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I will begin by specifying what was changed to make Zoom Player play nicer under vista:
Supporting the UAC (User Account Control)
Under vista (by default), UAC is enabled. This affects Zoom Player in several ways. UAC prevents the user (even someone logged in as administrator) and programs (such as Zoom Player) from modifying certain parts of the registry (parts that control file association) and modifying files in the "program files" directory (which prevents Zoom Player from saving certain settings).
Under Vista, all applications are required to save their modified files into the Application Data directory (type in "%appdata%" in the "Start -> Run" dialog to see where this directory is on your system, its location changed from XP to Vista).
Only installers are allowed to touch anything in the program files directory or the registry. So from now on, the Zoom Player installer sets up some basic file associations (not the actual association, just some minimal entries that allow the new Vista API to set the real association later on from within Zoom Player itself) and moves all dynamic files (config/setting files) to "%AppData%\Zoom Player".
If no "%AppData%\Zoom Player" exists, ZP will look for the files in its own directory as it always has. Which means that if you prefer keeping the files in one directory and you've disabled UAC, you can just move over content from the "%AppData%\Zoom Player" directory into the Zoom Player install directory (remember, this is bad if you have UAC enabled). Make sure to delete the empty "Zoom Player" directory (under %AppData%) after you moved the files/directories.
What you should test
1. Any glitches with the new installer? (install/uninstall)
2. Is Zoom Player working ok under older versions of windows (95/98/ME/2000/XP) as compared to v5.00 ?
3. Are any UAC warnings popping up? (if yes, then on what action)
4. Is the Zoom Player install center working well?
What more you should be aware of
1. You may want to keep a backup of your Zoom Player directory prior to installing this update.
2. The 5.00 navigation skin files are incompatible with this build, updated navigation skin files will be posted on this thread soon.
3. After installing this version, your skin settings will be reset to default, you'll have to re-select your skins using the skin selection dialog.
4. Translators, Please hold off on translating this version of Zoom Player, please wait for the beta.
5. Do not post this build on download sites, the changes in this build makes it unsuitable for inexperienced users (users who aren't familiar with managing files/directories well).
6. Zoom Player no longer looks for its registration key in the installation directory, but rather the new application data directory. Double clicking on your registration file will copy the file to the new location if wasn't done automatically as part of the installation (post here if you encountered such a case).
7. The standard version wont be available as part of this alpha stage.
Download Zoom Player v5.50 Alpha 1
MD5 : BC22C4DF84CD18B5A79908E097A1E2BA
Updated navigation interface skins:
Onyx :: Black :: Black 16:9 :: White :: White 16:9 :: LCARS :: Orange.
Changes from 5.00:
* To maintain compatibility with Windows Vista's user account
control (UAC) mechanism, the Zoom Player installer will move
all files that require modification to the windows application
data directory (Can be reached by typing "%AppData%\Zoom Player"
in any folder window).
In addition to the move, user-specified skins must be re-selected
through the skin selection dialog.
* New "Auto-Configure" button on the Smart Play options dialog.
When clicked, all current decoder configuration will be reset
and then the system is scanned for the best decoder configuration
using the currently installed decoders.
* Added support for Haali's Video Renderer technology.
Haali's Video Renderer uses Bicubic interpolation of video using
3D hardware. This means improved video quality, especially when
up-scaling to higher resolution. Older 3D Graphic card may not
be supported (Cards with PS 2.0 or better should work well).
* Zoom Player's ".zpl" playlist format has been extended to support
TAG data (author,composer,artist,etc). All TAG data read from
a media file (ID3,ApeTAG,WMA Tag,etc) is automatically saved
within the play list format (allowing you to override TAG data
display without actually modifying the source media file).
* Options dialog tree nodes now have an icon to make them easier to
navigate and remember.
* New "Navigation Style" Navigation interface, allowing the
navigation skin to be replaced from within the navigation
interface itself.
* New "Open Navigator" button on the Media Library Path Editor.
* New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display /
Full Screen Navigation) restoring the ability to "Play all
files in this Directory" from the main file list (file and
media library navigators).
* New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / On Screen Display /
Full Screen Navigation) allowing you to highlight previously
viewed files. This setting with the "remember last
media position" setting (Adv. Options / Playback) and will
highlight any previously viewed file in the Media and File
Navigation interfaces by making its icon semi-transparent.
Please note that this feature can tax the CPU if the play
history (generated by remembering the last media position)
is over a few 100 files.
* New Auto-Segment load setting (Avd. Options / System & Files /
Paths, Folders and Files), allowing you to match file names
automatically by how similar they are.
