Zoom Player FREE 15 Beta 8 Media Player for PC Windows

New :
* Two new category types have been introduced "TV Shows" and "Movies". Zoom Player tries to automatically assign previous categories to these new types based on the 'scrape content mode' previously assigned to the category.
* The media library filter icons that appear under the category list are now accessible using the keyboard by pressing the up or down arrow keys on the first/last category entry. Once activated, you can use the left/right arrow keys to switch between the filtering modes.
* New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) to switch the category layout between list and thumbnail view modes.
* New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) that controls how the thumbnail memory cache encodes the images. The default value is to store as JPEG images which uses the least amount of RAM. But for higher performance, especially on lower end CPUs, switching to RAW 24bit or 32bit will improve performance.
* New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) to control whether the Media Library's fullscreen navigation'Media Scanner' is displayed.
* New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) to control whether the Media Library's fullscreen navigation'Remove category folder(s)' is displayed.
* New "/MediaFilter:[Number]" command line parameter to set the media library's filter mode. Valid values are:
- 0 = ALL
- 1 = Movies
- 2 = TV Shows
- 3 = Videos
- 4 = Audio
- 5 = Pictures
- 6 = Executables
* The media library's filter mode is now saved/restored when re-opening Zoom Player.
# Changes :
- When fullscreen navigation 'Safe Mode' is enabled, the media library's 'Media Scanner' and 'Remove category folder(s)' are no longer displayed.
- Disabling the "Show media content specific to the media library's category type" setting now shows all media files in a category (previously it would show the content based on the category filter).
- Optimized the default fullscreen navigation skin to require less resize operations improving load/open time and taking up to 20% less RAM.
- Optimized the file name hashing algorithm which should improve performance in several areas.
# Fixes :
- Removing every entry from the "Scrapers folder name blacklist" or "Scrapers file name blacklist" would crash and freeze Zoom Player.
- Resizing the media library window could trigger a crash or show an improperly-sized thumbnail.
- Fixed several memory leaks.
- Fixed a freeze when trying to open the media library before the scraping DLL finished initializing.
- Fixed several cases of "List index out of bounds" errors when trying to use the media library with no thumbnail selected.
- Switching media library filter mode would reset several values changed since opening the media library (e.g. sorting).
- Opening a new media file while the media information dialog was visible did not update to the new media's date and file size.
- Fixed a small memory leak when re-scraping modified media library folders.
- The mouse scroll wheel did not work within the media information window while in fullscreen mode.
- The integrated keyboard-mapping editor did not show the correct key-value for multimedia keys (play/stop/etc), which prevented assigning new functions to multimedia keys.
- Using the station manager's "Play (Add to Playlist)" button would not actually start playing the new station.
- In Windows 10 with the "Blank non-Playing Monitors while in Fullscreen /Zoom mode" enabled and Zoom Player set to start in fullscreen mode,Zoom Player appeared as a blank black box.

