Author Topic: Zoom Player - the all-in-one media player! (Read 89577 times)

Josh · « **on:** July 17, 2006, 01:30 PM »

APP NAME: Zoom Player Professional
APP URL: http://www.inmatrix.com
APP Version Reviewed: 5.00 Preview 7

Intro:

For the past few years, I have been a long time and devoted winamp user. But as of lately, winamp development has ground to a halt. Due to numerous bugs, like fast forwarding an avi file causing the player to freeze, I have begun the hunt for a new media player. Winamp was beautiful in that it could handle everything I threw at it with the exception of DVD playback.

Enter Zoom Player. Upon discovering this program, I was skeptical that any program could hold up to the torture I put my player through. However, I was soon to find out that I would be pleasantly surprised. Zoom player not only handled every format via a plugin (so you can customize it to your liking) I threw at it (RM, RAM, RV, QT, AVI, MPEG, Any audio format, AND DVD PLAYBACK), but it did it with class.

Anyways, onto the review.

Who is this app designed for:

This application is designed for the person who doesn't want a separate application to play audio, one for video, and one for dvd playback. This application allows you to use your existing dvd decoders (Intervideo, powerdvd, nvidia, etc) to playback dvd's. It can scan your system to alert you to what formats you wont be able to play and a plugin exists for so you can use it for everything under the sun. This is also the ideal application for someone who wants to use their pc as an integral part of their home theater. So, in summary, if you want one application for all of your media playback needs, this is it.

What does it cost:

Standard Version - Free for non-commercial use
Pro Version - 27.95 (adds dvd navigation capabilities, locked or incomplete file playback, and a few other features) http://www.inmatrix....er/pro/pro_why.shtml
WMV Pro Version - 35.95 (adds playback support for DRM protected windows media files) http://www.inmatrix....er/pro/wmv_why.shtml

The Good

First off, let me start by saying that if you love to configure your applications to any extent possible, this is your application. Zoom player leaves no limit to what you can configure. Here is a screenshot of the main options dialog showcasing the various options you can setup.

The basic options dialog

The expanded advanced options dialog

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to configure zoom player.

The next major area I would like to focus on is the recently added hotkey support. As many of you know, I posted a request in the Coding snacks section for an AHK script to control ZP via hotkeys, however, I also posted a request over at the zoom player forums and to my amazement this was already implemented in an unreleased preview (the current build). With ZP, you can not only now add hotkeys, but you can create a custom key configuration for any of the functions within zoom player.

Here is a text file that showcases the standard configuration for keys defined in zoom player, but as I said, you can change this to however you see fit.

Next thing I would like to hit on is the DVD Playback configuration. ZP doesn't come with its own built-in dvd decoder, but instead it relies on a 3rd party decoder. It supports various decoders such as Intervideo's, PowerDVD's, Nero, NVidia's, Sonic, etc and each can be easily configured. With ZP, you can configure the exact decoder used for video and audio decoding, as well as dvd navigation (E.G., you can use the Nvidia PureVideo video decoder, while using the intervideo audio decoder and microsoft dvd navigator used with WMP). This allows you to choose the best combination of decoders for use with ZP's dvd playback functionality.

Here is a screenshot of the dvd customization screen (YMMV)

The next thing I want to hit on is the format compatibility. While ZP doesn't include built-in support for these formats (it includes some, but it can playback many more), it does allow the user to utilize whichever codecs they have installed on the system so any format can be played back. ZP also offers a unique system scan feature which alerts you which formats you might not be able to play due to lack of a codec. It also provides you links back to the ZP site which includes download links for various codecs. You can see a list of these codecs here

http://www.inmatrix.com/zplayer/formats/

So basically, if a codec exists, the player can handle it. This includes formats like Real Media, Quicktime, DivX, XviD, shn, flac, etc.

The needs improvement section

Now, I could go on and on about the positives of ZP, however, let me focus on a few of the annoyances and negativities I've noticed.

The first issue I would like to point out is when utilizing the Auto-Size options as provided in the interface options, you can get some weird looking UI displays. The auto-size option is designed to resize the UI to 100% of the target video when loading a new file. However, with the latest 9X.XX drivers from nvidia, you are presented with a UI where the video overlays the controls, requiring you to resize the window. The end result is something like this

As you can see, the playback controls are visible (partially) behind the video overlay, but you have to resize the window to get it to display properly. This, however, has been reported to the devs and they are aware of it. Hopefully a fix will be given soon

Another bug in this preview version is that the dvd customizations aren't saved all the time, requiring you to reconfigure the renderer selections. This, although a minor issue, can be a small annoyance.

