Zoom Player: A Player for Every Type of Media File? Overall, An Easy Sell Scott Koegler
Nice Functions
Zoom attempts to coexist with nearly every media device and add-on program the company can find. In fact, they solicit suggestions from their users. One particularly interesting add-on is Zoom's support for remote control devices — specifically, for a program called Girder that acts as an interface between a remote control device, your computer, and Zoom. Once you decide what Zoom functions you want to control from a remote, you can export the list from Zoom and import it to Girder which translates your remote control buttons to Zoom functions.
DVD Editing
No, you can't really edit a DVD, but Zoom does support a "scene cut" function that is useful for trimming out commercials or scenes you simply don't want to watch. And you can clip scenes from downloaded files as well as from DVDs. When you define a start and stop skip area that jumps over the scene you want to avoid, the settings are saved in a file that Zoom associates with that particular video. When you play the video again, the scenes will be skipped just as you programmed them. You can even share your scene cuts with other users and save them the time and effort of watching the commercials.
Overall, An Easy Sell
You'll find much more to play with in the Zoom control panels. But even if you simply want to watch a collection of DVDs or MP4s, or you just want to listen to MP3s or WAV files, you'll have a hard time finding a file format that Zoom Player can't handle. Having that kind of multimedia support in a single, easy to use client is just what the doctor ordered.
Pros: Plays nearly every imaginable multimedia fomat, basic settings and advanced settings mode to satisfy casual and expert users alike, high-quality DVD and video playback, free standard edition
Cons: Requires some plug-ins/additional downloads to support some formats (would be helpful is everything was included in a single download); despite supporting more formats than its competition, Zoom Player faces an uphill battle for popularity against Windows Media Player and RealPlayer