# New :
* New Advanced Options page that controls Zoom Player's behavior whena monitor is attached or detached, when Windows 10's tablet mode is enabled or disabled and when a 2 in 1 laptop's screen is docked or undocked. Each of these mode changes can be assigned a different set of actions and custom functions, even if the mode changed while Zoom Player was not running (optional).
* New "Switch to TV JukeBox list view without having the parent folder scraped first" media library category setting. This setting is enabled by default on new categories and I recommend manually enabling this setting on your pre-existing TV JukeBox categories.
* The last play position is now displayed on media library thumbnails for audio and video files next to the media's duration (only works with newly played media).
* New "/CBar" command line parameter to automatically show the control bar when starting Zoom Player.
* The playing media's Title (if one exists) is now displayed in Zoom Player's playing item text and in the timeline area if showing file names in the timeline is enabled.
* The skin installation process has become simpler with the addition of a new "Install Skin" button on the skin selection dialog.
* Zoom Player can now extract Album art and meta-data from ".M4A" and possibly other audio formats.
* The open URL dialog now remembers the last visited URL and keeps a history of the last 10 URLs.
* New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation /Thumb View) to specify the number of threads to use while scraping. If your operating system drive ("C:") is mechanical, it may require lowering the thread count to "1" to prevent the user interface from being overly affected by the disk writes.
* New "Darken thumbnail background" setting (Adv. Options / Interface /Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) to override's a skin-script parameter that decide if to draw a dark rectangle behind a thumbnail.
* New "Darken thumbnail text background" setting (Adv. Options / Interface /Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) to override's a skin-script parameter that decide if to draw a dark rectangle behind a thumbnail's text.
* The ".pls" playlist format is now supported for non-shoutcast streams and files with additional support for displaying file/stream titles.
* New right-click "Copy" menu that copies the options search dialog's selected entry into the windows clipboard.
* New "Scrape folder thumbnails by using the name of the first video file within the folder instead of the folder name" media library category setting.
* You can now instruct the media library TheMovieDB.org's scraper to ignore part of a file or folder name by using the "^" character, for example "Moonrise Kingdom^(1.85)" would ignore the "(1.85)" portion of the file/folder name, allowing you to add special tags to the file/folder name without breaking scraping.
* New "ThumbActiveHighlightMode" skin script variable that controls whether the media library's thumbnail highlight is drawn with the aspect ratio of the thumbnail or as a fixed-size frame around the thumbnail as well as new modes to draw a tiled highlight overlay.
# Changes :
- TheMovieDB.org's scraper plug-in has been enhanced with ".nfo" hinting for TV content and improved naming convention detection.
- The media library's "Scrape for parent folder name when file name scraping using metadata scrapers fails" category setting is now automatically disabled when JukeBox mode is active.
- The entry for opening the Media Library on the right-click context menu has moved out of the 'navigate' sub-menu and toward the top of the menu.
- The "deinterlace" toggle has been removed from the right-click context menu. It is still accessible by keyboard macro (Ctrl+Shift+D).
- The "Stream Windows Media content using Windows Media Player ActiveX control" setting is now disabled by default. If you previously relied on this setting, you will need to re-enable it in the advanced options dialog.
- The media library's category configuration "Darken thumbnail background" setting has been depreciated in favor of the new options dialog setting.
# Fixes :
- The media library's thumbnail memory cache was cleared when switching between categories if new category used a different thumbnail resolution.
- Double clicking a media library unselected and partially visible thumbnail would not trigger the play/mini-menu action.
- Fixed a visual clitch in the media library's bottom meta-data area when scrolling and the active thumbnail scrolls off screen.
- Switching video renderer should no longer affect restoring the last play position (only works with newly played media).
- Some JPEG images with either embedded as Album art or with a mislabeled file extension were not properly recognized as valid JPEG images and were not used/shown.
- Depending on the function assigned to the left mouse button, clicking a hot-corner may activate both the hot-corner functionality and the functionality assigned to the left mouse button (instead of only triggering the hot corner action).
- Closing Zoom Player while the playlist was retrieving the duration of media files prevented Zoom Player from closing properly.
- Pressing on the "disabled" subtitle entry when it was already selected incorrectly displayed an "Unknown error" message.
- TheMovieDB.org's scraper plug-in has did not properly detect movies and tv shows containing the "-" character as part of their name.

# New :
* New Advanced Options page that controls Zoom Player's behavior when a monitor is attached or detached, when Windows 10's tablet mode is enabled or disabled and when a 2 in 1 laptop's screen is docked or undocked. Each of these mode changes can be assigned a different set of actions and custom functions, even if the mode changed while Zoom Player was not running (optional).
* The skin installation process has become simpler with the addition of a new "Install Skin" button on the skin selection dialog.
* Zoom Player can now extract Album art and meta-data from ".M4A" and possibly other audio formats.
* The open URL dialog now remembers the last visited URL and keeps a history of the last 10 URLs.
* New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) to specify the number of threads to use while scraping. If your operating system drive ("C:") is mechanical, it may require lowering the thread count to "1" to prevent the user interface from being overly affected by the disk writes.
# Changes :
- TheMovieDB.org's scraper plug-in has been enhanced with ".nfo" hinting for TV content and improved naming convention detection.
# Fixes :
- The media library's thumbnail memory cache was cleared when switching between categories if new category used a different thumbnail resolution.
- Some JPEG images with either embedded as Album art or with a mislabeled file extension were not properly recognized as valid JPEG images and were not used/shown.
- Depending on the function assigned to the left mouse button, clicking a hot-corner may activate both the hot-corner functionality and the functionality assigned to the left mouse button (instead of only triggering the hot corner action).
- Closing Zoom Player while the playlist was retrieving the duration of media files prevented Zoom Player from closing properly.
- Pressing on the "disabled" subtitle entry when it was already selected incorrectly displayed an "Unknown error" message.