Another bug I have noticed in the newly implemented hotkeys, is that when you use a hotkey to control the open file dialog and preferences dialog, the entire application is pushed to the rear behind any other application. This requires you click its taskbar entry to bring it to the front. However, the open file dialog and preferences dialog are then pushed to the rear of the main interface if "Stay On Top" is selected for the main ZP interface. This, again, has been reported to the devs and I hope they fix it prior to 5.0 goes gold!

Here is an example of what I am talking about

Conclusions

As I said above, I consider ZP to be a very well written and coded program. The support is top notch and the developers are very friendly. You can get a response on their forums very rapidly. ZP provides you a way to playback pretty much every media format available. I now use this on my pc to control all playback of media and I find it a very nice replacement to winamp and any other player I have tried. So, in summary, if you require an All-In-One player and do not want to deal with separate players for video, audio, and dvd, then you will be very happy with Zoom Player.

This is Josh (The Shamurai) leaving you with his quote of the day

"Windows98 (win'do-s-98): n. a 32-bit extension and graphical shell for a 16-bit patch to an 8-bit operating system originally coded for a 4-bit microprocessor, written by a 2-bit company, that can't stand 1 bit of competition or criticism."

"Windows ME: (n.)4. Proof that God has a sense of humor."

By the way, Zoom player has decided to do a promotion where they will give away one copy of the Pro and one copy of the WMV Pro versions per month for one year with donationcoder.com. They will also be offering a 20% discount throughout the month of august. I will post the link to the registration page prior to the start of the month.

brotherS · « **Reply #1 on:** July 17, 2006, 01:41 PM »

Nice review!

I'm using Zoom Player (the free version) for years now, but only for video files. It's not perfect, but great, I especially love how you are able to assign mouse and keys to various options.

I still prefer the Swiss Army Knife approach of Winamp when it comes to audio, as I stated in some related post.

Josh · « **Reply #2 on:** July 17, 2006, 01:44 PM »

Yeah, winamp was great for audio, but video just seemed tacked on and didnt work very well which is why I had to drop it :-/

mouser · « **Reply #3 on:** July 17, 2006, 01:58 PM »

can i show off how we can now use the blogging engine i wrote to organize the mini review posts:

http://minireviews.donationcoder.com/

and coding snacks

http://codingsnacks.donationcoder.com/

edit: I forgot to say:

GREAT MINI REVIEW!!!!
(and great working getting us the discount/donated copies!)

mouser · « **Reply #4 on:** July 17, 2006, 02:10 PM »

IMPORTANT:

I need to remind people that if they want to see more mini reviews like this, and they value such posts - please send the author some donationcredits!!

that's why they were invented!!!

superboyac · « **Reply #5 on:** July 17, 2006, 03:59 PM »

Hi Josh, great review! i've had my eye on Zoom Player for a long time, I really like it. You're right, it's customizable like there's no tomorrow. I had a hell of a time trying to get the DVD playback to work right, but once I did, it was great.

I don't know about other people, but I use several different software for my multimedia needs. I use Winamp for dragging and dropping mp3's and other groups of audio files, I don't use it for video. For DVD or long movie files, I'll use zoom player. For short clips, the kind where you just double-click and watch for a couple of minutes, I like to use something really simple and light, like MPC. Actually, there's a program called Light Alloy that someone here brought up once and I really liked, but it was too expensive. They've lowered the price just recently to $10, so it's actually a good buy, see:
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2199.0

I think my next two purchases might be Zoom Player and Light Alloy. Does anyone else have as needlessly complex video watching habits as myself? I wonder. I think most people just use one app for everything. I'm curious to know.

tinyvillager · « **Reply #6 on:** July 17, 2006, 06:10 PM »

Anyone know if Zoom Player and Light Alloy has screencapture ability,it's the only reason i have VLC on my
computer at the moment.Media Player classic craps out on me with screencapture alot.

I'll always have foobar for audio but i'm looking for the end all be all when it comes
to video and Zoom Player and Light Alloy looks real close to what i want,Light Alloy is looking even sexier
with that price.

kimmchii · « **Reply #7 on:** July 17, 2006, 06:30 PM »

for screencapture, try BSplayer, version 1.37.826. (lastest version 2 has spyware)

just press shift+p.

