS.IFO exists in, or in the DVD Bookmark folder for the playing disc (which is created once the disc is played once).

For example:
C:\Movie Backup\My Movie\disc.sub   or C:\Zoom Player\DVD-Bookmarks\MY_MOVIE.2F751008DCF7124A\disc.srt

You must also make sure that DirectVobSub is set as an Additional DVD Filter. Any subtitle extension with the base name of "disc" is searched when trying to auto-load a subtitle file.

"Replaceable background image for Stop Mode."
When no DVD is playing, you can select which background image to display, ensuring your media center is uniquely visible.

"Temporarily disable Auto-Play to prevent programs such as PC-Friendly popping up."
When Zoom Player is running and is the active application, it can intercept a DVD's Auto-Running of programs so that focus is not taken away from the playing.

"DVD Trailers interface allowing you to play trailers prior to starting the movie."
Allows for the specification of a DVD Trailers file that can be used to generate random (or fixed) trailers to be shown prior to the start of the actual DVD Movie.

"Automatic Aspect Ratio, Video and Blanking Position depending on the DVD type (Fullscreen, 16:9 Letterbox and 16:9 Anamorphic)."
Zoom Player can detect a DVD's dynamic aspect ratio changes (changes between fullscreen/widescreen) and automatically set a user selected viewing profile and even execute external programs (for adjusting blinds that partially cover the screen for example).

"Password Protected Parental Control."
Parental controls allow the limiting of DVD viewing to a certain age group. Password protection allows you to ensure your kids won't circumvent your limitation.



Specific Media Features:

"5-Key (Up/Down/Left/Right/Select) Fullscreen Navigation Interface (Professional version)."
Zoom Player's Fullscreen Navigation makes it easy to convert your PC into a Home Entertainment Center that is easy enough to use for inexperienced users while still looking beautiful and enabling powerful functionality. "Playback of DRM Encoded Windows Media (WMV/WMA) files (WMV Professional version)."
Zoom Player WMV Professional is capable of playing DRM (Digital Rights Management) encoded Windows Media files such as WMV-HD DVDs.

"Smart Play mode, preventing filter conflicts and improves stability and load times (Professional version)."
Smart Play mode ensures that only the decoders and post processing filters you select are being used to play your media files. This ensures that playback is picture-perfect, stable and media files load as fast as possible. This feature is unique to Zoom Player Professional.

"Can remember last played position for media files and resume accordingly (Professional version)."
Zoom Player Professional can be set to remember the last played position for media files, with optional support for disabling this feature for audio files (as most people prefer to listen to audio files from the start each time).

"Play incomplete AVI files (Professional version)."
Zoom Player Professional can be set to play incomplete AVI files such as files currently being downloaded.

"Can play locked files allowing for previewing of files downloaded from eMule and similar P2P networks without having to copy the files first (Professional version)."
Zoom Player Professional can open files that are currently being written to by other applications, such as currently downloaded files (as long as the downloaded portion contains enough information as to have something to play).

"Can automatically extract and play any Archive format using user-specified extractors (Professional version)."
Zoom Player Professional can be set to extract any Archive format (with user specified parameters) so that files within archives can be automatically extracted and played. This also includes the AlbumWrap MP3 wrapping format.

"Category based Media Library for easier file navigation using a remote device (Professional version)."
Part of the Navigation System (see below), Zoom Player Professional supports a Media Library interface allowing you to specify Categories and assign Folders to them to make navigating your media collection easier and intuitive.

"Advanced Play List Control Interface (Professional version)."
Similar to WinAmp's jump dialog, but allowing multiple search queries, moving selected items to the top/bottom of the list, removing selected items from the list, etc...

"Automatically open multi-segment files using a user-specified file mask (Professional version)."
This Zoom Player Professional feature allows you to specify file masks which will be used to automatically load multi-segment media files (several files which represent one movie, or video).

"Automatic detection of missing decoders, including links to downloading the latest versions."
Zoom Player contains an extensive internal listing database of components used to decode prominent file format and can alert you to missing components on your system and point in the right direction as to where to obtain them.

"Can utilize advanced media features with AVI/OGM/Matroska wrappers, including multiple audio tracks, subtitles, chaptering, auto-language detection (auto-selection of user specified languages) and more!"
Zoom Player support advanced format capabilities with new and old media formats. These capabilities include multiple audio tracks, multiple subtitle tracks, internal chapters and more. Zoom Player Professional also supports automatic selection of Audio and Subtitle tracks with user specified parameters.

