Manual Filters
DirectShow filters determine how audio/video is decoded. They are chained together to decode and display content. Certain filters will load the media file, other filters will split this data into Audio and Video streams while decoder filters will decompress the data and provide Sound and Image to be displayed and heard through Renderer filters.

Zoom Player supports 3 distinct modes of constructing a Graph for Media File playback.

The default "Disabled" setting is to let Windows or Smart Play decide which is the best method to play the file (this is the recommended setting).

The "Using Filter File" method allows you to insert filters of your choosing into the created Graph and let windows try to build the graph itself using the filters you specified and any other filters it deems necessary. For information on how to create your own filters file, open "zplayer.filters" using any text editor.

The "Auto by Extension" allows you to manually define the entire graph according to the extension of the file played. These manual graph files can be found under the "MediaGraph" sub-dir within the Zoom Player directory. The "example_AVI.MediaGraph" file contains a tutorial on how to build your own media graphs. You shouldn't use Manual MediaGraph files unless you're absolutely sure of what you're doing, otherwise playback may not work properly.
If a MediaGraph file for a specific file extension doesn't exist, Zoom Player will let Windows or Smart Play choose how to play the file (same as "Disabled" option).

You can also create a MediaGraph file for a specific Media file. Do this by using the same base name as the media file but with the ".MediaGraph" extension. Such a MediaGraph file will be enabled even without the "Auto by Extension" toggle being enabled.

Filter Registration Profiles
Zoom Player supports Filter Registration Profiles to allow you to easily register/unregister DirectShow filters with the System. The provided profiles are for most in-use filters currently available, but you can easily add your own profiles by adding listings under the "ZoomPlayer\DSFilters" directory.

Besides the registration profiles, you can also access the Registered Filter Manager interface. This interface lists all registered DirectShow filters on your system. It allows you to browse and unregister each filter. One more important feature to this interface is that it can change each filter's merit points.

The Filter Merit point system is how Windows decides which filter should be used to play a Media File (Smart Play overrides the merit system). For example, if you have both the DIVX decoder and the FFDSHOW decoder installed on your system, both will be vying to play back DIVX content. The filter assigned the higher merit number will be the one actually used when a DIVX file is opened. By adjusting the merit values of filters you can resolve filter conflicts (where the wrong filter is loaded by default). Changing filter merits may not take effect until after a system reboot (or logging out the current user).

Again, if you are using Smart Play, the filter merit system is ignored and there can be no filter conflicts (one of the big benefits of using Smart Play).