# New :
* The media library's TV JukeBox mode is now fully functional. With jukebox mode enabled in a TV video category, a new list view mode is used to display meta-data (overview, rating, duration, etc) and a thumbnail ("still image" from an online database or a screenshot extracted from the video itself) on the right side of the screen when entering a folder containing media files. For best performance, use the proper TV JukeBox mode folder structure: Show NameSeason [Number]MediaFiles
* New Media Icons display in the media library information area at the bottom of the screen and in the Movie Jukebox presentation mode. Media icons display the Format (AVI/Matroska/etc...), Video Codec (H.264/HECV/etc...), Video Resolution (1080p/UHD 4K/etc...), Audio Codec (DTS/AAC/etc...), Audio Channels (2.0/5.1/7.1/etc...). Media icons are detected during the scraping process, to display the icons you must re-scrape the content of your media library. This is done the Media Library Category Editor (Shift+"M") or through the media library's function page's 'scraping' menu.
* New setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) to display Media Icons in the media library information area and in movie jukebox presentation mode.
* New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) that specifies whether thumbnail display should used a dynamically visible scroll bar (suitable for tablets and touch devices) or a fixed scroll bar (suitable for PC and Mouse input).
* The "Navigation Scrollbar Size" setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) has four new possible values:
- Dynamic Smallest
- Dynamic Small
- Dynamic Large
- Dynamic Max
* New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) to force the navigation list or thumb view display to full width.
* New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Keyboard) allowing you to assign keyboard functionality to the "Insert" key when fullscreen navigation is not in use.
* New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Bar / Timeline Area) to show thumbnail previews even if the playing media does not report key-frame. Note that allowing media with no key frame reporting to display thumbnails over the timeline can take much longer.
* New Setting (Media Library Category Editor / Configure) to re-scrape a folder's thumbnail if the folder's "modified" time-stamp changes.
* The advanced playlist control has become more powerful with integrated sorting that does not affect the main playlist until items are moved.
* The playing media information dialog ("I" keyboard shortcut) has been restructured and expanded to include the media's file size and date as well as full information on the file from MediaInfoLib (MediaInfo DLL).
* The Mini color control fullscreen navigation interface will now display the name (brightness/saturation/etc...) and not only an icon.
* Scraped poster/backdrop/still images are now downloaded concurrently using multiple threads to speed up the online scraping process.
* The mouse's "back" and "forward" buttons now act as "back" and "enter" when used in the fullscreen navigation interfaces.
* New function and keyboard macro (Alt+Ctrl+"T") to toggle the TAG display when playing audio files.
* New "Copy to Clipboard" button on the playing media information dialog that copies the content of the "format" box into the clipboard.
# Changes :
- For additional security, password protected media library categories no longer show path information on the category list screen.
- The media library scrape icon and count now reflect the scrape queue and processing threads and not only the queue, giving a more accurate picture of the background scraping process.
- The default keyboard mapping for the numbers pad has changed to make the same button functions trigger regardless of the num-lock state. This means the configured functionality for the arrows and insert keys will function even if the num-lock key is enabled.
- The advanced options dialog's 'Keyboard' page has been restructured for enhanced clarity and the addition of more features.
- Optimized media library disk access by improving meta-data caching.
- Changed the default text background color in audio playback (when a folder image is not used) to a much darker gray.
# Fixes :
- The virtual keyboard did not accept physical keyboard input if the "Use keyboard input to quickly search and enter data through navigation interfaces" setting was disabled.
- Media files or folder flagged never to be scraped were scraped again under some circumstances.
- Fixed a bug that caused the media duration to disappear from a media library thumbnail.
- Selecting several files and choosing to flag them for re-scraping would not clear the selected file count at the top-right section of the media library interface.
- The fullscreen navigation scroll acceleration (when holding or fast clicking the up/down buttons) now resets itself as the list loops, preventing a crazy level of acceleration that may make the list appear to freeze.
- The thumbnail view's "drag to scroll" was triggered after 1 pixel of movement, making selecting a thumbnail with a single click fail if the mouse cursor moved a bit during the click.
- Clicking a media or folder in the media library's thumb view mode and then trying to click the close or back buttons would not work on the first click (requiring a second click).
- The text labels on the virtual keyboard keys is now more uniform in size.
- Clicking a media library thumbnail and then trying to click the "back" or "close" icons would fail on the first click (and work on the second).
- In the FREE version, the screen saver would over-tax the CPU (the streamers were always used and it was impossible to turn off).
- The Advanced playlist control, Chapter editor, Scheduler, Scene-Cut, Skin selector and Play history dialogs would not save their last window size and position if you closed the player without first closing the dialog.
- Clear the search box text of the advanced playlist control using the "DEL" key would also remove any selected entries from the playlist.
- The "Hide all control bar buttons" setting stopped saving in v12.1.
- Switching directly to the Play History fullscreen navigation interface using a keyboard or other macro from another fullscreen navigation interface would not update the title area.
- The internal screen saver would still activate even after calling functions when using the TCP/IP command & control API.
- Folders marked not to be scraped were still being scraped if no online database scrapers were specified for the media library category.
- Setting the left mouse button to open the context menu didn't work.