Josh · « **Reply #8 on:** July 17, 2006, 06:35 PM »

Also, use ALT+F to do a screen capture of the current video or window in ZP.

kimmchii · « **Reply #9 on:** July 17, 2006, 06:43 PM »

i get this a lot when doing screencapture in ZP, bsplayer never fails.

Josh · « **Reply #10 on:** July 17, 2006, 06:56 PM »

What type of file are you playing?

kimmchii · « **Reply #11 on:** July 17, 2006, 07:06 PM »

wmv.

Josh · « **Reply #12 on:** July 17, 2006, 07:29 PM »

Try whats suggested here

http://forum.inmatri...ex.php?showtopic=640

kimmchii · « **Reply #13 on:** July 17, 2006, 07:33 PM »

ok thanks, i will try that.

Josh · « **Reply #14 on:** July 17, 2006, 07:38 PM »

Actually, here is what worked for me

Go to options

choose Filter control on the left

Under the first tab, Select "VRM9 Windowless (Requires DirectX 9)"

Click the select button underneath those listings

Choose a video renderer like Intervideo's windvd, or powerdvd, or whatever dvd video rendered you have. This will save the screenshots upon unloading of the wmv.

KenR · « **Reply #15 on:** July 17, 2006, 11:53 PM »

Anyone know if Zoom Player and Light Alloy has screencapture ability,it's the only reason i have VLC on my computer at the moment.
-tinyvillager (July 17, 2006, 06:10 PM)

Yes for Light Alloy as well. On the bottom of the UI for the default skin roughly in the middle, there is a small camera item that you click to do this.

KPR

JavaJones · « **Reply #16 on:** July 18, 2006, 02:00 AM »

Nice to see a mini-review of this from a satisfied user. Myself I have never really "clicked" with Zoom though I know a lot of people rave about it and in theory it should be right up my alley. I love lots of customization, etc. It's just that I want customization *abilty*, not *requirement*, and Zoom seemed to require more customization than I wanted to deal in the past, even for basic things. Once it was working it didn't seem all that much better than my other solutions anyway. But if you're coming from Winamp for video I'm not surprised it is a huge positive change.

For my part I use a mix of players and have for many years, though it has evolved over time.

First, to make it clear what I am looking for in a video and audio player, the following:
I want a player, just a player. I am not looking for an audio player that also does capturing, I don't need CD ripping or Mp3 encoding, etc. I much prefer to use separate apps for that kind of stuff. I use both audio and video players directly on my computer through a 21" monitor so I am not focusing on media center usage (at the moment). I want direct access to as much online media as possible. I want the ability to browse, search and catalog my collections of videos and audio. I want extensive tagging and other organizational functionality. I want cool visualisations for audio. And I want all this wrapped up in a memory-efficient, fast application with a simple, accessible user interface that exposes a lot of functionality. I play mostly AVI's and MP3's, much less of any other media type including DVD's, although I do like having DVD support.

So here's what I use now:

Winamp - Winamp has been my default audio player since the 1.x days. I have always loved it (except for WA3

) and have yet to find any app that makes me really interested in moving away from it. It is a bit bulkier and slower than it used to be, which is frustrating, but it has added a lot of features which explains that in large part. The most important thing about it for me is that it's really audio focused. It is pretty much the best, most versatile, most supported audio player out there, so you can play virtually any audio format (with plugins), reskin it however you want (not my thing but a lot of people love that), use advanced audio filters to make things sound better, and (one of my favorites) work with another Nullsoft product Shoutcast to create your own streaming music station, amongst many other things. Let's not forget the wonderful visualization plugins as well. MilkDrop alone (bundled with Winamp) can keep you happily occupied for hours! But video? I have never really used it for video and never found its video support to be that fantastic. Surprisingly good from the get-go for a formerly strictly audio player, I will say that. But for me Winamp, with its large-ish interface and the general preference for keeping the Media Library open, is just not well suited to being a video player. It is really not its core competency, simple as that.

Which leads me to...

BSPlayer - For a long time I used BSPlayer for videos, which I found after lots and lots of searching and testing. A couple years ago it was really top notch, about the best video-focused player around. I particularly liked its aspect ratio and general video manipulation support, decent playlist functionality (which MPC lacks), as well as its speed. It was fairly compatible with most videos I wanted to run, most of them being AVI or MKV format, although it was never the best with WMV or Quicktime/RealMedia (through the "alternative" packages). Lately BS has become, well, BS.

It is now bundled with spyware unless you buy it and it seems to have lost a lot of its general quality and ability to play files well over the past year or two. I seldom use BS anymore as a result.

