QuickTime (MOV) and Cellphone (3GPP):
Zoom Player by default uses the QuickTime Active-X component to play QuickTime and 3GPP Cellphone video files.
This requires that you have at least QuickTime v6.5 installed, or if you would rather only install the QuickTime
decoding components without the QuickTime player, you can install QuickTime Alternative instead.
You can also try playing certain QuickTime files using DirectShow.
FFDShow can decode Sorenson and
MPEG-4 Video, which are the main Video Codecs used with the Apple Quicktime Format. To play most QuickTime content
under DirectShow, you also need several other components. An
AAC Decoder and a QuickTime Splitter
filter (a component that knows how to parse the QuickTime format and send the data to the Audio/Video decoders).
Currently, the best QuickTime splitter is part of the 3ivx decoder package. 3ivx contains an MPEG-4 decoder/encoder, AAC
decoder and the QuickTime Splitter. We ONLY want the splitter as the decoder/encoders are time-limited and would expire
after certain usage. So after installing the 3ivx package, use the Zoom Player filter manager
(Options / Filter Control / Management / Registered Filter Manager) to unregister all the 3ivx components (except the
splitter of course).
Once you have the component installed, using the latest version of FFDShow, enable the SVQ1 and SVQ3 codecs (under the
codecs section of the FFDShow configuration dialog). Once that's done, disable the ActiveX QuickTime playback within
Zoom Player (v3.20 and up) so that the DirectShow playback could kick in (Options / Filter Control / Settings). While
the ActiveX support in Zoom Player should allow any QuickTime file to be played, it's not as stable or fluid as
DirectShow. If a certain file won't play, you can always re-enable ActiveX support and give it a shot instead.
Note, if you're getting bad Audio or Video, open the 3ivx Splitter context menu (right-click video area with a video
loaded, under Filter Properties") and make sure "Allow Unsupported Decoders" is enabled.
Windows Media (ASF/WMA/WMV):
Microsoft Windows Media Format comes in two flavors, "WMA" Audio files and "WMV/ASF" AudioVideo files. In order to play
these properly you must have the latest version of the
Windows Media Player installed (something
a lot of people abhor) as Zoom Player utilizes some interfaces, that installing the Windows Media Codecs alone
does not provide.
Windows Media files can also be DRM (Digital Rights Management) Encoded, which means that to play them, you will need
to obtain a playback license and you will also need the Zoom Player WMV Professional version to play them.
DRM Encoded Windows Media Video files can come as HD-DVD (High Definition/Resolution) content on some DVDs as well
as movie trailers such as can be found on the Microsoft
Windows Media High Definition Video page (note, not all videos on
this page are DRM encoded, some will play with the standard version of Zoom Player).
A Microsoft Patch
is also required for the playback of DRM encoded files. You may already have it installed, but if you are having problems with
DRM Encoded files, this patch may help.