"Extensive Play List support (ZPL/B4S/M3U/WPL/ASX), including unicode file names!"
Zoom Player supports multiple play list formats, including popular formats used by Windows Media Player and WinAmp. This includes support for unicode character sets and UTF8 encoded play lists, thus ensuring the best support for non-western character sets (non-english languages).

"10-Band Equalizer and PreAmp with user selectable Presets."
An integrated Digital Equalizer with 10-Bands and selectable range of either -12/+12db or -20/+20db.

"Black Listing of unstable/conflicting DirectShow filters."
Some filters/decoders on your system can cause instability but for some reason or another you may not want to uninstall them. Zoom Player allows you to prevent these filters from being used within Zoom Player without effecting any other application or the filters themselves.

"SHOUTcast streaming, including Top-500 Station listing."
Support for SHOUTcast Audio Streaming, including display of the currently playing track and the ability to fetch the Top-500 SHOUTcast Radio Stations and easily add them to a favorites list.

"Manual Audio Resync feature allowing you to resync the audio on badly encoded content."
Some badly encoded content may have the audio in a state where it's not synchronized properly with the video. Zoom Player can adjust the audio so that it can be manually re-synchronized.

"DirectShow Filter Manager allowing user-managed filter conflict resolution."
A simple system allowing you to view which filters are installed on your system, change their priority or remove them from the system entirely.

"Per-File Chaptering system."
Zoom Player supports an external chaptering systems, allowing you to set chapter points in media files without modifying the files themselves. These chapter points can then be easily accessed at any point.

"File definition system allowing you to save pertinent information on played file which can be recalled the next time the file is opened."
Zoom Player can save/load a set of definitions for each played media file that contain pertinent information on that file which can be restores at any given point. You can further specify which information is saved, giving you absolute control over your viewing experience. Definition files can be saved in the same folder as the media file or automatically saved in the Zoom Player folder when playing from a read-only media (such as a CD-ROM).

"Easy access to popular audio/video interfaces such as DivX/MPEG-4 dialogs, DirectVobSub language selection, etc..."
Zoom Player provides easy access to property (configuration) pages of popular Audio, Video and Subtitle components allowing you to modify their settings with ease.

"Fast Play support for most media formats (as long as your CPU can keep up)."
Fast Play can play a video faster than it's intended play rate. No frames are skipped and audio is maintained. Not all formats allow for fast play and a fast CPU is required for certain content.

"Fast Forward support in all media formats."
Both single on/off Fast Forward and multi-speed incremental Fast Forward are supported, all with customizable speeds.

"Rewind support in all media formats."
Both single on/off Rewind and multi-speed incremental Rewind are supported, all with customizable speeds.

"Folder Images for Audio Files so you can have the Album image appear while listening to the music."
Zoom Player supports a per-folder image (usually used for album-art) to be displayed while listening to music.

"Enhanced Play Complete control allowing you to control what actions are taken when playback ends."
Zoom Player gives you great control over what action should be taken once the play list has finished playing all its items. Settings such as Auto-Reply, Play next file in the folder and even System Shutdown are available.

"MP3 ID3, APE Tag and WMA Tag information visualization. Customizable, including screen position, display order, smart display (only show entered information)."
Smart display of TAG information from within Audio files. Support for all the latest TAG information, ultimate control over which information should be displayed and where it should be shown on the screen.

"Support for Windows Media Format 9 High Resolution Audio Renderering and multi-channel support."
Ensuring the best quality audio from Windows Media Audio, Zoom Player lets you specify the exact way WMA should be decoded.

"Auto-Play Media CDs on insert."
Zoom Player can take action when it detect a new media has been inserted (CD/DVD/USB Drive), automatically locating media files and playing them (optional).

"Bilinear Smooth Scaled Image Slideshow capability."
Zoom Player can be used to display still images with most popular image formats and even show them in a slideshow with configurable timing.

"Fully integrated with the system shell (Play/Enqueue)."
Fully integrated with the system shell, Zoom Player can add shell extensions that will allow you to add/enqueue files from within third party programs (such as explorer).

"Easily associate with any file format, including an icon navigator allowing you to easily customize the icons used for association."
Zoom Player can be associated with the file extensions it can play and manually associated with future extensions. You can also easily swap the icons displayed in explorer for each file format using the integrated icon selection tool. You can even use pre-created icon collections to automatically assign icons for all the formats simply by selecting the icon collection file.

"Can show random trailers infront of your Movies."
Trailer definition files allow you to automatically insert Random or Fixed trailers prior to a movie file.