But it was the Quicktime/RealMedia/WMV issue that first got me looking at...

Media Player Classic - I first started playing with MPC before the Quicktime/Real Alternative packages came out and it seemed like a nice, clean player, a bit simplistic for my tastes, but pretty versatile nonetheless. I used it at first mostly for playing MPG's and WMV's, at which it was superior to BSPlayer. Not only was it more reliable with both file types but I tended to keep playlists in BS and didn't want them erased so it was convenient as a fast-starting player for smaller vids, which the WMV and MPG movies tend to be (as opposed to AVI's - mine tend to be longer). Eventually Quicktime and Real Alternative came out and I had even more reason to use MPC. BSPlayer sometimes worked with both filters but MPC was much better. I also discovered MPC's ability to play other odd formats like Bink around this time and grew to love its combination of simplicity and power. It also began more rapid renewed development around this time and became much more robust and full of options.

Still, it left something to be desired in a few areas such as playlists, user interface/skinning, etc. So I kept finding my way back to BS, until...

The KMPlayer (not to be confused with the KDE "KMPlayer") - I found KMPlayer randomly through Betanews, which has become pretty much my best source for finding cool and useful new applications. KMPlayer is kind of a weird one. It's natively Korean I think, or at least the dev(s) seems to be, but it's made available in English with no apparent translation problems. KM doesn't seem to be particularly well known, possibly due in part to the language issue, I'm not sure. In any case it's really an interesting app. It's basically like a souped-up video-focused Winamp, and I mean down to the default skin, right-click menus, everything. I have no idea if it's violating copyright or anything but frankly it's nice to have a familiar UI, and it seems to tack on enough additional features to make it well worth using over Winamp. Most of the extra stuff is video focused, from what I've seen - basic stuff like built-in video codecs, customizable video rendering, software-based video filters such as deinterlace or color adjustment, subtitle support, etc. But the basic reason I like it is just that it seems really well setup and laid out from the beginning. Not too much customization is *needed*, yet there is a lot of power to do customization if desired. The default skin has a ton of features unobtrusively at your fingertips, like switching audio streams for example, which is actually a small but dedicated combination indicator and button on the main video window. It also has very wide video support, both native (like MPC's built-in decoders) as well as use of installed codecs. It even has compatibility with Winamp 2x plugins, which is interesting. And even with all of that it is really quite fast and has excellent seeking response. Here's a full feature list, which IMO is pretty impressive: http://www.kmplayer..../showthread.php?t=63 (it seems it has media library support, hmm!) Really it seems like the only true "all in one" player I've ever found that actually *works* and isn't unstable as a result of all the functionality and features.

I've been using KM now for about 4 months and so far I really like it. It's generally more stable and capable than any other video player I have tested recently and I use it for almost all video playing now. But I still use Winamp for audio playing, for a few reasons. First, KM doesn't seem to have a native "media library" like Winamp. Now I don't use the Winamp media library to anywhere near its fullest potential and frankly I don't think it's implemented as well as it could be, but still there is something about it that I like and that keeps me using it. Another thing is the simple fact that I've gotten used to having different audio and video players and I kind of like it that way. I like to be able to maintain separate current playlists of stuff I've been listening to or watching and not have them wiped out whenever I want to play audio vs. video or whatever. I could of course keep saving and loading playlists but that seems like a hassle I don't want or need (automatic multiple playlists would be nice). Still, I'm considering trying to see how it works to do everything in KM, except...

Winamp's final draw for me, and one which will probably never be matched anywhere else due to proprietary content, is the online service library. Winamp quite simply has the best library of *free* online and streaming content I have seen in any audio player. The Online Services section lists - ignoring the stupid entries - Winamp Music (free music audio and video), Shoutcast Radio and TV (free, 5000+ audio and 200+ video stations, extremely varied content with lots of non-corporate options), AOL Music Now (not free but access to 2 millions songs), AOL Radio with XM (free, one of my favorites, lots of very well mixed, high quality content, no commercials), AOL Videos (free, lots of random stuff), In2TV (free, some ok shows, lots of older/less popular stuff), Singing Fish (free, big searchable library of audio/video content). There is also the podcast support where you can manually add podcast feeds. To the best of my knowledge KM doesn't have any of this stuff and can't support it, however there may be a way to load the media library as a plugin for KM, which I haven't tested yet (the feature list above claims this works - must test!).

