Alessio AleTsg wanted me to inform you all that he has written a program to manage DivX files, take a peek at it here.

Has it been a day? Yes, Another Zoom Player 2.00 beta has been posted on the forums.

Another Zoom Player 2.00 beta has been posted on the forums.

On another note, I have released Zoom Player 1.81, this version is feature-identical to Zoom Player 1.80a but shouldn't require DirectX-8 to work. This is the last version that won't require DirectX-8 as v2.00 has DVD code which requires the latest DirectX.

Get v1.81 here.

Does anyone remember Willow?

Willow was a movie made in the so called "golden age" of modern cinema (at least in my view). Not until this winter when lord of the rings is released has there been such an investment in a fantasy movie.

And finally it's being released on DVD, this November 27th.

Also, there's been recent talk about the "Superbit" re-release of certain movies. If you're unaware what "superbit" is, here's a quick introduction:

DVD movies are encoded at a certain bitrate (size). In order to stuff extra features, at times less space is given on a disc for the movie data and thus you get lower quality video. Really good releases, usually come on 2 or more discs so that the additional material won't take space away from the movie. The idea behind "Superbit" is the not include any extras and have all the disc's space used for the movie itself. This is not a new technology, it's just a different mindset when encoding the movie. If a studio really wanted to, it could have had the same quality with the initial release, especially for a bare-boned titles like The 5th Element.

In any case, if you were looking for an excuse to buy one of the following movies, I guess now is as good a time as any:
The Fifth Element, Air Force One, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Desperado, Johnny Mnemonic.

If you're keeping up with Zoom Player, version 2.00 beta 8 has been posted on the forum.

Well, Paramount finally published the release date for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Nov 6th), they are also saying that they may release Special Edition versions of the earlier releases.

However, they are also releasing the Star Trek - The Motion Picture Giftset (also on Nov 6th).

With a price tag of $175.44 after a 35% discount, you'd expect it to contain all 9 movies.

Looks like HP is trying to push a new DVD writable standard, the DVD+RW.

Feature wise it seems similar to DVD-RW, but comes at a cheaper price. Read C-Net's article on the subject.

Announcing the release of DVD Genie v4.05.

As I mentioned earlier, I was working on putting the finishing touches to v4.05, and here its.

Chris Day gave me a heads-up on the latest PowerDVD tweaks and I've put them in, should be interesting to see how they pan out on the HTPC control freak forums.

Also in this release are some fixes and small tweaks, so make sure you check out the history file.

For the complete history list go here.
To download DVD Genie v4.05, click here.
To download additional language files, click here.

Some progress report:

Still working on Zoom Player v2.00 with support for DVD Playback. You can actually download beta 3 by going to the forum. I'm also consolidating some code for the next DVD Genie release, so stay tuned.

Terry Pratchett fans rejoice, it seems as if another Discworld has been Animated on DVD.

And if animation isn't your thing, you may want to look at one of the best classic horror movies ever made, Re-Animator.

And lastly, It looks like they are releasing a box set of Xena - Warrior Princess.. Details are sketchy at best.

Looks like there's some very good 2-Packs coming out of the UK, check out the following:
Romancing The Stone / The Jewel Of The Nile (Double Pack),
Porky's / Porky's 2 - The Next Day (Double Pack),
Hot Shots / Hot Shots Part Deux (Double Pack) .

And If you're a Tolkien fan, you may want to check these animated classics:
The Hobit,
The Lord Of The Rings.

If you're wondering what's going on, the answer is simple.

I've begun porting Zoom Player as a DVD Front-End. This should give unparalleled control over DVD Playback, nothing like you've really seen before. I'll post a beta once it's a bit more feature-robust, probably in a week or so, so stay tuned.

Ok, there was a snafu with Zoom Player v1.80, the frame capture feature crippled the overlay and thus slowed everything down. I'm releasing v1.80a to fix this issue, so grab it here.

Announcing Zoom Player v1.80.

Another step toward making the world's most logical player (hopefully, my own logic might be skewed so who knows).

Again, lots of requested features, such as support for multiple Audio channels (although I heard you can also do it by simply installing a DirectShow filter, doh!). But lots more than that actually, check the what's new file.

For the full details, read the What's new file.

To download Zoom Player, click here.

Looks like the Home Theater Forum has got their transcript from their 20th Century Fox Q&A up, make sure you read it, some interesting stuff.

Not much is known other than it contains all the episodes and that it's released on October 29th, but Buffy the Vampire: Season 3 is up for pre-order!