Additional Features:

"OSD Navigation systems for Files, Blanking, Bookmarks, Chapters and Play Lists (in addition to the editor interfaces) (Professional version)."
This very Powerful Zoom Player Professional feature provides you with an On-Screen-Display interface which is easily navigated using a remote device and provides powerful control features such as access to your hard drive, media library, color controls, video positioning, and much much more. This is a must-have feature for use with a remote and Home Theater PCs.

"Pattern Calibration System, along with White Wash support (Professional version)."
Several patterns to help you calibrate your screen along with a White Wash pattern allowing possible removal of screen-burns on Plasma devices (or similar technology).

"Multilingual (Translated into multiple languages) support."
Zoom Player has been translated into multiple languages and more languages are added all the time. The Zoom Player translation interface allows for unicode characters which makes for powerful localization capabilities.

"Basic and Advanced options dialog making Zoom Player easy for the novice while allowing ultimate flexibility for the advanced user."
The Zoom Player Options dialog is available in Basic and Advanced modes, allowing the notice users access to start playing right away while giving the power users all the features at their fingertips.

"Support for Local Configuration file."
Enabling you to have Zoom Player save its configuration in a local file within the Zoom Player folder ("zplayer.local").

The benefit of this feature is that it allows you to run Zoom Player from external devices such as USB Flash Drives (UFD devices) while maintaining your personal settings across multiple systems. click for more information on this subject.

"Works with most windows operating systems."
Zoom Player tries to maintain the best backward compatibility for older systems.

"Light-Weight and doesn't take over your system configuration."
One of the design mantras behind the development of Zoom Player is "Do no harm", as such, Zoom Player was designed to be as light-weight as possible and have no impact on the system when installed (no hidden files, all files maintained within the same folder, no taking over of association, etc...).

"DVD, Media and Audio skin modes."
Support for separate modes of operation for DVD, Media and Audio content, each with it's own skin mode (DVD Mode requires Zoom Player Professional).

"Automatic Skin Switching according to content (DVD/Media/Audio)."
DVD and Media mode skins are switched automatically. Audio and Media skin modes can be switched optionally according to the type of content played (Audio only or Audio & Video).

"Fully dynamically skinned, including Full support for skin color-tinting."
Zoom Player supports an advanced skin-script language which is clear to read and contain powerful skinning features. Beyond regular skinning, each skin can be color-tinted by the end-user without having to modify the skin directly.

"Dynamic range of Aspect Ratio settings including non square pixels relative adjustment, manual Fit-To-Rectangle Aspect Ratio, Anamorphic Aspect Ratio and even a Custom user-specified ratio."
Zoom Player supports the most powerful range of Aspect Ratio controls and corrections allowing you to view your content on all display types and correct badly encoded content so that its image appears in the correct aspect ratio.

"Easy control of Video Size and Positioning to reduce image overscan when used in conjunction with a TV-Output device."
While in full screen, Zoom Player allows you to move the video image in all directions and to Zoom in and out of the video. This allows you to compensate for overscan on CRT devices (Regular TV sets), Crop widescreen movies so they appear to fill the entire screen.

"10 Manual presets for use with Video Positioning (can also be used with multi-monitor setup for advanced positioning)."
10 pre-configured presets allowing you to quickly position the video anywhere on the screen with a single keystroke.

"10 Manual presets for use with Aspect Ratios"
10 pre-configured forced aspect ratio values for playing back non-standard or badly encoded video.

"10 Manual presets for use with Color Controls"
10 pre-configured color settings, allowing you to control how your video is displayed.

"Fully keyboard mapped feature-set covering every function used by the player (useful for Remote devices)."
Nearly every Zoom Player feature is fully accessible through the keyboard, which makes it very easy to control for power-keyboard users or by Remote Control applications that simulate keys.

"Programmable keyboard editor, including support for chaining multiple functions to one key."
Every Zoom Player keyboard function is programmable, you can switch keys or assign multiple functions to one key using the integrated keyboard editor.

"Advanced mouse controls with per-button function allocation including a wide array of wheel supported features (useful for remote mouse controls)."
Zoom Player allows you to choose which functions to assign to which mouse button and provides advanced multi-function controls to the mouse wheel which turns your mouse into a powerful playback control tool.

"Dynamic Control Bar for easy navigation while in full screen mode, complete with selectable on-bar features."
Zoom Player's Control Bar feature allows you to use the mouse, or just provide additional information (current position, time remaining, etc...), all of which is dynamic and user selectable. You can even detach the Control Bar and use it to control Zoom Player on a different monitor.

