Review

Zoom Player is a free multimedia player, that can play audio, video, online video, and subtitles.

Today, there are many types of multimedia files. Each file type has a number of features that distinguishes it from the others. For example .avi files and .mkv files, both are video files, and despite that these files may seem the same, internally are very different from each other. That is why it is necessary to have a media player that is able to play all kinds of files.

Zoom Player plays video (3gp, asf, avi, bdmv, divx, flc, fli, flv, m2ts, m4v, mkv, mov, mp4, mpg, mpeg, ogm, ogv, vob, rm, ts, webm, wmv,, and more), audio (aac, ac3, aif, ape, cda, dts, flac, m4a, mid, midi, mp3, ogg, wav, wma, and more), images (bmp, gif, jpeg, jpg, png, psd, tif, tiff, and more), and subtitles (ass, mks, rar, rt, smi, sub, srt, ssa, usf,).
When the program is installed, there is a possibility to install an additional component, which allows the reproduction of the media files that are inside a compressed file, without need to unzip the file.

The use of this media player is very simple, it will be enough to drag the multimedia file to the player, and use the playback control buttons (play, stop, pause, etc).

We also have the possibility of browsing and listen to Online radio stations. The radio stations are sorted by music style: Alternative, Blues, Classical, Country, Jazz, Metal, Reggae, Rap, Rock, Electronic, and more.

One of the prominent features of this player, is the possibility to control the playback using keyboard shortcuts. We will be able to: start/stop/pause playback, change the Brightness/Hue/Gamma/Saturation, increase/decrease the video size, capture screen, turn on/off subtitles, synchronize subtitles, control the volume, forward/rewind one frame, increase/decrease playback speed, and many more.

Also, the software allows the advanced configuration of mouse, in such a way that we can configure all of the mouse buttons and the wheel to perform a particular action.

The amount of options available is very high, so we will highlight some of the configurations that are the most eye-catching of this software:

• Audio Visualizations: this option allows to configure the audio visualization plug-ins. These plug-ins show a series of images while playing an audio file. The program can scan the PC to locate this kind of plug-ins.
• Compatible with LIRC: LIRC is a protocol that allows to use an infrared remote control to control the PC. Therefore we will have the possibility to control ZoomPlayer with our TV remote control.
• Configuring on-screen messages (OSD). At the beginning of the playback, this software displays information about that file on the screen. We can configure how that information will be displayed on the screen.: position, size, and duration of the message.

When we install this software, we must pay attention, because this software try to install 2 programs that are not needed for the correct operation of this program. To avoid it we have to click on the “Custom Installation” and uncheck the boxes “Install TuneUp Utilities 2014” and “Install Opera Browser”. In this way we will avoid the installation of these two software.

This media player is one of the oldest in the market, as the version 1.10 was released on the year 2001, and today is still updating. So this software has more than a decade of development. This is reflected in the large number of options and configurations available, in addition to the extensive support for all types of media formats.

The software is free for personal use. There are several versions that extend the functionality of the free version.