Here's a list of some very good upcoming releases:
September 4th, Memento.
September 4th, The Princess Bride - Special Edition.
September 11th, Blow.
September 18th, Spy Kids.
September 25th, A Knight's Tale.
September 25th, Citizen Kane.
September 25th, The Simpsons - The Complete First Season.
October 2th, The Mummy Returns - Collector's Edition.
October 2th, The Terminator (Special Edition).
October 9th, Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs.
October 16th, Fawlty Towers - The Complete Series.
November 6th, Doctor Zhivago.
November 6th, Empire of the Sun.
November 6th, The Sopranos - The Complete Second Season.
November 13th, The X-Files - The Complete Fourth Season.

The Digital Bits has got their DVD Producers 2001 at Comic-Con review panel transcripts, which are well worth the read.

Ok, If you're a Zoom Player user you may want to get the latest info on the publicly available beta by clicking here.

Good news DVD fans, looks like pretty soon you can make your own DVD home videos for less money.

Pioneer has issues a press release informing us of their intent to reduce prices on DVD-R and DVD-RW empty medias.

Their suggested retail price is basically $10 for the DVD-R (write-once) and about $20 for the DVD-RW (rewrite upto about 1000 times). And with the DVD-R / DVD-RW drives coming down in price, this Christmas might actually provide the boost recordable DVD format may need.

Although personally, I think we'll see a much bigger impact next year when DVD recordable devices drop below the $500 mark and empty medias drop under $5.

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I have been slightly busy working my way through a motorcycle license. Still in the process, but I'd thought I'll drop off a small note,

Recently, I have been bombarded with this new SirCam virus that's been spreading around. I've gotten as many as 12-20 virii sent daily over the past 3 days.

So ... if you were one of those people who tends to click on attachments, make sure you download this free removal tool.

Announcing Zoom Player v1.70.

Lots and lots of user requested features and fixes, too many to mention here, so make sure to check the what's new file.

For the full details, read the What's new file.

To download Zoom Player, click here.

Some more comments on the WinDVD issue. It may be in fact a bug in the WinDVD DeInterlacing algorithm selector. So, you may be able to fix it by forcing WinDVD to use Weave DeInterlace (for all progressive movie content) or Force BOB (for all non-progressive video content).

In other news, Checkout the Inmatrix forum for Zoom Player 1.62rc2.

A couple of reactions to the WinDVD review ...

Firstly Brian Guralnick points out that the color definition in v3.00 has dropped compared to the original 2.x release and provided this image to illustrate his findings.

Secondly, Intervideo finally mailed in and said that the UNZOOM issue Kelly mentioned in the review was in fact only in our review version (3.0.38) and was in fact corrected in the retail version.

It's been a long time coming, but Kelly Garvey has finally had WinDVD v3.0 run it's paces. Kelly review deals mostly with the new WinDVD features, biggest of which is the official DTS support.

Make sure you check Kelly's WinDVD 3.0 review by clicking here

Announcing the release of DVD Genie v4.02b.

Ok, another small fix, this time to the PowerDVD run feature, so if the PowerDVD run button doesn't work for you, upgrade, otherwise feel free to skip.

For the complete history list go here.
To download DVD Genie v4.02b, click here.
To download additional language files, click here.

Announcing the release of DVD Genie v4.02a.

A few more WinDVD fixes effecting both the trial version upgrades and the skin reset feature.

For the complete history list go here.
To download DVD Genie v4.02a, click here.
To download additional language files, click here.

Announcing the release of DVD Genie v4.02.

This is mostly a "fix" version for WinDVD and PowerDVD. It should now work with the WinDVD trial and upgrade versions and contains a fix to the auto-run of PowerDVD VR-X.

For the complete history list go here.
To download DVD Genie v4.02, click here.
To download additional language files, click here.

Ok, I've been starting to get eMails that DVD Genie partially doesn't work with WinDVD 3.0 again.

It seems that the WinDVD upgrade version changed the location of all the WinDVD registry keys (YAY!). In any case, I will issue a fix within a few days. Oh, and region reset support is unaffected by this, so while you can't set the additional options, resetting the region "should" work.

If you want to keep up with the latest Zoom Player beta, click here.

Announcing Zoom Player v1.61.

Only 2 days later and another version ... Ah well. Some things had to be fixed a few requested features thrown in for good measure.

For the full details, read the What's new file.

To download Zoom Player, click here.

Announcing Zoom Player v1.60.

This version has A TON of new features, so make sure you check the what's new file. Most of these features were created due to user reaction and requests. Probably the biggest feature is the skinning, which is very flexible and not that difficult to master. I even provided 2 skins for your enjoyment, a revamped default skin and a new Minimalistic skin which can scale the video down all the way to 80x60 pixels.

For the full details, read the What's new file.

To download Zoom Player, click here.