1353 replies to this topic

[bLight]

Let the requests begin ...

[krynos]

I would like a keyboard shortcut to turn the flag for the screensaver on and off.

It would be very useful to me to be able to hit a key and have the screensaver activate after the specified time, or turn it off when it on.

The reason for this is that some DVD special features show up in zoomplayer as 'menu' on the bar. This means the screensaver can cut in. I don't know if this is a bug in zoomplayer, or a bug with the dvd's but it drives me nuts, as I keep my screensaver set to 60seconds (CRT projector which I carefully protect from static images).

- Rick

[bLight]

Krynos:
Yeah, some DVDs author content with zero duration, which ZP assumes to be a menu.

I'll see what I about adding a keyboard toggle for it.

[krynos]

Thanks Blight, that would be great!

Also, I agree that with some DVD's what you said makes sense. There are a few which if you play them direct in Sonic Cinemaster (nice filters, nasty interface ) the special features show a duration, but in Zoomplayer they don't. Off the top of my head the one I can think of as an example is Jaws.

However being as I generally only watch special features once or twice, the ability to toggle the screensaver active/inactive with a keyboard shortcut would a great fix for me.

- Rick

[bLight]

You're confusing Duration and Position. Some DVD tracks will show the actual position but specify the duration for the track as zero.

So you'll see:

00:00:51 / 00:00:00

ZP assumes these are menus as standard titles are not supposed to be authored this way. You see, animated menus have a position but not a duration... Which is acceptible. There doesn't seem to be a "definitive" way to detect a method. ZP uses two methods to estimate it, but badly authored track just fall through the cracks.

[krynos]

Gotcha! I understand now.

Thanks again.

- Rick

[splashchris]

Blight,
While you were coding away last week I posted a request in the Support forum for help with the following possible feature:

The ATI DVD player has a ThruView window, which in essence is transluscent and allows you to see what's beneath (and even click through the player window).

Is it possible to do something like that with ZoomPlayer? I'd be happy with just a transluscent window option. The ability to clck-thru isn't as important.

Thanks.

Chris

[bLight]

splash:
The standard interface to do translucent windows actually causes windows XP to reboot if you use it with videos...

I'm guessing ATI is doing something special which is specific to their hardware.

[Slavik]

It would be great if ZP shows missing codecs which are necessary to play current file (in standart Playback).

For example:

ZP can not play file <FileName> because following filters are not installed or not found:
Video: Xvid MPEG-4 VideoDecoder
Audio: Voxware_rt29 (0x0075) Voxware Inc

or

Audio may not play because following filters arent installed or not found:
Voxware_rt29 (0x0075) Voxware Inc
CODE:0x0075
Name: WAVE_FORMAT_VOXWARE_RT29
Vendor: Voxwave inc.

It would be more informatively for CURRENT file and codecs needed for it play. Codecs database can be taken, for example, from GSpot.

Why context menu is blinks and have a very small delay?
Whether there is a way to correct it?
What do you think about adding icons in context menu?

Why to not make sticky windows : ZP Main Window and Playlist, like Winamp?

P.S. I now my English is bad

[bLight]

The latest version of Zoom Player has a built-in database that lists missing components:
Options / Formats

This isn't done on a per-file basis as sometimes it's quite difficult to know which component is missing. The ZP solution is better as it points you to download links for the most popluar formats.

The context menu may blink i it's visible when a new file is loaded, this is a windows screwup as windows doesn't like you to update the context menu while it is visible.

You can make ZP windows snap to themselves and screen borders "Advanced Options / Values / Snap to Screen..."

[bitmonster]

I have some feature requests, that are mostly towards display on a TV:

1. The new navigators use one pixel hight white lines to surround the category groups. For an interlaced display like TVs this always results in flickering. I would suggest to make them two pixel high.

2. TVTool now supports setting of the widescreen signal through commandline. It would be famous if there is a chance to automatically set WSS for anamorphic content and turn it back for normal one. For example when a DVD goes from 4:3 menu to the 16:9 film. One way would be a LCD-message, that could be intercepted through the DVDSpy plugin for girder, I think. But a direct commandline-call would even be better.

3. What I badly miss is an option to set all interface related stuff relative to the actual display dimension and not relative to the video-area in fullscreen. If I adjust the navigators, OSD and control bar to a position and size that looks good for normal fullscreen, they move to undesired position as soon as I zoom into or out of the movie. And I zoom much, as I like to watch scope and super-scope with more zoom factor. I think most users would like to have these things nailed on their screen and not moving around if they zoom. To be honest I can't even imagine why someone might want to have the interface move automatically if he zooms in fullscreen mode. I know I can work arround this for the controlbar by using "detach from interface", but for OSD and navigators there is no such solution. And everything gets worse if I use ZP on both a PC-monitor and a second display like a TV.

[araghava]

I would like a command line parameter to change the settings of the soundcard. i.e. when i start zoom, i would like to set the soundcard to DIGITAL PASSTHRU mode and restore on exit.

[bLight]

araghava:
There's no global setting for something like that, it depends on which decoder you use and possibly your sound card hardware.

bitmonster:
1. You can modify the coloring, it uses 2 colors, one for in and one for out of the frame, if you set it to the same color, you'd get a 2-pixel outline.

2. Well, ZP's LCD interface should pass these messages around, so in theory, you can intercept them and do something. I may add an "execute" feature to DVD AutoAR interface, that may help.

3. You can detach the control bar and place it anywhere on a fixed position. The navigators are not that easy. I can't do it relative to the screen due to the overscan of most display devices...

