Zoom Player

[Blight]

Hi,

I'm posting this thread as I believe the Winamp skinning community is probably the largest and most talented group of artists on the internet today.

I'm the author of Zoom Player, a Freeware Media and DVD Front-End playback software. Since there is such a vast amount of talent on this forum, I'd thought I should ask if you guys could look at my player and perhaps create some great looking skins for it.

Currently, the Zoom Player community came up with a few interesting skins which can be found here.

If you are interested in helping out skinning Zoom Player, please let me know.

The latest final version of Zoom Player can be downloaded here, and the latest beta (stable) version can be found here.

[Rocker]

how is it possible for you to have over 50000 posts in your forums?

thats umpossible


:spam:?

[Blight]

It's actually 601 posts.
I raised it by 50000 after installing ikonboard 3.x as it had some odd bug with the post-glyph association.

[PeaceMaker]

if you throw in a free DVD player [since i dont run zoom player] i guess i could manage a few skins for ya lol.

[Blight]

PeaceMaker:
Not quite sure what you mean. Zoom Player is freeware, it can play DVDs, but only if you have a DirectShow compatible DVD Decoder filter previously installed on the system (these can never be free as they require licensing from Dolby, DVD Consortium, etc...).

These filters come with such DVD players as WinDVD, PowerDVD and CinePlayer (software cinemaster).

Zoom Player is actually quite popular in high-end HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer) for DVD Projection and High Quality outputs due to it's wide array of customization features.

I'm really not here to try selling you a product though, I just want to make it look pretty

[PeaceMaker]

i havnt actually checked zp out yet, but tell me, is it supposed to be skinned like wa2 where just bmp files are edited, or like wa3 where scripts and all that has to done aswell? seems like a simple interface tho.

[Blight]

It's unlike WinAmp as the interface surrounds scalable video. so there's some tiling involved.

It basically allows you to:
Fill areas with tiling, define any button size and position, assign over 100 functions to buttons, etc... There's plenty of sample code and it's well documented and if you have any issues, you know who to talk to

[simon snowflake]

so whats in it for us?

[YtseJam]

Fame, glory, exposure... Kidding. I thought you once said that you skin for the love of skinning. How different is it here?

[simon snowflake]

because, winamp never asked me to skin his player, this person does. That is the diffrence.

[YtseJam]

Not really, both are free, skinnable products. Just like all those free little products you see to the left in DeskMod.

Besides, you'll get fame, glory and exposure.

[dam]

I've seen zoom player before.
But I only skin stuff I use.

[Blight]

simon snowflake, dam:

I'm not forcing you to do anything. Frankly, I won't feel comfertable if you skin it without feeling it's a good player, but that's up to you, I'm just trying to tap into the artist community here.

[dam]

I'm sorry if I offended you in any way Blight.
I apologise on behalf of simon too (he's always misunderstood and has a rather blunt way of saying things.).

But the only stuff I ever skin is the stuff I use.I dont skin sonique cos I skin winamp.I dont see dvd movies on my pc so I dont use Zoom Player.

[Blight]

Zoom Player also plays anything else media player does, not just DVDs.

[simon snowflake]

Originally posted by dam
I'm sorry if I offended you in any way Blight.
I apologise on behalf of simon too (he's always misunderstood and has a rather blunt way of saying things.).

I often get myself confronted with the negative results of my straight-forward reply's

[norp]

hrmmmmmm why are you attacking Blight, all he was saying was that he has written a program (which is very good btw.... ) that is not in competition with winamp, is skinnable, and that he is trying to get a skin community going. he is not FORCING you to skin it, only to take a look and see what you think of the player.

the biggest reason i use it is because it is grat for tv-out and it loads INSTANTLY unlike some other players *cough* WMP *cough*.

also has a metric TON of features that are useful...

and the skinning is pretty good to, very flexible. (i would advertize my skin but i am too lazy to find a link to it)

so just get ZP and take a look, if you don't like it what have you lost??? it is free and doesn't affect your system at all like realplayer and other POS plaers do.

</rant>

[PeaceMaker]

norp, i think if blight wants to talk about his product throughout these forums then we get the right to gripe. no one said zp wasnt any good, its just that most havnt used zp before, so opinions will vary on the topic about skinning zoom player, or not.

[Atmo]

I might have a go if i get bored one day. It seems like a decent movie player, so i'd probably use it more than WMP, but WA3 does movie playback too. If i end up using it i'll probably skin it.

[StillWater]

Originally posted by simon snowflake


I often get myself confronted with the negative results of my straight-forward reply's

Just sounded like a bit of a prima dona reply (no offense, please).

You don't mind people coming here saying "hey check out my skin" or people's sigs which, in effect, are saying "check out my skins - maybe you want to rate it and/or download it" or "check out my webpage - maybe you want to use it" or "check out my WA3 project - maybe you want to read all about it." Yet this guy comes and says "You guys all like skinning, check out my skinnable program, maybe you'd like to skin it" and you ask what's in it for you.



Blight,
I've been interested in skinning other programs. And Zoom Player, with it's different, tiled system, sounds interesting. When I have time, I'll check it out and maybe skin it. Also, if I ever make a skin for it, I'll revive this thread and post it here.

[simon snowflake]

but do you know how often I find simmilar things in my e-mail?
....
Ahhh, forget what ever I have said.


What do you mean with "Just sounded like a bit of a prima dona reply"?

