Zoom Player Customized Media Mode Configuration

Unlike the Custom Media article which goes in-depth about what Customized Playback is and how to create new interfaces for it. This shorter (and simpler) article explains how to USE Customized Media mode in the least involved way.

To enable Customized Media Playback, open the Options dialog and go to the "Filter Control" section. Click on the Customized Media Playback Tab.

The first thing you want to do on this tab is enable the "Enable Customized Media Playback" checkbox. Next on the "Settings & Renderers" tab, make sure that the "Use Indirect Connect" and "Show Customized Media Graph creation Errors" checkboxes are disabled.

Next you will want to select an Audio and Video Renderers from the list under the checkboxes. The selected renderers will override any selection you made on the Standard Media Playback tab, However!, you should set the renders on both the Standard and Customized media playback modes to the same values (in case Customized Media Playback fails and drops to Standard mode).

When Customized Media Mode is enabled, Zoom Player will automatically try to configure your system with the decoders you have previously installed. If you would like to manually configure each decoder profile, proceed with the following:

Click on the "Audio & Video Decoders" Sub-Tab. You will be presented with two lists. One for Audio Decoders and one for Video Decoders. Double clicking on any item in either list will open its configuration dialog. At the top of the dialog you should see a profile list. This is a list of pre-configured profiles that cover 99% of all possible decoder scenarios. Use this list to select a profile which fits the decoders you have previously installed on your system. Zoom Player is pre-configured to use the most common decoders. You DO NOT need to use the Advanced settings on the configuration dialog under normal circumstances!

If you do want to be a bit more advanced, you can manually add/remove filters to select which filters should be used for decoding each format. You can also chain filter by adding more than one filter to the list. Each filter will connect to the next filter in the list. You must make sure that these filters are actually compatible and are capable of connecting to each other. This sort of chaining is used mainly for post-processing purposes (throwing a sharpening filter after the MPEG-2 Video Decoder for example).

Under the "Advanced" configuration dialog (press the Advanced Button), you can specify an alternative Renderer for this specific format. You can also limit this entry to a specific extension (Do not do this unless you know what you're doing or else you'll break proper playback). And lastly, you can specify a Sub-Type. Sub-Types are explained under the Custom Media article linked above. You should have NO REASON to touch the Sub-Types, so don't.

Lastly, on the "Source Filters & Splitters" Sub-Type, you can modify the Audio/Video splitters in the same way you've done for the Decoders. However, do not touch the File Source entries, they are for special cases (such as MPEG-2 Transport playback) and there is no need to touch them for general-use.