Zoom Player was originally conceived to fill a void in Multimedia playback. Prior to Zoom Player, playing media files on the PC was either overly simplistic for the Power User or overly cryptic to the common user. Zoom Player tries to both simplify the playback experience for the common user, while giving the Power Users all the tools and interfaces they may require to manipulate their playback environment to their exact specification. To that end, Zoom Player employs a slick and simple user interface, combined with easy to access features while at the same time providing advanced control dialogs over every feature imaginable.
“ Zoom Player Professional builds on the extensive features of the Standard version, and expands them with the following functions:
DVD Playback and Navigation:
Use the most powerful DVD Navigation Front-End, select between various 3rd party Audio and Video Decoders with optional Post Processing filters to further enhance your playback to unmatched quality. The DVD feature-set is the most complete and flexible available today.

Media Playback Customization:
Use the Customized Media Playback Interface with profiles that allow you to choose how a specific media format should be played. It further extends the standard interface to allow you to decode specific file formats (either by content or by file extension) using specific user-selected decoders, giving you the most flexible control over media playback. Select which audio and video devices to use when playing the video to ensure optimum quality under any condition.

Playback of Incomplete and Locked Files:
Play incomplete AVI and other media files as they are being downloaded by Peer 2 Peer networks (e.g., eMule or Kazaa) while maintaining maximum playback stability and seeking capabilities.

A/V Stream Playback:
Play video-capture data such as DVB streams, as Zoom Player Professional can detect file changes as they are written, reload the file at end of the file and resume playing with the new data.

Auto-select Audio/Subtitle streams:
Zoom Player automatically selects Audio and Subtitle streams in media files according to the language name (text match), country code or index number.

Playback from within Archive files:
Automatically extract and play the content of Archive, AlbumWrap and similar files.

Interactive Navigational Interfaces, Remote Control features:
Interface with most of Zoom Player controls using the OSD Navigational interfaces. These allow you to browse your hard drive and media library, resize and reposition the video, seek/jump directly to any position on the timeline and much more. The Navigational interfaces are easily controlled through a 5 button interface similar to DVD Menus (left/right/up/down/select) and offer an ideal interface for Remote Controlling your computer.

If there is one thing that I enjoy doing and that is using my PC to its’ fullest potential.

If you have Windows 7 installed on your PC, did you know that you can turn your PC into a TV platform with the proper hardware (such as a TV Tuner)?  This is possible, using Windows Media Center.

I currently use Windows Media Center to manage all of multi-media needs, including watching TV on my PC while I work.  The advantage of Windows Media Center is that you can create an awesome media Center, with remote control and all, right in your own living room.

Where to start?

Tibor Schiemann, President and Managing Partner of TuneUp Utilites, contributed the following article to be posted here at What’s On My PC that deals specifically with “Building the Perfect Media Center”.

These days, it’s common for people to have sophisticated home entertainment systems that include DVD players, TV tuners, and Blu-ray players. But rather than managing so many gadgets, did you know that you can consolidate all of these standalone parts with a PC? You can, and it doesn’t even have to be complex or confusing.

All you need is a PC with Windows Media Center (WMC). After all, PCs can play all video and audio formats, including DVDs, Blu-rays, and streaming video. Your system can serve as a personal recorder for watching and recording videos, while saving the files to your video library. You can also access all of your photos and your entire music library from your home PC. Essentially, PCs have become one-stop media shops.

Beyond this, PCs have excellent upscaling capabilities. WMC and its codecs can easily convert standard-definition content to a full, high-definition (HD) screen. You can also add a variety of applications and games to WMC, in addition to using it for watching trailers, streaming videos, and listening to online radio.

‘Screening’ options

So clearly, WMC has far-reaching and diverse capabilities. The first step to making your WMC is finding the right screen. In the last few years, there has been a proliferation of screens, like HD projectors, LCD (LED) TVs, and plasma screens, in the market. But, ultimately, your selection depends on your preference and the size of your living room.

However, there are some factors to consider. If you need monstrous screen estate, go for a projector. It really is the best option if you watch movies or play games for long stretches of time, but they are too labor-intensive for casual, intermittent TV watching.

If you prefer a larger TV, like 50 inches or more, you should consider a plasma. For larger screens, it will produce much better black levels and a higher picture quality than LCDs. But, sometimes plasmas do not work as well in daylight, so make sure you can darken the room if you go this route. Finally, if you’re only interested in 46-inch displays or smaller, LCDs offer the best picture. Let your eyes and ears be the final judge.

The right PC

If you want your PC to play DVDs, your music collection or slide shows, then you can go with the Atom-based nettops. Unfortunately, the processors in the nettop machines are on the weaker side, but thanks to ION-based Nvidia graphics chips, nearly all of these machines are capable of handling 720p and 1080p HD video.

But don’t feel the need to fork over money for these new machines. Many people use older laptops or PCs for their media centers. If you use an older PC, make sure you have a dual-core processor with at least 2 GHz or a graphics card with H.264 hardware acceleration. This will be enough for your regular Blu-ray movie.

However, if you’re a heavy gamer, go for a Core 2 Duo, Core i5, or Core i7 machine. If you use this with a decent graphics card, you should get the most graphically-intense game running at full speed.

Software that works

If you’re serious about home cinema, Windows 7 Media Center is the way to go. Luckily, this is integrated into every version of Windows 7. Microsoft has been developing this media center interface for more than eight years, so it’s become a really solid solution for home theaters that are based on a single PC.

If you haven’t upgraded to Windows 7 yet, there are very good alternatives like XMBC. But the advantage of Windows 7 Media Center is that it’s an all-in-one solution and very compatible with a variety of TV tuner cards. It also does not require excessive fiddling to work.

Installation

For setup details, visit TuneUp’s blog at: blog.tune-up.com. There, you’ll find easy, step-by-step instructions, but I’ll leave you with a final pointer here: As part of the installation process, Windows will ask if you’d like to send anonymous reports about WMC’s performance to Microsoft. I highly recommend answering this with ‘yes.’ It hardly takes any time at all, and it will let WMC download cover art and, most importantly, the Electronic Program Guide that you will not want to miss while watching TV.

For more on how to do things like screen resizing, color adjusting and getting WMC to access all of your libraries, visit TuneUp’s blog at blog.tune-up.com.

Building the Perfect Media Center (Part One)

Building the Perfect Media Center (Part Two)

Building the Perfect Media Center (Part 3)

post to jaanix

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