[StillWater]

Originally posted by simon snowflake
but do you know how often I find simmilar things in my e-mail?
....
Ahhh, forget what ever I have said.


What do you mean with "Just sounded like a bit of a prima dona reply"?

Do you mean you don't know what prima donna means, or you don't know why your reply sounded like the reply of a prima donna?

[dam]

This is what I meant by simon's posts always being misunderstood.

[simon snowflake]

Asfar as I know, you are trying to say to me that I'm conceited.

And the reason I started waving him & ZP away, was because you useually see those people here ones or twice to be never heard of again.


and if you think I can't handle criticism try me.
But is it wrong to have a own opinion and daring to express it? Or should people keep their thoughts for them selves?

[StillWater]

Originally posted by simon snowflake
And the reason I started waving him & ZP away, was because you useually see those people here ones or twice to be never heard of again.

So what?

He's interested in getting skins made for his program. And we're interested in making skins. But since this is the Winamp skins forum, we may not know about zoom player skins. So he's come to exactly the right place. He came to say hello and let us know about ZP. Why should he come back after this? And how is the cold reception you gave him going to make him want to come back?

[simon snowflake]

you really don't get the point I'm saying now do you.

I'll rest my case.

[StillWater]

Originally posted by simon snowflake
you really don't get the point I'm saying now do you.

I'll rest my case.

No, I don't get it at all. It's very complicated.

[dam]

Originally posted by dbleja


So what?

He's interested in getting skins made for his program. And we're interested in making skins. But since this is the Winamp skins forum, we may not know about zoom player skins. So he's come to exactly the right place.

I'm not trying too complicate matters further but this was actually posted on the GD forum.He didnt come to the right place.

[Blight]

Actually, the reason I originally posted on the general forum was like this:

I was talking on IRC with nant regarding Zoom Player.
Nant often jabbed me about Zoom Player being a good player, but never quite having the eye-candy to attract people who crave the gee-wiz factor.

I've drawn the Zoom Player skin myself, and frankly while it may not quite the same as some of the more advanced WinAmp skins, I do believe it's up to par.

Click here for a screen shot of the default (DVD skin ... The Media skin looks similar with a few buttons removed) skin.

The thing is, like the original Winamp, I think my time is better spent programming and not drawing up skins when there are people who's better at it than me.

So, after discussing this with nant, he told me the best place to look for talent is on the Winamp forums. He said the general forum is best as it may be less confrontational.

Frankly, I didn't really know what to expect...

Zoom Player isn't a fly-by-night operation, I've been working on it for 18 months. Sadly, I should have written it 4 years ago as that was my original intention, but there were some technology issues back in those days.

The player's original goal was to provide some support for TV Overscan, but over time it expanded to include DVD playback and a HOST of user requests.

The problem is, in this day and age, no matter how good your software is, it's very hard to get recognition, the software market is oversaturated.

Well, just my 2 cents.

[StillWater]

Originally posted by Blight
So, after discussing this with nant, he told me the best place to look for talent is on the Winamp forums. He said the general forum is best as it may be less confrontational.

Yeah, well, seems like nant was right.

[dam]

Sorry I couldnt help you.

I woudnt mind skinning that but I'm pressed for time.Would you be happy with a rather simple gold skin?I can easily convert m old gold skin to do that.

[skinme!]

I don't think there was any friction in this thread until norp came along. Oh well.

Looks like an interesting player. I agree that the software market is oversaturated. My dad's an employment consultant and he's forever coming across people who claim that had they not been injured they would have become software programmers and built the next great thingTM. Unfortunately, none of them have any qualifications and they're all dim.

I salute you for the excellent software. I will not be skinning it in the near future as:

a. I don't have a DVD drive and I like most people only skin out of personal interest or if there was money involved,

b. I'm currently busy doing GCSEs, and

c. I have other skinning/webbing projects on.

Welcome to skinlove, however long you plan to stay.

[Blight]

I would be happy with whatever anyone would like to contribute. If you need any help with the syntex, let me know.

[Atmo]

I'll give it a go....Looks to be only 1 bitmap used. Is there a template or any sort of tutorial available??

[simon snowflake]

If Atmo is going for it, so will I.
And if it is only one bitmap, it can't be to hard.

[simon snowflake]

I've downloaded it, but damn, thats harder then I thought. It's a bit to complicated for just making a skin.

[Blight]

Unlike Winamp with fixed bitmaps, button sizes and button position,
Zoom Player is quite dynamic.

It has over 100 functions. You can assign each of these to a button, set the button with any size and supply an up/down bitmap. You as the skin designer decide which functions are more important to you.

The skin is resizable, so part of it needs to be tiled or gradiented so that it fits well when resized.

Then there's the control bar, like the GUI buttons, the control bar buttons are dynamic. The skinner picks which buttons are important and skin those, then the user can select which skinned buttons should actually be visible on the control bar.

To make it orderly, all the graphics reside in one bitmap.

The blueplastic.skn file contains the complete documentation, including the function names and a line by line documented function listing.

Feel free to ask me any question.

[nøva]

Can i get your email i can contact you by for further assistance if i decide to try this? PM me

[dam]

I think I'll have a go.

[nøva]

Post what ya guys think of it, after i finish this skin im working on (by the end of the week) i might have a go depending on what you guys think of it. Souns a bit too much like WA3 skinning to me tho.