"3-Mode time skipping programmable navigation speeds for quickly seeking forward/backward within the time-line."
Zoom Player provides 3 programmable time skipping functions allowing you to quickly navigate through content. Each function's range is user-selectable (skip forward/backward 5/20/60 seconds with every keypress).

"Multiple Customizable Context Menus with extensive support for both DVD and Media modes."
Zoom Player provides separate context menus (right-click menus) for DVD and Media modes, making sure the interface is not cluttered with undesired functionality when playing unrelated content. Additional Context Menu support is available for the Play List Editor, the System Tray icon and the Context Menu Navigator interface. Each context menu can be edited to add or remove additional functionality.

"Extensive command line support."
Many Zoom Player functions can be executed from the command line, which makes Zoom Player easier to automate using 3rd party tools.

"Video Orbiting system to prevent screen-burns on high end projectors and television sets."
Video Orbiting is a system which very slowly moves the image around a user-defined rectangle on the screen. It is used to prevent burn-in (a process which causes an image to be burnt on your screen) with sensitive display devices (such as Plasma TVs).

"Blanking support to cover up non-black area of encoded Video (useful for widescreen DVDs or badly encoded media files)."
Blanking is the process in which the image borders are covered with pure-black surfaces in order to obscure part of the video. This is mostly used for badly encoded content where widescreen sections of the video are encoded as gray instead of black.

"Configurable On-Screen-Display."
On screen event notification that give you feedback about current actions (Play/Stop/Etc...), fully configurable (font/colors/size/time to show/etc...).

"Remote Communication API (TCP/IP and SendMessage) supported by popular LCD and Remote display devices."
Zoom Player provides a Powerful Communication API used to automate Zoom Player. This API is used by LCDs, Remote Control devices and System-Automation tools.

"Girder Control File Export for maximum control through a remote device."
Girder is a Powerful System-Automation and Remote Control application. Zoom Player can generate automatic function mapping for girder, making setup a breath.

"Automatic DirectShow filter registration/unregistration using a user-specified control file."
A Control file ("zplayer.regfilters"), allowing you to automatically and dynamically register/unregister and set/remove registry settings when Zoom Player is opened/closed. This is especially useful for USB Flash Drives (UFD Devices). click for more information on this subject.

"DirectShow filter registration service."
A simple registration service for popular filter profiles making it easier to setup your system.

"Scene Cut interface allowing you to dynamically change playback chronology without altering the actual files."
A Powerful interface allowing you to modify the content of DVDs and Media files without altering the source material itself. Features such as Cut, Jump, Mute and more allow you to make sure your content is safe for children or experiment with editing on the fly.

"An Interface to easily seek into any position using either HH:MM:SS:MS interface, or by entering a specific frame number."
A quick Go-To interface to seek anywhere with a few key strokes (or Remote buttons).

"Ability to override Audio Output to any supported sound device."
Support for non-default sound devices to ensure audio playback on systems with more than one audio device.

"Extended VMR7 and VMR9 Video Output."
Advanced Video Rendering technologies using the latest DirectShow code, ensuring optimum multi-monitor and multi-video support.

"Shortcut File Parsing for easy redirect of DVD and Media files."
Zoom Player can parse Shortcut files and open the content they are pointing to directly. Useful for creating centralized databases for decentralized content.

"User specified registry location so that multiple copies of the player can be run using different settings all at the same time."
By specifying a different registry location for Zoom Player to save its settings in, you can have multiple versions of Zoom Player running with different settings without conflict. The Zoom Player window name can also be overridden to support control of multiple different windows at the same time.

"Web URL Navigation system allowing you to associate DVD and Media files with a URL or local information files."
A Powerful interface allowing you to associate content with web pages or any other textual description of the content.

"Full support for GraphEdit ".GRF" files."
Support for directly loading GraphEdit ".GRF" files for low-level access.

"Ability to change screen resolution when going into fullscreen."
Zoom Player can dynamically change screen resolution when going into fullscreen and restore it when closing the player or exiting fullscreen.

"Docking to Windows and Advanced Magnetic Docking capabilities."
Docking (or Screen Snap) to Zoom Player windows or screen edge along with an Advanced Magnetic Docking system where Zoom Player automatically repositions the windows on screen as space permits.

"Fully complient with Multi-Monitor setups."
Zoom Player has advanced Multi-Monitor capabilities such as moving parts of its interface onto secondary monitors, advanced rendering technologies ensuring playback works on non-primary monitors and much more.