So KM is my current choice for getting closest to my wish/feature list above. The only thing it seems to really lack is good media library support with extensive cataloging options like rating, tagging, etc. and that may be partially solved by hooking up with Winamp's library. I'll try to report back after I've tested that.

Here's a short list of the other players I've tried in the search that led to the above options:
QMP - Quintessential Media Player (lots of potential but not "there" yet IMO)
Zoom Player (haven't had enough time with it but it's not totally free so I'm less interested in it)
VLC - Video LAN Client (still has a super klunky, unpleasant UI and poor access to features while playing, but it's gotten better lately - would rather use some other player that accesses the same/similar playback libraries since that is all that really makes VLC great)
Foobar2000 (simple is good, but this takes it a bit too far - not my style - I think maybe I just didn't "get" it though)
MediaMonkey (I like the great media cataloging functionality, better than Winamp, but it would take a lot of work to setup initially so I've put it off - crashed on me more than I would have liked so I didn't really get to know it well - also didn't like that the UI can't get smaller in an easily customizable way)
Plus a few others that have gotten less of my time and probably aren't worth mentioning

Now I haven't given a lot of time to more recent versions of Zoom, let alone the new preview version discussed above, so I wouldn't call my comments a comparison. I'd love to check out Zoom more in the future and perhaps I will, but usually that only happens when I'm not satisfied with my current player. We'll see if KMPlayer holds up over the long term

Screenshot capturing in just about any video player depends mostly on the video rendering mode - Overlay, VRM9, etc. If you're having trouble try switching the rendering method. It can also (apparently) depend on your graphics card.

- Oshyan

mouser · « **Reply #17 on:** July 18, 2006, 02:04 AM »

my laptop is extremely picky about playing back video..
the only program that i found that really works well on it is PowerDVD:
http://www.cyberlink...ucts/main_1_ENU.html

jgpaiva · « **Reply #18 on:** July 18, 2006, 05:19 AM »

Fantastic post, javajones!
It's curious, I'm a bit like you. I am a bs-player user for many years now. I stopped updating it as soon as it became spyware-supported.
But, truth is i don't need to update it, as it preforms very well for what i need!
There simply isn't any player better for divx video (on avi) with subtitles. It handles subtitles like no other player, the only thing you need to do is drag and drop the subtitles on to the player and it's working. Even my sister that is completelly computer-iliterate can use it with no problems.
It can adjust subtitle delay with ease, just press ctrl+left/right while viewing the movie.
Also, bsplayer just feels right. when fast forwarding through a divx movie, it's lean, not like zoom player which goes jumping a bunch of seconds the whole way through.
Also, like you mentioned, the aspect relation is just sooo simple. Just press O and it's adjusted.
The pre-configured keyboard shortcuts also make much sense (i mean, isn't 'f' for fullscreen waaay better than alt+enter?)

Nevertheless, i use zoom player, only because it's versatile for all the other formats. For wmv I keep wmp, but for .mov and real formats i don't install any other player (quicktime is most probably the worst player ever, who whould think of having to pay for a player to be able to see a movie in full-screen????).

I also agree with you, there's no better audio player than winamp. Although i've already tried a bunch of them (most probably every single one out there), i never managed to get along and always went back to the old and cool winamp

Ps: something good was kept from wa3, ever seen the Winamp 3 default skin? It's the one i use

AbteriX · « **Reply #19 on:** July 18, 2006, 06:08 AM »

Very nice review and informations, thank you all.

Maybe one don't know this tools....

For seeing movies and DVD i use mplayer. ~ 3-4 MB
There is a nice frontend <MPUI> to make using mplayer very easy.
I have now no codecs installed, Mplayer have them build in.
Mplayer and MPUI is stand alone (no registry access and portable)

For hearing mp3 i use <1by1 > ~ 50-100kB
He is also portable with ini file.
1by1 can use WinAmp input.dll's
Most i like that 1by1 is an "directory player" i.e. there is no play list needed....just browse your hard disc and listen.

