Introduction

These settings control playback controls such as seeking distance, fast play rates and what happens when you press stop.

Resume function (pressing Stop twice) resumes playback, otherwise only restore position

This setting controls whether Zoom Player automatically resumes playback when the Stop button or function is called twice in a row. With this setting disabled, only the media position is restored, while the media content remains paused. Please note that this setting has no affect if you enable one of the "Stop function closes the media" settings.

Mute audio during forward or backward seeks

Depending on the filters (components) used to decode the audio, quickly seeking to multiple positions can cause split-second audio glitches. With this setting enabled, the audio is muted for 2 seconds during forward/backward seek operations to minimize audio glitch noises. This setting only works with analog audio output, it will not function if the audio output is digitally routed using interfaces such as S/PDIF or BitStreaming over HDMI. The audio volume in digital output is controlled by external hardware, preventing this setting from working.

Mute audio during fast play or slow motion

Mute the audio while Fast Play or Slow Motion modes are enabled.

Pause closes unseekable live streams (otherwise ignored)

Controls whether Zoom Player closes a live stream when pausing or if the pause action is ignored.

Frame Advance if Pause is used when media is already Paused

If enabled, pressing Pause while the media is already paused, causes Zoom Player to advance one frame.

Use alternative Frame Advance method

Technically, there are two ways to advance one frame in a video media. The first (and default) is DirectShow's "IVideoFrameStep" interface, which is the default method supported by Microsoft. The problem with this interface is that it doesn't work well for low frame rate content (2fps).

By enabling this setting, instead of using DirectShow's IVideoFrameStep interface, Zoom Player's can guesstimate the position and perform a seek action (this is how step-backwards always works). The reliability of the alternative method is dependant on the format played. Some formats do not report a frame rate or number of frames for a video, making it more difficult to guess the right position to seek to.

Increase / Decrease Rate uses "Fast Play / Slow Motion" instead of Fast "Forward / Rewind"

When enabled, the Play Rate control interface (accessible in the default skin by pressing the "F5" keyboard macro) uses "Fast Forward and Rewind" instead "Slow Motion and Fast Play".

Reset Play-Rate when opening a new media file

Play Rate is the value representing the current Fast Play and Slow Motion play rate (speed). With this setting disabled, opening a new media file retains the Fast Play or Slow Motion play rate used by the previously played media (the newly open file remains in the previous Fast Play or Slow Motion play rates).

Reset Play-Rate on Play / Pause

With this setting enabled, pressing pause/play restores the default play rate, disabling Fast Play or Slow Motion modes.

Stop function closes the playing media file (instead of "stop and go to start of file")

By default, the stop function seeks to the first media frame and pauses. With this setting enabled, Zoom Player closes the currently playing media file when the "Stop" button/function is used.

Stop function closes streaming media (instead of just stopping)

When playing streaming content (such as Internet Radio Stations), with this setting enabled, pressing "Stop" will close the currently playing stream. This provides improved stability when pressing play again to resume listening, but if it causes issue, you can disable this behavior.

Stop function closes the player (instead of "stop and go to start of file")

By default, the stop function seeks to the first media frame and pauses. With this setting enabled, Zoom Player will close itself when the "Stop" button/function is used.

"Next / Previous Track" functions as seek "Forward / Backwards" while in "FF / Rewind"

With this setting enabled, using the "Next / Previous Track" functions while Fast Forward or Rewind are active performs a seek backwards / forwards operation instead of next / previous track.

"Next / Previous Track" plays the next/prev media in the same folder if playlist contains 1 file

When the playlist contains only one file and you use the next/previous track function, with this setting enabled, instead of just replaying the same track, the next/previous media file (in alphabetical order) in the same folder is played.

"Next / Previous Chapter" functions as seek "Next / Previous" Track if no chapters are found

Switch to the "next/previous" track if the playing media does not contain any chapter/bookmark information and the "next/previous" chapter functions are used.

Speed up seeks when repeating quickly

With this setting enabled, seeking through one of the three available seek distances (short/medium/long) repeatedly, gradually increases the seeking distance. Waiting 2 seconds restores the seek distance to its original value.

Seconds to Seek (short/medium/long/very long)

Fast Forward and Rewind are not the most intuitive methods of seek through digital content. Directly seeking back and forth a specified number of seconds is faster and more accurate. Zoom Player provides access to three distinct quick-seek modes based on the distance (in seconds) to seek forward or backward.

Seek by Duration Percentage

Specifies the percentage of the media's duration to seek forward or backwards when using the seek by percentage feature.

Media Fast Forward Rate

This value controls the default Fast Forward speed. Values range from x2 to x50.

Media Rewind Rate

This value controls the default Rewind speed. Values range from x2 to x50.

Media Fast Play Rate

Unlike Fast Forward which works by performing multiple fast seeks, Fast Play plays the content faster and maintains audio playback. Due to the framework Microsoft coded into the audio renderers, the Fast Play maximum value is limited to "2.2" (Windows XP) or "4.0" (Windows Vista and Windows 7). A work around for this limitation is to use "Reclock" as your audio renderer. Please note that not all media formats support Fast Play (WMV in particular doesn't support Fast Play with the default Microsoft decoders).

Media Slow Motion Rate

This value specifies the slow motion play rate (speed) when using the slow motion function. Values range from 0.01 to 0.99. Please note that not all media formats support Fast Play (WMV in particular doesn't support Fast Play with the default Microsoft decoders).

Maximum Media Play Rate

When using the increase/decrease play rate functions, this value specified the maximum play rate. Please be advised that there is a hard-limit to the maximum play rate that is based on a combination of the audio driver, audio renderer and version of windows used.

Media Play Rate Step

The play rate step used when increasing or decreasing the play rate.

Rollback play position when resuming from Pause

This feature controls how many seconds should be rolled back when resuming from a pause state.

Image Slideshow (seconds)

When playing media content that contains no duration/length (images files), Zoom Player automatically sets a user specified Slideshow duration for the playing media. For presentations, you may want to look at the Zoom Player Playlist format as it allows assigning specific duration for each image (or media) file.

Volume + / - Change (percent)

This value specifies the volume percentage change when increasing/decreasing the audio volume level. Please note that at very low volume levels (1%-5%), Zoom Player modifies the volume level by 1% at a time, providing increased accuracy at lower volume levels.

Delay after closing media files (ms)

Under rare circumstances, the components used to play media files may not clear themselves instantly and may require a short delay to do so before the next media is played. This value specifies the delay between playing the media, giving components more time to clean-up. The value is specified in ms (1000ms = 1 second).

Delay after closing streaming media (ms)

Under rare circumstances, the components used to play streaming media may not clear themselves instantly and may require a short delay to do so before the next media is played. This value specifies the delay between playing the media, giving components more time to clean-up. The value is specified in ms (1000ms = 1 second).

FF/RW Rates

Beyond the Fast Forward/Rewind speeds, Zoom Player supports an Increase/Decrease Rate functions which cycle through multiple fast forward and rewind speeds. This setting specifies the fast forward and rewind play rate (speed) values used by the cycle rate functions.

Disable seeking while playing files or URLs containing this text

Playing media from any partial path or URL listed here will disable seeking capabilities. This can be useful when streaming from sites that freeze when trying to seek or to prevent unwanted or accidental seeking on specific content.