* The media library's TV JukeBox mode is now fully functional. With jukebox mode enabled in a TV video category, a new list view mode is used to display meta-data (overview, rating, duration, etc) and a thumbnail ("still image" from an online database or a screenshot extracted from the video itself) on the right side of the screen when entering a folder containing media files.
- For best performance, use the proper TV JukeBox mode folder structure: Show NameSeason [Number]MediaFiles
- For example:
> Game of ThronesSeason 1GoT.S01E01.mp4
> Game of ThronesSeason 1GoT.S01E02.mp4
* New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Thumb View) that specifies whether thumbnail display should used a dynamically visible scroll bar (suitable for tablets and touch devices) or a fixed scroll bar (suitable for PC and Mouse input).
* The "Navigation Scrollbar Size" setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) has four new possible values:
- Dynamic Smallest
- Dynamic Small
- Dynamic Large
- Dynamic Max
* The Mini color control fullscreen navigation interface will now display the name (brightness/saturation/etc...) and not only an icon.
* New function and keyboard macro (Alt+Ctrl+"T") to toggle the TAG display when playing audio files.
- Switching directly to the Play History fullscreen navigation interface using a keyboard or other macro from another fullscreen navigation interface would not update the title area.
- The internal screen saver would still activate even after calling functions when using the TCP/IP command & control API.

* New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Customization) to force the navigation list or thumb view display to full width.
* New Setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Control Bar / Timeline Area) to show thumbnail previews even if the playing media does not report key-frame. Note that allowing media with no key frame reporting to display thumbnails over the timeline can take much longer.
* The mouse's "back" and "forward" buttons now act as "back" and "enter" when used in the fullscreen navigation interfaces.
* Changed the default text background color in audio playback (when a folder image is not used) to a much darker gray.
* Media files or folder flagged never to be scraped were scraped again under some circumstances.
* The thumbnail view's "drag to scroll" was triggered after 1 pixel of movement, making selecting a thumbnail with a single click fail if the mouse cursor moved a bit during the click.
* Clicking a media or folder in the media library's thumb view mode and then trying to click the close or back buttons would not work on the first click (requiring a second click).

# New :
* New Media Icons display in the media library information area at the bottom of the screen and in the Movie Jukebox presentation mode.
* New setting (Adv. Options / Interface / Fullscreen Navigation / Settings) to display Media Icons in the media library information area and in movie jukebox presentation mode.
* The advanced playlist control has become more powerful with integrated sorting that does not affect the main playlist until items are moved.
* The playing media information dialog ("I" keyboard shortcut) has been restructured and expanded to include the media's file size and date as well as full information on the file from MediaInfoLib (MediaInfo DLL).
* New "Copy to Clipboard" button on the playing media information dialog that copies the content of the "format" box into the clipboard.
# Changes :
* For additional security, password protected media library categories no longer show path information on the category list screen.
* Optimized media library disk access by improving meta-data caching.
# Fixes :
* The virtual keyboard did not accept physical keyboard input if the "Use keyboard input to quickly search and enter data through navigation interfaces" setting was disabled.
* The text labels on the virtual keyboard keys is now more uniform in size.
* Clicking a media library thumbnail and then trying to click the "back" or "close" icons would fail on the first click (and work on the second).
* In the FREE version, the screen saver would over-tax the CPU (the streamers were always used and it was impossible to turn off).
* The Advanced playlist control, Chapter editor, Scheduler, Scene-Cut, Skin selector and Play history dialogs would not save their last window size and position if you closed the player without first closing the dialog.
* Clear the search box text of the advanced playlist control using the "DEL" key would also remove any selected entries from the playlist.
* The "Hide all control bar buttons" setting stopped saving in v12.1.