Understanding and using the Navigation interfaces




Introduction:
Zoom Player Professional enables support for on-screen navigation interfaces. The navigation interfaces are designed to be used with a Remote Device and be fully functional with a 5-Button setup (UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT/SELECT) and offer some extended functionality with several more buttons.

The idea behind the navigation interfaces is to enable you to take control of the most important Zoom Player features and use them to your advantage from the comfort of your seat.

This highlight is an extension of the "Configuring your system for Remote Control through Girder" article.


Accessing the Navigators:
All navigators are accessible either through the right-click context menu or through a keyboard macro which can be assigned to a remote control device.


Controlling the Navigators:
As previously stated, the navigation interfaces were designed to be controlled using the UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT/SELECT buttons on your remote. Further buttons supported by some of the navigators are DELETE/INSERT (usually used in navigators that deal with files) and HOME/END/PGUP/PGDN for faster access in navigators that deal with big lists.

By default, the navigators will close when an item is selected, but you can close the navigators at any time by using the ESCAPE key.


The Color Control Navigator:
The Color Control navigator allows you to adjust the video color values on display cards with supporting hardware (not all cards can change all color values and some older cards don't support the interface at all).


The Equalizer Navigator:
The Equalizer navigator allows you to adjust the audio equalizer values and load equalizer presets.


The File Navigator:
The file navigator allows you to browse your file system to look for media files to play. Only files with valid media extensions are listed in the file navigator. You can control which extensions are valid under "Advanced Options / System / File Extensions".


The Media Library Navigator:
Similar to the file navigator, the Media Library Navigator allows you to browse your file system for media files, but only in specifically defined paths you must enter prior to using this navigator. Specifying Media Library paths is done through the Media Library Editor interface which can be accessed through the right-click context menu, or by pressing Shift+"M".

The Media Library is a much more convenient way of managing your media files as it allows you to create multiple categories and easily browse through them.


The Play List Navigator:
The Play List Navigator allows you to view and manage your current play list. It includes a simplified file navigator which can be used to add new files to your play list. You can also use it to quickly browse the location of each file in the play list on your file system.


The Play History Navigator:
The Play History Navigator allows you to view your play history and if the files still exist, play them.


The Chapter/Bookmark Navigator:
The Chapter (Media Files) / Bookmark (DVDs) Navigator is used to quickly seek the currently playing media to a pre-selected point in the timeline.


The Context Navigator:
The context navigator allows you to navigate through a subset of the Zoom Player settings and functions. The content of this navigator can be modified by the user using a text editor. This is done by editing the Context Navigator section of the menu file (usually english.menu in the "Zoom Player\Language\" sub-folder). If you do edit this file, it is recommended that you do it under a new file name (such as "my.menu") and then point to it in the Advanced Options Dialog (Values / Other - Alternative Context Menu file).


The Resize Navigator:
The Resize Navigator allows you to resize the video image and reposition it on the screen.


The Blanking Navigator:
The Blanking Navigator is a tool that can help you blank-out portions of the screen. This is mainly used to mask letterboxed encoded DVD content where the black level on the encoded data is not really all that black.


The GoTo Navigator:
The GoTo navigator allows you to quickly seek anywhere in the currently playing media.


The Station Navigator:
The Station Navigator is used to quickly open previously added Stations (usually Radio Stations). To add more stations to the list, use the Station Editor interface accessible through the right-click context menu or by pressing "X".


The Web URL Navigator:
The Web URL Navigator allows you to associate Media and DVDs with Text/HTML content. When the navigator opens, it looks for an associated text and then displays it in an integrated browse interface.

There are several ways you can associate Text/HTML content with the currently playing media. The first is by creating a URL file with the same base name as the media file, for example:
myvideo.avi
myvideo.url

The URL file can point to any web address which will then be opened in the Web Navigator. Instead of a URL extension, you can use the "TXT,NFO,HTM,HTML" extensions which will then be opened directly as a Text/HTML file. For example:
myvideo.avi
myvideo.html

To associate Text/HTML content with DVDs, you need to create a "disc.[ext]" file in the DVD's bookmark folder (which is created once the DVD has been played at least once). The "[ext]" is the same extension as for media files (URL/TXT/NFO/HTM/HTML).

By creating a "default.url" file in the Zoom Player folder, you can redirect Zoom Player to open a specific URL/File when no other associated content is found.

URL files are usually created by Internet Explorer as links to web pages. They contain a simple text structure which means you can create them manually using any text editor. Here is a simple example of the content of a URL file:
[InternetShortcut]
URL=https://inmatrix.com


The Download Navigator:
The download navigator can hook into uTorrent and eMule in order to give you an overview of what's currently being downloaded. You must first configure the eMule path and uTorrent WebUI/Password in the Advanced Options Dialog in order to get real-time updates of your current downloads.


The Mouse Wheel Navigator:
The Mouse Wheel Navigator is somewhat of an exception. It is designed to be used with the mouse and not with a remote control device. The most effective way to use the mouse wheel navigator is to set the mouse wheel click (middle click) button to open this navigator (Advanced Options / Interface / Mouse). Once open, you can use the wheel to select a new functionality for the mouse wheel and then click the mouse wheel again to activate. This way you can use the mouse wheel for multiple purposes and quickly switch between them. You can select which functions are available to the mouse wheel under "Advanced Options / Interface / Mouse / Wheel".


The Navigation Style Navigator:
The Navigatation style navigator allows you to choose different navigation styles (if you have more than one installed).


For additional information on operating the Navigation interfaces, please visit the online help.