I set up a test folder with 6 files, 1 with English name, 1 Japanese, 1 Korean, 1 Simplified Chinese (same as yours), 2 with Traditional Chinese (one the same as yours, converted Traditional Chinese, the other with characters that often cause troubles).

-mwang (August 31, 2008, 12:56 AM)

What do you mean by "one the same as yours, converted Traditional Chinese"?

Screenshot 1: The "Rename unicode files" option in GBM Pro isn't checked.
Screenshot 6: directory structure of test.gbp on the left, and my test folder ("K:\gbmtest") on the right. See the "GRename" and "MF" subfolder?

-mwang (August 31, 2008, 12:56 AM)

I suppose if the "Rename unicode files" option is not ticked then foreign file names should be saved as it is. There shouldn't be a rename during backup nor a "GRename" folder in the gbp file.

After reading your reply, I try again with 3 files named in Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional and Japanese respectively. Backup with GBM Pro and open up the gbp with Total Commander, I see no "GRename" folder inside??? and I can see the 3 files as before, correctly stored in the gbp. Please see the attachment.

Screenshot 4: Simplifed Chinese search: filter view (background) worked, but Advanced Search found nothing.
Screenshot 5: Same with Japanese (and Korean, screenshot omitted.)

-mwang (August 31, 2008, 12:56 AM)

Those search failures are expected. Think about it, if the file names are stored in non-native way, how could there be any match. Do you notice all your search failures happen only when you search for those files whose name is stored by the so called GRename Technology (in GRename folder)?

My search in all Japanese, Chinese Traditional and Simplified are successful! Please see attachment. The question is why in your case a GRename folder appear in the gbp file whereas mine does not have that? i.e why in your case GBM Pro insists of using its "GRename Technology" whereas in mine case it respect my preference setting: me too have the "Rename unicode files" option unchecked.

Side note: why doesn't GPB remember the size and position of the Advanced Search dialog box?

-mwang (August 31, 2008, 12:56 AM)

Your are fingering my G-Spot, ah! Ah! AH
It has to be that way in order to uphold GBM Pro's world no.1 bad interface design status. :P

Btw, if you want to set a permenant size ans position of the GBM's Advanced Search dialog box (which happen to be at top-level), you can try Actual Window Manager, see my reply in previous post

The GBM Pro is the world most extreme software. It has fast zip engine, it is unicode aware

-tslim (August 21, 2008, 01:58 PM)

Last time I tried, GBM Pro v.8 did backup and restore files with unicode filenames fine, but its search function couldn't find them in the zipped archives. Zip format doesn't have native unicode support, and GBM has to change the filenames before storing them. When searching, however, it didn't handle this conversion properly.

Not sure if it's still a valid observation, but be sure to check if this is important to you.

-mwang (August 29, 2008, 07:49 AM)

There are 2 things I want to clarify here:

1) GBM does not change filenames in foreign language (I mean language which is not the master language of Windows) when it stores them in its gbp file. The proof is simple, I open a gbp file containing Chinese Traditional file name with Total Commander and I can see the filename is stored exactly as it is (on HDD and also) in the gbp. If GBM Pro has a proprietary way to store a foreign language filename, then opening the zip with another utility should not show the filename in its original (foreign) language.
Please see the attachment. My WinXp is English version and I set my non-unicode language as Chinse Simplified -- NOT Chinese Traditional.

2) GBM Pro support unicode search correctly. At least that is the case with ver 8.0.259.429
Again, please see the attachment.

I've been a MM user (lifetime license) for a number of years now and can vouch for it's ability to do 2, 3 and 4 (not sure about 1).  The mp3 tagging support is superb and the mp3 conversion uses the LAME encoder, so is excellent quality.

Would I buy it now?  Not sure - there are many more efficient players around for free (e.g. foobar, xmplayer etc.).  Tagging can be done via Picard http://musicbrainz.org/ - although the track properties in MM gives you a huge amount of control over the tracks (e.g. tempo, mood etc.) - and there are a thousand-and-one CD rippers, converters and burners.

The MM skins really put me off at first, but the non-skinned version looks better.

So, it's good, but you'll really need to demo it before buying to decide if it's $40 better than the free stuff.

-mnemonic (August 28, 2008, 12:51 PM)

I just bought my lifetime license at USD29.96 with this coupon: MM2-UPG-DISC25, that save me 25% off the price. In this particular case, I prefer the utility that manage the audio files to be the one who rip and burn as well... so I ma satisfy!