[bitmonster]

bitmonster:
1. You can modify the coloring, it uses 2 colors, one for in and one for out of the frame, if you set it to the same color, you'd get a 2-pixel outline.

2. Well, ZP's LCD interface should pass these messages around, so in theory, you can intercept them and do something.  I may add an "execute" feature to DVD AutoAR interface, that may help.

3. You can detach the control bar and place it anywhere on a fixed position.  The navigators are not that easy.  I can't do it relative to the screen due to the overscan of most display devices...

1. Haven't got this I think. I mean these thin lines that surround the titel, drive-list, folder-icon and the main-list. Were can I set these options you mention? A configuration file?

2. Great you are considering the AutoAR execute feature. This would make integration a charm. I haven't received such LCD-messages till now with DVDSpy when I move from the menu to the film (and therefor from 4:3 to 16:9), as this was also my first idea that they must be there. Might be a problem of DVDSpy and not the message-server. I will try it again tomorrow.

3. I don't think overscan is a problem. Actually the current implementation makes overscan a problem, that it normally wouldn't be. If I say to the navigator it should have 80% screen coverage and this displays right on the TV without cutting anything, then it would be perfect. But this value is relative to the video-area and not to the display-dimension. So currently navigators and OSD move outside the visible area if you zoom. The detach feature for the control bar is also no real good solution, as this would only work for one display. Again a simple setting relative to the screen (like 50 pixels from the bottom and 80 pixel side margin for example) that is relative to the display-dimensions (and not the video-area) would do the trick perfectly and will also work on the PC-monitor without any adjustment.

For example I have a standalone DVD player that also has a zoom function. But he will never zoom or move any part of the onscreen-interface, because there is simply no need. Of course you need some margin for overscan-compensation, but the options for this are already there (like screen-coverage and side-margins). The problem is simply they are relative to this 'virtual video area' and not the 'screen' (= screen size=display size=physical dimension).

[araghava]

>There's no global setting for something like that, it depends on which decoder >you use and possibly your sound card hardware.

blight,

i meant that you can use the directsound api's getspeakerconfig() and setspeakerconfig(). this would allow a user to use digital passthru for zoom but use stereo output as default. the setspeakerconfig() allows one to configure the soundcard to one of (passthru, 5.1, 7.1, headphone ... etc.).

so a zoom option like /sound = <value> would set this option for the soundcard. when a user exits zoom, it would restore back to the original value.

[bitmonster]

araghava:
bitmonster:
1. You can modify the coloring, it uses 2 colors, one for in and one for out of the frame, if you set it to the same color, you'd get a 2-pixel outline.

Ok, I found it in the Skin-File. Works great and looks very good on a TV!
There is only one thing that flickers now and this is the small surrounding of the highlighted entries. Would it be possible to make this also configurable?
Not that easy I think, because there is no room to make them 2 pixel high. But for me it would be good, if I could leave these highlight-surroundings completly out.

[Slavik]

Blight, may be make info window if unable to play sound?. And would be not bad to extend built-in codecs database (Intel Indeo, MJPEG Codec, Voxware Audio,Microsoft H.263, etc.). When i open file which encoded unknown audio codec Zoom Player simply plays file without audio and I not understand what's happen? why no sound? I go in Options->Formats but all audio codecs I already have . And I have to open this file in Light Alloy player which tell me that audio not played because filter <FilterName> not found. This player also shows missing video codecs for current file(its codecs database larger than ZP) and warn if file is corrupted. Would be really nice if Zoom Player can do it too.

This isn't done on a per-file basis as sometimes it's quite difficult to know which component is missing

I'm note sure, but i heard that each videofile contains codecs signature. Or not?

[egandt]

How about ASIO audio rendering support?, I know I use this for WinAmp as well as Foobar for Music, since Zoomplayer also supports almost the exact same set of Decoders, it would be nice to be able to select ASIO for audio output.

Thanks,
ERIC

[bLight]

bitmonster:
AutoAR execute code is already written, hopefully it'll do what you want.

Overscan is the problem, overscan isn't 100% centered so if ZP would be relative to the screen, the interfaces won't be screen-centered properly...

I think the color around the selections is actually one of the framing colors.

araghava:
The DirectSound API instructs developers not to use that function and to leave it to the driver-developers... But I wrote it done in the to-do list, so we'll see.

Slavik:
There are multiple video formats, such as AVI, QuickTime, Matroska, OGM, doing something global is very difficult to get right.

ZP database is composed of the popular formats, intel indeo, mjpeg and the likes are not formats that most users encounter and the decoders for them actually come with the latest version of windows.

egandt:
This is actually something that the filter developers are working on, I think the author of "reclock" was looking into it.

[araghava]

>araghava:
>The DirectSound API instructs developers not to use that function and to leave it >to the driver-developers... But I wrote it done in the to-do list, so we'll see.

thank you. i can see atleast 2 uses for this feature.
1. some of us use a dual monitor setup. when i'm using zoom to watch movies on my HDTV i would like digital passthru. however when i'm using my monitor for regular computer work, i would like stereo output to my computer speakers.
2. if i'm watching a DVD with DTS soundtrack i would want to pass the digital sound to my receiver. however if i'm watching a WMV movie, i would need to have the soundcard do the decoding and have 5.1 analog output from the soundcard. It would be so much easier if i could do this thru zoom rather that have to manually do this each time.

finally i don't see this as any different from changing the resolution/refresh rate of the video card. it simply extends this feature to the soundcard.