And yes, i have an WinAmp 2.9 folder with all needed plugins too

Josh · « **Reply #20 on:** July 18, 2006, 10:45 AM »

WinAMP is indeed a great audio player, but, I have found that I can get just as much enjoyment/capability (if not more) with ZP. Have you tried it for audio? I think you will be surprised with how much you can do with this when it comes to all formats.

nudone · « **Reply #21 on:** July 19, 2006, 01:44 PM »

thanks for the review, Josh. unfortunately i don't really like zoom player - never seems to be the 'total' player it strives to be (the bugs you described would be enough to make me uninstall anyway).

i've pretty much followed the same path as javajones so currently i have winamp, mpc and vlc. mpc seemed fine for a long time but now takes a while to open up for certain files regardless of the settings i use for it, hence the use of vlc.

i've just installed kmplayer and i have to say that i'm very impressed with it so far - need to play with it for a while to know for sure but it looks very hopeful that it will replace mpc and vlc on my system. so thanks for mentioning it, javajones.

just checked something and i have a .mov file that will play okay in mpc but not vlc or kmplayer, so it looks like i'll be keeping mpc.

maybe i should try zoom player.

i think it's a bit of a joke really that not one single player will do everything (even though many claim to), there's always something lacking or broken somewhere.

time to try the gui version of mplayer that abterix recommended - maybe that will do 'everything'.

superboyac · « **Reply #22 on:** July 19, 2006, 03:33 PM »

nudone, I have a general philosophy that a program that tries to do everything will eventually do nothing that well. That's why I avoid all-in-one type of programs. Sometimes, a program like winamp tries to do everything and doesn't succeed in doing everything well, but it still does a couple of things well, so I only use it for what it does well. But, in general, I like programs that are more focused on specific tasks and limit their functionality to that task so it can be done with high quality. Even for video players, I use 2 different programs (as I explained above in this thread). For DVD's and full-length movie files, I use Zoom Player. For short video-clips that would just double-click to watch from my file-manager, I use Light Alloy (I used to use MPC, but LA is MUCH lighter and more powerful).

I like VLC because it plays everything, but I only use it when my other players can't play a file. As a player, VLC is light on features and has little annoying things about it. I liked MPC a lot, but like you said, recently it's been taking a while to open files.

JavaJones · « **Reply #23 on:** July 20, 2006, 10:18 PM »

I'd like to say more on this subject but I need to play with Zoom and Light Alloy more. Still digging KMPlayer (using it right now) and I wanted to mention I discovered it *does* have Winamp's library in it, although it's an older version and I couldn't get their newer HTML-based version (which has a lot more online content) to work. To get the Media Library you right-click go to Options->Winamp Window->Media Library or press Alt-L.

jgpaiva, I completely agree about BS's ability in playing divx-type AVI's, especially with subtitles. I haven't played much with subtitles in KM, but it does seem to have decent support.

I'd love to hear some more comparative opinions from people about KMPlayer vs. their own favorite player. It may even help KM become a better program, which I would be happy about.

- Oshyan

Blight · « **Reply #24 on:** July 21, 2006, 08:34 AM »

I don't usually do this, but since we'll be giving away some licenses, I figured I should clear a few things up...

The problem with the "perfect" media player, is that there are a lot of opinion on what makes a good player.

There is also a certain amount of legal issues involved. For example, MPC/VLC/MPlayer/KMPlayer are shipped with decoders that violate patent law. They aren't being sued as money has not been made.

We are always striving to make Zoom Player "just work". It's a bit more difficult due to the decoder issues, but especially in the upcoming version 5, we're taking multiple steps in improving simplicity and system-integration (auto-scan & detect of good decoder configurations).

The main focus in v5 is to improve the user interface elements, but we also rewrote large portions of the back-end so that adding support for meta-data would become much easier in the next version. You can already see the improvement with the new fullscreen navigation interfaces and in the next beta (not preview) we will show a completely rewritten options dialog which should be much more streamlined and logical.

The main focus for v5.10 (or maybe v6.0, depending on the amount of changes from v5) will be meta-data organization, which should help you tag, sort & manage your media files with greater ease (Zoom Player already contains a media library interface, play history and several other tools, these will get expanded to support more meta-data information).

In closing, the best thing you can do is "get heard". If you want things changed, you must log in to the Zoom Player forum and get yourself heard. Every post is read and most are answered by me personally (not every day, but I do try to read & answer every post, even if it's with a "no").

Every feature request is considered, there are several measures that we consider before implementing new features, but we do consider every request. Quite a lot of Zoom Player's features are user-initiated.

Lastly, I would like to note that the visual glitch in the review is due to something NVIDIA changed in their 9x.xx series of drivers. We're still working on tracking it down, but it something that doesn't effect ATI cards (as far as we can tell so far) or NVIDIA drivers v8x.xx or older. The Global Hotkey support is a new feature (introduced in the latest preview) and is still being improved. And settings not saving is due to the executable being corrupt on Josh's machine.