* New Function (fnBlankMonitors) assigned to the Alt+Shift+"K"
keyboard macro, allowing you to manually toggle blanking
(black-out) of non-playing monitors. The automatic-blanking
of non-playing monitors is accessible through the options
dialog (Adv. Options / System - Blank non-Playing Monitors
while in Fullscreen / Zoom mode).
* New Function (fnFSActMonitor) assigned to the Alt+Shift+"Enter"
keyboard macro, allowing you to go fullscreen on the currently
active monitor, overriding the fullscreen to monitor "X" setting.
* Added support for DCoder's Bass Source filter. The bass
source filter adds support for the following audio formats:
AAC, ALAC, APE, FLAC, MP3, MPC, TTA, WV, MO3, IT, XM, S3M,
MTM, MOD, UMX.
* Added support for DCoder's Bass Source filter SHOUTcast streaming.
DCoder's Bass Source filter is more reliable and supports streaming
of SHOUTcast MP3/OGG/AAC content.
* Added support for the Illiminable FLAC decoder as an alternative
to CoreFLAC.
* Added support for FLV4 type Flash Video (".FLV" files).
* The Keyboard Shortcut list (F1) has been restructured, making it
easier to find keyboard macros.
* Can now quickly get duration for Windows Media Audio (".wma") files.
The default value for auto-get duration now includes the "wma" format,
If you are upgrading from a previous installation, you will need to
go to "Adv. Options / System / File Extensions" and press the Default
button next to the "Auto-Get Duration" edit line.
* The ".DVR-MS" file extension can now be associated with Zoom Player.
* The ".EVO" file extension can now be associated with Zoom Player.
* Initial EVO/EVOB (HD-DVD video files) playback support,
If you are upgrading from a previous installation, you will need to
go to "Adv. Options / System / File Extensions" and press the Default
button next to the "Video" edit line.
* You can now activate a Zoom Player registration by double-clicking
on a valid "zplayer.regkey" file from within Explorer.
+ The default skin is now selected directly from the skin list,
(as the first skin listed) instead of clicking on the default
skin button.
+ You can now select a custom playlist font without having to
customize the playlist colors as well.
+ Synchronizing the Subtitles Ahead/Back is now carried in 100ms
increments (instead of the previous 25ms).
+ The Mouse Wheel function-cycle function and the Mouse Wheel
Function navigation interfaces now list the custom function as
the actual function name instead of "Custom".
+ The File Browser and Media Library navigation interfaces will now
display the file's icon when using the function pane.
+ The DVD Fast Forward and Rewind rate now support two more values:
"8/16/32" and "12/24/48".
+ Several items on the right-click menu have been renamed for clarity.
- File Association should now be working under Windows VISTA with
UAC mode enabled.
- The "Continue to the next item on the playlist when an invalid
file is played" didn't work when the file was missing rather than
corrupt/problematic.
- Navigation interfaces would not appear when using VISTA Aero and
having the blank seconday monitor feature enabled.
- Pressing Insert in the File Navigator with no files listed would
raise a List out of Bounds error.
- The File Navigator would forget the last active drive if you opened
and closed Zoom Player without opening the navigator.
- Windows Media files that required a password to play would fail to
display the password prompt and fail to play.
- Switching the Navigation Interface color-tint through the skin
selection interface could cause a crash under certain circumstances.
- Having the Control Bar Auto-Show and then having it Auto-Hide
if the distance is too big could cause the Control Bar to
remain on-screen under some circumstances.
- The Scene-Cut Jump and Mute Audio functions were not working correctly.
- Clicking on the Zoom Player tray icon while fullscreen on a secondary
monitor would cause the Zoom Player window to resize without drawing
the skin properly.
- Improved stability for DCoder's DVB filter's graph building.
- Ejecting a non-playing CD/DVD/USB device while a DVD is playing
would cause the DVD to stop.
- The Next/Previous chapter functions were not working properly in
the default DVD skin.
- On some non-standard resolution, the fullscreen navigation interface
would not cover the right-most pixel.
- Playing audio files with file extensions that could also be used for
video files (such as ".MP4") would have Zoom Player remember the
last media position for the audio file, even if remembering audio
file last position was disabled.
- Playing a Matroska file with External subtitles would not allow you
to cycle through the external subtitle tracks with Ctrl+"B".
- Having On Play Complete set to "Do Nothing" while having "Remember
Last Media Position" enabled would cause the video to rewind, even
though it should have paused on the last frame.
- CommAPI message 5130 (call navigation function) was not working.
- Under Windows VISTA, pressing Alt+Tab with some interfaces would
cause several buttons/checkboxes to disappear.
- Filter property pages will now appear on the same monitor as the
Zoom Player user interface.
- Several small cosmetic glitches fixed in the default skin.
- Several navigation interfaces were not showing unicode text correctly.
